I love squash. I mean, I really love squash. I know this is a yoga email, but…
I love the fact that when your heart is pounding and you’re out of breath, and feeling stressed, and a little bit frantic, during a squash rally, the decisive factor in whether you win the point or not is whether you’re able to detach from those feelings and cultivate a sense of abundance—that you are, in some way, happy to be there. Rather than a sense of scarcity (that you’re desperate to just win the point and get on with the next one).
For those of us who really love doing yoga, it might sound familiar. That’s the state of mind that the practice teaches most. It’s an inner strength. The ability to get comfortable with being uncomfortable.
There’s been an English squash tournament on the Professional Squash Association’s online TV channel over the last few weeks. Last night I watched a guy named George Parker play a guy named Declan James.
George Parker is just an absolute fireball of charisma.
I’ve included a picture of him up top. He reminds me of Tom Hardy playing British gangster twins the Krays in Legend, or Ben Kingsley playing the villain, Don Logan, in Sexy Beast. He should switch to movies. It costs $12 a month to get PSA TV, but I think it’s worth logging in and then logging off again, just to watch George’s performance in this one game. Here’s the link. 📺
On a good day, George is amazing to watch because he keeps it all in. You can tell that there’s all this energy bristling under the surface, but he focuses it on playing great shots.
Not this time, though.
George lost the match this week, because his adrenalin-fueled game is always threatening to tip over into outright aggression and loss of control. And this time, it did. He ended up screaming so much at the referee at the end of the second game that the referee docked him a point and awarded it to his opponent. At one point, the referee gave a verdict on a point, and Mr. Parker just said, “no no no no no no no.”
He ended the game telling the referee, “you need to sort yourself out, mate.” It was the most menacing exchange, and really toxic. So. I sort of love George, because I think we can all identify with his brand of bad behavior. But also, as the commentators said, “he’s got to work on his manner.”
And I was really pleased to see his calmer opponent, Declan James, win the match. It must have taken supreme self-control not to get involved in his opponent’s drama. And he didn’t get much credit for it. Just the win. Well done, mate! Well done!
At the end of the day, George Parker just needs to do yoga. He should channel that energy when he’s getting uncomfortable and just calm down and focus on his breath, a little more. In the meantime, of course, his outbursts are extremely watchable because we all feel like that just under the surface, sometimes, when we’re performing under pressure. But the point I’m making is: Yoga helps people calm down enough to perform well in these situations.
When it comes to managing the pressure of peak performance, I’ve found that doing more yoga and meditation in the weeks leading up to a “big event” can be very effective. See my earlier post on the inner chimp, for example.
The goal of yoga: In the end, one enjoys the process of detachment so much that one doesn’t even need to do it for a reason. One just enjoys it for what it is.
Meantime, we all struggle with losing control under pressure. There’s nothing wrong with that, necessarily. The important thing is to forgive oneself for feeling crazy and then return to sanity. Not tip over into the opposite. And that’s where I’m doing most of my work on the mat, these days. It’s always a pleasure to have you join me.
Thanks for reading. I appreciate you!
M
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