Feeling random

[sen_no_ongaku]

The way to navigate a crowd, or any cluttered field in constant motion, is to not let your eyes focus on any one thing. Instead, pay attention to how the negative space is changing, read the dx/dy of the emptiness between a million small things moving at random.
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Something I love about intense competition, whether it be baseball, poker, or Soul Calibur, is the (very) occasional moment of zen, when the next 5-10 seconds somehow become incredibly obvious. "Obvious" isn't even the correct word -- it's as if the near future is, in a way, already the past, immutable. Changing it would be not so much impossible as inconceivable.

In particular, while playing baseball:

* as a catcher, knowing that the next pitch would be crushed as my pitcher was in his windup. I think I actually said, "Oh shit!" as the ball left his hand. It landed over a 30-foot-tall fence about 350 feet away to dead center field.

* as a catcher, calling for a head-high fastball, knowing with every fiber of my being that the batter would swing and miss.

* at the plate, knowing that the next pitch would be a curveball, and that I would line it to right field for a base hit.

* in the outfield, running to catch the ball during the pitcher's windup -- before the batter made contact -- and ending up in the right place to pull in a deep fly ball.
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Anyway. If you got this far, I'm curious if other folks have experienced something similar.

Comments

[cybersattva.livejournal.com]

I have, once. It wasn't while I was competing in something, but it was while I was in a state of intense concentration. I was driving through a terrible downpour and couldn't see more than five feet ahead of the car. Suddenly, I knew that the rubber would come off one of the windshield wipers in about 10 seconds, and sure enough, it did. I wasn't shocked or surprised, because it happened the only way it could have happened.

[archaica.livejournal.com]

Is that the same as driving from Connecticut to Massachusetts but not remembering the intervening drive?

[ethicsgradient.livejournal.com]

I've experienced this on the frisbee field, in both offensive and defensive context.

While playing defense, breaking on a throw that hasn't been made yet but you're sure will be made and intercepting the pass, while playing offense, throwing a throw for a cut that hasn't been made yet, but you know the other player, and you know exactly where he's going to be in 2 seconds....

[nadyezhda.livejournal.com]

more academic: knowing exactly what the person you're arguing/debating with is going to say, and having the slam dunk rebuttal. Great feeling--not to embarrass them, but knowing that you're right and you can convince someone else of that.

More sports-oriented, and it's been a while, but seeing what move your opponent is going to use (tae kwon do) and being able to not just counter it but know what you should use to land your own move. Very cool.

[mindways]

...your post puts good words to two things I've never really tried to describe (crowd-swimming technique and that...tuning in to the path of the universe). Very cool.

Anyway. If you got this far, I'm curious if other folks have experienced something similar.

Yes. During DDR and inline skating, and other times that I'm not recalling at the moment.

(And no, not really the same as deja vu - although once that I can recall, a sense of deja vu did bring with it a memory of what happened next, which then proceeded to unfold. It really came out of the blue, though - none of that zen full-awareness feeling.)