The Tension Free Throw

Up until now we have addressed the subconscious mind, positive visualisation and looking without looking. The next most important aspect of the unified experience is tension free movement.

Tension reveals the presence of mind. When you witness actions that contain tension they inevitably are being directed by thought. In order to advance in our trip down the rabbit hole of ‘ball in a bin’ we need to begin throwing the ball with a complete absence of tension.

Tension also reveals a lack of trust. In fact, a lack of trust equates with the presence of mind. Mind is trying to control, to guarantee the outcome. Mind is very clever. Throwing without tension is another way of overcoming the interference of mind, to throw from the heart.

How to do it

Throwing without tension means no tension at all, before or after the throw. The actual throw itself is but part of a larger process incorporating the moments before and after as well. There are many ways to go about ridding yourself of tension and I encourage you to explore them. I like to feel relaxed in the hands, feet, face and in particular the tongue and jaw. I assume ‘looking without looking’ (last issue) and I find this relaxes my eyes. Even smiling can relax your eyes. Relaxed eyes equate with a relaxed brain which is far more likely to be free of thought based interference.

Tension free does not mean sloppy. There is a very fine line between carefree and careless. If you speed up your natural rhythm it will be because you are being careless and trying to ‘take yourself by surprise’. Always throw with your natural rhythm but do so without introducing any tension into the movement.

When you throw, it is important to remain tension free after you’ve ‘let it go’ and also maintain your ‘looking without looking’ stance. Watching to see if it goes in creates its own tension. So when you’re first doing this I encourage you to do so with your eyes closed. It becomes much harder to throw when you can see the target after a while because of the illusion of distance, the feeling of separateness or duality.

1. Perform the ideomotor string-line drill (issue 1)
2. Perform ‘doctrine of the easy’ (issue 2)
3. Look without looking (issue 3)
4. Close your eyes and throw without tension.

Put your emphasis on the process, not the outcome. Make a tension free throw your absolute number one priority. Rate yourself out of 10 on how tension free it felt. You’ll soon start to see that the less tension you have, the more likely you are to ‘hole out’. But don’t look at an absence of tension as being the reason why you are succeeding with your throws. The moment you do, your mind becomes active it starts thinking, ‘was that tension free enough to go in?’ and we are back where we started. Tension free without caring about the outcome. But not being careless either.

Complicated huh? We haven’t even begun yet.

It’s here that we start to cross-pollinate our articles. I want you to go back and read the first issue of ‘Philosophy of Breath’. This should help you incorporate breathing into your desire for tension free movement. I’ll leave it with you to discover your own method but next issue I’ll introduce you to how I breathe when performing ‘ball in a bin’.

Until next time…