23 jul 2005

PROFOUND THOUGHT OF THE DAY: I saw someone shooting baskets at the gym the other day, very awkwardly. Not quite as awkward as I am, but pretty close. (I never learned to shoot a baskeet properly.) Anyway, I was thinking: what is awkwardness anyway? I wouldn't have been able to describe just what about the motion was awkward. Did I already have to be familiar with what a smooth motion looks like to define this other motion as awkward? Or was awkwardness inherent in the motion itself? This seems to be a very basic aesthetic judgment, one that even a little kid could make.

1 comentario:

jwg dijo...

I wonder about this too. Some people have ugly shots. Steve Kerr, for example. However, even with all his idiosyncrasies in his shot, they seem to go in (best three point shooter in NBA history). Watch old clips from the days of the set shot. There was a time when no one shot the jump shot (or, in hokey, the slap shot). Man were those shots ugly/awkward.

Seems to me when you are teaching someone to shoot, you?d tell them to shoot with one hand, keep the elbow in, shoulders over feet, and only use the off hand as a guide. But what do you do when Kerr comes out and can out shoot all of these perfect form shooters? You don?t touch his shot. you leave it. After watching this shot for some time, you begin to trust it, it is still not something you?d teach, but it also ceases to be awkward when you begin to notice how well it works. In mastery and utility there is beauty.