The game is up. The Games, to be preci- YOU KNOW IT, ENNUI IT se. The spotlight on the sporting life, the vita corporalis — not the corporate, but the physical life — will revert to its usual imbalance in which only ‘sporty’ people will continue to treat the human body as a temple, laud sporting achievements beyond thwacking a ball out of the boundary, or guiding it into a net. Schools will not suddenly have physical well-being, never mind physical excellence, at par with honing mental, CVlian skills. The morning walk, the bouts of yoga and the healthy diet will return to the ‘lifestyle and wellness’ category, seemingly unconnected with contests and displays of stretching the body to its limits. Khel will retain only its leela-like frivolity, in a world where, to quote the Corinthians (the chapter in the Bible, not the Brazilian football club), adults put away such childish things. The surge of advice and opinion from patriots about how Neeraj Chopra actually hurled a javelin along the flattest and farthest of parabolas to win Olympic gold ('The secret's in the wrist, bhai'), the best way to take a penalty corner, how to conduct a seamless snatch and clean, not to mention a jerk, grapple or grip, or even perform a Yurchenko double pike vault will subside. I, for one, have returned to the sofa, not just in body from Olympian curiosity and heights, but also in soul. (Too?) Much has been spoken about athletes at the highest level finally breaking the taboo of speaking about ‘mental issues’. The phenomenon of ‘nerves’ in the world of competitive sports was always recognised — as a problem. Just read the Gita where a world-class archer is wracked with his version of the ‘twisties,’ and his coachcharioteer tells him to ‘man up’.Leaving the field because of one’s mental state after the death of one’s dear friend, rather than because of a torn tendon, was also an issue during Achilles’ time. In fact, the ‘great runner Achilles [who] wept and wailed for Patroclus’ refused to return to battle. It was only the bribe of fancy hi-tech weapons from the gods — and the desire to avenge his friend’s death — that finally got the Greeks’ star athlete-warrior out of his heebie-jeebies.Like physical injury, mental frailty, is an impediment. But to go on and on about it is to, ironically, turn what is actually ESPN 101 into Oprah satsang fodder. My post-Olympics question is quite the opposite: do the brightest minds tackle physical problems affecting their mental prowess with the seriousness they also deserve? Or is ‘psychosomatic’ a throwaway word for the physical ‘twisties’ one encounters and is supposed to stiff upper nip and tuck?Jenever, a Dutch gin, was used by English soldiers to warm their bodies in the cold battlefields of the Thirty Years’ War in 17th century Europe. This ‘Dutch courage’ with its physical properties calmed the nerves of those understandably terrified of losing (read: dying). Earlier, in the 10 th century, Viking warriors would get themselves ‘in the mood’ by wearing bearskins — ‘ber-serk’, from which the word, ‘(going) berserk’ is derived — and consuming the plant henbane to invoke ‘berserker rage’. The few occasions I have engaged in the sport of being a public spectacle, especially on TV, I have calmed my nerves — a physical act akin to warming up before entering a pitch —by preparing my bodyto reach optimum conditions via my own version of jenever and henbane. Stretching out on my sofa, I return to neurologist Antonio Damasio’s lines in Descartes’ Error: ‘The net result of having the brain detect danger (or any similarly exciting situation) is a profound departure from business as usual… Most importantly, the changes occur in both brain and body proper.’ So, while the sporty folks have discovered the ‘mental issues’ athletes have to encounter — and are now increasingly candid about — I will my body with a Shoaib Akhtar-level backache to behave so I can be in top form while engaging in amateur level mind games. Even as Amy Winehouse and Tony Bennett, emphasising that a song can’t be separated by its music and lyrics, tell me on the stereo (bit.ly/3ixw4Ln), ‘I'd gladly surrender, myself to you, body and soul.’
from Economic Times https://ift.tt/3xuO5OC
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