Tennis Improvement Memo 158. The Essence of Concentration Conveyed by Gourmet Reports, and the Reason for Aoyama Gakuin's Strength

▶You can't taste it unless you eat it

This is a supplement to yesterday's 'Tennis Improvement Memo'.
When I watch TV, I feel like there are many gourmet report programs.

Famous celebrities act as reporters and tell us, 'This and that at such-and-such place is delicious!'

This is a spin-off story from that.

The explanation by Dr. Setsu Tsukiyama, a neurosurgeon and author of '
The Freezing Brain' (published by NHK Publishing), which I introduced yesterday, that 'Concentration cannot be increased even if you try to increase it itself' seems to hit the essence of these gourmet programs.
In other words, as viewers, even if we try to taste it itself,
we can never taste it unless we eat it directly.
This is the same as the indirect approach where concentration cannot be increased even if you try to increase it itself, or in other words, it cannot be tasted even if you try to taste it.

To taste it, to return to the title again, it becomes
'Concentrate directly!'.
In other words, you can never taste it unless you eat it directly.

And since
concentration is the power to fix perception on one of the 'eye, ear, nose, tongue, body, or mind', it can be explained that in terms of 'concentration = tasting', you can never increase your concentration unless you eat it directly (related article 'This is the 'Royal Road to Concentration'').

▶It's 'delicious!' because it's direct

It might be me just acting tough, but no matter how high-end the ingredients are, I feel that a simple soup made with seasonal Chinese cabbage from my own garden, or even just steamed pumpkin, is 'delicious!' and just as good because I can taste it directly! (Related article 'There is no Babolat 'Excel' in the field')

If you try to increase concentration that cannot be increased directly, it is equivalent to a mirage of trying to 'taste it' by watching a gourmet report program....

▶Where is concentration?

You can no longer hear the sound from 0.1 seconds ago, and you cannot yet taste the flavor from 0.1 seconds later.

Indeed, concentration exists in the 'now' between 'already' and 'not yet'.

In the same way, in tennis, instead of indirectly working on your thoughts to try to increase concentration, you should look directly at the ball's rotation through your five senses.

You should listen directly to the bounce sound and the impact sound.

That is concentration.

▶'You're running the dream Hakone Ekiden right now!'

By the way, Coach Susumu Hara of the Aoyama Gakuin University Track and Field Team, I believe, called out to Keita Sato, the runner for the 7th leg, from the coach's car, saying, 'You're running the dream Hakone Ekiden, right now!'

If we replace this with ourselves, couldn't it be rephrased as, 'You're running your dream life right now!'?

Life might be something like a dream.

Setting aside whether or not you believe in reincarnation, in Buddhism, being born into the human world is considered 'super lucky', after all.

▶'Now' and 'peace of mind' are a 'happy pair'

Moreover, today is 'the youngest day of your life' (related article 'Postscript 2: Today is the youngest day').

If you worry about the future, it comes as a set with anxiety.

I believe that a 'lucky life' opens up beyond the point of accumulating peace of mind by concentrating on the now.

'Now' and 'peace of mind' are a 'happy pair', after all.

▶Postscript: Aoyama Gakuin, Hakone Ekiden, the reason for their strength

Although Ekiden is a team effort that requires strategy, such as who runs where, the only actual practical work involved between the runners is limited to the 'passing of the sash'.

On the internet, there were also rational opinions such as, 'Unlike team sports like baseball or soccer, Ekiden is a competition where each individual runs, so if you think about it simply, wouldn't a selected student union be stronger?'.

Even so, the reason Aoyama Gakuin is this strong—this might sound spiritual, and I don't intend to deny that—is perhaps due to a 'neuroscientific reason' that the 'vibrations' emitted by the entire Aoyama Gakuin family are mutually respectful of each other.

Of course, the high level of each runner's running ability, endurance, and mental strength goes without saying, but I think that the 'bonds' as a family, including the coach, dormitory mothers, and parents, are synchronized through vibrations.

Such a team is strong.

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