Aim & Pour
Well I head to Queensland for our first training period together in the pair since National Trials. So today looks like it will be one of those days getting ready to travel again and having everything in place so I can leave Melbourne. While I am in Queensland I will probably capture some more journal entries, but in the mean time I have been ready some great articles and books. Something jumped out at me from a little book titled, ‘Why Don’t Penguins Feet Freeze?’ It’s a book by New Scientist and I love some of the great information in it.
A chapter called Aim & Pour describes the flow of milk from a milk cartoon and how with to little force you get milk dribbling down the cartoon and with to much force you get a gulping mess. It explains the effect from a perspective of surface tension and fluid dynamics. It reminded me just how important it is to get the flow rate right with some many things we do.
The idea of Aim & Pour is simple and when followed it seems easy to accurately pour milk into a glass. We have all had times when this has not worked though and to consider the amount of force created and the balance between not enough and to much is a fine line that when found produces ease, accuracy and confidence.
To bring it into perspective for how I interpreted it, I figure we are 75% water and if fluid has a tendency to wrap around surfaces then we do too. Our surfaces are content in our mind. These contents are surface like and they can include fears, assumptions, abstract concepts etc. We tend to fix to them and unless we create enough force it is difficult to break clear to find new ways of thinking. What if in the initial phase we need to learn and develop our capacities to not get caught in the cycle of wrapping around our inner surfaces. If for the milk the optimal flow is created with the appropriate amount of force and as such not attachment then why do we struggle with it. I guess what I am saying here is that when ever I notice myself being wrapped around, attached too, I change the environment to stimulate the forces needed to get the flow right.
This effect explains in part why I have for the last two season trained the way I have. If the aim is to access the flow state then I have found not being attached to a specific program, session, any assumptions, fears and expectations is about the only way I that I can explain how I come to drop into the perfect fluid like state. So Aim & Pour is very apt indeed, not only per-session, per-stroke but also for an Olympic cycle etc.
A little part to all this is that it requires practice and as I keep reminding my daughter when ever she is learning something new and she say, “It’s to hard, I can’t do it”. I simple say it will take some time and practice sweaty. The Aim & Pour can be seen and practiced every day.
A chapter called Aim & Pour describes the flow of milk from a milk cartoon and how with to little force you get milk dribbling down the cartoon and with to much force you get a gulping mess. It explains the effect from a perspective of surface tension and fluid dynamics. It reminded me just how important it is to get the flow rate right with some many things we do.
The idea of Aim & Pour is simple and when followed it seems easy to accurately pour milk into a glass. We have all had times when this has not worked though and to consider the amount of force created and the balance between not enough and to much is a fine line that when found produces ease, accuracy and confidence.
To bring it into perspective for how I interpreted it, I figure we are 75% water and if fluid has a tendency to wrap around surfaces then we do too. Our surfaces are content in our mind. These contents are surface like and they can include fears, assumptions, abstract concepts etc. We tend to fix to them and unless we create enough force it is difficult to break clear to find new ways of thinking. What if in the initial phase we need to learn and develop our capacities to not get caught in the cycle of wrapping around our inner surfaces. If for the milk the optimal flow is created with the appropriate amount of force and as such not attachment then why do we struggle with it. I guess what I am saying here is that when ever I notice myself being wrapped around, attached too, I change the environment to stimulate the forces needed to get the flow right.
This effect explains in part why I have for the last two season trained the way I have. If the aim is to access the flow state then I have found not being attached to a specific program, session, any assumptions, fears and expectations is about the only way I that I can explain how I come to drop into the perfect fluid like state. So Aim & Pour is very apt indeed, not only per-session, per-stroke but also for an Olympic cycle etc.
A little part to all this is that it requires practice and as I keep reminding my daughter when ever she is learning something new and she say, “It’s to hard, I can’t do it”. I simple say it will take some time and practice sweaty. The Aim & Pour can be seen and practiced every day.
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