Sunday, July 14, 2002
Deep Play - Spirit in Sport
There's an excellent article by Andrew Cooper on "Spirit in Sport." It's a deeply provocative exploration of the connections between Zen and flow. One of the many citations that caught my attention refers to the philosophy of George Gadamer and his use of the term "deep play" to refer to that moment when "the game plays the player." This is the essence of the experience that led me to write The Well-Played Game.
"The German philosopher George Gadamer writes of that 'deep play' in which the individual's actions so thoroughly merge with the intrinsic designs of the game that 'the game plays the player.' No doubt this experience will likely occur with greater frequency and be both more evident and impressive among expert athletes. But excellence and perfection do not belong to the player; they belong to the game itself. And all those who have felt themselves given over to their power—the little league pitcher, the junior varsity linebacker, the weekend softball player and the devoted fan—come to share in some measure of the experience."
"The German philosopher George Gadamer writes of that 'deep play' in which the individual's actions so thoroughly merge with the intrinsic designs of the game that 'the game plays the player.' No doubt this experience will likely occur with greater frequency and be both more evident and impressive among expert athletes. But excellence and perfection do not belong to the player; they belong to the game itself. And all those who have felt themselves given over to their power—the little league pitcher, the junior varsity linebacker, the weekend softball player and the devoted fan—come to share in some measure of the experience."
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