Eastern Philosophy 3 Aston Villa 1

Eastern Philosophy 3 Aston Villa 1

Is Pochettino contemplating THBN ideas?

A victorious opening fixture and what follows is probably the most unusual match report you are ever likely to come across, Eastern Philosophy 3 Aston Villa 1.

Christian Eriksen changed the game, OK Einstien tell us something we don't know.

Well, Jamie Redknapp made some insightful comments. There, that's got you hasn't it. OK, so he didn't know it at the time, but it's a useful lead in to this article incorporating Eastern Philosophy and the Aston Villa game.

Time seems to stop for great players he said, they see everything, they give a belief to other players who then have greater energy and Hary Kane can start making runs because he knows the ball can now come.

Before you are not sure it will arrive and nobody was taking responsibility, the game was slow and sideways.

Not word for word, but the gist of what he said.

Why is that insightful?

Well, that leads me on to Eastern Philosophy and Tao.

I mentioned a few times on Twitter I was going to write about this and how it relates to football, those comments and that performance gives me a platform to do so.

That which offers no resistance overcomes the hardest substances.
That which offers no resistance can enter where there is no space.
Few in the world can comprehend the teaching without words, or understand the value of
non-action.
Lao Tzu

Stop and think about that, what does it mean. Tottenham had a non-action transfer window last season and reached a Champions League Final, something a section of our fans seem to want to ignore to shoehorn the season into their closed mindset.

That shouts to me that there are natural spaces on a football field and if you are in perfect harmony then everything just effortless and opens up for you.

Is it better to read a game and always be in the right position or forever diving on the floor trying to make last-ditch tackles and blocks?

Looks great for the fans, but you aren't reading the game well enough if you have to.

Danny Rose didn't read the game yesterday for their goal. He didn't know who to watch when one was wide on the touchline and little danger at that point. He went with a runner, but hesitated to see what might happen and was then in a losing battle.

He had to dive into a last-ditch block for a shot that didn't happen. Laying on the floor, out of the game, he watched them scored to go 1-0 up.

Chinese philosopher Lao Tzu wrote a masterpiece called the Tao Te Ching, which is the main work of Taoism.

A concept that has emerged from Taoist philosophy is wu wei.

This can be translated as 'non-action', 'effortless action', or the paradoxical 'action of non-action'.

Wu wei could be described as the state of flow, often referred to by sportsmen as the ‘the zone’.

Being in the zone enables engaging in action without striving, and move through time and space almost effortlessly.

The Philosophy of Flow.

When Christian Eriksen came on Tottenham flowed.

It was like everyone knew exactly what they needed to do and started doing it. Before he came on there was striving, there was effort, there was huff and puff, everything was being manufactured, nothing flowed, nothing felt natural, nothing felt thoughtless.

When he came on the parts of the machine started working, the individual instinct of each player took over.

The Tao Te Ching is the most translated work in world literature after the Bible.

The essence of Taoist philosophy is living in harmony with the Tao, also called the Way.

Taoists observe that stillness of mind can be combined with action, and if we are completely in the present moment, our actions will go effortlessly, without friction and accompanied by a razor-sharp focus.

In his biography, retired professional basketball player Bill Russell writes:

“It was almost as if we were playing in slow motion. During those spells, I could almost sense how the next play would develop and where the next shot would be taken.”

Isn't that is the aim of a football team, to play effortlessly, knowing instinctively what each player is going to do or is capable of doing and playing with total confidence, one-touch football that rips through a side.

I have seen spells of it at Tottenham since Pochettino arrived, something we need to find again I think.

Players moving off the ball that just creates gaps or the opportunity of a pass and the attack just flowing without thought.

Lord When-Hui commented on Cook Ting's skill with his knife while cutting an oxen. He laid down his knife and replied:
“What I care about is the Way, which goes beyond skill.
When I first began cutting up oxen, all I could see was the ox itself.
After three years I no longer saw the whole ox.
And now, now I go at it by spirit and don’t look with my eyes.
Perception and understanding have come to a stop and spirit moves where it wants.
I go along with the natural makeup, strike in the big hollows, guide the knife through the big openings, and following things as they are.
So I never touch the smallest ligament or tendon, much less a main joint.”

Bull in a china shop versus Andrea Pirlo making everything look effortless. The result of vision.

Every player should be taught to look around all the time from a young age. They aren't.

Those who look around more often, know where the opposition is, know where their players are and where they can possibly go. Before he receives the ball he already knows what he is going to do with it or knows exactly how to shield it and give himself extra time.

He knows the angle his opponent will close him down so already knows his countermeasure before the action has taken place.

Vision is what separated Andrea Pirlo from the rest.

This story connects to another essential teaching of Taoism which is the power of gentleness.
By forcing and striving, we might get the job done, but at the same time, we spend much more energy than necessary.

This was Aston Villa, continually running from side to side. Their goalscorer spoke after the game and said it just wore them out, they ran out of gas. Sitting back and defending is mentally tiring and that saps your physical strength.

That is when mistakes occur. When you are constantly having to concentrate and make snap decision with little or no time to turn off.

Someone in a state of flow approaches a task intelligently, knowing when to act and when not to, and finds a balance between action and non-action.

Understanding teammates and having total faith in movement outside of your own control, playing a blind pass, paying a ball into an area you know it will be collected because you are at one with those around you.

That only comes by playing together over time, by playing as part of a team and not as an individual.

We have all seen wonderful first-time passing movements and look on in almost awe. That is the Way, that is Tao.

The idea behind non-action goes against the Western ideal of forcing and working harder and harder to get results. We are encouraged to be ambitious, to take control and to strive.

Many people suffer from depression, anxiety disorders and sleep disorders.
Are we burning ourselves out?
Society looks down on passivity, and often mistakes it for laziness.
But these are different things.

Do you as a sensible adult seriously think that Tottenham did not try to sign the players Pochettino wanted last summer?

Do you seriously think we have not offered Toby Alderweireld, Christian Eriksen, Jan Vertonghen and Danny Rose new contracts over the last 3 years?

Our supporters seem to if you read Twitter.

When we look at nature, ‘doing nothing’ makes way more sense than we tend to think.

Taoism compares life to a river.
The river already has a course or several courses, and once we find ourselves in that river, we can swim against the current, we can hold on to a branch or we can let go and go along with the stream.

Which involves more effort, which gets better results?

Most of our lives, we swim against the current and we don’t even realize it.

As a supporter, why do you then not support and go with the flow, it's the path to success. Why fight against it, why protest constantly? Dragging people down to swim against the tide isn't a successful path, why undertake it?

Our mind believes that it can and should control the environment, in order to survive, which is kind of egocentric because the vast majority of processes within as well as outside ourselves are not in our control.

We don’t control other people, we don’t control the future.
We don’t even control who we fall in love with and what people we find attractive.

Everything outside our own faculties just goes into some direction.
Sometimes forced by intelligence, but mostly in a natural course.
When we flow along with the current, we align ourselves with this natural course.
This is the path of least resistance; it gives nature a chance to unfold, without us resisting it.
So, the Taoist way is rather navigating through the river instead of trying to control it; something that will never work.

Again stop and think of playing football, imagine that flowing football we can play and compare that to our slow lethargic huff and puff first halves we regularly produce.

If you’ve ever experienced a state of flow, there’s one thing that disappears and only comes back when the thinking mind takes back control.

This is the focus on results, rather than the task at hand.

If you focus on the result, you take your mind away from the task, wasting brain capacity and slowing decision making. You bring in anxiety which leads to indecision and mistakes.

Spurs have faith in the way we play, faith in the manager to solve problems. We score late goals because we have faith in what we do, we banish doubt. It is one reason negativity has no place at Spurs and shouldn't amongst our supporters.

The Stoic concept of ‘amor fati’ is to embrace the outcome, whatever it may be and instead of worrying about the future, focusing on what’s in the present.

No matter if you’re completely immersed in sports, writing, a video game or dancing; when you’re in a state of flow, you forget the results, the pressure, the anxieties about the future, the failings of the past.

Supporters cling onto the past though, they cling onto failure, they cling onto prudent spending or no spending and don't go with the flow.

The majority can see where Spurs are going an enjoy the ride, while an element fights it. These fans have to forget their fear, just let go, stop holding branches, focus on the present and live it.

Eriksen made us flow.

Tottenham had 31 attempts at goal (7 in the first half, 24 in the second half).
Liverpool had 15 attempts at goal.
Manchester City had 14 attempts at goal.