Are You Aware

After ten years of hard work the apprentice Tenno had finally
achieved the rank of Zen teacher. One rainy day, he went to
visit the famous master Nan-in.

When he walked in, the master greeted him with a question,
"Did you leave your wooden clogs and umbrella on the porch?"

"Yes," Tenno replied.

"Tell me," the master continued, "did you place your umbrella
to the left of your shoes, or to the right?"

Tenno did not know the answer, and realized he had not yet
attained full awareness. So he became Nan-in's apprentice and
studied under him for ten more years.

Awareness is not something we cultivate much in Western
society either, is it? Much to our detriment too. Everything in
our lives could benefit immeasurably from paying more and
better attention in the moment.

When you are practicing your shooting, paying attention is the
name of the game. The more you understand what makes your
shot work or not work, the better you will be able to make
adjustments and fine-tune your shooting stroke. If you commit
yourself to this kind of awareness tremendous learning is possible.
Mastery itself is possible.

In a sense when you practice you are experimenting. You are
seeing what happens when you vary your shooting mechanics,
when you hold mental images in your mind, when you plant
triggers and keywords into your system.

A very good beginning in my mind will always be Coach Tom
Nordland's Swish videos, and especially Swish 2 now that it's out.

Tom's Swish 1 is a brilliant introduction to a simple, effective
method of shooting, and Swish 2 takes your learning to a whole
new level.

Find out all the new information you should be paying attention
to now at:

http://www.deandelker.com/swish2.html

Shoot For the Stars,

Dean - The Dean of Shooting Hoops

Copyright, Delker Enterprises, Inc. 2006