Physical Intelligence - Day 14

Early morning football and Tottenham Hotspur dictated my gym time and this after just hours of sleep that was delayed by going to gym last night.  Just like Day 7 - it is great to watch one's team doing so well and yet again, an early morning kick off saw the score of 4-0, this time against Bournemouth.

For the second week running I was witness to the physical intelligence of Tottenham manager Mauricio Pochettino.  Here is the irony,  Pochettino would not spare a second for my powder-puff approach to physical intelligence, because incredible fortitude and fitness is at the center of the system he deploys, that has turned a team that has not delivered on its potential for decades into team that has a champions feel to them.

Grant it that Mauricio Pochettino has not yet won any silverware and next week a lunch-time FA Cup Semi-Final against Chelsea will leave him 2 games to take that particular monkey off his back.  Today Tottenham were imperious and no one was counting lack of silverware, the sheer effort, physical fitness, skill and entertainment was beyond par.   There are definitely lessons that I can take from Mauricio Pochettino's mindset about fitness, but first about the man.

Tottenham have established a history with Argentina when Ossie Ardiles and Ricky Villa came to Tottenham.  Ardiles did manage Tottenham but he was not successful as a manager as he was as a player.  Pochettino is becoming a revelation as a manager and moving fast towards becoming one of the best managers in the world. 

When it comes to physical intelligence just studying Pochettino's philosophy is a totally different level to how I approach physical intelligence.  He is the antithesis of me and this shows me that I have barely moved on from the starting line of engaging physical intelligence. 

This time last year the topic was sex, but these conversations don't get me to engage the physical of physical intelligence. The word intelligence alone means nothing if action is not a part of the context of physical.  For the second week running, the team I support pushed their bodies to the max, so people like me can punch our fist through the air and celebrate a great win.  Yet this win is parasitic if we simply use sport as an entertainment and armchair victories.

Participation in sport is as important as being a fan of a particular team.  There is room for this to become a symbiotic relationship and that is clear because for the second Saturday running, I had completed gym before 10am - and all because the soccer match finished before 10am.  This means that an event outside of my home, greatly influenced my life choices inside my home.

Next week I am at my Toastmasters club so there is not going to be an opportunity to watch a game and engage gym at the same time.  The lesson this week is that physical intelligence the way Pochettino would view it does not require surrogate elements - that it becomes a love rather than a hate of exercise.  I have seen that these external element changes my approach to physical intelligence - now I need foster and cultivate the kind of desire that I would expect from the players of the team I support. 

Otherwise watching sport and wanting one's team to win, while not having the same physically intelligent mentality then becomes one of the great hypocrisies, that we term as armchair sportsmen.  If I can capture how refreshing and energizing I feel after a few days of gym, then I will have created a sustainable attitude to physical intelligence - and that is really big win.

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