Japanese for eye surgery is ganka shujutsu (眼科手術).
At the risk of sounding like a LASIK spokesperson, LASIK eye
surgery really changed my life. Opting for the surgery almost on a whim at the
end of 2009 because “my mom’s insurance policy would cover most of it and we
would waste the money if we didn’t spend it on something,” I chose to rid
myself of the 15-year burden that was glasses. Before LASIK, I had to worry
about putting my glasses somewhere before going to bed, hitting my glasses
while playing sports. When I did play
sports, I would often get my glasses jammed into my face, causing cuts or at
least distortment of the glasses,
In 2014, it’s as if I never had glasses. I play sports
without abandon, not worrying about glasses. It’s like your swinging free,
cutting through butter, or flying through the air without boundaries.
This past week I made 2 (TWO! Very proud of myself) face
catches on 2 different players. A face catch in dodgeball is like a slam dunk
in basketball: It’s still worth only 2 points, but it looks very good and if
done right, it can embarrass your opponent (whoever you’re dunking on). One of the
best feelings in dodgeball, I must say, is catching someone with my face
(letting the ball hit my face and then catching it against my face with my
hands. Yes, it is somewhat painful; not suggested for the faint of heart) and
then having the thrower pause, confused as to what just happened, then realization
hitting in slowly that the ball they threw high enough to hit someone in the
head was actually caught, is one of the best feelings in sports. Without LASIK,
I would probably not have enjoyed dodgeball. My game is about reckless abandon,
about being able to react quickly to events, both of which are hindered by the
presence of obstacles sitting on the ridge of my nose. Contacts are an option,
but those often get knocked out by dodgeballs to the face……..a difficult experience
that I’ve witnessed, people trying to look around the ground for missing
contacts that have hit a sweat/shoe-clogged court.
Speaking of “dunking on people,” there’s a pretty fine line
between getting excited about doing something like that and showing someone up.
A big deal in baseball (most prominent example is hitting a home run and
staring at it, not running right away), it can come up in other sports as well.
When I yell “LET’S GO!” after doing something that affects the game, my
motivation is to pump my teammates up as well as release some aggression,
celebrate my own accomplishment, but I understand it might tick opponents off.
Sports inherently is a zero sum game, my success is someone else’s failure. Dodgeball
is the same way. It’s important in sports and sportsmanship to have empathy (共感 or kyookan in Japanese) and know that what you don’t like
about other people’s behavior on the court is what you should avoid doing on
the field.
Fantasy baseball Lesson to from dodgeball: It doesn’t seem like it, but I’ve
realized that there is a thing as “getting tired” in pitching. The pitching
motion, much like throwing a dodgeball, takes it out of you; you’re wrenching
your body, you’re pushing your whole weight forward in as aggressive of motion
as possible; it can be quite a workout. That’s why pitchers get blown up in
later innings (it’s also because hitters have seen their stuff in the previous
innings and have now adjusted to it), but once you get tired, your body makes
minor changes to compensate, and that’s why the mechanics fall off, and for a
pitcher who needs superior control to make decent pitches, that can be a
killer. Also, that’s when injuries occur. There’s a Bartolo Colon joke in here
somewhere, but I’m starting him this Saturday at home v. ATL, so I’ll save it
until he (hopefully) gets through that and doesn’t run out of energy.
Fantasize on,
Robert Yan
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