Pressure and positioning

I dont know where ill get with this one, probably just a medium to huge rant about pressure and positioning, intensity and quick thinking, that kind of stuff


Cause/consequence. Lets say you have a set closed environments with different values in it. If you change a value, theres a consequence to it. and you have a new environment different from the first one after. Now lets say all these values had different attributes attached to them and depending on how they were sets, it would affect the overall results. The result in the 2nd environment would be different from the first one.

Let's say we have 4 players playing basketball in 2 teams of 2 players. We will play the players Red1(R1), Red2(R2) Blue1(B1) and Blue2(B2). All players are of equal skills, they move same speed, throw same speed and accuracy.

If R1 is facing B1 and R2 is facing B2, and R1 has the ball and tries to shoot the ball in the basket. B1 is gonna be all over it trying to block the shot. R1 cannot try and pull some moves and outrun B1, R1 cannot jump higher than B1 and he cannot try to be faster cause B1 is just as fast. As a result we have a stand still, R1 cannot beat B1.

Same scenario, lets say R1 wanted to pass the ball to his teamate R2 so he could try and do something to get out of this stand still situation. Unfortunately R2 is not any superior to B2 and cannot be open to receive a pass because B2 will intercept any attempt. Once again, were at a stand still.

Now lets say B2 has a brain disorder and is completely unable to move backward. what R2 could do is go behind B2 that way B2 becomes completely useless. Now R1 could pass the ball to R2. Now that R2 has the ball and B2 cannot do anything. R2 could try shooting the ball in the basket.

Unfortunately R2 cannot throw that far and he needs to get closer to the basket. If he moves forward tho. B2 will be able to get back on him and we will be in a new stand still. because B2 has the same physical abilities as R2.

Now lets say R1 drinks a redbull and is able to jump 5 feet high, something that B1 cannot do. R2 could throw the ball toward R1 and he would throw it in the basket and score.

So how did we get out of the initial stand still? We added things to the red team and took away some from the blue team. to give an advantage to the red team. We could make it a ton more complex by adding more players, more values, take away things from the red things while giving strenghts to the blue team, we could create different rules to alter the way the game is played. but im sure all of you get the idea by now (if not you can just stop reading now)

Eventually we could create a game like chess, a sport or some other game, some kind of competition where the different values compete against one another to try and find the best. The fun part here is that the more complex you make it and the more value you add to it, the more harder it becomes to understand it and the harder it is to be able to take all the values in consideration at the same time. we will call that a mental challenge.

mental challenges are found in everyday life. in every situation you have to use your logic to make choices. Your choices will be based on calculations you make weighting the pros and cons of a situation.

For example, its 1am I should go sleep. why should i go sleep? because if i wait some more before going to sleep, ill wake up later or ill be more tired the next day if i dont wake up later. I will also be more tired than i currently am if i wait before going to bed. And then i take other values in consideration: I got plenty of time to sleep late tomorrow so it doesnt matter if i sleep later tomorrow, therefore i can afford to not go to bed right now. I also want to keep writing this post, am i awake enough to keep going or do i feel like i cannot continue without getting some sleep: im still well awake.

As you can see i just calculated the different reasons to judge if i should go sleep right now or wait a little more based on what i want and what will happen based on my decisions. Anyone can do such things to take little decisions like what i just did.

Every action or phenomena in an environment has a consequence, it changes the final result, it changes the different values and you get something new.

Im really tempted, by starting to describe the way a sport such a hockey would be played, start simply with circles and dots and add values to it until you get an actual game, but i might just be too lazy for that and people might be annoyed to read me stating the obvious. There is 1 thing i want to make clear tho, cause/consequences dont simply happen in 2v2 basketball games where red team faces an identical blue team. its in our everyday life, in every facet of it. If im dancing salsa with someone and we both move forward at the same time, we will collide. so as my partner moves foward i need to move backward to give my partner room. This is called Harmony or we could call it teamwork. Where my actions complete my partner's action perfectly as if we were 1 entity. The best way to get that is to get to know your strenght and weakness, then your teammates strenght and weaknesses, and try to maximize efficiency by communicating and knowing how people react to what you do.

Oh, but i just noticed I havent really talked about the 2 concepts presented in the title of this blog entry.

Lets say to have a piece of land thats as big as 4 units and you have 2 factions wanting to conquer it all.

If both factions have identical conquering capabilities and they start conquering the 4 units at the same time, they will both get 1 half of the available land.

Lets say 1 of the faction stayed outside of the 4 units and didnt do anything while the other faction would start conquering. Eventually that other faction would get the entire thingw/o running into any resistance.

Now lets say the faction that sat out doesnt want the other one to get all the land so they start to conquer at the same time. then we get the same scenario as the first one where each get 1 half.

Now lets say the 2nd faction was 2 twice as fast, the first one would get 1/4 and the other one would get 3/4. Now this situation vaguely resembles the basketball example.

Now lets say the first faction doesnt want the other one to conquer all the land but they still sit out as the 2nd faction conquers the whole thing. Now the first faction is not happy because the other one has all the land. but they didnt do anything to counter the progression of their enemy so they have no choice than to accept their defeat.

Resisting to the other team by making their advance harder is called applying pressure. If theres nothing made to stop the other team, the other team has NO reason to slow down or stop themselves from progressing toward their goal.

That means lets say youre playing a sport or a game. Youre gonna be putting pressure on your opponent or oppositing team to either make your team progress toward your goal OR slow their progress. If you keep the pressure up, you will do what you can to do good(if you have more skills that usually means winning) if you decide to diminish the pressure then you will be pressured more yourself by your opponent(if youre being outskilled, that usually means losing). Then all the different values come into play to differentiate the 2 opponents.

The last concept i want to talk about is intimately linked to the pressure concept. its called positioning. In team games, a team will positions their elements on the playing board in a certain way to maximize efficiency. If the game is simple and both team positioning's is perfect then we have a stand still and its skills and different values that will determine a winner. The more complex the game gets, the more complex getting perfect positioning on both side gets. this is when it starts to matter. the team with the better positioning will be able to exploit the other teams weakness more easely given that advantage.

Its pretty simple, if youre somewhere, youre not elsewhere, youre there. if you should be elsewhere and youre not there. then theres a weak link elsewhere. but youre stronger than you should be where youre at. For example back to our 2v2 from earlier:

Lets say B2 stops covering R2 and decides to sit down on the field. R2 will be open for a pass from R1 and have a freeway to the basket and the possibility to score points.

Now lets say that B2 decides to help B1 cover R1 instead of sitting down. R2 will be open. but its gonna be really hard for R1 to do anything now that he has so much pressure on him.

Lets say R1 was really talented and managed to bypass B1 and B2 and give the ball to R2 Then R2 would have an easy time scoring points.

But lets bring R1 back to the skill levels of the other players and add another value called luck. the fact that both B1 and B2 are covering him means his chances to succeed are lower than when it was only B1 but he still has a chance to manage to give the ball to R1. if he suceeds, then R1 will have an easy time to score points, but its gonna be tough for R1.

So in a world where you have to match your oponent's skills with your own skills and positioning, you have to find a way to give yourself an advantage while diminishing your opponents advantage, that is if you wish to win anything.

As you can see tho, you want to maximize the pressure on the other team, but since youre only allowed certain values to compete (you can only have lets say 5 players against another 5)then you need to find a way to position yourself well enough to try and get an edge on your opponent while also countering them in the best way you can.

And the more values you add in your environment the more complex it gets. its pretty fun to observe how it goes in a closed environment (a video game, a sport, a board game), but these are things that compose the entire world around us.