Basketball Study: Timing, Rhythm, and Tempo

• LMA Curriculum

Introduction

In The Joe Louis Story study, I mentioned how basketball could teach us a lot about timing, rhythm, and tempo. For the purposes of sport, think of rhythm as the expression of timing. Timing is the spacing of events in time. For physical movement, timing is best defined as periods of tension and relaxation. Rhythm is the alternation between periods of tension and relaxation. Think of a beat as the basic unit of time. Most often, it's a regularly repeating pulse.

Not all of us can dance, but we all have a natural beat pattern. Our own embodied rhythm. When we can't dance or keep a beat, it means we can't sync with an external rhythm, only our own. All fighters have a rhythm and tempo, whether they recognize it or not. This is important to know because then you can understand your opponent's pattern and the pattern you're feeding your opponent.