The 50 Shades of Play

     Play is a really interesting concept! When you look at philosophy, movement theory, music, or almost any field, there is a certain reverence for play. People play a sport, they play music, they play around with new ideas. Play is a cornerstone of the human experience! We play when we are children, and as adults, try to find ways to inject playfulness into our lives. 

But what, really, is play and how do we make it a meaningful component of our experience?

    If we look at human development, play can be seen as exploration. As children, we play by interacting with our environment. We chew on things, we  try to stand up, we feel things. That progresses to running, to expressing our abundant energy. Then, when we are a little bit older, we play pretend. We've heard stories and seen programs that spark our imagination, so we want to try those scenarios out and see how they might come out differently. That can lead to confrontation when our friends don't react the way that we would like them to!

    In school, we get into organized sports. We learn the rules of the sport and the different positions. Then we play games against other teams. We experience winning and losing, we are introduced to discipline and practice, strategy and technique. We might also play music. In that, too, we have to learn scales and chords, we play in recitals to demonstrate what we have learned.

    So let's break this down a little.

    Play, when we are developing, seems to be directionless exploration. We go out and try things, and in the trial and error, we learn to crawl, stand, walk, run, and recover from falling. We build resilience and competence. We're just exploring, and the exploration itself is stimulation for the nervous system and muscles to develop!

    But when we get older, play changes. We need to learn rules and practice specifics to build skill. We need to relate to others and how they perform. Technique and structure lead to further development.

    In the field of human movement, we are faced with the same basic processes. If we don't have a goal, it can be good to play around with new exercises or modalities to see what speaks to our imagination and inspires us to develop in a further direction. It can be good to try Yoga, Tai Chi, Weight Lifting, HIIT, kettlebells, or whatever else you want! Try it out and get that novel experience for your nervous system.

    But taking 5 different classes a week will have limited results. You are exposed to a mix of stimuli without any rhyme or reason. This can be fun, and can have positive impact on your musculoskeletal and nervous system, but it doesn't necessarily train you to perform. And it doesn't train you to play BETTER.

    Play, when we look at the context of sports (our second analogy), is a performance. A performance is an arrangement of themes set to specific restrictions and rules. If we play football, for instance, there are rules for performing in the context of the game. Just going out and running up and down the field without any knowledge of what you're supposed to be doing might be good exercise, but it's not enjoyable or engaging PLAY. For that, we need: discipline, practice of specific techniques, direction, and knowledge of theory.

    So I like to look at Play in this kind of scale:

At one end we have Exploratory Play. In this level, you are having novel experiences that can have beneficial impact, but are exploring in a baseline capacity.

In the middle, we have Disciplined Practice where we have picked a direction and focus on building the individual components of that performance or skill.

And at the end we have High Level Play where we are so competent at techniques and components that we can combine them into novel and spontaneous experiences.

    Like the Zen adage says: "Before Zen, chop wood and carry water. After Zen, chop wood and carry water." This can mean, in this context, that what seems simple and ordinary in the beginning can have unexpected meaning and depth in the end. What can look like simple play can have hours of study, performance, practice, and theory behind it. 

    So get out there and play, but if you have a purpose to it, that play can lead you to mastery and autonomy!