Baseball Interferes with Golf, and then with Knitting

Tonite I went to see fellow golfer Derek Jeter at his day job and watched him make a really spectacular catch. The ball came straight at him, and he just stood real still, raised his glove and the ball just got sucked right in. It looked simple but you could see that it was a time-honed body memory of how to catch a ball.

I had the same experience with turning a heel on a sock last week. Usually I need to refer to a book to figure out just how to start the turn, even though I've done it dozens of times. This time I just let my hands knit and there it was, a pretty perfect turn, with no counting.

Last week when we played golf, I realized I had gotten into a bad habit with flicking my wrist on a putt so balls were going everywhere but the hole. I know the habit came from my unfortunate use of the putter off the green/in the rough to whack the ball - as if the whole world was a mini golf course. I practiced a little this week on straight wrists by putting around in the living room as I watched the final 1,000 episodes of Trapped in the Closet. It was hard to change that body memory of the little flick but after turning that heel, I know I can never be a Jeter but I can do better.