I have been sleep deprived recently staying up late to catch the Olympics. I have enjoyed the games with this one exception...people from other countries, especially China, are butchering the high five. When I see a Chinese gymnast step off the floor and greet a teammate with a high five I want to throw a brick through my t.v. screen. It goes down like this...they face one-another (straight on) and slap palms over their head and follow through moving upward toward the roof. It is just the most stupid thing I have ever seen. You know, you just can't export cool.
So how should a high five go you ask? Something like this. Two people face one-another. They align right shoulder to right shoulder (for righties), and they raise their hands and slap palms with a naturally swooping downward motion.
Why so agitated you may ask? I witnessed the genesis of the high five. As a kid I was a fan of the Louisville Cards basketball team (Not popular in my Indiana University household) The cards team were the first ones I saw do the high five. That claim was recorded in the P. Dickson's 1989 Basketball Dictionary:
"The origin of the gesture and the term were claimed by Derek Smith of the University of Louisville basketball team, which won the NCAA championship in the 1979-80 season. Smith was quoted [widely] to the effect that he and two fellow Georgians on the Louisville squad, Wiley Brown and Daryl Cleveland ... [created the] high five during pre-season practice and introduced [it] to the nation in 1979."
By the way, I am an awful high-fiver. This weekend Craig Herr and I tried to high five and missed hands completely. That was lame...like the Chinese gymnasts.
Is anyone else agitated by this?
9 comments:
So funny that you mention it b/c I talked to Jason about it the other day and said they looked, well... I'm not going to say what I said they looked like, but it wasn't a polite reference.
My dad and I always did the "miss on top and shake legs in back" high five. Oh yeah. We're cool.
High five for the blog post!
High fives are so eighties, the new way to do it goes something like this:
1) palm slap
2) interlock thumbs
3) slide out
4) hook / curl fingers
5) slide out
6) let other persons fingers go with resistance
7) snap if you're lame
hope this helps :)
I actually include the "finger snap" on the end like those guys who flip their skoal cans.
I've become a double tap guy (also known as the "game day" five), but I also am a big fan of the skoal can snap. And let's not forget the "man-hug", wherein you start with the interlocking thumb handshake and move in for the closed-fist doulbe tap on the back, while maintaining the handshake to provide the acceptable barrier that all men should keep.
David
I love the man hug!!
Ok fellas, we were talking about high fives here and we moved to "man hugs".
You guys need to go have a catch with your Dad and follow it up with a viewing of "Field of Dreams."
What is wrong with a good, old fashioned, look him in the eye, firm, handshake?
"Old School"
Grandpa, aka "Old School", You crack me up! But I agree with you!
Deb
Just as an example, my new boss, (Head Basketball coach), reached out to me. I assumed for a hand shake. It turned out to be a half hearted high five, going into a fist bump, then some kind of swipe, and I was standing there with my hand out for a handshake!!! The world has passed me by. (He is all of 25 or 26 years old.)
"Old School"
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