Even though I'm pretty au fait with most American sporting metaphors, step up to the plate, out of the park, slam dunk, and so on, there's understandably many more I'm unaware of, like Full Court Press.

At first glance I reckoned it to be some sort of wrestling hold, when someone's thrown to the floor, then pinned down by the shoulders; it's not, it's actually a basketball defensive style, but that's by the by, it's where I've seen it and the context it's been used in that interests me.

For the past couple of weeks, someone I know, a funny, cheerful and very charming American woman, has used it to illustrate how she's handling a break-up. Closing down the expected grief, boxing it in, and then rebounding with a spirited counter attack.

I like that: it's the mark I think of a well adjusted person to have access to a metaphorical tool-kit, twist the lid off a seemingly insoluble issue, pop a bent nail out of a difficult situation, you can see where I'm going.

Metaphors make things understandable, the formless gets a shape, gas turns to liquid. Once you're at this stage, you're closer to making probably the most legendary of all American sports metaphors - the home run