I had the opportunity to meet Torben Ulrich, the great Danish Davis Cup player years ago in NY for a workshop on Ballplaying and the Buddhist Approach to Tennis. His philosophy is wrapped up in his response when he played the great Pancho Gonzalez and the reporter asked did you have trouble with Gonzalez’ serve.? Torben’s reply was “I think his serve is a thing of beauty and how can a thing of beauty give you trouble.”
The joy in the process of development using the tennis court at the canvas was Torben’s point in enjoying the moments and mitigate the negative self talk and to focus on the appreciation of being out there.
The great Viktor E. Frankl- the great author who survived the Nazi Concentration camps expressed it best: Everything can be taken from a man but one thing: the last of human freedoms – to choose one’s attitude in any given set of circumstances, to choose one’s own way.
The challenge is how you improve from one day to the next. The matches are simply a measure of how far you have improved. The great Tim Gallwey who wrote Inner Tennis in the 70’s found that observation of the ball led to more improvement than judging oneself by where a ball landed.
Contribution by:Tom Katovsky, former tennis coach Kent State U, John Carroll U, and Israel Tennis Centers. Masters Motor Learning Kent State U. Copublisher Healthy Referral Newspaper est 1989, to promote natural health, integrative medicine, whole foods, personal and spiritual development. Contact: healthyreferral@gmail.com/ 347-687-9355. www.healthyreferral.com