Field Work: Or How Tennis Is Helping Me Reflect

As a coach, I am deeply committed to walking my talk. If I wasn’t, how else could I be an effective coach? However, lest I begin to feel that I have it all nailed down, taking up a new sport is certainly one way to excavate hidden recesses where old thinking still lies. Here is what I am noticing:

Learner’s mindset – mistakes are learning

As a dedicated life-long learner, I thought I had this one nailed. Feedback from a client? Great. A debrief with a colleague? Such rich learning. But once I started getting more balls over the net, I found my internal voice getting critical about all sorts of mistakes. I was starting to get frustrated when I would hit the frame or allow a volley to just die on the strings or fail to finish my swing. I’m still a bit baffled about how I didn’t just automatically take my learner’s mindset with me into a new arena. But social-emotional skills and thinking can be like that. We do them well in one context and then drop them in another. The beauty is that when I notice places where I have not fully transported a learning or skill, I gain insight to deepen my practice. My new mantra in tennis class: mistakes are learning. Sometimes we need to go back to basics!

Wait for the ball to come to you – don’t rush

I know that this is a place where I have a lot of growth. I just didn’t expect it to be such a challenge in tennis. Rather than watching the ball and allowing it to come to me, I would see it leave my opponent’s racket and immediately start rushing the net. The coach laughs and askes, “Where are you going?” How many times in life have I rushed toward a “problem” only to reflect that if I had allowed the “ball” to come to me, I would have needed so much less effort and would have had more impact? Waiting for the ball in tennis has focused my attention on my speed and reaction time both on and off the court. One more reminder to pause and breathe.

Use the power of the ball – don’t work so hard

This is really related to the last lesson. When I rush the ball, I am usually not in a good position and then I fail to flow through a nice and easy swing. I use my arm and then put effort through the swing rather than allowing the power to come from my core. As I expand my attention out from the court and into other aspects of my life, so many areas of effort have started to appear. It usually starts with the rush, which then requires effort because I am not working with the energy and forces around me. Tennis has helped me see so much in my life with more clarity.

I find that when I am paying attention, the lessons for coaching and running a business are actually woven through every other aspect of my life. When I took up tennis, I wanted to have fun, learn something new and perhaps meet some people. (All of those boxes are nicely checked!) I didn’t expect to see and hear what I need to learn so starkly. It’s been wonderful learning, in so many ways. Where do you see your lessons showing up in unexpected places?