The game of tennis is a beautiful medium for the game of life: bad bounces, good luck; weak opponents and strong adversaries; crushing failure and exhilarating victory; constant feedback and delayed gratification; grind, sprint, win, lose...
Having played the game for more than twenty years now, it still never ceases to amaze me what I can learn about myself on the court. Competitive tennis is my favorite athletic endeavor, but it's a sheer joy any time I find myself with racket in hand, even by myself.
This episode kicks off what I intend to be a regular series dedicated to the invaluable lessons that we all can pull from the drama that plays out to between the geometrically perfect white lines of a tennis court. I have found that there is hardly a better stand-in for life than sports, because they are unscripted and unyielding in their revelations.
The quote from Andre Agassi's autobiography, OPEN: "It's no accident, I think, that tennis uses the language of life. Advantage, service, fault, break, love, the basic elements of tennis are those of everyday existence, because every match is a life in miniature. Even the structure of tennis, the way the pieces fit inside one another like Russian nesting dolls, mimics the structure of our days. Points become games become sets become tournaments, and it's all so tightly connected that any point can become the turning point. It reminds me of the way seconds become minutes become hours, and any hour can be our finest. Or darkest. It's our choice."
Some links for your tennis education and entertainment:
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