The Peculiarities of Tennis 🎾

In tennis, you either become strong, or you go crazy!

If I had to explain the meaning of Zen in one word, I would choose: balance.

I’m particularly fond of the metaphor that Buddha used to explain the “middle way” to his followers:

“Life is like the course of a river; on one bank, there is extreme pleasure, and on the other, extreme pain. Your ship must stay the course between the two banks to navigate, following the route without crashing…”

Rudyard Kipling also valued balance, and in the poem dedicated to his son, displayed at the entrance of Wimbledon’s Centre Court, he wrote:

“If you can meet Triumph and Disaster and treat those two impostors just the same… Yours is the Earth!”

Few sports can challenge our minds as intensely as tennis!

I believe tennis is one of the most unique sports for many reasons, and it is incredibly adept at creating crises within an athlete’s psyche.

Here are some peculiarities of the game of tennis:

• It’s a sport with an indefinite duration: A match can last less than an hour or, as recently happened at Wimbledon, more than 10 hours. The duration of the match is not proportional to the score; you can win 6-1, 6-1 in two hours or win 7-5, 7-5 in an hour and a half.

• The scoring system requires winning 2 out of 3 sets (or 3 out of 5 in the most prestigious tournaments): To win a set, you need to reach six games, but each set consists of games that can go on indefinitely. The scoring structure can result in a player winning the match despite winning fewer games (e.g., winning 7-6, 0-6, 7-6 but losing 14/18) or fewer points (e.g., winning 6-4, 6-4 but losing 112 to 96).

• Tournaments usually last a week, and if the athlete wins, they play every day for an indefinite amount of time: In the amateur or semi-professional scene, players typically compete in 10 to 20 tournaments per year, while in the professional circuit, they play an average of 30-35 tournaments annually around the world, dealing with time zones, different climates, customs, food, etc.

• Tennis is mostly an individual sport, but there are also team competitions and doubles: A day of team competition can start at 9 AM and end at midnight.

• Matches are played on various surfaces (hard court, clay, grass, etc.) with different balls (Head, Dunlop, Slazenger, etc.): The variety of surfaces and balls can lead to situations where Player A beats Player B, B beats C, and C beats A, all due to the differences in play or surface.

• Despite being a 1-on-1 sport, there are no weight or height categories (like in boxing), meaning that all things being equal in technique, taller players will serve much harder.

• Tennis requires playing with a 70 cm racket in constant motion, where every 2-3 seconds you hit a ball with all your strength: Each time, the ball will be different in speed, bounce, and height.

• There are no objective parameters to compare yourself with at the end of a match: For example, if I know I run 1 km in 4 minutes, I may win or lose, but if I run it in 3 minutes and 50 seconds, I’ll be satisfied. In tennis, this doesn’t happen, making it very difficult to analyze a match objectively.

• The opponent changes constantly, and most of the time, you don’t know who they are, making it impossible to strategize before the match.

• Until the international level, there is no continuity in refereeing: So, besides everything mentioned, the player will have to referee themselves and, if possible, prevent the opponent from behaving dishonestly.

If there’s a dispute, after exhausting all your energy to win the point, you call the tournament judge, who obviously wasn’t present during the incident. And what does he do? He gives you two balls.

A former coach of mine used to say:

“In tennis, you either become strong or you go crazy!”

The reasons listed above have been more than enough to make me both love and hate tennis, but most of all, they have motivated me to transform many conflicts.

To excel in such a stimulating sport, the athlete will need to work on themselves continuously to find more balance and motivation.

An Exercise for Balance 🧘‍♀️

A simple exercise to cultivate harmony and Zen within us is “heart-centeredness.”

Place your crossed hands on your chest at heart level, close your eyes, and for a few minutes, focus on your breathing, listening to its rhythm and simple flow.

Practicing this exercise during stressful moments can instill calm and clarity of purpose. Doing it for just a few minutes every day helps improve concentration and reduce anxiety. Once integrated, this exercise can even be visualized and used, for example, during changeovers on the court.