The Hour Glass of Momentum in Tennis

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hourglass Imagine you have an hour glass in front of you. The top half of the hour glass represents the momentum in your tennis match when you are winning. The bottom half represents the player who is losing.

The person who is winning has a wealth of information available to them represented by all the grains of sand in the top half of the glass. However, while all that information is available to them they are only using a few pieces of that knowledge at a time.

This small flow of information is represented by the few gains of sand that pass through the tiny filter or the middle of the hour glass. This is like playing in the zone where you are not thinking too much but allowing the flow of the match to occur naturally.

On the bottom is all the sand that has fallen and continues to fall like rain, coming down on the player who is losing – can’t hit, playing poorly, never lost to this person before, he is playing so lucky and etc. Nothing seems to be going well for them and they can’t seem to manage all that is coming down on them.

At some point the player who is losing can feel desperate or frustrated by not being able to control what is happening. They realize that time is about to run out. Now instead of all the disconnecting thoughts they decide upon a strategy – go to the net, lob every ball, hit every ball down the middle and etc.

The point being that they quit worrying about their circumstance and focus on one tactic to solve their situation. Perhaps it is to rise above all the sand that has fallen and use it as a platform to stand taller and block the middle where all the sand is flowing from. They decide upon one specific tactic instead of being over whelmed by their situation. At least now they have a specific purpose – a plan of action instead of being the victim.

The player on top suddenly realize that time is about to expire and he is on top, they are winning. Gradually or even suddenly, thoughts begin to distract them. They have never beaten you, they can’t wait to tell his friends, they will now be in the next round of play and etc.

Suddenly the hour glass will have turned upside down. The player on the bottom has forgotten all the disconnecting thoughts about how desperate their situation is and begins to have only one thought or purpose. The player who was on top is now aware of all their options and opportunities. No longer is there a natural flow to what is happening. The player who was on top now experiences all the disconnecting thoughts.

This is how a match will normally flow. When I realize I am about out of time and ready to lose the match, my focus will change to one thought or purpose. Having accepted that I could lose I begin to focus on a singular plan to salvage my situation. Winning or losing is no longer my focus, my fear is not my driving force. My fear has pushed me to a point where I must make a decision

As I mentioned, the eyes are the key. If you can see the ball rotating as it comes to you, your mind will become quiet and things will slow down in your mind. A good game to play with yourself at this point is “yes” or “no”. After you have contacted the ball, say “yes” if you were able to pick up the rotation of the ball before contact and you had previously selected a target for you shot before the ball bounced on your side of the court.

We call this, “paying attention to attention”. If you could evaluate your attention level after a shot and it was at 8-9 or 10 on a scale of 10 you would have excellent “attention” and a relaxed focus of mind.

You can also focus on “paying attention to tension” or how tight you are gripping your racquet and the tension level of your body. This should be about level 2 or 3 on a scale of 5.

Some of the unique aspects of tennis are that there are no time limits, it is one of the only sports where the opponent calls your lines, and one of the few sports that makes you start at 0 or even at half time. All the success you had in the first set goes back to zero for the second set and you must start from scratch to win the next set.

This is one of the many “treasures” you will learn and re-learn as you play the game of Tennis.

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