Now, I don’t know a sport that
doesn’t require focus – intense focus – on something, usually a ball! Of
course, in tennis, it’s that fuzzy little orb that we chase relentlessly around
the court. Once we lose visual contact with it, we miss-hit the ball or whiff
it all together! When I am making a series of uncharacteristic mistakes due to
loss of concentration on the game, I recall how I focus on one thing during
yoga balances – then refocus, likewise, on the ball – and the ball only. To the
extreme, I’ll quit watching anyone or anything other than it. My world becomes minute
– the size of the tennis ball - during changeovers, during play, during rest
breaks – all the time, for minutes on end, until
I’ve returned to the business at hand. Essentially, it’s a meditation on the
tennis ball. The one instance when this isn’t possible is in doubles when my
partner is serving or receiving the ball behind me. We
all know it’s a no-no to turn your back to the net! But the rest of the time,
the ball is my world.
If you’ve begun to shop for dinner in your head – instead
of watching the tennis ball – make the ball your world and
win the next point. And the next. And the next.
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