The Panacea For All ills: Watching The Ball

       

“Watch the ball” is a phrase commonly mouthed by teaching professionals during most tennis lessons and dutifully repeated by players the world over as they play in recreational or tournament matches.  This can be as easily witnessed at such hallowed venues as Roland Garros and Wimbledon as well as at your local country club or public park facility.

        Why is this?  How can players not be watching the ball?  How often does the ball rocket towards your forehand and you move to hit a backhand?  Surely this would be a common occurrence if we were really not watching the ball.  So what do players who admonish themselves such and teaching professionals mean when they say, “watch the ball”.

        Obviously, the physical eyes are focused on the ball and yet somehow this does not appear to be sufficient to “see” the ball.  How is this possible?  This phenomenon becomes easier to digest when we understand that the biggest obstacle to seeing the ball clearly is our mind.  In order for us to truly understand and explore this statement, we need to briefly look into the nature of the conscious mind: its function and the manner of its operation.

        The conscious mind functions in the past when it recalls that which has already occurred or in the future in the form of hopes, dreams, goals and ambitions.  Both time frames are not real, in that the past has already occurred and is over, while the future is simply a wish, a projection of what we think we want and need.

Consequently, if we are in this present moment, the conscious mind cannot be functioning and if the conscious mind is functioning, then we are not in the present moment.  Meanwhile, the ball is moving towards us or away from us in this present moment.  Therein lies the dilemma.  If the conscious mind is in any way active, if we are thinking about how or where to hit the ball, then it will be impossible to ‘see’ the ball clearly. 

As the ball leaves the opponent’s racket and travels through the air we need to be present to that movement until we make contact with the ball.   Often, what happens is that the mind is silent and therefore we are able to watch the ball hit by our opponent (no anxiety is present during our opponents’ hit, only pure watching), but as the ball begins to make its way towards us tension often arises.  The source of this tension is invariably related to some desire we have connected to the outcome or result of our impending shot or to some fear or doubt related to our ability to hit this shot because of our past experiences.  Regardless, any thought will take us out of the present moment.  Simply stated the ball’s movement is in the present and for us to successfully play the ball we need to also be present.  Any activity of the conscious mind draws us out of the present and thus will create an obstacle to peak performance.

So peak performance occurs when one is in the present moment.  However, to be in the present moment is not a state of being that is easily attainable for most of us, which seems incredulous because the future has not yet arrived and the past is history; it would seem that there is no alternative to being in the here and now. 

Being present is a state of being we cannot actively pursue or engage, but something that happens to us when we realize that this present moment is all there is and any value lies not in some goal out there, but right here right now.  Once this realization happens, then all our goals, desires, dreams, hopes ambitions and plans simply fall away and we are present. 

To be contented and completely satisfied right now is a state of being, which most of us are uncomfortable with.  Many athletes and coaches feel that to hate to lose is a prerequisite for a winning attitude.  In addition, it is felt that growth can only happen when there is dissatisfaction because dissatisfaction provides motivation for improvement.  However, these types of ideas are simply false.  The pursuit of excellence need not be born from pain; it can also be stirred by passion and pure love, ‘art for art’s sake’.  A burning desire to win can motivate some players to great heights, but this type of motivation is a double-edged sword.   It can also fester doubt and fear and most athletes, including tennis players, suffer from these diseases.  It is almost impossible to play from a centeredness and ‘relaxed intensity’ when our motivations are fear-based.  

Silence will fall onto a mind that has realized that “all that glitters is not gold”.  The attraction to things that build or enhance our ego will only fall away when we can see the ego for what it is, a mere shadow, but not the real thing.  Until that happens, the mind will remain active in order to devise ways to achieve and become in the misguided belief that these things have value.

This experience of silence has long been associated with peak performance in sports.  In studies of professional athletes who have experienced “the zone”, that state of being where peak performance happens, mention is continuously made of an effortlessness, of an almost unconsciousness, which ironically arises through an increased awareness.  Many athletes have spoken of how the ball slows down and appears to move in slow motion.  This happens at times when we are really “watching” the ball, with a completely silent mind.  When that happens we are in the zone.  It is not that the ball slows down, but that the activity of the mind, which blurs our ability to ‘see’, appears to speed up the ball.  In reality, the ball neither speeds up, nor slows down.  The ball is a constant, the variable is the player and more specifically the player’s mind, which creates both illusions. 

Most unforced errors in tennis are, in my experience, mental errors, especially among advanced players.  When the mind is active we cannot be in the present, when we are not in the present it is extremely difficult to make clean contact with the ball.  Those players who think before points and after points, must, during points become silent.  It is in silence that we play our best tennis because it is only in silence that we can truly ‘see’ the ball and how can we play our best if we cannot ‘see’ the ball.