Rudyard Kipling
If
If you can keep your head when all about you If you can dream - and not make dreams your master; If you can make one heap of all your winnings If you can talk with crowds and keep your virtue, |
Few places on Earth demand & command the level of tradition maintained within the Wimbledon grass court realm of the The All England Lawn Tennis and Croquet Club.
The Club's finely manicured grounds are precisely situated on Church Road, Merton, London SW19 5, United Kingdom. The venerable venue becomes a showcase for the spirit of individual achievement when the Isle of Great Britain hosts their yearly, early summer, grass court, Grand Slam Tennis Tournament @ Wimbledon.
Legendary dedication & discipline are required in order to emerge victorious as a Wimbledon Champion after the trials presented during this famous fortnight. The will to win is cultivated and inculcated with great zeal in the rarefied air on Wynnman's Hill.
As may be expected, The Lawn Tennis Association @ Wimbledon prefers that their tournament participants be well-rounded chaps. At those hallowed grounds of tennis nestled in suburban London, the players are not only expected to "know how to be good-winners" -- at the same time, Wimbledon players are also expected to master the rapidly disappearing art of being a good-loser.
Why is it to your advantage to be a good-loser? The crux of the matter appears to lie in the mind's eye . This ethereally based mental function is active during the creation & the execution of the strategies, the tactics and the logistics employed in conflict resolution. None the less, as it seems to be with most generalizations, the devil is in the details.
Grace under pressure is part of the Wimbledon pedigree. The ability to carry on during gut-wrenching adversity is a national trait in the UK. The idea is to retreat, to reinforce and to comeback. Part of the “comeback” process is to garner heroic resolve to stage a reversal of fortune. The quest may begin with “keeping a stiff upper lip", as the speakers of the English language say, and it may end with what the Irish mean by a “little bit of luck”.
Adversity at Wimbledon is not always the logical outcome of a linear, quid pro quo cause & effect sequence. Sometimes adversity seems to fall from out of the blue.
For no apparent reason, the tennis player's timing is suddenly off. It becomes harder to get first serves in, and aces refuse to fall. The backhand stroke that served you so well just moments ago has now become an awkward exercise in hitting the ball long or wide.
During times such as these, it may seem as if the “the sky is falling” as unforced errors become inevitable. During these mind-bending phases, the momentum of the tennis match swings like a pendulum . During these trying times, tennis players are prone to “lose their heads”.
Losing your Head @ Wimbledon can be like falling down the rabbit hole in a Lewis Carroll fantasy world. Your overall point of view is dream-like. Everything seems somewhat askew with things moving slightly slower or a bit quicker than the normal pace. You seem to be not quite in tune to what is transpiring, and it appears you cannot immediately overcome the flow of adversity. The dilemma is aptly described in the words of the American Patriot, Thomas Paine, "These are the times that try men's souls."
This quandary
provides an opportune time to bolster your mettle. Time to see what you are made of as you dig deep within you. The battle you are waging, becomes a conflict between individual free will versus a destiny driven by adversity. As your options dwindle, you are forced to listen to that part of your psyche that usually gives you "pie in the sky" advice. The part of you which is called the voice inside your head .Manifesting the will to go beyond previous limits is offered by your inner voice as a solution. There is a catch, you may have to hold on and strive for a while before the opportunity to fight the good fight materializes.
As circumstances spiral out of control, the player becomes out of sorts with his muscle memory. Uncharacteristic errors become common place. Over and over, for extended periods of tennis match time, everything goes wrong. As the points mount against you, your only chance is to get your head together, ponder a cliché or two, and think of something to do.
“Stiff upper lip”, yes ... that is easy enough to fathom. Or even better, try to keep your head and remember that great poem by Kipling,
"If you can force your heart and nerve and sinew
To serve your turn long after they are gone,
And so hold on when there is nothing in you
Except the Will which says to them: "Hold on";
We have plenty of advice on how to handle the overwhelming tough times, but how do we handle the overwhelming good times?
Kipling's advice is valued at Wimbledon, and two of If's lines are mounted in metal letters on the wall of the players centre court entrance.
This year at Wimbledon we found out that along with the risk of random failure, there is also the other side of the coin in the form of opportunity for random success.
What happens when everything goes right for both tennis players simultaneously?
What happens when this random windfall of good fortune keeps going for a very long time?
On Tuesday, June 22, 2010 the schedule on Court 18 had a relatively unremarkable match-up between 21st ranked, 28 year old American, John Isner versus the unranked, 26 year old, Belgian, Nicolas Mahut. The match was conservatively scheduled to take around 4 hours. Those first four hours would pass quite quickly and the first day’s play on the unlit tennis court would be called for darkness at 9:09 PM local Wimbledon time.
When play began again on the next day, Wednesday, June 23 the conclusion of the Mahut vs Isner match was conservatively scheduled to take around two hours. The first two hours of the resumed-play match would pass quite quickly. A few hours later, the tennis chronicles were rewritten with the fifth set knotted in a tie at 59-59 after playing 118 games. Because of the lack of outdoor lighting on the outlying Court 18, the match would be halted due to darkness for a second time in as many days.
At that monumental moment in tennis highlights, many records had been shattered for Singles match play including: time played, games played, aces served, games won, & points scored. The match would end on the third day after 19 additional games culminated in Isner breaking Mahut’s serve to win the deciding, 5th set by the necessary two-game margin, posting a historic 70 to 68 tally of 138 games played in a single set.
During that three-day, grass court, epic encounter, Nicolas Mahut’s trim, well-trained physique served him well. Mustering the mental energy needed to maintain focus was no small task. The random numbering of the games left Mahut with the unenviable job of serving under the threat of elimination an astounding, 65 times during the 11 hour struggle.
Mahut had to face the brink of defeat over and over. Except for one fatal time (except for the fatal 138th game) Nicolas Mahut answered the call. On the other side of the net, Isner was also answering the call over and over again. As luck would have it, the 6 foot 9 inch Isner would answer the call successfully one more time than Mahut, and as a result Isner would emerge the winner.
A gracious John Isner seemed to enjoy the post-match press barrage. When asked, "How he felt?", the victorious, lanky, American smiled as he replied, “A little tired …”.
The intrepid BBC interviewer carried on as he asked Isner, “What was going on in your mind as the unprecedented totals mounted, as the statistics for games played during the 5th sets skyrocketed?” Isner replied that at first he, "was just trying to stay in the moment".
Long John Isner elaborated a bit by noting that if things got too intense or rushed, "he would try to slow down by taking the time to ask the ball person for the towel".
Isner would use the towel to wipe the sweat from his brow, use the allotted time between points to take a moment to clear his head, and use mental gymnastics to systematically force his focus back on the point being played.
Sometimes it is as hard to live with prolonged, random success as it is to live with prolonged, random failure. Keeping your head during extraordinary circumstances requires an internal equanimity that is nutured by life's experiential interaction .
We become mature through a process enhanced by both opportunity and adversity. The sought after characteristic is founded in a "selective moderation" that is neither hindered by an unfounded fear of failure nor coveted by of a over-estimated promise of success.
As it is phrased by the poet's words that are installed across the storied entrance leading to grass court drama @ Wimbledon, it is easier to keep your head clear ,
"If you can meet with triumph and disaster
And treat those two imposters just the same;"
When things get weird it always helps to keep the extremes in perspective. If you remain strong internally, you can fight to your limit and beyond. Before long you realize the advantage of not losing your head at the drop of hat.
This strategy takes patience to execute, but it is worth it, "if you can wait and not be tired by waiting ..."
by A. D. Camerone 6/29/10
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