Useless Nationality

ATP Website Markets Nishikori as First Asian to Qualify for Season Finale

Why does nationality or race play into anything tennis anymore? Why does this interest anyone? Why is it that in every Olympics, there is a delineation of countries if a huge percentage of non US athletes are trained in the US and hone their skills with US coaches? Haven’t we evolved past these geographical lines yet? Another case in point is the World Cup. If soccer players are able to choose between two or three nations they are able to represent, why is there any drama in which country is has the best soccer team? If the ATP feels the need to include nationality, they should list all of the coaching staff and paid personnel and their respective countries. This would help with any delusions of nationality.
I will end with this Nishikori quote: "I live in the US. I don’t hear much news from Japan, so I just try and play good tennis and don’t think too much. I will try and enjoy the moment.”

Winning and Losing VS Improving

Tennis is a very tough sport. There are so many things you have to master and so many different skills to acquire just to be a little proficient that it’s very easy to get discouraged and very easy to develop bad habits. Most of us don’t take the time to learn the right technique so we make adjustments and compensate to get the ball in. Building your tennis game is analogous to building a skyscraper. You need a very solid foundation to build multiple stories, similarly you need to have mastered the fundamental techniques in tennis to keep improving and not limit yourself and your potential.

Starting competition too early, before you have acquired the solid foundation of fundamental skills, will exacerbate this tendency to cut corners and compensate for bad technique because for most of us,  our competitive nature  wants to win more than get better. The only way to overcome this problem with competition is to not care if you win or lose. If you commit yourself to the journey of getting better, and take winning and losing as byproducts of this journey, you can both have fun, and improve your game. Playing above your level all the time and wanting to graduate too early will give you the same result as competing too early. It’s much easier to do the right things at the beginning and take your time than to try and clean up your mistakes later. If you do have bad technique it isn’t the end of the world. Although it’s hard to break bad habits, they can be broken and you can learn to play with the right technique. It’s a great investment that will pay dividends to your body, enjoyment of the game, and maximizing the potential for improvement.