Sensei Tennis

Tradition and history place martial arts as one of the oldest forms of competition and sport, spanning a course of thousands of years. Tennis, thought of by many as a sport rich in tradition, compared to martial arts is a baby in swaddling clothes. While martial arts has over 2,000 years experience, Wimbledon the world’s most tradition based and revered tennis championship, is less than 150 years old! Tennis and other sports have much to learn from evolved and established martial arts principles including biomechanics, psychology, and ethics. Revered, respected, and honored, the principles of martial arts are time tested, true and biomechanically correct. With thousands of years of tradition and experience, the test of time has culled the weak and the wrong. Like wheat from the chaff, the test of time has winnowed the right from the wrong. Developed through self-defense and war, the incorrect sensei’s wrong martial arts methods and techniques died, often in battle, with him and his followers, survived by the right and the true. Developing and emanating from the east, Asia, martial arts carries a mystical almost magical allure, an exotic sense, particularly for those from the west brought up on the so-called “traditional” sports of baseball, basketball, tennis, golf and football. For the uninitiated, the ability of masters to perform seemingly magical acts of breaking concrete blocks and slabs of wood with bare hands and feet are unbelievable, even when directly observed. Many think that there is some magical, transcendental trick to performing these acts, when in fact it is all about the right attitude, concentration, and the natural laws of physics. Marrying martial arts and Eastern philosophy, one looks to Asian principles of natural law, the forces that rules everyone’s body and mind. When referring to the body and physical forces, this Asian natural law is physics, pure and simple. We all as reasonably intelligent people trust physics throughout our normal lives. For instance, when flying in an airplane, we trust our lives to the physics of aerodynamics. When in a tall building, we naturally trust our lives to the physics of structural engineering. So what happens when we as reasonably intelligent people play tennis, a mere game? We ignore physics! Let’s instead use the common sense and trust we use in our lives throughout each day to play a mere game. Trust in physics to improve and perform better. While one, remembering one’s first Westernized physics class, will picture Newton under the apple tree and a vague memory of formulas quantifying the forces of nature and physics, the traditional Asian martial arts perspective provides a different view of the same forces. From the traditional Asian martial arts view, rather than talking about angular or linear momentum, one refers to Yin, Yan, and Ki. No matter which martial art you study, the same fundamentals exist. Whether you are in Japan studying judo, aikido, karate, or jujitsu; in China practicing tai chi, kung fu, or wing chun; in Korea learning taekwondo, or in the Philippines taking on arnis and kali, the same fundamentals apply. We call these the lowest common denominators. In fact, these are the lowest common denominators for almost all sports, for almost all physical activity, and for almost all performance. Whether this is open to argument as applying to all sports, the lowest common denominator fundamentals common to all martial arts definitely apply to tennis. So what are these fundamentals? The typical and traditional western athlete and coach first look to the physical, with secondary regard and sometimes willful ignorance of the non-physical “intangibles”. Not so with martial arts. Martial arts fundamentals include and involve all aspects of being; the spiritual, mental, emotional, and of course the physical. Your mind is your best weapon. Most athletes and coaches start by emphasizing and accentuating the physical, and then, perhaps on a rainy day, if at all, supplement physical training with psychological, mental, and emotional readiness. Particularly in the west, many see the spiritual, mental, and emotional foci and emphases as relatively irrelevant concerns to day-to-day training. Whether they admit it or not, many mistakenly consider these aspects as inherently fixed in the person, not subject to development or change. Consequently, they miss out on vital areas of development and performance. Martial arts dramatically bear out the mind’s importance. Thousands of years of development show that the spirit, mind, and emotions are as essential to develop as the body and physical techniques. Therefore, the following fundamentals differ from what some may expect. The fundamentals of martial arts, tennis, and for that matter, athletic achievement involves much, much more than mere physical mastery. In fact, the “intangibles” are fundamental to mastery, just as fundamental as the physical. Without mastering each fundamental, whether intangible or physical, the athlete will fail to master his craft, whether in martial arts or otherwise. FUNDAMENTALS 1. Growth and Learning Mindset; 2. Discipline and Purposeful Practice; 3. Attitude, Confidence and Fearlessness; 4. Concentration and Staying in the Present; 5. Calmness and Relaxation; 6. Yin and Yan: Flow and Force: 7. Breathing: 8. Connectedness: The Mind and Body as One; 9. Simplicity; 10. Anticipation, Perception, and Reaction- Readiness for the Greatest Threat 11. Footwork, Balance and Set up; 12. Ground Force/Earth Power and the Kinetic Chain • Legs and Hips • Core • Upper Torso and Shoulders • Head • Arms and Hands 13. Rotation and Striking • Angular Momentum • Strike through the Target 14. Strategy and Tactics • Take Your Opponent Off Balance • Distraction • Don’t Fight Force with Force: Go with the Flow • Vary Your Attack These fundamentals or lowest common denominators include the mental and emotional as well as the physical. Frankly, once you condition and tune your body to master techniques and tactics, it is the mental and emotional which make the difference. The challenges with westernized style training are that techniques and tactics are developed often to the exclusion of the mental and emotional. To perform optimally, the athlete needs to develop everything.