Recommended preface to "Competition Starts from the Heart": Practical drills are the only way to truly learn

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When you think of tennis, what comes to your mind? Is it blue sky, red clay and youthful tennis skirts? Or the “Swiss Express” Roger Federer versus the “Spanish Bull” Rafael Nadal? Or is it the epic battle between former Swedish golf champion Bjorn Borg and American master John McEnroe, which has been rated as a classic battle in history?

It is true that Tennis has different meanings to many people. Some friends may have played it since 1989 [Zhang Depei](https ://zh.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E5%BC%B5%E5%BE%B7%E5%9F%B9) won the French Open championship at the age of 17 years and 3 months, thus beginning to have a better understanding of this sport. For me, tennis also has a unique meaning. I still remember when I was in college, I took a semester of tennis class. At that time, I always had some troubles when practicing holding and swinging the racket—even though the postures were in accordance with the coach’s instructions, I always couldn’t grasp the key points, and I couldn’t even touch the ball? Or else, you see the ball coming from a distance, but you can’t keep up with your steps?

再次阅读《比赛，从心开始》这本书的时候，仿佛时光倒流，又回到了大学时代。 The memories of that time were still vivid in my mind, and it was then that I suddenly realized why the coach, who seemed to be a very nice person, was serious but serious. He only explained some precautions for playing tennis at the beginning, but in the next few classes he urged us college students to get off the court and practice.

I’m still impressed to this day. Many people couldn’t connect and serve at the beginning and could only chase the ball all over the court. But something interesting happened. After several practical exercises, everyone gradually became good at it! During the final exam, even when faced with a powerful shot from the coach, many students were able to step forward calmly and elegantly and directly hit back with a backhand shot.

Looking back now, the coach’s approach at that time was actually consistent with the author [Timothy. The “direct drill” advocated by Timothy Gallwey can be said to be exactly the same, and the teaching principles are also consistent with each other. There is actually no profound principle behind this model of replacing traditional classroom lectures with actual drills. It is just that through repeated movements, learners can understand the rhythm of swings and the real feeling of contact between the ball and the racket through focused observation on the sidelines and actual drills on the court.

The author also mentioned in the book that when teaching, whether a tennis coach or teacher is teaching, never rely too much on oral communication and explanations. If you try to explain every detail step clearly, you will usually get the opposite effect. At this time, you should change the course, abandon the traditional teaching model, and use direct drills to show the students - Just imagine, when we carefully break down a continuous movement such as running, netting, and swinging the racket, and replay the demonstration scene we saw in our minds, we will deliberately order our limbs to imitate according to the past impression. There is no doubt that this is the best learning strategy.

The current corporate world attaches great importance to coaching (Coaching). In fact, this concept has its origins. As you might guess, it originated from the sports world. He has written “Competition starts from the heart”, “[The inner game of skiing]( Timothy. Gallwey (Timothy Gallwey) is very good at discerning people’s hearts. He pointed out a key point, that is, there are two me inside everyone. The first me is the one who likes to give orders, while the second me is the one who really does things.

The author tells us that in every player, the relationship between “Self 1” and “Self 2” is the key to determining whether he can transform his knowledge into abilities. In other words, if we want to improve learning efficiency, we must first strike a balance between these two selves.

Great coaches can unlock people’s potential and allow them to perform at their best. Just like the American professional basketball coach Phil. Jackson (Philip Douglas Jackson), has successfully led the Chicago Bulls and Los Angeles Lakers to win multiple NBA championships. He is good at reorganizing things, not only changing the general practice method, but also asking players to turn off the lights and scrimmage. The teaching method he is proud of is to use practical experience instead of endless lectures, and let everyone practice in the dark, relying only on skilled body movements and tacit understanding between teammates to break through obstacles.

Speaking of “The game starts from the heart” (The Inner Game of Tennis) is a great book that I may be older than many of my readers. I have always read it with great respect. Because, as a lecturer and corporate consultant, I sometimes have to play the role of a coach. Therefore, I often read this book, and the author never disappoints me. Every time I read it, it always brings me some new guidance and direction.

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Further reading

• “Compound Interest Thinking: Make Small Changes Become Big Changes, Use Compound Interest to Improve the Long-term Effect of Life Profits” Recommended Preface: Wake up every day and be smarter than yesterday
• Recommended Preface to “Simon Learning Method”: Learn to be old, live to be old
• Recommended Preface to the Second Brain: Embrace the AI era, start by utilizing the second brain

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