By Mark Rearden, West Lake Country Club | July 1, 2020
How many of you have seen the movie Dead Poets Society? Yeah, it’s a dated film, and the title is more than a little weak. It caused me to pass it up many times over for other choices with better titles. When I was finally bored and desperate enough for something new, I watched it and was pleasantly surprised. The movie is about a group of teenage boys growing up in an affluent boarding school in the northeast. It focuses on their trials and tribulations and how they eventually form a group at school called the dead poets society. At this school a particularly engaging English teacher played by Robin Williams introduces them to the Latin phrase carpe diem. It actually becomes their signature phrase, or battle cry, if you will.
While giving a lesson to one of our aspiring juniors recently I realized that this carpe diem thing, this seize the day, had a tremendous application for tennis. Everyone knows there are times when we seem to catch on a little faster than others. In the world of tennis, it may be the timing seems easier, the concepts make perfectly good sense and in general it is much more fun and less like work. Now understand this goes beyond the short term situation of having a good day or bad day. This is more about how your tennis might look over the course of a year. If one were to graph their play over 365 days it would likely show areas of negative improvement (downward trend), a larger area where the play remained the same (horizontal line), and a period of positive improvement (upward trend). It is during those periods of sustained climbs (upward trends) when we must seize the day, when we must capitalize on our opportunities.
You may wonder if I have gone off the reservation here because if someone is seeing improvement they must already be seizing the day. But this is not necessarily true. Often times players will just bask in the glow of their improvement rather than using this timeframe to take it to a new level. The point here is this is the best time to practice your brains out. During these times we are veritable sponges when it comes to soaking up new ideas and learning new shots. If you step up your practice routine during this period, I believe you will see something more akin to a quantum leap forward rather than mere improvement.
Moms have instinctively known this forever. As soon as they see their infant child doing something that appears to be a developmental improvement like tracking with their eyes, trying to roll over, or take those first steps, they immediately provide continued stimulation to get that going as quickly as possible. For us we often need a bit of prodding from a teacher, parent, or coach. But ultimately the onus is on us.
Watch closely for that window of opportunity. Those times will reveal themselves if we are paying attention at all. Whatever the task or skill, we all can recognize those instances when things seem easier than before and we are enjoying more success. During those times most of us are thankful, but this time prove that you are thankful and do a little more to take it down the road a bit farther. Mark My Words and make this moment a day to carpe diem.