Finding the win in the loss

 

When I was in my forties, I was active in a local tennis club—Thursday night drills, league games, and even a regional tournament. One day the club’s tennis pro offered me a match with a girl he had been coaching. The girl was ten. He told me she was a true phenom, and nationally seeded, so I was apprehensive, but he said it would be "good experience" for me. I would soon learn just how much topspin he had put on that enticement ball.

Match day came. I quickly saw that the phenom was a baseline player. I’d been in so many drills on net play, I figured I could easily rush the net. I never made it to the net though. She steadily pummeled every return just inside my baseline. From there, I could see only the top of her head, which unnerved me as well. Game. Set. Match. She beat me 6-0, 6-0 in no time flat. Now she had made her drills pay off!

Afterward, the pro jumped up and down with excitement that I had gotten one point off her. He’d been setting her up to play a lot of the club’s habitués, and to that time, I was the only player who had gotten even one point in any game. Never mind that the pro probably humiliated all of us to better his protégée. Never mind I’d hoped his promised “good experience” would involve more varied challenges. Getting so soundly humbled was indeed good experience. It taught me that winning requires more disciplined training than just Thursday night drills. And if nothing else, it taught me to ask more questions when someone promises a “good experience.”