Tony Roth is a graduate of Queen's University Kingston, Ontariowhere he obtained an M.A. in Philosophy, in addition to his two undergraduate degrees. He has been teaching tennis full-time since 1992. Tony's Background as a national level junior and adult player, the success of his students, and his many years of study through the Tennis Canada certification system, where he achieved the Coach 4 Level, led to his work as a Provincial and National Touring Coach. In 2003 he founded the Noble Tennis School. It is headquartered at the Ottawa Athletic Club, where he is the Tennis Director. Tony was named “Coach of the Year” in 2005 by the Tennis Professionals Association of Canada, and received a Coaching Excellence award in 2006 from Tennis Canada.

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About Nobel Tennis “The time has come to reclaim sport from shallow, short-sighted influences, and to restore its sense of meaning and purpose. That’s what this book is about.” Noble Tennis: The Wisdom of Sport introduces philosophy as the missing, key ingredient in the realm of athletics. A humanistic philosophy leads to nobleness as the natural urge to play becomes a source of life-enhancing qualities. Noble Tennis: The Wisdom of Sport is a sane reminder of the joy of enthusiasm, the pure love of the game, from which the great qualities of serenity, patience, concentration and fearlessness flow. In the book, each of these qualities is explored and, with the help of the many "Try This!" suggestions, the benefits of implementing them revealed. These benefits apply equally on and off the court. Players find that the qualities are transferable to all of life, and playing “in the zone” is easy when the noble qualities are expressed.

 

 

Price: $19.95
Pages: 200
Size: 6" x 9 Quality
Paperback ISBN: 0-9688139-0-9

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Noble Tennis: The Wisdom of Sport Excerpts
 

Chapter 1
The task of the Athlete.
The keynote of sport is harmony. What does this mean? Simply, it means the task of the athlete is to unify or bring together various qualities and actions. This applies in the technical and physical sense: power must be united with finesse, and dynamic speed with composed balance. It also applies in the psychological sense. The most important thing is to combine enthusiasm and serenity, or calmness. So let us examine these crucial attributes, beginning with enthusiasm.

A Confucian credo.
It was said of Confucius, the great Eastern sage, that he never accepted a student who wasn’t literally “bubbling over” with enthusiasm. That was a great piece of wisdom. Enthusiasm is the first key to greatness.

Defining Enthusiasm

A centrifugal dynamo.
Technically speaking, enthusiasm can be defined as an outgoing or centrifugal energy. Enthusiasm breeds motion; it proceeds towards the object of interest; it advances relentlessly!

It’s everywhere
There are countless expressions of enthusiasm, ranging all the way from simple curiosity to contrived ambitions and fantasies. Indeed, where there is life, there is also enthusiasm. However, the intensity and quality of that enthusiasm covers an immense range. In its purest and most beneficial form, enthusiasm is expressed as innocent or natural love. The player who truly “loves the game” is attracted to it in the same way that iron filings are attracted to a magnet - spontaneously, naturally and powerfully. If this initial attraction is followed, if we let it move us, then we are swept into a current of striving and learning that is completely beneficial....Top

The Enthusiast

The “nature” of enthusiasm.
Pure, natural enthusiasm can’t be artificially generated. You can’t whip it up through ambition, with its accompanying emotions and images of grandeur. Enthusiasm is there; it’s within you. It brings with it a sense of lightness, intelligent flow and rhythm. You cannot create enthusiasm, any more than you can create life. What you can do is recognize it, affirm it, participate in it, cooperate with it, enhance it, and, in general, honor it.

Enthusiasm repels tyranny!
Usually, enthusiasts have no concept of themselves as enthusiastic. When you stop and say, “I am enthusiastic, and I will stay this way,” the enthusiasm becomes something you want to possess and repeat. You try to dominate and package enthusiasm, making it the servant of your “goals”; you have an ambition to be enthusiastic, an image of yourself that you try to manipulate into existence. In this there is the fear of failure, and enthusiasm loses its purity; the flow is interrupted, and everything becomes a struggle, rather than an adventure. The wise athlete learns that life-enthusiasm contains an intelligence, a capacity for guidance along life-enhancing lines, that far outstrips that of our little, calculating, manipulating self. In the flow of enthusiasm, our potential and our destiny naturally unfold. Thus, the enthusiast is the enthusiasm. Our responsibility is to notice and reject that which negates enthusiasm. The enthusiasm itself cannot be coerced into existence.

The flow of enthusiasm.
The athlete who truly loves their sport doesn’t feel the need to prop up their attraction with artificial goals and ambitions. Results and achievements are effects of the quality and consistency of our actions. Such quality and consistency is guaranteed by the accumulations of experience and knowledge that enthusiasm always brings about. When the simplicity of love is combined with grasping, personal desires, enthusiasm is expressed in the form of ambition, greed and “competitiveness.” Now apart from their dubious stature as virtues, these modifications of enthusiasm are inherently dangerous. Each of them is based in the sentiment called “I want.” This, in turn, carries the possibility of failure (i.e. I wanted, but I didn’t get). This possibility of failure produces fear, and fear is the great breeder of misery, misbehaviour and, ironically, failure. Thus, we must maintain the purity of our enthusiasm, and simple love must be the only thing that motivates our actions. Play and teach within the flow of joyous enthusiasm, thereby banishing fear. All the rest will follow. This paragraph, if pondered and applied, contains a revolution....Top

Try This!
When scouting, look for people who are preoccupied with their sport in the absence of any coercion or outward incentives. For instance, the young tennis player: when faced with a choice, do they watch tennis? When all the courts at the club are booked, do they sneak into a squash court and play? Do they hit against the wall? Do they read tennis books and magazines? These are important indicators, which should be considered by parents as well as coaches. We must learn the difference between fleeting curiosity and deep enthusiasm.

Impure enthusiasm.
When actions are spurred on by fear we can call it “impure enthusiasm.” Indeed, the heated efforts that follow on the heels of ambition and greed serve to pervert the athletic endeavor. Under the influence of fear, sport takes to itself a savage and brutal tone. Thus, I protest against the glorification of the adrenal glands within the realm of sport! As if tennis bears any relation to issues of physical survival! The keynotes of sport, as a noble enterprise, are beauty, grace, power and harmony; love, not fear, is its motivating impulse, and the instincts that relate to brute survival are lost in the light of human striving and artistic expression.

Try This!
Beware of the many pitfalls that can sap the purity of enthusiasm. At tournaments, for instance, stand aloof from the incessant speculation over results, rankings, etc. The sport is the source of joy, and the aim is to participate fully in the playing. Everything else is secondary, and follows naturally from this innocent absorption.

The noble amateur.
The pure enthusiast is a proponent of the amateur approach to sport. The word amateur comes from the Latin roots “amator” - lover, and “amare” - love. Thus, anyone who isn’t an amateur is playing, or coaching, for something other than love. This is both unwholesome and inefficient, not to mention irrational! Does this mean that money and rankings, and everything associated with professional sport should be abandoned, or abolished? No, not necessarily. Amateurism is essentially a state of mind, or a condition of being. A committed amateur, or a pure enthusiast, can regard money, for instance, as an incidental effect of their love and striving, and they will receive it in this spirit. The problem, of course, is when money replaces love as the motivating impulse for the activity, and this seems to happen almost all the time. Yes, the purity of enthusiasm can be maintained, but how often is it?...

Try This!
Avoid the temptation to consider athletics as an “investment” – that is, something from which some material or status-related benefit will come. These things may occur, but when these motivations replace enthusiasm, the situation is destructive and unwholesome. Parents, do you really wish to think of your children as corporations, and you a share-holder? Do you want to drive your child, like investors drive corporations, to seek material profit at any cost, knowing that ‘failure’ will result in withdrawn support? Are you content being a fear-monger? Psychological well-being is the top priority. All the rest follows. Look for pure enthusiasm, and work with it. Applying this hint may require some inward de-programming. Observe your thoughts, words and deeds, and substitute vital, joyous enthusiasm for grasping, smothering desires.

Effects of Enthusiasm

Commitment
Commitment, or sustained attention and striving, is a natural effect of enthusiasm; and pure commitment is very powerful. As W.H. Murray says,

The moment one definitely commits oneself, then providence moves too. All sorts of things occur to help one
that would otherwise never have occurred. A whole stream of events issue from the decision, raising in one’s favor all manner of unforeseen incidents and meetings and material assistance, which no man could have dreamt would come his way. I have learned a deep respect for one of Goethe’s couplets: Whatever you can do, or dream you can, begin it. Boldness has genius, power and magic in it.

The validity of these statements has been a part of my own experience. Pure enthusiasm contains a mysterious intelligence, and phrases like “a current of striving and learning” aren’t just metaphorical, or poetic; they are factual.

Energy, attention and “heroism.
The psychological and physiological effects of pure enthusiasm are quite astonishing. It’s like being connected to a source of energy that’s literally inexhaustible. We become a force of nature, rather than something separated from nature and trying desperately to “make things happen.” For instance, with enthusiasm attention is complete. There is no conflict between focusing on particular things and being aware of the greater environment. At the same time, the energy systems of the body seem purified, especially the cardio-vascular. Indeed, I’ve noticed that my degree of “physical fitness” alters radically according to the degree and purity of enthusiasm. Inexplicable feats of heroism, like mothers lifting giant trees off their children, or people running for miles in an emergency, are explained by enthusiasm, or complete attention. It’s not a miracle, but an extension of perfectly natural capacities. The person who lives their life in enthusiasm is living a heroic life, a life that is a demonstration of human potential. Sport explores this potential, and the feats that can be achieved when it’s realized.

Rhythm.
Rhythm is the fundamental aspect of the zone on the physical level. Enthusiasm is synonymous with movement, energy, and when that enthusiasm is pure the Intelligence of nature makes it rhythmic. From within rhythm we can create tempos, beats, and we can also respond with balance to changes in tempo and beat.

Everywhere in the natural world we observe rhythm. We see it in the four seasons, the rising and setting of the sun, the migration of the birds, the hibernation and awakening of the bear, the rhythmic beating of the heart, the inflow and outflow of the breath. Rhythm is the basis of life. Thus, wise athletes and coaches place their emphasis on rhythm. We see this in the way people prepare to play: the tennis player bounces the ball before serving, the batter undergoes the same routine when preparing to receive a pitch, the diver breathes as they stand on the platform. These preparatory affirmations of rhythm create the proper environment for the dynamic activity that follows. In some sports, like tennis, the rhythm and tempo can change with each ball, while, in others, such as long-distance swimming or running, a consistent tempo is the crucial thing, but in every case the sense of rhythm is the very essence of the activity, and pure enthusiasm is the foundation of this beautiful possibility. Thus, when we speak about enthusiasm as a fundamental energy, we aren’t lost in a world of abstractions; on the contrary, we’re discussing the shortest, most natural path to efficiency and effectiveness.

Try This!
Think and speak in terms of pure enthusiasm and rhythm. To quietly affirm the strength and rhythm of a heartbeat, or the flow of natural breathing, is to dissolve feelings of confusion and trepidation. There is no chaos there, and from within that space we can proceed naturally, purely, happily. Try it and see. Work with athletes to establish natural rhythms in both athletic and non-athletic settings. Sporadic patterns of sleep, for instance, will prove detrimental. Special emphasis should be placed on the natural rhythms before and, where applicable, between athletic exertions. Everything that enhances the feeling of natural rhythm is good, and there are many athletes who would benefit greatly from dance lessons, as also by hearing harmonious music. Think everywhere of rhythm – in eating, sleeping, playing. Pure enthusiasm leads to rhythm, and rhythm leads to everything else.

Concentration.
Enthusiasm is the first key to concentration. True, natural, pure concentration is an effect of enthusiasm. This makes perfect sense, for we pay close attention when we are deeply interested. Your favorite television show is your favorite because you feel a great enthusiasm for it. When you watch that show, do you “try” to concentrate? No, you don’t need to try, because the enthusiasm makes the concentration natural and effortless. Thus, if you find that concentration is an effort, or a struggle, you should begin by addressing your enthusiasm for the object of attention.

The greatest liberation.
Legend says that when a potential student asked Sir Lancelot, the great knight of the King Arthur story, how he could become a master swordsman, Lancelot listed three requirements. First, you must train very hard; second, you must be able to focus; and third, you must not care whether you live or die. Upon hearing the last requirement the neophyte’s chin dropped, and he walked away.

The pure enthusiast knows the freedom that comes when we are not preoccupied with results. This will sound absurd to many people, but it only shows the huge difference between a qualitative and a quantitative approach to sport and life. The competitor thinks that without his “eye of the tiger” he would sink into laziness. He cannot imagine life without his neuroses. He does not recognize that life itself is striving and the will to blossom. In the natural world we observe great activity, yet there is no “ambition,” no notion of “reward,” “success,” or “failure.” So why does anything do anything? What impels the flower to grow, the bird to migrate, the penguin to care for its young? Life - life itself is motion, enthusiasm, and life is very successful, very intelligent, very beautiful. Thus, the enthusiast observes results, he learns from them, he lives and plays with great intensity, great interest, but he is free from fear. If you’ve ever played in “the zone” then you know exactly what this is like. The freedom from competitiveness is the greatest liberation. This is a grand secret of wisdom, which always directs us to a natural, dynamic life.

The Enthusiastic Coach

The first responsibility.
So far we’ve seen that enthusiasm is crucial for the player. However, it’s also the foundation of good coaching. Indeed, the first responsibility of the coach is to recognize, evoke and nurture the enthusiasm of the student.

Try This!
Observe enthusiasm levels. These levels are revealed by the overall atmosphere or “aura” of the player, plus posture, facial expression, speed of movement, etc. I sometimes ask students (usually at the beginning of a lesson) to rate their degree of enthusiasm between zero and ten. If it’s less than ten, I ask why, and we don’t proceed until the issue is resolved. The resolution may require a discussion, whose aim is to re-kindle inspiration by reminding the student of their love for the game; it may mean canceling a practice, especially if the cause of the depressed energy is fatigue or illness; it may mean doing a favorite drill, one that releases the player into the flow of enthusiasm: If enthusiasm is lacking over a period of time, look to causes, which can range from lack of sleep to fear over results, and see if these can be addressed. Sometimes, a break from the game will be required. This should be considered part of training, since the maintenance of enthusiasm is the precondition of effective training.

The best method.
The best way to encourage and support enthusiasm is to embody and convey it. The enthusiastic coach will radiate a quality that speaks of great energy, and great possibilities. It’s true that a coach cannot supply an athlete with enthusiasm, but if the coach feels it in the depths of their being, if it emanates from who they are, then they will inevitably call forth this great energy, wherever it lies latent.

Seriousness and fun the connection?
Pure enthusiasm shouldn’t be confused with a “bubbly” personality. Enthusiasm isn’t a behavioural tool, a pasted smile, a manipulation. No, true enthusiasm comes straight from the heart, and is totally compatible with focus, or seriousness. Indeed, truly enthusiastic coaches and athletes, who are drawn to their sport like a bee to a flower, find that seriousness, or total interest and absorption, is happiness itself. This ability to combine or unify seriousness and happiness is part of the wisdom of sport. Athletes will get nowhere without discipline and effort, but these musn’t be a source of resentment. On the contrary, it is best when they are seen and felt as enjoyable and uplifting. Only pure enthusiasm can produce this beneficial state of affairs. Thus, coaches must equally avoid the pitfalls of aimless “fooling around” and joyless “drilling.”

Try This!
Seek for the third option that overcomes both “fooling around” and “drilling.” Begin by seeking the proper attitude as you prepare to coach. Before addressing your athletes take a moment to look at and think of them as human beings, as miracles of nature with a vast potential. Can you feel the warmth and broadness of this understanding? Your students will pick it up subconsciously. Feel the responsibility that comes with influencing the growth and development of your fellows, and then proceed. You will demonstrate a synthesis of seriousness and lightness. You are serious about the work of developing human potential and passionate about the medium you have chosen, but you are also good natured. Your students will experience you as one who is more mature than they, detached and dignified and knowing, but also as a warm friend they can trust. This is the natural relation between teacher and student.

Striving versus Stress.
How can we tell if an athlete is being motivated by pure or impure enthusiasm? This is something that coaches and parents will learn as they become immersed in the qualitative approach, and as they apply it to themselves. You will sense the difference, just as you can tell a sweet smell from a sour one. When we smell we distinguish one energy code from another, and it’s the same with enthusiasm. Essentially, the person who is moved by pure enthusiasm will be happy, while the one moved by impure enthusiasm will be unhappy. This unhappiness will demonstrate through symptoms of stress. The nervous system of the impure enthusiast is being stimulated along chaotic lines, and this will demonstrate at every level of their being – mental, emotional and physical. Most of us are aware of these symptoms, such as a disinclination to think, extreme emotional reactions, feelings of confusion, the sense that time is going too fast, incessant worry and speculation, feelings of physical heaviness or lack of coordination, muscular tension, headaches, indigestion, and the list goes on. All these things usually indicate that one has placed oneself outside the flow of life; one lacks trust in something greater than one’s own brain-ego, so there is insecurity and fear.

The pure enthusiast, on the other hand, is constantly striving. They feel a pressure, a dissatisfaction, and this urges them to constantly go on learning, practicing, observing, but their nervous system is being stimulated along natural, rhythmic, harmonious lines, and this feeling of striving and accomplishment, without fear and speculation, is the happiness of the pure enthusiast.

Ending Stress.
When a coach sees symptoms of stress, these should be addressed. We must realize that stress, unhappiness, is neither “natural” nor necessary. This addressing of stress is mainly eliminative – we do not have to learn pure enthusiasm, because it is our natural state – and it can begin at any level. For instance, I once advised a “stressed-out” friend that he have a hot bath and a martini. He did so, and as the tension left his body he was free to engage the mind and understand the causal factors that were the source of the problem. This is a key point: the physical level is never sufficient to eliminate stress. We must engage the mind and activate the heart. With understanding we can eliminate fear and reject the many suggestions of doubt and insecurity which are the true plagues of humanity, and which seem to be running rampant in our present society. A person who demonstrates and shares this understanding is a genuine friend and a true teacher.

Try This!
Make a list of the symptoms of stress and the features of happiness, as you have experienced and observed them. You might notice that they are often opposites. Record your observations as to what induces stress and what allows enthusiasm to remain pure. Note also what activities, words and thoughts are effective in eliminating stress and affirming happiness. This is simply being responsible for the well-being of oneself and one’s students.

The Power of Enthusiasm

A simple technique.
The practical power of enthusiasm has led to the development of an extremely effective technique: players, upon entering the athletic venue, or whenever they feel threatened by anxiety or inertia, can consciously affirm their love for the game; they can remind themselves that there’s no where in the world they’d rather be. This releases great energy, while dispersing fear.

I remember conveying this advice to a young player, who, upon seeing me a week later, opened his eyes wide, smiled from ear to ear and exclaimed, “Tony, it works!” Indeed, the power of simple enthusiasm is a thrilling thing to discover.

A tapestry of knowledge.
Yes, people will discover many techniques, many ways to affirm and enhance all the great qualities, including enthusiasm. I coach one student who finds that enthusiasm is upgraded when he taps the area around his heart between points This clearly works, for him. We must always remember that the wisdom of sport prescribes a qualitative approach to the game, a foundational and indispensable structure, but not a system that prescribes or imposes set, limited patterns. The intuition and self-knowledge of each person will be the basis for new and effective practices. Out of this great diversity a wonderful tapestry of knowledge will emerge....Top

Try This!
Study enthusiasm. Specify a certain period of time in which you will observe all things, such as patterns of sleeping, eating and thinking, in terms of their impact on enthusiasm. What releases and maintains a complete, fearless, active absorption in living, and what saps you of this ability? A log book can be maintained in which observations of oneself and others are recorded. Coaches and players can discuss and observe together. This will be very useful. We must become as seriously interested in the great, indispensable qualities as most of us are in other things, like the stock market.

A transforming power.
Recently, while driving a squad of varsity players to an important event, one of the team members, with whom I had been working privately for some time, made an interesting observation. He commented that when it came time for his lessons, all the factors that could’ve thwarted the success of the session - fatigue, worry, distraction - simply melted away. He said there was something about our lessons that energized him, and always led to the expression of his best tennis. So what was the magic force that had such a transforming effect? Simply this - enthusiasm.

A notable example.
The significance of enthusiasm has been affirmed at the highest levels of sport. For example, in his interview on “Sixty Minutes,” no less a player than Andre Agassi explained how his limited success (limited, of course, by his standards), prior to 1994, was due largely to a loss of enthusiasm. His love for the game had been obscured by the hurly-burly of media attention, teen idol-hood, advertising contracts, money, and all the peripheral distractions that come with “fame and fortune.” It was only when plagued by injury and facing a personal crisis that he re-discovered that primordial love which releases enthusiasm and leads to greatness. Fame and fortune were subsequently relegated to their proper position as incidental effects, and his ranking soared to number one in the world. What does this tell us?

Is anybody interested?
Yes, the time has come for players, coaches, sport psychologists, researchers and parents to study the scientific value and significance of enthusiasm. By this I don’t mean a superficial positiveness, or a certain level of “arousal,” but rather a heart-felt, unsullied love of the game, and the people who play it. Enthusiasm is a real, fiery force; it can electrically charge an environment, making it a true hot-bed of creative possibilities. Sincere enthusiasm is the key that unlocks the door, initiating a natural process of never-ending ascent, or improvement. As Helena Roerich says, “the embryo of enthusiasm grows into a beautiful inspiration.”

Try This!
Do not underestimate the power and significance of enthusiasm. Enthusiasm isn’t just a quaint, childish, adorable feeling, nor is it a fleeting emotion. It’s a fundamental energy, and it contains a fabulous intelligence. The ability to recognize and dismiss suggestions and activities, whether mental, verbal or physical, that disturb the purity of enthusiasm requires sincerity and vigilance. It will become a preoccupation for those who see and feel the significance of what is being said.

The first key.
By now, the reader may have guessed that when I discuss enthusiasm I’m speaking from experience, not just propounding a theory. Tennis has been an incredibly strong force in my life. From the time when I was first introduced to the game it has dominated a large proportion of my time and thoughts. My cousin and I, both aged eight, spent four to six hours a day hitting against the backboard at my grandparent’s cottage. In this, there was absolutely no “goal.” We had no idea where such efforts would lead, and we didn’t care. What mattered was the tennis. This purity of approach is the key to fearless, joyous activity of any kind. Indeed, great tennis, as the Zen Masters would say, is egoless, selfless. Athletes confirm this sensation when speaking of “the zone.” For the enthusiast, achievements occur within a flow of improvement, a rhythm that is both natural and joyous. Therefore, I say, players, coaches and parents - cultivate enthusiasm, first of all, for it’s the fire that lights all other fires, and makes all things possible.