Wimbledon 2010

World record breaking match between John Isner (USA) and Nikolas Mahut (France)

- 6–4, 3–6, 6–7(7), 7–6(3), 70–68
- longest match: 11 hours, 5 mins
- longest set: fifth set 8 hours, 11 mins
- most games in a set: 138 in the fifth set
- most games in a match: 183
- most aces in a match by one player: 112 by Isner
- total aces in a match: 215 (together with Mahut’s 103 aces, the second highest number by a player in a match)
- most consecutive service games held: 168 (84 for each player)

When the news flashed across the bottom of my T.V. screen, it didn’t hit me the significance of this Grand Slam 1st round tennis match at the famous All England Club. As a tennis fan and a social player myself, I started to scout for more information and that’s so easy now a days…after reading some of the many tributes and news articles coming from around the world, I decided to blog-a-post to commemorate this historical match.

Many tennis fan who play the game a tad seriously will agreed that tennis is a game of the mind as much so as its demand technically. I would not qualify myself to share expertly the technical expect of this beautiful game as my recent 6-0, 6-0 defeat to a friend reminded me of my realistic tennis grading and wobbling knees…but having spend some years studying the game in its ‘inner’ expect and meeting a great teacher of the modern sports psychology – Timothy Gallwey who wrote the first book ‘The Inner Game of Tennis’, it was natural for me to ask the question:

“What was in their mind this whole 3 days slugging out at the court?”

“What were they playing for? Prize-money? Pride? Points?”

…and most importantly for the work at ConversationCircles: “What’s the meaning of competition I learn from this match?”

In contemporary culture, there is a great deal of opinions about competition. One school values it highly, trusting that winning is the way forward and the reasons for survival and even credit it as a natural instinct. Another school treated competition as unhealthy; that pitting one against another is divisive, that it leads to enmity and therefore lack of cooperation. Those who value competition tends to enjoy sports such as football, tennis, rugby and so on…Those who are not will rather enjoy recreation such as jogging, swimming, frisbee. If they do insist in playing tennis or golf, they may go the route of “non-competitively”. Their maxim is that collective enjoyment is better than competition.

So is there meaning in competition?

To be exact, “What’s the meaning of winning?”.

I asked deeper: “Is there a value to winning?”

I once had a conversation with an avid skateboarder who has skated for many years. I began by pointing out that skating is a form of recreation which didn’t involve one in competitiveness. He asked:

“But don’t skating compete against the conditions and elements at the park?”

“Yes, but you don’t compete against anyone; you are not trying to beat someone to win, do you?”

“No, but we are trying to hit a height and reach the floor safely!” “And yes, the real point for us skateboarder is to get in the flow of the obstacles and elements and perhaps achieve oneness with it.”

After showing me some of the pictures and videos of his stunts that it suddenly hit me that he was right; he does want to just go out there and have fun, yet he keep looking for more challenging parks and more sophisticated obstacles (sometime annoyingly in public) to test his skills he think he can handle. If he just want to have fun, he can just do it repetitively at a familiar park. Why would he move from one park to another? I am sure he value the challenges and obstacles it present. He value the obstacles which draw his greatest efforts. It is only the most challenging parks that he is required to use all his skills, concentration and his courage to overcome; only then can he realize the true limits of his capacity and his true potential. The potential may have been within him but until it is manifested in action, it remains a secret hidden from himself. The obstacles are a necessary part of self-discovery. I realized from his sharing that he is not out to prove himself, he is simply exploring his latent capacities.

I used to look at skateboarding ‘lowly’ as a sport and to some extend the public nuisance it brings. But the sharing open up my eyes to the meaning of winning. His sharing help me to understand that winning is about overcoming the obstacles presented to attain a goal, but the value in winning can only be as great as the value of reaching that goal.

Reaching a goal sometimes may not present as valuable as the experience that come in making your best effort in overcoming the obstacles. Hence, the process can be more satisfying than the winning itself. It’s strange but true, after that 6-0, 6-0 drubbing I actually felt good competing with a player light-years younger (in sporting terms) and enjoyed the process much more than his joy of winning (I think)!

In saying so I am sure the thoughts about winning may begin to diminish in their mind as quickly as the daylight in court no.18 at Wimbledon in the match between John Isner and Nicolas Mahut. This is definitely an extra-ordinary match that call for exceptional human spirits and courage. Many people says that there was no looser in this longest tennis match in history. I would take a step further and comment that we all loose by not learning valuable lessons from it.

“From the Inside Out” used the game of tennis to help you discover the innate potential to perform and identify the self induced barriers that often gets in the way. Call us to find out more.

PS: This is officially the longest blog-post till date – a record! I hope you’d enjoy reading as much as I’d wrote it…