📚 Story of the Week
When I was a junior tennis player, I had a coach who shared a valuable story from his Division 1 college tennis experience.
At the time, my coach was one of the newest and least experienced players on his team. Despite that, he had regular opportunities to train with the team’s top singles player.
Often, these training sessions included some form of set play—and as you might expect, the top player regularly won those exchanges.
By the logic of “in order to get better, I have to play better players,” this was a dream opportunity for my coach.
But what about the top player? Weren’t these repeated sparring sessions beneath him?
Not at all. In fact, he never once complained. Quite the opposite—he embraced the challenge and used the sessions as a way to grow.
So how did he find room to improve?
Each time they played, he took an entirely different approach to the match, challenging himself to win using a completely new game style or skill set.
One day, he’d play aggressively from the baseline. The next, he’d shift to a counterpunching strategy.
Serve and volley. Chip and charge. Slice-only backhands. Forehand-only points. He continually explored different ways to construct offense and defense while maintaining control of the match.
The lesson my coach passed on was simple, but powerful: True mastery comes not from looking outward, but from looking within.
🧅 Peel the Onion
That lesson has always stayed with me.
It helped me learn to focus on my own development, rather than endlessly chasing higher-ranked opponents to “level up.”
I’ve always compared this inward, skill-focused mindset to peeling an onion.
In my own training and matches, I made it my mission to peel deeper—layer after layer—to uncover new aspects of my competitive game.
This gave me a distinct advantage over players who remained on the surface, stuck in skill maintenance mode, endlessly rehearsing the same techniques and patterns without much evolution.
By challenging myself with the game within the game, I grew as an all-court player, improved my adaptability, and gained exposure to a wider range of tactical and strategic tools.
As a coach, this philosophy now helps me design lesson plans that create a continuously challenging environment—one that encourages problem-solving, creativity, and growth in my students.
🐶 Wag the Dog
Some of you might be thinking, “Sure, that’s fine—but don’t you still need better players to get better?”
Of course, having good competition and quality training partners matters.
But is that the primary driver of development?
Let’s go back to how you built your skills in the first place.
Was it only through competition? Or did your growth come from a structured training system, led by a knowledgeable coach who guided your development?
My guess is the latter.
Yet, as players get better, they often shift their focus—gradually moving away from teachers and toward chasing other players.
This chasing mentality becomes a classic “tail wagging the dog” situation.
Instead of looking within and building the skills they truly need, players try to improve by osmosis—hoping that playing against better competition will automatically elevate their game.
But competition alone is not a magic elixir.
If your grip is flawed or your swing path inefficient, no amount of match play will fix it.
If your movement is lacking, playing more may improve conditioning—but it won’t refine your footwork or correct your patterns.
This belief oversimplifies the training process.
It’s not that competitive play and strong opponents don’t matter—they do.
But they’re not more important than your commitment to systematic skill development.
🎾 Match Point
If chasing the best is the only path to improvement, then I’ll leave you with this question:
“How does the number one player in the world improve?”
At some point, there’s no one left to chase. You’re already at the top of the mountain.
Does growth stop? Of course not.
The world’s best players continue to evolve because they challenge themselves from within.
They innovate, they refine, and they grow—not just because of who they face, but because of how they train.
That introspective mindset is what brought them to the top in the first place.
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Thanks for reading—and see you in the next one! 🎾
