Goal Setting and Tennis

It Doesn't Work For Me

by Geoff Love

It is interesting to observe all the places I have been since doing The Avatar Course two years ago. I have travelled a lot in my mind, body and spirit. A part of my own Avatar journey was to realize how often I had been unconsciously judgmental of others and myself and limited my response to realizing opportunities and my true potential. After doing Avatar I easily accept and appreciate who I am and understand that my life’s purpose is to be of service to others by supporting their journey.

As a tennis coach, I have also moved on, discovering how some of my tennis students play with limiting beliefs. I encourage each student to recognize they have a belief program in their consciousness that creates their playing ability. Once they find and experience their own beliefs they can start to recognize their potential and what could be in the way.

With one student, I played a game over the net in one service-square with a low-pressure tennis ball. Her feeling for the ball with the racquet in this situation was not wonderful, so it was going to be a challenge. Our scoring system was that every time she hit the ball successfully over the net and in the court three times she got a point, and every time she made a mistake I got a point. Well, the first five sets to six points I won. Obviously I was just too consistent —or was I?

We then stopped to discuss her beliefs and started observing what was coming out.
“This is hard,” she said. “Every time I get close to a point you play harder.” Was that so or just her belief?

Next she said, “It’s frustrating every time I’m close, I lose the point.” I observed that she hit the first two balls over the net, then often she made a mistake on the third stroke. What did that mean?

As soon as the rally got close to her winning the point, she would miss the last shot for no apparent reason. And when I got into the lead, her performance would crumple, giving me the set. The more we identified her thoughts, the more fun and exciting the process became for us both.

After eliminating the beliefs that were acting as a barrier to her succeeding, we worked on her technique. Then more beliefs about her technique came to the surface. “ I can’t do that,” she continued. “I can’t change sides that well.” Was she explaining about her experience or was the experience created by her beliefs?

In the next moment she hit the key belief, “I don’t like to keep score,” she said. “I don’t like goal setting!”

I had put her in an environment where her performance was measured, and her technique failed at the moment when she felt the pressure of reaching her goal.

Continuing to play the game she started to hit every ball into the net and said, “See this is what happened with my last coach. This is the way I am. This is what happens to me, every time.” Would you believe another belief creating the experience?

Observing this response we changed the environment back to just hitting a few balls, focusing on technique, rhythm and flow with no lines or rules and got back to the pure process of watching and hitting the ball and working on her technique. Her play improved dramatically with flowing successful strokes. At the end of the session she said, “I’m finished. I can’t do any more,” so we hit another 20 over just to take care of that belief too.

Now she is aware that what she believes does affect her playing ability.

As Harry says in the book Love Precious Humanity, “Don’t let who you are being get in the way of who you might become.”

 

Geoff Love, Germany, USA, Fiji and New Zealand

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