Perfect Swings

By the third or fourth time during a team lesson that Alex the platform tennis pro critiqued my play by saying You hit too many lobs when you should be hitting overheads; I found the need to defend myself.

I pointed out to him that since I stood 5’1 and he stood 6’0 the trajectory of our ball was different. In terms of pure mechanical physics my stature demanded that I hit my overhead from a point closer to the net than he. And I proved it by having him crouch down so he could visualize the court from my view.

Chris Evert was the first tennis professional who hit a two-handed backhand. Monica Seles only hit two-handed backhands— from both her right and left side. And in golf, Jim Furyk, Bubba Watson and Arnold Palmer were among the many champions dubbed as having unorthodox swings. Derek Jeter—the Yankees captain---has made his batting career hitting inside out . And while Michael Phelps, Olympic swimmer, has a classic style, it is his freakishly disproportionate body that had aided in his ability to be the most medaled Olympic athlete of all time.

And the point I am leading up to is this: there is no such thing as a perfect athletic swing or a perfect athletic shot because there is no such thing as a perfect body. Every person is uniquely different. And the best professional teachers and coaches understand that maximized performance is the result of corrective tailoring—not corrective imposition.

Perfect swings and shots are only as perfect as an imperfect body engaged in perfect imperfection.

Cookie cutters are for cookies; perfection is for God.

     

And Alex, the self-absorbed platform tennis pro, after my demonstration, had no recourse but to accept that I was indeed correct. My diminutive stature dictated that I hit more lobs than overheads. For me, a lob was the perfect shot—a shot I routinely executed with a perfectly abbreviated imperfect backswing.

From that time on at just about every team lesson, Alex would say Everyone but Karen should hit an overhead from this spot on the court—which I am certain was said with the intent to belittle me. But I never felt its sting—I had science and mathematics on my side--and you cannot be-little someone who has been-little since birth.