Wednesday, October 14, 2020

Lessons from a Broken String

On the court of life, make sure you aren’t holding yourself back by clinging to the past

By André van Heerden, Communications Director

Growing up, I learned how to play tennis with my dad’s Wilson T2000 racquet, the same model that professional player Jimmy Connors used. Not only was it one of the first steel racquets, it also had a unique stringing process and a small round head. Because of its sleek look, it stood out, especially when compared to old wooden racquets.

Whenever I played, someone would always comment on it, and because I was playing well, I would think, “What a great racquet!” It wasn’t until a high school tennis tournament that my perspective was shattered.

In my first match of the day, a string broke and I didn’t have a backup. Luckily, a friend of mine let me borrow his, a Head Edge graphite racquet. Because I was midmatch and playing with a racquet I had never picked up before, I expected to struggle. Much to my—and my opponent’s—shock, I played better than I ever had.

For the rest of the tournament, I used his racquet—and won! Afterward, I rushed out to buy the exact model that my friend had let me borrow. I remember thinking, why did I play with that Wilson T2000 for so long? The difference between the old racquet and the new one was remarkable. I had been playing at a disadvantage without knowing it.

You would think that many years later, being older and wiser, I would have remembered this lesson.

When my current racquet, one I have played with for over 10 years, recently developed a crack in the frame, I looked online to see if I could buy another one. Unfortunately, it had been discontinued several years ago.

Not yet willing to give up, I asked the club pro where I could possibly find a similar model. He smiled, amused, and said, “It’s a new decade. I think it’s time for a new racquet.”

Hesitantly, I borrowed some racquets to test, and I was again surprised by how well I could hit with some of the more contemporary models. I found something new to play with and I’m thankfully not missing my old racquet.

So it turns out that you can teach an old dog new tricks—they just might be old tricks that he’s forgotten.

Think about the things that you might be holding on to without realizing that with a different approach you could be more productive, more efficient, and overall better. How many times have you resisted new computer software, apps, or new mobile devices? How many times have you said, “But that’s the way we’ve always done it!”

I’ve always been a believer that if something isn’t broken, don’t fix it. But just because something works, it doesn’t mean something else couldn’t work better.

It took a broken string and a cracked frame for me to realize that lesson not once, but twice. I’m sure if I were to open my mind, I’d discover there are other things I am resisting that could help me do better— both off and on the court.

Lessons from a Broken String

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