Lessons from the Tennis Court

By Tyler Song

As musicians, it can be so easy to build our life, identity, and even personality around our craft. While this might seem like a good idea, there is a fine line between dedication and obsession that we mustn’t cross. The whole concept of “living and breathing” music can quickly become detrimental to our mental health. Hobbies and interests not only balance our professional and personal lives, but will constantly inspire you to return to the practise room.

For me, tennis has been a great fascination of mine for quite some years now. It is my opinion that tennis is the sport most like playing an instrument: there is a certain amount of athleticism involved but the key to success is not in brute power, rather in artistry and precision. The mental game of a tennis match is also shockingly similar to that of an orchestral audition. Recently, the recently retired tennis legend Roger Federer gave a commencement speech at Dartmouth College. He gave three cheekily-named “tennis lessons” to the graduates, the second of which was the following shocking statistic:

In the 1526 single matches of his career, of which he won 80%, he only won 54% of the points.

Federer continues and points out that “even top-ranked tennis players win barely more than half of the points they play” and that means they have to learn to let go of the points, win or lose, after it’s over.

“You want to become a master at overcoming hard moments. That to me is the sign of a champion. The best in the world are not the best because they win every point... It’s because they know they’ll lose... again and again… and have learned how to deal with it.”

This can be easily applied to us as musicians. From practise to auditions to performances, it’s the same exact mentality we need to apply to succeed. I know letting go of a perceived loss can feel impossible at times, but I hope this statistic from one of the greatest tennis players of all time helps give a little bit of perspective, you can read the entire speech here if you would like!

Happy Practising!