Category: Books

Brooks on Books: More on Tennis

November 20, 2023 /

In September, I was in Corpus Christi, Texas watching a tennis match and taking notes, when a smiling, clear-eyed gentleman in tennis clothes sat next to me. We chatted about the game and tennis strategies, and then introduced ourselves.

“I’m Bobby Hagerman, the tournament director here,” he said, as we shook hands. A Texas native, Bobby played tennis on scholarship for LSU from 1972 to 1975. After college, friends and neighbors asked for tennis lessons, and this started a 40+ year coaching career. “I love it.”

Later that day, Bobby texted me a few book recommendations. This post, another in the periodic “Brooks on Books” series (including “Interested in Tennis?”, which reviews four influential tennis books), reviews two of the tennis books suggested by Bobby. Both provide practical guidance and strategies for improving our tennis games.  

“Keep the Ball in Play”

William “Big Bill” Tilden, the first American to win Wimbledon, published “Match Play & the Spin of the Ball,” a slim guide of tennis skills, strategy, and training. Published in 1925, the fundamental messages on stroke production, tactics, and psychology on the court have no expiration date. This book reminds us to focus on the things we control and make the most of what we have. As Tilden writes:

“…it seems a shame to me to pass up the ability to do anything well, simply because the effort seems tedious…If there is a hole in your game, plug it by intensive practice…”

This book emphasizes the critical, unequivocal importance of keeping the ball in play. Not only is hitting the ball over the net and within the lines with confidence joyful, but it also puts pressure on your opponent, and Tilden takes particular satisfaction in getting his opponents out of position. Firstly, though, he disdains unforced errors:

“I consider that double faults, missed ‘sitters’ (easy kills) and errors on the return of easy services, are absolutely inexcusable and actually tennis crimes.”

Tilden played during the early days of professional tennis, and he profiles the strengths and weaknesses of many contemporaries. While the names didn’t resonate for me, the descriptions helped me picture the application of Tilden’s recommendations to always have an idea of what you’re doing out there on the court and why. Concluding with another quote from Tilden:

“The two greatest things in match play are to put the ball in play and never give the other man the shot he likes to play.”

Visualize Successful Shots

Michael Zosel’s “Vision Tennis” (1994), written as the story of a high school tennis player, teaches approaches and strategies for developing a positive and tough mental game. This includes, for example, the benefits of “confidence chanting” short positive statements when playing to feed your subconscious. He also advocates visualizing the specific path and success of your serve before tossing the ball. As Zosel notes, your internal process is “hungry for vivid and positive images…”

The book provides a structure and plan for developing a personal philosophy about your tennis game, which is relevant to players of all ages. Bobby recommended this book as one to read with my daughter, and we have done just that. The book addresses the individual components of building a mental plan that includes your skills, strategy, training, and in-match self-talk. 

The reality is that no one plays perfect tennis, so it’s about doing the hard work of developing skills and managing your mental equilibrium that leads to success. To quote the author, “Playing great tennis is a moment-by-moment process, not an end result.”

Keep It Simple: Another Lesson from the MIT Baseball Team

October 8, 2023 /

My Dad taught me and my brother, “There is no premium for complexity.”  He emphasized the value of keeping it simple, focusing on the most important things you can control, and getting it done. You don’t get paid more to sound like a robot or technocrat, or to add extra milestones or phases. A good plan is simple, and an effective leader or teacher communicates the plan or idea clearly and relentlessly.

Dad’s message still resonates for me in my work at Forisk. Nobody cares about the sophistication of our forest industry models or the length of our resumes if investments lose money or operations underperform.  Simple, well-executed strategies and plans “keep the cow out of the ditch” and on the road towards a pre-defined goal.

Still, most of us can recall times when a plan, approach, or strategy proved overly complex. 

Infield Equations

As a student at MIT, I played baseball for one of the most effective and important mentors in my life, Coach Fran O’Brien. My senior year, our Varsity Baseball Team won its first ever championship, set a school record for wins, and led the NCAA in fielding percentage. I wrote a book about the team called Beaverball: A Winning Season with the MIT Baseball Team, and dedicated it to Coach. However, at times, even the best of managers can overengineer a message.

Each season during spring training, Coach O’Brien reviewed our various coverages for defending bunts. These defensive schemes – which Coach named x, x-squared, y, y-squared, z, and z-squared – were devised for players comfortable with equation-filled chalkboards and electronic circuits. 

Each play designated who covered first and second base, and who would field the bunt laid down by the batter.  Sometimes the first baseman charged with the second baseman covering first; sometimes the second baseman charged and sometimes the third baseman. We reviewed these schemes each year and, frankly, I couldn’t remember them as a player and still can’t recount them accurately today. 

During my time at MIT, I can only think of one instance where Coach called on these bunt defenses in a game. It occurred during my sophomore year, and I was playing first base. I remember holding a runner on first and looking across the infield to see Coach O’Brien barking from the dugout, “Z-squared! Z-squared!” 

I looked to the other players on the infield to see if anyone else knew what to do. We all simply looked at each other, except for Peter Hinteregger at shortstop, who silently clicked into action. I shrugged and moved to cover the bunt as I normally would. Only the bunt didn’t happen – the batter squared around but did not execute – and neither did our bunt coverage. Coach didn’t look at us after the play; he turned away and looked at the ground. That’s the last and only time I remember him calling one of those plays.

Concluding Thought

Sometimes, we prefer a simple restaurant menu, a basic oil change, and clear parking signage. I like recipes that start with “microwave on HIGH for 2 minutes” and avoid buying clothes with “special” washing instructions. Most of humanity prefers that we keep our message, guidance, and plans short and simple. This is true at work, at home, and on the field. 

Brooks on Books: Interested in Tennis?

August 27, 2023 /

Books are magical and the most powerful of technologies. The fact that lines of ink on flattened pulp can transmit ideas, information, and inspiration to our minds remains remarkable to me. This post, one in the periodic “Brooks on Books” series (see “Recommendations on Recommending” and “What are You Reading?”) reviews four influential books related to tennis that offer lessons and strategies applicable to our lives on and off the court.

Deliberate Focus Quiets the Mind

Tim Gallwey’s slim 1974 classic The Inner Game of Tennis has informed coaches and players across sports and vocations. For example, recent editions include a forward from Pete Carroll, who has taught and applied approaches from this book as a college and professional football coach. The thesis of The Inner Game is that, to do anything well, one must master the ability to focus on the present moment and task at hand. 

This is not a tennis “how to” book. Rather, Gallwey highlights the connection between our mental self-flagellation and performance on the tennis court. Overthinking and trying too hard create tension in the body and mind. As Gallwey writes, “the inner game… is played against… lapses in concentration, nervousness, self-doubt and self-condemnation… all habits of mind which inhibit excellence in performance.”

This book helped me relax when practicing and move past errors when playing. It includes techniques for directing your attention. For example, you can concentrate on specific things, such as the sound of the ball or the seams of the ball in play rather than on the score. In a way, Gallwey shows how tennis can help us practice living in the moment and focusing on the task at hand.

Learn and Plan

Winning Ugly by Brad Gilbert and Steve Jamison builds on the idea that players should work as hard on planning and thinking as they do on their physical skills. It says, “you can improve your tennis game fastest and the most if you improve the way you think.” This includes advance planning, scouting opponents, evaluating yourself, and truly understanding how, given your strengths and weaknesses, what strategy puts you in the best position to win.

Winning Ugly offers lots of practical advice related to warming up before a match, correcting strokes during a match, scouting, and building game plans and strategies. Throughout, Gilbert and Jamison emphasize the importance of making sure you are mentally and physically prepared. These are in your control. 

The authors observe that this 1993 book, which focuses on the “administrative” left brain, complements Gallwey’s The Inner Game, which emphasizes the intuitive right brain. They write, “always believe that most of the time there is a way for you to win. You just have to find it.” In sum, have a plan and know what you’re trying to accomplish on the court.

Use Good Data

Many of us who go down the YouTube tennis rabbit hole eventually find videos by Craig O’Shannessy and his data-based analytics of tennis (click here for a great example).  However, Craig and other data-driven tennis professionals stand on the shoulders of coaches and analysts such as Vic Braden who co-authored, with Robert Wool, Vic Braden’s Mental Tennis. This 1993 book advises “eliminate uncertainty where you can” by developing plans based on hard data. 

The authors write, “your game is only as good as your data…Good data… is the reality of what is happening to the ball, to you, to your opponent…” Alternately, poor information prevents improvement. In this way, opinion and unsubstantiated assertions become enemies of progress. The only things that matter are those that help you concentrate effort and execute.

“Execution is the name of the game… getting into position to hit the ball, addressing it properly, and hitting it in the center of your strings…focus on the ball…The ball must be hit in a particular way… regardless at what point in the match… The ball…has no brain or emotions.”

Braden’s research findings hold up today. For example, while casual observers believe professional tennis players hit lasers from the baseline inches over the net, the data showed (and shows) the best players average four to seven feet (or more) above the net when hitting deep shots. Braden shares data on areas such as hitting crosscourt versus down the line, on return of serve, and approach shots. A key take home is the idea that focusing on and improving one element or stroke at a time can raise your entire tennis game. 

Maintain Perspective

Tennis is a game played within a larger human construct. John McPhee’s Levels of the Game, which alternates between the on-court action of the 1968 U.S. Open semi-final match between Arthur Ashe and Clark Graebner and the off-court history and background of these two players, cuts a slice of U.S. cultural and social history with the tennis match. 

One of the individuals profiled in the book is Dr. Robert Johnson, a black doctor who fell in love with tennis, built a court next to his house, and ended up supporting, mentoring, and coaching some of the greatest African American tennis players, including Althea Gibson and Arthur Ashe. The book reminded me how, relatively speaking, we have it easy today. Most of us, most of the time, can go hit balls or enter tournaments without a lot of contrived hooptedoodle. 

McPhee is a wonderful writer, and he captures the flow of the match and the character of those he wrote about. As Arthur Ashe told McPhee, “When you’re confident, you can do anything.” 

Brooks on Books: What are You Reading?

September 11, 2021 /

When visiting family or eating with friends (or interviewing job candidates), I often ask “what are you reading?” I find books or other long form writing a better source of conversational kindling than discussing the weather, recent doctor visits or the op-ed pages. A discussion starting with books and authors can lead anywhere. 

For example, my Aunt and I regularly exchange book ideas. A lover of horses and Native American culture, she introduced me to Tony Hillerman’s Navajo Tribal Police mysteries featuring police Lieutenant Joe Leaphorn and Sgt. Jim Chee. (So far, I’ve read Dance Hall for the Dead and The Ghostway.) This led to discussions about Navajo artists and my Aunt’s earrings, which helped me discover the Native American artist Frances Jones and a lovely bracelet for my wife for our anniversary. This series of links, connected by books, occurred over a ten-year period.

My Mom and Dad belong to book clubs (Mom and her friends drink tea when discussing their books; Dad’s crew drinks wine). Over the years, both sent me books they’ve read and enjoyed. Dad, a Vietnam Veteran, sent me a copy of Beyond Survival by former POW Gerald Coffee. The book recounts how Coffee and his fellow prisoners of war supported each other and communicated with a secret code tapped on walls between cells. (Sometime, after a difficult day, I flip through this book for perspective and appreciation.) The book strengthened an interest in reporting and fiction from Vietnam, including my favorite, Tim O’Brien’s The Things They Carried, a book of linked short stories related to the Vietnam War.

Books connect us. This goes beyond required high school reading and Bible study, both of which offer their own foundational literacy. When someone uses the word “tesseract” or “grok” in a sentence, I feel a flush of joy and follow-up later to ask when they read Madeleine L’Engle’s A Wrinkle in Time or Richard Heinlein’s A Stranger in a Strange Land. The book-based connections help us share memories (and travel through space and time). 

So, what are you reading? I welcome your comments and recommendations.

This post is dedicated to my Dad. Happy Birthday, Captain!

Brooks on Books: Recommendations on Recommending

February 27, 2021 /

Books have been a hugely important part of my life. As a kid, when Mom took us to the mall, I loved going to B. Dalton bookstores and Waldenbooks. [I’d get so excited that, within ten minutes of walking the aisles, I’d need to pee.]

For my twelfth birthday in Cockeysville, Maryland, my parents hosted a group of my friends for roller skating and pizza at Skateland. Most of my friends gave me books as gifts. We had a leaning stack on the table that included favorites such as “Catch Me if You Can” by Frank Abagnale, “The Hobbit” by J.R.R. Tolkien, and “The Stand” by Steven King.

Some older kids walked by and Mom heard them say, “shoot, that kid must really like books!” 

To this day, I still have most of those books, and I enjoy swapping favorite book titles with others. When people ask me for book recommendations, I have found myself following an informal set of rules. 

First, I only consider recommending books that I’ve read. Would you write a recommendation for a person you’ve never met? Would you recommend a restaurant you’ve never eaten at? Yet, on dozens of occasions, I’ve fielded suggestions anointed with “I’ve heard that it’s great…it’s supposed to be good…” Anyone can look up the best seller list.

Second, I recommend books that I’ve reread (or would read again). Which books do I actively revisit, for whatever reasons? For me, this includes a novel I read last year, “A Gentleman in Moscow” by Amor Towles. Recently, I spoke with a woman who had read the book and we spent a joyous few minutes sharing our love of the book. A colleague of mine overheard this and said, “I really need to read that book.” [I loaned it to her.] Another friend of mine, a retired professor, said he cried the day he read the last page because the book ended, and he wanted it to last longer. 

Finally, I recommend absorbing page turners. Like a great movie or concert, a satisfying mystery or adventure takes you on a little trip. When I read “The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo” by Steig Larsson, it carried me right through the night. A gripping thriller.

What books do you recommend? Why? I welcome your comments below.