Tennis as a Wisdom Practice: A Story About the Quest for Mastery

Description

When he was in his late 60s, author Carl Frankel got some unexpected news. If he started playing tennis tournaments in the 70s division when he age-qualified, he could be one of the top 10 players in the country. Tennis as a Wisdom Practice tells the story of his pursuit of ranking success and what he learned along the way.

Tennis as a Wisdom Practice is much more than a tennis saga, though. It’s also about two other quests that are ultimately more important, the pursuit of wisdom and the pursuit of mastery. This book is for you if you like tennis. It’s also for you if you’re looking to get better faster at just about anything that requires focus and commitment, including the game of life.

Do thoughts like these resonate for you?

• “Habits are choices that are hibernating.”
• “Competition dunks us in the adrenaline-fueled Immediate Now. Competing successfully requires a part of us to simultaneously climb out of the Immediate Now to a more inclusive sense of time where things matter less and we maintain a sense of larger context.”
• “We are submerged in narratives of our own creation. What if we didn’t view death as an enemy? What if we positioned it as a partner and a friend?”
• “Celebrities are stand-ins for the Olympian gods our culture tries to do without. That’s why our hearts go thump when we meet them.”

If so, Tennis as a Wisdom Practice will be a great partner for you in your pursuit of a good and wise life.

Tennis as a Wisdom Practice is also a piece of reportage about the largely unknown supersenior tennis circuit and the people who populate it. This is a story in its own right, about vital men of a certain age who are keeping on keeping on, raging in the most social and athletic way possible against the dying of the light.

A love song to tennis and a paean to the joys of lifelong learning, Tennis as a Wisdom Practice offers a boundary-busting approach to the game that can accelerate your path to mastery on the court and in your life.

The foreword is by Bob Litwin, winner of over two dozen national titles.