Intersecting Lines
At one point in my teens, I decided to try my hand at tennis. My parents purchased a cheap racquet, and on to the courts, I ventured with my friends. We knew the rules from watching the Australian Open and Wimbledon. How hard could it be? The players on TV made it look so effortless. I had even rehearsed my best John McEnroe impersonation – “You cannot be serious!”
First time on the court, I tossed the ball in the air, sure I was about to serve an ace. Swing and a miss! Many attempts later, my opponent looked bored. I’m sure if we had smartphones in those
days, he may have been playing Candy Crush while I worked on my hand/eye coordination.
After a while, I began to connect with the ball – though not with a lot of skill. Now and again, the ball would find the sweet spot on the racquet, and the ball would fly. It was not always in the direction I wanted it to go, but as time went on, I learned what the sweet spot felt like and did my best to repeat it.
As I learned more about the gameplay and the mechanics of the equipment, I began to appreciate how I needed to refine my skills. Hand eye coordination and strength were only part of what went into being a good player. I needed to learn to use the sweet spot of the racquet.
First, the frame of the racquet needed to be in proper alignment. It was in this frame that the strings were run in two directions. If they ran parallel or too far apart, it was all but useless. It was the intersection of these strings and the correct tension that gave the playing surface of the racquet its power, each point of intersection adding strength and support to surrounding points of intersection and defining the sweet spot.
If one string broke, it redefined the sweet spot and the effectiveness of my stroke. The further away from this spot that I struck the ball, the less power and control I had, and had to work
much harder to produce the desired result. Using the racquet as an illustration, each string represents a characteristic of our lives. When intersecting with other characteristics we possess and anchored in the framework of our life purpose they provide strength. When we find enough of these intersections, we are well on our way to define and discover our sweet spot.
