This is from Tennisone.com. & explains Federer/Zen tennis/well:
Federer, The New Zen Master
The less effort, the faster and more powerful you will be.
- Bruce Lee in Zen in the Martial Arts, Joe Hyms
By Kim Shanley
The TennisOne Community
Watching Andre Agassi play at the US Open in the mid-90's, Barbara Streisand called him the Zen master. Streisand's remark has been derided over the years as Hollywood mumbo-jumbo or West Coast mysticism. But as I said in my very first newsletter, I think Streisand called it right: Agassi continues to exemplify many remarkable qualities as an athlete and human being, and yeah, some of these are close to my understanding of what Zen is all about.
So braving the cynics, I'll add a new chapter to the Zen master tales. After watching Roger Federer win all five of his matches in the November Masters Cup in Houston, where he twice defeated the old master Agassi, and his mesmerizing performance at this year's Australian Open, I'm ready to nominate Federer the new Zen master.
Federer, as all the TV commentators noted, is playing a different game than the rest of the field. In winning the Aussie Open, Federer soundly thrashed two players, Lleyton Hewitt and David Nalbandian, both of whom had dominated him in the past. In the final, he faced Marat Safin, who, over the course of the tournament, had transformed himself from mental midget to mental giant, defeating Roddick and Agassi in clutch five set matches.
Safin fought gallantly in the first set to bludgeon his way through Federer's magic web of soft and hard, underspin and topspin. But when Federer's web held firm in the tie-breaker and into the second set, Safin started to bellow like the giant Gulliver held fast by a thousand tiny but unbreakable Lilliputian ropes. "I'm trying!" Safin roared belligerently at the crowd trying to bolster his flagging spirits. But it was obvious by the beginning of the third set that Federer would win, and all Safin could do was grumble and make self-deprecating jokes, like a Russian field-hand sent to feed the pigs after a long day's work. Still, it was good to see Safin keep his perspective and sense of humor, and it will serve him in good stead as he continues his remarkable turn-around.
Federer's mastery, beyond being able to hit all shots and angles, combines a number of intangible factors, including fluid strokes with little mental interference, genius in constructing points, seamless transitions between defense to offense, an intuitive understanding of his opponent's options and likely response, and a clear, calm mind that executes instantly. In short, all the attributes of a Zen master playing tennis. (As in previous newsletters, I have to say I'm not advocating any one religion or ethical philosophy. I return to the theme of Zen because I believe it provides a conceptual structure and vocabulary to discuss the paradoxical striving and letting-go required in superior athletic performance. Zen is based on the philosophy of Tao ("Way"). But it's not the only way of talking about this subject, just one way.)
Naturalness and Spontaneity
Wu-hsin, literally "no-mind," which is to say un-self-consciousness. It is the state of wholeness in which the mind functions freely and easily.
- Zen in Ten, Simpkins & Simpkins.
In the press conference after his victory over Safin, Federer comments on his style: "But just for me, my game feels natural. I feel like I'm living the game when I'm out there." In this respect, Federer follows in the Wu-hsin approach of Pete Sampras, who was criticized throughout his career for not trying hard enough, for not showing enough emotion. Sampras would wearily explain that he was trying, but his game was not about trying or showing that he was trying. Over and over again he repeated his mantra about keeping the game simple, but few people seem to understand what he meant. The legendary martial artist Bruce Lee was more articulate than Sampras on the "effortless-effort" mode of the Zen athlete: "The less effort, the faster and more powerful you will be." Federer has the same modest, natural, unaffected Sampras-like personality, and lets his game flow from a passionate competitiveness that only shows itself in quick flashes of brilliance.
Focused Awareness
Mushin, the mental quality of emptiness," sometimes translated "no-mind." No-mind is the way to be open-minded and react to each situation with a new response, or even the same one if that is appropriate. There is no pre-patterning the state of readiness or anticipation of what to be ready for: just be ready. Mushin is focused awareness. - The Way of Zen, Allan Watts
Having mushin doesn't mean that Federer doesn't have a game plan or strategy. Having mushin means being focused and aware, ready to anticipate and to create in every situation. As Federer noted after the Safin match, "I feel when a guy is going to hit the ball, I know exactly with the angles and the spins, I just feel that I've got that figured out. And that is just a huge advantage." Indeed, while Safin aced Agassi 33 times, he had only 3 aces against Federer. Federer's phenomenal anticipation was also evident in last year's Wimbledon semifinals and finals matches, where Federer had more aces than either Roddick or Philippoussis, two of the game's most dominant servers.
In the all-time best selling book on tennis, The Inner Game of Tennis, Tim Gallwey describes the Zen state of mind that leads to lightening quick reactions. "But time is a relative thing, and it really is possible to slow it down. Consider: there are 1000 milliseconds in every second. That's a lot of milliseconds. Alertness is a measure of how many nows you are aware of in a given period, and everyone's alertness can be heightened with the practice of concentration." Agassi's reputation as the Zen master is based partly on his amazing ability to pick up 130 mile an hour serves and return them. Federer doesn't punish service returns like Agassi, preferring a steadier slice shot that neutralizes the server's advantage, but his anticipation and ability to read the return appears equal to or superior to Agassi's. For Roger Federer, the new Zen master, every second seems to contain many "nows." Certainly too many for his opponents in the last three months.
