Cooperation Over Competition

My first tennis coach was an extraordinary man by the name of Powell Blankenship.  Powell was a highly-skilled player and coach from San Diego who developed Australian Open Champion Brian Teacher.  I was 19 when I started working with Powell, and I decided that I needed to learn this game the right way after being bounced by the bigs over and over again after moving to the big city.  My game was a technical disaster, and my plan was to put it together with the help of a Master Coach.  Powell had other plans.  Because I had competed for years with strong athleticism and little game, he went after my mind instead of my strokes.  He felt that I was too combative with the game, and he wanted me to flow when I played-swim downstream.  He preached that I needed the guy on the other side of the net just to play this game.  That your opponent had to hit you balls to orchestrate the points.  "Cooperation over competition" was his mantra, and I understood it intellectually, but it took years to sink in to my daily practice and habits.  Powell drastically changed my mindset, and only then was I ready for the technical side of the game.  Thank you, Powell, for teaching me how to play nice and play well.  Many problems would be more easily solved with Powell's words of wisdom.