So I got hit in the face by a tennis ball

What I learned about where and when to focus…

Photo by Renith R on Unsplash

I remember the ball coming towards me and then things went black. Last month, I got hit in the face with a tennis ball, a freak accident of the weekend warrior. Thankfully, my cheek took the majority of the impact but I ended up spending 4 hours in the ER while they confirmed that my retina was ok.

Why I got hit is a different lesson.

When you are a kid and taught to play tennis, you are taught to follow the ball.

So as we were playing doubles, naturally I was watching where the ball was to see where it goes. But as I have learned, this creates risk.

If you are looking behind you and the ball goes to the net player across from you, there isn’t enough time to react.

Instead, I needed to be focusing on the person nearest to me. By reading his body language, racquet movement, etc, I will be able to tell if he is preparing to play the ball. Or as I experienced, if he's reaching up for an overhead smash, I can back up aggressively.

If he does not move, then I know the ball is going elsewhere, and I can shift my focus again.

This is a new lesson to learn and it feels weird. It feels risky not knowing exactly where the ball is at this moment, leaving it out of my field of vision.

But there is enough time and information being communicated by the other player to be able to respond in time.

This has made me think about other places in life where focusing on where the immediate action distracts us from the more important question of where the action is going?

Living too far in the future can be a pleasant day dream, but isn’t actionable.

The question is where can we see 1 move ahead and what is to be gained by directing our gaze there - trusting our partners and colleagues to handle the immediate moment?