Self 2 learning process - natural learning

Let it happen

The actions of Self 2 are based on information it has stored in its memory of past actions of itself or of the observed actions of others. A player who has never held a racket in his hand needs to let the ball hit the strings a few times before Self 2 learns how far away the center of the racket is from the hand holding it. Every time you hit a ball, whether correctly or incorrectly, the computer memory of Self 2 is picking up valuable information and storing it away for future use. As one practices, Self 2 refines and extends the information in its memory bank. All the time it is learning such things as how high a ball bounces when hit at varying speeds and varying spins; how fast a ball falls and how fast it comes up off the court; and where it should be met to direct it to different parts of the court. It remembers every action it makes and the results of every action, depending on the degree of your attention and alertness.

So the important thing for a beginning player to remember is to allow the natural learning process to take place and to forget about stroke-by-stroke self-instructions. The results will be surprising.

Let me illustrate with an example which demonstrates the easy and hard ways of learning. When I was twelve years old, I was sent to dancing school, where I was taught the waltz, fox trot and other steps known only to the darker ages of man. We were told, “Put your right foot here and your left foot there, then bring them together. Now shift your weight to your left foot, turn,” and so forth. The steps were not complicated, but it was weeks before I was dancing without the need to play back the tape in my head: “Put your left foot here, right foot there, turn, one, two, three; one, two, three.” I would think out each step, command myself to do it and then execute it. I was barely aware there was a girl in my arms, and it was weeks before I was able to handle a conversation while dancing.

This is the way most of us teach ourselves the footwork and strokes of tennis. But it’s such a slow and painful way! Contrast it with the way the modern twelve-year-old learns to dance. He goes to a party one night, sees his friends doing whatever dances are in vogue at the time, and comes home having mastered them all. Yet these dances are infinitely more complex than the fox trot. Just imagine the size of the instruction manual required to put into words each of the movements of these dances! It would require a Ph.D. in physical education and a full semester to learn them “by the book.” But a kid who may be failing math and English learns them effortlessly in a single night.

How does he do this? First, by simply watching. He doesn’t think about what he is seeing—how the left shoulder lifts a bit while the head jerks forward and the right foot twists. He simply absorbs visually the image in front of him. This image completely bypasses the ego-mind, and seems to be fed directly to the body, for in a few minutes the kid is on the floor doing movements very similar to those he was watching. Now he is feeling how it is to imitate those images. He repeats the process a few times, first looking, then feeling, and soon is dancing effortlessly—totally “with it.” If the next day he is asked by his sister how to do the dance he’ll say, “I don’t know … like this … see?” Ironically, he thinks he doesn’t know how to do the dance because he can’t explain it in words, while most of us who learn tennis through verbal instruction can explain in great detail how the ball should be hit but have trouble doing it.

To Self 2, a picture is worth a thousand words. It learns by watching the actions of others, as well as by performing actions itself. Almost all tennis players have experienced playing over their heads after watching championship tennis on television. The benefits to your game come not from analyzing the strokes of top players, but from concentrating without thinking and simply letting yourself absorb the images before you. Then, the next time you play, you may find that certain important intangibles such as timing, anticipation and sense of confidence are greatly improved, all without conscious effort or control.