Interesting paragraph i read today

The book that I am reading (for far too long a time now, and I am only at Chapter 1, if I ever get down to reading!), is the famous “The Inner Game of Tennis” by W. Timothy Gallwey. According to its blurb, this book has been the “handbook of choice for hundreds of thousands of tennis players”. It was so popular that “The Inner Game” series of books was written and published to cater to different fields, including music.

I came across a very interesting paragraph. It resonated really well with my teaching beliefs that I had to write it here. Training music students to become machine/competition winners is not what I am looking for, even though competitions are a good platform to put one’s mental and physical endurance to the test! Please don’t get me wrong: I am completely supportive of students going for competitions; but training to become a competition winner should not be the sole goal to learning music. I would like my students to learn something about themselves and life as, through our music lessons together.

I am a total noob at tennis, but having been introduced to the sport by my husband some years ago and trying to make some sense out of watching those Grand Slam tournaments with him, I began to develop interest in the sport and started taking lessons. I look back on my learning journey and there were definitely watershed moments in which I made a major leap in my head in my music pursuit. Learning to play tennis is certainly one of these moments. Tennis lessons completely blew my mind away about how difficult this sport was, how so many things have to fall into place for that one good shot to happen. This changed the way I think about playing and teaching the violin forever.

The paragraph from the book: 

The development of inner skills is required, but it is interesting to note that if, while learning tennis,  you begin to learn how to focus your attention and how to trust in yourself, you have learned something far more valuable than how to hit a forceful backhand. The backhand can be used to advantage only on a tennis court, but the skill of mastering the art of effortless concentration is invaluable in whatever you set your mind to. 

Thank you, Mr Gallwey.