Article March 9, 1968 Issue

A Fresh Approach

CONSTANCE S. SAMMIS

A tennis professional was teaching his pupil, a businessman, the basics of serving. "Be like a child," the teacher urged. "And you know the qualities of a child. They're teachableness, receptivity, willingness to change and to follow directions, aren't they?"'

Then he asked his pupil: "What are the qualities of an adult? Aren't they often rigidity of attitudes? Doesn't the adult hang on to old ways? And as a result doesn't he sometimes defeat himself? Now, to get that serve right," he advised, "you must be willing to leave the old way you've served for years and try the new way, even if it seems strange at first."

The tennis lesson went deep into the businessman's thought. He worked with considerable success to have a fresh outlook, to be childlike, and to change his old service to one with better accuracy, greater freedom, more elasticity.

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