Gauff's meditation behind Reversing Keith's entry into the semi-finals: cultivating the art of non-art, entering the realm of selflessness

"Let the arrows come from thoughtlessness", this is a sentence spoken in "Archery and Zen Heart".

People are often strongest in silence, allowing feelings to dominate your will, letting actions be the result of your mind walking freely, and when you are fully focused, fear is gone.

In the last game of the first set tie-break, Gauff made a mistake on her serve, and as the tennis ball hit the net and fell to the ground, the Australian Open women's singles champion Keith clenched her fists and roared, because she seemed to have dominated Roland Garros's clay court and was aiming to win the first two Grand Slam titles of the year!

But Gauff is still in danger at the moment, and she is ready to give it a go, while at the same time teetering on the brink of being out. The scoreboard relentlessly showed the score of a tie-break, which has happened many times this year, and she has lost to opponents who are much lower in the rankings than herself, and "fear" is her worst enemy at the moment.

Carl Jung said, "You cannot overcome your shadow unless you dare to look at it first." Gauff made seven double faults in the first set, and although she struggled from 4-1 down to 5-4, a twist of fate caused her to lose the first set. What to do? It seems that her forehand has been stared at by her opponent, and it seems that her serve has been forced to have no way back, and as long as she reduces her strength slightly, she will immediately usher in the fatal blow of her opponent!

The first-set performance seemed to herald another setback, with Gauff looking devastated after losing the opening set point and seemingly powerless to resist. However, the next two sets took a dramatic turn: Gauff equalized the aggregate score at 6-4 and even took complete control of the situation in the deciding set, and finally sealed the final victory with a disparity of 6-1.

The Silence of the Lambs is dangerous, and once it breaks through its own inner confinement, it can bring destruction. From the data after the game, we can vaguely see the clues: this focus battle has gradually turned from a technical confrontation at the beginning to a psychological game between two people.

Although Gauff had a whopping 41 unforced errors over the court, when she stabilized in the second set, the bigger and more anxious Keys jumped to 60 total unforced errors. Behind this explosion of mistakes is the inner self-torture and self-denial of Keys, when the stubborn self replaces the rational self, and people will also wander on the verge of collapse, like dancing on a tightrope on a cliff, danger is approaching step by step.

This is very similar to the reconstruction of the relationship between "self 1" and "self 2" proposed in "Winning with Mentality". People's hearts are often filled with two kinds of self, the rational self is the embodiment of perfectionism, he is a firm judge, but also the unity of ideas, and the inner self is the executor of the action, when the action is inconsistent with the expectation, the rational self will continue to issue self-criticism and self-denial, but the inner self will not pay attention, and even resist and resist, it needs to be emotionally appeased rather than too much accusation. The tie-break in the first set is a typical manifestation of Gauff's inner rational self over-interfering.

But when Gauff came to the second set, she quickly cleaned up the depression of losing the first set, and even when she was led by a big score in the second set, she was unusually calm. She didn't smash the racket or roar, but closed her eyes again and again during the break and took deep breaths, letting her mind go into a meditative state. At this moment, she is very much like what she said in "Archery and Zen Heart", "The shooter has become the target and the target, the shooter and the target at the same time, stepping into the realm of selflessness, and everything to be done is completed before you know it." ”

And after the 4-4 draw, her performance was amazing! She keenly grasped Case's eagerness to get ahead, constantly increasing the pressure on her opponent's second serve to finally get the crucial break! In the service game, Gauff took the initiative to increase the first-serve scoring rate, and even on the second serve, her depth was perfect, successfully limiting Case's desire to take the lead.

Gauff used to be a "technical master" who was obsessed with tennis skills, for which she changed several coaches, until Gilbert appeared, she gave up those complicated technical analysis and turned to the ugly win to the end! But it wasn't until Daley's appearance that Gauff really understood what it meant to be "art without art"!

"Follow your feelings, coco, your body will tell you what's best, trust your instincts, feel more than everything!" This is a phrase that Daly often tells Gauff. Yes, people often forget what they are doing when they are too focused on something, and "self-forgetfulness" is an extremely high spiritual realm, when the physical body is not dominated by any distractions, completely trusts itself, completely relies on the feelings, and everything seems to have been laid out in front of them, becoming a pattern and direction.

As one of my most recent books, Mindset Wins, describes, "The player seems to be completely immersed in a flow of action, into which he will inject energy, but will produce more powerful shots and more precise shots". The stats showed that Gauff had just seven unforced errors in the deciding set, compared to a staggering 18 by Case.

I think that in the deciding set, Gauff has learned a certain Zen, and when she no longer obsesses with the technical details and focuses entirely on the trajectory of the ball, she enters what "Mindset Wins" calls a state of "relaxed focus". In this state, "Self 1" stops criticizing and "Self 2" is released from its instinctive talents.

Gauff in the deciding set is impeccable, she's all focused, she's unstoppable, and unless you can hit every ball on the line and keep your turnover rate extremely low, her baseline grappling will suffocate you like a python stalking its prey! Commenting on Gauff in the deciding set, ESPN's anchor said, "At this moment, she is no longer "playing tennis", but tennis itself. ”

Gauff's technical execution in the tiebreaker reached the realm of "art without art". Her trademark backhand straight line and all the points of her serve are no longer a conscious tactical choice, but "let the arrow come out of nowhere" as revealed in Archery and Zen. After the match, Gauff reflected on his performance in the deciding set, saying: "I felt like everything was right, the court was already telling me which way to hit the ball. ”

It is worth mentioning that the victory made Gauff reach the semi-finals of a Grand Slam for the fifth time, while her overall French Open record improved to 25-5. Considering that the most likely opponent in the semi-finals is Andreeva, who she has never lost, it is not a fantasy that Gauff will return to the Grand Slam final, or even win the French Open! Such a gauff makes many people tremble!

I think that after experiencing such a desperate situation, Gauff has realized the ultimate meaning of Zen Buddhism: to give up oneself, to give up distractions, to empty everything, and to be at ease. For tennis, the psychological confrontation will be an eternal melody, and whoever can maintain a "normal heart" under the blazing sun of Roland Garros will have a chance to win the final title. And that's the deepest paradox of tennis: when you're no longer looking for it, it's just about it.(Source: Tennis Home Author: Lu Xiaotian)