Tennis: A Game of Conveyor Belts and Calibrations

It is sure that you have encountered a situation before where you need to utilize certain "resources" to obtain certain "results" using certain "strategies". Yeah, the usual HR stuff.

In some sense, resources are more basic than strategies. Like, without a sword you cannot even participate in a fencing competition.

But when it is success that matters and not just the participation, that too at the top level, you better have the strategy ready as well.

A simple example might be that day when you were playing chess against the computer. You seemed to have more passed pawns in the end-game, but it was you who got pawned in the end.

It is the same in tennis, and most probably in all sports and definitely in HR—while the tool is more of a qualifying factor, the strategy is essential for the winning.

It is pretty difficult to exactly demarcate a person's game into different discrete "tools", since they sort of depend on one another.

At the same time, to those blokes who love the mechanics of the game, it presents the opportunity to be able to analyse the basic nature of the sport, though at the cost of an over-simplification.

Any instrument has a certain "error". It means that it doesn't exactly do what you want done. It is not a bull's eye every time. That is because there are a lot of external factors which are uncontrollable and random that affect the performance of it.

A major part of all engineering ventures is to reduce the effect of these factors on the tool if you cannot control them.

Whether you will accept that tool or go for another one will finally depend on how closely and how consistently the tool hits the bull's eye to your liking.

But when playing a sport like tennis, your body is definitely the major instrument that you use. You cannot just throw away a particular shot and buy another one when that shot malfunctions.

A game of tennis is similar to an assembly line—you deploy your shots one after the other, just like one after the other the instruments act on the material that is moving on the conveyor belt.

Only, in an assembly line, the ordering and the instruments are fixed, while the metaphor in tennis, every point is a different process and needs a different combination and permutation of your shots.

As a passing remark, it could be mentioned that the "permutation and combination" mentioned above is your "strategy."

Again, if all the instruments are not functioning properly, it is probably not a good idea to work the factory to it's full capacity and aim at the best product quality.

E.g., a boiler might be malfunctioning and you may not be able to use it to heat the usual amount of water that you heat with it. If you use the usual 5L, it heats the water to only 50 degree centigrade instead of the specified 80 degree centigrade. At 50 degrees centigrade, water spoils the emulsion you are going to make with it next.

But now you experiment with it and find that it works fine for a volume of 2L of water. Not what you would like to have on a perfect day, but this will allow you to still make some emulsion.

In such a scenario where things do not work perfectly, what you should do is, calibrate each of the instruments in your assembly line—as in gauge the performance of each of them and decide at what capacity each one will give you acceptable results.

Now operate the whole thing at an agreeable point. Your product quality may be poor, but still you can roll out something, and someone could buy it, whereas if you push for the best performance of each, you could end up blowing up the whole factory.

Similarly, if your shots are not working well on a day, it is not a good idea to push further and compensate for the points lost with more winners.

The shots are mis-firing because something not directly under your control is affecting it, and your practise and training sessions do not seem to have engineered you for this particular situation (mental demons?). You are trying to operate at over-capacity on that day under those circumstances.

So, calibrate.

Take a bit of pace off your forehand, and try to see whether you can reach some acceptable consistency when less is asked of it.

Do not try hard on those down-the-line back-hands. Go for the cross-court.

Stop aiming for the lines for the time being. Maybe if you aim a foot or two inside, you may make it.

Hit with a bit more of net-clearance and make the opponent play.

In short bring down the quality on your shots, so that you don't "ruin the product."

When you are going for more and more, it is similar to asking a tool to perform beyond it's limits.

It is like asking your laptop to play like the Deep Thought.

There is a difference between a ruined product, and a cheap product. There could be cheaper products out there. But not a "more ruined one."

There is a difference between self-destructing and playing below one's best.

For all you care, you could win!