
There are 16 state champions, 4 for the team, 7 for singles, 5 for doubles, we’ve played in the state championship match in singles, doubles or team tennis a total of 24 times in the 22 years that we’ve been there. There’s been 66 possible events during those 22 years that were for state champions so that’s a good rate of progressing to the final match. I’ve taught in public schools, I’ve taught in parochial schools and I’ve taught in this private school, Maharishi school, what I notice is the alertness for what I put forth as a teacher, whether it’s in my classroom in world history or on the tennis court, the alertness and receptivity and the wakeful kind of preparedness for what I have to say and what I have to give is much higher when the players or the students in my classroom have gotten rid of their fatigue and strain before coming and so without any question at all, 'cause I’ve taught fifteen thousand people how to play tennis for example, and by now it's clear to me that the ability to take in what I have and use it for growth is much higher when the players, the young players, have meditated and they've gotten rid of fatigue and tension when they’ve gotten rid of the tiredness that clouds their perception it makes a huge difference on what they can retain. Well you know the prevailing paradigm in sports generally, from a coaching stamp is often no pain no gain, and the notion behind that I think is disputed by the actual findings that people tend to have repetitive overuse injuries, they tend to burn out, they tend to overextend themselves and end up less productive as players. The approach we take is a different paradigm and it's, we could say that it's train without strain, you know invest in rest the invest in rest to gain success in sports and it means in tennis terms when I take a look at an hour of tennis, an hour long tennis match it's the actual fact that forty five minutes of that hour are not playing tennis, fifteen minutes is actually hitting tennis balls and chasing them, getting them back-and-forth so in the forty five minutes when we are not playing tennis time between points, time between games, time on change overs, time between sets, the person who is able to recharge his physiology, to replenish you know what's needed physically speaking and also who can recover emotionally and mentally from the challenge whether it’s the over exhilaration of having hit the greatest shot in his life or the disappointment of having lost a close game or close set the person who can recover emotionally is going to stand the best chance then physically and emotionally to play better when they're actually hitting the ball in those fifteen minutes out of the hour of a tennis match. So my emphasis then is on training to use those gaps, to gain mastery of the gaps, to take advantage of the opportunity to rest to return the physiology to a steady-state, to do so on the basis, to play then on the basis of balance and not on the basis of being so overly pumped up that fuses their short. I like to say that if you're going to play in the zone it helps to live there first, helps to live in the zone first to play in the zone and having a physiology that's balanced that's does not have fatigue and strain dominating the day, that doesn't need red bull to get through the you know that the test that you have to take it doesn't need any kind of artificial emotional over stimulation to get ready to play but is just geared for athletics through gradual and balanced training is going to a find the best chance for success out on the court. Our emphasis is actually always on the process of improvement and not on the outcome. You know there are a lot of trophies in our trophy case, a lot of banners hanging from the walls, but they've been a secondary emphasis, our primary emphasis is on simply the process of improvement, my notion is if we commit ourselves to continuous improvement, the outcomes, the trophies, the tournament victories will take care of themselves and so far they have. You have to be able to play all day so it's an aerobic sport you have to have hand-eye coordination but all of those things being present will not guarantee a person plays good tennis. I think having an even keel, having the ability to recover from disappointment, having the wherewithal to respond in a balanced manner to success actually form a larger component of who’ll make, who will be a good tennis player and who won’t. That's why I think the off court training of getting rid of stress and the taking advantage of the times when we're not actually hitting the ball during a match give a leg up to the player who can regain balance and maintain it during a match, so I would work on the life skills and on the overall physiological foundation for an emotional even keel first to make a champion and along with that of course I have to have somebody who can run and who can hit.