Friday, August 5, 2011

Tennis Quote of the Day: The Value of Hope

"The most valuable commodity a competitor can possess when things are going wrong is hope. Confidence or self-belief . . . is not always achievable nor is it always realistic. But hope is always both . . . denying its existence, regardless of the situation on court, is just plain wrong. Hope . . . is always a correct and available emotional state, [and] hopelessness is [always] false. The question of victory or defeat in a tennis match is always a matter of probabilities, not certainties. Regardless of how far behind you may be, your probability of victory is never zero until the last point is played or you quit. Thus, hope for victory is always reasonable . . . never impossible. Maintaining hope under all circumstances is the true competitor's unalterable obligation."

--- Allen Fox, Ph.D. (Psychology), From: Tennis: Winning the Mental Match
, (Kearney, NE: Morris Publishing, 2010), Chapter 11, Pages 121-122.(Available on Amazon.com)

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