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You Don't Know what you Don't Know - A Tennis and Investing Lesson

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The last time I wrote about tennis was defending against Tom Wilkinson and his spinning lefty serve.  I decided that my serve could use some help, so I arranged a lesson with Arvin Aravindhan, Director of Tennis at Julian Krinsky School of Tennis and Director of Tennis and the owner of AJ Tennis Enterprises.  

Top Level Professional 

Arvin is a top-level tennis instructor and a fun person as well.  We worked on two items in my lesson: The topspin backhand and the serve.   He insisted that I emphasize the low to high upswing on the backhand.   As we practiced, I was delighted to discover that I could swing harder and have the ball still land inside the baseline.  With my old backhand, the balls would fly past the baseline, and I would lose the point.   

Great Advice 

Next, Arvin examined my service motion.  He observed me serving about twenty times, and then he put me in a telephone booth.  Remember telephone booths?  In the age of cell phones, they are now hard to find.  Once he put me in the phone booth, he told me to toss the ball to the upper right corner, which meant that I would be striking the ball a little to the right of my body.  The reason for tossing to the right (I am a righty) is because the pivot point moves to the right when you turn your shoulder and strike the ball.  It allows for a much more natural swing because the ball is now in front of your right shoulder.  This ball toss allowed me to hit more consistently and accurately than I had before, and it felt very comfortable.  It even made it easier to put a slice on the service, which allows for better control while making it more difficult for my opponent to return. 

Investment Analogy 

Here is the investment analogy:  “You do not know what you do not know.”  As simple as it was to toss the ball slightly to the right to improve my serve, I may never have discovered that on my own.  Carl Richard, one of the excellent pros at the club, said to me as I was leaving: “There are two types of good tennis players.  Those who take lessons and those who don’t.”   I knew what he meant—those who take instruction get better.  A good investment advisor or financial planner may show you something you might not have seen before, making you a better investor and giving you a better life. 

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