We will begin today by performing the impossible. The impossible, that is, to our conscious minds! You may be surprised to discover that what our conscious thinking finds preposterous, our unconscious thinking finds perfectly reasonable, even necessary, when we play tennis. Now, what I am about to tell you is the true and functional reality of tennis. Fasten your seatbelt, stay objective and come along for the ride. And rigid, forced, cookie-cutter mechanics do not fit into our paradigm, so leave the conventional thinking at the gate.
 
First, imagine yourself playing out a point on the tennis court. The ball is flying back and forth across the net, rocketing between you and your opponent. Now think about this: When, exactly, do you determine how you will hit each shot? Have you a plan mapped out ahead of time, each precise mechanic ready and waiting to be executed? No, obviously your opponent and the ball are too unpredictable for that. The truth is, the exact mechanics of each stroke are not determined until you are just about to hit the ball. Your brain, as you are lining up to hit a shot, is calculating the ball trajectory, speed, and spin while incorporating your body position, balance, timing and a host of other intricate details. You have a few brief, fleeting moments to analyze all these things, and then you execute the stroke necessary for that particular shot. Do you really believe you are performing this mind-boggling act with a perfect, pre-planned, repeatable, robot-like stroke? I don't think so!
 
I know this appears impossible. You may even be wondering, "Who can be smart or quick enough to analyze instantaneously, spontaneously, on the spot like that?" The answer: You are! You perform these mental miracles every time you hit a tennis ball. How else do you explain some of the shots you hit that landed in the court? Do you think you did everything by the book? Of course not. The exact mechanics of your stroke were determined by the needs of that specific shot, in that particular moment. In other words, you figured out what to do on the fly. The pros do this too! They have an unlimited number of strokes that develop according to the moment.
 
In a few magical moments, you calculate, decide, analyze, and perform. How do I know this? Besides seeing it happen in my students and experiencing it myself, Rafael Nadal told me! With these new thoughts in mind, read this brief excerpt from his book (Rafa, 2011 ed., page 6):
 

"You might think that after the millions and millions of balls I've hit, I'd have the basic shots of tennis sown up, that reliably hitting a true, smooth, clean shot every time would be a piece of cake. But it isn't. Not just because every day you wake up feeling differently, but because every shot is different; every single one.
 
"From the moment the ball is in motion, it comes at you at an [infinite] number of angles and speeds; with more topspin, or backspin, or flatter, or higher. The differences might be minute, microscopic, but so are the variations your body makes - shoulders, elbow, wrists, hips, ankles, knees - in every shot.
 
"And there are so many other factors - the weather, the surface, the rival. No ball arrives the same as another; no shot is identical. So every time you line up to hit a shot, you have to make a split-second judgment as to the trajectory and speed of the ball and then make a split-second decision as to how, how hard, and where you must try to hit the shot back.
 
"And you have to do that over and over, often fifty times in a game, fifteen times in twenty seconds, in continual bursts more than two, three, four hours, and all the time you're running hard and your nerves are taut; it's when your coordination is right and the tempo is smooth that the good sensations come, that you are better able to manage the biological and mental feat of striking the ball cleanly in the middle of the racket and aiming it true, at speed and under immense mental pressure, time after time. And of one thing I have no doubt: the more you train, the better your feeling."