Achieving Balance

Sportscasters say some stupid things.

I know that because I used to be one; and when the action lagged while I was commenting on basketball, ice hockey and American football matches, I sometimes ran out of intelligent things to say. But once in a while, commentators make an enlightened observation.

As you may have guessed from the picture at the top of the page, that’s what happened last week while I was watching Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova play tennis at the French Open. The 29-year-old was trying to reach her fifth grand slam quarter final, which is the farthest she has ever progressed in the majors.

But because she won two junior grand slam titles and was the junior number one, the male commentator asked his

British side-kick if she thought the Russian was an under achiever as a professional. Not a bad question, but I thought Jo Durie’s response was far better.

The former tennis pro who reached number five in the world said, “that depends on what you value in life.” Then she said Pavlyuchenkova doesn’t do all the things many top professionals do to get the best out of their games. “She doesn’t spend five hours every day practising and she doesn’t go to bed early every night while she is on tour.

“But she does have fun, and she is one of the most popular players on the circuit… and she has managed to make $10 million in prize money.” That’s over P100 million. So, on the one hand, you have players like Rafael Nadal, Novak Djokovic, Roger Federer and Serena Williams, who

FOCUSED: on the big picture stick to strict training regimes so they can try to add to the 97 major titles they have already won between them. And on the other, you have Pavlyuchenkova and others, such as retired three-time grand slam champ, Marat Safin, who train enough to compete at the top level but don’t let their sport dominate their lives.

The first group have fame and more money than they will ever be able to spend, while the second have less fame, more privacy and a lot less money; but it’s still more than they will ever be able to spend… and they have a lot more time to try to spend it.

So, which life would you choose? And, which life would you want for your child if he or she were a tennis star? I mean, would you really want them to travel the world playing tennis and not experience the cultures of the countries they visit?

But I’m not just talking about how people with ridiculous amounts of talent should use it. I’m talking about the dangers of obsessive behaviour and about the importance of keeping an eye on the bigger picture so we can appreciate our achievements without the need to measure ourselves against the best.

That route leads to disappointment, because there will almost always be someone better than we are at anything we do. Even Djokovic, Federer and Nadal can’t figure it out, and Williams is still trying to prove she is better than players from the past.

Their battles provide great entertainment, but they come at a cost; so, we might be wise to prefer Pavlyuchenkova as a role model.