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Loose and Tight Thinking
How adaptability and stable thinking emerges, collides, and the place best suited for each type
Recently I’ve been getting back into tennis, and I started watching a bunch of matches of the Big 3 boys: Federer, Nadal, and Djokovic. As an amateur I was simply watching out of interest (and maybe hoping to absorb some skills from osmosis) so the actual skill is a little beyond me, but one thing that was very apparent were their differences in play style. Federer has this elegant kind of style where his movement and strokes are very fluid, especially his signature backhand swing. Nadal is packed with energy from his warm-ups to his tick of touching his nose and ears to his scream when he swings. And Djokovic, the new king, has a what I consider a military kind of style where his footsteps, stance, and his double-handed backhand feel weighted despite how quickly he moves. They’re all considered legendary, but each of them got there in their own way, crafting and perfecting their own style.
This concept of various styles of approaching a task, a problem, or, in this case, a game has always been fascinating. Everyone is basically doing the same thing in each case, like hitting the ball over a net, yet somehow there is always room to put a unique spin on things. Typically, this kind of variety is very evident and apparent when it comes to sports or art. In dance or music, for…
