Yesterday, I had my semi-private tennis lesson with my sister. Our teacher is strict, and his words are harsh and scolding, but he pays a lot of attention to his teaching. He really wants us to improve and cares for us. His only problem is the way he teaches.
My sister naturally doesn’t like him. She is the type of person who has extreme anger emotions and it’s hard for her to control, sometimes. She isn’t very focused, and once someone says something bad about how she’s doing something, she hates doing it.
For example, she was having trouble with her forehand and backhand swing, and my teacher scolded her. She got extremely irritated, and her swing just got worse and worse, because she didn’t even want to try due to the teacher’s scolding.
On the way back, the matter was discussed very seriously. My mom (who is very wise) taught my sister a lesson: to use her emotions to her advantage. My sister’s anger, she said, could be turned into power. Since she was so angry at tennis, she could rather grit her teeth and tell herself, “I am so going to be better at this.”
So I used that.
Today I practiced guzheng. My teacher (who can be overenthusiastic and optimistic and have high expectations) assigned me a song that was, like, 3 levels too hard for me. She expected me to play that song for a performance that is going to be in three weeks.
It was my first day practicing today because we were far too busy moving (which I will cover in another post at some point) on Wednesday and Thursday (I had the lesson on Tuesday).
It was far, far too hard. I have only just learned the yaozhi for about two weeks or so, and the entire song is full of it. There is also even more payin, which the teacher only taught me last class. After I was about halfway through my first run of the song today, I was getting extremely frustrated. Then at some point I remembered what my mother had told my sister yesterday.
So yes, I’m planning on mastering that song, thank you very much.
Use anger to your advantage.
my mom
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