Tennis Improvement Memo 560. Why do the world's top players 'give up' now? -- Hints from great comeback stories and the Nobel Prize ceremony (Part 1 of the series)

Whether it's the king of comebacks Fritz or Nobel laureate in Chemistry Professor Susumu Kitagawa, what they chose was the kind of 'giving up' that 'clarifies what you are and aren't suited for.' It's okay to have things you dislike or aren't good at. If you develop what you like and what you're good at, a path will open up—this obvious fact is made clear by examples from the top.Practical hints on 'giving up = clarifying' that will save those who are struggling right now.

▶ Fritz and Susumu Kitagawa—The two who embodied 'giving up = clarifying'

HereRegarding Fritz's 'giving up' in the #1 great comeback of the 2025 Grand Slam, which I covered in, I thought Professor Susumu Kitagawa of Kyoto University, a Nobel Prize winner in Chemistry, put it perfectly.

It is said that he was very busy with official duties, such as visiting the Nobel Museum in Sweden prior to the award ceremony.

He visited a local Japanese supplementary school and spoke to the children.

This is what 'giving up' means.

The etymology of 'akirameru' (to give up) is 'to clarify', wasn't it.

▶ If you don't obsess over what you dislike or aren't good at, your effort efficiency will be maximized

We are not supermen.

Because we are human, it is natural to have likes and dislikes, strengths and weaknesses.

Among them, give up on (clarify) what you dislike or aren't good at, and thoroughly pursue what you like and are good at.

I have conveyed that this is the power of giving up (the efficiency of producing the maximum result with the minimum effort) (Related article: 'Time, physical strength, mental energy, and money are finite'). If Fritz had obsessed over the set he lost, he wouldn't have been able to take the next one.



Because he quickly gave up on it, he was able to focus entirely on the current and future points (Related article: ''Don't get carried away, don't get depressed'—In life, sets are also resets').

▶ The grass is always greener on the other side. But the blue bird is right here

If he had denied his blue-collar skills, saying things like 'there's no talent in just being fast,' and had aimed for Wall Street while longing for a white-collar job, it is not certain whether he could have become the best in the world (Related article: 'Would you still aim for 'Wall Street'?').

But because the grass on the other side looks greener, longing for strengths and charms you don't have and going out on a 'soul-searching' journey is the 'psychology of looking too hard for the blue bird' (Related article: 'A book that had no point in highlighting with a 'red line'').

Everyone already possesses the seeds of their own strengths and charms.

As long as you don't engage in self-denial.

▶ Professor Susumu Kitagawa who enjoyed himself without going to 'cram school'

What Mr. Kitagawa calls 'what you love'.

I think it doesn't matter whether it becomes a job or not, let alone whether it makes money or not, or whether you can win an award or not; it is fine either way.

Rather than what you do it for, the act of doing it itself enriches your life (Related article: "The 'only two' things to improve at tennis").

Since there is (surely) no purpose to life, if you can spend it happily, that is enough.

Even if I say happily, it doesn't just mean laughing out loud (Related article: "Aren't you always with a 'liar'?").

Even when listening to a melancholic ballad, you aren't listening to it because you want to feel miserable, but to 'enjoy' it, right?

If you think of it that way (if you view it objectively), you can enjoy any emotion, whether joy, anger, sorrow, or pleasure (Related article: "Feel emotions, but don't become emotional").

By the way, according to Mr. Kitagawa,

he says.

The related article is "The correlation between children who can do it without going to cram school and Anseonishiki's rapid promotion".

To be continued in Part 2 of the series.

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