YOGA TENNIS

Emerging tense and defeated from battle on the tennis court, a player hears a soft voice from the sidelines saying, "Your opponent is not your enemy, but your friend, who brings resources out of you by challenge."

With a tone of profoundness equal to that of Kung Fu, it adds, "Your true enemy is the distracted mind which knows fear and expectation and doesn't live in the present."

The instructor is Baba Rick Champion, Scottsdale resident who is probably the nation's foremost authority on Yoga Tennis. Sometimes referred to as Zen Tennis, the concept had its birth through Champion and is spreading like wildfire throughout the tennis world.

Wearing a white turban (to cut down noise and protect the temples), the bearded expert explains, "The basic premise is that you approach each tennis shot in your own way, and, more importantly that you keep your mind from fighting your body."

He adds, "We presuppose that once the mind's eye has formed an image of what a shot looks and feels like, the body's natural movements will duplicate this image as long as your mind doesn't fight your physical instincts. The key ele-ment is to be able to form the correct image in the mind's eye and have all relative parts of the body remember what they need to do to achieve the correct image."

Champion is no newcomer to the tennis world. He played tennis for Michigan State University and has 18 years of experience as a teaching pro. He realized the potential of the Yoga Tennis concept in the spring of 1971, when he agreedto teach tennis to his friend Baba Don Singh, a Sikh yoga master in Phoenix. In exchange for tennis lessons, Baba Don taught him yoga.

"I was amazed at the speed with which Baba Don became a fantastic tennis player, so we started experimenting with the yoga-tennis concept. Yoga concentrates the body and mind into a single oneness. We discovered this is really great whenapplied to tennis," reveals the lanky athlete.

Others discovered how great it is too when Champion began teaching Yoga Tennis classes through the parks and recreation departments of Phoenix and Scottsdale. As interest grew, he established a three-court Yoga Tennis Center in Scottsdale and did a stint as a teacher at John Gardiner's Tennis Ranch.

He begins his classes with brief meditation to help students "get it together." Then everyone does a variety of yoga exercises designed to loosen up particular parts of the body which are especially used in tennis. Next they meditate on a specific movement demonstrated by Baba Rick. Then they move to the tennis courts and put it all into action.

Champion's calm, reassuring voice allows the student to feel or sense a fault. The player learns to think of hitting a tennis ball as a continuous series of motions by the racquet and body. "If the pupil tries too hard, the mind will end up Negating what the body knows how to do already," he explains.

In addition to yoga, Champion's classes utilize aspects of tai chi, the moving meditation, and aikido. "I'm really teaching self-awareness awareness through sports, with tennis as the vehicle," says the soft-spoken expert. He maintains that through this concept his students (businessmen, women and children) learn how to relax and get more out of life.

Since Zen Tennis has caught on in the tennis world, Champion has been on national television, conducted classes at the Esalen Sports Seminar (conducted last spring by the Esalen Institute in San Francisco) and written a book on the subject.

He is in demand to conduct clinics and classes throughout the state. Arizona State University will offer a Yoga Tennis course this year, taught by Champion who is currently instruct-ing ASU tennis team members in the concept.

Champion's book, "Yoga Tennis, Awareness Through Sports," is a how-to book which contains many photographs and details the concepts and deeper the philosophy behind Yoga Tennis.