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Gonzales, Pancho - I had the power to will the double fault
Identifier
002464
Type of Spiritual Experience
Background
Now for something relatively recent and a little different. Barry Tarshis in ‘Tennis and the Mind’ [1977] described how Pancho Gonzales seem to be able to emit ‘vibrations’ that would unsettle opponents and critically affect the outcome of a match.
A description of the experience
Pancho Gonzales
I can’t say exactly what it was but sometimes I could look across the court – and see something in the other player’s eyes that gave me a feeling he was worried about double faulting. So I would maybe shade over a little bit to my forehand on the second serve and a lot of times he would double fault. I got to the point where I felt as if I had the power almost to will the double fault