The Art of Conversation:
“Tennis and the Art of Conversation”
I have come to enjoy conversing with people I don’t know. I get a lot of practice. I live in a holiday resort where for six months
of the year the population of the village changes every two weeks.
There is actually a simple technique for talking to strangers: stop thinking in terms of conversational success or failure, and think
of conversation as a game rather than an art. Do that, and chatting to someone you don’t know becomes fun. 
Think of conversation as a game of tennis, played for no other reason than to enjoy yourself. To play tennis for fun, you want to keep
the rallies going. You need to hit the ball over the net in a way that makes it easy for your partner to hit it back.
So lets look at this conversational tennis match with a variety of different partners.
Play a game of tennis with someone who just wants a fun knock around and you’ll have a great time. You’ll miss the ball sometimes and so will they,
but you’ll both laugh and neither of you will want to stop. Most people you meet are like this because most people just want to enjoy the game.
Play a game of tennis with someone who wants to show you how good they are and you’ll never be able to hit the ball back. It’s not your fault; some
people are just like that, but thankfully they are quite rare. Usually your partner is just as pleased as you are that there’s no competitive element to this game.
Play a game with a tennis coach and he’ll work with you, at your level, teasing out your strengths and weaknesses, marvelling at the most mediocre of shots and somehow
bringing your standard up. Such people make chatting a simple pleasure.
Play a game of tennis with my dog Gracie and the ball will never come back. You’ll hit it over the net and she’ll run off and bury it. The rally grinds to a halt.
Once again, it’s not your fault. Gracie is a just a kind loveable creature who will never win a Grand Slam title.
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