Swing Tab order

I've been having a problem using custom focus traversal policies. Basically, I have a frame with some components, one of which is a panel that contains other components. I want to use the frames focus traversal policy to tab through it's components, until it reaches the panel. At that point, I would like the panel to be able to control its own focus cycle. Once the last component in the panel is reached, I would like the next component that receives focus to be the component designated to follow the panel by the frames focus traversal policy. I've searched this forum and found lots of similiar problems spread throughout many threads. Here's one solution I came up with...

import javax.swing.*;
import java.awt.*;

public class focusExample extends JFrame {
   protected JTextField tf1, tf2, tf3, tf4, tf5, tf6;
   protected MyPanel panel;
   protected MyFocusTraversalPolicy focusTraversalPolicy;
  
   public focusExample() {
       tf1 = new JTextField(10);
       tf2 = new JTextField(10);
       tf3 = new JTextField(10);
       tf4 = new JTextField(10);
       tf5 = new JTextField(10);
       tf6 = new JTextField(10);
       panel = new MyPanel();
      
       getContentPane().setLayout(new FlowLayout());
      
       this.getContentPane().add(tf1);
       this.getContentPane().add(tf2);
       this.getContentPane().add(tf3);
       this.getContentPane().add(panel);
       this.getContentPane().add(tf4);
       this.getContentPane().add(tf5);
       this.getContentPane().add(tf6);
      
       focusTraversalPolicy = new MyFocusTraversalPolicy();
       setFocusTraversalPolicy(focusTraversalPolicy);
      
       pack();
       setVisible(true);
   }
  
   public class MyFocusTraversalPolicy extends FocusTraversalPolicy {
       public Component getComponentAfter(Container focusCycleRoot, Component aComponent) {
           if(aComponent.equals(tf1)) return tf2;
           else if(aComponent.equals(tf2)) return tf3;
           else if(aComponent.equals(tf3)) return panel.getFocusTraversalPolicy().getDefaultComponent(panel);
           else if(panel.isAncestorOf(aComponent)){
               if(aComponent.equals(panel.getFocusTraversalPolicy().getLastComponent(panel))) return tf4;
               else return panel.getFocusTraversalPolicy().getComponentAfter(panel, aComponent);
           }
           else if(aComponent.equals(tf4)) return tf5;
           else if(aComponent.equals(tf5)) return tf6;
           else return tf1;
       }
      
       public Component getComponentBefore(Container focusCycleRoot, Component aComponent) {
           if(aComponent.equals(tf6)) return tf5;
           else if(aComponent.equals(tf5)) return tf4;
           else if(aComponent.equals(tf4)) return panel.getFocusTraversalPolicy().getLastComponent(panel);
           else if(panel.isAncestorOf(aComponent)){
               if(aComponent.equals(panel.getFocusTraversalPolicy().getFirstComponent(panel))) return tf3;
               else return panel.getFocusTraversalPolicy().getComponentBefore(panel, aComponent);
           }
           else if(aComponent.equals(tf3)) return tf2;
           else if(aComponent.equals(tf2)) return tf1;
           else return tf6;
       }
      
       public Component getDefaultComponent(Container focusCycleRoot) {
           return tf1;
       }
      
       public Component getFirstComponent(Container focusCycleRoot) {
           return tf1;
       }
      
       public Component getLastComponent(Container focusCycleRoot) {
           return tf6;
       }
   }

   public class MyPanel extends JPanel {
       protected JTextField tf1, tf2, tf3;
       protected FocusTraversalPolicy focusTraversalPolicy;
      
       public MyPanel() {
           tf1 = new JTextField(10);
           tf2 = new JTextField(10);
           tf3 = new JTextField(10);
          
           this.add(tf3);
           this.add(tf2);
           this.add(tf1);
          
           focusTraversalPolicy = new FocusTraversalPolicy() {
               public Component getComponentAfter(Container focusCycleRoot, Component aComponent) {
                   if(aComponent.equals(tf1)) return tf2;
                   else if(aComponent.equals(tf2)) return tf3;
                   else return tf1;
               }
              
               public Component getComponentBefore(Container focusCycleRoot, Component aComponent) {
                   if(aComponent.equals(tf3)) return tf2;
                   else if(aComponent.equals(tf2)) return tf1;
                   else return tf3;
               }
              
               public Component getDefaultComponent(Container focusCycleRoot) {
                   return tf1;
               }
              
               public Component getFirstComponent(Container focusCycleRoot) {
                   return tf1;
               }
              
               public Component getLastComponent(Container focusCycleRoot) {
                   return tf3;
               }
           };
       }
      
       public FocusTraversalPolicy getFocusTraversalPolicy() {
           return focusTraversalPolicy;
       }
   }
  
   public static void main(String args[]) {
       new focusExample();
   }
} 

This also works if MyPanel is defined in another file. By default, Container's getFocusTraversalPolicy() will return null if a call to isFocusCycleRoot() on the container returns false. In MyPanel, getFocusTraversalPolicy() is overridden to return the focus traversal policy even if the panel is not a focus cycle root. This allows the frame the panel is on access to the panel's focus traversal policy. You should over-ride getFocusTraversalPolicy() in any subclasses of container that you add to your frame, or you'll get a null-pointer exception when calling panel.getFocusTraversalPolicy(). I'm unsure about any side effects from over-ridding getFocusTraversalPolicy(); if anyone knows of any problems this may cause, please lte me know.