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nick's tennis experiment 2024!
From September 2024 Newsletter
In January, I launched a pilot version of a programme designed to teach and support junior tennis players with feeling calm and relaxed under competition pressure so they can play better and enjoy their matches more. It's called TRICT (Totally Relaxed In Competitive Tennis).
In recent years, I have absorbed and continue to absorb a wealth of the latest knowledge and research on human science, to the point I felt ready to launch TRICT amongst a small group of my current students.
Knowing that I myself have a history of being a total nut job on court (confidence issues, not managing nerves, and putting pressure of myself), it suddenly dawned on me that I couldn't be serious about this if I couldn't fix my own issues with it, so in March I hit the tournament circuit with the goal of doing just that! Find out further down how it went!
Firstly, the short answers to the important questions:
Biologically, is playing competitive tennis a natural and mentally healthy activity for humans to do? NO
Can playing competitive tennis develop valuable skills for both juniors and adults? YES
Is it possible to feel happy and totally relaxed in the tightest possible match situations? YES
We are a product of evolution, and human beings are currently designed for life as it was many years ago. Back then, any situation that involved competing against another human, or animal, would often have had serious consequences for the loser, even death. Our brains therefore automatically fire up the fight or flight response whenever we are in a situation that involves competing against another human. If 'flight' was an option in the old days, that's normally the one that was taken, so that the risk of severe injury or death was averted. When it comes to tennis, players will seldom respond to their anxiety and stress by fleeing. Could you imagine a player literally running out of the club as fast as they can when their match is called?! We don't see it, but quite often players might feel like doing it, but instead they have to endure these feelings on court.
Therefore, competitive tennis is not a mentally healthy activity for humans, and even less so for juniors, who are often poorly equipped to deal with the stresses of it.
This is where training the mental/emotional side is so important, because as much as the junior tennis circuit can be a stressful place for kids to be, it's also potentially the most incredible source of education of valuable life skills, far better than any schools! However, if you keep sending kids into a stressful environment without the necessary support to handle and thrive in it, they won't progress in tennis or in life, and will likely quit the sport at the end of puberty, perhaps holding resentment at what they were put through. Others will keep at it, and play to a high level without any lasting scars, but also without the full array of positive life education that they could have taken away from their experience.
Remember, our brains cannot understand that tennis matches are not a life or death situation. They send signals of anxiety and stress to try and help alert us to the danger of a threat that doesn't exist, because in the old days, that alert will often have saved us from harm. Our brains are also very adaptable and malleable at all ages, so we CAN train them to not send these signals or at least tone them right down to something easily manageable that allows us to enjoy our time on the competitive match court, and consequently play a higher level and win more matches, especially close matches.
I have proved this, much to my own surprise, after just the first 5 tournaments that I played this year. In my second tournament, I found myself openly smiling at 11-11 in the deciding champions tie-break against the No.1 seed, because I was genuinely enjoying the moment so much. I won it 13-11. I have written up all my tournament experiences on the TRICT pages of my website (only available to those on the programme), but here's an excerpt from the main draw final of my 5th tournament:
I walked back from the changing rooms, the trophies were on a table (big one for the winner, and a smaller version of the same trophy for the runner-up). Deep down of course I would like to be getting the bigger one, but as I walked past them, I genuinely didn't mind which one I ended up with. I was completely calm, relaxed and happy, I had total clarity on my tactics, and I was genuinely excited to play a tie-break for the title. I didn't realise it at that moment, but I had achieved the perfect mindset to give me the best chance of playing well and winning.
It was a crazy match, and I'm happy to send you the whole, quite long, match review (just email me), but if you want to know what happened next, I lost the first point of the tie-break, and then won the next 10 in a row to win my first tournament for 10 years. Trophy in the picture!
2 weeks later, in my 7th tournament, I was in another match tie-break in the semi-final of a smaller event, and I bottled it, all the classic mental frailty you can imagine! Just like Alcaraz with his uncharacteristic racket smash in Cincinnati this summer, it's not easy to consistently get things right in your head for every single match you play, but that is still the goal both for myself and my students.
Awareness is the key. After my semi-final loss, my awareness was strong enough to immediately gain total clarity on what went wrong, and what I needed to do to fix it. I tested this 15 minutes later in the 3rd place play-off match, and played my best level all summer winning 4-0 4-0. The experiment continues, and I look forward to my next tournament!
For the first time in my life, I feel fully tooled up with the necessary knowledge and skills to achieve a calm and relaxed state in matches that allows me to enjoy them fully and play well. I've proved it works in live tournament play, and now I want to prove it can be taught to players of all ages and standards, and that is an exciting ongoing process!
TRICT continues as a pilot programme, but will likely be fully launched and available to everyone at some point in the future (watch this space).
who should actually take the credit for sporting successes?
The answer is not what you might think! - From September 2024 Newsletter
So, I've trained a player in all aspects of the game, I've spent years working with them. I've mentally prepared them for the upcoming tournament, I've warmed them up before the match, I've discussed tactics, I've sat court-side supporting them, encouraging them, helping them when things get tough, and they get over the line, they win the tournament! I'm literally a God, or am I?
How much credit should I take for that success? Barely anything is the answer. How much credit should the player take? It's the same answer, barely anything! There are way too many people who have contributed to that moment of success, for any one person to justifiably take any more than a tiny chunk of the credit for it. It's important for junior players, their parents, and coaches, to understand this truth, because it promotes all-round well-being and a healthy mindset.
No-one achieves anything by themselves in this life. We have to learn so much, and everything we learn is as a direct result of other human beings, and without them, we wouldn't be able to learn what we have. Therefore, believing you have achieved something all by yourself is like living in a false reality.
When the credit is shared, as it should be, amongst all those who were part of the success, it's much healthier all round, because it subdues the ego, promotes humility, and fuels longer lasting feelings of happiness and satisfaction.
The science is crystal clear, humans are not designed to achieve things by themselves, because we are social animals, who thrive from doing and achieving things together. We have a deep connection to other human beings that should be understood, embraced, celebrated, and enjoyed.
Sadly, we live in a world that often encourages and rewards the opposite. Social media intensifies that by conditioning us to be materialistic, judgemental, boastful, and petty, and to seek glory as quantified by the number of likes and followers. Science has also proved beyond all doubt that people who identify strongly with their achievements, status, and financial wealth, are generally not happy, and not mentally well, compared to everyone else.
Getting accustomed to the idea that there are loads and loads of people who deserve credit for every success you have, is not only a healthier way to view it, it's reality. In a world where truth and reality are being eroded more than ever, that becomes more important. Let's look at all these people who are part of every tennis tournament win that one of my player's achieves. Who are they?
Let's start with me, the coach. I wouldn't have the coaching knowledge and skills that I have, if it wasn't for the influence and actions of so many other people. My parents, who brought me up. My family, friends, and mentors, who all offered me different perspectives on life. My coaches who facilitated my desire to learn and play the game, my school teachers, who taught me so much about all aspects of life. My past and present employers, who gave me the opportunities to teach tennis, and develop my skills. My course tutors who facilitated the opportunity for me to learn and grow as a coach. My past students who have given me priceless valuable experience that helps me to keep getting better. Then there's my tennis guru, John Yandell. A big chunk of my coaching knowledge has come from spending endless hours studying his website. I have to then credit all the important people who shaped John's life, and all the lives of the many contributors who have added to the wealth of knowledge on his site. Then there are the countless authors of books, magazines, articles, podcasts, and videos, that have all allowed me to keep developing as a coach, and all the important influences in those people's lives that lead to them producing those sources of quality information.
We are literally talking about thousands of people who have contributed in no small way to me being the person and the tennis coach that I am today, which has in turn enabled me to help that player win that tournament. It's a beautiful and liberating thought to think 'we did this together', and literally be referring to thousands of people!
That's just me the coach, so what about the player? For junior players, there is usually a huge influence from the parents on shaping that player's journey, and helping them acquire the skills to perform at tennis to the level they do. Of course, the parents will have acquired a big knowledge database to help with that, which will have involved a huge number of different people. Then there are family, friends, mentors, teachers, and role models who will all have contributed to shaping that junior player into who they are. There are also present and former coaches, present and former clubs and training venues, and all the people involved in making those people and places who and what they are.
Every time you step onto court to play a match, you're only able to do it because of thousands of other people, and they are all with you in that moment. Acknowledge them and feel their support, because the power of support is huge, and that's because it's an essential human need. You can feel that connection and support the same, regardless of whether some of those people are physically with you at a tournament or not. That's because feeling connected to others comes from within, not from their actions or physical presence.
Pro players and top performers in all disciplines know this, which is why every single pro tour winner's speech ever, involves the player saying they couldn't have done it without the support of their parents, their family, their friends, their coaches and mentors, and often loads of other people too. They'll often recount important historical moments and people along their journey. They're only scratching the surface in these speeches, but then they only have a few minutes to speak!
It might not seem obvious, it might not feel this way, but the truth is the idea of achieving something by yourself is delusional and unhealthy. Step away from it if you're too close!
how every sports club/business/company should be run!
From May 2024 Newsletter
George Elokobi: On 27th January 2024, minnows Maidstone Utd travelled to Ipswich Town for an FA Cup tie. Ipswich had 78% possession, 38 goal attempts (25 on target), and 11 corners. Maidstone had 2 shots on goal and no corners, but they won the match 2-1. Their manager, George Elokobi, said this afterwards:
When I came into the job, I set out to empower everyone around me, my staff. You know, my staff is me, without them, I'm not able to do what I'm doing. I've empowered every one of my staff, we are very much diverse, in our opinions, and I'll listen. I'm a young manager, I'm still learning. We just wanted to help good people, good players, we treat them as people first, and my staff embodies that for me, and they drive that standard through, and the boys just take it in every single day. When we work, we want them to come in and work, not as jobs but as a hobby, and enjoy themselves, and that's what the environment has been built off.
This touched me, to see someone so connected to the human side of life, and turning that into success and joy in sports. Wouldn't the world be a happier and much better place if everyone was a bit more George Elokobi? Empower people by asking for their thoughts and ideas, understand them by listening properly, and embrace the fact that we always achieve more when we work together and enjoy what we're doing. I've always emphasised building a supportive family community feel at Hawker, and this is a reminder to me why it's so important!
HOW TO SWITCH OFF YOUR INNER VOICE
From May 2024 Newsletter
What is going on when a catchy song you recently listened to is suddenly running through your head? It just happens, we don't initiate it, that little voice in our head, just suddenly decides 'Hey lets recite the lyrics to this song', even if it's an annoying song we don't even like!
The science behind understanding the inner voice is both complex, and quite incomplete, so I'm not even going to try and go deeper into this! If you struggle with an inner voice that is way too active for your liking, or produces unwanted negative thoughts and/or dialogue, I've simply got a brain hack that gives you an understanding of how you can disengage it for a short period of time, and in turn develop a healthier relationship with it.
In tennis, and all competitive activity, our inner voice can often spontaneously produce unhelpful and unwanted negative thoughts and/or dialogue. These can produce or enhance feelings of tension, stress, and anxiety, that affect all competitors to varying degrees, but those feelings might also exist without any inner voice involvement.
Through the very latest science, and my 25 years experience coaching, the best advice currently for competitors is to either accept and welcome this activity without passing judgement on it, OR distance from it through understanding it's coming from your brain and not from you. You could think of it as a computer malfunction, nothing to do with you, but at the same time something you have to experience.
The following knowledge gives us another tool, that allows us to get better at managing our inner voice by asserting some level of control over it by being able to switch it off.
Science has proven that the part of our brain that is in charge of our inner voice CANNOT BE ACTIVE at the same time as the part of our brain that engages in anything that our body is doing/sensing/feeling. The same way a light cannot be on and off at the same time. Therefore, if you activate full engagement in anything your body is doing, your inner voice can't operate and will be silent for as long as you hold that engagement. A few obvious examples:
EYES: Look at something, but properly look at it, notice every detail of what you are looking at.
EARS: Listen to something, but properly listen to it, immerse your hearing in the sound and any variations within it.
ACTION: Any action, like tapping your finger on a desk, will disengage the inner voice, for as long as you are fully engaged in the action you're doing.
BREATH: The obvious one, and very popular in meditation, just focus fully on your breathing, without changing it.
These can all be done by tennis players in between points, but players could still be vulnerable to an inner voice attack during a point, like 'don't miss' when you're lining up a smash! There's no instant cure I know of to handle that immediate threat mid-rally, but work and development on building our mental strength by gaining more authority over our mind, will ensure a healthier relationship with our inner voice, and will reduce the likelihood that it will strike at a critical moment mid-rally, whilst increasing our ability to be able to successfully ignore it if it does happen.
Like so many skills that are very useful for tennis players, better inner voice control is also a valuable and healthy tool for all aspects of life, and could be well worth investing energy into.
how to make faster progress!
From May 2024 Newsletter
Some people are so determined to improve, they spend endless hours working at it, but they make slow progress. Why? Then there are others who can make fast progress without that obsessive desire and full-time commitment. Again, why? - I have some answers, with the help of world class psychologist Adam Grant's latest book!
Firstly, understand how your brain works, and also that you don't need to change drastically, you just have to be honest with yourself, and then you can make the adjustments that will be most beneficial based on how your individual brain currently works.
It's important to be clear that how our brains work will change over time. This happens both naturally (rapid changes occur during teenage years, and slower changes beyond that), and as a result of new information and experiences that we encounter.
How's your brain currently? There's two aspects to this:
How do you seek and absorb new information? Are you reactive or proactive? Reactive means you are fully invested in absorbing new information that comes your way, like in an individual lesson in tennis. Proactive means you will also spend your own time seeking out new information and perspectives, like through reading books and articles on tennis, or watching educational videos.
How does your brain filter new information? Are you ego-driven, or growth driven? Ego restricts your ability to filter new information because you may feel you don't need it. You may dismiss it based only on where/who it has come from, and whether it contradicts your current beliefs. Those with a growth-driven mind will find it easier to be open to new information and to change their learning/training/development/habits as a result.
Let's just pull away from how your brain operates for a moment, and have a look at the 5 most powerful tools to help you get better at the fastest rate. These are applicable to everyone:
1. Understand who's your best teacher: Do they genuinely care about you and want what's best for you? Are they experienced and knowledgeable in the field? Do they know you well? If you have someone who ticks all 3 key factors of care, credibility, and familiarity, then you have found your best teacher.
2. Ask for advice as well as feedback: Feedback tells you how good or not so good you did, advice gives you ideas on how to get better.
3. Get comfortable with imperfection: Life (and tennis) is imperfect, and it's healthy and beneficial to accept and embrace that.
4. Get comfortable with being uncomfortable: Going out of your comfort zone is what elevates your rate of progress. For example: Do lots of training drills (comfortable), then make them more difficult so they cause you to break down and make mistakes (uncomfortable). Read books and watch videos (comfortable), but then make detailed notes on the things you learned from them (uncomfortable).
5. Make the process fun: It's normal to have a dislike for difficult and/or boring repetitive activities. That's because they are difficult and/or boring! The point is effective tools/training/drills can be made more fun with a bit of playful creativity. Fun whilst training will help fuel growth and development.
Let's now go back to those 4 categories and see which of the key points is most relevant to each one.
Ego-driven and reactive: These people can get trapped in a protective bubble that short circuits learning, and causes them to give up and lose hope more easily. They can also find streaks of high motivation and determination. They are least likely to ask for advice, and would benefit greatly from the guidance of their best teacher.
Ego-driven and proactive: These people will actively seek out more new information and feedback, but if it's negative, they will likely ignore it. Giving these people constructive criticism can be like talking to someone with AirPods in their ears, nothing gets through! Finding their best teacher will really help, along with embracing discomfort, whether it be hearing things they don't want (but need) to hear, or doing the drills/training they don't want (but need) to do.
Growth-driven and reactive: These people are often praised as coachable. Criticism and failure doesn't hurt their ego's, and they embrace new input that will help their development. Because they don't actively seek new knowledge, skills, and perspectives, they tend not to make fast progress unless they have someone taking a strong role in guiding and supporting them. Taking more responsibility for their own development is a valuable adjustment, by asking for feedback and advice, and actively going out of their comfort zone.
Growth-driven and proactive: These people consistently take the initiative to expand themselves and adapt. They are most likely to be high achiever's in their chosen field. The danger is they take on board so much new information, that they can't process any of it productively, and may struggle to decide which of all this information will help them the most. Embracing fun, and avoiding a perfectionist mindset would be the best adjustments for these people to make.
This article has been written based on 'Hidden potential' by Adam Grant (2023)
FOOTWORK AND TIMING IN TENNIS EXPLAINED PERFECTLY!
From January 2024 Newsletter
In 25 years of coaching, I've never come across a simpler and more effective way to describe these two crucial areas of the game, and what's most amazing is that these were written in 1925, almost 100 years ago, by former top player of his time Bill Tilden. I've spoken to numerous coaches and players, who also love this, especially the words for timing, as no-one could come up with what Bill did. I've been using this successfully with players on court for several months too.
I think coaches these days can easily get caught up with over-analysing the game, and sometimes the simplest things are best. Yes, the game has changed a lot in 100 years, but footwork and timing are two areas that are timeless. The human body hasn't changed in that time, so the purpose and ability to use footwork hasn't changed. It doesn't matter what technology you have in the racket either, as timing the ball requires the same skill now as it did back then.
The purpose of footwork (by Bill Tilden): Footwork is the means to perfect weight control and balance.
We all know the importance of balance, but weight control is something slightly different, and crucial when it comes to achieving that great timing. Balance is always about stability through the body, but weight control (and distribution) will change depending on the circumstances of the ball and the shot being attempted. I've found that body weight awareness is also a great way to think about it, having awareness of how your body weight is distributed when preparing for the shot.
How to time the ball (by Bill Tilden): Timing is the transference of the player's weight into his stroke.
The simplicity of it is genius, and it works well on every kind of shot from defensive to neutral, to attacking. Even just the smallest amount of body weight transfer forwards enables better timing, and more efficient transfer of energy from the body to maximise racket speed at contact and therefore power, spin, and control. Get out on court and try it!
WHY TEENAGERS DON'T LISTEN TO THEIR PARENTS - JANUARY 2024
And why tennis coaches need to understand this!
I always wondered why parents would often say to me 'When I tell my child to do this or that exercise to help their tennis, they don't listen, but they'll listen to you, so could you tell them?'. I was left thinking 'what is wrong with these mini humans? Surely good advice is good advice, so it shouldn't matter who is giving it?'.
Yes, you might be thinking of simple reasons why this happens, and yes, we all know that to differing extents, teenagers don't listen to their parents, but what is actually going on, and why is this also important for tennis coaches to understand?
Based on the very latest science, the answers are quite fascinating, and I think worth summarising and sharing. Understanding it certainly brings home the importance of my role as 'coach' in their lives, and enables me to be more effective in that role.
The first thing is that the teenage brain is hard-wired through evolution to tune out the voices of their parents, and tune in and be more attentive to 'other' voices. With their peers, it's about forming friendships and gaining independence, and with other adults, it's about developing their understanding of the world through different people's experiences.
Whilst this evolutionary process is going on, there also comes a point (between the ages of 10-16) where the child's developing brain subconsciously knows the child's parents so well as people, that it feels they no longer have anything to offer it in terms of continued brain development.
For these 2 reasons, children will often zone out and tune out when their parents are talking, but seek out and be more interested when non-parental adults are engaging with them.
Of course, I should say at this point, these processes occur during childhood and adolescence, and not beyond. Your teenager should slowly turn back into a normal person as they reach early adulthood, who loves, respects, and fully values you as their parent!
The other important aspect that comes out of the science and research with kids and teenagers, is the tone of voice used by parents and other adults like coaches and teachers.
Children and teenagers simply don't respond well to a controlling tone of voice, a pressuring tone of voice, and certainly not to a disappointed or angry tone of voice. We probably sort of know this, but why is it the case?
Put simply, children and teenagers need constant re-assurance that they are loved, valued, and respected by the most important adults in their lives, their parents. Teenagers may sometimes act like they don't need this, but it is just an act, they are in fact quite needy! The point is, that any negative tone of voice, automatically sends a clear message to the developing brain that this love, value, and respect is under threat or in some way conditional, which can then lead to the unhealthy internal processing of negative emotions and feelings.
The reason for the negative tone of voice doesn't matter, and so although it might seem justified by the parent/coach/teacher, it will never have the positive/beneficial effect on the child/teenager that is desired, and if done repeatedly, could even end up being a cause of mental and emotional stress in later life.
In fact, it's been shown that children don't respond to any parental anger in a logical way. For example, if a parent is showing anger to, let's say, an annoying driver who's holding them up, the witnessing child will internalise that anger as though it were directed at them. I was amazed by this, and it might be worth reading that last sentence again!
As I'm sure is very common knowledge by now, the part of the brain that deals with decision making, logical reasoning, and consequences of actions, is the last part to fully develop, so teenagers often rely on emotions to make decisions rather than logical thought, hence why they don't always make the best decisions, especially when it comes to reacting in the moment.
As coach, my biggest superpower is empathy, and having this understanding fuels it. I often easily understand why certain behaviours and actions have happened, and can then address them calmly and productively, and it's very pleasing to see plenty of significant improvement with certain players who used to struggle with anger and/or poor behaviour and attitude.
If I'm totally honest, I didn't have this understanding or influence even 5 years ago. They don't teach you ANYTHING about this stuff on coaching courses. I used to think that some kids are just more prone to playing up, behaving poorly, and despite trying, I certainly was never able to make any significant impact on those kids. Though I've always believed behaviour/attitude/attention can improve over time, I didn't have any skills or tools to effectively achieve that. The difference is that with my ever improving understanding, I now do.
(Edit April 2024): A final point worth making is that empathy is all well and good, and even without scientific knowledge, most adults (if they try hard enough!), will remember what it was like to be a teenager. Given how technology has moved on at a very fast pace, it's important to accept that adults today DON'T KNOW what it's like growing up as a teenager TODAY. A willingness to listen to them, and to understand them as an individual, but also as a teenager growing up in the 2020's, is probably the best an adult can do to achieve connection that will allow them to help, guide, and support better.
As with everything I express and make public on my website, I always welcome your thoughts, feedback, advice, and constructive criticism. It helps me get better. Do feel free to get in touch!
CARLOS ALCARAZ - THE SECRET OF HIS SUCCESS!
From April 2023 Newsletter (Edit September 2024)
Carlos Alcaraz lets slip his amazing mindset in Miami during his pre-tournament press conference: This was perfect timing for me as a coach, as we were talking about the tennis god Rod Laver in our Team Hawker Squads the very same week, and gaining an insight into his winning mindset from a post-match interview from 1974 with then coaching legend Vic Braden.
This was part of a term-long project that saw all our squad players delve deeper into non-outcome based reasons for playing competitive tennis. The theme very much on development of life skills, character development, and pure enjoyment!
Carlos Alcaraz won his maiden Grand Slam last September in New York at 19 years old, and is widely touted as perhaps being the next established No.1 Men's player. He came from match point down twice last year in Grand Slam matches, including in New York, so this guy not only knows how to win, but also how to find his best tennis when he really needs it.
He continues to impress this year, and this quote was a few days after he had won the Indian Wells event. Here's what he said: "I don't feel the pressure too much, I know the things I have to do. I need to play relaxed and not mind if I lose or if I play well or not... That is why I am playing at a good level. I am enjoying every single second and playing relaxed. That is what I am thinking about on court".
Yes, you read that right, this legend says he has a mindset that involves not minding about the result, and not even minding if he's playing well or not! He's there for the enjoyment, and because this mindset allows him to be so relaxed, his body is then primed to produce his best or near his best. It's obvious really because any pressure to win, tends to lead to stress and anxiety, and extra pressure to perform. Of course, with that tends to come a lower level of performance.
Edit (September 2024): Carlos Alcaraz is human after all! His racket smashing episode last month at the Cincinnati tournament was quite spectacular and shocked the tennis world as we'd never seen this from him before. What went wrong? As he said in his press conference, he couldn't control himself in that moment because he felt he was playing literally the worst match of his career. What happened to not minding how good or bad he is playing, and just enjoying it? Alcaraz went on to lose the match, and it's crystal clear that what went wrong was that he failed to establish his usual winning mindset before this match, and was unable to re-establish it whilst the match was in progress. It just goes to show that it's not easy to consistently get this right match after match, but what's important is the clarity of what went wrong and how to avoid it next time.
best quote ever for those wanting success!
From January 2023 Newsletter
The ABSOLUTE BEST quote for anyone who wants to achieve success! (from January 2023): Clearly it's not, but you're here now, so you may as well have a read! Read it slowly and take it in, I think it's gold!
Viktor Frankl (1905-97): “Don’t aim at success—the more you aim at it and make it a target, the more you are going to miss it. For success, cannot be pursued; it must ensue, and it only does so as the unintended side-effect of one’s dedication.”
This very much relates to how I coach. For me, it has always been about taking the focus away from the uncontrollable's (like winning), and shifting it subtly towards healthier focuses that are in a person's control, and will paradoxically help them to win more.
I love the use of the word dedication, because by nature it suggests you're investing your effort and energy with such a direct focus that future outcomes are not distracting the mind, and therefore not raising levels of stress and pressure, as they inevitably do. Of course, dedication can only come from within, but regardless of the differing levels of dedication our players have to tennis, it's always a privilege and a joy to support them on their tennis journey!
BEST SPORTS STAR INTERVIEW ANSWER EVER!
From September 2022 Newsletter (Edit August 2024)
This sums up everything I'm trying to instil with our Team Hawker squad players, when working on mental/emotional skills for competing.
Earlier this summer Ronnie O'Sullivan won a record-equalling 7th World Snooker Championship, and when asked how heavily that number 7 had weighed on him, he replied:
'Not at all. Don't get me wrong, the records are nice when you get them. I've just never performed well when I'm going for stuff like that (who has?!). I just try to enjoy the game, work hard, compete, and enjoy what I do'.
Every word is gold! Whether someone is trying to achieve GOAT status in their chosen sport, or just trying to win a Matchplay match at Hawker!
EDIT (August 2024): Well, I finally activated my latest free PRIME trial so I could watch the documentary that followed Ronnie's life and culminated in this win. All I can say is WOW! It's an incredible human story, and sheds rare insight into the total turmoil that individual sports performers can go through. His answer that I quoted above, masks the demons that were inflicting him right the way through the final, so although he said exactly the right stuff, the truth is he wasn't able to feel it whilst winning this world championships.
best book ever!
From April 2022 Newsletter
Kids can't concentrate as well today as they could 10-15 years ago. I've seen it first hand, and the research backs it up. Some of the examples I could give you of inability to concentrate are just ridiculous!
This book explains clearly why it's happening, and not just to kids. Johann Hari spent years travelling the globe, talking to experts, collecting the latest research, and experimenting.
Social media and smart phones are unsurprisingly part of the problem, but why and how they are so bad for concentration is both surprising and alarming.
They are also only the tip of the iceberg, with numerous other factors contributing to our diminishing ability to focus! If you're interested, then have a read of Stolen Focus!
