Playing Tennis to Reach the Top

Having researched and spoken to many top class athletes and tennis players,  the common denominator between them and the average player is their ability to concentrate on working hard to improve daily! These players think more in terms of what they can gain than what they have to lose.

Think of this as climbing a mount everest, to reach base camp is a great feat. Consider you would have endured easy aspects and difficulties to get there. In tennis to reach a high world ranking will have also endured its own loses and wins on the way but to reach this level you would have gained immensely! You will have learned and improved along the way and whats more gained valuable experience. To reach the next level to camp 1 and 2 through to the summit (ultimate goal) takes a lot of training, hard work, sweat and guts. Not forgetting persistence, perseverance and the ability to take knocks on the way.

In terms of playing tennis look at starting out to reach base camp then travel through the next 4 camps before eventually reaching the summit. Every time you win and learn you raise another stage in the mountain range, every time you lose and learn you stay the same but are armed with information to work on in order to win and reach the next stage.  

Imagine a player who in there first year on tour reaches top 250. Great work to get there and for sure has reached maybe camp 3 on the Mountain of Everest. Then comes the time to work on defending points! To get to the original camp was a fun journey but then you look down and then you start to wobble and become pressured. All sorts of thoughts come into your head, can I do it again, what if I don’t manage to attain the level I acquired? Will I be able to reach the next camp (level) am I strong enough?

Wow take a look at your thoughts at this stage, what were you thinking on your way up? What are you thinking now? What has changed?

Remember where you thoughts go so goes your energy! Change your thinking and you change the way you play. From here you will be back on the track to the summit. Remember to always evaluate, learn and evolve regardless and you cant go wrong!

It is far to easy to become insecure and have a million and one reasons to stop climbing. Find a great group of people who will help you climb (sherpas) and help you with your work, you are the leader and these are your guides, you have to commit to the work but your guides will help you when you fall off or need to rest. Your surrounding team for sure have to be on your wave length and will need to help you push to the summit. When you reach the summit you can rest for a while but there is only room for one at the top and you have people climbing up to knock you off so work even harder to stay there.

Good luck and if you need a Sherpa I am just an email away!

Andy