The Delicate Connection Between Fitness and Focus
Why is it that most coaches have only one or two number one players in a career, yet Pat Etcheberry, Trainer Emeritus, has had more than 15 players. Granted a coach spends a much greater amount of time with a player than a trainer. The partnership between coach and trainer, however, as we have seen time and time again takes a player to a level they have struggled to attain.
A trainer can have a dramatic input on the fitness and the mindset of a competitive player. A quiet and confident mindset is one of the great paybacks of the rigors of training. See Andre Agassi’s acceptance speech upon induction into the International Tennis Hall of Fame regarding Gil Reyes’ impact on his career and life.
Training happens in an honest place where the work is accomplished without luck, bad calls or the help of superior hand eye coordination. You set your mind and just do it. We tell players we know what they are capable of by what they can do in the training room.
I once heard Maya Angelou ask Hall of Fame basketball player Bill Russell to describe money. He said, “It makes you bigger. It makes you a bigger nice guy if you are nice and it makes you a bigger jerk if you are a jerk.” Likewise, if you train honestly, it makes your game bigger and cleanses your pursuit resulting in a quiet confidence in the toughest of matches.
Does it surprise you that Pat Etcheberry never saw Pete Sampras lose in medicine ball on the court, or that Justine Henin could do 32 in the line touch test in the service box? Is this where God-given speed and strength meet mental toughness and a competitive personality?
Everyone would agree that all the players in the top 100 have these qualities. The difference that players like Sampras and Henin possess is the “Mind of a Champion.” Federer, Nadal and Serena Williams all have these qualities.
The truth is speed, strength, mental toughness and competitive personality win. The Mind of a Champion WINS REPEATEDLY. It wins both in tennis and in life.
The length and height of a player cannot be coached or developed. Technique is coached and a particular game is developed. Speed, strength, toughness and competitive personality can be developed through the team work of coach and trainer.
Junior players find much of this in the training room long before technique on the court is fully developed. The mind comes first. They think success. They start completing repetitions previously impossible and then increasing those reps.
They DREAM BIG. Both in the training room and on the court. They want and seek to achieve more. It starts with the speed rope, burpies and push-ups. This builds confidence.
They HAVE DESIRE. Do you really want it? The intersection where workouts, practice, group, lessons and matches meet social life. When study on the weekend and three or four work outs trump a party. These sacrifices build determination.
An evolving junior makes it happen. THEY ARE ALWAYS IMPROVING. The fit player can work longer and harder with less chance of injury. The more fit a player is, the quicker they improve.
Fitness builds confidence and quiets the mind. Good players win with these qualities. Great players win repeatedly with these qualities. These are four of our eight pillars of success. The last four pillars will be examined in the March/April edition.
