If Wishes Were Fishes: Why Desire Alone Is Not Enough
I read the other day that it all starts with, “An attitude to train harder, harder and even harder.”
It doesn’t.
Tennis effort is like driving in the snow. With too little effort we go nowhere; with too much effort we spin our wheels and dig ourselves into a rut. It’s the delicate balance of just the exact amount of effort at the right time, in the right way that ascends us.
It’s the quality of our training that ensures the quantity of our efforts, and the quality and quantity of our results.
It all starts with a plan to train, smarter, safer and highly-targeted to the player’s unique needs. It progresses with a desire and ability to follow this plan with optimism, perseverance and opportunism.
“An attitude to train harder, harder and even harder” without careful and skillful guidance is exactly why some players fail catastrophically.
We can “will” players to fail we cannot will them to succeed. It’s naive to believe that “wishes are fishes” when it comes to tennis success.
It’s very difficult to predict just how far a player can go but it’s not that hard to predict negative outcomes:
→Talk about a player’s talent and they won’t tolerate failure very well.
→Fail to assess their physical , needs and capabilities before you train and you are firing a shotgun with a blind fold in the dark.
→Substitute volume for quality and you don’t progress , you just reinforce.
→Harp on mistakes , and you teach players to ruminate with anger from the past
→Harp on desires, and you teach players to project anxiety into the future.
So what you need to do is:
→Develop a plan that is a strong synergy to the players desires and goals.
→Ensure this plan is supported by the players family.
→Assess the players physical, functional, mental and emotional development before you progress.
→Prioritize safety, before performance.
→Learn from the past.
→Use what you have learned to prepare for the future.
Stay grounded in The Now and when the Future is now you will be well prepared for any and all challenges.
It all starts with a plan to train smart, smarter and even smarter.
