Mark of professionalism

The young lady’s answer told the inquirer everything they needed to know …“First and foremost I focus on the tennis,” she said. “Whatever comes with it I take in [my] stride. I know it’s part of the job. I appreciate everything that comes with it. But I know if I don’t perform on the court then there’s not much off court”.

“So I really try to focus on my job, because at the end of the day I’m a tennis player. I go to work every day and I work on my tennis. As long as I do that, I’ll take anything that comes with it.”     Eugenie Bouchard at Wimbledon.

Rubin, though, is keeping level-headed about what lies ahead. He realises the vast gap that exists between a successful junior and a professional athlete.

“There’s a lot of good up-and-coming players [from the US]. What’s going to happen to them, nobody knows. There’s so many little things that go into making a tennis player and just day after day having to stay out there. You see kids just drop off like this,” Rubin said. “I’m going to give it everything I’ve got and whatever these other kids do is up to them. I hope for their sake they give it all. It’s pretty rewarding, but it’s a lot of sacrifice.”  Wimbledon Boys Champion.

These young players are adopting the ‘mark of professionalism’ where reality is confronted, assessed and then acted upon and success will follow them – that is … life success!

This is also why many of the world’s top players take stock after Wimbledon (mid-year) and before the US Hard-Court season and US Open to confront their year, assess their game and goals and then act on their improvement, progress, big picture and continue their tennis journey.

Coaches obviously take part in this process, with the added responsibility of identifying the changes in the ‘modern’ game, the lessons learnt (see previous blog) and network with global consultants as to the components that evolve in the coaching industry (conferences and workshops).

Should be an interesting second half of the year … established stars … young charging stars … future stars developing and learning the ‘mark of professionalism‘

 http://vintagetennis.com.au/high-performance-training/pro-tour-preparation-training/