I've just finished watching the Aussie Open final. This is the most amazing sporting display I've ever watched. I normally shy away from comparing sports, but now Djokovic has beaten Murray in nearly 5 hours on Friday, and then today, with 24 hours less recovery time than Nadal, he has just won another 5 setter in just under 6 hours, I'm blown away. I can't think of any other sport that requires the level of skill and fine motor control combined with supreme endurance.
So what did Djokovic display that we can all aspire to and learn from. Three aspects jump out.
1. Positivity and Resilience.
Resilience is different from toughness. Resilience is the ability to bounce back, toughness is the ability to withstand pressure and resist adversity. Djokovic displays an immense ability to bounce back. When he makes a mistake, the opponent plays too well, or something goes against him, he's never happy, but he accepts it and gets over it very quickly. He even smiles at times - a great way of letting go of tension - but then refocuses immediately, never losing his intensity. What follows is almost always a really positive execution of his game, demonstrating immense self belief.
2. Physical and mental toughness
I absolutely had my money on Nadal for this match and even more so going into the final set. Yet Djokovic never seemed to be fazed. Two high points: First his ability to keep making great decisions in terms of shot selection and execution. Second his ability to execute superbly under the most pressure, for example continuing to find a high percentage of pin point first serves when serving for the championship. All of this is underpinned by his incredible physical fitness and toughness.
Physical fitness is one of the underestimated areas of mental toughness - it's completely under your own control, and sends messages to yourself and your opponent that you're always ready to come back. In tennis it can be very intimidating when translated to running down everything in defence, and moving superbly to dominate in attack.
One of the rowers I've worked with once used to be a junior academy tennis player. At 6'8" he was incredibly imposing in tennis terms, but only quite tall in rowing! He said to me, "If only I'd known then what I now know as a rower", I asked him to distill the most important learning as a rower, and he said "That pain is just a state of mind". Mental toughness in action.
3. Complete trust in his technique
This combines technical skill with self confidence in equal measure. Working both on your technique and your positivity is vital, and builds a virtuous circle. In contrast, many athletes progress technically and mentally far more slowly. One stumbling block can be a destructive perfectionism, that undermines the vital but small gains that they are making. Realistic positivity is a a key mental skill that goes a long way to developing trust in your technique.
So what did Djokovic display that we can all aspire to and learn from. Three aspects jump out.
1. Positivity and Resilience.
Resilience is different from toughness. Resilience is the ability to bounce back, toughness is the ability to withstand pressure and resist adversity. Djokovic displays an immense ability to bounce back. When he makes a mistake, the opponent plays too well, or something goes against him, he's never happy, but he accepts it and gets over it very quickly. He even smiles at times - a great way of letting go of tension - but then refocuses immediately, never losing his intensity. What follows is almost always a really positive execution of his game, demonstrating immense self belief.2. Physical and mental toughness
I absolutely had my money on Nadal for this match and even more so going into the final set. Yet Djokovic never seemed to be fazed. Two high points: First his ability to keep making great decisions in terms of shot selection and execution. Second his ability to execute superbly under the most pressure, for example continuing to find a high percentage of pin point first serves when serving for the championship. All of this is underpinned by his incredible physical fitness and toughness.
Physical fitness is one of the underestimated areas of mental toughness - it's completely under your own control, and sends messages to yourself and your opponent that you're always ready to come back. In tennis it can be very intimidating when translated to running down everything in defence, and moving superbly to dominate in attack.
One of the rowers I've worked with once used to be a junior academy tennis player. At 6'8" he was incredibly imposing in tennis terms, but only quite tall in rowing! He said to me, "If only I'd known then what I now know as a rower", I asked him to distill the most important learning as a rower, and he said "That pain is just a state of mind". Mental toughness in action.
This combines technical skill with self confidence in equal measure. Working both on your technique and your positivity is vital, and builds a virtuous circle. In contrast, many athletes progress technically and mentally far more slowly. One stumbling block can be a destructive perfectionism, that undermines the vital but small gains that they are making. Realistic positivity is a a key mental skill that goes a long way to developing trust in your technique.
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