I am a big believer in collecting mental models from various disciplines in life, and as part of that, I look to learn from top sportspersons. So I naturally found the “tennis lessons” Roger Federer shared in his recent commencement address at Dartmouth to be particularly insightful.
In addition to capturing some defining experiences and approaches from Roger’s life, the speech was also filled with some amazing one-liners. I always find these to be really useful as they help us cognitively index, remember, and recall powerful concepts that others have experientially learned.
Here are some powerful ideas from the speech that stayed with me:
1/ “Effortless is a myth”
The truth is, Roger had to work really hard to make it look easy. A lesson for all of us chasing excellence in our respective fields – you have to embrace hard work before you become an expert.
2/ “Everybody can play well for the first 2 hours”
The real game starts after that, when the body is tired, the mind wobbly and the discipline fading. This highlights the importance of stamina, and of grit, in life.
3/ “My warm-ups at the tournament were so casual, people didn’t think I was training hard. But I had been working hard…before the tournament…when nobody was watching”
The importance of prep, putting in the reps, breaking a sweat. Excellence during the most crucial moments in life is a result of all the work put in during the years prior.
Reminds me of the famous General Patton quote – “He who sweats more in training bleeds less in battle”.
4/ “Belief in yourself has to be earned”
Roger didn’t explain this thought much, but my interpretation is this – self-belief is a by-product of the work you put in to go deep into a skill, and of the chances & risks that you take to make yourself better.
5/ “I beat some of the top players I really admired by aiming right at their strengths”
Roger tried to beat the baseliners from the baseline, beat the attackers by attacking, and beat the net-rushers from the net. He did this to amplify his game and expand his options, preparing for scenarios where one strength breaking down could be replaced by another one.
6/ “In tennis, there can be many types of talent”
Roger cites some of them – grit, discipline, patience, trusting yourself, embracing the process, managing your life, managing yourself. Also mentioning that everyone has to work on these things.
I would add that these are talents not just for tennis, but also for life.
7/ “You can work harder than you thought and still lose”
Tennis is a brutal game where at the end of a tournament, only one player gets a trophy while everyone else gets on a plane, thinking “how the hell did I miss that shot?”.
Life is going to be a roller-coaster for all of us. It’s how you manage and behave after losing a game, is that defines how big you will eventually win.
8/ “In tennis, perfection is impossible”
Roger shares some really interesting stats from his career – in the 1,526 singles matches he played, he won almost 80% of these matches. BUT he only won 54% of points across these matches. So, even the greatest of all time tennis players barely win half of all the points they play!
Why is this important? Roger says it teaches players to not dwell on previous points and to play each point on its merit. In other words, stay in the moment and play each point as if it’s the most important point in the world.
PS: like me, if you love learning from sportspersons, then I highly recommend Open – Andre Agassi’s autobiography. It helped me through some of the lowest points in my life.
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