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Life as an aspiring professional athlete differs from regular life in many ways, and one of them is the requirement to be among the top in the world at a relatively young age. While a businessperson may reach the peak of their career in their forties, a professional athlete is likely to retire some time in their thirties. And while the age of the top 100 is increasing, the age that the average player enters the top 100 is still hovering around 21. On top of that, tennis is un

In Part 1 of the Success Qualities, I discussed the importance of being a hard worker. I chose to put it first because I believe it is the most important, but it by no means is the only quality required. Tennis is a complex sport, and while it is important to be physically fit and to be able to grind out ball after ball, there are also times when it is important to learn new skills, whether they be technical, tactical, mental, or physical. How quickly a player assimilates new

Hard work is the factor most commonly quoted when discussing what differentiates high achievers. However, I believe the devil is in the details — it is important to be specific in terms of what we’re looking for, as “hard work” can mean many different things. Many coaches will exalt the importance of giving 100% or even 110%, but it was a colleague of mine who once stated something profound: trying to give 100% or 110% isn’t as valuable as simply making the jump from 97% to 1

The legendary Canadian coach Louis Cayer often says, “I coach people tennis — not tennis to people.” The message is clear: our primary job is to develop people with good character and life skills. Beyond that, I believe that our secondary job is to accelerate their learning curve. That is, to increase the rate at which our players improve. We know that if you take four players, give them a basket of balls and a thousand hours of court time, they will improve. Our job is to ma