The Passion to Improve
If one of the greatest always wants to improve shouldn’t you, I? Of course. Listen in to Nadal here when John asks him about his serve. Then you will understand the rest of my comment. ……
One of the things initially I did not find appealing about Nadal was his one dimensional game. Those in the category of greats of all time (Fed, Emerson, Sampras, Laver, Lendl, etc) had every shot and played all court. So Rafa was too one dimensional to be of interest early in his career. But what I soon came to respect big time about him, among many other things like his fierce competitiveness, his laser focus and great fitness, is his passion and respect for the game and all those before him and those playing with him. Because of that, he WANTS to get better. He got better at net, he got even stronger, he became more versatile. That speaks volumes. Think of how many juniors, college players, club players and others just are fine with where they in their tennis when they could be much better. But to have one of the best to play the game want to get better is just AWESOME. Many assume these legends, with all the trophies, all the money and all the fame would logically, emotionally, and personally not have a drive to improve. Wrong. That is what makes them champions. The willingness to improve to be coachable to attain a better game, a better self through tennis, that is what beats in the heart of a champion. The passion to improve. You can learn MORE about what the net game actually IS statistically and why more are again coming in when for a while they did not. Listen to my podcast with Craig O’Shannessy and and others at my podcast page.