Federer's Belief System
Written by Tennis Pro, Tuesday September 15 2009
Well it finally happened, the “King” Roger Federer was dethroned today. Juan Martin Delpotro came out the unlikely and probably “Un-bet-on” winner. Could you have cleaned up on that action if you were a little aggressive two weeks ago and socked a “G” down in Vegas on him.
Bill Cosby had a funny line in his standup show a long time ago, he said he had a friend who was a karate master and he did this demonstration of breaking boards with his hand. He was pretty good at breaking all kinds of boards with his fist and hand because he said you had to THINK THROUGH the board upon impact. Unfortunately this one time the board was thinking, “Oh no you won’t” and now he practices on things like whipped cream, and Jell-O, while his hand is healing up.
Roger Federer was always thinking, “I can win, because I always have before”, this was his belief system. Unfortunately Delpotro was thinking “Oh no you won’t”. But, those thoughts of belief didn’t come until he begin to assert himself with some very key shots, and begin to remember his greatest weapon, his monstrous forehand to the cross court corner. Clocked at 110 mph this is not a serve, it’s a GROUNSTROKE going that fast, and it was enough to shake Roger’s belief system.
That’s all it takes, just a little doubt to creep into your belief system and you make a few mistakes to let your opponent off the hook, or give him / her a slight opening, and that changes THEIR belief system to think, ‘Ya baby, I’ve got a chance, just a little extra effort here, a little more push there, keep my eye on the ball a little longer, don’t let the sun bother me like it has in the past, and get just one more ball back, and I can do it”!
That’s what happened to Delpotro, he had the tools, the ammunition, the goods, the power, and…the forehand, he just forgot where it was until the forth and fifth set. The first win is always the hardest, because you’ve never done it before, you don’t have a “Road map” to guide you, you can’t “Remember” winning a U.S. Open because you’ve never done it…YET!
A great football coach once said, “It’s almost impossible to WIN a Super bowl, until you LOST one first. In other words you got to get to the finals to experience the pressure.
Roger Federer shanked a few balls with mishits that he should have never done, hit some balls out the he never would have, and folded just a little bit under the “Fear of losing” (my next article) and all because of a little tiny crack in his belief system as a total winner, brought on by a monster forehand and some really good play from his opponent. Which goes to show ‘ya…it can happen to anyone, even the “Greatest ever” players.
So… the next time you’re down in a match, try hitting just one really good, concentrated, well placed shot that gets you the point, or do something different that what you’ve been doing to throw you opponent off. It will most likely put that little crack of doubt in their belief system and from there on out it’s up to you to drive a wedge in that crack that turns things around for you.
Best of luck, and - Keep your eye on the ball
Roger the Tennis Pro
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Good Article! It was a great match.