What if Hewitt never yelled Come on?

[scoop]

What if Lleyton Hewitt never yelled Come On?

No comments · Posted by Scoop Malinowski in Bios · Edit

Lleyton Hewitt maximized his tennis performances by utilizing the very powerful energy source of emotional adrenaline – there is not a shred of a hint of doubt about this. The Hall of Fame boxing trainer Emanuel Steward once told me about one of his fistic champions: “You watch him talk sometimes about (boxing an opponent) in his interviews and he almost comes to tears at times. That emotional intensity brings out extra talents.”

Hewitt and Serena and Nadal (and others) all use or used “emotional intensity” to fuel and accelerate superior performance. But what do you suppose would have happened if Hewitt and Rafa and Serena bottled up their “emotional intensity”? What if they forced themselves to contain and stifle their passion and fury for the battle – and they chained themselves to act like Raonic or Todd Martin on the court? Well I think the answer is obvious. These three players would have had far less successful careers because they would have cheated themselves out of being what they were supposed to be – lion-hearted, expressive, strong, alpha personalities on the tennis court. They would have Beta’ed their own careers into mediocrity. If Lleyton Hewitt never yelled a single Come on in his life he would have been Tim Smyczek – and that’s not a knock on Tim who has had an overachieving career.

I believe Milos Raonic could be a major champion if he can find a way to successfully channel and summon his own “emotional intensity” which obviously is not a simple skill because if it was everyone would be doing it. Todd Martin was like Raonic for all of his career except that one match vs Carlos Moya at the US Open when Gentleman Todd was down two sets to love and suddenly decided to bring out his inner “emotional intensity” and fist pumps and roaring like a lion and guess what? Todd came all the way back to beat the Spanish former world no 1 in five unforgettable sets. Would Todd have won that match if he did not tap into his “emotional intensity”? Only Todd can answer that for sure – but perhaps even he isn’t sure.

It would be an interesting question to ask players like Hewitt and Nadal and Serena. What if you never allowed yourself to yell Come On! for your entire career? How would your career have played out differently? – Scoop Malinowski

 

[Tennis Fan]

What if Lleyton Hewitt never yelled Come On?

No comments · Posted by Scoop Malinowski in Bios · Edit

Lleyton Hewitt maximized his tennis performances by utilizing the very powerful energy source of emotional adrenaline – there is not a shred of a hint of doubt about this. The Hall of Fame boxing trainer Emanuel Steward once told me about one of his fistic champions: “You watch him talk sometimes about (boxing an opponent) in his interviews and he almost comes to tears at times. That emotional intensity brings out extra talents.”

Hewitt and Serena and Nadal (and others) all use or used “emotional intensity” to fuel and accelerate superior performance. But what do you suppose would have happened if Hewitt and Rafa and Serena bottled up their “emotional intensity”? What if they forced themselves to contain and stifle their passion and fury for the battle – and they chained themselves to act like Raonic or Todd Martin on the court? Well I think the answer is obvious. These three players would have had far less successful careers because they would have cheated themselves out of being what they were supposed to be – lion-hearted, expressive, strong, alpha personalities on the tennis court. They would have Beta’ed their own careers into mediocrity. If Lleyton Hewitt never yelled a single Come on in his life he would have been Tim Smyczek – and that’s not a knock on Tim who has had an overachieving career.

I believe Milos Raonic could be a major champion if he can find a way to successfully channel and summon his own “emotional intensity” which obviously is not a simple skill because if it was everyone would be doing it. Todd Martin was like Raonic for all of his career except that one match vs Carlos Moya at the US Open when Gentleman Todd was down two sets to love and suddenly decided to bring out his inner “emotional intensity” and fist pumps and roaring like a lion and guess what? Todd came all the way back to beat the Spanish former world no 1 in five unforgettable sets. Would Todd have won that match if he did not tap into his “emotional intensity”? Only Todd can answer that for sure – but perhaps even he isn’t sure.

It would be an interesting question to ask players like Hewitt and Nadal and Serena. What if you never allowed yourself to yell Come On! for your entire career? How would your career have played out differently? – Scoop Malinowski

Great article. That's a part of their psyche and all of them are/were battling unseen forces; Lleyton, his diminutive size and height. Serena, being a black woman in a lily white sport, and Rafa playing against the odds considering that the doctors said that he would never be able to play because of the congenital bone defect.

These are the reasons that I think that they're so expressive. They have/had something to prove to themselves, not just to other people.

 

[scoop]

A lot of player and people are just not comfortable expressing strong emotions especially in tennis where it was considered normal court etiquette - but the sport has gotten so physical and so intense that using emotions can be a valuable asset - I will never forget a tournament I played years ago and the opponent annoyed me by doing a couple of questionable things - He was winning 5-3 in the first set and at that point of the match I began to express emotional intensity which was triggered by his poor sportsmanship and guess what? I won the match 75 60 - never lost a game after tapping into the emotional intensity source -

 

[Tennis Fan]

A lot of player and people are just not comfortable expressing strong emotions especially in tennis where it was considered normal court etiquette - but the sport has gotten so physical and so intense that using emotions can be a valuable asset - I will never forget a tournament I played years ago and the opponent annoyed me by doing a couple of questionable things - He was winning 5-3 in the first set and at that point of the match I began to express emotional intensity which was triggered by his poor sportsmanship and guess what? I won the match 75 60 - never lost a game after tapping into the emotional intensity source -

Wow @ winning after you expressed yourself. I don't mind the emotional outbursts too much, unless they glare at their opponent while they're doing it. It depends on their personality for me.

 

[britbox]

A lot of player and people are just not comfortable expressing strong emotions especially in tennis where it was considered normal court etiquette - but the sport has gotten so physical and so intense that using emotions can be a valuable asset - I will never forget a tournament I played years ago and the opponent annoyed me by doing a couple of questionable things - He was winning 5-3 in the first set and at that point of the match I began to express emotional intensity which was triggered by his poor sportsmanship and guess what? I won the match 75 60 - never lost a game after tapping into the emotional intensity source -

What questionable things was he doing @scoop?

 

[scoop]

A couple of line calls and also this: we were playing at a college campus and the courts were awful especially the one we were on had lots of cracks and I lost two points because of ridiculous bounces because of the cracks caused bad bounces - so the match next to us finished and I said let's go to that court because this court is killing me with these cracks - the player refused and the tournament director said we both had to agree to change the court so we were stuck on our cracked up court - Fortunately none of his shots hit the cracks after 3-5