There is a lot of talk always about role models. I Youtube
videos on serving motions and footwork drills and volley racquet position to
show my students all the time—watch this guy, Andy Roddick, as he serves. Watch
this guy, Roger Federer, as he hits a slice. Role models are who you look up to
in your life, but sometimes, it is important to just turn your head around side
to side to find influences in your
life, because while role models are what you strive to be, influences in your
life affect your mindset, your personality, and how hard you work day to day,
and influences make a large impact on your life, an impact that you only start
to see when you get older and either appreciate people for what they showed you
through their own actions or appreciate when you let them go as a friend or
mentor, to see how much better your life and your actions become when they
leave your side as a negative influence.
I told you in my recent blog about the book “How to be like
Mike.” The author writes a chapter about influences—he says, “People do as
people see.” It is important to surround yourself around people that not only
make you happy, but people that you are willing to acknowledge to be similar to
you, or what you want to be. Check to see who you are hitting with—it doesn’t
matter how they play, but how much effort they put into playing. Do you want to
be as disciplined as they are? Are they a good influence on your tennis? Look
around at your coaches. Do you aspire to be like them? I can tell you that I always aspired to be like my
parents, and my parents were my coaches my whole life. I had the positive
influence that I only felt the consequences of when I left home to go to
college, because the work ethic that they instilled in me to this day I
replicate on a daily basis, and often with high rewards from people that aren’t
used to seeing such effort regardless the task.
Sometimes you’ll have a negative influence in your life.
These people drain you of your energy, and support actions and behaviors of
yours that you are not okay with. Sometimes a positive influence in your life
has to hit you upside the head to realize these things, to push you harder—a positive
influence isn’t necessarily your best friend, or even a person you like, but a person who will continue to
make you work to be a better you. A negative influence may be fun, but drags
you down to a level that is not a better you, and this is important in tennis
and in life. A hard worker always beats talent—it might not be so right away,
but work ethic and the environment around you, the influences of your coaches,
your parents, your friends, make an impact on your tennis on a daily basis that
a role model does not. A role model is what you aspire to be, but your
surrounding influences get you there.
