{"id":1454,"date":"2017-08-23T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2017-08-23T00:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/leadersinsport.com\/performance-institute\/reports\/what-are-the-character-traits-of-a-tennis-champion\/"},"modified":"2025-12-15T05:12:44","modified_gmt":"2025-12-15T05:12:44","slug":"character-traits-tennis-champion","status":"publish","type":"article","link":"https:\/\/leadersinsport.com\/performance-institute\/articles\/character-traits-tennis-champion\/","title":{"rendered":"What are the Character Traits of a Tennis Champion?"},"content":{"rendered":"\n\n
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\n Aug 23, 2017 <\/p>\n \t\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/span>Articles<\/a>\n\n\t\t\t\t\t\t

What are the Character Traits of a Tennis Champion?<\/h1>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\n \n\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\n\t<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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Category<\/div>\n Coaching & Development<\/a> <\/div>\n
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Larry Lauer of the USTA discusses his work building mental fortitude and adaptability in young American tennis players.<\/p>\n \n \n \n

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The United States Tennis Association\u2019s (USTA) National Campus in Orlando has been described as a \u2018Disneyland for tennis.\u2019 The 64-acre, $63 million, 100-court facility, which opened in the Lake Nona community in January 2017, has been designed to help the USTA meet its mission: to develop top 100 players that can push on into the top ten rankings of both the men\u2019s and women\u2019s games.<\/h4>\n
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By John Portch<\/h6>\n

\u201cThere are people playing all the time, all levels of tennis,\u201d Dr Larry Lauer, a Mental Skills Specialist for USTA Player Development, tells the Leaders Performance Institute. \u201cYou\u2019ll see adults, high school children, college tennis, juniors playing local tournaments and juniors looking to play pro tournaments.<\/p>\n

On any given day Lauer could be working with a number of them at any of the USTA’s facilities across the US. He says: \u201cMy role in support of the USTA\u2019s mission is to oversee the players\u2019 mental skills training, from one-on-one sessions and discussions with coaching staff to leadership and life skills training for players. It\u2019s about helping players use their minds to perform but it\u2019s also working with them to help them understand and manage how tennis affects them and their lives. In an individual sport, players aren\u2019t often afforded the opportunity to work in teams and it doesn\u2019t prepare them well for life in that sense.\u201d We drilled down into the USTA\u2019s work with young players over the course of the next hour.<\/p>\n

What are some of the life skills you\u2019re looking to impart?<\/strong><\/p>\n

LL:<\/strong> We want to help develop the communication skills of our young athletes, both verbal and non-verbal. We look at how they communicate with adults, whether that\u2019s their coaches or performance staff. As a national governing body, we want to develop players who, in their early 20s, have the social skills, the independence, the communication skills, the leadership skills that allow them to create their own performance teams once they\u2019ve been on tour and made some money.<\/p>\n

In what ways might a tennis player need to demonstrate leadership skills?<\/strong><\/p>\n

LL:<\/strong> As pros, they can lead their own team by picking their coach, their strength coach, their physio, their mental coach. We try to use that model and teach the life skills through that; this is your team and they\u2019re here to support you, you\u2019ve got to communicate with them effectively on your needs and how things are going, ask them questions, be very clear about your goals, collaborate with your team on your goals, and your progress on those goals and how you plan to achieve them; and through that process gain even more independence, greater communication, greater leadership.<\/p>\n

What are the marks of leadership at the USTA?<\/strong><\/p>\n

LL:<\/strong> It\u2019s the skill of being able to work with others; to communicate in front of others; to communicate tough messages in a respectful way; to be able to voice your opinion when it\u2019s not going to be popular with your coaches or your team; to think before you speak and actually plan what you\u2019re going to say. It\u2019s about relationships and managing those in a positive way.<\/p>\n

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Can you outline some of the benefits of taking a holistic approach?<\/strong><\/p>\n

LL:<\/strong> If you take a holistic approach you\u2019re talking about life; life skills and character. Every player can enjoy a great experience through tennis whether or not they\u2019re winning or reach their performance outcome goals. Everybody can become a better person from the experience and set themselves up for life. That might be a pro tennis career or it might not be; but because of this journey they\u2019re prepared to move on with the rest of their life and be successful. I don\u2019t think we can use an attrition model here and merely push them to performance and results and then get rid of them if they miss those goals. We want to develop the full person and they may end up getting that in different ways. If a person doesn\u2019t go pro, you may have just developed the best coach or physical trainer. We know what these young people are capable of and we want them to be successful and be able to give back to the game that\u2019s given to them.<\/p>\n

You\u2019ve said that character builds results. What are some of the ways in which that\u2019s true?<\/strong><\/p>\n

LL:<\/strong> Anecdotal evidence suggests that if a player can develop resilience, her ability to bounce back, to problem-solve when things are not going well, perseverance; if she can develop that muscle then she\u2019s going to be engaged for more points, which means she\u2019s going to be focused, in the moment, on her plan, with belief and positive energy, which is what we ask our folks to do for every single point. If you can show up at the baseline like that over 90-95% of the time then it\u2019s going to enhance results. If you haven\u2019t developed resilience, when you make mistakes or lose you\u2019re going to have a hard time adapting. We can also talk about independence; doing things for yourself creates confidence; confidence influences results and your belief in yourself. There are number of ways in which developing the character of young people is going to enhance their performance.<\/p>\n

How do you work with players to help them improve those aspects of their game?<\/strong><\/p>\n

LL:<\/strong> It starts with creating an environment and a growth mindset. We\u2019re here to get better every single day and that\u2019s our goal: to develop these characteristics, habits and values that are going to lead to consistent performance. When they start to understand that it is a long-term journey, and if they can develop these areas, their resilience, their confidence their professionalism, their determination; they start to see how they influence performances. We talk about this after matches, after tournaments; they begin to buy-in; but starts with a growth mindset from everyone, including the coach, myself, the parents.<\/p>\n

How might that look in practice?<\/strong><\/p>\n

LL: <\/strong>If they\u2019re on court and they\u2019re making mistakes we\u2019re telling them, \u2018hey, bounce back, find a way; right now you\u2019re missing your forehand a lot; what can you do; what two things does your coach tell you to do; what are you missing; what could it be?\u2019 It\u2019s getting them to problem-solve in training and not just giving them the answers. \u2018Persevere, hang in there, try to mix it up, maybe you\u2019re becoming too predictable and your opponent is getting a good rhythm.\u2019 So in working through the sport, through performances, we can highlight these different skills and attributes; when they do that they start to realise how important these skills are. It\u2019s actually the most important thing because when you look back and people ask what kind of competitor was so-and-so they might say that was the toughest, most resilient, most respectful, humble person I\u2019ve ever played against. If a player wasn\u2019t a good character then that\u2019s always going to come up; and you\u2019re also going to know if you didn\u2019t go all-in on this, that you left some chips on the table, that you could have done better.<\/p>\n

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What age are the players when you start to do this work with them?<\/strong><\/p>\n

LL:<\/strong> We\u2019re still in the process and we\u2019re trying to implement things and figure them out. At our national campus we have kids of 10, 11 and 12-years-old and to introduce them to these concepts we have devised something called \u2018Compete Like a Champion\u2019, which is our motto. We have seven values that relate to our motto: resilience, professionalism, respectfulness, confidence, determination, toughness and engagement. These things are priority for us from a young age.<\/p>\n

What does your role entail on a day to day basis?<\/strong><\/p>\n

LL: <\/strong>I can be working with pros or kids on the same day. You need to be very aware of your audience and what your purpose is. The pros I work with have their needs, their goals, where they\u2019re at; we have a plan for each one. They have certain exercises or things that they\u2019re doing on a daily basis that we\u2019ve recommended, that I\u2019ve recommended, and we\u2019re following through on that with a performance plan when they go to tournament; their routines before matches, between points, and at changeovers; what mental skills do they want to bring to bear in the match. We have players as young as 14 that I spend a lot of time with one-on-one but there\u2019s typically fewer of those cases because of the nature of my job here. A lot of times it\u2019s our national coaches who are actually implementing the changes with my support; I might develop the materials, provide a plan and some things to look at and work on based on my meetings with the player, but then the coaches implement it. We also have a number of mental coaches and sports psychologists around the country who also support the mission, who are working as consultants with the players. I\u2019ll check in from time to time to see how it\u2019s going.<\/p>\n

Will you adopt a mixture of formal and informal interactions?<\/strong><\/p>\n

LL: <\/strong>Absolutely. With every player there\u2019s a slightly different arrangement based on what we think is going to be most effective at the time, whether that\u2019s because I\u2019m not in the same location or they\u2019re not just ready for full mental training. There is a lot of formal work where you\u2019re sitting down and you\u2019re doing education, you\u2019re doing one-on-one consulting, at the same time a lot of it is informal work at practices; the five-minute talks, the two-minute talks, working through the coach where you\u2019re creating different ways to get at the player. Sometimes it\u2019s just providing resources; we have a couple of videos that we really like amongst our coaching staff and give it to the players; we ask them to maybe spend a few moments watching it and sending us their thoughts on it. So it\u2019s just a number of ways we\u2019re trying to get at this mission all the time, whether it\u2019s the direct work or observing them and getting feedback through their coaches; working in group settings and having workshops, to meeting their parents, to providing resources along the way via social media or directly to them via text or emails. So it really is trying to hit them in a number of different ways so that the message is always there; and it\u2019s also through the branding and the facilities; it\u2019s knowing what our purpose is and what we\u2019re trying to achieve.<\/p>\n

What are some of the challenges you\u2019ve overcome?<\/strong><\/p>\n

LL:<\/strong> When they\u2019re training and competing in this way in practice it\u2019s trying to get it to cross over into the performance domain. It\u2019s a sticking point and getting it into matches is a sticking point; that\u2019s the longest process. We teach them the base but then there\u2019s many years of helping them incorporate it into their performance environment because of the pressure to win and have rankings, sponsorships, whether to go pro or go to college; there\u2019s all these stressors and dynamic that put you on the stumpy road of talent development. But if they continue to develop themselves every day and get better then it\u2019s our belief that they\u2019ll end up where they need to be.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n <\/div>\n \n \n \n <\/div>\n

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