Thanks again for joining me here on The Tennis Menu, today is all about what we put in, we get out.
I feel like this topic is a really important one for a lot of young athletes out there who are trying to become something quite special in their sport. In your chosen sport (especially tennis), but whatever you put into your practice you'll get out. I use a story a lot with the players I coach, which goes like this:
"If you want to drink from a vending machine, the drink's cost is $2, but you put one dollar in. The drink doesn't come out, so you have to put in the full amount to be able to get the full product back, and it's no different to sport."
If you're only putting in 50% of what the sport entails, you're only going to earn 50% of the reward back.
And I feel like if you're a player out there that wants to become something, you've got to put everything into it; there's no half half-heartedness in becoming high-performance or becoming elite. The elite players became elite much earlier than you expect. Their habits led them to where they are today. Roger Federer or Rafa Nadal or Serena Williams didn't become elite and then start doing all the right things, they did all the right things to become elite in this sport.
Being stuck at home in isolation you can't do what we would normally do on a tennis court, but we can do so much to develop ourselves. Don't forget, whatever you put into your practice during this pandemic, you'll get back once you get onto that field or tennis court, so keep putting in the work.
It's a mindset, and it requires discipline to keep getting up early. Just to let you know I'm filming this at 6 a.m. in the morning. Why? Because I want to keep my routines. High performance doesn't sleep. High-performance doesn't rest. High-performance continues, so whatever you put in, you get out.