My (Michael) biggest lesson was back when I was asked to train with Ivan Lendl.
He taught me attention to detail and to be on time.
I had been asked to train with Ivan at a place called Nelson Bay in New South Wales, where Tony Roche, once upon a time had a resort. Ivan was a bike rider. He loves riding the bike, and that was part of his training. So, every morning we got up and we had to ride 60 kilometers on a bike.
On the evening of my first day as a hitting partner for Ivan, Tony said to me:
“Ivan, wants you downstairs at seven o’clock tomorrow morning”
I thought I was pretty good being asked to hit and train with the number 1 player in the world at the time. The next morning, I get up and I’m downstairs 2 past 7 and nobody’s there. I wait around until half past 7 and then thought that Ivan must have slept in. At 9:30 nine thirty Tony comes and knocks on my door and he’s not very happy with me. He says: “Where were you?” I said to him that I was downstairs at 2 past 7. And he goes, Ivan leaves at 7:00. He’s upstairs and he wants to talk to you.
To this day I remember how my heart rate just went through the roof. At the time we were living in sort of a 3-story apartment block. Ivan had the penthouse down the end. It was the longest walk I ever did. I stood at the door for about 5 minutes. I just didn’t want to knock. Eventually I gather enough courage to knock. Back then, he was there with his girlfriend, Samantha, who is now his wife. I walked in and I couldn’t even breath. Ivan was sitting on a sofa across one side of the room. And he basically didn’t say anything, and he just pointed. for me to sit down. He looked at me and said:
“If I say that I’m leaving at 7:00am, I’m leaving at 7:00am, don’t do that ever again because you’ll be on the next plane home.”
He then basically didn’t say anything again and he just sort of signaled me out of the room. To this day, I tell my kids that story and the attention to detail that he taught me. Not only with being on time, but when he was on the court, that was my greatest teacher. To this point, attention to detail be on time and be ready for it are lesson that I’m grateful to have learned from Ivan Lendl.
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