It’s extremely important to explain to the player that they don’t have to do something that they are not used to do. I have often experienced that players think that they need to do more, much better or different things than they are normally doing because they are playing a Grand Slam, but that is a problem.

I tell players to play their game, because when you play your own game, you are going to do the best you can. You know your game exactly. You master it. When you try to do something that you are not used to do in order to try to play better or do more then you lose your complete identity of your game.

What I said to Justine Henin:

“Don’t go out of that path, because it’s going to be very difficult to get into that path again. When you feel under pressure and you really want to perform at a Grand Slam try to do what you do best. That is, it.”

Because when you do that, you get the best of you. Now if the best of you is going to be good enough to beat the other player, we don’t know that. We will know that when you have played the match. But at least when you know that you are giving your best from what you have, you have a much bigger chance to win the match. Don’t go out of your path, because that is what you know how to do.

(Inspired by the podcast episode #73: “Creating a Coaching Relation” w. Carlos Rodriquez on The Adam Blicher Show — Dissecting High Performance in Tennis)

Want to listen to the full episode: http://shorturl.at/jktA8