We have Skip Johnson with us, who is a USPTA Master Professional and has also written a book, ‘Grateful for Everything’. Skip has also played in the Satellite tournament. We are waiting for coaching session of a high school team who have won regional tournament last year and trying to win at state level now. This video is about how to gain confidence to take that giant leap when you start to believe that you can win big matches against the professionals. The key ingredient to success is to have self confidence and belief in your ability.
Skip shares with us his story when he was 15 years old and his dad took him for a tournament in Alabama. “I was a skinny little kid weighting about 115 pounds and I was ranked in alphabets, which is when they ran out of numbers they used to give you letters. But I really wanted to be good so I was practicing real hard.” says Johnson. He won his first match against a basic player but in the next match he had to play against a player who was ranked number 1 in the state. Just before the start of the match he asked his dad, “This guy is a great player and there is no way I can win this match!” and his dad replied “May be or maybe not, or maybe you play the match of your life”. After an initial struggle Skip won the match in a tie-breaker. “As I was walking off the court after winning the match my dad said, look at that, you have played the match of your life”.
This is what happens when you once win a big match, you gain confidence in your ability and you start to trust yourself. Once you do something once then you know that you can do it again. The confidence of winning a big match really helps you when you are playing any other difficult match. You can say to yourself that I have done this before rather that thinking I have never won against a player like this.
So, guys keep trying again and again to win that one “match of your life” and you will never have to look back again. We will keep coming back with more wonderful videos
If you liked Skip’s story do visit facebook.com/skipjohnsonauthor where you can find daily motivational tips. For free tennis instructions visit scopetennis.com and do not forget to join our Thrive 45 program.
