| What makes a winner? |
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| Monday, 30 January 2006 | |
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Well, guess what: 2006 has kicked off with Roger Federer winning one of the Grand Slam tournaments and Tiger Woods coming from behind to win the Buick Invitational. When our sister title Biogs.com reported on Tiger Woods's victory at the Buick last year, it said: "And then whilst everyone else around him started to collapse Tiger Woods, who had started the Buick Invitational with three straight bogeys on the long-running Sunday, came through to win, making his 41st career victory ...What is it about these guys [top performers like Tiger] that enables them to come from behind and win with such consistency?"
My fellow columnist Radar has written on this subject (and I commend his articles on this site) but I want to highlight three inter-related points. They revolve around a quote from Bob Rotella's book, Golf is a Game of Confidence: "It's not what happens to golfers, but how they chose to respond to what happens that distinguishes champions." This highlights the key - to not fear failure but to learn from it and also to not give up until the very end. Tiger Woods is a past master of coming from behind. Now substitute the word 'sportsmen' for 'golfers' in Rotella's quote and have a look at what Federer said after his tournament success at the Cincinnati Masters in 2005: "I play my best in finals. That's why I'm Number 1, you know. There's no secret." This is the second related point. Responding to what happens is not just a positive response to failure - it is also crucial how we respond to success. Being satisfied at getting to the finals would be a fatal mindset - Federer emphasises that whatever happened in the past is of no import when he's playing in the final. And that leads to the third point, which is that Federer and Woods both looked at changing coaches to add and change aspects to their already succesful game. This is a symptom of an attitude of always wanting to improve. Focussing on improvement rather than success is an interesting subtle distinction that can lead to less stress. Confidence coupled with commitment is a strong combination. |
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| Last Updated ( Monday, 30 January 2006 ) |
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