Professional Tip

 It's been almost 10 years now, but I still remember the advice very well. At that time I trained with a professional player at my old club in Leonberg. He was very good in his youth but then decided quite young to become a coach. After a few years he wanted to go on tour again, but unfortunately he never made it to the top. Now the first readers are probably wondering how advice from someone who has never made it in tennis can be any good. In his case, the realization unfortunately came too late because he didn't continue playing in his prime and understandably wanted to earn good money as a coach. I had forgotten his advice for many years; it was only about a year ago that I really realized the importance of what he said at the time. I was 20 and unfortunately I didn't take his words too seriously because he didn't have a good ranking in the world rankings. That was a mistake, but at my age at the time it was somewhat understandable. After a good training session we started talking and he chose the following words:

 “If you decide you want to become a professional, then you have to give yourself at least 5 years to do it. Too many players say they will try it for 1 or 2 years and see how it goes. You have to be fully engaged. When you play every match with full enthusiasm, you gather valuable information about yourself and the game. No matter whether you win or lose. You have to save this information, I imagine that I have a backpack and store these lessons in it. Then you go out on tour and try to convert this information into success. “

 What's some of the best advice you've ever received? Please let me know via DM or email

 With sporty greetings

 Hendrik