The Warrior Mentality

[don_budge]

The Competitor…and the Weekend Warrior

What we're talking about here is being a "competitor", which, comes in many forms and style packages. That is, those that are willing to do what's necessary to win, within the confines of fair play. To say, or associate this with some sort of "aggression" in a "primal" way is just short sided.

It runs the gamut.

I finally got around to reading it. I have beavers to tend to. I have a new chocolate labrador puppy named Puntzi to tend to. I have golf schools to teach. 25 hours of tennis classes to boot. My life is full…and balanced as lobanddropshot reminds us before we get all frothing in the mouth. Warriors? Hardly…but hey…there are plenty of real battles to be fought these days. Obama and company…the U. S. Government rarely sees a potential war that they aren't interested in. Particularly so if we can do it under the guise of National Security and Homeland Security. Go sign up for operation Jade Helm if you have all this passion for killing and dying. Dying? Never been involved in any tennis match or anything else for that matter that was worth dying for. No tennis match that I ever played in or witnesses remotely resembled something on the level of a life and death struggle. Delusional.

Tennis is a game. That is all that it is. It was originated by the aristocratic French noblisse. They weren't interested in dying for anything either. The game morphed into Great Britain upper upper class. You know the crowd. They have their noses in the air when you or I walk into the room. It's their party and you aren't invited. They aren't interested in dying either. No…they send the poor kids to do the killing and dying. Can't see getting the old hands dirty. Tennis is a party…it isn't a war. War (warrior) is something quite different. I remember Sgt. Barnes (Tom Berringer) in the movie "Platoon" asking his men…"what do you know about killing?" Tennis players don't know this kind of instinct. It's far-fetched. You have seen too many American war movies glorifying death and dying…in the name of patriotism. You've been brain washed. Wake up.

But in a sense…you are right. The game has morphed into a gladiator…Big Time Wrestling spectacle. The announcers try to hype it up the best they can. Gushing about "spectacular" play with great exaggeration and chutzpah. To me it sounds downright silly and ridiculous but it passes nowadays under the "entertainment of small minds" heading. These guys aren't warriors…they are barely tennis players. Everyone of them playing the chicken game of the harmless duel from the baseline. Not a single one of them with the balls to truly attack where the game was meant to be attacked from…the net. The modern game is only a spectacle…it is only in a long list of diversions designed to take the consumer's eye off of the ball so that the real agenda is pushed forward. It's all about money in the end…but even in these copious amounts nobody is willing to die for it. Most people are too smart…they realize that in our position the name of the game is to live to play another day. Tennis is merely a distraction and a way of participating in an activity to get some exercise. Surely there is the competitive aspect of the game but how can you possibly equate this or mistake this with a life or death scenario. This isn't healthy mental health for that matter.

Modern day tennis players are far from any type of warrior. When I think of a warrior…I think of Geronimo and his band of warriors. The Apache. These guys were pursued by the U. S. Government into the abyss. It was their land and they knew it. They weren't going to give it away or sell it. They were determined to keep it at all costs. There is warrior mentality. They refused to give up…truly this type of warrior chose to die than to be taken alive. Native American warriors could not be made into slavery…they didn't have that kind of mentality. U. S. soldiers outnumbered them by hundreds to one yet they were unable to pacify or vanquish them until nearly the 20th century. What do you know about dying? What do you know about being hungry?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apache

You can save this trivial gossip and bullshit for the forum. It's entertaining and it's prose. It's funny…though barely amusing. It doesn't make any sense at all but this is beside the point in the forum…where all are welcome to state their case. Well…almost all.

I have a suggestion for any of you that actually believe that this game is about a warrior mentality…go sign up. Get a taste of the killing you dream about. That you claim to lust for. Deep inside of any weekend warrior is a chicken waiting to be hatched when faced with the reality of death. Rightfully so. Warrior mentality…my ass. Competitive…to a certain degree.

[10splayer]

I finally got around to reading it. I have beavers to tend to. I have a new chocolate labrador puppy named Puntzi to tend to. I have golf schools to teach. 25 hours of tennis classes to boot. My life is full…and balanced as lobanddropshot reminds us before we get all frothing in the mouth. Warriors? Hardly…but hey…there are plenty of real battles to be fought these days. Obama and company…the U. S. Government rarely sees a potential war that they aren't interested in. Particularly so if we can do it under the guise of National Security and Homeland Security. Go sign up for operation Jade Helm if you have all this passion for killing and dying. Dying? Never been involved in any tennis match or anything else for that matter that was worth dying for. No tennis match that I ever played in or witnesses remotely resembled something on the level of a life and death struggle. Delusional.

Tennis is a game. That is all that it is. It was originated by the aristocratic French noblisse. They weren't interested in dying for anything either. The game morphed into Great Britain upper upper class. You know the crowd. They have their noses in the air when you or I walk into the room. It's their party and you aren't invited. They aren't interested in dying either. No…they send the poor kids to do the killing and dying. Can't see getting the old hands dirty. Tennis is a party…it isn't a war. War (warrior) is something quite different. I remember Sgt. Barnes (Tom Berringer) in the movie "Platoon" asking his men…"what do you know about killing?" Tennis players don't know this kind of instinct. It's far-fetched. You have seen too many American war movies glorifying death and dying…in the name of patriotism. You've been brain washed. Wake up.

But in a sense…you are right. The game has morphed into a gladiator…Big Time Wrestling spectacle. The announcers try to hype it up the best they can. Gushing about "spectacular" play with great exaggeration and chutzpah. To me it sounds downright silly and ridiculous but it passes nowadays under the "entertainment of small minds" heading. These guys aren't warriors…they are barely tennis players. Everyone of them playing the chicken game of the harmless duel from the baseline. Not a single one of them with the balls to truly attack where the game was meant to be attacked from…the net. The modern game is only a spectacle…it is only in a long list of diversions designed to take the consumer's eye off of the ball so that the real agenda is pushed forward. It's all about money in the end…but even in these copious amounts nobody is willing to die for it. Most people are too smart…they realize that in our position the name of the game is to live to play another day. Tennis is merely a distraction and a way of participating in an activity to get some exercise. Surely there is the competitive aspect of the game but how can you possibly equate this or mistake this with a life or death scenario. This isn't healthy mental health for that matter.

Modern day tennis players are far from any type of warrior. When I think of a warrior…I think of Geronimo and his band of warriors. The Apache. These guys were pursued by the U. S. Government into the abyss. It was their land and they knew it. They weren't going to give it away or sell it. They were determined to keep it at all costs. There is warrior mentality. They refused to give up…truly this type of warrior chose to die than to be taken alive. Native American warriors could not be made into slavery…they didn't have that kind of mentality. U. S. soldiers outnumbered them by hundreds to one yet they were unable to pacify or vanquish them until nearly the 20th century. What do you know about dying? What do you know about being hungry?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apache

You can save this trivial gossip and bullshit for the forum. It's entertaining and it's prose. It's funny…though barely amusing. It doesn't make any sense at all but this is beside the point in the forum…where all are welcome to state their case. Well…almost all.

I have a suggestion for any of you that actually believe that this game is about a warrior mentality…go sign up. Get a taste of the killing you dream about. That you claim to lust for. Deep inside of any weekend warrior is a chicken waiting to be hatched when faced with the reality of death. Rightfully so. Warrior mentality…my ass. Competitive…to a certain degree.

Jesus, Mary, and Joseph, finally a voice of reason. If I hear one more athlete talking about "going to war", or kill or be killed, Im gonna scream. It's actually, an incredible disservice to those who have. A "warrior" is one that gets out of the trenches in WW1 and walk into an open field of machine guns. Athletes play a stupid game. Hello!!!!

These days a guy like Floyd Mayweather is considered a "warrior". Someone who runs further then a marathoner during a fight. Indeed the only "combat" he's faced is beating the shit out of one of his 7 wives.

[GeoffWilliams]

Two more guys who don't get it, and never will.

Crowds get so excited about warrior sporting events for one reason alone. It allows us to symbolically and viscerally experience a battle from a safe distance, as if we were fighting ourselves, without the physical risk to life and limb, to satisfy our genetic need for blood and gore. Games have changed mankind's propensity to actually go to kill our neighbor. Those who put the nose in the air over that history, and genetic memory, and past life experience, are just ignorant, or delusional themselves.

[10splayer]

Two more guys who don't get it, and never will.

Crowds get so excited about warrior sporting events for one reason alone. It allows us to symbolically and viscerally experience a battle from a safe distance, as if we were fighting ourselves, without the physical risk to life and limb, to satisfy our genetic need for blood and gore. Games have changed mankind's propensity to actually go to kill our neighbor. Those who put the nose in the air over that history, and genetic memory, and past life experience, are just ignorant, or delusional themselves.

Yeah, well watching you play some other overweight, 4.0 on a public court doesn't do it for me. sorry....Can't make the connection from that, to the battle of Bull Run.

The problem I have is when you start using these terms like warrior, or describing a tennis match as do or die, etc. It dilutes the term, and what it means in describing "true" warriors. It certainly doesn't describe (at least in any literal way) two people playing a stupid game.

Who's delusional?

[klacr]

warrior (ˈwɒrɪə)
noun
1. (Military)
a. a person engaged in, experienced in, or devoted to war
b. (as modifier): a warrior nation.
[C13: from Old Northern French werreieor, from werrewar]

There is something called the stolen valor act. Which is a federal law. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stolen_Valor_Act_of_2013

And thank goodness for this. I have the greatest respect for military personnel and what they do to defend our rights and freedoms. The fact that we can get on a tennis website forum and debate Geoff's article on its purpose and meaning is all the proof we need to count our blessings for their service.

Yes, those that get into the line of fire and deal with killing or be killed scenarios have more testicular fortitude than many could ever comprehend. One of my MMA training pals was a Navy SEAL. He never discusses it nor does he boast, he saw some stuff that no human needed to see and been put in precarious positions that no human would ever want to be in. Stepping into a ring and the threat of a broken nose, rib, arm or leg does not phase him in the least. Neither does it phase me. The difference is he's brave, I'm just crazy or stupid, depending on who you ask.

Stepping onto a court to hit a fuzzy yellow ball is not that intimidating nor hard to take seriously. But it is the mental psych job, a following of the script, that gets us in a mindset that it is a competition. Will anyone lose a limb or a life inside that rectangle of strategy? Hell no. But it's the effort you give and the level of execution you perform with that will make it or break it.

No one is a soldier, warrior, hero, combatant, trooper unless they have actually been enlisted and recognized in the armed forces.

With that said, Tennis is 90% mental and 10% physical. Or is that 100% mental, 10% physical? Math has never been my strong suit.

You have to be able to tap into that visual image or mindset, or at least what you think it looks like, to get you to that mental space that helps you perform at your best. Some may be more zen. Some may be a bit more intense and aggressive.

You have to know your game and what it takes to get you to your peak better than anything else. What you say and do and imagine has to be what you go out there and do. But let's remember, It's a fuzzy yellow ball...not a bullet.

10splayer, Your Mayweather comments are spot on. Glad someone said it.

Kyle LaCroix USPTA
Boca Raton

[GeoffWilliams]

MMA fighters train as if their lives depend on it, because they do. As do all warrior fighters. Those who adapt to the warrior mentat, and train as if their lives depend on it, and play that way, are called world class pros. For everyone else, it's for fun and is lower class, less symbolic, and less powerful in their psyche. Mental toughness is the separator, and is the reason Fed loses to Nadal so much, as does everyone else, not the fh/bh fight. It's the mentat fight that determines who wins their battles. Fed is a more decent, more admirable, less vicious competitor, less willing to cheat, take drugs, pull cheap psych, etc., so he becomes an admirable loser.

In some matches, I've played: with a broken racquet hand, pulled muscles at work the day before, cut tendons, etc. rather than default due to injury. Why bother considering the loss is inevitable? Because the effort against all odds is valiant. Learning to deal with loss and failure is stressful and painful, but makes us more able to survive in the long run, if you believe it so. If you don't, as many here don't, then their belief forms their life and they are the ones who will die of stress caused heart attacks, not us.

YOur mind and beliefs are the creators of your level of mental toughness and ability to win against better players. Or take loss. Or improve. Or pay the price. So many will not pay, it's not worth it to them, so they cannot move past the level they set for themselves, and no one cares but them.

[don_budge]

I am the Warrior…don_budge

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=47y5bo8wtqM

Two more guys who don't get it, and never will.

Crowds get so excited about warrior sporting events for one reason alone. It allows us to symbolically and viscerally experience a battle from a safe distance, as if we were fighting ourselves, without the physical risk to life and limb, to satisfy our genetic need for blood and gore. Games have changed mankind's propensity to actually go to kill our neighbor. Those who put the nose in the air over that history, and genetic memory, and past life experience, are just ignorant, or delusional themselves.

No…I get it. The crowds are fucked up as well…as your explanation portrays a very sick society. But your mistaken notions regarding fighting and battling as compared to a game of tennis are far fetched. I have trouble with the equipment angle as well. It is merely another symptom of the "spoiled and pampered" as opposed to the "tooth and nail" concept you are struggling to develop.

It actually is unseemly for such an advanced in age person to speak in your terms. It obviously isn't testosterone any longer…hopefully it isn't some sort of personality disorder. Hopefully it is only an overly furtive imagination. I suspect the latter…but don't rule out the first. Too bad that your alter ego isn't here to back you up on all of this nonsense. There is safety in numbers for those that need a second opinion to back up their own. This is something that I have never needed…to go along with the crowd.

The only tennis player that I can remember that ever resembled a warrior was Richard Gonzales…the Greatest Tennis Player of All Time. He with the Aztec eyes. He was doing battle on a larger scale. He was fighting the system that had stacked the cards against him at every opportunity simply because he reminded the system of another fight or battle in the past. His battle was very real and not some figment of his imagination. He was such a bad dude…I will forever love him. I will never that scowl…that disdain for the stacked deck. The pesky Native Americans just wouldn't disappear and the system couldn't eradicate them quick enough. He may have truly been a warrior in every sense of the word…as in the word that you are trying to imply. It was a battle on a larger scale for Gonzalez…I know. It was more than tennis.

Yeah, well watching you play some other overweight, 4.0 on a public court doesn't do it for me. sorry....Can't make the connection from that, to the battle of Bull Run.

The problem I have is when you start using these terms like warrior, or describing a tennis match as do or die, etc. It dilutes the term, and what it means in describing "true" warriors. It certainly doesn't describe (at least in any literal way) two people playing a stupid game.

Who's delusional?

lol…seriously. Really loud.

[gzhpcu]

Well, there is also the Galloway "Inner Game of Tennis" approach. Stop trying, stop forcing. Quiet the mind and let it happen. Get into the zone.

Now, I know this probably does not appeal to you Geoff, but we are all different, what works for some, does not work for others.

I understand your combative approach and that it probably better suited to you with your background of overcoming physical adversities, but I find Galloway's approach better for me. When I get into the zone, the ball appears as large as a grapefruit... Somewhat like surfing...

[johnyandell]

What I love about Geoff and his articles--and apparently why I publish them--the incredible diversity of intelligent response.

[klacr]

Geoff's articles create a great dialogue for sure.

His warrior mentality can be polarizing for some. Perhaps it's just the vernacular that he uses. "Warrior" ruffles feathers. The warrior mentality and gzhpc's remark on the "inner game of tennis" is relatable to the two types of practice/playing styles of a mechanic and magician. Remember that video...?
http://www.tennisplayer.net/members/..._and_magician/

and the article from Chris Lewit? http://www.tennisplayer.net/members/...anic_magician/

Much of it has to do with the player's personality type. Remember this gem of an article? Your Temperament and Your Tennis by Dexter Goodby?
http://www.tennisplayer.net/members/...ennis_pg1.html

We all know Geoff's personality from his posts and willingness to share his concepts and philosophies on this forum. To me, it makes sense for Geoff to take this approach. If Geoff took the approach of Gallwey, would he have gotten as far as he has in tennis? Not sure. But worth a thought. Everyone is a bit different in their approach and that's one of the many reasons that tennis is so interesting.

after all...people are people.
https://www.youtube.com/results?sear...ple+are+people

Kyle LaCroix USPTA
Boca Raton

[stotty]

Well, there is also the Galloway "Inner Game of Tennis" approach. Stop trying, stop forcing. Quiet the mind and let it happen. Get into the zone.

This approach suits me better also. I think it is easy to be deceived by the physicality of today's pro tennis; mentally these players are calm inside.

In defence of Geoff, if we take the term "warrior" and tone it down to "fighter, it's probably a less dramatic term that reflects things better. You do have to fight (the fight is usually against yourself, not your opponent) to win on occasions.

I think the term "warrior" might be attractive to children and could be a word that encourages them never to give up trying. This is the only positive use for the word I can think of.

In terms of myself I prefer inner calm. Any fighting going on is usually against myself...fighting to keep self-belief...fighting not to quit and walk away...fighting to prove myself a decent player amongst my peers. But we are all different and consequently we will often view things very differently from each other.

The bottom line is each to their own and be tolerant.

[ghl312]

To everyone who doesn't like when we talk about sports with a warrior mentality and say that it is an injustice to the true warriors out there who put lives on the line to protect their country and families......we are talking about a warrior MENTALITY not being an actual warrior. In order to maximize performance you must have a burning desire to compete and to be your best. The warrior MENTALITY gets us as close as possible to that.

Quieting the mind and allowing the subconscious to take over and control the body is important. Very few can think about how to swing and take the best cut at the ball. Nobody has time to analyze every situation and choose the best shot. It must be trained to happen automatically. The warrior mentality is a way to ensure the best intensity and focus at all times.

[GeoffWilliams]

The under lying un-heard sub conscious is what choking and not choking is all about. We all have done it. We all know what it feels like to be locked up for no apparent reason we can control/not control our own bodies. There are not enough in depth looks at why and when, and for how long, and what effects, us inside the mind which then controls the body and its performance.

And warrior mentats make it simple. It is life and death for them. It is train or die trying. It is a bullet not a ball, inside the minds' underlying depth. It's the same reason so many young people are hooked on warrior video games.

Want to become a billionaire? INvent a game where players pay to form/join/create armies and pony up, pay to enter for each soldier, hackers creating their own nukes, generals appointed by virtual politicians, virtual countries being created, worlds, under attack and vanquished. Bit coin, paypal, you name it. Whoever creates that game will soon be the richest man on earth. Pay for imaginary territory, and resell it.

The sub conscious desire to kill and be killed, past life influences and experiences, dna memory is there in all of us in truth. Easy enough to play for pleasure, just don't play matches with friends, and just win baby. Just practice with no track of points. That's what I do. No one gets hurt, everyone wins, everyone gets better and feels good about it.

It's the nose in the air old guard who hate every advancement, whether it be equipment, or Nadal's warrior mentat, will always be the Don Quixote of the current moment. They never will stop progress and never will stop trying to. It's called a losing battle. White pebble losers. These are the guys who look at old video and still claim: play was better, balls were hit faster, with more rpms, and rallies were more interesting, players were too, serve and volley was a better style: . REGARDless of the video evidence, as if the old guys could even win a local atp open! Not in their dreams, as if their dreams matter. Blah, blah, blah, as if Jesse Owens could beat Flo Jo! (His time was close.) Flo Jo dead at 36: the price paid by a warrior mentat who cheated and did everything she could to win.

[hockeyscout]

Great posts Geoff

[hockeyscout]

In some third world country a kid is up at 4 am going at it, and taking what Geoff Williams says to heart.