The Loser's Edge
Kyle LaCroix
After any loss any serious competitive player is emotionally vulnerable. He has to make choices about how to view what happened, choices that are as critical or more critical than technique or any other aspect of the game in his development as a tennis player and as a person.
Even if you are among the statistically insignificant percentage of tennis players good enough to make a living from pro tournament prize money, you will lose. Take the case of Mr. Roger Federer.
Federer has lost over 200 pro matches. That's the equivalent of about 3 years of tour matches! And Federer is among the winingest players in tennis history.
Those kinds of loses can be very painful. They can drive players off the tour--as happened to Bjorn Borg after his last attempt to win the U.S. Open ended in a bitter loss to John McEnroe in 1981.
Contrast that with Roger. If you look at his history you can see how he has grown in the way he deals with loses, and this is a huge factor in his continued presence and success on the tour.
First, think back to some of his biggest disappointments. In 2009 he cried during the awards ceremony after an Australian final loss to Rafael Nadal, admitting, "This is killing me."
In 2011 he was angry and contemptuous after Novak Djokovic's famous forehand return on match point reversed the course of their U.S. Open semi-final. He called the return "lucky" and said that Novak had given up.
Now compare those responses to his comments in 2015 after two other Grand Slam losses, both to Djokovic.
At Wimbledon this year after the final he said: "I'm very happy to see that I can produce a performance like I did the last two weeks. That clearly makes me believe that this was just a stepping stone to many more great things in the future."
And here is what he said after the Open loss in which he converted only 4 of 23 break points: "I'm happy that I played so well to give myself 23 break point opportunities. Against a player like Novak, to give yourself that many chances, you're clearly doing many things right."
That is spinning the negative into relentless positive thinking. But in both cases, looking at his face as he said the words you could tell he was perfectly sincere.
Jarkko
Federer is exceptional in so many ways, so is this just another example of what makes him unique? As you go down in the pro rankings the number of loses only goes up. You can be one of the hundred best players in the world and lose more matches than you win in a given year.
What about players below the level of Roger Federer?
Some years ago I had the chance to practice with ATP veteran player, Jarkko Nieminen from Finland. Afterwards I asked Jarkko what was the toughest thing about life on tour.
Without hesitation, he said "the best and worst parts are the same--the frequency of losing." The best part was losing? How could that be, I asked?
Jarkko explained that the toughest transition many players have when they arrive on tour is handling the frequency of their losses. In the juniors, in his case, weeks would pass before he would lose a match.
In 1999 he won the US junior title. Fans, writers and coaches called him the next big star. This was despite the obvious fact that junior dominance is not an accurate predictor of tour stardom.
Nieminen's 15 year career on tour was more than a success by any reasonable standard. He made the quarters in the 3 of the 4 Grand Slams.
He won multiple titles in singles and doubles, and about $8 million. How many players would kill to have those results?
But that career, unlike the juniors, included dozens of losses each year. The irony was that the higher the level he reached, the more likely tough losses became as he went up against players like Federer and Djokovic.
According to Jarkko those losses had an upside. They helped him grow as a player and a professional. They kept him grounded and taught him the importance of improving.
But few players truly learn to benefit from loses in the same way. Many become negative, see their results spiral down, and in some cases eventually quit tennis. That is at the pro level, in the juniors, and at the club level as well.
Why the difference? Mindset. Tennis is 10% about what happens to you and 90% about how you react to it.
In all tennis matches ever played half the players are losers. The problem is the experience of losing can stay with you longer than any victory.
Tennis teachers and coaches spend hours each day teaching students shots and tactics, but little or no time preparing them for those inevitable moments of disappointment. Maybe that's because they never learned how to face them themselves.
Love
It's easy to say don't dwell on a loss. It's much harder not to, especially if the perceived stakes were high. Those stakes might be a league match or just a weekly encounter with your nemesis or rival.
In Jim Loehr's work one of the fundamental components is learning to understand process, learning to love the battle, learning to focus on the joy of playing the game rather than the outcome. (Click Here.)
The key questions to ask after a loss are: What did I do well? Where were my opportunities? The goal is to stay excited about improving, and improving your control of your own process in the future.
Great players have the uncanny ability to use losses as a springboard, not a setback. Taking a brief snapshot of what occurred allows them to practice and hone in on what it will take to execute a bit more effectively in the future.
Optimism
As players compete, there will be critical moments that determine the outcome of a given match, or have the potential to do so. When many players don't capitalize they often lament of what could have been.
If you got outplayed in every category, then your opponent was too good. But what about your game? Are you honest enough to address what you can learn?
Again listen to Federer: "Usually you learn more when you lose just in the sense that you analyze harder, deeper at times. That's where you learn a lot about your game, about your attitude, about your fitness."
Think about what David Sammel explained in his article on The Ladder of Gain. (Click Here.) Losses don't mean going down. They only show you the path upward to the next rung.
And one final thought. Be grateful. You have another chance another day to play tennis.
