Thanks to the extraordinary response and generosity of 83 percent (166) of my players, I'm confident now that I am prepared to provide some answers to questions
posed by two long term supporters, Jack Gifford and Matt Knoll: "How did we win so many championships, and why did we perform so well in the big moments?"
Reading all of what the players had provided in order to select responses that might suggest a better answer than the one I had originally offered--simply, we had the best players.
I was astounded to find so many different examples, detailed in this book, in which
a player described what he felt was the key to our achievements. My conclusion now is that there is no one single answer, but rather many ingredients that went into our success.
The ingredients of our "secret sauce" centered largely around our recruiting and culture,
and my particular style of leadership. Each of these ideas consisted of a wealth of satellite ideas, all of them important. The responses below seem to best summarize the most important answers to these two questions:
According to Mike Bryan, class of 2000, who has won more Grand Slam doubles championships than anyone in the history of the game:
"I feel the unique culture of class and greatness helped create a magical atmosphere that produced remarkable results. It came from a deep respect for the history that had been created and the high bar of excellence that was expected to be maintained.
Dick Gould is now Director of Tennis at Stanford University, where as men's coach, he led his beloved Cardinals to an amazing 17 national team titles and 10 players to the NCAA singles title. In addition, he has coached 9 Stanford players who subsequently attained world top 15 in singles
rankings and 14 who have reached the world's top 10 in doubles (including 7 who have been ranked # 1 in the world in doubles). Although known for his college team records, Gould is also one of the game's foremost students, authors, and teachers, establishing both the Stanford Tennis School and the fabulously successful Nike Junior Tennis Camps at Stanford. A minor accomplishment was giving John Yandell his first tennis teaching job in California in 1979. Tennisplayer is proud to be presenting both his classical and advanced teaching systems on our site, starting with this analysis of learning from the greats.
Leading with Character: 10 Minutes a Day to a Brilliant Legacy
A collective memoir of 166 world champions, CEOs, leaders, and other professionals, all of whom played on Stanford’s men’s tennis dynasty under legendary coach Dick Gould, owner of seventeen NCAA men’s tennis titles. Compiled and authored by Gould with former player and author Tim Troupe Noonan, Anatomy addresses issues of leadership, team building, sustaining success over time, and many other topics of interest to anyone in a position of leadership.
