The Winner's Mind: A Competitor's Guide to Sports and Business Success - Softcover

Fox, Allen

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0972275924 ISBN 13: 9780972275927

Verlag: USRSA/RACQUET TECH PUB, 2005

Inhaltsangabe

Acknowledging the conventional wisdom that "winning isn't everything," this guide takes the position that winning is still eminently preferable to losing and lays out a step-by-step plan for succeeding at any of life's endeavors. In addition to sharing his personal experiences as a world-class tennis player and successful businessman, Allen Fox unveils the secrets of champions and reveals how everyone can put them to use to tilt the odds in their favor in a hilarious, take-no-prisoners tone. Factors contributing to success, such as common mental characteristics of winners and the role of intellect over emotion, as well as obstacles to victory such as the insidious and pervasive fear of failure and the unconscious struggle between ambition and fear, are also discussed.

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Über die Autorin bzw. den Autor

Allen Fox, PhD, is the author of If I'm the Better Player, Why Can't I Win? and Think to Win: The Strategic Dimension of Tennis and a former editor of Tennis Magazine. In addition to being a world-class tennis player who was at one time ranked fourth in the United States, he has been an investment banker and a coach for the Pepperdine University tennis team. He currently consults and works privately with professional athletes on the mental issues of competition and travels worldwide to lecture on sports psychology. He lives in San Luis Obispo, California.

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The Winner's Mind

A Competitor's Guide to Sports and Business Success

By Allen Fox

USRSA

Copyright © 2005 Allen Fox
All rights reserved.

ISBN: 978-0-9722759-2-7

Contents

PART ONE THE COMPULSION TO COMPETE AND ACHIEVE, 
Introduction to Part One, 
CHAPTER ONE The Mind Of The Habitual Winner, 
CHAPTER TWO Why Do We Hunger To Win?, 
CHAPTER THREE How Society Pressures Us To Win, 
CHAPTER FOUR The Insidious and Pervasive Fear of Failure, 
CHAPTER FIVE The Unconscious Struggle Between Ambition and Fear, 
PART TWO HOW THE CHAMPIONS DO IT, 
Introduction to Part Two, 
CHAPTER SIX Goal Orientation, 
CHAPTER SEVEN Keeping Goals in Mind, 
CHAPTER EIGHT The Feeling of Control, 
CHAPTER NINE A Solution to Any Problem, 
CHAPTER TEN Sensitivity to Success, 
CHAPTER ELEVEN Reaction to Failure, 
CHAPTER TWELVE Capacity for Work, 
CHAPTER THIRTEEN Work Without Immediate Reward, 
CHAPTER FOURTEEN Intellect Over Emotion, 
CHAPTER FIFTEEN Energy, 
CHAPTER SIXTEEN What Does It All Mean?, 
APPENDIX, 
ABOUT THE AUTHOR, 

CHAPTER 1

THE MIND OF THE HABITUAL WINNER

Successful people have certain common mental characteristics that help them to be successful in any area of endeavor.

Searing heat saps the strength from the combatants on the center court of the Foro Italico Stadium in Rome. It is 1961 and the opening match is underway in the Davis Cup between Italy and the United States. Young Jon Douglas of Santa Monica, California, trails famed Italian star Fausto Gardini two sets to none. Fausto has been a fearsome force on the slow Europeon clay courts for the past 10 years, particularly in Italy where he is a maestro at whipping partisan crowds into an emotional frenzy. They are screaming today as Fausto gives Douglas a tennis lesson. Pounding his big forehand to the corners and teasing Douglas with skidding slices and deft dropshots off the backhand, Fausto has been toying with the Californian for hours. Douglas had learned his tennis on the fast concrete courts of Los Angeles and is obviously below par and uncomfortable on Rome's slippery red dirt.

But Douglas lowers his head and doggedly continues to run and fight. He understands that he cannot master the intricacies of this alien surface in the next hours. The race does not always go to the swiftest. Youthful and tough, Douglas realizes his only chance is to scramble for every ball and try to keep the older Gardini on the hot court until he tires. Douglas is prepared to run two miles just to make Fausto run one.

The third set goes to the American 7–5, and the fourth turns into a marathon. With the score standing at 8–all (there were no tie-breakers in those days) and after almost four hours on court, Fausto begins to wilt. A little weariness of leg is all Douglas needs to close out the set 10–8. Now they are even and Fausto knows he is finished. Indicating to the now silent and sullen crowd that he is starting to get cramps, Fausto puts up only token resistance in the deciding set, which Douglas wins without the loss of a game. It is a fitting end to a match that is a high point in Jon Douglas' tennis career and exemplifies his approach to tennis, other sports, and life in general. Quite simply, Jon Douglas knows how to win.

THE DOUGLAS STORY

Jon Douglas is a good example of a competitive genius. He was ranked as high as number four in tennis in the United States and was a valued member of the U.S. Davis Cup team in the early 1960s. He graduated from Stanford University and, while he was at it, played first-string quarterback on their football team. Not content with mediocrity in any sport, Douglas was one of the best quarterbacks in the league — so good that in post-season play he was named quarterback for the West team in the annual East-West game and almost won the game single-handedly by passing for one touchdown and running for two others. And that was not the end of his accomplishments. While playing football and tennis at Santa Monica High School and accumulating close to an A average academically, he found the time to play first-string basketball, and earn All-Bay League honors!

Douglas was the top junior tennis player in Southern California and one of the best in the nation when I moved to California as a 16-year old. It was not long before I began to hear the stories about him. Because he was so successful at so many sports, his achievements were the stuff of legend. Never having met Douglas, I naturally pictured him to be a powerful, bionic athlete, with eagle eyes and superhuman coordination.

DOUGLAS DIDN'T DO IT WITH ATHLETIC ABILITY

What a surprise when I finally saw him. I felt like Dorothy meeting the Wizard of Oz. Douglas was singularly unimpressive as a physical specimen. At five feet nine inches and 155 pounds, he was terribly disadvantaged in both football and basketball. More surprising still was the fact that he was not a particularly gifted physical athlete in any other measurable characteristic either. His hand-eye coordination was only average, and though tough, he was not terribly strong. Possessed of excellent quickness and balance, he was a good but certainly not great athlete.

As a basketball player, he was an excellent ball handler, but only a fair shot. He had no fancy moves but he was quick, strong on defense, a clever passer, and always in the right place. He was valuable to his team because he seldom made mistakes and had a knack for causing his opponents difficulty. He was constantly alert to break up their plays and steal balls while maneuvering his teammates into the open for easy shots.

In football he was similarly efficient but unspectacular. Douglas did not have a strong passing arm but was quite accurate at short range. He was a wonderful field general and excellent at option plays and scrambling. He passed at the right times, found the holes in the defense, and had the foresight to stay out of trouble. But he was incapable of heaving the ball significant distances effectively or wiggling free of multiple tacklers to gain yardage. So he simply didn't try to do these things.

The format in tennis was much the same. Douglas was not at all gifted with the racquet, but he was an excellent mechanic. Although his strokes looked a little stiff, they were well practiced and reliable. He employed his fine backhand, consistent baseline game, and superior conditioning to wear opponents down. His serve was mediocre and his volley, an afterthought. What didn't show was his incredible intellect and competitive heart.

Douglas was not a good enough physical athlete to become great in any of his sports. But he was truly exceptional in having the instinct for using his strengths to maximum advantage, hiding his weaknesses, and competing with ferocious intensity. Without doubt he could have achieved national prominence in baseball, hockey, soccer, water polo, or tiddlywinks if he had set his mind to it.

DOUGLAS TURNS TO BUSINESS

After finishing his athletic career, Douglas turned his considerable energies toward making money. He entered the real estate business as a broker, nothing fancy, just selling real estate like hordes of other brokers. But before long he was selling a lot more real estate than they were. Over the years, he built a solid base of knowledge and contacts. Eventually he began to syndicate partnerships to purchase or develop income property. Douglas knew what he was talking about, and people listened to him....

Details zur Ausgabe

• Verlag: USRSA/RACQUET TECH PUB
• Erscheinungsdatum: 2005
• Sprache: Englisch
• ISBN 10: 0972275924
• ISBN 13: 9780972275927
• Einband: Taschenbuch
• Anzahl der Seiten: 208
• Kontakt zum Hersteller: Nicht verfügbar
• Verantwortliche Person: Nicht verfügbar