Fiend at Court Unplugged
Today I am sharing four final tennis life hacks that were shamelessly lifted and adapted from a cybersecurity talk I gave in 2020. These are things that can significantly improve your tennis life.
Here are items 9-12 on the list.
9. Engage in Tennis Mentorship
There are tons of mentorship studies in the corporate environment that consistently reveal the benefits of those programs. The positive effects include better knowledge transfer, higher employee engagement, and increased retention. Those three things are highly desirable for the tennis ecosystem as well.
Chances are, your tennis life could benefit by finding a mentor to help you navigate and develop a tennis related skill. I am currently actively looking for mentors for myself for a couple of off-court developmental needs. Additionally, we should all also be open to mentoring other players and people around the tennis ecosystem if an opportunity arises.
I previously briefly touched on a potential implementation of tennis mentorship in “Eight and a Half Ideas for Enticing Former Juniors Back to Tennis.” That post was very specifically focused on bringing former junior players back into active senior tournament play.
10. Tennis Elevator Speeches
An elevator speech is a 30-60 second pitch on a topic that is important to you. These short pitches are a fundamental tool of career networking when used as a personal introduction. They are also a staple of entrepreneurs promoting a new business.
The basic idea behind an elevator speech is that 30-60 seconds is the amount of time people spend in an elevator, or otherwise generally have with a person in a chance encounter. It fundamentally boils down to the ability to convey information about something that is important when the opportunity arises and before it passes.
All tennis players should have a elevator speech at the ready that extolls the virtues of tennis. One or more spiels should also be prepared as a potential follow-up for introductory tennis opportunities in the local area.
11. Define Your Tennis Aspirations
In the corporate environment I frequently advise people to identify their dream job or to find a job listing for something they would like to do, but are not yet qualified for. That aspiration can then be dissected into developmental opportunities that align with that opportunity. If you don’t know where you want to go it is impossible to develop a proactive plan for actually getting there.
Tennis aspirations involve both on and off court objectives. It is natural for players to set performance goals. For example, a player might set their sights on qualifying for a highly selective tournament or winning the individual sectional championship. Off-court aspirations might be to contribute to a quick start after school tennis program or help your USTA community tennis association create new opportunities for adults to play tennis.
12. Develop a Tennis Development Roadmap
The final item on the list serves as a kind of capstone. This is where aspiration turns into a collection of tangible actions. A development roadmap is a long term plan with discrete activities that support your objectives. For example, if I had a desire to improve my footwork (and… I almost always have that objective) my roadmap might include plans to perform a jump rope interval workout three times a week.
An effective roadmap may not always immediately get you where you want to go. Such is the nature of performance and achievement objectives. However, a developmental roadmap will always get you closer to your objective if well constructed and diligently followed.
Life is a journey, not a destination. The same can be said of your tennis life as well. The development roadmap is a great tool for maximizing the voyage.
Finishing Shots
Just as there are 12 days of Christmas, there happen to be 12 months in a year. I plan to revisit each of these items by doing a deep dive of each one on the first Friday of each month in 2022.
- 12 Gifts to Give Yourself this Holiday to Jumpstart your Career in Cybersecurity, Teresa Merklin, WiCyS Webinar, December 15, 2020. (Registration required, but it is free.)
