Locker Room Power: The Ladder of Gain

Winning one more set made Nadal Wimbledon champion.

Rafael Nadal is a fantastic competitor. If you listen to his interviews he always speaks about working hard every day to improve.

Nadal always looks at what he can gain. He never thinks about what he has to lose, only at what he has to gain.

An example is his 5 set Wimbledon win over Roger Federer in 2008. In that match he had lead two sets to love and missed out on two match points. After the match a tennis writer asked how he overcame that “disappointment.”

His answer was this:

“Disappointment? Are you crazy? I have only one more set to win. All my life I dream of winning Wimbledon and still the opportunity is so big! I focus on holding my serve and I know that if I can hold my serve then when we are maybe 3-3 Roger must know he must beat me. And this is difficult, no?”

Nadal played to gain a Wimbledon title and he succeeded. But how does the average player acquire this mentaility? How can you develop an attitude of GAIN?

My suggestion is to picture and understand the following. Visualize a ladder…