Back to basics - Agassi Story

My dear readers,

It is freezing outside, so easy to enter in a " No action " mode or winter Mood. Getting up, Going to work, Coming back, eat and go into a warm bed. My previous Martial arts Sensei used to say : it is when you are exhausted, on the verge to collapse that you need to be stronger and fight more. During winter, we tend to hibernate internally and wait for better times but this is wrong, you need to shine and take actions even more. Because when times are good, everybody can motor, but when times are bad only a few will stand out from the crowd. Today I wanted to talk about the idea of  coming back to basics.

I have been reading Andre Agassi 's biography recently and I found difficult to put the book down as it is so gripping. I have always admired this man and true champion technically wise but also as a person. There is a part of me who always wanted to be Andre for some reasons. He is now married to the beautiful and graceful Steffi Graff, enjoying a nice life with their two kids and doing a lot for charities. Having said that, at a particular period of his life, André really faced tough time in his career and went from Top number 1 in the world to one hundred  and forty with only defeats and humiliation coming on his way, he became the shadow of himself, he hated tennis also, he was bored, undisciplined and goals less. When everybody and even himself was thinking about retirement and an escape to enjoy all other things of life, something was telling him that it wasn't now.

He still could find a second blow and chose one ultimate option : getting back to basics. He played second league tournaments on small courts in the middle of nowhere with cars passing by, when you think that the man played and won slam tournaments on central courts in front of 20000 people. He chose to come back to basics in order to feel the pure essence of tennis, relearning the whys , the motivations, feeling and hitting each ball like with passion and hunger. He trained more, even swallowing his ego to relearn the technique he already knew... the rest we know it : he became the oldest number 1 in the world at 35, playing a purer, sharper tennis than ever and winning  the last Grand Slam tournament he didn 't have : the French Open. He became one of the first to do it in history. When I saw him playing on TV, I went  Wouaw... what happened to this old player who suddenly was reborn from aches and was defying time and gravity against youngsters. Nobody could stop this old man and nobody knew where this strength was coming from  .... but the ultimate joy was that for each balls he hit, each run he made we could feel that the man really enjoyed being there more than he ever did.

He retired at the age of thirty six still in front of his amazing wife Steffi Graff and the thousands of spectators in tears. Nobody before has put his mark like Agassi has done in the tennis and this will remain one of the greatest come back in the history of all sports.

Put your ego aside, relearn, step back two steps to go three steps further. This is the attitude we should all get from this story. If you get bored, if you feel unmotivated or not having the "Mojo" you used to have, get back to basics and get the essence of life, it will make you come back to these feelings of the time you were doing it for a reason... and with your full heart and passion.

Get well my friends, get warm and talk to you soon ! 

Written by Jean Michel Poc