Unlock Your Excellence — Insights From Coach to Federer and Sampras | Paul Annacone
Finding Mastery with Dr. Michael Gervais
Dr. Michael Gervais
4.6 • 1.8K Ratings
🗓️ 7 June 2023
⏱️ 87 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Paul Annacone, legendary tennis coach to Roger Federer and Pete Sampras, offers his approach to collaborative coaching and a guide to playing, thinking, and being the best you can be.
“How good are you on your average days? My mantra is: Every player has a handful of great matches during their career, and a handful of garbage. The rest is who you are. Show me who you are in the middle.”
More on Paul:
20-time Grand Slam winner, Roger Federer and 14-time Grand Slam winner, Pete Sampras, have at least one common thread in their tennis careers and he happens to be our guest for this episode.
Paul Annacone is a former touring professional tennis player who began his coaching career in 1995 working with the legendary Pete Sampras. Since then, he’s become one of the most respected mentors in the game, coaching Federer, Tim Henman, Sloane Stephens and, currently, one of USA’s top-ranked players, Taylor Fritz.
Paul’s book Coaching For Life: A Guide to Playing, Thinking, and Being the Best You Can Be, is an autobiographical exploration of his experience inside the sport of tennis; more importantly, it’s a compilation of the lessons he learned along the way that are applicable to our own day-to-day life. His front row seat to arguably the best in his game has given Paul a true understanding of some of the guiding principles that live in the heart, and the head, of a true champion.
This is an incredible conversation. Paul and I dive into the interesting transition from player to coach, the importance of knowing who you are, what he thinks about failure, and what he believes separates the greats from everyone else.
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | how good are you in your average days. My mantra every player is, |
| 0:04.4 | handful of great matches during the year, during a career, |
| 0:08.2 | handful of garbage. The rest is who you are. Show me who you are in the middle. |
| 0:21.2 | Okay, welcome back. Or welcome to the Finding Mastery podcast. I'm your host, |
| 0:25.7 | Dr. Michael Jervé, by training a high-performance psychologist. I'm really excited to welcome |
| 0:30.7 | Paul Anacone to the pod for this week's conversation. 20-time Grand Slam Winner, Roger Federer, |
| 0:36.8 | and 14-time Grand Slam Winner, Pete Samperous, have at least one common thread in their tennis |
| 0:41.9 | careers. And he happens to be our guest on today's episode. Paul is a former touring professional |
| 0:48.3 | player who began his coaching career in 1995, working with the legendary Pete Samperous. And since then, |
| 0:55.3 | he's become one of the most respected mentors in the game, coaching Federer, Tim Henman, |
| 1:00.4 | Sloan Stevens, and currently one of USA's top ranked players, Taylor Fritz. |
| 1:05.9 | Calling coaching, one of the most enlightening things he's experienced, |
| 1:09.9 | Paul has spent 15 years writing his book, Coaching for Life, a guide to playing thinking and being |
| 1:16.2 | the best you can be. In the book, which is so good and so rich, he shares how the process |
| 1:23.2 | oriented journey that he applies to the game of tennis can serve as a great metaphor for |
| 1:28.4 | approaching life, period. You also might recognize him from the new Netflix series, Breakpoint, |
| 1:34.0 | where his insights are an integral part of the understanding of what makes great players great. |
| 1:39.7 | Whether you're a parent, a business bro, an athlete, a knowledge seeker, |
| 1:44.4 | Coaching Anacone speaks for all of us on the cutting edge of our chosen game, whatever that game |
| 1:48.9 | may be. His front row seat to arguably the best in tennis has given Paul a true understanding |
| 1:57.4 | of some of the guiding principles that live in the heart and live in the head of a true champion. |
| 2:03.6 | I can't wait for you here. Paul speaks to the lessons he's learned along his extraordinary path, |
... |
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