Marcin Bieniek

Tennis career lasts for many years. A lot of players start their journey at the age of 5 or 7 which means that they will continue the quest of dealing with various challenges for 12 or more years. There is no doubt that there will be ups and downs and that at some moments, players will start to doubt their chances of reaching the ultimate goal. The question they have to face is: Should I continue my playing career? 

 Every individual sport puts a lot of pressure not only on the physical side of the athlete but also on the mental aspects. Of course, training every day is a big effort for everybody so players have to deal with tiredness to constantly grow and become stronger. On the other hand, players have to also survive various difficult challenges that occupy their minds. Dealing with spectacular loss or unexpected injury can be a worse test for the athlete than even the hardest training session that lasts over 5 hours. 

There are different stages of a tennis career as well as different stages of human growth. People have individual priorities and temptations at different ages so it shouldn’t be a surprise that many players consider giving up on their careers sooner or later. Low international ranking, lack of training possibilities, love affair, or partying with friends are just a few of many examples of why players don’t want to chase their dreams any longer. There always has to come the time to stop the career but we should make sure that it is the right time to finish the career. 

 If you think about ending up your career, make sure you take a closer look at these specific aspects: 

 What’s your long-term goal? 

When there is no clarity, there are doubts. A lot of players think about not continuing their careers because they don’t have a long-term goal. The long-term goal gives us a direction where we should head. No matter what is going on, we always know where is the next step. Players, who have an only a short-term perspective, don’t have the point of reference and they are going through ups and downs both with emotions and motivation to work hard. 

 What are you focused on?

A lot of doubts occur because of improper focus. Do players want to stop their careers after winning the trophy? Do players want to give up on tennis after playing their first Grand Slam event? Of course not. However, when they get injured or lose 8 matches in a row, they start to think about the chances of having a successful individual sports career. It happens because they focus on obstacles – not on the goal. Every time you have doubts – get back to focusing on the long-term goal. It will give you the right perspective.  

 Do you control what you can control?

Focusing on proper things is strongly related to the actions player can take. If we focus on things that we can’t control, we can lose motivation to work hard and start to complain more than to act. That is why it is crucial to focus on what we can control and do it every day. Players, who don’t want to continue their careers, do it because they focus on ranking spot or winning ratio and they can’t control that. Players, who focus on the long-term goal and the ways to achieve it, act actively and develop skills that will make them closer to reaching the dream. 

 Every journey has a starting point and a finish line. Some players have successful careers up to the age of 35 while others give up on their dreams right before their 18th birthday. I am aware of the fact that not everyone can be the next Roger Federer but I am also sure that many players give up definitely too early. If you don’t believe that you can still achieve what you have planned before, analyze your current status and include these 3 points from this article to make this analysis objective.  

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