Tennis Expert Darren Cahill's Guide On Creating Tennis Champions

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<v Speaker 1>I know there's a lot of people out there that say go on, get out there, do the best you can, the result doesn't matter.

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<v Speaker 1>The result certainly does matter.

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<v Speaker 2>There's no one that's had four champs like you've had four champs.

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<v Speaker 2>They just expect to win.

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<v Speaker 2>You're not just born with that.

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<v Speaker 2>Darren Cale's going to knock your socks off.

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<v Speaker 2>Philosophy ways to be successful.

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<v Speaker 2>Do you think success was just a part of your family or did you choose it at some point?

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<v Speaker 1>That's a former legend player and coach for the Portale Lake Football Club back in Australia.

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<v Speaker 1>It was expected Deep questions.

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<v Speaker 2>Yeah, all right, mate.

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<v Speaker 2>What is your definition of success?

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<v Speaker 1>Well, ultimately, in the sporting field, you need to win, and so getting the W is super important.

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<v Speaker 1>I know there's a lot of people out there that say go on, get out there, do the best you can, the result doesn't matter.

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<v Speaker 1>It does matter.

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<v Speaker 1>The result certainly does matter.

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<v Speaker 1>But making change in my particular industry, in tennis, making positive change to that athlete is success, regardless of whether that's a player that's ranked 300 in the world and you get that player to 100.

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<v Speaker 1>Depends also what their dreams are and what their goals and ambitions are.

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<v Speaker 1>Or if you take a player that's ranked 25 in the world into the top 10, or if you can get it to play as number one in the world.

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<v Speaker 1>So it's all relative to how much talent you're working with, how good the player is you're working with.

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<v Speaker 1>There's a ceiling on some players as to how high they can go.

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<v Speaker 1>I know I had a ceiling on my limit as a tennis player.

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<v Speaker 2>Well, you got what?

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<v Speaker 2>22 in singles, 10 in doubles that was your highest ranking.

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<v Speaker 2>And then you blew your knee.

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<v Speaker 2>Like I'm an old man, I blew my knee.

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<v Speaker 2>You'd blew it at a young age and got into coaching.

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<v Speaker 2>So where do you think you chose success?

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<v Speaker 2>Or do you think, with your dad being famous football guy football coach, you think success was just a part of your family?

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<v Speaker 2>Or did you choose it at some point?

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<v Speaker 1>It was expected in my family.

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<v Speaker 1>I grew up in an Australian rules football family.

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<v Speaker 1>As you know, my dad's a former legend player and coach for the Portale Lake Football Club back in Australia, which is one of the big football clubs.

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<v Speaker 1>No Portale Lake so then he ventured across to Melbourne and coached Collingwood for a couple of years, which was a great experience.

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<v Speaker 1>So he had enormous success, especially as a coach back home.

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<v Speaker 1>So I had an opportunity to grow up in that environment.

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<v Speaker 1>I was able to sit on the bench with him when he was coaching.

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<v Speaker 1>I was around all the players, I went to all the training sessions.

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<v Speaker 1>I did a missing game for the first 16 years of my life and really I was going to be a footballer and not a tennis player and I just migrated into tennis by accident because he had a real love for tennis.

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<v Speaker 1>His favorite player was Rod Labor, so we used to go out and play tennis in the backyard.

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<v Speaker 1>So I sort of fell into tennis accidentally.

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<v Speaker 1>But I was always thinking and dreaming of being a football player Because I grew up in that environment and I saw the way he coached and the way he would sell belief and the way he would deliver his messages to 20 different guys.

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<v Speaker 1>So tennis is very much one-on-one.

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<v Speaker 1>He had to work out the personalities and the strengths and weaknesses of each of those players and then work out the best way to deliver a message to that player.

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<v Speaker 1>So a lot of his job was not only technical and tactical coaching, but a lot of it was selling belief and selling in a team environment.

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<v Speaker 2>So growing up around that it was almost like there was no opportunity to choose success, it was just a thing.

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<v Speaker 2>What's the Darren Cahill formula for success?

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<v Speaker 2>How do you believe success happens for people in this day and age?

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<v Speaker 1>Well, you can't walk in and demand respect, no matter what you've done with any particular field before or how much success you've had with a former player, or how long you've been in the game, or how good of a tennis player you were when you ventured into coaching.

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<v Speaker 1>I think it takes time to get to understand the player and you need to ask a lot of questions to realize what makes them tick.

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<v Speaker 1>I always give this example that I'm on the tennis court, I'm playing U-Bright on the tennis court and you leave the ball short in the middle of the court.

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<v Speaker 1>If I'm seeing that ball, I'm taking that ball, hitting a forehand to your backhand and coming to the net every single time, because that's what I did and I'm going to win that point seven or eight times out of 10.

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<v Speaker 1>You might have asked me once I might miss a volley once, but that's what I did and that's what I was looking for.

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<v Speaker 1>The first player I worked with was Layton Hewitt.

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<v Speaker 1>Now, if I gave that ball to Layton, he was so fast much faster than I would he would get up to that ball quickly, he'd hit that ball and then he'd wait to see if you dropped the hand off the racket and you played a defensive slice backhand, or if you attacked it and played a double-handed backhand, and then he would decide whether or not he's coming to the net.

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<v Speaker 1>He's not instantly coming in.

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<v Speaker 1>He was so quick and if you were going to get an aggressive pass he would back up and start the point again.

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<v Speaker 1>Now, if I gave that same ball to Agassi, he's not putting that ball away.

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<v Speaker 1>He's thinking to himself okay, I have a chance to run you, brett, and I'm going to put you in this corner and hit it just hard enough so you can get to it.

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<v Speaker 1>Then I'm going to run you here and I'm going to run you there.

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<v Speaker 1>I'm going to run you here and then he's going to rip your lungs out and you won't be able to breathe for the next two or three minutes and then, after the points finish, regardless of whether he won the point or not, he's going to be on the line in the next five seconds ready to serve.

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<v Speaker 1>So he's investing in the set and the future by trying to get to your lungs and then, if I gave that point to Simone Halle, she's going to try to hit a winner off that every single time because she doesn't want to come to the net, she just wants to finish the point.

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<v Speaker 1>So that's just one shot that four players see completely, and the new kid the new kid would probably try to just hit the winner because that's his shot.

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<v Speaker 1>And he's quite happy to come to the net, he's quite happy to do anything, but his forehand is a massive bomb, so he's more than happy to hit the winner.

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<v Speaker 1>So that is coaching, right?

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<v Speaker 1>Yeah, it's asking the questions, learning to find out why they're making certain decisions, and then there might be right and wrong within those decisions, and that's where coaching comes in.

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<v Speaker 1>That's when you need to sell what you believe is the best thing.

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<v Speaker 1>Got it.

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<v Speaker 2>So what about coaching success?

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<v Speaker 2>Because your career as a coach I mean it's.

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<v Speaker 2>There's no one that's had four champs like you've had four champs right Now.

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<v Speaker 2>Admittedly, layton you got when he was 12.

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<v Speaker 2>Andre, what 30?

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<v Speaker 1>He was a legend already.

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<v Speaker 2>Yeah, simone was already on track, new kid already had great coach, but you came on.

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<v Speaker 2>And how do you succeed?

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<v Speaker 2>Like your formula as success for you, not them, but you as a coach.

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<v Speaker 2>How do you do that?

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<v Speaker 1>Well, you need to be a bit lucky for sure.

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<v Speaker 1>Yes, picking the right players and working within that environment and making it a good environment to me is really important.

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<v Speaker 1>Culture is everything, whether it be in business or whether it be in sport or whether it be a team sport.

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<v Speaker 1>I think that the culture word and then the individual sport has been left out many times and the teams are much bigger now than they used to be.

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<v Speaker 1>Back when I was with Andre, it was Gil Reyes, myself and Andre the three of us in a way.

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<v Speaker 1>We would go and the culture within the team was excellent.

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<v Speaker 1>But now it's a mini bus full of people.

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<v Speaker 1>You have Simone Van Nossi, who's the other coach.

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<v Speaker 1>He's doing a remarkable job with Yannick and he came on before I did.

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<v Speaker 1>He did an incredible job and then we have Anberto Ferrara, who's the physical trainer, and then we have Osteopath and we have a physio.

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<v Speaker 1>Then you have two agents, so then you have the family sometime.

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<v Speaker 1>So it's a mini bus of people that, unless all the working parts are harmonious and working together, that's kind of where I come into this group as well.

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<v Speaker 1>So for me, simone is really the main coach.

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<v Speaker 1>He's the one that's pushing a lot of the buttons and I'm sort of sitting over the top overseeing everything.

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<v Speaker 1>Everything gets run through me.

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<v Speaker 1>We talk about what he's trying to do with this game, where we're trying to improve, and I'm a different set of eyes for what they're working on.

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<v Speaker 1>But my main responsibility is to make sure this team works and it clicks, and that Yannick keeps his feet on the ground, no matter how successful he is, or he keeps his chin up and walks tall, no matter how many tough days we have and we've had some tough days as well.

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<v Speaker 2>Oh yeah and there's no.

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<v Speaker 2>It's funny because tennis and golf are very similar in the fact that the vast majority of your life you lose Exactly you don't.

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<v Speaker 2>It's not like a football team where you win every other week type thing, or 60% of the time or whatever.

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<v Speaker 2>How do you deal with that aspect?

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<v Speaker 1>of it.

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<v Speaker 1>You have short term goals, so there are certain, even with the Annick last year.

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<v Speaker 1>So our theme for the year last year was knocking over hurdles, barriers, so accomplishing things that he was yet to be able to accomplish in his career.

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<v Speaker 1>So that was head to head match ups.

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<v Speaker 1>That was winning a couple of bigger tournaments.

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<v Speaker 1>He'd never beaten Sitzapas before last year.

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<v Speaker 1>He'd never beaten Medvedev before last year, never beaten Novak before last year, never beat Runeade before last year.

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<v Speaker 1>So all these top 10 players and all these guys that you have to overcome at some point if you wish to win a Grand Slam tournament.

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<v Speaker 1>So one at a time.

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<v Speaker 1>We would try to break down those matches, give him game plans.

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<v Speaker 1>Sometimes they would work, sometimes they wouldn't.

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<v Speaker 1>He'd go out there and he'd take a loss and we'd sit back down and work out.

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<v Speaker 1>Okay, did that work?

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<v Speaker 1>Was it good enough?

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<v Speaker 1>Do we need to improve on that?

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<v Speaker 2>Well, you're not beating Novak easily.

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<v Speaker 1>No, no, no, he's coming back at you.

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<v Speaker 1>He's going to problem solve as well.

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<v Speaker 1>He's one of the best problem solvers in the world.

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<v Speaker 1>So he's going to make adjustments to his game, just like Medvedev made adjustments to his game at the Australian Open, when he came out and played super aggressively for the first two sets and then Yannick had to change his game to be able to stay in it.

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<v Speaker 1>So Tennis gets compared a lot to chess.

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<v Speaker 1>There are a lot of moving parts going all the time and that's where, for us, coaching is being really important.

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<v Speaker 1>Because it's legal now we can actually coach from the sidelines and help the player.

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<v Speaker 1>But ultimately, regardless of what information we give the player, it's the player that's swinging the racket.

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<v Speaker 1>It's the player that has to have the composure.

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<v Speaker 1>It's the player that has to have the belief in the big moments to execute those big forehands down the line or throw in a serve volley as a surprise tactic or be brave in the big moments.

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<v Speaker 1>So all the credit goes to the player.

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<v Speaker 1>But what the coaching has done for us, it's legitimized our industry and now we can actually help the player not only to set up and get ready for a four matches, but also in play, which is really important.

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<v Speaker 2>You said to Paul Anacone on an interview one time that most of the work gets done during the week, Like on game day.

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<v Speaker 2>Andre, you did a little bit more with Simone.

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<v Speaker 2>You played it by Where's Yannick on game day.

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<v Speaker 2>And tell me more about all that work getting done during the week rather than on game day.

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<v Speaker 1>So Andre talked me more about coaching than I talked about.

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<v Speaker 1>That's for sure.

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<v Speaker 1>And you know, andre, he's a student of the game.

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<v Speaker 2>But he's also perfectionist in everything, like the way he grills the steak like it's got to be done, perfect every time.

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<v Speaker 2>There's everything.

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<v Speaker 1>Now he has real pride in his performance, in everything he does, and regardless of whether that's playing tennis or doing his charity or providing an education for the kids I think they have over 130 charter schools around the US now and everything he does he does to the best of his ability.

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<v Speaker 1>So he taught me a lot about not so much about being professional but really doing your homework, to be able to answer every single question that might be thrown your way, because he wanted to know everything.

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<v Speaker 1>He wanted to know what was going to happen if I hit a ball with less spin at somebody's forehand.

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<v Speaker 1>Are they going to back up?

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<v Speaker 1>Are they going to hold their position?

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<v Speaker 1>Will they hit a certain type of shot?

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<v Speaker 1>So he was looking for information that he could then relay in his brain as to how he was going to win this match.

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<v Speaker 1>So when he could think about the match the night before, he'd already played the match three or four times before he stepped onto the court.

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<v Speaker 1>So he was visualizing what was going to happen before he executed.

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<v Speaker 1>So when he executed, it was like deja vu.

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<v Speaker 1>It had already happened.

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<v Speaker 1>It was easy for him.

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<v Speaker 1>So that was the way he processed Yannick's a little bit different, because most of the work with Yannick is done in the week leading up, like I mentioned to Paul, and he's somebody that needs to be left on a little bit before the big matches.

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<v Speaker 1>He's got all the information.

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<v Speaker 1>He's digesting it.

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<v Speaker 1>A lot of what we're working with him also doesn't come naturally to him, so he's great from the back of the court, but it was really a left and right player.

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<v Speaker 1>Wasn't someone that was looking to transition forward?

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<v Speaker 1>Wasn't someone that would use the serve volley?

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<v Speaker 1>Wasn't somebody that was?

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<v Speaker 2>The old.

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<v Speaker 1>Aussie serve, volley right and sort of the body serve these days is left alone.

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<v Speaker 1>Everyone serves so big they go for the free points and they try to go for the lines.

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<v Speaker 1>The body serve is coming back into tennis because we used to use it a lot to set up an easy volley for ourselves.

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<v Speaker 1>So players are working out their other ways now to win tennis points.

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<v Speaker 1>You don't just have to crack forehand and backhand winners, and that's kind of where we've come in with Yannick.

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<v Speaker 1>But ultimately he's so good from the back of the court that you have to send him onto the court to play his game.

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<v Speaker 1>But if things are not going great, then there are other ways to get the job done, which he proved in a couple of matches.

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<v Speaker 1>That the Australian Open, which helped him get to the finish line, yeah.

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<v Speaker 2>You're on the Big Success podcast.

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<v Speaker 2>I'm Brad Sugars.

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<v Speaker 2>We're going to be back with Darren Kayle.

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<v Speaker 2>We're going to talk about how does coaching really work.

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<v Speaker 5>There has never been a better time to become successful in life than right now.

00:12:38.249 --> 00:12:40.547
<v Speaker 5>Creating success in your life isn't about chance.

00:12:40.547 --> 00:12:45.548
<v Speaker 5>It's about learning what it takes to create a great life, and that's why Brad Sugars put together 30X Life.

00:12:45.548 --> 00:12:49.149
<v Speaker 5>You get his 30 years of success in 30 minutes a day for 30 days.

00:12:49.149 --> 00:12:51.107
<v Speaker 5>You only get one shot at this thing called life.

00:12:51.107 --> 00:12:52.730
<v Speaker 5>Let's build an amazing life for you.

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<v Speaker 2>So, darren, let's chat about coaching, okay, because obviously I'm a business coach, tennis coach arguably the goat tennis coach.

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<v Speaker 2>At some point we got still a ways, ways to go.

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<v Speaker 2>What is the top two or three things someone should know if they want to be a great coach, whether it's business or sport or whatever.

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<v Speaker 1>Listen.

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<v Speaker 1>You need to listen.

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<v Speaker 1>I think it is.

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<v Speaker 1>The most important thing in tennis is to when you first started job especially when the new player is to ask a lot of questions and to listen to the answers, not only the information that's been given to you, but the mannerisms, the way the information is given to you, because I think you learn a lot about your player by listening and working out how they see themselves as a person, but certainly how they see themselves as an athlete and as a tennis player.

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<v Speaker 1>So take your time, ask a lot of questions, talk through the sport, and communication is incredibly important and if you don't communicate in the world today as a different generation right, we have kids, we have younger kids it's a different language now, if it was some of the stuff that comes out of my kids, and it's a different technology too.

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<v Speaker 2>We can't call the kids anymore.

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<v Speaker 2>You have text to yourself.

00:14:08.423 --> 00:14:10.210
<v Speaker 1>So you have to go with the flow and keep evolving.

00:14:10.210 --> 00:14:35.466
<v Speaker 1>And I think that one of the most important things also is everybody aspires to get their dream job right Is that you know, go through the ranks, you coach younger players, you might be coaching a team, you go through various teams and then finally you want to coach at the big leagues and at the elite level and you get that particular job and then you're satisfying, you do a great job with that particular player or team, but you don't keep evolving and you have to keep upskilling yourself.

00:14:35.466 --> 00:14:44.365
<v Speaker 1>And that's talking to other sports and other athletes and other coaches and doing business courses, I think, because I think the business and sport crossover is still really prevalent.

00:14:44.365 --> 00:14:51.105
<v Speaker 1>I did a director's coaching course for five days when I went on the Port Adelaide directors board about six or seven years ago.

00:14:51.105 --> 00:14:54.565
<v Speaker 1>So I went through this five day course and, as I'm going through it, I'm going.

00:14:54.639 --> 00:14:55.926
<v Speaker 1>This is just sport.

00:14:55.926 --> 00:15:03.126
<v Speaker 1>You know all the philosophies coming from being a director of a company and the line you have to cross and can't cross between management and director.

00:15:03.126 --> 00:15:03.989
<v Speaker 1>This is sport.

00:15:03.989 --> 00:15:14.986
<v Speaker 1>And you guys are talking about culture and you're talking about communication and selling belief and setting parameters, and it's exactly the same as what happens in sports, so I think the similarities are very strong.

00:15:15.740 --> 00:15:16.504
<v Speaker 2>Hey, just a quick one.

00:15:16.504 --> 00:15:27.927
<v Speaker 2>When I look in the back end of this something that's quite surprising to me I noticed that it says that 82% of you who watch the channel regularly haven't hit the subscribe button yet.

00:15:27.927 --> 00:15:31.448
<v Speaker 2>So it'd be a great favor if you could hit that subscribe button.

00:15:31.448 --> 00:15:32.222
<v Speaker 2>Let me tell you why.

00:15:32.222 --> 00:15:41.506
<v Speaker 2>See, over the lifetime of the channel, we scale the show and get better guests, better production, better everything by having the number of subscribers.

00:15:41.506 --> 00:15:47.629
<v Speaker 2>So if you hit subscribe, it helps us plan better, do more, get better guests and so on.

00:15:48.179 --> 00:15:51.424
<v Speaker 2>Scaling production and making the show bigger is something we all want.

00:15:51.424 --> 00:15:59.006
<v Speaker 2>We want more success for you, we want more success for the show and we want to be able to get the best guests to give you the best information.

00:15:59.006 --> 00:16:02.850
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00:16:02.850 --> 00:16:07.548
<v Speaker 2>If you've watched this show before and enjoyed it, just please click that button to subscribe.

00:16:07.548 --> 00:16:15.191
<v Speaker 2>Hit the notifications bell and make sure you're part of it, because as the show gets better, your success gets better.

00:16:15.191 --> 00:16:16.785
<v Speaker 2>Simple as that.

00:16:16.785 --> 00:16:19.679
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00:16:19.679 --> 00:16:25.327
<v Speaker 2>We have a deal If you do better and subscribe, I'll get better guests and make it a better show.

00:16:25.327 --> 00:16:26.644
<v Speaker 2>Thanks for subscribing.

00:16:26.644 --> 00:16:31.764
<v Speaker 2>You've mentioned your dad talking about selling belief, and you just mentioned it again.

00:16:31.764 --> 00:16:33.426
<v Speaker 2>Tell me more about selling belief.

00:16:33.899 --> 00:16:39.087
<v Speaker 1>Yeah, I think that comes to, firstly, showing a real love for the sport, and I do.

00:16:39.087 --> 00:16:48.245
<v Speaker 1>I think that there's an enthusiasm and a vibe that you can send off if you live the sport and players feel it and understand it, and I think that's really important.

00:16:48.440 --> 00:16:54.128
<v Speaker 1>Also, if you're treating it like a job, then the players will feel that as well, so you've got to be in it for the right reasons.

00:16:54.620 --> 00:16:57.585
<v Speaker 1>You have to have a real love and care for the people that you're working with.

00:16:57.585 --> 00:17:01.748
<v Speaker 1>I think that's really important and show that on a daily basis.

00:17:01.748 --> 00:17:14.425
<v Speaker 1>And we talk about culture all the time, and culture is really just about doing the little things right the pleases and the thank yous and treating the transport person well, or the people that give you the practice courts, or the ball kids or the umpires.

00:17:14.425 --> 00:17:16.846
<v Speaker 1>It's everything that you see in Yannick.

00:17:16.846 --> 00:17:32.424
<v Speaker 1>Hopefully, as someone sitting from the outside looking in, you can see that he's a good kid and he's got his feet on the ground, he's got a smile on his face and even when things are not going great, he sees a reason to find a smile and enjoy the moment, because he knows he'll come back the next day and get a little bit better from it.

00:17:32.424 --> 00:17:34.125
<v Speaker 1>So that is good culture.

00:17:34.125 --> 00:17:43.086
<v Speaker 1>That is and that comes from him and his upbringing and his parents and the way he's been brought up and the people that he's got around him, and I think that's winning to me.

00:17:43.339 --> 00:17:49.484
<v Speaker 1>Regardless of what he does in his career, you're making him not only a better tennis player but, you're making him a better person.

00:17:49.484 --> 00:17:49.967
<v Speaker 1>Yeah.

00:17:50.660 --> 00:18:01.229
<v Speaker 2>So if we look at coaching as a skill, okay, what do you think of the top two or three skills other than listening a coach must have?

00:18:03.960 --> 00:18:07.307
<v Speaker 1>That's a great question, because I think it can be just two or three.

00:18:07.307 --> 00:18:13.882
<v Speaker 1>You're working with so many different areas For me.

00:18:13.882 --> 00:18:17.207
<v Speaker 1>I always say in tennis that the coach needs to take a backseat.

00:18:17.207 --> 00:18:19.105
<v Speaker 1>It's even been doing this with you.

00:18:19.441 --> 00:18:20.440
<v Speaker 2>No, it's a little uncomfortable.

00:18:20.440 --> 00:18:43.191
<v Speaker 2>You sitting there on ESPN for years and Channel 7 in Australia for years, watching every single player, game after game after game, I think that the fact that you had that knowledge of every opponent, that's gotta be a skill set that I mean it's very hard to replicate.

00:18:43.191 --> 00:18:44.875
<v Speaker 2>Not many coaches have that time.

00:18:46.267 --> 00:18:46.869
<v Speaker 1>More than you think.

00:18:46.869 --> 00:18:48.386
<v Speaker 1>Well, yeah, more news.

00:18:48.386 --> 00:18:51.152
<v Speaker 1>Really, it's tennis coaches.

00:18:51.152 --> 00:18:53.436
<v Speaker 1>We're on the road, 3540 weeks of the year.

00:18:53.436 --> 00:18:54.739
<v Speaker 1>Yeah, what are you going to do?

00:18:54.739 --> 00:18:59.676
<v Speaker 1>You're going to sit in your hotel room and just play game of golf, yeah.

00:19:00.347 --> 00:19:01.030
<v Speaker 1>We live to tennis.

00:19:01.030 --> 00:19:10.884
<v Speaker 1>So, whether or not you're at the tennis watching matches or your home, we have analytics golden set analytics that we work with and they're amazing.

00:19:10.884 --> 00:19:13.285
<v Speaker 1>So you can go deep into the analytics if you want.

00:19:13.285 --> 00:19:16.585
<v Speaker 1>You know we have this program now that you don't have to sit down and watch a three hour match.

00:19:16.585 --> 00:19:24.832
<v Speaker 1>You can break it down in 30 minutes and then cut it off and send it to your players seven or eight minutes of stuff that's really relevant for him to watch, so you can go deep into that.

00:19:24.832 --> 00:19:29.201
<v Speaker 1>Tennis is a life sport for us and a lot of the coaches.

00:19:29.201 --> 00:19:29.644
<v Speaker 1>We live it.

00:19:29.644 --> 00:19:36.214
<v Speaker 1>So going out and watching matches is not just me, it's all the coaches and it's you know.

00:19:36.214 --> 00:19:39.384
<v Speaker 1>I think it's it's part of doing your job properly.

00:19:39.384 --> 00:19:45.244
<v Speaker 1>It's part of executing what you need to do to be as good as you can be for your player.

00:19:45.244 --> 00:19:46.873
<v Speaker 1>For me it's just normally.

00:19:46.873 --> 00:19:51.073
<v Speaker 1>It's our life and I know other coaches do exactly the same as me, so I'm nothing special in that area.

00:19:51.905 --> 00:19:52.990
<v Speaker 2>So flip it over then.

00:19:52.990 --> 00:19:58.564
<v Speaker 2>Espn I mean you and Brad seem to have an amazing banter and that sort of thing.

00:19:58.564 --> 00:20:04.684
<v Speaker 2>Is that, because of the love of the game that you have, that there's the knowledge of the game or the way you break it down?

00:20:04.684 --> 00:20:09.674
<v Speaker 2>What makes you guys so good at being the?

00:20:09.714 --> 00:20:10.457
<v Speaker 1>commentators.

00:20:10.457 --> 00:20:11.259
<v Speaker 1>We're good mates.

00:20:11.259 --> 00:20:14.179
<v Speaker 1>We've always been good mates, Even when we played against each other.

00:20:14.238 --> 00:20:17.486
<v Speaker 1>I used to hate playing him because he would commentate during the match.

00:20:17.486 --> 00:20:20.680
<v Speaker 1>You know he was a nightmare to play against because oh, you're so lucky man.

00:20:20.680 --> 00:20:21.884
<v Speaker 1>Oh, that late court, I can't believe that.

00:20:21.884 --> 00:20:22.863
<v Speaker 1>Oh, what a bad call.

00:20:22.863 --> 00:20:27.478
<v Speaker 1>This Brad would always give a running commentary Brad's gilded but Freddy, what a dozen bucks BG.

00:20:28.086 --> 00:20:34.413
<v Speaker 1>So during the match and then after in the locker room, if he'd beat my ass which he normally did then he'd come in and sit next to me and talk about the match.

00:20:34.413 --> 00:20:36.065
<v Speaker 1>So that's Brad.

00:20:36.065 --> 00:20:42.894
<v Speaker 1>He just loves the sport and loves to talk about tennis and I think we see the game very similar mostly.

00:20:42.894 --> 00:20:44.258
<v Speaker 1>99% of the time.

00:20:44.258 --> 00:20:47.684
<v Speaker 1>We communicate it a little bit differently but I love him to death.

00:20:47.684 --> 00:20:50.865
<v Speaker 1>He's the first person that calls me every day and he's talking about sport.

00:20:50.865 --> 00:20:55.576
<v Speaker 1>He's already messaged me this morning when I'm getting down to India Wells because he's got practice down there with Coco.

00:20:55.576 --> 00:21:00.144
<v Speaker 1>And you can feel the love of the sport when you talk to Brad.

00:21:00.325 --> 00:21:13.355
<v Speaker 1>And Brad which most people don't know is that I was a decent tennis player, but I needed the best players in the world to have a bad day, to have a chance, and if they had a bad day, I had a good chance and I was able to get some good wins over some good players.

00:21:13.355 --> 00:21:14.628
<v Speaker 1>Brad didn't need that.

00:21:14.628 --> 00:21:16.771
<v Speaker 1>He could beat them when they were playing well.

00:21:16.771 --> 00:21:17.943
<v Speaker 1>He was number four in the world.

00:21:17.943 --> 00:21:22.413
<v Speaker 1>He was a heck of a tennis player and if you look at him you go God, how can this guy?

00:21:22.413 --> 00:21:25.633
<v Speaker 1>Because you know where's the athlete there.

00:21:25.633 --> 00:21:28.493
<v Speaker 1>But he had this big first serve, but his second serve was nothing.

00:21:28.865 --> 00:21:30.372
<v Speaker 1>And the backhand didn't look like it was much.

00:21:30.372 --> 00:21:38.211
<v Speaker 1>He had a great forehand but he had this ability to find weaknesses, which is why he wrote that book, winning Uncle-E, because he would work out way.

00:21:38.211 --> 00:21:42.613
<v Speaker 1>He was like a flood of water coming down and then players.

00:21:42.613 --> 00:21:45.818
<v Speaker 1>You know you would you sandbag a house because of the flood?

00:21:45.818 --> 00:21:48.393
<v Speaker 1>We just had those big floods down the Murray River in Australia.

00:21:49.244 --> 00:21:56.473
<v Speaker 1>But water finds a weakness and finds a way through the sandbagging and you just need one little weakness and then it all tears down and that's Brad.

00:21:56.473 --> 00:22:04.435
<v Speaker 1>Brad would find a weakness and just tear your game apart and you'd come off the court going God, just lost to Brad four and four and I felt like I couldn't play at all at the end.

00:22:04.435 --> 00:22:10.990
<v Speaker 1>He just made me feel so bad and that was Brad's superpower, because that's the way he played and that's the way he coaches as well.

00:22:10.990 --> 00:22:15.854
<v Speaker 1>So I think he's amazing and hopefully some of that comes through in the way we talk on the ESPN.

00:22:15.953 --> 00:22:16.214
<v Speaker 2>Yeah.

00:22:16.214 --> 00:22:18.909
<v Speaker 2>So some players.

00:22:18.909 --> 00:22:25.827
<v Speaker 2>You watch them go on the court and you mentioned this, you know you needed them to have a bad day or Brad finds a weakness.

00:22:25.827 --> 00:22:35.390
<v Speaker 2>You watch a rougher or a Novak or a Roger Walker the court Andre was like this too.

00:22:35.390 --> 00:22:39.817
<v Speaker 2>They just expect to win, like they know they're going to win.

00:22:39.817 --> 00:22:46.858
<v Speaker 2>There's no, there's not even a shred of evidence in their mind that there's a chance that they can do anything other than win this game.

00:22:46.858 --> 00:22:52.116
<v Speaker 2>And even when there are a couple of sets down, how do they learn that mental fortitude?

00:22:52.116 --> 00:22:54.191
<v Speaker 2>Or is it something they learn, or is it something they grow?

00:22:54.191 --> 00:22:55.935
<v Speaker 2>Or how do you coach that into someone?

00:22:56.525 --> 00:22:58.553
<v Speaker 1>Well, I think you need to build that through resilience.

00:22:58.553 --> 00:22:59.186
<v Speaker 1>So you don't.

00:22:59.186 --> 00:23:01.334
<v Speaker 1>You're not just born with that, yeah, you don't just have it.

00:23:01.334 --> 00:23:08.979
<v Speaker 1>So you have to go through some tough times to build up that resilience and find ways to overcome it.

00:23:08.979 --> 00:23:12.814
<v Speaker 1>And all the best players in the world you're right, they all have that belief.

00:23:12.814 --> 00:23:14.065
<v Speaker 1>Who was the best at that?

00:23:14.065 --> 00:23:15.749
<v Speaker 1>Do you think Andre was the best?

00:23:15.749 --> 00:23:18.714
<v Speaker 1>That I've seen, that I've worked with other players will be?

00:23:18.714 --> 00:23:19.837
<v Speaker 1>I think, novak's incredible.

00:23:19.837 --> 00:23:20.869
<v Speaker 1>I think Raph is amazing.

00:23:21.005 --> 00:23:30.173
<v Speaker 1>You know, to beat Nadal on at the French Open over five sets is maybe the toughest thing that world, in our sport, to do, and his record there speaks for itself.

00:23:30.173 --> 00:23:40.740
<v Speaker 1>But I don't think he would say that even going through the juniors, you know, there was some times when he had to really get it, pull himself off the ground and find ways to become a better tennis player.

00:23:40.740 --> 00:23:49.770
<v Speaker 1>And it's one of the great things about Rafa is that every time he walks on the court, no matter who he's playing, he treats it like it's a grand slam final and that's why you see his excitement.

00:23:49.770 --> 00:23:58.055
<v Speaker 1>He's winning in the first round of Acapulco and gets through four and four no matter who his opponent is, you know as a big fist pump to the crowd and he's excited to win, yeah.

00:23:58.055 --> 00:24:00.265
<v Speaker 1>And we're all thinking, well, why are you so excited?

00:24:00.265 --> 00:24:08.394
<v Speaker 1>You're always going to beat this guy, but no, he takes everybody as if he's playing a grand slam final and that's a real asset that he's always had.

00:24:08.665 --> 00:24:13.795
<v Speaker 1>It treats everybody with great respect, so that flows through to his personality as well.

00:24:13.795 --> 00:24:17.654
<v Speaker 1>For me, the player that I worked with definitely Andre, definitely.

00:24:17.654 --> 00:24:27.375
<v Speaker 1>And I think one of the important things is, no matter what the school, one of the great things about tennis is you can't run the clock down, so you're always in it until the last point.

00:24:27.375 --> 00:24:30.855
<v Speaker 1>So what you try to do is you put things in compartments.

00:24:30.855 --> 00:24:32.028
<v Speaker 1>The first couple of sets.

00:24:32.028 --> 00:24:33.354
<v Speaker 1>You've lost the first couple of sets.

00:24:33.354 --> 00:24:35.333
<v Speaker 1>Okay, we're at the start of set three.

00:24:35.704 --> 00:24:37.772
<v Speaker 1>Incredibly important that I just hold my serve here.

00:24:37.772 --> 00:24:40.065
<v Speaker 1>I hold my serve for the first couple of games.

00:24:40.065 --> 00:24:42.565
<v Speaker 1>Stay in touch with my player and let's build from that.

00:24:42.565 --> 00:24:47.684
<v Speaker 1>Let's try to win this third set and then, if you can win the third set, then it becomes a challenge to win the fourth set.

00:24:47.684 --> 00:24:50.565
<v Speaker 1>So lots of people look at tennis as like running a marathon.

00:24:50.565 --> 00:24:53.471
<v Speaker 1>It's not running a marathon, it's running a series of short sprints.

00:24:53.471 --> 00:24:55.226
<v Speaker 1>Yeah, you play two games.

00:24:55.226 --> 00:25:00.930
<v Speaker 1>You sit down, you take a rest, you get up and you try to win one of two games and if you can win the first game, you can win the first game.

00:25:00.930 --> 00:25:04.369
<v Speaker 1>Of those two games, you have a free one to go out and try to go hard for the next game.

00:25:04.369 --> 00:25:05.574
<v Speaker 1>Then you sit down and do it all again.

00:25:05.574 --> 00:25:14.199
<v Speaker 1>So it's basically running foot leg sprints over and over and over again, and if you don't treat it like a marathon then you won't wear yourself out mentally as well.

00:25:15.144 --> 00:25:16.289
<v Speaker 2>You're on the Big Success podcast.

00:25:16.289 --> 00:25:19.760
<v Speaker 2>We're going to come back and talk about the difference between the goods and the greats.

00:25:20.470 --> 00:25:24.567
<v Speaker 3>Darren Cahill is an Australian tennis coach and former professional tennis player.

00:25:24.567 --> 00:25:30.843
<v Speaker 3>He won his first tour doubles title in 1985 at Melbourne and his first top-level singles title in 1988.

00:25:30.843 --> 00:25:39.930
<v Speaker 3>In addition to his coaching responsibilities, Cahill doubles as one of the premier on-camera personalities for ESPN Tennis Broadcasting and Channel 7 Australia.

00:25:40.171 --> 00:25:40.551
<v Speaker 2>And you're back.

00:25:40.551 --> 00:25:43.702
<v Speaker 2>Make sure you hit that subscribe button, Darren.

00:25:43.702 --> 00:25:45.528
<v Speaker 2>Good versus great.

00:25:45.528 --> 00:25:48.095
<v Speaker 2>You know the business books on good to great.

00:25:48.095 --> 00:25:49.478
<v Speaker 2>There's all of that sort of stuff.

00:25:49.478 --> 00:25:59.935
<v Speaker 2>A buddy of mine years ago said to me Brad, people don't need the book good to great, they first need the book shit to okay, and then okay to good and then good to great.

00:25:59.935 --> 00:26:11.369
<v Speaker 2>If you look at the players that either you've coached or just players in general that earn a living through playing tennis, they're good.

00:26:11.369 --> 00:26:13.734
<v Speaker 2>They can stay in the top X100.

00:26:13.734 --> 00:26:16.299
<v Speaker 2>They grind it out every week.

00:26:16.299 --> 00:26:18.124
<v Speaker 2>They're always there making a living.

00:26:18.124 --> 00:26:25.212
<v Speaker 2>What's the difference between them and someone who breaks out and does win a major or does go to that top level?

00:26:26.576 --> 00:26:30.769
<v Speaker 1>So tennis is many different countries, many different types of athletes.

00:26:30.769 --> 00:26:34.002
<v Speaker 1>You can have fast ones, slow ones, strong ones, weak ones.

00:26:34.002 --> 00:26:36.894
<v Speaker 1>Some athletes can have great diet, some can have bad diets.

00:26:36.894 --> 00:26:47.570
<v Speaker 1>You know there's no real recipe from that, but all the great players have a few attributes which, if they don't have it, they're not going to be successful, and that's a work ethic.

00:26:47.570 --> 00:26:49.556
<v Speaker 1>They all have incredible work ethic.

00:26:49.556 --> 00:26:54.135
<v Speaker 1>They've built up resilience and they're able to tolerate a lot throughout.

00:26:54.195 --> 00:26:58.192
<v Speaker 1>Mental resilience or physical, both both as incredibly important in tennis.

00:26:58.192 --> 00:27:09.435
<v Speaker 1>Over five sets of grand slam You're playing seven matches over two weeks that you have to understand your body and know when it's an injury or when it's tight, and so when it's a niggle or how much you push through it.

00:27:09.435 --> 00:27:12.087
<v Speaker 1>We've been through that a few times with our players before.

00:27:12.087 --> 00:27:24.563
<v Speaker 1>In fact, yannick felt something a little bit in one of these matches that the Australian open and because he's dealt with it before in a previous match, he knew exactly what it was and he was able to push through it where previously he did not work.

00:27:24.644 --> 00:27:39.580
<v Speaker 1>Ethic, resilience, belief, which we speak about all the time, they all have incredible belief and they all have this feeling like, no matter what happens on the other side of the court, if I play my game and I play to my level, I can win this, no matter what, and I don't think that good players like myself.

00:27:39.580 --> 00:27:47.143
<v Speaker 1>I never had that, because if I walked onto the court against the best players in the world, I was waiting for an opportunity from them, because I knew they were better.

00:27:47.143 --> 00:27:51.803
<v Speaker 1>They would hit the ball harder than me, they could move a little bit better than me, they had more weapons than I did.

00:27:51.803 --> 00:27:56.454
<v Speaker 1>So I didn't have that same belief as a tennis player, because I didn't have the skill set.

00:27:56.454 --> 00:28:11.601
<v Speaker 1>But my skill set was working my ass off, having the patience to wait for the right moment, knowing that I was going to throw myself all over the court until the last point and you had to finish me off, otherwise I was going to stick around and be a pain in the backside.

00:28:11.601 --> 00:28:13.750
<v Speaker 1>That was my skill set, so I played to that skill set.

00:28:13.750 --> 00:28:16.984
<v Speaker 1>I didn't have the natural talent that one of the other players have.

00:28:17.005 --> 00:28:22.703
<v Speaker 1>The one big thing for me that all the champions have is to have a good team around them.

00:28:22.703 --> 00:28:28.946
<v Speaker 1>So there's some consistency with the coaching, with the physical training, with the people they surround themselves with.

00:28:28.946 --> 00:28:35.733
<v Speaker 1>And I think there's a great saying I'm not sure if it's an Australian one or not, but a good coach will make you a better tennis player.

00:28:35.733 --> 00:28:38.138
<v Speaker 1>A great coach will make you a better person.

00:28:38.138 --> 00:28:40.833
<v Speaker 1>An exceptional coach will make you better at both.

00:28:40.833 --> 00:28:48.161
<v Speaker 1>And I think that's really important in tennis, especially because, as I said before, that our teams are growing.

00:28:48.161 --> 00:28:57.054
<v Speaker 1>So that culture, attitude and that culture feeling within teams become more and more important as the years have gone along and it's no longer an individual sport, it's not a team sport.

00:28:57.074 --> 00:28:58.577
<v Speaker 2>Yeah, what is it then?

00:28:58.577 --> 00:29:15.497
<v Speaker 2>That you see them that break greatness and then drop off, like there's a bunch of guys and gals over the years they've won a grand slam and then it's like they've hit their goal for life and then they drop back, sort of thing, or what do you see with that?

00:29:16.942 --> 00:29:35.613
<v Speaker 1>Yeah, I don't think it happens as much now as it used to happen because we've been so blessed through this generation to have three of the all-time legends of the sport in Raffertyn and Dalin Novak Djokovic and Roger Federer and they've dominated tennis in the men's side for so many years, so they've made it incredibly tough for players to come through and win majors.

00:29:35.692 --> 00:29:37.339
<v Speaker 1>We've had Stan Vavrinca winning three.

00:29:37.339 --> 00:29:39.046
<v Speaker 1>Andy Murray's won three.

00:29:39.046 --> 00:29:41.473
<v Speaker 1>Del Potro came through and won one Chillage.

00:29:41.473 --> 00:29:42.355
<v Speaker 1>I was there for that.

00:29:42.355 --> 00:29:42.696
<v Speaker 1>You were.

00:29:42.696 --> 00:29:46.446
<v Speaker 1>Yeah, you know, just luck plays a part.

00:29:46.446 --> 00:29:47.692
<v Speaker 1>He dreams to play a part.

00:29:47.692 --> 00:29:53.478
<v Speaker 1>Del Potro maybe he would have won five, six, seven majors, but he had incredible injuries throughout the course of his career.

00:29:53.478 --> 00:30:19.184
<v Speaker 1>But I think also it's important that when a player does come through and wins a major and we've spoken about this over the last couple of weeks with our team as well is to make sure that we keep the players feet on the ground and keep assessing those goals and moving them higher and higher, to make sure that you never stop chasing, you never settle and you continue to keep working on the game to become a better tennis player.

00:30:19.184 --> 00:30:22.915
<v Speaker 1>Now we don't really have to do that with the ante, because he thinks that way already.

00:30:22.915 --> 00:30:25.574
<v Speaker 1>Yeah, he's already thinking this is great, I want to fill this again.

00:30:25.574 --> 00:30:26.847
<v Speaker 1>Yeah, and that's a.

00:30:26.847 --> 00:30:30.520
<v Speaker 1>That's a pleasure to be able to work with somebody that thinks that way.

00:30:30.825 --> 00:30:33.588
<v Speaker 2>Yeah, you mentioned something earlier about the short term goals.

00:30:33.588 --> 00:30:40.138
<v Speaker 2>I remember John Buchanan, Australian cricket coach, telling me about Mount Everest in a career that's like you know.

00:30:40.138 --> 00:30:42.501
<v Speaker 2>They took the Australian team and said no one's done.

00:30:42.501 --> 00:30:45.490
<v Speaker 2>400 runs in one day, no one's whitewashing.

00:30:45.490 --> 00:30:51.904
<v Speaker 2>Are you now setting a lot more small goals with him, or is it that big career thing?

00:30:51.904 --> 00:30:53.692
<v Speaker 2>Where do you sort of sit on that?

00:30:53.932 --> 00:30:54.213
<v Speaker 1>fence.

00:30:54.213 --> 00:30:55.258
<v Speaker 1>Now we're weak to weak.

00:30:55.258 --> 00:30:57.384
<v Speaker 1>With that, we don't talk about the big goals.

00:30:57.384 --> 00:30:58.585
<v Speaker 1>We don't talk about winning majors.

00:30:58.585 --> 00:30:59.664
<v Speaker 1>We don't talk about the ranking.

00:30:59.664 --> 00:31:01.531
<v Speaker 1>We've never discussed the ranking with him.

00:31:01.531 --> 00:31:06.037
<v Speaker 1>The only times we'll look at the ranking was for the seedings to see where it might be in a draw.

00:31:06.037 --> 00:31:14.391
<v Speaker 1>But beyond that, everything, if he does what he needs to do correctly, that'll take care of itself, and so we're more worried about the date today.

00:31:14.391 --> 00:31:15.273
<v Speaker 1>What are we working on?

00:31:15.273 --> 00:31:16.135
<v Speaker 1>What's our goal today?

00:31:16.135 --> 00:31:17.411
<v Speaker 1>How are we going to get better?

00:31:17.411 --> 00:31:18.691
<v Speaker 1>What are we addressing?

00:31:18.691 --> 00:31:19.125
<v Speaker 1>And we?

00:31:19.125 --> 00:31:25.001
<v Speaker 1>Our goal every day is simply to walk off the practice court feeling better about what we worked on than when we started.

00:31:26.990 --> 00:31:29.396
<v Speaker 2>Where did you learn that approach to the day to day?

00:31:29.396 --> 00:31:30.770
<v Speaker 2>Is that something your dad did?

00:31:30.770 --> 00:31:32.290
<v Speaker 2>Where did that come in?

00:31:32.290 --> 00:31:36.876
<v Speaker 2>Because most people are all focused on this massive big thing and forget the day to day.

00:31:37.326 --> 00:31:56.134
<v Speaker 1>So I think, through my resilience, through doing what you just said earlier in my career and placing way too much pressure on my players, because they're so focused on the big goal that they're forgetting the not only the day to day, but every single result that happens becomes too important for them and we're not that concerned with every single result.

00:31:56.134 --> 00:32:00.371
<v Speaker 1>We're concerned with the big picture of everything, and you can only accomplish that.

00:32:00.371 --> 00:32:09.595
<v Speaker 1>The big thing for us is to work on, whether it be a Gannick's volley or his transition to the net or his serve, which we've changed a couple of times over the last 18 months.

00:32:09.595 --> 00:32:19.810
<v Speaker 1>If we can look back after three months and go through the analytics, but also through just the coach's eye All right, this has come a long way, we're on the right track with this Then we've done a good job.

00:32:19.810 --> 00:32:24.037
<v Speaker 1>So that, to us, is more important, and that's what the coaching is about.

00:32:24.037 --> 00:32:27.836
<v Speaker 1>Then, whether it translates into winning tennis matches, it should.

00:32:27.836 --> 00:32:33.637
<v Speaker 1>It's not necessarily going to every single time, but it's going to give them a better chance of winning tennis matches.

00:32:35.827 --> 00:32:42.519
<v Speaker 2>For us in business we don't necessarily have a competitor to beat every week.

00:32:42.519 --> 00:32:52.625
<v Speaker 2>How do you help business people then understand that type of nature Because we don't know if we've won at the end of the week, type thing.

00:32:52.625 --> 00:32:57.755
<v Speaker 2>We don't beat a person each day, we just go to work and we do that get better each day.

00:32:58.106 --> 00:33:00.865
<v Speaker 1>So we break down opposition nonstop.

00:33:01.145 --> 00:33:13.565
<v Speaker 1>That's a big part of our job is to work out through the analytics, through the scouting, through watching tennis matches, why players are winning, why they're successful in certain areas, what's working for them, what doesn't work for them.

00:33:13.786 --> 00:33:17.964
<v Speaker 1>So when our player plays that player, then we have a bit of insight as to how it's going to go.

00:33:17.964 --> 00:33:36.045
<v Speaker 1>So in business, I'm pretty sure, whilst you don't have a competitor to beat every week, you have competitors in the market that are either doing a worse job or a better job, and I think it's also important not just to focus on the competitors that are doing a great job, but you want to see the ones that are failing in the business, because you learn just as much from them as you do from the ones that are doing well.

00:33:36.045 --> 00:33:41.336
<v Speaker 1>So I think that just being solely focused on your player is a problem.

00:33:41.336 --> 00:34:00.476
<v Speaker 1>I think that you have to have an outside, whole 360 look on the field that you're up against, and I think that that makes you better in your job anyway, because you're doing more research, you're becoming more rounded as a business person or as a tennis coach, and the more homework you can do, the more you put in, the more you get out of it.

00:34:01.066 --> 00:34:06.318
<v Speaker 2>Now, mate, as a dad, pride watching your two kids.

00:34:06.318 --> 00:34:13.085
<v Speaker 2>Now how do you, do you get involved coaching, or do you step back, or do you allow their coach?

00:34:13.085 --> 00:34:14.099
<v Speaker 2>What's going on there?

00:34:15.570 --> 00:34:16.755
<v Speaker 1>You can answer this one for sure.

00:34:16.755 --> 00:34:21.286
<v Speaker 1>I did not get involved in the kids coaching of tennis.

00:34:21.286 --> 00:34:26.195
<v Speaker 1>I didn't care what they played coming through, as long as they were active.

00:34:26.195 --> 00:34:30.525
<v Speaker 1>And I sit with great pride now that I have both my kids ones in college in South Carolina at Furman.

00:34:30.525 --> 00:34:38.844
<v Speaker 1>He's doing his last semester over there and he's looking at doing his PhD in chemistry somewhere else here in the States and he's on the tennis team there.

00:34:38.844 --> 00:34:44.577
<v Speaker 1>He's doing great, but he's going to go into business and I'm incredibly proud of him.

00:34:45.306 --> 00:34:46.188
<v Speaker 1>And then it's Benjamin.

00:34:46.188 --> 00:34:51.291
<v Speaker 1>And then Tali has just started her first year at Chapman University, orange County in California.

00:34:51.291 --> 00:34:53.847
<v Speaker 1>She's doing psychology and she's on the tennis team over there as well and she loves it.

00:34:53.847 --> 00:34:59.684
<v Speaker 1>You know she loves the atmosphere of being at college and I couldn't be happier for her.

00:34:59.684 --> 00:35:03.275
<v Speaker 1>So this was even though my kids were born in Australia and they're Australian.

00:35:03.275 --> 00:35:15.458
<v Speaker 1>We spent a lot of years over here, as you know, and our kids know your kids really well, and they've always had this dream of coming back to college in the US and for us as parents, for Victoria and I, to be able to see that happen for them.

00:35:15.458 --> 00:35:16.851
<v Speaker 1>We couldn't be more proud of them.

00:35:17.465 --> 00:35:26.184
<v Speaker 2>So final question around tennis and coaching and everything, how do you manage the whole life of that thing?

00:35:26.184 --> 00:35:28.454
<v Speaker 2>Because that's, you know, business.

00:35:28.454 --> 00:35:35.565
<v Speaker 2>People often get consumed by their thing and tennis is, as you've said, it's almost all consuming.

00:35:35.565 --> 00:35:38.494
<v Speaker 2>How do you manage that and still keep your life?

00:35:39.766 --> 00:35:40.610
<v Speaker 1>You have to have a good wife.

00:35:40.610 --> 00:35:47.717
<v Speaker 1>I got very lucky because it's not as easy as what people think.

00:35:47.717 --> 00:36:01.152
<v Speaker 1>So if you're coaching the Raiders or you're coaching a basketball team or whatever you're coaching, you're coming home every night most nights and you get to bed and kissing your wife goodnight, and most nights you're sleeping in your house.

00:36:01.152 --> 00:36:06.905
<v Speaker 1>We're on the road 35, 40 weeks of the year not just me, everyone, all the coaches, both male and female coaches.

00:36:06.905 --> 00:36:25.755
<v Speaker 1>So and it's part of the reason why we don't have as many female coaches in our sport it's just tough to get female coaches to leave home, go on the road 35, 40 weeks of the year for obvious reasons, and there are some incredible female coaches, so I hope that changes over the years.

00:36:26.266 --> 00:36:37.114
<v Speaker 1>It is difficult, but you have to have a good partner, and Victoria was a high performance athlete and he played netball with the Thunderbirds back in Australia and she understands what it takes for a high performance sport.

00:36:37.114 --> 00:36:39.644
<v Speaker 1>We've had this dream and we've been following this dream.

00:36:39.644 --> 00:36:45.092
<v Speaker 1>They've been incredibly lucky that we've been able to work with some great players, which has made it easier for sure.

00:36:45.092 --> 00:36:46.590
<v Speaker 1>I don't make no doubt about it.

00:36:46.590 --> 00:36:49.965
<v Speaker 1>But there's also a thrill that comes with it as well.

00:36:49.965 --> 00:37:09.704
<v Speaker 1>Victoria was in the coaches box, just a row behind us during Yannick's Australian Open, and there are magical moments when you see and you're invested in someone and you know someone, you know their personality and you get on so well and you just know your heart goes out to them, washing them battle away there on the centre court and being able to make it happen.

00:37:09.704 --> 00:37:19.036
<v Speaker 1>And it was a really special moment, that's for sure, not just for us but for the whole team, the whole Italian team, and the reaction back in Italy is being quite remarkable, and deservedly so, because he's a good kid.

00:37:19.364 --> 00:37:26.478
<v Speaker 2>Well, I remember you talking about the moment Samona held up the French Open trophy.

00:37:26.478 --> 00:37:32.614
<v Speaker 2>Because of, again, small country, the pressure on her was ridiculous.

00:37:32.614 --> 00:37:41.057
<v Speaker 2>Final question what's the greatest advice or the best quote you ever heard on the subject of success?

00:37:41.057 --> 00:37:42.146
<v Speaker 2>You know it's.

00:37:42.909 --> 00:37:44.996
<v Speaker 1>I don't know if there's one particular quote.

00:37:44.996 --> 00:38:09.704
<v Speaker 1>Patience is the most important thing, I think, not only from a coach's point of view but also the player's point of view, because in tennis especially, we're impatient as a sport, as an athlete, we want it straight away, everything and we go out there and you want it to click in and I think we can become really impatient with not getting the results or after.

00:38:09.704 --> 00:38:11.972
<v Speaker 1>But it's more about the actual match.

00:38:11.972 --> 00:38:13.255
<v Speaker 1>Court is just for show.

00:38:13.255 --> 00:38:18.056
<v Speaker 1>It's when you're practicing inside a stadium with zero people watching.

00:38:18.056 --> 00:38:21.891
<v Speaker 1>That's what really matters and that's where you're putting in all that hard work.

00:38:22.485 --> 00:38:38.974
<v Speaker 1>I did a week with Roger Federer in Dubai years and years ago and was stunned how hard he worked on the practice court four or five hour blocks on the and I never knew this about Roger, because if you go and watch Roger on the practice warming up for a match, it looks like he's going out to play with the country couple boys.

00:38:38.974 --> 00:38:45.773
<v Speaker 1>He just slapping the ball around, belly out of his feet, you know, and he said, darren, all that work is done in the leader.

00:38:45.773 --> 00:38:48.333
<v Speaker 1>I just have to feel the ball and feel good about my game here.

00:38:48.333 --> 00:38:54.264
<v Speaker 1>So everything is done away from the public's eyes and that's where all the hard work is done.

00:38:54.264 --> 00:38:59.914
<v Speaker 1>So everything is set up through that and if you can accomplish that, then you can accomplish and break things.

00:39:01.644 --> 00:39:04.375
<v Speaker 2>Darren Cahill, I guess, today on the Big Success podcast.

00:39:04.375 --> 00:39:06.505
<v Speaker 2>We'll see you again next week for more of your success.