The last month has witnessed the loss of an icon in the computing industry.  Today everyone is directly affected by Steve Jobs in one way or another.

Many people across the world have used iTunes at some point and many of us have ipods, ipads and/or iphones.

But there is an interesting lesson for those of us who play tennis here.

What is less well known, is that Steve Jobs had very few computer programming or assembly skills.  You could call this a weakness but his strength was an incredible strength.

In his autobiography, he is described as having magical thinking.  He would actually think of things that no one else would. (more…)

The mind body connection is one that has been explored for many years. But a lot of us think of it as flowing from the mind to the body.

“A champions mind” is about how Sampras had the ability to simply elevate his game under pressure. Everyone talks about Nadal as being the toughest mentally.

But what if it is the other way around. What if it is actually physical toughness that is leading the way?

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I just ran across this article on Wozniacki by James Martin of Tennis.com. On the surface, the article might appear to equate offense with power. “She needs to hit harder and go for more winners.’ But if you read a little deeper you will see that there is more to it than that.

James Martin also talks about a mindset.  It is an assertive mindset that distinguishes the true champions.  Sampras does not have the most powerful serve. Federer does not have the most powerful strokes. They hit hard but there are others who can hit harder.

They both have fluidity and variety. In fact, if you think about Federer, Sampras and McEnroe everyone would agree they have incredible hands. So does Borg and so does Nadal. It is not as natural but they have used variety to augment their games.

And all of them used offense.   But the overall theme of the article seems to bottle up the essence of a higher level of tennis.

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