Are Champions Born or Made? Is the Answer in the Genes?

This is a continuation of the article "Donkey wins the Tennis Australian Open 2008 title!" Why are then Champions indeed born? If so then what separates the tennis champions from the regular tennis players and what are the tell-tale signs of champion material being on the tennis court?

First, I am going to answer the second question, this is an extract from a presentation by Frank Slezak at the European Tennis Symposium for Coaches 2006, a top Tcheckoslovakian Tennis Coach and experienced in working and observing developing world class tennis junior players for many years.

"The psycho-motor qualities of future junior champions he identifies:

1 - High coordinative level

Important For:

• Quick and efficient learning

• Better problem solving in difficult situations

• Efficient court coverage

• Economic stroke production and movement

• Level of co-ordinations can be developed partially in the long term through the practice of multi-sports (general co-ordination) and the practice of different aspects of tennis (specific co-ordinations), nevertheless restricted to critical periods for its development.

• Hard to test, only through observation in other sports

Signs of good co-ordinations:

• Plays economically

• Strokes are fluid

• Is able to apply power without effort

• Learns how to serve without problems

2 - High level of general velocity

- One of the essential conditions for specific velocity (court coverage) (coupled with coordination, reaction speed, minimal levels of potency, anticipation, good stroke preparation, adequate footwork and knowledge of the court geometry).

3 - Low muscular tension

- Important for stroke efficiency in the way energy efficiently can be transmitted through the segments

- It Is better to be low muscular tension then high

- It is difficult to influence

- Under match pressure the muscle tension is higher, so during training should show higher relaxation levels

Low Muscular tension signs:

• Loose, Free, elegant, effortless strokes, taking advantage of kinetic chain, excellent shot makers

4 - Perception Capacities:

- Quick visual perception, anticipation and great speed of reaction

Signs of good perceptive capacities:

• Seem to have more time than the others

• Good ball contact

• Very few hits outside of the sweet-spot or not well-timed

5 - An adequate figure (Somatotype)

- A thin and tall figure is of big advantage.

Helps to:

1. Better cover the court

2. Hit with more power

3. Generally play more economically

4. Not just tall, but also athletic legs (without being in x)

5. Good corporal posture (up-right)

Signs for what was said previously:

• Up-right when they walk

• Look at the parents

6 - Other qualities

Flexibility

Agility

Equilibrium

Psychological qualities (decisive to be able to apply the other qualities) :

1. Capacity to be performing under pressure

   • capacity to play better in tournament play than in training

   • Under pressure feels stimulated to play above their limit

   • Natural born performers (x chokers)

2. Capacity of sacrifice - Never gives up a game

3. Attitude - Auto-motivation, self-drive

4. Love of the game of tennis

   All of the aspects of the tennis - traveling, etc...

5. Competitiveness

6. Will to improve

7. Capacity to train with high intensity

8. Capacity to concentrate during a long period of time

9. Personality

10. Self-confidence

11. Capacity of awareness of tactical situations

    • Intuition

    • Feeling for the game

The majority of these capacities can change in the puberty

Characteristics of the players of top 10 in the sub 16

• More powerful (quick) than the others, but consistent at the same time

• Use better all the field (play more closer to the lines)

• Play winning tennis (try to win points and not wait for the opponents mistakes)

• Cover the court well (due to excellent capacities of perception and anticipation)

• Take correct and quick decisions inside the court

• Have high-levels of self-confidence"

(Extracted from Frank Slezak's European Symposium for Coaches 2006)

To Frank Slezak observations I add:

Natural talent for the game, instincts - touch - feel - anticipation - excellent eyes - analytical intelligence - gamemanship and playmanship.

Athletic ability - Speed - Speed - Speed - Agility - Motor abilities - Excellent co-ordinations - Natural power - Natural and developable Endurance,

Resistance and power.

Nothing deters you from playing the game - not even a recent illness - the place you feel best is on the tennis court and playing the game.

Good listener - excellent visual perception - clean execution and perfect timing of the ball.

Tennis is your life

Psychological strength - motivation - Uncompromising desire to win - Unyielding combative spirit - Never gives up

Now going back to answering the question, Why are then Champions indeed born?

It is an highly controversial theme but rather fascinating nevertheless. Lets quickly dissect the findings from Frank Slezak into:

• Eyes

• Speed

• Concentration

• Co-ordinations

• Timing

• Reaction

• Perception

• Self-confidence

• Geometric perception

• Anticipation

• High Performance under pressure

• Will power

All of the above are controlled or influenced by the brain and its capabilities. In other words if you are born or you have genetically inherited a brain that is not capable to send the necessary signals in the sequences needed without a mistake or failure, high level performance is not going to be possible for you, no matter how hard you can work at it or how many hours you dedicate to it per day. Your brain will just not be able to cope with it and it is not your fault or anyone else, genetics pre-determined that and there is no way you can change your brain at this point. Does this mean you are useless? Of course not! Even though you may not be able to be a tennis player or a top athlete, you could be a nuclear scientist, a great lawyer or a fabulous surgeon.

The machine inside your body, as I call it and your body. The core elements that separate top athletes from regular Joes:

- Lung capacity - Normally a half litre of air is drawn into the lungs with each breath (which for the average athlete is about 3.4 to 4 litres per minute -respiratory rate x air exchanged per breath). A competitive athlete can exchange an additional 2 litres (6 litres per minute) while exceptional individuals have a respiratory capacity of 8 and above litres per minute. Although our respiratory capacity is relatively fixed (as a result of inherited factors such as body habitus and the size of our thoracic cavity), you can, with practice, increase your lung capacity to some degree. These are Genetic (inherited) factors.

- Heart capacity - The cardiovascular system provides adequate oxygen through the blood for all the exercising muscle cells and delaying lactic acid production which decreases performance. With training you can increase your heart capacity and pumping ability to a certain degree as well. These are Genetic(inherited) factors.

- Liver - Among other functions responsible for the metabolization of lactates into glycogen know as hepatic gluconeogenesis. Metabolic processes are chemical reactions that happen in the body's cells. These chemical reactions are essential to generating energy (glycogen) for use in athletic performance. The size of your liver and its functionality/efficiency are genetic (inherited) factors.

- Muscle fibres:

Fast twitching fibres because the maximum contraction velocity of a single fibre is approximately ten times faster than slow twitching fibres and they also produce more maximum force. They are less efficient, use mainly glycogen as fuel, and are called into action for sprints and quick starts. Slow twitching fibres are more energy efficient and use both fats and carbohydrates as an energy source. Important in endurance and resistance. Both fibres slow and fast are genetic (inherited) factors.

Here I must put a word of caution, if you are an individual gifted with fast twitching fibers, if you go for excessively long (45 minutes to 60 minutes) slow jogs (120 pm heart rate) or you do heavy weight training in the gym with many repetitions you will influence the slow muscle fibers to develop and basically turn yourself into a turtle. Of course because genetically you have the fast twitching fibers, you can reverse this by going back to interval training, speed training and sprints. Since it might take you 6 to 8 weeks and up to 3 months for a substantial increase in fast twitching fibers, if you are looking at competition, Be Aware!

- Somatotype - Are basic classifications of animal body types and a somewhat limited way to sort basic body types. How tall you are and your body type are genetic (inherited) factors that you can not influence by training.

This overwhelming evidence of factors that are genetically determined makes me argue that Champions are Born not Made. Further more, we must realize that such important core elements of athletic performance are genetic (inherited) factors and there is very little one can do through training to change or improved performance, it is obvious that individuals equipped genetically with such gifts are unfairly advantaged and less gifted individuals will have no chance at competing against or trying to develop themselves into high level tennis competitors.

Does this mean you should not try? Of course not! You should always try! If you are a true top potential player by age 14 to 17 years old everything you worked for should be pretty much together and you should be ranked in the top 3 or 4 in your country, possibly hold an ITF or ETA ranking in the top 5 or even have an ATP WTA ranking like Bjorn Borg, Martina Hingis, Rafael Nadal, Pete Sampras, Jennifer Capriotti, Andre Agassi, Roger Federer and many others did.

If not, it is not the end of the world, you can use your tennis to get into a US college with a scholarship, obtain a diploma, develop an excellent career in life and still love and play the game until a very old age. Tennis is also an excellent vehicle to develop contacts, friendships and business relations that few other sports allow. Try? Yes! Stay? Yes!

Enjoy the ride!

P.S.- To the regular Joe that wants to meet girls, go to parties, have a good time all the time, the disciplin necessary to be a champion sounds like a disaster, but tennis champions are this kind of fiber, they are goal oriented, they know what they want and they will do everything possible to achieve those goals. It looks narrow minded and boring for some but it is the key to most champions success.

References:

Extract from Frank Slezak's European Tennis Symposium for Coaches 2006

And a special thanks to Ricardo Duarte for bringing my attention to Frank Slezak's presentation.

For quick access to all links to the referenced articles please go to http://www.tenniscruz.com

Copyright Tenniscruz.com. All rights reserved.

Srgio Cruz is an ex # 1 National Champion, Davis Cup Player from Portugal and former Coach Jim Courier ATP World Ranking # 1

http://www.tenniscruz.com

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