10 Minutes of Thankfulness for Tennis

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With that said, let's get started with 10 minutes of tennis.

Today, this is a special Thanksgiving episode of 10 minutes of tennis with World

Renowned Tennis Coach Australian and Puerto Rico Justin Yeo.

In this episode, you'll discover a few more ways to be thankful and a few reminders

of why tennis and racket sports are something to be thankful for.

Justin, you want to get us started with something you're thankful for today?

Ah, sure.

Well, again, I was probably the one that came up with this theme that said, we need to be

grateful for the game, for what it brings and what it brings in our lives.

You know, people play it, but the people that spectate and watch as well, it really does

bring a lot to all around the world.

And I listed off six things.

I can go over and you can expand on them if you want to, but I just said, look, tennis

has opened doors all over the world for me.

Been very fortunate just from Australia, that's in Puerto Rico, that's in the US, been in

Europe, been all over the world.

I definitely have a lot of gratitude for what it's brought for me all around the world

and the opportunities and the people, the relationships, incredible relationships of what it's brought

up for me.

The other one that's been good for me is it's kept me in shape and kept me healthy and taken

care of my body.

A trick one I always keep saying is tennis coaches, we get paid to be healthy and stay in shape.

So that's another one I'm grateful for.

I think, you know, for kids and for adults and for everyone out there that's whether

you're involved in tennis or you're thinking about tennis or you kids are getting into tennis,

it's made me very well rounded and it's made me a better human being.

So tennis is allowed when to do that.

And I can probably talk about in business and in everyday challenges, tennis comes involved.

So, you know, the ethics of the rules, the bouncing back and forth after a bad point

every 30 seconds, you know, there's a lot involved in the game of tennis if you play it enough

that you use on a day to day basis.

So I'm grateful for all of that and I'm being lucky that it came into my life.

And you go through your quick list and just mentioning a few things and I can basically

do the same thing and say you talk about relationships and yeah, we meet a lot of people, we make

a lot of friends but for me, it actually brought me to my wife and that's probably the most

thankful I could be specifically about this and what it's brought to me because she's learned

so much as a non-tenous player to start and she's helped so many kids learn to love it and

she's learned to love it because I love it and I appreciate about her as well.

And we talk about, so in that case, we have the relationships but then we talk about,

you mentioned the same phrase that I was going to mention which is a little bit of appreciating

the rules and that's not my inherent personality.

My inherent personality is the rules don't matter.

The rules are for other people.

They're all just guidelines and what I'm realizing is all playing in the same space and

saying, hey, look, this is fair because we agree on a shared set of rules.

And in that case, if we're working with other people, we talk about it in business all the

time.

Hiring former athletes is often a good choice for businesses, especially individual sports

golfers and tennis specifically.

But it was like, these guys can focus on their own successes but we also know how to work

as a team.

So I think a lot of the things we are probably thankful for and it makes sense because we're

similar in the industry, but it makes sense that we have similar things to be thankful for.

Yeah, when you bring in business and athletes, they're getting hired a lot nowadays, feeling

looking for that background character that you just don't let go, that you look to bounce

off your failures, you look to grow and always succeed and win and win and win no matter what.

So there's all these characteristics that in sport, but specifically in tennis.

If you look at the percentage of losses versus percentage wins, it's unbelievable that we

keep coming back and trying to play this bloody sport.

Look at the just the points one, the the famous one right now since Federer has retired is

he only, you know, he won barely over half of the points that he ever played.

We know how to lose.

So we also know how to handle that, which has been some of the complaint of the modern generation

and maybe that's just us being old.

But to be able to say, you can't handle a loss.

You're going to struggle in business because you're going to get told no.

You're going to hear those denials and you're going to experience some failure.

And if you can take a deep breath, adjust your strings, bounce the ball and recover in

30 seconds.

Yep, you're going to be doing fine.

Yep.

And like a change of ends, every time you get a failure, you're looking to think about how

you can gain a win.

And so you're changing tactics, you're changing approach, you're changing, you're thinking

about all these different things that you relate to business, you relate to keeping perspective

on a day-to-day basis.

You know, someone comes at you and all of a sudden the worst thing happens and a tire flat

or someone has an accident or a bubble, you find a way to try to make it all work

for you on a day-to-day basis.

And that can happen a lot from just playing the love of tens.

Yeah, I think there's a time we want to reflect.

And that's why we do this today, which sounds cheesy.

We all do the thankfulness episode once a year.

And maybe we should do it more often.

And maybe I'm going to be the guy that says, we should do this more often and then we don't.

Because that happens too.

But to really stop and be thankful for the ability to look up and say, you know what,

being frustrated won't help me right now.

It just won't help.

I need to figure out what to do next.

I got to hit a second, sir.

Or whatever the thing is.

I think sport in general helps in those cases.

I like your comment about appreciating the things about yourself that you find good and you

can trace some of those back to tennis, especially well-roundedness.

Now, how does tennis help well-rounded?

Do you think somebody that doesn't play tennis like we did growing up and having it really

a large part of our life?

You think somebody could get into tennis?

They would help well around them, get home from work, go outside, get some fresh air.

How would that help others, do you think?

Well, there's a lot of people, a high percentage of played tennis just for the mental and emotional

release of being able to do something that disconnects them and feels good about it.

And there are a lot of people that just do tennis hitting balls to meditate.

So there's a lot of, you know, you can look at all the different factors that it helps each

individual what they do.

But if you look at it on a generic basis, I keep saying that if you really look at the way

even as a child growing up, if you don't make it to pro, you still become a pro in something

in business because you played tennis because you had to follow a coach, you had to listen,

you had to try to figure out within what you've been told and get the result that you

need.

So there's all these factors that you've learned and you've also had to learn ethics, rules,

behavior, unquote, you know, character.

All of these things that tennis brings that you bring into the world and into business and

into your kids and into being a better person.

So that's why I say tennis to me.

I'm very grateful right now this week.

That's why I said this is probably a good thing to bring it up.

Yeah, and the gratefulness this week is nice because on Thursday and I assume Puerto Rico

does the same thing.

Everybody stops for a day.

It has a good meal and takes a deep breath and whether we do it around the world, I'm sure

every country has hopefully their day to stop and be thankful.

And I really appreciate that about the way we do it here in the States is being able to

say, you know what, we at least take a day.

Now, if you distract yourself with a bunch of alcohol and a football game, that's fine.

But my suggestion is, and I think Justin, you're the same way when we speak to the audience

and we say, hey guys, take a take a minute, take a beat, whatever your phrase is, take a

deep breath.

Even if you're not playing tennis on Thanksgiving and you're not necessarily thankful for tennis.

If you're listening to this and you're not a tennis person, you don't have to be take

a deep breath and appreciate what you have.

And, yes, significantly.

And really understand the things you have versus just complaining.

And I'll put a plug out there for RSPA records boards.

If tennis wasn't introduced to my life, I wouldn't have been great at squash, I wouldn't

have been phenomenal at Batman.

Now my new life in Pickleball, which I don't like to talk about too much on, you know,

all of those I was decent at and I enjoyed playing a lot because tennis started me off.

I was good at rackets board, so I was good at all of them.

And tennis, I'll keep saying over and over, is the king of the lot.

So, it's all tennis is the phrase that we hear.

Like that.

Justin, you know, this has been 10 minutes of tennis and I am thankful for you, my friend.

I appreciate this episode.

I appreciate this series.

Thank you so much for sharing everything you've been through and what you know and just

being, I'm thankful for you.

I really appreciate it.

So, thank you so much.

We'll see you next week.

Thanks, Justin.

Thanks, given y'all.

Well, there you have it.

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