#412 How Roger Federer Works

David Senra· Host0:00

I spent years whining, swearing, and throwing my racket before I learned how to keep my cool. My wake-up call came early in my career when an opponent publicly questioned my mental discipline. He said, "Roger will be the favorite for the first two hours, and then I'll be the favorite after that." I realized what he was saying. Everybody can play well in the first two hours. You're fit, you're fast, you're clear. After two hours, your legs get wobbly, your mind starts wandering, and your discipline starts to fade. It made me realize I had so much more work ahead of me. My parents, my coaches, everyone had been calling me out, and now my rivals were doing it. I am eternally grateful for what he did because it made me work harder and train harder, a lot harder. That was an excerpt not from the book that I'm gonna talk to you about today, but actually from Roger Federer's commencement address that he gave at Dartmouth after he retired. And before I get into this incredible book that I read about Roger Federer, which is called The Master: The Long Run and the Beautiful Game of Roger Federer, written by Christopher Clarey, I wanna pull out a few quotes from Federer's excellent commencement address. And so Federer had three main ideas that he shared in the commencement address. Number one, effortlessness is a myth. Number two, it's only a point. And number three, life is bigger than the court. I wanna jump to point number two. This is my favorite part of the entire commencement address. He says, "Perfection is impossible. It is only a point. In the fifteen hundred and twenty-six single matches I played in my career,