Remembering Dr. Jim Loehr: Character, Mental Toughness, and the Whole Person in Tennis
4/28/202630 min
This week, we remember the legacy and impact of Dr. Jim Loehr, a groundbreaking performance psychologist in tennis, who passed last week at age 83. Last year, Patrick McEnroe and Dr. Loehr had an insightful conversation on mental toughness and the whole person behind elite performance, which we're resharing today.
Dr. Loehr's contributions to tennis were profound and lasting. Over more than three decades, he worked alongside some of the sport's most respected coaches and guided thousands of professional and junior players. His landmark first book, Mental Toughness Training for Sports, features a foreword by Arthur Ashe, and remains a foundational text for athletes to this day.
His reach extended well beyond tennis. Dr. Loehr worked with more than 17 number-one-ranked athletes and teams across professional tennis, golf, basketball, football, hockey, boxing, motorsport, and the Olympics. His energy management principles were applied across sports, business, medicine, and the military. He authored 19 books, including the co-authored bestseller The Power of Full Engagement.
The TennisWorthy Podcast is presented by the International Tennis Hall of Fame. For more information and full episode transcriptions, visit tennisfame.com/podcast.
Clips
Transcript preview
First 90 secondsJim Loehr· Guest0:00
[upbeat music] Let's assume that your son or daughter has enduring happiness. Enduring happiness, how do you feel about that? And they go, "Whoa, fantastic." But there's one caveat, they're not a good person. They go, "What?" No, they're not a good person. [whoosh] How in the heck did I end up in the character space? [laughs] I'm a guy who's writing books on mental toughness. Looks like I'm for the wussification of the world. [laughs] And in fact, that's not the case. I'm a- I'm all about winning, but winning in the right way. I wrote a book, The Only Way to Win is to Win with Character, and the only way to lose is to lose with character. [whoosh] I mean, it's unbelievable the number of times that you get a no. You have to handle no. It's an unbelievable sport for teaching resiliency, to bounce back and, uh, go right back into the battle until you get it right.
Patrick McEnroe· Host0:53
[upbeat music] All right. Welcome to another edition of the Tennis Worthy Podcast, everyone. I'm Patrick McEnroe, proud to be the president of the International Tennis Hall of Fame, and we've run the gamut this year. We've had tremendous guests, and we're gonna have yet another one today, the world-renowned, the world-famous Dr. Jim Loehr joining me. We got to speak a few years ago, Jim, on my own podcast, but it sure is a pleasure to welcome you to the Tennis Worthy Podcast for the Tennis Hall of Fame. We in the tennis world appreciate all you've done for tennis and mental health, mental toughness.