Nick Kyrgios- a great example of Locker Room Power

Good day, good evening, good morning, wherever you are in the world. And here is another one of David Sammel’s nuggets. I'm just about to leave Melbourne to travel back to the UK after a pretty successful trip where I was involved with the ATP cup and then of course, Liam qualified to play Nick Kyrgios on the John Caine arena, and unfortunately went down in that match where he effectively did very well dealing with a very hostile crowd, and a player who is a master at psychological warfare, and using the crowd. Now, a lot of people have said that they feel like it's unfair the way Nick uses the crowd. Personally, I disagree, I think is fantastic for the sport. And you know, just like Muhammad Ali before him, he understands how to get under people's skin and in their heads, and get the opposition to think about him, rather than what they need to do. And he's done that successfully against the top 10 players of the world and actually has winning records against most of them. So, a very, very tough customer because, besides from his ability to work the crowd and to use that energy for himself, he can back it up with some excellent tennis as well. This brings me to the nugget which is locker room power. Now I've written a book, which you can get on Amazon in paperback or Kindle or audiobook. And this is where I explain how the best in anything in the world have an aura about them and a feeling of invincibility, total confidence in themselves, and therefore are extremely difficult to beat. They carry themselves in a way that makes you feel almost automatically that you're the underdog. And the way to combat that is to a be good enough to lock horns with them. But also, be able to not buy into this intimidation. All top people have this because it makes their job easier. They get their own way more often, and therefore don't have to fight as hard against every single opponent. It's something that you can build for yourself. And of course, understanding locker room power also helps you with the antidote. Whilst Liam is fully aware of locker room power, it's one thing, understanding it and hearing it from myself and reading it in the book, it's another thing to actually experience it firsthand. Most people struggle to overcome it at their first encounter with somebody who has this charisma. Also understand how brave these people are because they will do special things. Nick Kyrgios with the underarm serve in a stadium in front of everybody against anybody in the world. It's no different from somebody taking a penalty kick and having a one-step run up and chipping the goalkeeper, supreme confidence that they can carry off these feats. And of course, they don't have to do it every single time. But they do it enough to really put fear into opponents about their abilities. The main objective is that you think about what they're going to do and you worry about what they are going to do rather than sticking to your own processes and making your own statements and taking them on with your game. You're effectively saying I'm going to match you and I'm not going to fall for any of this in the same way that Borg never fell for McEnroe's stuff, and therefore McEnroe behaved against him because he knew there was just no mileage in any antics against Borg.So as a recap, locker room power is something that exists and knowing about it is important. Learning how to combat it is also important. I wish you well for the week and go out and grab my book or the audio book and see what your take is on locker room power and find out how much locker room power you have in your field. Thanks a lot. Bye Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices