Warwick Bashford | The Champions Mindset - Professional Tennis Coach Discusses His Journey and How to Develop Talent
Join the conversation and listen to professional tennis coach Warwick Bashford discuss coaching some of the greatest tennis players in the world. He talks about the 4 different mindsets and what separates armatures from TRUE champions. We talk about his journey, and the mistakes coaches make when trying to develop talent. We end the show talking about Warwick's nonprofit, "More Than Tennis."
If you want to connect with Warwick or find out more information about More Than Tennis, you can visit: https://www.warwickbashford.com/
Mentioned in this episode:
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Transcript
Hey everybody.
Speaker:We're talking to Warwick Bashford today.
Speaker:What an amazing guy.
Speaker:He runs a 5 0 1 C 3 charity called More Than Tennis, and as a former professional
Speaker:tennis player, turned professional tennis coach, he's a great friend of mine.
Speaker:You do not want to miss our conversation.
Speaker:Welcome to the last 10%.
Speaker:Your host, Dallas Burnett, dives into incredible conversations
Speaker:that will inspire you to finish well and finish strong, strong.
Speaker:Listen as guests share their journeys.
Speaker:Invaluable advice on living in the last 10%.
Speaker:If you are a leader, a coach, a business owner, or someone looking to level.
Speaker:You are in the right place.
Speaker:Remember, you can give 90% effort and make it a long way, but it's finding
Speaker:out how to unlock the last 10% that makes all the difference in your life,
Speaker:your relationships, and your work.
Speaker:Now, here's Dallas.
Speaker:Welcome, welcome, welcome to the last 10%.
Speaker:I am Dallas Burnett n Thrive Studio, sitting in my 1905
Speaker:Koch Brothers barber chair.
Speaker:not only that, so thankful to be a part of the first episode of 2023.
Speaker:Ringing in the new year with a great friend of mine, Warwick Bashford.
Speaker:Welcome today to the show Warwick.
Speaker:Thank you, Dallas.
Speaker:Thanks for having me.
Speaker:I mean, we are ver, we've been talking about this for a long time.
Speaker:We've been excited to get you on the show.
Speaker:You are a former British school's national tennis champion.
Speaker:Competed in the ATTP tour.
Speaker:You're an A T P W T, a tour coach, certified professional tennis
Speaker:coach in like multiple countries.
Speaker:You've coached people like Michael Chang, who was like number two in the world.
Speaker:, Marcus, Baghdadis, and Amelie Mauresmo . So you've got people, all
Speaker:over the world that you've coached.
Speaker:So thank you for being a part of the show and and thank you
Speaker:for being on the last 10%.
Speaker:Oh, it's a pleasure to be here.
Speaker:So now you, when we've been talking, we've talked about this for a while.
Speaker:One of the things that you had said in our past conversation is you talked
Speaker:about using tennis, the tennis racket as a passport, to fulfill your dreams.
Speaker:Why don't you tell everybody what that meant, what you meant when you said that
Speaker:and early on how you got into tennis.
Speaker:For sure, Dallas.
Speaker:As we had mentioned before I was born and grew up in South Africa as a young boy.
Speaker:and, before going over to the uk, I had this dream of playing Wimbledon.
Speaker:And , I guess I needed a tennis track at Wimbledon is, the.
Speaker:The pinnacle of professional tennis.
Speaker:And, I just had this vision, since a little boy and, desire
Speaker:and just a love of the game.
Speaker:I was fortunate to meet some good coaches in South Africa and, you know,
Speaker:who inspired me to, to play the game.
Speaker:And one day at the age of 12.
Speaker:We could see that in South Africa we weren't really going,
Speaker:anywhere professionally speaking.
Speaker:So , my parents made a big, commitment to, to immigrate to England.
Speaker:And my parents, on my dad's side, he's British, we , were able to
Speaker:get the nationality, and immigrate and fulfill a family dream, really.
Speaker:My parents, made the sacrifice for myself and my younger sister.
Speaker:they literally, the reason that they moved was for tennis was so that you
Speaker:could play in Britain.
Speaker:Oh my
Speaker:Yes.
Speaker:My, my dad fortunately had a brother that already lived in Europe who, immigrated.
Speaker:And he was able to join that business and start from nothing
Speaker:but that was a struggle in itself.
Speaker:And getting to England, having an accent, having a dream, being put
Speaker:down for that dream, was really tough.
Speaker:But it.
Speaker:Helped with the adversity, and developing that, that toughness because,
Speaker:I was like, wow, I'm in England.
Speaker:I'm playing, on grass.
Speaker:I'm, which is a different surface than I'm used to.
Speaker:And, I was, learning to, to play clay courts as well.
Speaker:So you had two surfaces in England, the grass, which was
Speaker:very fast and, and the clay.
Speaker:And then, at the age of 1617, I was realizing that I needed more, the coaching
Speaker:wasn't really, helping me, some of the coaches were advising me to do things that
Speaker:actually, helped create a, an injury.
Speaker:And I'm not saying the coaching was bad.
Speaker:It was just a, an unfortunate thing that happened to me.
Speaker:My body wasn't ready for it.
Speaker:And.
Speaker:I decided to learn, very earlier on how to coach myself.
Speaker:Took certifications, started thinking, if I don't, survive
Speaker:physically, what am I gonna do?
Speaker:After 10 or so, I might as well learn the trade of coaching.
Speaker:Wow.
Speaker:So I
Speaker:in the, your teenage years, you'd already had that thought that you were playing
Speaker:, you were at a very high level, and that you were dissatisfied with the coaching.
Speaker:And so you said, I, If my body doesn't hold up, you
Speaker:had that , in your mid teen.
Speaker:That's amazing.
Speaker:Foresight on your part.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:I, as an athlete you go through, different injuries.
Speaker:You get to know your body and, and your style of play.
Speaker:And I just felt that the coaches weren't seeing.
Speaker:How my body and technique would mix.
Speaker:And in England it's like FastCo, tennis sub valley, everything's on grass.
Speaker:And I was the rough nadel style, just at the baseline wanting to hit a lot of
Speaker:topspin and the English were like, no, you can't play like that . I was why not?
Speaker:They wanted me to play a different way and it created a
Speaker:stiffness and I wasn't natural.
Speaker:So by, by trying to learn coaching myself, I was able to
Speaker:understand where I made mistakes.
Speaker:Along the way and, with the studying, it helped me, but I was still, my
Speaker:body was very weak and, I kept getting injuries and eventually it led to an
Speaker:injury in my back where, doctors said if I continued playing, I'd be done.
Speaker:I'm being a wheelchair.
Speaker:I'm 19 years of age, I'm.
Speaker:Top thousand in the world and I'm like, it's over.
Speaker:And until I had an idea to go over to France.
Speaker:So at the age of
Speaker:so at 19 by 19, though, you had already won the British School's
Speaker:National Tennis Champion.
Speaker:you'd won that.
Speaker:And so as you at this point bef, like leading up to that, you'd had coaching,
Speaker:you had some differences in opinion, but your parents moved to the, Britain has.
Speaker:Paid off, at least to that point, because you've realized your dream,
Speaker:you've won that national championship thing, and then you've moved
Speaker:into, competing, I guess competing.
Speaker:You were in the top thousand players competing in the
Speaker:sport professionally at 19
Speaker:Yeah, no, it was very fulfilling.
Speaker:. But at the same time I knew that with the injuries, I was gonna
Speaker:struggle and I had to get stronger.
Speaker:The base, the foundation, the legs, and so to get stronger, I felt I
Speaker:had to be in a country where the game is played on a slower surface.
Speaker:rather than the grass of England.
Speaker:So that meant, going to a country like France, where they were known for the
Speaker:red clay and the slow, long rallies.
Speaker:And that opportunity to go over there was not an easy one because you
Speaker:couldn't, you didn't, I hadn't learned French at school, foreign language,
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:And now, so let me ask you, did you move to France after the injury or before?
Speaker:Was it I need to see if I can do this after the injury happened,
Speaker:or you're, like, before the injury you moved and then were injured in
Speaker:a way that you was like this done.
Speaker:Yeah, no, good question.
Speaker:I, decided to take a year.
Speaker:Prior to moving to France to rehabilitate the body, got myself a job in like
Speaker:a Best Buy equivalent in England.
Speaker:And, decided to save up the money to buy, a vehicle to travel over to France.
Speaker:And this vehicle was gonna be my hotel as well.
Speaker:It was gonna be where I lived in it, and traveled for two, three months in France.
Speaker:To see if my body could get stronger and I couldn't make a living because
Speaker:in France it was one of the only countries as an amateur status.
Speaker:You could earn money, you couldn't keep it.
Speaker:You would have to put it in a fund, but at least it would help finance tennis down
Speaker:the road if that was what I was gonna do.
Speaker:By spending a year walking and rehabilitating, I got strong.
Speaker:and, saved up the money to get the van, kitted it out, put a bed in it.
Speaker:Gosh.
Speaker:That's
Speaker:hilarious.
Speaker:I love it.
Speaker:And when you see the van, I'll show you a picture one day.
Speaker:It's not like one of these American V8 s it's like a small, miniature
Speaker:Suzuki, full cylinder sort of thing.
Speaker:You could barely fit one person lying in it.
Speaker:And actually a friend of mine, my doubles partner, he decided to come
Speaker:with me and he was gonna sleep in the tent because the van wasn't big enough.
Speaker:We had a bet that depending on, who won, who earned to, to sleep
Speaker:in the van or to sleep in the tent,
Speaker:Oh man,
Speaker:that stakes were pretty high, man.
Speaker:You said, okay.
Speaker:We're p we're playing for a good night's sleep.
Speaker:That's, that raises the level of competition . That's
Speaker:Now it was something else, but he, he was great because, as a
Speaker:doubles partner, we won a lot of titles, as, as a doubles pair.
Speaker:And then unfortunately after about a month, he got bored and,
Speaker:he missed his mother's cooking.
Speaker:So he, he decided to return to England.
Speaker:And I was on my own and I ventured.
Speaker:Into Normandy and played a lot of tournaments along the Normandy coast.
Speaker:Learned a bit of history about the American, D-day and arrival there.
Speaker:But a great experience because I didn't know the language, had to learn it and.
Speaker:And really fell in love with the culture.
Speaker:The style of play, the way coaches talk to the players, and decided to, go
Speaker:to Paris, to capital and find myself a job, believe it or not, teaching tennis
Speaker:Ah, that's awesome.
Speaker:That's cool
Speaker:that, that makes sense.
Speaker:that's a natural transition.
Speaker:sense.
Speaker:I wasn't sure I was making money and I still needed to make a living.
Speaker:and, see where my body was.
Speaker:But when I went to Paris, I went to work for an American, tennis academy.
Speaker:Many people familiar with the great Nick Bollettieri, the Bollettieri tennis
Speaker:academy in Sarasota, Bradenton, Florida.
Speaker:And so he had a satellite.
Speaker:Branch out there, in Paris, and I met, the tennis director and he, he gave me a
Speaker:job on the spot because he knew I could play, but I couldn't speak the language
Speaker:So to eat, I had to be motivated to learn very quickly the language.
Speaker:Otherwise I wasn't gonna get paid.
Speaker:Wow, that's definitely motivation for sure.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:No, that's a quick, that's a quick study.
Speaker:So now let me ask you, so your transition out of professional tennis, was it
Speaker:wasn't, it doesn't sound like it was as abrupt as like the injury itself.
Speaker:It was more like you had the.
Speaker:And then you started this journey of discovery, like maybe
Speaker:I can transition to France.
Speaker:You get to, the different style of play in France.
Speaker:You go to France, you win some tournaments, you have some success there.
Speaker:So obviously the recovery somewhat happened, but then you
Speaker:get into this teaching school.
Speaker:Was there a moment where you're.
Speaker:I don't know.
Speaker:Was it hard to leave playing to coaching or was it like
Speaker:it was a natural transition?
Speaker:What was that like as you progressed forward in your career?
Speaker:Yeah, no, great question.
Speaker:I, yeah, it was an easy, slow transition.
Speaker:It wasn't abrupt at all because while I was working, I was training
Speaker:and I got the opportunity to see and work with French coaches.
Speaker:And they didn't tell me, oh, you've got no chance.
Speaker:You're not gonna, you're not gonna make it.
Speaker:They encouraged me, but indirectly, through conversations with
Speaker:them and seeing the training, I knew that I wasn't gonna do it.
Speaker:My.
Speaker:Wasn't gonna hold up when you're looking at the training needed.
Speaker:I hadn't had that in England.
Speaker:You, I had maybe the talent, but talent wasn't good enough.
Speaker:The physical ability, y to sustain that talent was necessary.
Speaker:And I would have to spend, another 10 years working on building that and,
Speaker:That was, a financial thing too, where you know how you're gonna finance
Speaker:your life as well as your training and then go on the road and travel and it
Speaker:just, little by little, I enjoyed the coaching and learning another language.
Speaker:Being in a country, learning a culture, different foods.
Speaker:and I was just attracted to that.
Speaker:And and actually I met my first wife there in France.
Speaker:There was a bit of a motivation, okay, do I, get serious or do I
Speaker:give it all up and keep going.
Speaker:By the time you're 25 years of age, you realize, it's
Speaker:a little late to keep going.
Speaker:And, and the coaching just took off because I was asked
Speaker:to, to Coach Mi Michael Chang.
Speaker:And that's another story in itself.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:How did that, how do you, he was, an amazing us I guess he was
Speaker:play, he played for the US right?
Speaker:And, he was an amazing, tennis player.
Speaker:How did that even happen?
Speaker:Like, how do you get linked up going and coaching
Speaker:Yeah, the guy I worked for in, in Paris, the academy that represented
Speaker:voluntary, he was, he was my mentor.
Speaker:He was the guru, the coach, that taught me mostly everything I know today.
Speaker:And He was asked to prepare Michael, Chang for Roland Gar
Speaker:because Michael at the time was 15.
Speaker:He'd won a tournament in Charlotte, North Carolina and got a wild card to
Speaker:participate in the qualifying rounds for Roland Gar, the French open.
Speaker:And so they contacted my boss and said, Hey, you're the.
Speaker:coach, can you train Michael?
Speaker:How to play on the red dirt?
Speaker:And so I was invited because I had to be the translator, because Michael, my boss
Speaker:didn't speak English, and here I had to be that intermediate, between the two.
Speaker:So I got to learn even more, got to experience, the world's stage of the best.
Speaker:And that was the light bulb moment for me as a coach.
Speaker:When you saw Michael and you saw him playing at 15, did you have, , an
Speaker:idea how , how good he was going to be?
Speaker:Ultimately?
Speaker:He got up to be an.
Speaker:Number two in the, I guess in the atp, in the world.
Speaker:, how did he look at 15?
Speaker:Did you say, no, this guy is special, or you just say, no, he's good,
Speaker:but he's got a long way to go.
Speaker:What was that when you went to that coaching?
Speaker:Yeah, he, He had something special, not necessarily technically or physically.
Speaker:He was the mindset,
Speaker:It, you just knew he had the champion mindset.
Speaker:The commitment, the, I would say maturity, just take for example, would
Speaker:go out for a run, after playing and my boss, would say, okay, I'd like you to
Speaker:do these exercises, and Michael would.
Speaker:No, I'm not gonna do those cause those are not good for my
Speaker:back and we're gonna do these.
Speaker:And I
Speaker:was like,
Speaker:push back.
Speaker:He would push back on the coach
Speaker:Yes.
Speaker:And said, the reason I do this is because my body.
Speaker:So you could tell he knew his body, he knew the right, and I was like,
Speaker:okay, show me what we need to do and I'll hold you accountable he was like,
Speaker:Whatever, because he knew he had a plan and he executed it with excellence.
Speaker:And you just knew.
Speaker:And so when he played the tournament, went through and he qualified to
Speaker:the main draw, and I believe he lost two John McInroy at the time.
Speaker:But it was a huge success, because a year later he contacted my
Speaker:boss to do the same thing.
Speaker:and my boss was in the process of building his own tennis academy and declined.
Speaker:And then the guy goes on and wins it that you're at the age of
Speaker:Oh my goodness.
Speaker:My boss is oh man, I should have taken him on, but.
Speaker:He wins it, and an incredible feat.
Speaker:But, again, watching this player, with a teenage body win, a grand slam
Speaker:and then the following your, he had hip surgery because, he wasn't strong
Speaker:enough and he was able to build that strength and then get to number two
Speaker:in the world of our 10 year period.
Speaker:But a phenomenal experience for me, for sure.
Speaker:Wow.
Speaker:That is a cool story.
Speaker:I like that.
Speaker:That's awesome.
Speaker:So now you've been coaching, you've been coaching for a long time and you've seen
Speaker:a lot of good things out of coaching.
Speaker:Like you said, you had a, the opportunity to , have great mentoring
Speaker:through coaching and developing.
Speaker:You've been on the world stage, you've played tennis in, three countries
Speaker:you've coached in, several countries.
Speaker:What are some, because there's a lot leaders and leader coaches
Speaker:that listen to the last 10%.
Speaker:And a lot of people are using and the one-on-one, we have a one-on-one coaching
Speaker:system that we have through our app.
Speaker:A lot of people use that and listen to the last 10%.
Speaker:So when you think about coaches developing people, because we're
Speaker:passionate about helping business leaders and leader coaches develop their.
Speaker:Team members, what are some mistakes that you see coaches make when they are
Speaker:engaging in the development process?
Speaker:And it doesn't necessarily, I don't wanna limit you to ath athletics,
Speaker:although you can use athletics as an example, but I just wanted to
Speaker:give you an opportunity to talk through that a little bit.
Speaker:Yeah, no, you're right.
Speaker:I was fortunate to get an opportunity to coach, team tennis, through
Speaker:universities like Furman University in, Greenville, sun, South Carolina.
Speaker:Here you are coaching 12 girls and, in the past I'm used to coaching one player and.
Speaker:The key thing is understanding the needs of each individual player.
Speaker:So in business, if you've got a team or salespeople, but it's understanding
Speaker:their needs individually and what they need because everybody's
Speaker:different and approaching them, differently and understanding
Speaker:their personalities, is key.
Speaker:It's like when I was playing tennis, nobody matched my
Speaker:personality with my game style.
Speaker:So when I coached Emily Mauresmo or France, everybody in the coaching, in
Speaker:her coaching, as a junior, saw she was a strong athlete, so they built her
Speaker:game around Topspin baseline defense.
Speaker:When I started coaching her, I realized her personality was an
Speaker:attacking, aggressive, not sit at the baseline kind of player.
Speaker:And when we actually started working together, she was number one in the world.
Speaker:As a junior, she couldn't break into.
Speaker:Further than the top 400 in the world.
Speaker:And I said, okay, we're gonna change everything.
Speaker:Because
Speaker:me get
Speaker:come across,
Speaker:you said she was number one in the world as a junior and she couldn't
Speaker:get into the top 400 when she went to the pros.
Speaker:That's like that, that is that big of a gap.
Speaker:Is that, that's amazing.
Speaker:That's amazing.
Speaker:That's amazing.
Speaker:Although we didn't change much, we didn't change her technique, I just
Speaker:turned her into an attacking player.
Speaker:For example, she was very physical.
Speaker:Her coaches wanted her to stay at the baseline for three hours, and that's how
Speaker:she won, two grand slams as a junior.
Speaker:And then I walk in and I say, okay, we're gonna learn the slice.
Speaker:We're gonna chip and charge, we're gonna take the ball on the run.
Speaker:On the, on.
Speaker:On the hop, as we would say, like in baseball, when you're in the
Speaker:outfield and you take it off the bounce, take the ball very early,
Speaker:counter punch it, like Federers.
Speaker:And this revolutionized her game.
Speaker:And within 18 months she was in the top 30.
Speaker:Oh
Speaker:my gosh.
Speaker:Oh my
Speaker:It was you
Speaker:That's incredible.
Speaker:and now let me ask you a question.
Speaker:You felt like that was more what you called her personality.
Speaker:do you attribute it to.
Speaker:How much of that was, related to, did you notice her, did she have
Speaker:a change in her level of, I don't know, engagement in the game or fun?
Speaker:Did you see that happen or was it just that she, her performance went
Speaker:better because she was naturally that, what, how did you, what other changes
Speaker:did you see in, in, on the backside because you match those two up.
Speaker:Oh man, it was incredible.
Speaker:There were days where she didn't want to train.
Speaker:She wanted to leave the sport.
Speaker:and, and as we got to know each other and, she was like a daughter to me.
Speaker:We, we could see she found a love and a passion for the game
Speaker:and, totally changed her outlook.
Speaker:She wanted to become number one in the world.
Speaker:And when she had originally said, to me, I asked her, I said, so what's your goal?
Speaker:She said, I don't wanna really tell you because if I tell you your laugh at
Speaker:me, and I said, no, I said, go for it.
Speaker:She said, top 10.
Speaker:And I said, why not?
Speaker:Number one in the world.
Speaker:And, she said, nobody's ever believed in me.
Speaker:So I said, , let's change that.
Speaker:And, I gave her wings, so to speak, to see what that would bring.
Speaker:And when she saw the results, she was, She realized she was gonna be
Speaker:number one in the world and that she was gonna, as I told her, I said,
Speaker:you're gonna leave a legacy in this sport and change the sport forever.
Speaker:And that's what she did.
Speaker:Wow, . That's amazing.
Speaker:That's incredible.
Speaker:So I think that's so important too for business leaders.
Speaker:If you're leading teams at any level, understanding the
Speaker:individual is so important because like you just said, It's, it, when I
Speaker:think about that, you're not talking about it making a major change.
Speaker:We talk about, and you hear a lot of other business books talking about
Speaker:getting the right people on the bus and putting 'em in the right seats.
Speaker:Okay, that's fine.
Speaker:That's great.
Speaker:That's baseline.
Speaker:That's okay.
Speaker:That's basic.
Speaker:One-on-one, we get that outta the way.
Speaker:But once you get the right people on the bus, it's understanding
Speaker:who they're, who they are, fundamentally personality and how that
Speaker:personality plays into their roles.
Speaker:They may have the skills to do two different roles or one role,
Speaker:and they may be really skillful at one role or doing it a certain.
Speaker:But they,
Speaker:their personality, if they don't enjoy it, they can't fully engage and
Speaker:they don't feel known in that sense.
Speaker:Then you might could make a single tweak and just shift some roles and
Speaker:responsibilities from one role and just trade 'em up with two people and you don't
Speaker:even change their titles or anything like that, but you can just move it around a
Speaker:little bit or shift the process around the person just a little bit, to make it
Speaker:fit better and the performance is going.
Speaker:You, you can have tremendous performance impact and increase just by paying
Speaker:attention to some of the nuances.
Speaker:So I think the takeaway here is one of the reasons that the one-on-one
Speaker:coaching system we offer is successful and has been successful in organizations
Speaker:is because it really helps coaches get to know people in ways that
Speaker:they don't typically do that.
Speaker:And it's like you're saying that, I love the way that you put that.
Speaker:You didn't just look at the game, you didn't look at her skillset and say,
Speaker:how are you doing on the baseline?
Speaker:Could you get there?
Speaker:Could you do this better?
Speaker:Could you play better defense?
Speaker:You looked at her as a person and you looked at her w where sh who she
Speaker:was, and then what she was wanting to try to accomplish, and then you.
Speaker:you arranged that inside the game and said, this is what that looks like.
Speaker:If you can do that in a professional environment, you can do it in
Speaker:tennis, but you can also do that in a professional environment.
Speaker:You may not have complete flexibility, but you could, if you can just make
Speaker:some small changes that you can really see a tremendous impact on that.
Speaker:And I think that's, I think that's a fantastic
Speaker:point.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:Fantastic.
Speaker:So speaking of that, that's a great accomplishment as you look back at your
Speaker:coaching career, which is, amazing.
Speaker:You've coached some tennis greats.
Speaker:What, to you, what's been some one or more of your, most cherished accomplishments
Speaker:that you feel like as a coach?
Speaker:Yeah, I mean there are many, but one that really stands out was when.
Speaker:was, I got an opportunity to come and live and work in America and, I'd
Speaker:just gone through a separation with my first wife and, lost custody of three
Speaker:kids and lost my identity in France, and I had nowhere really to go and.
Speaker:I had a family that knew me through the professional tennis tour in,
Speaker:Miami, Florida who reached out.
Speaker:And, they said to me, they've got a young daughter, she's 13, was 13 at the time.
Speaker:And, they wanted me to work with her.
Speaker:And I said, does she want to go pro?
Speaker:And they said, not really.
Speaker:Our aspiration is for her to be awarded the Nobel Peace Prize
Speaker:or Nobel Prize for anything.
Speaker:And, and we just want somebody to mentor her.
Speaker:So I said, I'm at a point in my career where I've coached
Speaker:a lot of players individually.
Speaker:There's a lot of primadonna egos in that world and I thought, here's
Speaker:a 13 year old who's not part of that, and let's see if I can change.
Speaker:Somebody who doesn't necessarily aspire to be a pro, but wants to play like a pro.
Speaker:Like her dad said, can you teach her to play like the pros?
Speaker:And I said, sure.
Speaker:Long story short, we worked for three years together.
Speaker:and, she went on to, to get a college scholarship through tennis.
Speaker:Carnegie Mellon.
Speaker:Went off to California and today she's a very prominent doctor in Miami, Florida.
Speaker:So for me that was just as good as winning the, the national or
Speaker:the Wimbledon or the US Open.
Speaker:, because that was a light bulb moment for me in saying, if I can coach
Speaker:one 13 year old to do something incredible in life, why not reach?
Speaker:Hundreds of kids and that spiraled the next part of my career, which was to
Speaker:be a consultant and coach for clubs.
Speaker:But that experience, I took this young lady to France, she
Speaker:was a daughter to our family.
Speaker:We gave her opportunities.
Speaker:We turned her self doubt into somebody who believed in herself, who lost
Speaker:weight because she was overweight, clumsy, walked into walls, and
Speaker:everybody on the pro tour, the tennis tour, when they heard I was coaching
Speaker:this young lady, mocked my situation.
Speaker:And that was, again, more oil to the fire for me because I knew she was gonna.
Speaker:Somebody special in society and that , I get all the emotional,
Speaker:Nah.
Speaker:but that's, really, what is probably the best, experience
Speaker:or one of my best experiences
Speaker:That's so great.
Speaker:I love how.
Speaker:I love how you described that and the description that you were giving.
Speaker:It just is, it's really cool because it's.
Speaker:It's the description of you engaging in coaching, but you can tell that when
Speaker:you engage in coaching, you're not just engaging, in coaching a person in tennis.
Speaker:You're engaging in that person's life.
Speaker:And I think that as business leaders, there's so many times
Speaker:we, we miss that opportunity.
Speaker:We miss the forest for the trees.
Speaker:We engage in somebody.
Speaker:we engage in only if we engage in only coaching and developing people's skillset.
Speaker:Then we miss an opportunity because if we engage in developing a person, as a human
Speaker:being, then not only do they have the chance to run farther, whether it's in
Speaker:that skillset or in some other skillset, we just, we don't wanna miss that.
Speaker:And I think that's something that's cool, that one of your greatest
Speaker:coaching moments is not coaching a, the greatest tennis player in the world.
Speaker:It's actually, coach.
Speaker:Someone to be a great person in life.
Speaker:And so I think that's, man, I think that's fantastic.
Speaker:That's a great story.
Speaker:Thank you for sharing that story.
Speaker:It's really good.
Speaker:No, you're welcome Dallas.
Speaker:And you're right.
Speaker:It's exactly that.
Speaker:It's, it's a great point for leaders or, business people to
Speaker:understand, the whole person is key.
Speaker:So let's talk a little bit now, about, as you engage people, cuz you
Speaker:have, you have your method, right?
Speaker:You have your way, your what you call a champion mindset.
Speaker:And you've talked a little bit about that when you talked about
Speaker:Michael Chang and how you noticed the difference in his mindset.
Speaker:You've coached some of the greatest tennis players in the world.
Speaker:How would you describe, like, when you say champion mindset, how do
Speaker:you describe the champion mindset?
Speaker:Yeah, great question.
Speaker:I separated into a, into four categories.
Speaker:And it can be pretty, pretty direct, in, in life when players
Speaker:or people want to improve.
Speaker:There's a constant and never ending improvement process, which I call KNIC.
Speaker:So it's a constant.
Speaker:and never ending improvement consciousness.
Speaker:But to get there, one has to determine if the, the student or the client is or has
Speaker:a mentality that wants to be coachable.
Speaker:So if I tell, if I ask somebody, I want them to find clarity on who they.
Speaker:For example, the four steps are true, champion, amateur and loser.
Speaker:Okay, let's elaborate on, the loser.
Speaker:I is somebody who's very negative, who's always complaining, who's always
Speaker:playing victim, and is blaming others.
Speaker:The amateur is the person.
Speaker:Is not really sure where they are.
Speaker:And maybe is jealous of the champions.
Speaker:are they prepared to do the work?
Speaker:Are they prepared to be committed?
Speaker:And consistent rather than, criticizing the champions.
Speaker:And then the champions, they can be champions and win trophies and be very,
Speaker:selfish and self-absorbed and dog each dog and it's all about me sort of thing.
Speaker:And then there's the true champion where there's enough of the pie for everybody.
Speaker:The, who's humble, wants to.
Speaker:Give back somebody like Federer, Nadal, Djokovic to them about
Speaker:a few where, Federer is bringing water to countries in Africa.
Speaker:And y for me, that's the true champion.
Speaker:The person who's, accepting to be vulnerable and held accountable
Speaker:and will and wants to be coached no matter what his level is.
Speaker:I love those.
Speaker:I love the, I love your definition of the amateur.
Speaker:I like 'em all because they all are accurate.
Speaker:I think that's a fantastic, but the amateur is the, I love how you
Speaker:say the amateur is the person who.
Speaker:Actually is criticizing of the champion and like jealous of the champion
Speaker:it sounds like, and all that stuff.
Speaker:I, I think that's so true and, I don't know.
Speaker:I think that, that mindset is something that is limiting.
Speaker:It, is that whole mindset is what it actually is.
Speaker:What keeps people mediocre.
Speaker:It's like in business, like if you're just always angry at, your boss
Speaker:because they're your boss and you're, you, and you're just criticizing them,
Speaker:then all that energy that's going into criticizing that is either A, keeping
Speaker:you from doing a really good job.
Speaker:That would get you a promotion or B is diverted to that where it could be put
Speaker:into a side hustle that may be one day turned into a, your own company that
Speaker:you could be running in and be the boss.
Speaker:And I do think that's, I do think that's a fascinating, a
Speaker:fascinating breakdown of that,
Speaker:of those four categories.
Speaker:They are dads out there and about 65% of people are in that amateur status.
Speaker:It's a lot of people.
Speaker:But it's not necessarily any fault of their own.
Speaker:And that's where, as a coach have come to understand that if we want to talk
Speaker:about mental toughness or champion mindset, it's all very well to say, okay,
Speaker:you've gotta think like this and you've gotta have this kind of an attitude.
Speaker:But if you haven't been in an environment where somebody's, helped
Speaker:you understand who you are to release that potential, people will feel stuck
Speaker:and frustrated and start, being jealous.
Speaker:Where a good coach, can understand that and say to that person, are
Speaker:you willing to be coachable?
Speaker:Because I can get you from amateur to, the champion, mindset.
Speaker:Do you tend to see people, I guess if I'm a loser, then my goal
Speaker:is not to be, my goal is not to become a true champion right away.
Speaker:I guess it's, is it progressing my goal is just to get to the amateur and then
Speaker:get to the champion and then that, or is it like, no, you can start being a true
Speaker:champion immediately if you have a, if you have a, if you have the right mindset.
Speaker:Oh yeah, you can turn it around within 10 seconds.
Speaker:I love it.
Speaker:Okay.
Speaker:I love it.
Speaker:Going from, loser to True Champion in 10 seconds.
Speaker:I love it.
Speaker:Oh yeah, it is, it's just a, it just depends how dissatisfied that person
Speaker:is with their current situation and what they're willing to do.
Speaker:and through some of the training that I do and help, clients
Speaker:get through is determining.
Speaker:What are the negatives?
Speaker:What are the positives?
Speaker:What's the vision and how we're gonna get there.
Speaker:Obviously we can't get to that mindset within 10 seconds, but we can change our
Speaker:attitude to applying, the principles.
Speaker:And then, as we all know, staying accountable, that's why a coach
Speaker:comes in because it's difficult.
Speaker:We are.
Speaker:We're all human and we all, wanna cheat and
Speaker:That's right.
Speaker:That's right.
Speaker:And
Speaker:I love.
Speaker:Where the coach comes in.
Speaker:Oh, that's good stuff.
Speaker:Oh, that's good stuff.
Speaker:So the champion mindset, you said is a con you used that term that you used,
Speaker:that you coined, that was always kind of improvement, like a continuous improvement
Speaker:mindset, and then you broke it down.
Speaker:With those four kind of people usually fall into four categories where most
Speaker:people fall into the amateur category.
Speaker:I do think that a lot of people don't realize it.
Speaker:I don't feel like that they realize how what they think is keeping them
Speaker:in a position maybe they don't want to be in or not, or just limiting their
Speaker:ability to achieve, or do things, in a more impactful way, a greater way.
Speaker:So now that we've talked about champion mindset, I really, I
Speaker:really would love for you to tell us that kind of has led you and it's
Speaker:been great to hear your journey, but now you've had the pro career.
Speaker:You've been coached, you've been.
Speaker:Coaching pros.
Speaker:For many years, you've developed this champion mindset kind of philosophy and
Speaker:program that you implement and have helped a lot of people in not only tennis, but
Speaker:in life, but now you've got something new.
Speaker:We're very excited about that.
Speaker:You're early on in this vision.
Speaker:So tell us about more than tennis, your new 5013c.
Speaker:Yeah, no More Than Tennis has been, on my heart for about three or four years.
Speaker:And it's really about y catering for y children in Unresourced families.
Speaker:All through my career as a tennis player and coach, I've
Speaker:seen the struggles financially.
Speaker:Players and families and, I originally, when I wanted to play
Speaker:the professional game, my goal was to make enough money to help others.
Speaker:It wasn't, I wasn't playing the pro tour to be famous to, to have the most titles.
Speaker:I just wanted to make money to give to people.
Speaker:And, after being injured, I thought, okay, how am I gonna do that?
Speaker:Let's get into coaching and I'll be, become this great coach, and then I'll
Speaker:give my money to communities again.
Speaker:And I realized that coaching, you know, I wasn't gonna, become,
Speaker:wealthy, or financially stable.
Speaker:So I thought to myself, how can I reach a lot of kids?
Speaker:a coach like.
Speaker:doesn't necessarily want to work with kids who are not gonna aspire to be pro.
Speaker:They get that level and they're like, they're not good enough.
Speaker:They don't amount to anything.
Speaker:Why should I waste my time?
Speaker:But if I couldn't make the money to help coaches or clubs, develop
Speaker:kids, I had to be that coach.
Speaker:And, and I, and working within clubs, I realized I.
Speaker:, I still wasn't gonna, be able to financially, help players.
Speaker:I've been able to help a few and people have said to me, well, why, you
Speaker:don't charge what you should charge.
Speaker:And I said, that's my way of giving back.
Speaker:Because then they afford, to have me and, but then I just felt that, more
Speaker:than tennis being a nonprofit, , I would be able to, perhaps attract
Speaker:people that believed in the vision of helping others, through tennis.
Speaker:Tennis is a great life lesson.
Speaker:It was my passport to, getting to where I could learn a language.
Speaker:I was told I could never amount too much, and yet tennis was
Speaker:a path that just opened up.
Speaker:So I'm like, why can't I create that opportunity for hundreds of.
Speaker:Thousands of kids and, the goal with more than tennis is obviously
Speaker:to raise, funds to, to use tennis as a platform to develop leaders.
Speaker:And so that's the motivation and the inspiration
Speaker:I love that man.
Speaker:I love that.
Speaker:I mean it, you definitely see it in your life.
Speaker:You have such a clear picture and idea of what it means to be disciplined, what it
Speaker:means to be committed, what it means to be motivated, driven, and that champion
Speaker:mindset, what it means to give back.
Speaker:And I think that tennis has informed a lot of that over the years for you.
Speaker:And you can tell that you've
Speaker:used that already.
Speaker:You've leveraged that on an individual.
Speaker:To, when you've coached both pro tennis players but also people
Speaker:that you knew from the start weren't even planning on going pro.
Speaker:They were gonna go do Nobel Prize work or something somewhere.
Speaker:So I think that's really cool.
Speaker:And your more than tennis, you've looked at maybe, developing a whole tennis center
Speaker:that you can open up to, some communities that are maybe underprivileged is.
Speaker:Yeah, that's correct.
Speaker:We, have been fortunate to acquire a piece of land through a family
Speaker:in town in Spartanburg, South Carolina, who, will obviously,
Speaker:sell the land to the nonprofit.
Speaker:And, a very.
Speaker:A reasonable rate rather than, trying to make money on this.
Speaker:This is about, helping the community.
Speaker:So on their side, they want to be involved.
Speaker:So we've got the piece of land and, we're real excited because
Speaker:we feel we can start this project in 2023, I'm sorry, that was 2023.
Speaker:My dog here is going a little wild
Speaker:he's wanting to get in on the last 10%.
Speaker:Man.
Speaker:He does.
Speaker:Yeah, no, we're excited because, I believe that when you have a methodology,
Speaker:for teaching, life skills through tennis, it needs to be, it needs to
Speaker:be put out there and, by building.
Speaker:A tennis facility, specifically for tennis.
Speaker:We're not gonna go into other sports, ping pong or racquetball or, pickleball.
Speaker:This is tennis and through tennis, we can change lives.
Speaker:I love it,
Speaker:man.
Speaker:change the
Speaker:Yeah, we could change the world.
Speaker:I love it.
Speaker:I love your vision.
Speaker:I love your passion about not only tennis, but about helping develop young people,
Speaker:to set them up for success in their life.
Speaker:And using tennis as the tool to facilitate that change.
Speaker:I think that's just so impactful.
Speaker:So if some listeners would like to see that vision and help that vision become
Speaker:a reality, we, we would love for them to be able to get in touch with you.
Speaker:How can listeners of the last 10% find you and you'll, and see more
Speaker:information on your vision of more than.
Speaker:That would be amazing.
Speaker:First of all, it would be a dream if, anybody out there was interested
Speaker:in and, being a part of this.
Speaker:And yeah, we have a website, called warwick bashford.com
Speaker:and there's a link on there.
Speaker:For our foundation and, that way they can see, what we are, des
Speaker:desire is for the community, for the tennis program and the needs we have.
Speaker:And, if there's any other questions, we can answer them as well.
Speaker:Wonder.
Speaker:All right, work bashford.com.
Speaker:We'll have that link in the show notes.
Speaker:If anybody wants to reach out, contact War Warwick on that and find out
Speaker:more information on more than tennis.
Speaker:Please do.
Speaker:We would encourage you.
Speaker:We are big fans.
Speaker:Hey, listen, Warwick, we're gonna have to have you back on the show, maybe
Speaker:at, maybe at the end of the year since this is the beginning of the year.
Speaker:Maybe we'll have you on the end of the year or the beginning of next.
Speaker:See how more than tennis is coming
Speaker:along in progression and we'll have to get more updates on the, on
Speaker:the new courts going and whatnot.
Speaker:And we're excited to hear.
Speaker:And I just want to thank you again for your insights and wisdom, if you would, if
Speaker:you had any advice for coaches or leaders.
Speaker:That, that are leading and coaching teams that you'd like to leave them with?
Speaker:What would be something that you would offer as an advice to people who were
Speaker:really passionate about developing people?
Speaker:Yeah, it's, it's a great point.
Speaker:I think, I know that being patient and listening, to the individual, learning.
Speaker:, more about them and being a great communicator.
Speaker:That's really key is taking the time to listen rather than dictating
Speaker:and, and, being able to give those answers and help that person that way.
Speaker:So the, we usually end the show by asking the guest, if they have anybody they
Speaker:would like to hear, as a guest on the show of the last 10%, , , who would you
Speaker:like to see or hear on the last 10%?
Speaker:There's an amazing Olympian, Ruben Gonzalez, a four-time Olympian.
Speaker:Incredible story.
Speaker:You, and what the Olympics taught him.
Speaker:And, yeah, it's, it's just something somebody I really respect and, feel
Speaker:he can help a lot of people too.
Speaker:Wonderful.
Speaker:All right, gonna have to reach out to.
Speaker:And see if we can get him on the show.
Speaker:We would love to have Ruben Gonzalez on the last 10%.
Speaker:That'd be fun conversations.
Speaker:So we'll have to see if we can work that out.
Speaker:If we do, we will let you know.
Speaker:Warwick, thank you again for being
Speaker:on the show today.
Speaker:It has been so much fun.
Speaker:We appreciate your time and we look forward to hearing more updates on more
Speaker:than tennis and all that you're into.
Speaker:Thanks again for being on the last 10.
Speaker:Thank you, Dallas.
