It was early 1994 and Andre Agassi\u2019s tennis career was veering dangerously off track. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
All his life, Agassi had been assured he would go down in history as one of the greats of his sport. When he turned pro at age sixteen in 1986, pundits lauded him for his natural talent, impressed by his uncanny ability to take control of points and his gift for hitting seemingly impossible shots on defense. But by 1994 it wasn\u2019t a stellar record on the court that had won Agassi fame\u2014it was his style. In a sport known for decorum, Agassi wore ripped jeans and tie-dyed shirts to tournaments. He grew his hair long and sported an earring. He cursed like a sailor on the court. He even starred in a splashy ad campaign for Canon with the provocative slogan \u201cImage Is Everything.\u201d When it came to tennis, though, Agassi was falling laughably short of expectations. He too often lost early in tournaments to players with far less skill\u2014a first-round flameout at a small tune-up in Germany, a third-round defeat at a Grand Slam. His ranking kept slipping, from seventh in the world to twenty-second, then to thirty-first. Agassi\u2019s coach of ten years had recently and unceremoniously dropped him; Agassi learned the news while reading USA Today. He\u2019d taken to telling people he hated tennis.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Agassi needed a change.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Which is why he found himself eating dinner one evening at Porto Cervo, a favorite restaurant of his near Miami, across from Brad Gilbert, a fellow pro tennis player. Gilbert\u2019s approach to tennis was the polar opposite of Agassi\u2019s: fastidious, methodical, and inelegant. He lacked Agassi\u2019s obvious gift for the game. And yet Gilbert, then thirty-two years old, had been ranked among the world\u2019s top twenty players for years, even reaching number four in 1990, much to the surprise of tennis aficionados. Just a few months before the dinner with Agassi, Gilbert had detailed his unusual approach to tennis in an instant bestseller called Winning Ugly. It was Winning Ugly that had prompted the dinner. After reading the book, Agassi\u2019s manager had encouraged his struggling client to talk with Gilbert. Agassi needed a new coach, and his manager had a hunch that Gilbert, who was old enough to consider retiring from the pro tour, might be the person who could turn Agassi\u2019s career around. Agassi had agreed to the meeting, but as he would later recount in his brilliant 2009 autobiography, Open, he was skeptical. Gilbert was known for his peculiarities, both on and off the court, and as the dinner unfolded, he only added to Agassi\u2019s uncertainty. First, Gilbert refused an outdoor seat with an ocean view (citing a mosquito phobia). Then, upon discovering his favorite beer wasn\u2019t on the menu, he dashed to a nearby market to pick up a six-pack and insisted it be stored on ice in the restaurant\u2019s freezer. It took a while for the group to get settled but when they finally did, Agassi\u2019s manager opened with a question for Gilbert. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
What, he asked, did Gilbert think of his client\u2019s game? Gilbert took a long swig of his drink and swallowed slowly. He didn\u2019t mince words. If he had Agassi\u2019s skills and talent, he replied, he\u2019d be dominating the pro tour. As he saw it, Agassi was misusing his gifts: \u201cYou try to hit a winner on every ball,\u201d he said. It was a serious shortcoming. No one can hit an outright winner on every shot, Gilbert pointed out, and trying to do so was eroding Agassi\u2019s confidence bit by bit each time he fell short. Having played against (and beaten) Agassi many times, Gilbert had witnessed this pattern firsthand.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Agassi could see the wisdom in this assessment. He\u2019d always been a perfectionist, but until Gilbert\u2019s remarks, he\u2019d viewed that trait as a strength rather than a weakness. Growing up, he\u2019d learned to go for the kill from his father, an Olympic boxer who was perpetually hunting for the knockout blow\u2014the one punch that would vanquish his opponent. During training sessions on the homemade court in their backyard, the Olympian had echoed the advice of his former boxing coach. \u201cHit harder!\u201d he\u2019d yell at his five-year-old son. \u201cHit earlier!\u201d Agassi had long considered his exceptional ability to hit knockout shots an advantage. Gilbert was saying it was his Achilles\u2019 heel.To win, Gilbert continued, Agassi needed to shift his focus. \u201cStop thinking about yourself,\u201d he admonished, \u201cand remember that the guy on the other side of the net has weaknesses.\u201d It was Gilbert\u2019s uncanny ability to size up his opponents that allowed him to beat far better players. He didn\u2019t try for a knockout to claim each point; he found a strategy that eased that burden. \u201cInstead of you succeeding,\u201d Gilbert said, \u201cmake him fail. Better yet, let him fail.\u201dBecause Agassi was looking to hit a perfect shot every time, Gilbert explained, he was \u201cstacking the odds against\u201d himself and \u201cassuming too much risk.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Gilbert\u2019s message was simple: the self-focused approach to tennis on which Agassi had built his career was not the best approach\u2014not if he wanted to win. There was a better way\u2014one that required sizing up the competition and tailoring his game to capitalize on his opponents\u2019 weaknesses. It might be a less dazzling style of tennis than Agassi was used to playing, but it would be more effective. Fifteen minutes into the conversation, Gilbert got up to use the restroom. Agassi immediately turned to his manager. \u201cThat\u2019s our guy,\u201d he said. A few months later, Agassi entered the U.S. Open unseeded\u2014he wasn\u2019t even expected to crack the top sixteen. But with Gilbert\u2019s coaching, his style had changed. He faced an old rival early on\u2014the tournament\u2019s sixth seed, Michael Chang\u2014and remained unshaken in a nail-biter, holding on to the win by the thinnest of margins. He took out the ninth seed with ease, recognizing his opponent\u2019s \u201ctell\u201d\u2014a tendency to look at the spot where he planned to hit his serves\u2014and exploiting that weakness.And, suddenly, Agassi had reached the finals. There was 550,000 dollars in prize money on the line, but far more in pride. It was Agassi\u2019s chance to prove himself\u2014to show everyone that he could live up to the hype after all.His opponent was Michael Stich, a German champion and the tournament\u2019s number four seed. Agassi came out strong, hitting crisp, clean balls on point after point. He won the first set handily, then eked out the second set in a tiebreaker. But Stich wasn\u2019t ready to fold. In the third set he hung with Agassi on long rallies and made him work for every point; eventually, the set was tied at five games apiece. The most direct path to victory would require Agassi to break serve, which meant besting Stich when he had the advantage of beginning each point. Agassi\u2019s confidence began to waver. Stich wasn\u2019t giving up\u2014he kept blasting powerful serves, one after another. But then Agassi noticed Stich gripping his side, the telltale sign of a cramp, and saw his opening. He broke Stich\u2019s serve. He was four points away from winning his first U.S. Open Championship\u2014the sweetest of possible victories for a struggling onetime phenom whom the oddsmakers had counted out.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Before hiring Gilbert, Agassi was notorious for falling apart in high-pressure matches. He went for too many knockouts, took too many risks, and blew it when he should have held steady. But now Agassi stayed focused. Instead of going for winners, he concentrated on keeping the ball in play. He could hear Gilbert\u2019s voice in his head: \u201cGo for his forehand. When in doubt, forehand, forehand, forehand.\u201d And he stayed on task. He hit the ball over and over again to Stich\u2019s forehand, his feeblest shot. And on match point, Stich missed. The tournament was over. Agassi fell to his knees with tears in his eyes. He was the first unseeded player to take home a U.S. Open trophy in twenty-eight years. He\u2019d made history.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
In tennis, there\u2019s a generic playbook that works reasonably well: hit hard serves; run your opponent side to side; get to the net whenever you can. It\u2019s not a bad strategy. But if you\u2019re a really good tactician, like Gilbert, you\u2019ll take advantage of the fact that specific opponents have specific weaknesses. Maybe the player you\u2019re facing can\u2019t handle a low slice to the backhand side. You can torture them with that shot again and again and winning will be far easier. Behavior change is similar. You can use an all-purpose strategy that works well on average. Set tough goals and break them down into component steps. Visualize success. Work to create habits\u2014tiny ones, atomic ones, keystone ones\u2014following the advice laid out in self-help bestsellers. But you\u2019ll get further faster if you customize your strategy: isolate the weakness preventing progress, and then pounce.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
I couldn\u2019t help but see the parallels to the way I\u2019d been taught to think in engineering school. An engineer can\u2019t design a successful structure without first carefully accounting for the forces of opposition (say, wind resistance or gravity). So engineers always attempt to solve problems by first identifying the obstacles to success. Now, studying behavior change, I began to understand the power and promise of applying this same strategy. It\u2019s the very strategy that turned Andre Agassi\u2019s tennis career around by helping him refocus on his opponents\u2019 weaknesses. Of course, when it comes to changing your behavior, your opponent isn\u2019t facing you across the net. Your opponent is inside your head. Maybe it\u2019s forgetfulness, or a lack of confidence, or laziness, or the tendency to succumb to temptation. Whatever the challenge, the best tacticians size up their opponent and play accordingly. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Andre Agassi applied Brad Gilbert\u2019s philosophy one match at a time, using specifically tailored strategies to defeat each opponent in his path. And the wins added up. Soon after Agassi\u2019s surprise victory at the 1994 U.S. Open, he captured the number one world ranking, a title he would go on to hold for 101 weeks over the course of his now legendary career. Brad Gilbert\u2019s advice made Agassi\u2019s transformation possible. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
stem: katy milkman It was early 1994 and Andre Agassi\u2019s tennis career was veering dangerously off track. All his life, Agassi had been assured he would go down in history as one of the greats of his sport. When he turned pro at age sixteen in 1986, pundits lauded him for his natural talent, impressed by his uncannyRead more »<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2007,974],"tags":[4188,3797,4004,4189,1815,4190],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.imhd.nl\/log\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/65671"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.imhd.nl\/log\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.imhd.nl\/log\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.imhd.nl\/log\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.imhd.nl\/log\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=65671"}],"version-history":[{"count":9,"href":"https:\/\/www.imhd.nl\/log\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/65671\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":66291,"href":"https:\/\/www.imhd.nl\/log\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/65671\/revisions\/66291"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.imhd.nl\/log\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=65671"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.imhd.nl\/log\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=65671"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.imhd.nl\/log\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=65671"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
titel: introduction
perspectief: understanding inner barriers – e.g. understanding human nature: getting started, forgetfulness, procrastination, impulsivity, laziness, confidence, conformity. Outsmart these obstacles and make them work for you helps you (to help others) to change for the better
bron: how to change (2021)
mopw: meerstemmige encyclopedie<\/a><\/small><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"