Perfectionism gets in the way of life, but it also gets in the way sports. This is a problem that not many tennis players can handle. In their discipline, they have to get used to making mistakes or losing more matches than any other. Otherwise, they would not be able to use their full potential. Recently, both Iga Świątek and the Polish tennis player psychologist Daria Abramovich spoke about it.
Iga Świątek: Feeling great? No, it’s work
A month ago in San Diego, Schvetek won his eighth tennis tournament this year. After the event, she gave an interview to Al Bawaba In this from the inside. I was once asked, “Tennis players are often perfectionists. How do you deal with that?”
– I stopped thinking that way. The goal is not complete Game Or feeling, but winning when you don’t feel perfect or comfortable on the court. This is key in tennis because we have so many conditions throughout the season, different balls, different racquet tensions.
Iga Świątek achieved her goal, among other things in New York, where she won this year US Open Championship. She did not play as well as she did in the spring, when she recorded a streak of 37 consecutive victories, and yet she won her well-deserved third Grand Slam title.
It’s really hard to find that perfect feeling. I feel like I’ve had it twice this season, and that’s still a lot. In other tournaments, you only work in moments when you don’t feel perfect, – added the Polish tennis player. She didn’t reveal what exactly those moments were, but they may have appeared during the winning streak in the early part of the season.
Daria Abramović: There is no cyborg
You can see that Iga Świątek takes the approach Daria Abramović urges her on. The psychologist of the best tennis player in the world came to Polish journalists in Fort Worth after losing the Polish women’s match with Aryna Sabalenka in the semifinals of the tournament. WTA Finals.
There is no perfection in sports. Not in life either. There are no perfect robots, perfect people, perfect seasons. This does not happen. Anyone who thinks otherwise—I’ll be firm here—starts to follow dead ends that lead to burnout, injury, and mood disorders. And the sooner world sports realize this, the easier it will be to build careers. We are guided by this, – said Abramovich.
A day later, during an exclusive conversation with Sport.pl, Daria Abramowicz developed an idea. – It is definitely worth working on building what is called a healthy passion. I often use this structure in my work with athletes, coaches, and parents. It is about striving for mathematical perfection, but not perfection. Perfectionism as a trait does not tolerate mistakes too much, does not forgive, commands “more and more, more and more”, transforming in the realm of duty, anxiety and fear. So is shame because we as human beings are not enough. He never really finds the finish line. She explained that perfectionism also reinforces unrealistic standards for our work.
Psychologist Iga Świątek has also admitted that perfectionism gets in the way of the pure joy of success. – Limits positive sensations and positive emotions. There is constant hunger, the temptation to go for more and more. So if someone is reading it now, they probably think it is a ready recipe for very difficult experiences that require feedback. And those accumulated especially in the long run – to put it mildly – do not help constructive performance. That is why in my work I try to direct those I work with to go in a different direction – she concluded.
Tennis players fight perfection. “I want to reduce it”
Perfectionism is the bane of many tennis players. “Perfection is a calling for me, and I’m working on it,” said Belinda Bencic of Switzerland, after winning Olympic gold in Tokyo last year, as quoted by Tennis.com. “It’s a process, I’m still not where I want to be, but I’m finding Difficulty curbing my perfectionist thinking.
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WTA Finals winner Caroline Garcia has a perfectionist problem. Her former coach, Bertrand Perrett, told her about it. “She’s a really professional, she was great to work with, but maybe she was a bit of a perfectionist. She didn’t accept mistakes. In her adventurous style of play, if you don’t accept making mistakes, you get frustrated.”
Naomi Osaka didn’t play much last season. Her best result was the final in Miami, where she lost to Schvetek. Then the Japanese spoke about how perfectionism destroyed her. – I try not to live in the past, past successes, although it is difficult because I am a perfectionist. I still have doubts in my mind whether to play this way or that way, – I explained.
Yes – perfection sometimes allows you to win prizes, but it is only an apparent path to glory, rather a highway to burnout and frustration. Older athletes, like the Williams sisters, take years to come to this conclusion. It’s good that Iga Świątek herself is aware of this at such a young age. And she has people around her who help her do that.
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