7 performance lessons from Simona Halep

 Somewhere in the middle of the year 2012, a Romanian tennis player, quite atypical, drew attention to me. She was called Simona Halep, she did not have the impressive physics of other players, she seemed physically fragile.

In less than a month she had won three tournaments, the first of her career, showing a very good series of matches. He had reached six finals at the age of 21, three lost and three won in that year.

He also lost to Wimbledon early in the second round in front of the rewarding Na Li after a dramatic match in which he succumbed to 2-6, 6-1, 0-6. Na Li was the serial head no. 6 at Wimbledon and she, an unknown, with strong back pain. I saw, then, in a sequence of seconds on television, Simone's painful mimic. The match had been interrupted three times for medical reasons. He lost the match, but he ended it up ... and something told me I'll hear about it.

There was something in an attitude you rarely encounter in a man. When she won the Budapest tour, the third of her career, then it became my favorite. Extremely powerful, disciplined, aggressive and at the same time flexible on the tennis court.

Three more tournaments were won by the end of the year (New Haven, Moscow and Sofia), with incredible overtures on the tennis court, with a pitbull attitude that hangs on each ball, but with the grace of an Olympic skating champion. Little Romance made her name in world tennis and no one could stand in her way.

She earn in 2013  "WTA's Most Improved Player" puts the spotlight on an emerging champion, with the associated pressure. This title has been won by some of the biggest tennis champions: Serena Williams, Maria Sharapova, Justine Henin, Martina Hingis, Monica Seles, Steffi Graf, Arantxa Sanchez-Vicario, Monica Seles or Mary Pierce.

In the same year she won the Doha finals, the first Premier Five tournament, after beating three better-ranked players than her: Errani (7th), Radwanska (4) and Kerber (9) and entered the top 10 WTA.

He has seven final winnings in the past year, $ 2.7 million won in tennis, and yet no success at a Grand Slam tournament, where Serena Williams has been the world's top tennis player for years. But he is a pretender who takes his place with his elbows, with every winning final, which raises the stalemate constantly and has the ambition to reach where no Romance has arrived so far.

According to wikipedia, she have now a Prize money of 27,003,715$ and is 7th in all-time rankings.

In the history of the Romanian women's tennis, only two players stayed better than Simona Halep of the year 2013: Virginia Ruzici (former world number 8) and Irina Sparlea (formerly 7).

And because, many times, we only see the results, not the secrets behind a champion, today they are doing a radiograph of what Halep is right now. Lessons we can all take in our daily lives for better results and high performance.

What are the secrets of Simona?

1) Power of sacrifice

It can be called in many ways, from discipline to ambition. Simona Halep gave tennis for four and a half years, with training at the beginning twice a week, that until the age of six.

At age six he began daily training on the field, which he has been doing for many years already.

In an interview with PRO TV, asked what the secret of her success, Simona replied in a simplistic way:

"Do not turn away from the program, because there are many temptations."

"Everyone my age, young people go to clubs, juices. I really asked my brother what I do about juices. You sit for juice all day. With a juice in front of two hours. I can not."

But the sacrifice was not just hers. Her father is the one who took her to tennis for four and a half years, just as she had tried with her brother. When she saw that Simona was born for tennis, she became her fan of no. 1. And that turned into bank loans later, so she could financially support her in her tournaments.

"When she was young, Simona was a little boy. Parents remember that she never wanted to play with dolls. The little girl zgatia prefer to beat the ball on the street, to play football. Do not wear a slug. Now she does not like the equipment because she has a skirt. "

Another proof of sacrifice was Simon's decision in 2009 to shrink his breasts, which bothered her on the tennis court and caused him back pain. The level of ambition is seen in the road made up to performance.

"It was my decision, only mine. I had the courage and for my dream I had the courage to do ... There are hard times in the life of a sportsman and you even have to think a little bit more crazy so you can go ahead. Just mountain the mountains in the place. To believe that you can mountain the mountains from "

2) Experience

One of the reasons why we are not present in many world sports with notable results is the system built around children and young people.

A sports career starts with "very late", hence a very late player maturity. A very concrete example comes from football, where the Romanians are very hard at adapting to foreign teams and they are playing at high levels at very late ages. This is because in other countries children start taking sports at very young ages (4-7 years old), with our starting age being over 12-13 years old. Sometimes Romanian children take up sports 16-17, the age at which others explode, in other countries.

Simona does not have this handicap just because it started very early to train on a professional level.

3) "underdog" syndrome ("you do not bet on")

Specialists say it has a strong mental, but it's more than that. "Underdog" is the bet that you do not want to make at a certain point in a match when everything seems lost.

Simone's No. 1 specialty on the tennis court is capable of returning from impossible situations when no one gives him any chance. Her gaze is just as concentrated and stays in position, turning the match in her favor.

It did not happen once. In Doha, in the semifinals, Halep returned from 2-5, turning the set to 7-5. Radwanska says at the end of the match:

"He has managed incredible blows from nowhere. I did not know what to do to earn the points because it was everywhere "

The match that started incredibly cumbersome, turned from 2-5 for the opponent, in a match won in two sets: 7-5, 6-2. And your opponents know that the match is not won with Simona unless you get it out of the physical space.

4) Flexibility

Here it translates in several ways. After the same match, with Radwanska, Simona declared:

"I played aggressively, I wanted to win all the balls, then I saw something changed. I decided to play intelligently and insisted on the cross balls. "

Having the courage to change something that does not work means flexibility. For the match with Kerber, she still said:

"I'm going to play very hard, and if Kerber is going to resist me, I'll change strategy along the way, according to her."

In the final, however, he did not need to change his strategy. Kerber has done pretty fast, the first breaks being won by the romanian.

The same flexibility one remarks and the website wtatennis.com:

"Simone Halep likes all surfaces, he has no preferences."

Also in this category are her decisions to give up coaches and train themselves on a regular basis. Before the Australian Open, after giving up coach Adrian Marcu:

"I'll train with my sparring. I want to be alone, to see what I can do on my own, and in the future we will see. I have done this year, at the beginning, 2-3 months alone, it caught me very well. "

5) The pleasure to play (passion)

Because there are certainly many who will notice Simon's "lost childhood" rather than her results, I have searched for the most frequently repeated words in interviews.

After the match won at the Australian Open, in front of Jelena Jankovic:

"I will try to be happy on the field and to give my best, to move well and to be relaxed."

In one form or another, this statement is her motto. After one of the worst matches she made, in front of Ciubulkova, also at Australian OPEN, she said:

"I just did not play my game today, I had emotions, big emotions that I did not know how to control them. Before the game, I was very nervous and I did not feel the blows at all.

I could not be relaxed on the field, I could not enjoy the game. "

After the Doha Final:

"I feel very strong mentally, I like tennis and play with pleasure in every game".

This pleasure (joy) to play is an important goal for Simona, especially as it repeats obsessively almost in any statement of her.

6) Nationalism

Most of the secrets are mindful, as is the case. I do not know how conscientious you are, but the greatest champions of the world are those who play for the close ones, from the family to the people of the same nationality with them. Simona is primarily a romanian, and secondly, she is from Constanta.

At Sofia, after winning the semifinals, he took the microphone to give a few words to the audience.

Simona Halep: Can I speak in Romanian?

Organizer: Of course.

Simona Halep: Hello everyone. Thank you so much for supporting me and that you came for me. And I wait for you tomorrow!

At the end of the year, after the incredible 6 final winning series, Simona said in an interview:

"I would like to give them something to the fans, something I forgot to say at the end of the game because of the emotions. I ask all Romanians to be next to me next year when I may have problems. To support me hard as I do now. "

In the same category go and the choice of her mentor out of the field, a novel and a constantean at the same time:

"My dream is to get like Hagi, which I have as a model of sportsman. Before going to Sofia, I met him at the Steaua-Basel match, and Hagi gave me some tips. The most important thing was to stay modest no matter where I am in the world ranking "

7) Mentoring

There were three moments in which Simona was criticized quite harshly by comments, which profoundly hated me because it shows a limitation of the Romanian society first. The match lost to the US Open in front of Pennetta, when many Romanians bet on it for its own (in sports betting), the match lost to the Australian Open in quarters with Cibulkova (despite being the best Romanian performance after many years) and the moment he gave the statement above.

It is one of the "deficiencies" of the mentality of the Romans: criticism in difficult moments and the misunderstanding of the capitalization of the relationship with other successful people.

When the article appeared in the press: "My dream is to be like Hagi," the comments of ordinary people have exploded.

"I hope you gave this statement only for the sake of completeness."

"How to model an agram?"

"What did Hagi win to his life?"

There is national sport to look for black spots in the sun. Nastase, Tiriac, Nadia, Hagi, Belu and Bitang (just a few examples): one of the great tennis champions, billionaire and one of the most accomplished businessmen of Romania, the girl who took the top ten in gymnastics, the king of Romanian football world record titles / medals obtained, regardless of discipline.

That's what strangers see, and sometimes they like them more like us.

It is one of the reasons why we do not grow as a society or as an individual. It's ok to excuse someone's success and minimize their performance and who is like a man, if that makes you feel better. Hell, if you correct Hagi's grammar, you're better than he is. That's what society is doing right now.

It's like I would compare myself to a crocodile climbing trees. (and with monkey at diving)

Hagi is a sporty model, a real magician from which you can learn a lot. The fact that Simona has set her mentors to learn how to become a champion is proof of maturity, but also a secret of her success so far.

In her statements three such mentors appeared over time: Gica Hagi, Justine Henin and Roger Federer.

Bonus: The Critical Chain

When you talk about performance, there is a concept called the "critical chain" that can help you evolve in jumps. It does not apply to what "effective" life means, where it is important to focus on our strengths, to reach the life we ​​want.

But when it comes to that area where you want to achieve excellence, it is said that your performance is equal to the worst thing in the "chain" of your abilities. That's why it's called the "critical chain," because it's a stronger one, but it does not get much, but if you straighten it weak, you win the whole chain.

It's how the great performers have so-called "quantum leaps".

At this time of the career, Simona Halep is clearly a top  player in the world and she deserve her place. 

The weak point identified in Simona, to be able to measure its forces with Serena, is given by the service. If it grows here, it will increase overall in performance and will be able to attack and Grand Slam tournaments.

Finally

As a summary, from such people you can understand the "footprint" of success, the beliefs they have, how it works ... and you can apply them in your everyday life, in the field in which you want to perform.

For me remain in the top two replicas of her, the foundation on which performance goes:

"I could not be happy on the field" (after the match lost with Cibulkova)

and

"My dream is to get like Hagi."

People perform when they combine pleasure with their abilities. The irony is that both can be built. You can find pleasure in everything you do and ... you can build, within the limits of the laws of physics, any skill you need.

The conclusion? Success is a mental state that can be built from scratch.

Dearfully,

Adrian