End of an Era at Chelsea Academy
A Quick Lesson From Another Sport
Eamon Brennan – 26th March 2017Ever tried. Ever failed. No matter. Try Again. Fail again. Fail better.
This a quote from the Irish playwright, Samuel Beckett. It is tattooed onto the forearm of the tennis player in the picture. So who is he?
His name is Stan Wawrinka and he’s a Swiss professional tennis player, winner of three grandslams in Australia, France and the USA.
So what can a table tennis player learn from someone who plays another sport? Take a look at the quote again. Wawrinka won all three of his major titles after the age of 29. That’s the age when, traditionally, even the best players start to decline. But Wawrinka was just getting started.
The quote at the top of the page summed up his attitude. His entire career had been something of a failure up until that point, but he didn’t care. He would fail better, and then the next time he would fail better again. As long as he kept getting better each time. He kept picking himself up, practicing harder, improving his game, working all the time, and eventually failure turned into success.
So the lesson is this. It doesn’t matter what has gone before. It doesn’t matter what type of player we are today. Tomorrow we can all try again and tomorrow we can all fail better.