PERSONALITY AND THE TENNIS CHAMPIONS
By Allen Fox, Ph.D., c 2013, All Rights Reserved
When I was working on my first book, “If I’m the Better Player, Why Can’t I Win?”, I became interested in how tennis champions differed in personality from ordinary people. (As opposed to simply being superior physical athletes.) To answer this I administered personality tests to 26 highly-ranked tennis professionals. The test was called the Cattell 16 PF test and, with 180 questions, measures a number of “personality factors.” Each is measured along a continuum such as suspicious vs., trusting, dominant vs. submissive, anxious vs. calm. They were by no means all the same mentally but there were several characteristics in which, as a group, they showed statistically significant differences from the average person.
As a group they differed in being more suspicious, anxious, antagonistic, dominant and intelligent. Although I did not test John McEnroe or Jimmy Connors, they also fit this profile nicely. They are both bright, quick to become antagonistic, and twitchy (anxious), having difficulty looking you in the eye during conversations. Of course this does not mean that all the players tested were suspicious or anxious or intelligent or dominant. A few were trusting or relaxed or less intelligent or even submissive. My statements only refer to group averages compared to the norms.
And the trait that stood out above all others was suspicion. A substantial number of them tended to look other people as potential antagonists. As a general rule high readings in this area, coupled with high anxiety scores, are predictive of troubled personal relationships and exceptionally high readings correlate positively with clinical personality disorders.
Why might characteristics like anxiety, antagonism, and suspicion be useful to a tournament tennis player? Because an anxious person is a person who is motivated to practice and work to improve. Small issues jangle their nervous systems and set off alarm bells to stimulate action. It moves them to practice and work.
Suspicion can also be useful in competitive tennis. Suspicious people think that others are out to get the best of them or do them wrong. In an ambiguous situation they immediately suspect the other person of evil intentions. They look at others as antagonists rather than allies, and they are quick to take steps to protect themselves. They are happy to get even with people they feel have wronged them. It useful on the tennis court because this type of person isn’t going to give the “enemy” on the other side of the net the satisfaction of winning. After two or three hours grinding under a hot sun the normal person may question whether winning the match is all that necessary and, in fact, really worth the cost. People viewing their opponents as a antagonists have extra motivation and cannot abide seeing them win. It tends to become personal, and it drives them to do whatever it takes to win. And if they lose they plot revenge. It motivates them to practice extra hours to get better so that this does not happen again. Losing to one’s enemies is too painful to bear gracefully.
I have seen these traits in action at close range since I have a bit of them myself. For example one evening many years ago my close friend and ex-doubles partner, Larry Nagler, and his wife, Jackie, invited my wife and me to their home for dinner. Larry had a pool table there and, after dinner, he badgered me into a game. Larry had played a lot of pool so he was pretty good, while I, never having played, was terrible. Pool is a tricky game. Unless you hit the ball perfectly it is very hard to control. Long shots are nearly impossible for novices and the only balls you can make at this stage are balls right next to the pocket. Being even more competitive than I am, Larry was having a wonderful time toying with me. We played straight pool and Larry spotted me 20 balls out of 25 and still beat me. All the while he laughed and teased me. As you might imagine, I did not enjoy competing when I was totally out of my element and helpless. By the end my stomach was in knots, and I silently vowed revenge.
At this time I had a shoulder injury that kept me from playing tennis, so I needed a project – something to work on. It so happened that at the end of my street there was a pool hall. Every day after work I stopped there and spent two hours clandestinely practicing pool. I bought a book by Mosconi, a legendary pool champion, and learned about proper technique. I was focused and diligent. After three months I had gotten pretty good. I could run four or five balls at a stretch and make almost any shot of medium difficulty. Although Larry was still better than me, I now felt ready for a rematch and an ambush.
Another friendly dinner was scheduled at the Nagler home, and afterward I suggested a little pool. To make it interesting I proposed that Larry again spot me 20 balls but that we place a few dollars wager on the outcome. He agreed with a chuckle and a superior look. But he was not chuckling quite so much when I won that game with my new controlled and deliberate style. The next game he spotted me fifteen balls, and I won again. Now I was smiling, and Larry was getting a little hot. (Hyper-competitive as he is, Larry is not a happy loser.) He gave me a ten ball spot in the third game, and I won it with a smirk on my face deliberately designed to rub my victory in. By this time Larry was frustrated beyond endurance. I quit and demanded immediate payment. With our wives looking on in disbelief and Larry straining to control his temper, he said he would be happy to pay, but first I would have to fight him on the living room floor for the money. (Rather immature for a 30 year old, established attorney, don’t you think? And what a sore loser!) Of course this type of drive, when channeled properly, provides a tremendous competitive advantage, and Larry doesn’t like losing law cases any more than he likes losing athletic contests. (Larry, by the way, had won the NCAA singles tennis championships as a sophomore and had played on the UCLA basketball team for legendary coach, John Wooden.)
This same personality profile has been found by other scientists in other groups of people. For example, Drs. Rosenman and Friedman, in their work on the relationship between temperament and heart disease, described the famous “Type A” personality which was virtually identical to the personality profile I found in many championship tennis players. “Type A” individuals are aggressive, anxious, goal and achievement oriented, have difficulty relaxing, and have a layer of antagonism and aggressiveness towards other people smoldering just below the surface. (Sounds a lot like Connors and McEnroe) Particularly interesting was that they noted a large number of successful business executives among the Type A individuals that they interviewed, suggesting that similar types of people tend to be successful in both business and sport.
Along these lines, I was talking with Richard Riordan (before he became the mayor of Los Angeles), who was an attorney, a successful businessman, and an extremely clever investor in emerging companies. I asked him if he could identify any particular trait or traits that were common to the leading business executives that he knew. Almost without a pause he replied, “Paranoia.” He said this keeps them driven, alert, and one jump ahead of the competition. And Andrew Grove, the former CEO of Intel, agreed with Riordan. His stated mantra was, “Only the paranoid survive.”
So a measure of paranoia can be useful to some people in achieving their goals, both in tennis and elsewhere. But it is obviously a matter of degree, and it may not be healthy in one’s personal life. Too much of it can lead to the men in the “white coats” instead competing against the men in the white shorts.
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Comments
21 Responses to “PERSONALITY AND THE TENNIS CHAMPIONS”Leave Comment
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As the mother of a past top 10 doubles player, I am still a avid follower of tennis. Even in the 80’s/90’s (my daughter’s hayday” , while my daughter had many friends on the circuit, I personally found many of them to be aloof and unfriendly – not only top players – Martina was
particularly friendly. To- day watching the semi finals of the WTA Championships, the two competitors I watched walked on court holding the hands of some little girls and there was no smile or warmness towards these little ones, who were experiencing the time of their life. When they reached their chairs there was a curt Thank you. I’m sure your gameface does not have to extend to future players/fans.
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Kathleen, apparently these young ladies were focused on the upcoming court battle and left their empathy and people skills behind as not pertinent to the task at hand. Competitive tennis can be quite an all-consuming occupation.
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Great article Allen.
Say high to Nancy.
Had breakfast Sunday with Arlene Gould and my dad. (Long time feiend of the senior Novicks)
Mitch
mitchturk@sbcglobal.net
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Mitchell, I passed on your regards to Nancy and she sends you hers. Thanks for the kind words about my article.
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Did you give the test to an equal number of recreational or club players? Then it would be interesting to see the results. Maybe all tennis players are more suspicious than the general population. Also what was the correlation to success?
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Good questions, Rudy. You obviously have some background in experimental design and noted the lack of a specific control group. Yes it would head off questions if I tested a random group of recreational tennis players. Of course if I did there would be questions as to whether 3.0 level players differ from 4.0 players, or 2.0 players, etc. It would be a never-ending sequence of tests, and I short-circuited it all by just using a common sense guess that very low level recreational players would be similar enough to the general population that I could simply use the latter’s numbers. But of course I could well be wrong.
I don’t know the answer to your last question off-hand, but you can probably look it up on Google. Let me know what you find.
Regards,
Allen Fox
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Great insights and it humanizes you, Dr. Fox, to note the less than savory aspects of your lifelong friendship-rivalry with Larry Nagler.
It speaks to our humanity, imperfection and perfection that the emotions that flavor competition — particularly when others dare not believe in us — fuel desire, ambition and the willingness to put in hard work. At least I know that’s true in my case. Few things motivate me more than to know that someone thinks less of me and is, perhaps, by extension, out to get me. After all, even paranoids have enemies.
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Personality testing is very much just the starting place in Performance Psychology these days. The great breakthrough in the last decade is the concept of neuroplasticity outlined by authors such as Norman Doidge and Caroline Leaf, the brain that changes itself: http://www.normandoidge.com/normandoidge.com/MAIN.html
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Neuroplasticity, the idea that the brain changes physically with experience, sensation, and learning, and does so throughout life is not a surprising one. How else could it be, since the nervous system is responsible for thinking, feeling, sensation, motor activity, etc. Unless you believe in spirits doing these things, they could only occur because of physical/chemical changes in the nervous system.
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Good call admin! These chakras, channels, and angins (winds, spirits) etc hypothesised by some alternate therapists, are just not present in the body ! It’s what used to be called in the earlier times, Witchcraft!
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You nailed it, Allen! I was brought up on suspician and my opponent was the enemy …and, of course, the Bull was too as you experienced first hand when he wouldn’t speak to you before you were to play! Great article!!!!
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Thanks for the nice comment, Nancy! In reading the Bull’s book he was, of course, confirmed as a suspicious character, and he looks the part anyway. But you, Nancy, sweet, lovely little lady???
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Great article. The truly great players are very quirky, and it does seem that most are highly intelligent. And most are quite funny and have a very dry, ironic sense of humor. Most have not a lot of close friends on the tour. They keep to themselves so that they have an edge, an attitude, no matter whom they play. They are incredibly secure in their abilities, but often their egos are quite fragile. I see them avoiding situtations where their egos are overly exposed.
After their careers end they often need to feel world class in another endeavor. They seem to want their incredible abilities to survive getting older–they may excel in another sport like golf, or in business, or through their kids’ accomplishments, or even in charitable pursuits. They do believe that they are something special, and in many cases it is important for them to be seen as important by others, well past the end of their careers.
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Nice analysis, J Hursh!
They are special. Yes they have big egos, which is one reason they are so driven to succeed and will work so hard. And it is somewhat sad when they age, and the party ends and the applause dies away. And you are so right about their humor. They tend to be bright and funny. They are honest generally and particularly with themselves – quite extraordinary people.
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Very interesting article and dont disagree but would think there are exceptions such as Laver,Ashe,Smith,and Federer.
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Andy, you are quite right about there being many exceptions, among great players, to the suspicious/paranoid type personality. The ones you mention are probably among them.
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Excellent article. I love tennis and your article brought back memories of emotions while competing. I’ve owned a business for 15 years and it’s interesting to hear how my occasional “paranoia” has possibly helped me. Another test I took said I had the strength of being “deliberative” which is basically me saying “what could go wrong?” It’s probably kept me out of trouble and in business, but can lead to inactivity at times. As you said, it is obviously a matter of degree. Excellent idea for an article.
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Hi Dr. Fox,
I love this article. I am working on writing a book on how to teach yourself tennis (as I have) and as a teacher, have incorporated a lot about how we learn. This is great stuff on a very important aspect of being successful at tennis. I was hoping you would have time to talk regarding some questions I have on giving practical advice to novices to build their mental game. Hopefully you could spare a little time to talk with me. I will definitely check out your books in the mean time. Thank you!
Sincerely,
Ben Wolfe
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Sure Ben. You can email me your phone number to allenfoxfox@msn.com.
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After 5 years of fairly serious tennis training, my college aged daughter finally concluded what I understood for many years, she hates competition. She is an excellent tennis player IN PRACTICE. She plays #2 but beats the #1, 0 and 0 IN PRACTICE…but the moment she is under the lights she turns into a completely different player. Afraid to hit the ball, double fault after double fault. loses to girls who can barely swing a racket.
She hates the way some of the other girls act and hates the way some of the parents act and I agree with her. The NBA ghetto culture has permeated tennis. There is no more respect, just a lot of screaming and confrontation. I understand completely why my daughter has decided not to play her upcoming Sophomore season. After 5 years of training 5 days a week, It’s over. She’s too nice for tennis.
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That is not uncommon for ladies. Tennis is inherently antagonistic, emotional, and competitive. And this is just fine for boys, who do this all the time anyway. But girls tend to be more people-oriented, so the antagonism often doesn’t sit well.
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