Raising The Champion - The Importance of Character

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The Importance of Character

Published Oct. 29th, 2018

About a 5 minute read

Character is one of the most important things to develop in a young athlete. Sports can be that catalyst in providing an environment for your child to gain critical life skills that develop their character. You know it’s interesting, I travel all over the country going to national tournaments and I get to speak with a lot of college coaches. Many of these coaches are telling me that right now, they’re really looking for young men and women of character. Not just on-court skills, but also intangible life skills like positivity, that they want their student athletes to bring into the team’s environment.

I learned a lot about character development in athletics from one of the main mentors in my life, Mark McCormick. If you do not know who Mark McCormick is, he was the founder and CEO of IMG, the biggest sports management company in the world. Mark McCormick managed all the top athletes in tennis and golf, and took a personal interest in IMG’s management of Bethanie when she turned pro.

One story that really stands out that Mark told me was about one of his early athletes he signed, whose name was Arnold Palmer. You know, the guy they named a drink and a ton of golf courses after! Arnold Palmer was actually Marks first athlete.

One reason Mark wanted to represent Arnold was because he had such amazing character. He told me the story about how Arnold Palmer always played this lower level golf tournament every year. He had played this since he was young, well before he became famous. He was grateful to hone in skills playing this lower level event, and one year, Mark, as his manager, committed Arnold to play this event the following year.

Complete Performance by Mattek (CP) is a company founded by Tim and his two sons that is dedicated to the training and development of junior athletes. CP is leading the tennis industry in helping young players overcome mental barriers, execute at a high level consistently, and develop as a player as well as a person. To find out more click here.

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As he left the tournament, Arnold said his goodbyes and told director that he would see him the next year.

A crazy thing happened, Mark explained. The next year, Arnold won the biggest golf tournament in the world, the Masters! Mark said the day after Arnold won his first Masters, Mark got a call from the director of this event asking if Arnold was still going to play in the lower level tournament the following weekend.

Mark was a little overwhelmed with all the wind fall from his athlete having just won the Masters and didn’t know if Arnold could fit this tournament in his schedule. When Mark brought this up to Arnold, Arnold simply said, “Tell him, I’ll be there, I gave him my word.”

Mark tells me he knew right then and there that he was representing a person of character. He knew for sure that he had a winner not only on the golf course, but also off the golf course. He also knew because he could trust Arnold’s character, his sponsors could trust that character. Mark then told me that he was able to sign a lot of mutually beneficial deals due to Arnold’s character, and the rest is history!

Sometimes I think character building is pushed to the side in today’s junior tennis environment. I do not see it as a high priority at many of the academies, clubs, and training centers around the nation. Complete Performance by Mattek is changing that. We are making character a priority, the priority in our athletes training.

It is awesome to see that they are getting amazing results on the court as well. We love sharing stories about our athletes winning gold balls and getting D-1 scholarship offers, but what gets me really excited is getting emails and texts every day from parents about how CP has helped their child’s attitude and character. That is what gets me out of bed every morning and that’s why CP makes developing the person a higher priority than developing the player.

Until next time...Tim

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