Your EGO is your conscious mind, the part of your identity that you consider your "self".If you say someone has "a big EGO , you are saying he is full of himself. Or 'an inflated feeling of pride in your superiority to others'.
An ATTITUDE is somewhere between a belief, a stance , a mood,and a pose. If you've got an ATTITUDE about something it can be hard to change it because you think you are right.(From vocabulary.com.) "Ego is not a dirty word", great song by legendary Australian Band Skyhooks, loved the song and the Band, a great era of music to grow up with. As far as tennis goes 'ego IS a dirty word' , the game always has been full of ego's and attitudes that you only see in a sport such as tennis , it doesn't happen as much in team sports. So why is this? It's because tennis is a game that Andre Agassi refers to as a 'boxing bout', we all know how egotistical boxers are, just look at 'The Man' , Anthony Mundine, Mr Ego himself. But is it all a show ? Someone just recently talked of how they met Mundine on a flight and could not believe how polite and forthcoming he was , the total opposite of who 99 percent of the public see .
Look at John McEnroe, some would say he has a bad attitude, he is still going nuts in the Senior Tour matches but it's an entertainment thing surely. There's no ranking points on the line now days and minimal prize money so why does he do it? Well personally i wouldn't pay money to watch a polite Jonny Mac play anyone, i would want him to go nuts , it's how we remember him from his 80's glory days. Like wise i don't know how i would feel watching the great Bjorn Borg do anything except be a gentleman, as he was in his glory days, each player has a personality, some ego's and attitudes however are bigger or worse than others. Jonny Mac by all reports is a great guy when he is not going nuts at the linesmen and umpire, Borg swears by it , they are good mates, 'Fire and Ice'.
The great Jimmy Connors had a big ego , he also was known at times to have a poor attitude , sometimes it was obvious when he played. I watched him when i was a kid, he would go to his opponent and have a chat with him face to face. He style was likened to a 'street fighter' on more than one occasion, he loved the one on one battle. At times i am sure he would loved to have put up the fists as he nearly did with Jonny Mac in a US Tournament, priceless footage if ever you find it on You Tube.
'Mr Tennis' from my first chapter had a big ego at 14, plus a bad attitude, no Robinson Crusoe there, he was the leader of his 'posse', he was 'The Man', but at 14?? As a coach of the game since i was 18 years old i have seen some funny things on a tennis court but ego's and attitudes will remain at the fore front of my memories long after any other situation that i can remember.
Actions always speak louder than words in the game of tennis and ego's most of the time get extinguished with a loss because winning regularly at any level is tough. Back when we had a fairly large program going around 5 years ago i didn't mind seeing a couple of them lose in tournaments or practice matches , it calmed their ego to a more respectable level.
I remember a session one day that was hilarious, one 'hot shot' kid got beaten easily by a kid who just got the ball in play, no pace, no spin , just got it back. After the loss the 'hot shot' says "he's just a hack". I said "you can't call him anything buddy, he owns you until you find a way to beat him".I thought the loss was good for him , it dented his ego, his attitude still needed a 'tweak' though.
I once forfeited a Semi Final of my Club Championships to a guy who i was not the least bit interested in beating,(Mr Nice Guy).But the opponent who he beat the round before, well i was not interested in seeing him win the title, i felt his ego was a little too large.I felt that if the younger player got through i could win against him comfortably , that's not my ego talking , it's just where our ability was back then. My view on the whole situation was rather simple , i didn't want to see an ego grow much bigger for a kid of his age , there was plenty of time for that to happen , a loss would do him the world of good.
I sent my opponent(Mr Nice Guy) a text saying that i had hurt my back and couldn't play him in the Semi's. Some guys i would rather not even try to beat,I would rather have a beer with them instead. On the other side of the coin i also don't mind losing to players who are 'ego-free', they are the best opponents, the sort of player you can have a laugh with along the way.
So is an ego really that or is it just a bad attitude at times to make the opponent a little uncomfortable with their apparent lack of sensitivity , feeling or personality. Look at The Man Mundine and Jonny Mac, just two examples of sportsmen who seem to have two different personalities , one on the sporting turf and one off it.
Tennis is a sport where any little advantage may help get you across the line but personally i like the Bjorn Borg approach to the game. If you never show your opponent what you are thinking or feeling then that surely would out weigh any egotistical way of trying to gain an advantage, just a theory.
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