Episode 22 – Developing Resilience With Champion Tennis Player & Coach Alison Scott

Summary: Welcome to the BrainTree podcast. Prue's taking a break for today's episode and is making way for Rocky to interview tennis player and coach, Alison Scott. [01:35] Rocky introduces Alison and she gives us some highlights of her career, including competing against some of the most elite players around the world. [04:35] Rocky shifts to talk about Alison's website GirlsTennisAcademy.com and why Alison has created this. Alison tells us that she was inspired by her Grandfather's words when convincing her to play tennis. She tells us that tennis allows girls to grow and learn their strengths and compete on the same plane as boys in tennis. She tells us about the virtues of self confidence that can be gained through sports and competition as well as other life skills that can be learned. [08:28] Alison tells us about the strength that can be gained from learning and excelling at sports at a young age and how it can lead to great respect, from both males and females. [14:41] Rocky gives us some insight into how skills learned on the tennis court, such as self-confidence, dealing with adversity and taking responsibility can be applied to life off-court. Alison goes further to say that tennis (and life) is not about the results and winning the game, for Alison, winning is a bonus and the important take away from her tennis experience is the resilience and how it led to her being an entrepreneur and a mentor. [18:18] Rocky says that we shouldn't label children as "gifted" lest they fall short of that mark and then become emotionally damaged because of this failure, when in fact it was no failure at all. Alison tells us that she lost a lot of matches before she started winning, but her measure of success was not how many times she won, but more the journey of learning and growth. [21:47] Rocky suggests going back to episode six where he talks about a success mindset, which fits in with Alison's sentiments about improvement versus having a fixed goal. Rocky and Alison continue to discuss working on improvement rather than simply winning. Alison gives another anecdote about her losses driving her to improve and help her grow to love the game. [29:29] Alison tells us about her "aha" moment and an opponent she had when she was nine years old that changed her life. She came confidently into a game off an easy win, and was then easily beaten by her next opponent. She used that loss as inspiration to improve her own skills and persevered to be better. [33:49] Alison gives a message to parents to say that when their child is struggling that it's ok to find it difficult, the challenge is to keep at it, practice, work hard, improve and don't give up. Rocky tells us his passion for the concept of energy. Alison expands on using energy to help you convert your goals and desires into actions. Thanks for listening! Don't forget to leave any comments or questions!