70-Year-Old American Tennis Legend Makes Surprise Admission About Cleverly Utilizing Family Time to Push His Career a Notch Further

If one wants a great career in sports, they have to make many sacrifices in their personal life. However, not all have to follow a similar path. Some find a way to use personal time to give them a mental boost to perform better. Jimmy Connors employed this strategy and took it a notch further. The American player recently discussed how his family gave him a boost in his career.

For tennis players, traveling constantly is a must. Tournaments are held around the world, and a player would want to play in them to make sure their future is maintained. Connors traveled more often due to trips with family, which he used for his improvement in the end. 

Jimmy Connors looks back upon the impact of family on tennis career

In the podcast, ‘Advantage Connors’, Jimmy recalled his tennis career with his brother, Brett Connors. For tennis players, managing family time and professional time is a rather difficult task. With less time left for rest, it can take its toll on a player. But Connors found a way to take advantage of the situation.

Discussing family trips, Brett recalled how his brother would not stop training, no matter where they were. Jimmy further explained that he aimed to be at his physical peak always. The legend said, “You can always find the good out of it no matter where you are. But you know, that takes dedication. Yeah, you know, you got to think that, you know, even though I’m off, and here’s how I look at that, right, you know, we were on vacation, and you know, whether it was skiing or what, but I felt that if I would do something then that that was almost like two days, right?“

However, striking a healthy work-life balance was crucial for the 8-time Grand Slam champion. As he discussed further in the podcast, he found an innovative way to have his cake and eat it too.

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Connors described how balanced home and training duties

Jimmy also said that he actually wanted to spend more time with his family instead of physically exerting himself day in and day out. But he knew that doing the latter would be beneficial in the long run. He said, “You know, I didn’t really want to because I’d rather, you know, spend the time with you guys and go up on the mountain and have a nice lunch and have a, you know, have a nice hot chocolate or whatever. But I felt if I pushed myself a little bit more, that it would just be better for me. And get me there to the kind of conditioning that I was looking for a little faster.”

109 singles titles later, Jimmy’s efforts paid off in full. While he wanted to spend more time with his family, he found a way to put a spin that benefited him and gave him the most titles in the ATP. With this no-catch deal, his career excellence didn’t cost him familial harmony.

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