Why The World’s Best Athletes Stop Trying To Be The Best

**Jake** (0:03)
Hi there, welcome along to another episode of High Performance. It's a Wednesday, so it's myself and Damian sitting and chatting. Hey buddy.

**Damian** (0:09)
Hi mate, you all right?

**Jake** (0:10)
Very well, thanks. So we've got a bunch of guests who we're going to hear from, previous High Performance guests. We'll share some interesting clips from them. And they're all around a similar theme. And the theme is why the world's best athletes stop trying to be the best.
And it's not just us talking and not just us hearing from former guests. If you're actually going to be joined by someone and you're going to speak to a man who can give us so much richness and depth and information in this space. I suppose first of all, you should tell us why people should stick around to hear your conversation with Ben Crowe.

**Damian** (0:43)
Well, we're coming up for Wimbledon, Jake. And this is a man that Andre Agassi recommends. This is somebody that Ash Barty worked with before she won Wimbledon.
Steph Gilmore, the eight-time World Surfing Champion credits him with transforming her career as an Australian performance coach. His name is Ben Crowe and he's never told any of his clients that they're the best.

**Jake** (1:03)
Now, there's a couple of parents who spend their lives telling our kids they're the best, they go and do great things. That kind of seems counterintuitive or it's not the kind of thing we hear a lot when it comes to trying to get others to reach their own version of high performance. So why does he not tell his clients that they're the best?

**Damian** (1:18)
Well, he helps them separate who they are from what they do.
Now, I know that might sound simple, but most athletes, most people have never actually done that. You know, think about one of the first conversations you'll meet when you meet a stranger is what do you do? Not who are you? Do you know what I mean? And the cost of not doing this is exactly what we're going to talk about with Ben today.

**Jake** (1:37)
Okay, well before we get on with the episode, just to tease you excitedly, whether you're walking the dog out for a run or driving the car, here is what you can expect from Ben Crowe a bit later on. Here's a little teaser.

**Damian** (1:52)
Talk about this side, David, in your Billion Book, about separating what you do from who you are. Why do so many of us find that such a difficult thing to uncouple?

**Ben Crowe** (2:02)
In recent times, yeah, the world has gone so external and extrinsic, money, fame, status and recognition, rather than internal and intrinsic to get to know who we are, the human being that is not the human doing. So we learn, unfortunately, that we believe if we do something and achieve something, we will be someone, you know, we'll be someone.

**Jake** (2:25)
Well, before we hear from Ben, we're going to hear from three tennis players who've been on the show. Boris Becker, what a conversation. Jo Konta, one of my favorites. And Conor Niland, who might not be a name that trips off the tongue, but the conversation we had with him was fascinating. All of them talking about the struggle of professional tennis, what it actually feels like from the inside. And then of course, we'll frame our conversation with Ben as the antidote to that struggle because that's really what he's there for.
So where should we start and why, Damian?

**Damian** (2:53)
Why don't we start with Boom Boom himself, Mr. Boris Becker. We went out to Dusseldorf to meet with him. You know, do you remember when he walked into the room with us and his charisma, his sort of force of personality and just his strident views on the world sort of filled the space. And he was a force of nature.
But it was interesting to listen to him reflect on his career when most people remember him winning Wimbledon at 17, Futa. What happened when he reached the age of 25?

**Jake** (3:24)
Absolutely, because I think that we look at this as, wow, what an amazing young talent. He went and dominated the world. But as he told us on the show, by his mid 20s, he was exhausted, not physically, although probably also physically, but mainly psychologically. Here's Boris explaining more.

**Boris Becker** (3:44)
There was a time in my mid 20s where I was burned out. I was tired of tennis. And maybe in hindsight today, I would say at 25, take a break. Take a year off, see what you want to do. If you're still willing to pay the price to be the best tennis player you can be, you know, smell the roses a little bit. So I didn't do that. I kept on and I had contracts, there was responsibilities and so forth. So I played that up until I was 32