#39: Marc Sophoulis – The Person, The Athlete & Then The Tennis Player

In this episode you are going to listen to Marc Sophoulis, Marc has among others coached ATP & WTA players like: Victor Hanescu, Karan Rastogi, Anastasia & Arina Rodionova & Sabine Lisicki. He has conducted a 40 week TV Tennis Series on ESPN Asia & In 2011 he was awarded “Rising Star Coach of the year” in Australia. Currently Marc works at the Melbourne International Tennis School In this episode you’ll get to know: – The philosophy at MITS & the previous ones that failed – The importance of person, athlete & then the Tennis Player – The boundaries you must set to keep respect Enjoy the show! Timestamps: 01:30 Shared characteristics of top players 03:30 Nature vs nurture 05:03 The environment created from the parents 06:18 MITS Philosophy 07:54 What philosophy that didn’t work 09:19 What Marc tells the players he work with 11:18 Why coaches need to be selfless 14:04 Person, athlete, player 15:15 Go outside of your own country as a coach 17:58 The importance of honesty 18:28 Integrity 20:19 A brutal industry 22:46 Boundaries 25:40 Persistence 26:20 Resilience 27:03 Act upon your learnings 29:00 Look outside of tennis 31:30 Biggest lesson from AFL 32:42 Relationships 34:01 24 hour coach 36:20 Practice doesn’t make perfect 37:10 Specificity 38:40 No trust, no development 40:03 Marc’s advice