An activity I enjoy doing. How does it contribute to my personal and professional development.

1. Show us and activity you enjoy doing.
Tell us how you think it contribute to your personal
and professional development.
Silvia Alonso Gómez
IE MBA Application
November 25, 2014
Madrid, Spain

2. TENNIS
“A way of life”

4. Sports have always been essential in my life.
Since my chilhood I have practiced most of them
(swimming, skiing, surfing, running, paddle,
mountain climbing, scuba diving, … etc)
competing also in every category.
But my real passion came at 8 years old when I
started to play TENNIS.

5. Tennis in my life as…
Tennis
Player
Tennis
Instructor

6. Tennis Player
(1990 - 2001)

7. Tennis Player
I played tennis at professional level for
11 years.
I started at age 8 and, only one year
later, I had already won several city
championships in the juvenile category.
Since then, tennis became a part of me.
Regional championships and trainings
also began to multiply and my
continuous improvement in the ranking
kept motivating me every day.

8. Championships & Trainings
Tennis is one of the few sports without breaks in the
season .
Training planning and carrying it out efficiently
were the fundamental bases of my activity.
Principle based on PERIODIZATION:
• Determine training cycles
• Avoid overtraining
• Work and rest
• Combine training
• Deciding when to be at 100%

9. INSTRUCTOR
(1996 - 2002)

10. Making my big dream real
During my professional
period I obtained the
official tittle of tennis
instructor.
For several years, I
combined tennis classes
with my own training,
and even, the beginning
of my academic career.
“Every great dream begins
with a dreamer”
It was a very rewarding and exciting time
in my personal and academic life.

11. My own
Tennis Classes
Exercise sequences
were classified into
different levels
depending on their
degree of complexity:

12. Solid Base of Learning
Initial learning was
based primarily on:

13. Make lesson interactive and fun
 Teach how to toss, catch, roll, bounce
and move
 New skills learned and allow kids to
work together
 Set quantitive goals
 Every activity has a purpose
 Keep competition cooperative and as
a part of the group

14. Determine what the
kids need to do to be
able to move up
 Skills based
 Programs must flow seamlessly
into one another
 Make sure this is well
communicated to kids
 No exceptions A logical
progression

15. But..
Why tennis?

16. How
does it contribute to my personal
and professional development?

17. Personal Satisfaction
Health Activity
For me it is more than a great
way to stay active.
It delivers me physical,
mental and emotional gains.
And also engages my mind
and body at the same time.
I feel more confident,
healthier, less stressed and
more socially interactive.
LONGER AND HAPPIER LIFE

18. Always provides me…

19. I always love what I do and feel passion for it.
Passion is energy.
Championship,
victory,
passion
and preparation!!!

20. Motivation is what passion needs in
order to give birth to success.
Being passionate about something I
just need that single push, that small
encouragement. And once I am
motivated, I become even more
passionate, engage myself in action,
thus making success inevitable.
Motivation, Passion
and Success

21. Success
Success is no accident.
It is hard work, perseverance,
learning, sacrifice and most of
all, love for what you are doing
or learning to do.
“I always work with a goal and this is to
improve as a player and a person.
That, finally, is the most important thing of all”
RAFAEL NADAL

22. Sacrifice Capacity
Effort
Discipline
I always push myself again and again and
make a total effort.
Talent is never enough. With few exceptions
the best players are the hardest workers.
No excuses, without self-discipline, success
is impossible.
Believing in myself makes me a winner right
there.

23. AND
DETERMINATION
Just keep going.
Everybody gets better if they
keep at it.
Persistence has changed me
failure into extraordinary
achievement.

24. Determination
Determination is crucial for talent
development.
It helps me define and decide my
goals as well as find the resolve to
see those goals achieved.
For me the simplest form of
determination is sheer willfulness.
It is the will to work hard and to
work smart.
With high level determination I
have high level motivation and
self-discipline.
I set my goals
high, and don’t
stop till I get there

25. Precision Concentration
Each stroke requires maximum
concentration and precision.
The key CONCENTRATION is to
have my mind on the here and
now, I mean, focus on the
present in a productive way.
Tennis is a sport of PRECISION.
My eyes fixed on the ball and
without losing sight of it to
reach my goal.

26. Always oriented to an objective..

27. Confidence
Most tennis players experience
lack of confidence sooner or later
in their tennis journey.
This feeling affects our shots,
movement and decision making
process.
Being confident I can successfully
overcome a task ahead of me. I usually dig deep to find and face my fears.
Stop thinking, clearing my mind and looking
to enter the zone.
NO worrying thoughts to disrupt my
concentration. NO emotions like fear
and anxiety to lower my performance.
But…
how??
I believe I can do it and I go forward decisively
focused on what needs to be done.

28. Initiative & Responsability
Competition
Without initiative the match is lost.
We always have to take it with security and
confidence in ourselves in order not to miss
any opportunity.
What to do to
compete well?
- Follow a plan
- Control the game
- Exploit weaknesses of the opponent
- Get and keep up the pace of the match
- Take the initiative

29. THE
LEADERSHIP
CHALLENGE
Is the process of motivating and helping others to work enthusiastically to
achieve the objectives. To grow or develop my leadership skills, I need:
 ASSESMENT
I need to know what my strengths and weaknesses are, what I am good at,
and what I need to develop. This is an honest and open look at myself.
 CHALLENGE
I need to be able to step out of my comfort zone and overcome a hurdle
that is difficult, yet attainable.
 SUPPORT
I need to get support from my colleagues and organization.
• My colleagues need to play several roles (counselor, cheerleader,
reinforcer, mentor, and/or coach.
• My organization needs to provide rewards and recognition, time and
resources.

30. Tennis is a sport of patience, of
calm, of waiting your opportunity
and finally as your skills improve,
so will your performance.
Never lose patience. When things
go wrong, it is important to keep
the pace of the match.
The key: Do not lose too many
consecutive points.

31. CCOonNtTroRlO DLi fDfiIcFuFlItCUSiLtTu aStIiToUnAsTIONS
When we are in a bad situation,
we must go slowly, breathe, relax
and focus.
The “time” of the match should be
slowed down to rethink our plan.
A match is very long, there is
always time to rectify and get back
into it.

32. Ambition
What makes me always win is the ambition and desire to fight every day.
Inside ambition lies the idea of personal achievement.
It is necessary to believe in a healthy ambition and not in an excessive one.
This means to be happy with oneself and have the drive to fulfill new goals
every time.
When you don’t have that illusion and ambitions to do other things appear, it
will be the moment to do those other things.

33. AcceptingMistakes
ACCEPTING MISTAKES
Everyone misess but the most important is to react
every mistake you make.
How?
Work towards your goal keeping in mind what you learned from your last
mistake, but also understanding that this is a new opportunity for success.
-> RECOGNIZE IT, ADMIT IT, LEARN FROM IT AND FORGET IT.

34. It is Social
Encourages interaction,
communication and
teamwork
Teamwork
Teamwork is essential to build a winning team.
Together we achieve more.
In our team, we all had a clear goal, a results-driven
structure, competent team members, an
unified commitment and collaborative climate to
achieve always the best results.
This also allowed me to meet great professionals.

35. Learning and Performance
Tennis teaches life lessons
We, as tennis players, develop a work
ethic, learn sportsmanship, accept
responsibility, manage mistakes,
enhance discipline, learn to compete
cope with pressure and adversity,
develop healthy habits and learn
teamwork among others.
“Always learning and improving”

36. Hard training, teaching classes and my
academic studies forced me to manage
time in a completely efficient manner.

37. Adaptability to the Environment
CLAY COURT
GRASS COURT
CEMENT COURT
Tennis forces me to accept and adapt to any
environment with flexibility.
It implies a continuous adaptation to change and
change is always unpredictible:
• There are variety of responses
• Exciting/ dissapointing results
It is also always necessary:
 Respond to the change
 Be an agent of change
 Rearrange my priorities
 Handle properly multiple demands
 Adapt responses and tactics to the changing
circumstances
 Flexible view of events

38. Strategic and Analytical Thinking
Tennis requires alertness, tactical thinking and problem solving.
To be able to analyze the current state of play and set a strategic plan (tactical)
are two fundamental keys to provide high performance responses in situations
of high competitive stress.
How to bring strategic thinking into practice?:
 Play point by point without thinking on the scoreboard
 Focus only on seeing the ball
 Do not think about anything, not to analyze
 Enjoy the match celebrating the points you win and forget those that are
lost
 Focus perfectly on the point of contact
 Strategic thinking leads to perspective
 Long term planning leads to position
 Tactical planning leads to performance.

39. And…
Thanks!
Never give up!
Failure and rejection are only the first step to succeeding.