Being Realistic

Rest Day

Setting realistic goals is a skill that you have to develop. Often it will take trial and error of setting goals that are too lofty or too easy. That's not to say you shouldn't set large goals for yourself, but if you're 16 years old playing high school tennis a realistic goal isn't winning the US Open when you're 18. However, if you want to truly commit yourself to the task of achieving greatness then setting high, but achievable goals for several years is the right thing to do. Something like practice at least five days a week, become one of the best players on my high school team, work hard enough to get a college scholarship, work hard enough in college to attempt to play professionally, etc.

TennisWOD is no different. If you can Squat 100lbs today, don't expect to Squat 200lbs next week. It is remarkable how quickly the human body can adapt and become stronger, but it is adaptation to repeated stress over time that will make you stronger, faster, more explosive. So appreciate yourself for the gains you do make, and don't get too disappointed if you only improve in small increments. Because soon you'll look back and realize that when you started you couldn't do a pullup, but now you're upset that you couldn't do 15 in a row.