How to understand the Alcaraz phenomenon: work and wisdom in the genetic service of a gifted person

In sports there are phenomena or extraordinary people who break logic and destroy and are surprised at their enormous ability and virtue at a very young age. What you see in that player doesn’t match the time it normally takes an athlete to become something very good and amazing. Your own mistakes give you the possibility to continue to progress and grow. And you should assimilate the learning gained in training and competition. All this takes an enormous amount of time. That is why what we see today in Carlos Alcaraz is like a very fast movie. And hard to understand.

It is true that there is an unparalleled genetics. But it’s also true that historically we’ve seen players with tremendous potential, who are technically very rich but always lacking. And perhaps in many instances, genius has brought athletes to areas that will eventually no longer be maintained by their own mental strength. This is what we discussed in the previous column: it is a challenge to manage what each of the results will be.

Alcaraz seems like a boy who lives with what is happening to him like a game. And it’s not just his genetics and his acquired abilities that make him, at just 19, one of the favorites to win Roland Garros, one of the hardest tournaments to win in tennis. Coincidentally he was not alone: ​​behind him he had John Charles Ferrero.

His coach went through a different experience than his colleagues. Because he doesn’t have to stop for too long to perfect a punch. Because he probably doesn’t have to spend a lot of time to understand what the attitude is to deal with difficulty in competition, how to play a point or how to deal with a critical moment in a game. For Ferrero, all of that is much easier. I’m not reducing it, but instead I’m attributing a tremendous capacity to it, because practicing a genius is a very dangerous job and more difficult and complicated.

Ferrero did not point out the resources or posture of Alcaraz but this is it the engineer making sure the steps are steady and this young man doesn’t stray too far. The balance that there must be excitement outside of the world of sports is key. The ability to connect and reconnect. And Ferrero, a former very successful tennis player and Grand Slam champion, has delivered his greatest asset to him: his personal values, his humility, being always on the ground and understood that every success must be put in its context. .

In 2020 I experienced a scene that I will always remember. Ferrero and the other people were at a table near me in the stadium players restaurant Suzanne Lenglen. Alcaraz, 17, suddenly appeared, bathed after playing in the first round of qualifying for Roland Garros. It was all fun and laughter. I understood that I had won, but after a few hours I realized that it had been the opposite: lost 6-3 in the third. I was shocked by that scene and it struck me because it is not uncommon for defeat to be experienced so naturally. There’s a little secret of Carlos and Juan Carlos ’tremendous relationship: take it right, like a game, trying to lighten the backpack and assume the challenge of being a candidate is part of the spice and motivationbut fleeing as much as possible from the pressures.

Behind a genius there is always a mentor, a builder. And destiny knows how to unite Alcaraz and Ferrero so that the world of tennis today will be deceived that in the young Spaniard we will see the qualities of Rafael Nadal, Novak Djokovic and Roger Federer.

In Alcaraz we began to find the physical power of Rafe that shook everyone in the beginning. Although no one wants to be compared to each other, it is inevitable to associate them. We also see Carlos the ability you have nole to make the games, recreate yourself and find your best version at the most critical moments. He showed it when he was about to lose to Albert Ramos. And when things go awry, he has the necessary talent to show that tennis also requires subtlety. How could I not have imagined Roger then, who seemed to be doing everything effortlessly.

We live in despair at the thought that at some point Federer, Nadal and Djokovic will no longer be on the courts. With a bit of genetics and class of each of them, Seeing Carlos Alcaraz play leaves us with a kind of comfort that with him the great story could extend for a very long time. And enjoy, in a different way, the legacy of these three giants in the history of tennis.