Roger Federer offered three pieces….well four pieces…of advice in his Commencement address at Dartmouth
1: Effortless is a myth.
People often mean it as a compliment but “the truth is,” he said, “I had to work very hard to make it look easy.”
We should be proudest of the victories we earn when the competition is fierce.
“Because they prove that you can win not just when you are at your best, but especially when you aren’t. Most of the time it’s not about having a gift. It’s about having grit.”
2: It’s only a point—perfection is impossible.
“When you’re playing a point, it is the most important thing in the world. But when it’s behind you, it’s behind you. This mindset is really crucial, because it frees you to fully commit to the next point and the next one after that with intensity, clarity, and focus.”
He shared that a sign of becoming a champion “is overcoming hard moments.”
“The best in the world are not the best because they win every point. It’s because they know they’ll lose again and again, and have learned how to deal with it.”
3: Life is bigger than the court.
He underscored the importance of embracing the fullness of life and finding fulfillment in many ways.
“As a student at Dartmouth, you picked a major and went deep. But you also went wide. Engineers learned art history, athletes even sang a cappella, and computer scientists learned to speak German.”
And that “leaving a familiar world behind and finding new ones is incredibly, deeply, wonderfully exciting.”
4, His last lesson: For our forehand, we should use an Eastern grip while keeping our knuckles slightly apart without squeezing the grip too hard. And remember, it starts with footwork and the take-back is as important as the follow-through.
“It’s just good technique,” he said.
His full speech to our Class of 2024:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pqWUuYTcG-o
https://home.dartmouth.edu/news/2024/06/2024-commencement-address-roger-federer
