Roger Federer

Reading Time: 8 Minutes

What to Expect:

• A breakdown of Federer’s mindset

• Actionable steps you can take to develop similar skills

In September 2022, one of the greatest tennis players - and minds - walked away from the game. After a record 8 Wimbledon Championships and 20 Grand Slam Titles, plus another 1100+ victories, Roger Federer redefined what it meant to be a well-rounded, world-class competitor on the court.

His approach to the game is summed up in what he believes made him successful.

He's played through it all and stayed persistent. He approached the game with a positive mindset and had the mental flexibility he needed to manage the dynamic conditions of elite sport.

This is a look into the principles, practices, and science behind the mind of Roger Federer. 

Federer's journey training the mind 

As a younger player, Federer was not known as the calm, cool, collected killer we remember. He could not control his anger, unfocused in practice, and was inconsistent in his game. There are several stories of his outbursts disrupting his performance as a young player, mainly after failing to live up to his expectations.

His turning point, according to an early biography, in training his mind came after losing a match to a clearly worse player in 2001.

During the match, he noticed his attitude and behavior were being dictated by his anger. He felt like he wasn't in control. But he knew that, if we wanted to reach his full potential, he'd have to change. This wasn't the first time he had lost to a lesser opponent, but the first time he was aware that his mindset was the difference between winning and losing.

He'd always had a goal of being the world's number 1, and this loss illustrated just how far he was away from that with his current approach.

This insight led him to begin training his mind. By the end of his career, Federer was known for his composure on the court and his fortitude in response to adversity. In several interviews, he also provides a glimpse into the way he trains and what drives his success.

Here's a deeper look at the principles that make up Federer's mindset and how they contribute to his success.

Harmonious Passion

When he retired, Federer talked about what allowed him to succeed. He began by emphasizing that he plays because he loves tennis and because it's what he believes he's best at - and noting these two factors as his driving force to the top.

Though I don't subscribe to the belief that you have to love the sport to be an all-time great, Federer's success and mentality was a function of playing the game with passion. He reiterates this approach time and again. Throughout his career, he played in countless matches in crappy conditions because he loved the game, and took on exhibitions that other, lesser players avoided because he wanted to play.

The psychology behind this is what's called "harmonious passion". Harmonious passion is associated with enjoying the process and integrating the activity - tennis, in this case - into our identity, without losing ourselves in that identity. The opposite, "obsessive passion," is associated with losing your identity in the activity and caving to external pressures and expectations. 

For most pro athletes I've worked with, there's a bit of both. There's some love for the game and some outside recognition and praise that leads to external expectations.

To sustain passion and energy, to adapt to the level Federer did, you'd need more of a tilt toward harmonious passion. That's what allowed him to adapt as he aged, to change his mindset and his game to keep him competitive for so long. He loved playing and would do whatever it took to continue as long as he could.

Unshakeable Belief and Balanced Self-Talk

When he approaches his performances against some of the all-time best players, like Rafael Nadal, Federer relies on an unshakeable belief and his mindset to help him stay consistent and perform at the highest level.

In the above video, you can hear him talk about how important it is for him to maintain his belief in himself, point after point, win or lose. You can hear him talk through his self-talk.

What's notable is that he's found a way to balance an intense desire to win with self-acceptance if he were to lose. It's not that he was happy with losing or even comfortable with it, but he recognized it as an inevitable part of his experience. For athletes with less mental fortitude, this approach might undermine their intense focus on winning, subconsciously undermining that commitment by being "okay" with losing.

When I've worked with other pro athletes, a common challenge is learning to deal with failure. Federer's insight is that failure isn't something to be feared or resisted, but simply learned and talked through as a mechanism for moving on.

This balanced approach, combined with his belief in what he can do, gives him the foundation for great confidence going into any match. Unshakeable belief comes from knowing that you can perform and also knowing that you, as a person, are still valuable and worthy even if it doesn't go your way. Federer's ability to maintain his belief in himself comes from a deep history of success, from the hard work he puts in to maintain his level of performance, and from centeredness on his own value as a person.

His self-talk wasn't always so favorable, though. As a young athlete, there are records of him calling himself an idiot after misses or even criticizing himself for not optimizing a point he won. Changing this internal dialogue was part of Federer's larger transformation into one of the best, and most mentally agile, athletes of all time. This negative self-talk was what disrupted his performance early on and held him back from advancing more quickly through the ranks.

What's most remarkable to me here is that his self-talk, contrary to what people often push, isn't all positive. This isn't about having some unrealistic, overly rosy view of the world where you are never self-critical and are so positive that you almost lie to yourself. It's about separating wins and losses from self-worth, using self-talk to coach yourself through performance, and maintaining trust and belief in training.

That's a winning recipe.

Self-regulated learning and self-reflection

The research on self-regulated learning suggests it may be one of, if not the, most important factor in becoming an elite performer. In data examining the long-term performance of elite soccer players, for example, those higher in self-regulated learning separated themselves from their slightly less-skilled counterparts (Bartulovic et al., 2017). It's a foundational mental skill for developing expertise and underpins what we call "deliberate practice".

It's no surprise then that one of the greatest tennis players of all time talks about the foundations of self-regulated learning as a key practice for his sustained success.

In this clip, you can hear him talk about setting short-term and long-term goals, and how he uses those goals as the basis for self-reflection:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rAdn_JGq5bQ

That is self-regulated learning in 30 seconds. He describes setting goals not only as a mechanism for motivation and guiding his action but as a source for deeper reflection and learning. In fact, in almost any domain that requires professional practice (sports, law, medicine, psychology, flying, etc.), reflection is a key process in making learning happen (Patterson et al., 2013).

Federer's practice of questioning himself also reflects the idea of loving yourself as a person and doubting yourself as a performer. The doubt isn't about self-doubt, but about whether or not you have it all figured out. If you can ask yourself meaningful questions about your own growth and progress, you can facilitate deeper learning and the development of expertise without undermining your own sense of confidence.

The simple formula for effectively leveraging self-regulated learning is:

• Set a goal

• Make a plan

• Execute

• Monitor progress

• Identify gaps

• Revise the plan based on gaps

• Iterate and repeat

The best athletes in the world follow this formula to constantly improve their game. This formula is the foundation for the constant pursuit of excellence and is what allows any player to rise above average and win long-term.

Adaptability and Resilience

Federer's history of overcoming injuries and adversity, as well as adapting his game as he ages, is well-documented. In fact, a good part of what allowed him to compete into his 30s was his willingness to adapt his game to younger players and to his physical capabilities. Rather than insisting on executing the way he always did (a trap many high performers and leaders fall into), he adapted his game to best suit what he was capable of at every step of the way.

Making changes like this - especially when you have a long history of success - is incredibly challenging. 

It would've been easier for Federer to stay rigid in his approach. It led to several Grand Slam titles and a ranking as the world's best player. The formula was clearly working.

Except, throughout tennis history, this pattern repeated itself - it works until it doesn't anymore. Sampras, Agassi, and other all-time greats persisted when pivoting would've been better. To continue, the only option is to adapt. To let go of what worked in the past and try something new. To endure the performance dip so you can have the performance leap.

Longevity as a performer has a lot to do with how many iterations of your approach you can sustain.

Focus

Though he was also a talented soccer player, Federer made the decision to focus solely on tennis at age 12. This focus, coupled with his intense desire to become the world's greatest, allowed him to develop skills at a much quicker pace than his counterparts. Federer set his sights on a world #1 ranking early and never looked back.

His focus also translated into the way he approached the game on the court - he has an incredible ability to stay focused on execution, even when the pressure rises. That's a skill he actively cultivates and trains (and you can, too). 

This level of focus and concentration allows him to excel. He's famously cited distractions as his second biggest opponent after the man across from him, and he takes steps to actively minimize distraction and outside life events on his performance. To do that, he focuses on:

• Preparation. Federer's preparation for matches is well documented, and it allows him to follow a plan that he's had for months in the making. It guides his focus directly to the task at hand.

• Present-moment focus. He stays with each point, point after point. In fact, part of his performance is staring at the racquet-ball contact point a bit longer than people might think is normal or necessary... In part because he's engrossed in the game.

Processing Speed

Federer was also known for his ability to process the game quickly. One of his competitors and long-time supporters, Marc Rosset, recognized this ability early on as one of Roger's differentiators.

Intelligence is one of the best predictors of job performance we have across domains, from surgeons to snipers. The ability to learn new information quickly, apply it in novel situations, and to process and decide quickly helps the world's best athletes maintain an edge late into their careers. 

Federer is no exception here. In fact, there might be good reason to suspect that this processing speed played a role in how he was able to successfully adapt his game as he lost a step. Because he could process quickly and see the court in ways other players couldn't, he could make different decisions about the way he plays that minimize the impact of a slower step on winning points.

Federer's Edge

Like most elite athletes, Federer's edge is a combination of his game intelligence and his mental approach to performance. Of course he has the baseline physical abilities, but as evidenced by the early part of his career, he simply wouldn't have made it to the top - and stayed there - had he not mastered the mental game.

We can all take something from the way Federer approaches the game. He recognized his limitations and actively worked to address them. He adapted his approach as he aged to allow himself to stay at the top. He created a strong mental foundation that allowed him to persist in the face of difficulty.

That's why he's considered one of - if not the - GOATs.

Additional Info

• Federer's Top 10 Rules for Success

• Bay, U., & Macfarlane, S. (2011). Teaching Critical Reflection: A Tool for Transformative Learning in Social Work?. Social Work Education, 30, 745 - 758. Https://doi.org/10.1080/02615479.2010.516429.

• Stauffer, R. (2007). The Roger Federer Story: Quest for Perfection. New Chapter Press.

• Clarey, C. (2021). The Master: The Brilliant Career of Roger Federer. Hachette UK.