Carlos Alcaraz is the youngest male tennis player to ever capture a career Grand Slam. Along the way, the passionate young Spaniard has also captured the hearts of tennis fans with his supremely joyful style of play.
BBC profiled Alcaraz in a story they coined “Happy Tennis” to describe this heartfelt approach to the game. They said, “Watching Alcaraz is, for the most part, like watching sunshine personified.”
Alcaraz views playing tennis as something that is fun. “I always try to play happy tennis,” Alcaraz wrote in TNT’s Players Voice. “I consider myself a happy person off the court, so I try to play that way.” This happiness can be seen in how Alcaraz playfully interacts with the crowd during matches, bringing them along by cupping his ear to ask for more cheers or yelling “Vamos!” after a big point.
For Alcaraz, playing with joy also means playing without fear. Rather than take the safe shot, he’s more than happy to hit the booming forehand that paints the line — or the crazy drop shot that no one saw coming. This approach to the game was instilled in Alcaraz from the very first day he picked up a racket. Alcaraz grew up playing tennis in a family that loved the sport, and he plays by the motto taught to him by his grandfather: Cabeza, Corazón, Cojones. Head, Heart, Balls.
Playing with heart and courage has served Alcaraz well, but is it just him? What does scientific study say about the connection between love and courage?
Science shows that love and courage are actually interconnected because playing from a place of love, which is known as heart-focused engagement, reduces fear. How does it do that? It moves the focus of the nervous system away from the fight-or-flight response that is brought on when we get scared. Here are some things that playing with joy does to our body:
Positive feelings slow a thumping heart and calm the body by activating the parasympathetic nervous system.
Playing with love in your heart can lower cortisol and adrenaline, which are the main chemicals in your body that cause anxiety and tighten your muscles.
Intentional focus on your feelings of love and gratitude for the sport you play can stimulate the vagus nerve, which runs from the brainstem down through the neck, chest, and abdomen. Good vagal tone helps you recover from stress.
The stress reduction that playing with joy provides leads to overall better performance. Here are a few more things to consider.
Attention to the joy of play keeps you in the moment, taking away from your fear of failing and worrying about what other people think about your performance.
Practicing self-kindness greatly reduces negative thoughts. When you stop beating yourself up, anxiety goes down, and oftentimes performance goes up.
A loving heart helps calm your mind, allowing your skills to better flourish. On the flip side, tension can stiffen your muscles and make your thoughts foggy.
This loving heart that Alcaraz exhibits when he steps onto the court isn’t just confined to his joy for playing the game. He genuinely enjoys spreading happiness to all the fans who come to watch. The BBC described how Alcaraz chose to practice at Wimbledon on outside courts rather than the players’ official inside courts because it allowed fans to watch him train.
The BBC story said, “Those who had scrambled to get seats on were treated to the full Alcaraz show, the Spaniard laughing and joking with the crowd and trying out the occasional trick shot.
There was a smile for everyone as, escorted by security, he walked through walls of fans around the grounds. Every ‘good luck, Carlos’ was greeted by a ‘thank you.’”
Science shows that a loving heart is a fearless heart and that this outlook can boost your performance. Alcaraz has taken that idea and run it all the way to becoming the youngest male Grand Slam champion in tennis history, but if you ask him, there is something even more important than those trophies.
In a Netflix documentary on Alcaraz, he stated, “I’d choose happiness over massive success because happiness is already success” – words from the heart of a true champion.
