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The following is an excerpt from The Art of Exceeding.
Let’s explore the psychology of high performance and how personality traits significantly influence your style, approach, and overall decision-making under pressure.
“Your awakening begins by looking inside.”
Frank Giampaolo
The Impact of Your Personality Profile
Identifying the traits of the Myers Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI) helps to uncover your approach to the game. It’s in your best interest to go online and take a free MBTI quiz. Different personality profiles see the game differently, and understanding your genetic predispositions is important. Personality preference is measured along four dichotomies:
- Extraversion/Introversion
- Sensing/Intuition
- Thinking/Feeling
- Judging/Perceiving
The MBTI provides a simple way to recognize your genetic predisposition with a combination of the four dichotomies- creating a four-letter acronym that reflects your most dominant functions.
Examples of The Power of Profiling
Personality profiling assists parents, coaches, and athletes to understand how individuals gather information and make decisions. Identifying your personality profile explains why you are naturally good at some things and uncomfortable with others.
The following are observations of the different profiles as they relate to high performance. You’ll uncover your personality profile by identifying the most appropriate profile in each of the four categories.
“View the following typographies the same way you view right or left-handed athletes. Athletes have a dominant (preferred) system and an auxiliary system.”
Frank Giampaolo
Introverts (I) versus Extroverts (E)
Introvert Athletes
1) Reserved, reflective thinkers.
2) Prefer concrete advice versus abstract thinking.
3) Need quiet, alone time to recharge their batteries.
4) Energy-conserving, private and quiet individuals.
Extrovert Athletes
1) Enjoy the energy of group clinics.
2) Enjoy the limelight and center stage.
3) Easily bored with mundane repetition.
4) Work best in short attention span type drills.
“Introverts can extrovert and extroverts can introvert. We all have dominant and auxiliary brain functions.”
Frank Giampaolo
Sensate (S) versus Intuitive (N)
Sensate Athletes
1) Choose to make decisions after analyzing.
2) Often hesitate in competition due to overthinking.
3) Thrive on the coach’s facts versus opinions.
4) Success is based on personal experience, not theory.
Intuitive Athletes
1) Trust their gut instinct and hunches over detailed facts.
2) Often do first and then analyze second.
3) Apply and trust their imagination with creativity.
4) Learn quicker by being shown versus lengthy verbal explanations.
“Working within one’s genetic guidelines is like swimming downstream. Working against one’s genetic predisposition is like swimming upstream.”
Frank Giampaolo
Thinkers (T) versus Feelers (F)
Thinker Athletes
1) Impersonalize competition in a business fashion.
2) Thrive in private lessons versus group activities.
3) Less influenced by emotions than other brain designs.
4) Relates to hardware training over software training.
Feeler Athletes
1) Often put others’ needs ahead of their own.
2) Strong need for optimism and harmony.
3) Struggle with unfair situations.
4) Usually outcome-oriented versus process-oriented.
“A gender stereotype myth is that females are feelers and males are thinkers.”
Frank Giampaolo
Judgers (J) versus Perceivers (P)
Judger Athletes
1) Prefer planned, orderly, structured lessons.
2) Often postpone competing because they’re not 100% ready.
3) Need closure with a task before moving on to the next.
4) Change is uncomfortable and is typically shunned.
Perceiver Athletes
1) Mentally found in the future, not the present.
2) Easily adapts to ever-changing situations.
3) Open to discussing and applying new, unproven concepts.
4) Typically need goal dates and deadlines to work hard.
“High performers who make the most significant gains have parents and coaches aware of each other’s inborn characteristics, which assist in organizing the athlete’s unique developmental pathways.”
Frank Giampaolo
(Excerpt from Frank Giampaolo’s Book: The Soft Science of Tennis)
We’ve explored personality profiling and its impact on your persona. Understanding your personality trait is an eye-opening experience. As you become more attuned to your unique psychological makeup, you’ll design a playing style that aligns with your personality, paving the way for a more fulfilling journey.
YOUR TAKEAWAY CHALLENGE
Go online and take a free Myers-Briggs type indicator quiz. This information assists players, parents, and coaches in understanding how individuals gather information and make decisions. It’s time to look into the sports science of designing a style that aligns with your personality superpowers.
