In this episode I talk to retired tennis pro, Brenda Schultz-McCarthy. We talk about her path to becoming a professional athlete starting while she was still a child and some of the sacrifices her family made to get her there. She has learned smarter ways to workout as an older athlete and techniques to manage mental and physical stress.
We discuss:
- Brenda was told at 9 years old she could be a professional tennis player
- When a Tennis Academy opened up she left home to go to school at this new academy
- Skyrocketing to a high world ranking as a teenager
- How meeting her soon-to-be-husband changed her career and raised her confidence
- Finding a new love in running a kids camp
- Brenda returns to a pro life for a while
- Reclaiming her body after having children
… and more!
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Here are some highlights:
Brenda’s early athletic life
“When I was 9 years old I practiced maybe 3 times a week with a group,” says Brenda. “Once a week I would have a private session where my coach said he liked my ability and so he gave me free lessons. Then at 10 years old I won the Dutch Championships and Holland then opened a new Tennis School in the south of the country. In America there were already a lot of tennis schools but not in Holland. Because I was the best in my age group they asked me if I wanted to join this Tennis Academy where I would be away from home for the entire week.”
Tennis as an individual sport
“Being talented in tennis meant that I won a lot,” Brenda said. “It’s also an individual sport and it was hard for me to make friends at time. Especially when you sometimes have to play against friends. Luckily I had my sister. Even though she was never ranked as high as me but she was top ten under 18’s in Holland and we got to play a lot of doubles together. I would never have made it as far as I did without her.”
Brenda was always known for her serve
“At a young age when I couldn’t go on the court to play I would hit the ball against the wall until practice was over,” says Brenda. “A lot of people in Holland like to go out to restaurants after practice and that’s when I would go on the court and hit serves. So at a young age I was hitting buckets of serves. I definitely had talent for it but looking back I can see that it definitely did help. There was definitely a lot I still had to learn, my posture was a little off, and little things like that. But I was definitely born with a fast arm.”
Why Brenda loves tennis
“Because of my style of serve being 6’3” was very helpful,” Brenda said. “But if you’re not tall you have different strengths. I frequently played against Arantxa Sanchez, many many times. I don’t know exactly how tall she is, no more than 5’4”, and it shows why tennis is so great. It doesn’t matter what height you are you can still be successful playing it.
How her husband changed her
“And when he came into my life the first thing he said after a match was that he thought I was too straight up, I needed to be lower in my stance,” says Brenda. “He was a football player and used to watching film, which wasn’t really done with tennis, and he went out and bought a huge Sony camera. After every match and practice he would have me watch what I did, I often say we wouldn’t be married if he hadn’t bought that camera. And to this day when I’m coaching I will take my phone and stand behind the kids and will slow down the footage to see where everything is.”
Learning self motivation
“There were times I didn’t believe in myself enough and my boyfriend would ask me if I listened to any people like Tony Robbins,” Brenda said. “He was becoming a stockbroker at the time and reading and listening to a lot of material about believing in yourself. And it’s because of him that all of that personal development stuff came into my life and career.”
Getting an injury
“It was 1999 and I tripped over a line while playing a tournament,” says Brenda. “I thought I pulled my hamstring and for months they were treating my hamstring. Once I got to Holland a very good doctor that treats soccer players figured out that my back was injured. I was already doing a lot of yoga and massages but nothing was working. I eventually had surgery and tried to come back but was never able to come back fully.”
Life after tennis
“We were trying to figure out what to do after I couldn’t play tennis and we ended up in Big Sky Montana because I love the mountains and skiing,” Brenda said. “We met a guy who ran a camp with tennis, and hiking, and rafting, and horse back riding. I loved all of those things but could rarely do them because I was a tennis player and couldn’t risk getting hurt. He asked me if I could help him with the tennis camp in the morning and then go out on the rafting trips in the afternoon. I realized that I wanted to start a camp for kids.”
Stress causing physical issues
“Even after clean eating and exercising we were finding there were still physical issues with me and the kids,” says Brenda. “After going to a seminar we realized it had to do with stress. We all have stress, there’s good stress and bad stress, but there was a lot of stress that I was holding onto. We never thought about me hurting my back and how the stress was lingering. We started doing these de-stressing techniques and these physical problems that were lingering started going away after confronting emotional issues.”
Starting a family
“My body was dedicated to my children after having them back to back,” Brenda said. “You can’t exercise too much during that time so you just have to lay low for a while. It was very hard for me to get back in my rhythm. My stomach was a little loose and it was so much harder to get back in it. Now they are old enough to go roller blading with me. They can do enough stuff on their own and I can find things for me.”
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