Understanding the psychology of your opponent by reading his tongue! — Andre Agassi
Oh, Yup! You read it right!
Andre Agassi went head-on with Boris Becker 3 times in a row in their Tennis match and was knocked out by Becker all three times.
That’s when Agassi said to himself — No, this ain’t happening anymore, and then he went on into problem-solving mode! Agassi spent hundreds of hours watching Becker play Tennis with all his opponents, and also his last three matches with Becker. And that’s when he revealed the secret of Becker to himself!
This was Becker’s secret-
Whenever he was about to toss the ball, he would stick his tongue out and it would either be right in the middle of his lip or it would be at the left corner of his lips!
Tongue at the middle of his lip meant — Becker would drop his serve up to the middle of the court or to his opponent’s body!
Tongue towards the left of his lip — Becker would ace his serve wide! Damn.
“The hardest part was not returning the serve but hiding the fact that he know Becker’s tongue technique. The hardest thing,” Agassi says, “was to resist his temptation to alert himself to return every single serve and to only use this information to break down the point and make the match lean towards him.”
Agassi says,” I didn’t have a problem breaking the serve. I had a problem hiding the fact that I could break his serve at my will because I didn’t want him to keep his tongue inside rather than keeping it popped out at the center or towards the end.”
After understanding the secret of his opponent Becker, Agassi went on to win 9 matches out of 11 matches against him!
Long story short —
When Agassi told this to Becker after his retirement, Becker fell off from his chair laughing at this fact. Becker said, “Every time I would lose a match against you, I went back home and said to my wife that Agassi is reading my mind, but the fact was you were reading my tongue!”
That’s how exactly Boris Becker’s tongue cost him 6 trophies!
“Everything is about problem-solving. You can’t solve your problems unless you have the ability and the empathy to perceive all that’s around you. The more you understand the problem from other people’s lens, the more you are inclined towards solving the problem in life or the business.” — Andre Agassi.
If this doesn’t blow your mind, then nothing on earth ever will.
Thanks for the read.
