Arthur Ashe – Champion of Focus
Arthur Ashe, tennis champion and public figure, created a life that continues to live as a testament to character, skill, and so many exemplary traits. Chief among them is certainly how he chose to focus his attention. From a young age, he established a personal discipline that gave him the strength and clarity to achieve what – at least in the beginning – no one expected of him, and to continue building a legacy of achievement throughout the course of his life.
He was always known for his mental game.
Ashe said repeatedly that the key to that mental toughness and the success it brought was preparation. Let’s dig into the concept of preparation, how it relates to focus and attention, and how we can learn a few lessons from the legendary Arthur Ashe. Then I’ll follow up by recapping the incredible assemblage of achievements that are a big part of the impact and inspiration left to us by this amazing champion.
I’ll split this post into six quick sections, and you can click on any of them to jump ahead if you like.
How and Why Arthur Ashe Applied Focus
Attention: Tool or Distraction?
Preparation: An Investment and Advantage
How and Why Arthur Ashe Applied Focus
Arthur Ashe’s young life was dominated by a series of alpha males who believed in high standards and strict adherence to discipline. Starting with his father, they were, collectively, a stern but loving group of role models whom Arthur never wanted to disappoint.
So, from an early age, young Arthur developed the habit of focusing hard on his studies and, later, honing the skills required to master tennis.
Arthur learned early that focus brought rewards in school – straight As, recognition, approval, and fodder for his growing intellect. His scores routinely ranked the highest in his grade. And his father expected no less.
That amount of focus, sometimes unusual in a child, and seen by some as excessive, paid off for Arthur. He fed his budding intellectual curiosity by becoming an avid reader. Early on, he saw the connection between study and being prepared for whatever came next in life. For example, as a kid, Arthur learned all he could about London, France, and Australia because he decided – before winning even an amateur tennis competition – that he wanted to play in those three great tennis opens one day. Understanding those environments – not just the courts, but the cities and cultures that surrounded them, helped him focus on playing the greatest matches in any player’s career years before it was even a remote possibility.
In those early days in Arthur’s life, a local tennis player named Ron Charity took Arthur under his wing and taught him the game, coming every day to practice on the tennis court at a city park where Arthur’s father was the superintendent. As Arthur got better and better at the game, Charity helped him focus on specific skills.
Arthur took the idea of focus to heart. Every morning, to improve his strength and skill, he would hit 1,000 volleys against the side of the building – forehand, backhand, forehand, backhand – all before breakfast and school.
What might seem to us others to be obsessive practice was, for Arthur, the focus and preparation that led to mastery and success. The lesson for us is that mentors can help if we’re open to what they can teach us. But even if we’re not in the presence of more accomplished people who encourage us, focus is a skill that builds on other attributes. Focus worked for Arthur because he was disciplined about applying it. He had no bias about how many repetitions should be enough; no misconception about whether hard work would be required. It grounded him. Every day, he cleared out mental obstacles to put his undivided attention on hitting the ball, better and better, time after time, and stuck with it until he was worn out.
The next day, he would do it all over again.
Focus is how Arthur earned straight As and mastered tennis skills. Discipline is what helped him focus.
Attention: Tool or Distraction?
Attention is the filter you use to direct your brain. If you put your attention on one thing, your brain concentrates on it and pushes other matters to the side. The longer the brain stays focused on that item, the more deeply and creatively it thinks and works for you on that subject.
Of course, these days, your attention can be drawn by a thousand things, from alerts on your phone to messages from Facebook friends to email addiction. When your attention skitters from one thing to the next, your brain switches with you, but does a shallow job on each new thing, and uses part of its energy to negotiate all the switching.
Brains get fatigued by this kind of fragmentation. That matters because, as humans, we get only a certain amount of usable attention each day. So, if we spend it on every little thing that passes by, we don’t have enough brain energy left for what is more important.
That’s why attention can be either a tool you use to advance, or a distraction you use to regress.
(For more on this, see my posts on Attention Management and The Power of Thinking Big.)
Arthur Ashe understood this principle very well on an almost instinctual level. His discipline showed him how much he could accomplish by concentrating his attention on one thing at a time. He was never tricked into thinking that something like multitasking would be good for mastery. Despite this, he was able to achieve meaningful accomplishments in multiple areas by focusing on one at a time. He never allowed his attention to be distracted, and as a result, he achieved a remarkable set of milestones in a short life.
In his early life, he focused on school and tennis. His hard work in both fields earned him a scholarship to UCLA.
At UCLA, he focused on improving his game and won both the singles and doubles NCAA championships.
As a professional, Arthur Ashe won the US Open, the Australian Open, and Wimbledon. He was the first and only black player to be ranked #1 by the US Lawn Tennis Association. He credited preparation and a tough mental game for much of his success.
Beginning in 1968, he campaigned for civil rights and became known for the poise and clarity he brought to his part of that national conversation.
At ages 36 and again at 39, Arthur suffered heart attacks – something that ran in his family. He campaigned for heart health awareness on behalf of the US Department of Health and Human Services.
At 45, Arthur published the three-volume A Hard Road to Glory: A History of the African American Athlete, the first comprehensive history of black athletes in what became the US. Consistent with Arthur’s practice of preparation, this work was thoroughly researched and hailed as a landmark contribution to both history and sports.
Discipline doesn’t mean you can’t have fun or be fun. It means that preparation, achievement, and success have priority over fun, at least from Monday through Friday.
Preparation: An Investment and Advantage
People who are good at their jobs are credited for talent, but usually not for the level of preparation that goes into mastering their job. And by preparation, I mean the anticipation, study, practice, rehearsal, and drilling that hones one’s instrument – mind and body.
Preparation is a special kind of focus that lasers in on details to polish them until they’re rubbed smooth into beautiful perfection. Most people see only the end result, not the repetition or the microscopic levels of improvement that occur each day from continual effort and dedication.
Ashe baked preparation into his daily routine with the same entrenched permanence that the rest of us bestow on lunch and dinner. And he migrated from being underestimated as just another “skinny kid” to being admired as one of the finest athletes and public role models of his time.
If you’re particularly good at something as an adult, then you’re aware of the time and preparation that went into it. If you’re a tax accountant, that takes more than just being good at math. If you’re a writer, that takes more than understanding grammar. If you’re a speaker, as I am, it takes more than someone handing you a mic. There’s preparation, trial and error, learning, updating that learning, and usually years of practice.
And there are “sacrifices” – although if you love what you do, you’ll see them as investments. In your college years, you might give up the family summer vacation to intern at a top company where such spots are hard to get. As someone early in your career, you might pass on clubbing with friends to put in the long hours needed to get ahead. As a home-based parent, you might give up time with other adults to focus on the development and growth of your children. As you get seasoned in whatever path you’ve chosen, you’ll skip golf or Zumba to study what’s new in your field and learn to get good at it. That’s what focused people do.
Arthur Ashe came straight home from school to study – not just “often,” but every day. He practiced on the court in long sessions every day. He rested the night before matches rather than party his energy away. And he taught himself mental preparedness as part of being a strong competitor – time alone anticipating matches, time with videotapes studying opponents, time with coaches strategizing how to win key matches against skilled opponents who were often rated higher by the tennis establishment.
In Arthur’s world, even after he had built an impressive array of skills and was winning matches, he faced change and relied on his discipline to stay schooled and practiced. Court surfaces differed by region, opponents changed, equipment evolved, the media was demanding, and of course Arthur had the added dimension of having to face racism in tennis and at large.
Arthur’s world was not just tennis – it also included an array of social concerns and intellectual pursuits. And at every turn, he faced persistent racism. Preparation helped him deal with all of that; Arthur found value in not being taken off-guard.
One lesson we can take from Arthur’s life is to know that it’s okay if the public doesn’t understand the amount of focus and preparation that comes before excellence, but it’s essential that as the person doing the job understands it deeply – whatever that job may be, from carpentry to corporate leadership. Preparation is the anticipation, study, practice, rehearsal, and drilling that hones one’s instrument – mind and body – burning skills into your muscle memory, both literally and figuratively. It is the difference between confident mastery and just getting by.
One of my favorite traits about Arthur Ashe is this: Although it was often a surprise to others when he won a match against a higher-ranked opponent and advanced to the next round, it was never a surprise to Arthur. That’s the confidence that preparation can give you in the face of incredible competition.
Focus and preparation are not elite. They aren’t choosy about who you are, where you came from, or how much money you have. They help everyone who uses them.
Keys to Preparation
These steps may seem obvious, but combining them can help you incorporate focused preparation in your life:
Develop a routine and use it every day.
Give yourself cues and visual images that support that routine.
Focus on the present situation without allowing any distraction.
Plan a path to reach your goal to stay aware of where you are on that path.
Stay positive and avoid those who bring negativity into your life.
Stay true to yourself. Concentrate on your goals, no one else’s.
Arthur Ashe understood that by preparing his brain, it would become efficient in supporting his goals – just as he knew that physical preparation would make his body a machine for that same purpose. Any of us can follow the same principles of mental preparation and training if we have something important to achieve in our lives – even if the field or purpose we’ve chosen won’t make us famous.
Arthur Ashe's Amazing Accomplishments
Although Arthur Ashe became famous, he was never awed by his celebrity status. Instead, he saw it as a tool that gave him the ability to be heard. In the early days, when he came to everyone’s attention as a rising sports hero, many were unaware of Arthur’s intellectual reach and social awareness.
It didn’t take long before he became well-known for his calm and positive deportment, never arguing with an umpire, never behaving like a sore loser when beaten by an opponent. Part of this was practical – Ashe was frequently the only black player in a tournament, and matches were often played at venues normally restricted to whites. Part of it was his upbringing – his father’s pride in doing well without drawing unwelcome attention.
Professionally, Ashe would later be compared with the temperamental John McEnroe. While the younger McEnroe was also an extraordinary tennis player, his confrontational temper tantrums on the court often drew negative attention to the sport and drew wistful comments like, “On days like this, the sport certainly misses gentlemen like Arthur Ashe.”
“Arthur Ashe epitomizes good works, devotion to family and unwavering grace under pressure.” – Sports Illustrated
He was raised in Richmond, capital of the Confederacy, and a place where racial lines remained clearly drawn. Ashe’s demeanor made it harder for tennis officials to discriminate against him, and it kept him out of confrontations that would have taken his focus off the game and wasted all his preparation, first as a serious competitor in the amateur/junior circuit, and later as groundbreaking professional player.
Arthur aligned with the message of Dr. Martin Luther King and worked to draw attention to the injustice of racial discrimination and poverty. He worked hard to carry that message beyond the US to South Africa, which practiced a policy of apartheid at that time. Although his message of racial equality was not welcomed by the South African establishment at the time, after Nelson Mandela was freed from prison and elected President, Arthur was honored by an invitation to meet Mandela in person.
Volumes have been written about Arthur Ashe and his accomplishments, but I hope this much briefer timeline will illustrate the power that preparation can bring to purpose and serve as an inspiration to you.
1963 – At 20, Ashe becomes the first African American to win the National Junior Indoor Tennis title.
1963 – Ashe wins a scholarship to UCLA to play as a Bruin; turned down an offer from Harvard University
1963 – First black player chosen to play the Davis Cup for the US, and first African American team captain. With his help, the US won titles in 1963, 1968, 1969, 1970, and 1978.
1965 – Won NCAA Div 1 singles championship and NCAA Div 1 doubles championship
1967 – Ashe earns a degree in business administration from UCLA and a commission in the US Army
1968 – First African-American male to win the US Open
1968 – First and only African-American ranked No. 1 US player by United States Lawn Tennis Assn
1970 – First African-American male to win the Australian Open
1973 – First black player to win doubles championship at the South African Open
1975 – First African-American male to win Wimbledon
1988 – Co-founded the National Junior Tennis League to help bring poor and black players into tennis
1988 – Authored three-volume set, A Hard Road to Glory: A History of the African American Athlete
1988 – Ashe wins an Emmy for co-writing the adaptation of Hard Road for television
1990 – Ashe meets with Nelson Mandela, at Mandela’s request
1992 – Ashe is named Sportsman of the Year by Sports Illustrated
1993 (posthumously) – Presidential Medal of Freedom
1996 – Richmond, VA, erects a statue of Arthur Ashe on its Monument Avenue, the only statue not honoring leaders of the Confederacy. At the unveiling of the 28-foot statue, which features Ashe surrounded by children while holding a book and a tennis racket, then-Governor Douglas Wilder noted that Monument Avenue “is now an avenue for all people.”
1997 – The US Open stadium in Flushing Meadow is named the Arthur Ashe Stadium, largest tennis stadium in the world, celebrating its 25th anniversary in 2022.
1997 – UCLA opens the Arthur Ashe Student Health and Wellness Center serving 45,000 students
2019 – The Boulevard, a main Richmond thoroughfare, is renamed Arthur Ashe Boulevard.
Lifetime – At various points, Ashe was awarded honorary doctorates from Dartmouth College, Hartford University, LeMoyne-Owen College, Princeton University, Saint John’s University, Trinity College, and Virginia Union University.
Wrapping Up
Tragically, Arthur Ashe’s life was cut short at age 49. It’s believed that he contracted the HIV virus from a blood transfusion used in his second heart surgery, performed at a time before hospitals had the testing equipment they have today. Once his condition was made public, Ashe dedicated himself to education and advocacy for HIV/AIDS, just as he had for heart health years earlier.
Arthur Ashe’s history is a fascinating story, and one thread that runs throughout it is his extraordinary understanding and application of focus and preparation. That discipline carried him through a fiercely competitive profession during tumultuous socio-political times. While each of our circumstances are different, Arthur Ashe’s example is a powerful force of inspiration that encourages us to use focus and preparation to strengthen our own lives and their outcomes.