Chapter 215 Career Planning

Gao Wen had to admit that he was somewhat ignorant.

He always believed that the most important thing for a professional player is an excellent coaching team, including the head coach, physical trainer, masseur, sparring partners, and so on.

But Sampras gave a different opinion.

Tennis is a special sport.

First of all, this is an individual sport. No matter how good the coaching team is, in the final analysis, once the players are on the court, they must complete the game on their own. Without the coordination of teammates and the command of the coach, everything depends on themselves.

To some extent, tennis is actually a lonely sport, because when the game reaches a desperate situation and is pushed to the edge of the cliff, the only person you can rely on is yourself, as if the whole world is standing against you.

It is also because of this that the coaching team is very important. No one can deny the indispensable position of the coaching team, but they are not the most important.

Secondly, this is a team sport.

What does that mean? Doesn't this contradict the first point?

Not really.

The so-called teamwork means that the players and their entire team advance and retreat together. Before the game starts, the coaching team plays the role of training and also the role of think tank.

They need to help players analyze their opponents and then develop corresponding tactics.

At the same time, outside of the game, the agency team plays an external role. Agents and public relations personnel need to help players handle all off-court matters, including press conferences, tour schedules, hotel reservations, flight arrangements and other trivial matters.

In addition, there is one most important thing:

Seek sponsorship.

Back to the first point, tennis is an individual sport, but it revolves around the players and there must be a huge team behind them.

In highly professional team sports like football, rugby, basketball, etc., who is responsible for paying the wages? The big bosses! Those are the rich people at the top of the pyramid.

However, in tennis, the players have to bear the expenses of the huge team.

In other words, if the players themselves have no money, then naturally they have no team and they have to do everything by themselves.

The problem is that players without a coaching team often find it difficult to make breakthroughs on the field. Therefore, we can see a very common phenomenon that many players are coached by their parents or relatives, and only expand their team after they achieve good results in the game.

For example, "Danish Sweetheart" Caroline-Wozniaki, her coach is her father; another example is Spanish king Rafael Nadal, his coach is his uncle.

From training to competitions, every aspect of professional tennis requires money.

This is the case with Gao Wen himself. It was because his family could not afford the huge financial expenditure that he embarked on the NCAA training path instead of directly choosing the path of turning professional as a teenager.

So, where does sponsorship come from?

This is the most important core meaning of "teamwork".

Simply put, it is impossible for players to go door-to-door and look for sponsorship. Their task is to achieve excellent results on the field to prove themselves, and then find sponsorship through a spokesperson who speaks for them: this is the agent.

The job of an agent is to find suitable sponsorships for players' jerseys, shoes, and rackets, and to find suitable advertising companies to sponsor players' training expenses.

And that’s not all.

The agent's job is to find a suitable coaching team for the players. Or if the players have a coach they like, the agent will contact them and then build the entire daily training team around the coach.

It can be understood that tennis is an individual sport, where a player goes onto the battlefield alone; but before going on stage, he needs to stockpile ammunition and food support, and the agent is the link that provides these important helps to the players.

That's why Sampras said that when Gao Wen planned his career, the first thing he needed was a professional and excellent agent.

Of course, the role of an agent is more than just that. The reason why David Beckham’s commercial value can create an empire, in addition to his own qualities, is because of the role played by the agent, which is equivalent to an amplifier a hundred or a thousand times greater.

It is precisely because of this that professional players, big and small, no matter what their world ranking is, all have their own agents. Even if they do not have their own coaching team, they still need an agent.

It cannot be said to be 100%. Some players refuse to hire agents and play on their own. This does exist, but overall, agents are still necessary.

The NCAA is not a professional league. The players' training and sponsorship all come from the school, so naturally they don't need agents. However, this is no longer the case when entering the professional field.

In fact, the truth is not complicated, but outsiders still lack some understanding. After Sampras' explanation, things suddenly become clear.

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Naturally, Gawain took the opportunity to ask about Tobias's situation.

Sampras was brutally honest.

"If you're talking about fame and power, John is not at the top of the pyramid. The most famous agent in the industry right now is probably Max Eisenbud."

Eisenbud, the agent of Maria Sharapova and Li Na, has the greatest achievement of accompanying Maria Sharapova from her unknown teenage years. Of course, in addition to this, he also has a series of professional players under his command.

Currently, Eisenbud is the global vice president of IMG agency and Tobias' boss.

In fact, in the job of a broker, fame and strength are often not equated. The so-called fame mainly relies on shouting, that is, self-marketing; and real strength often needs to be demonstrated through daily work. There are countless talented people hidden in the entire industry.

"But if you're talking about ability, John is a great agent and all he needs is an opportunity to unleash all his energy."

However, Sampras did not speak wholeheartedly for Tobias. He recommended several agents he was familiar with, including an agent who used to be a professional player. He sent the contact number to Gao Wen and said that he would say hello later and he could contact him.

"Choosing a good agent who is suitable for you will definitely make things easier. Even if you don't plan to turn professional for the time being, you should still consider it. You should know that the halo of the U.S. singles champion may not mean much in the professional arena, but it can still put you in the public eye, and things will come to you one after another."

Sampras was sincere and gave Gawain some honest advice as a person who had experienced it.

From Tobias' active self-recommendation to Sampras' earnest words, Gao Wen finally felt that becoming a professional player did not seem that far away from him.

Second update.

(End of this chapter)