"If you cannot find that creative moment, better to walk away" - Roger Federer reveals why he felt the need to reinvent training methods
Roger Federer believes it is important for even the greatest and most successful athletes to reinvent themselves and be "creative" the longer they pursue a professional sports career, stressing that reinventing one's methods is a constant process. The moment an athlete loses their creativity, they should "walk away," Federer opined.
Having said that, the Swiss tennis legend also revealed how constantly reinventing his training methods was crucial to the longevity of his illustrious career.
Highly regarded as one of the greatest athletes of all time himself, the 20-time Grand Slam champion threw light on what usually pushes sporting GOATs into retirement. While he has also always found it interesting to see how many great athletes pursue various interests post-retirement, he feels the biggest factor that contributes to retirement in the first place is the heavy feeling of 'monotony.'
"It's always very interesting to see what the greatest athletes of all time ended up doing once they stopped," Roger Federer said in a recently-released interview to CNBC, months before announcing his own retirement.
"It's not a simple one-way road and I think it is allowed to have many bends and I think we see that often with athletes."
"Some of those people maybe feel that after doing the same thing for too long, it gets a bit monotone, always the same, and 'I just need a change'," the Swiss great opined.
Federer then revealed how he always tried to be creative by reinventing his own training methods, which included constantly changing his training and practice schedule as well as the manner and frequency of his training. The eight-time Wimbledon and six-time US Open champion preferred challenging himself to keep things "interesting."
"In my case, I've tried to reinvent my trainings with my teams, where I train, when I train, how often I train, with whom I train, many many times to keep it interesting, because if you do it always in the same place, (it gets) too boring," the 41-year-old revealed. "So I needed to be exciting and this is where you have to challenge yourself."
In extension to that belief, the Swiss maestro stated that walking away from one's sporting career is the best way forward once the creativity goes missing.
"If you really feel like you cannot find that creative moment, then it is really better to walk away. I totally agree with that, I understand why athletes do that," he further expressed.
Roger Federer rules out comeback from retirement, says he is not a big fan of the idea
If there is any prevalent speculation regarding Roger Federer making a surprise comeback from retirement, the Swiss great's views on retirement comebacks will put an end to all such speculation. Despite sharing his thoughts on the same well before he eventually announced his retirement, the 20-time Grand Slam champion was crystal clear in declaring that he would "never" make a comeback from retirement.
"I'm not a big comeback fan," he said in the same interview.
"I'll never retire and come back. It's not something for me, squeeze that lemon out and when the last drop is out, I'll know I'm done," he explained.
The Basel native has been busy engaging in some of his other interests away from tennis of late, including art and fashion. He also recently went skiing for the first time in 15 years, indicating that his knee injury could be affecting him much less than before.