He always believes that the most important thing for a professional player is an excellent coaching team, including a head coach, a physical coach, a masseur, a sparring partner, etc.
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, when players stand on the court, they must complete the game by themselves. Without the cooperation of teammates and the command of the coach, everything needs to be done by themselves.
To a certain 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 precisely because of this that the coaching team is very important. No one can deny the indispensable status of the coaching team, but they are not the most important.
Secondly, this is a team sport.
What do you mean? Doesn’t this contradict the first point?
Not really.
The so-called team collaboration means that the players advance and retreat together with their entire team. 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 formulate corresponding tactics.
At the same time, outside of the game, the agency team plays an external role. Agents and public relations people need to help players handle all off-field matters, including press conferences, tour schedules, hotel reservations, flight arrangements, and other trivial matters.
In addition, there is one most important thing:
Seek sponsorship.
Going back to the first point, tennis is an individual sport, but around the players, there must be a huge team behind them.
In highly professional team sports such as football, rugby, and basketball, who is responsible for paying wages? The big boss! Those are the rich people at the top of the pyramid.
However, in tennis, players must bear the expenses of a large team.
In other words, if the players themselves have no money, then naturally there will be no team and they must do everything themselves.
The problem is that it is often difficult for players without a coaching team to achieve breakthroughs on the field. Therefore, you can see a very common phenomenon. Many players are coached by their parents or relatives, and then until the results are achieved in the game
Only then can we expand our team.
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 competition, every aspect of professional tennis costs money.
This is the case for Gao Wen himself. It was precisely because his family could not afford the huge financial expenditure that he embarked on the path of polishing in the NCAA instead of directly choosing the path of turning a teenager into a professional.
So, where does sponsorship come from?
This is the most important core meaning of "team collaboration".
To put it simply, players cannot sell door-to-door by themselves and look for sponsorships door-to-door. Their task is to prove themselves by achieving excellent results on the court, and then find sponsorships through a spokesperson who speaks for themselves:
This is a broker.
The agent's job is to find suitable jerseys, sneakers, and racket sponsorships for the players, and to find suitable advertising companies to sponsor training expenses for the players.
And, that's not all.
The agent's job is to find a suitable coaching team for the player, or if the player has a favorite coaching candidate, the agent will contact him and then build the entire daily training team around the coach.
It can be understood in this way that a tennis match is an individual sport, and one goes to the battlefield alone; but before going on the stage, he needs to stock up on ammunition and food and grass support, and the agent is the link that provides these important help to the players.
Therefore, 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 not just that. Why is David Beckham's commercial value able to create an empire? In addition to his own quality, the role of an agent lies in this, which is equivalent to
An amplifier with a factor of a hundred times or a thousand times is normal.
It is precisely because of this that professional players, big and small, no matter how ranked they are in the world, they all have their own agents. Even if they do not have their own coaching team, they still need an agent——
I can’t say it’s 100% certain. Some players refuse to hire an agent and work on their own. This is true, but overall, an agent is still necessary.
The NCAA is not a professional league. The training and sponsorship of the players all come from the school. Naturally, there is no need for an agent. However, this is not the case when entering the professional field.
In fact, the truth is not complicated, but laymen still lack some understanding after all. After Sampras' explanation, things suddenly became clear.
Naturally, Gawain took the opportunity to ask about Tobias.
Sampras is very honest.
"If you are talking about fame and power, John is not the top member of the industry pyramid. The most famous agent in the industry now is probably Max Eisenbud."
Eisenbud is the agent of Sharapova and Li Na. His greatest achievement is to accompany Sharapova from her unknown teenage years to growing up. Of course, in addition, he also has a series of professional careers under his command.
players.
Currently, Eisenbud is the global vice president of img brokerage company and Tobias's boss.
In fact, in the work of an agent, reputation and strength are often not equated. The so-called reputation mainly relies on shouting, that is, self-marketing; while real strength often needs to be demonstrated through daily work. There are many talented people in the entire industry.
There are countless strangers.
"But if you are talking about ability, John is an excellent agent. All he needs is an opportunity to use all his energy."
However, Sampras did not speak wholeheartedly for Tobias. In addition, he recommended several agents he was familiar with, including his former professional player agent. He sent his contact number to Gao Wen and stated that he
I'll say hello later, just contact him.
"It will definitely be a lot easier to choose an excellent agent that suits you. Even if you have no plans to turn professional for the time being, you should consider it. You should know that the aura of the National Singles Champion may not be a big deal in the professional arena.
But it can still bring you into the public eye, and things will come to your door one after another.”
Sampras was sincere and gave Gawain some sincere advice as a person who had experienced it.
From Tobias's positive self-recommendation to Sampras's sincere words, Gao Wen truly felt at this moment that professional players seemed not that far away from him.