Meet Mauro Gallardo | Tennis coach and content creator

We had the good fortune of connecting with Mauro Gallardo and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Mauro, we’d love to hear about how you approach risk and risk-taking
Risks are a big part of life. Whether you decide to pursue your goals or not, risks will always be present in your life. If you aim low in life, there’s always the risk that things get worse. If you aim high, there’s always the chance that you fail. So, if you think that by not being ambitious, or by not expecting much from anything or anyone you’ll save yourself from a lot of pain and failure, you’re wrong. Things can always get worse if you want to be mediocre, things can only fail if you want to think big; the difference is that putting in the work and hoping to get better creates discipline, and you have a better chance of developing positive responses to adversity. I grew up competing in tennis. Tennis is a sport where you win or lose a point every 30 seconds or less, so if you have risk aversion, you have no chance of surviving the stress of failure happening so consistently. One of the things that I always like to talk about to kids and teens is that if they decide to take tennis seriously, they must learn to let go, quickly. Tennis is a sport that doesn’t stop testing your mental and emotional abilities. Just when you think that you have a match in your pocket, things turn around in a matter of seconds, it can take one single point to change the entire match. If you don’t learn to adapt, and respond, you’ll become a roller coaster of emotions, and you won’t be able to develop the mental skill of fighting back when you’ve been hit consistently.

Can you open up a bit about your work and career? We’re big fans and we’d love for our community to learn more about your work.
I’m a tennis coach, and I like to think that if there’s something a little different about me and other coaches it’s that I try to focus a little more on the mental aspect of the game. I also like to be aware of the off-the-court mental aspect of my students, I don’t like to get into their private lives, but it’s important to know when your student has something really bugging him, because that can get in the way during training, and you can notice many times when they’re struggling mentally. That’s one thing I’m proud of, being the kind of coach who cares for the person, not only for the player. I’ve gotten to where I am as a coach working on self-development consistently, acquiring new knowledge about the game, how we process emotions, and finding ways to think better. It’s not easy because you have to develop the skill to send the same message to different ages: kids, teens, and young adults.
One thing I learned is that no matter the age, even people who are in their 60s and 70s go through the same emotions, fear, self-doubt, hesitation, uncertainty, and more. The challenge is to be able to talk to everyone in the right language to get your message through to them. That’s what I would like to One thing I emphasize in my teachings is that I’m very realistic, I like to tell things as they are, emphasize preparation, and talk about the fact that even in failure, people grow. Unfortunately, not many people can deal with things as they are, most people try to sugarcoat struggles, and that makes them delusional and weak.

If you had a friend visiting you, what are some of the local spots you’d want to take them around to?
I don’t really know many places to go in Nashville myself because I haven’t experienced the city as much as I would like to. Not long after we moved here Covid hit, so my wife and I haven’t really gone to many different places around town. But I would take them paddleboarding to Pearcy Priest Lake, go out to eat at Rock and Roll Sushi, and a bar downtown to get to experience Music City ambiance.

Who else deserves some credit and recognition?
There have been several organizations and people who played an important role at different times in my life. But if I have to mention one, it’s a lady who had a very profound impact while I was in college, the late Elizabeth Nye Sorrell. Mrs. Sorrell, a former Laredo Morning Times editor, helped me with housing when I was attending Texas A&M in Laredo. She was like a grandmother to me and taught me so much about compassion and empathy. Mrs. Sorrell was in her early 90s when I met her, but she had so much energy for her age. She knew I came from Mexico to finish my college education, which I started at the University of The Incarnate Word in San Antonio, TX but couldn’t finish. I was very lucky to get a very affordable offer from her to rent a bedroom in her apartment, she also helped me pay for a couple of semesters when she found out that I wasn’t going to be able to cover all the school expenses. Mrs. Sorrell helped me see the world from a very different perspective, she was so good to me from the beginning, even though she knew nothing about me. That impacted me deeply. Thinking of her, which I do often, influenced me strongly when I was undecided about starting a YouTube channel about tennis, and another one about sharing my experiences in life and the things I have learned.
I was lucky to find someone who taught me the power of giving with no need for proof that people will value what you share. It breaks my heart that when I finished college, I moved away and only got to see her once again before she passed away. I promised her that I would follow her example, and share with others what I learned in life.

Website: www.maurogallardo.com

Instagram: #mauroarise

Youtube: Mauro Gallardo. Arise by Mauro Gallardo

Image Credits
Mauro Gallardo