Open victor Scheffler is latest sporting star to explore space beyond wins and losses | Scottie Scheffler

TThe best athletes in the world may seem a confused group. Scottie Scheffler described in a press conference before opening how he continues to wonder why he wants to win golf tournaments and finds no answer. The male tennis player in the world n ° 3, Alexander Zverev, confessed to the feelings of emptiness and the lack of joy in his tennis, which he wins or lost matches. Wimbledon’s finalist of women, Amanda Anisimova, took a long break in tennis to preserve her mental health, was radiated by many and not knowing what to expect on the return, but found herself in the final of the SW19.

What’s going on? While the best athletes in the world naturally push the limits of what is physically possible, they must also push the limits mentally, and these questions and experiences are an essential element of this process.

We see more and more athletes exploring space beyond winning and losing, a concept that a lot of sport have not yet understood. But as most athletes discover, some earlier than others, finding themselves to win and lose, is to lose the point, both in the field and in life.

Finding a goal behind the pursuit of trophies is now a key element in the mental journey of an athlete to reach and maintain its highest performance levels. And, typical of elite performance, this is not an easy path.

Scheffler explained before and after having triumphant to Royal Portrush that winning tournaments brought a feeling of positive success, but that it should not be confused with a deep and lasting fulfillment. In many ways, it is an attitude of healthy questioning. Scheffler is largely in a good place: he still likes to play, while being aware that winning a golf tournament can never be everything and finish. But he is aware that he does not yet have a good enough answer to the question: “Why do I want to win this championship so badly?”

Anisimova faced professional exhaustion two years ago and knew that she had to move away. This free time allowed her to reconnect with herself and to redefine why she wanted to play tennis again. She said that many people told her that she would never come back if she took time – one wonders the interests they were in charge or if they understood the need to nourish the mental and emotional health of an athlete as much as the physical and physiological side. Zverev seems to feel that he must find a different route and knows that the answer does not concern winning or losing.

Scheffler, Anisimova and Zverev each prove the results of biology, psychology and philosophy of age that humans need a meaning in our lives beyond immediate and material gains. Whether you are looking at the upper level of the hierarchy of the needs of psychologist Abraham Maslow, that you return to Greek stoic philosophers or open the psychiatrist and the survivor of Auschwitz Viktor Frankl’s Classic Man research, the main strength of motivation in humans is to find the meaning and purpose of life. The trophies are fun and we appreciate them all. But as Scheffler reminds us, these celebrations last only a few minutes and “will never fill the deepest desires and desires of my heart”.

It is important to note that these athletes do not say that winning does not matter. It is simply not the only thing and, because victory is by its temporary and superficial nature, it is insufficient to maintain the highest levels of performance. Ask “what is the time for sport?” Can feel dangerous, almost heretical, but it is clearly a powerful reflection process to maintain any athlete who wants to explore his full potential.

Finding reasons why sporting questions can be different for different athletes, but generally implies the conscience of the person you are becoming thanks to the continuation of sporting excellence, the depth of the connection you have with friends, family and wider communities to which you belong and, over time, the lasting positive impact or the inheritance that you may leave.

Giving athletes and support to explore how they find a sense of their sports journey becomes an essential quality for coaches to support and facilitate. But it is a world far from many ways of coaching development which for decades have emphasized technical and tactical excellence. Even in the world of sport psychology where there is the greatest competence in this area, this is not what is often requested from coaches or performance directors.

Organizations such as Switch The Play, The True Athlete Project, Act and the Jacobs Futura Foundation woke up to the need to help athletes get out of sport at the end of their careers, alongside various companies that offer athlete transition programs. What becomes clear is that these conversations on objective, identity and social impact must arrive much earlier in the career of an athlete, well before their retirement.

An interesting consequence that follows when athletes have a strong sense of meaning, goal and connection is less the difference between the emotional states of winners and losers. Victory and loss are useful in continuing connection with others and the process of self -discovery and character development, strengthening values and virtues such as resilience, courage, gratitude and humility.

We have seen this demonstrated by the finalists of the male singles of Wimbledon and the two best players in the world, Jannik Sinner and Carlos Alcaraz, whose speeches were remarkably similar and largely based on gratitude, humility and acceptance of loss. Alcaraz clarified that losses did harm but were “not failures” and the sinner stressed how important it was “to accept” its loss a few weeks earlier at the French Open. They had given everything to win Wimbledon, but were both immediately anchored to what they were not changed by the result and that they play a larger game.

Performance Sport shows us suitors at the top of their game whose incredible human possibility is now going beyond the playing field. As Sinner said just after keeping the Wimbledon trophy for the first time: “We continue to push and try to become a better tennis player, but above all a better person.” This is the way of finding the mental edge, whatever the game you play.