What Happened to Novak Djokovic?
SEPTEMBER 13, 2021
In three straight sets, it was over. But the most telling part was what happened at 4-5 in the third set. Djokovic went to his seat, put his towel over his face, and sobbed. He was flooded with tears and emotions he had bottled up for a long time. Despite his message to the media that he was staying present and taking it one match at a time, his body wasn’t fooled. It was hearing a different message, and it was feeling the pressure that he, and all of us, were putting on him.
This was the critical mismatch. The mismatch between brain and body - body sending a message to the brain that it doesn’t feel safe, and the brain telling the body to dig in, suck it up, and keep on going. When this mismatch occurs, the body always eventually wins.
That’s what happened. Despite Djokovic’s narrative he continued to share with all of us, his body knew the truth. It hadn’t recovered fully back to safety since winning Wimbledon and losing the Olympics. It didn’t know how to find comfort and safety in the days, weeks and months leading up to this championship match. Instead, Djokovic entered Sunday’s US Open Final in a body already under threat, already near its threshold for what it could handle, and already exhausted from defending and protecting itself on, and off the court.
KENA BETANCUR/AFP/GETTY IMAGES
What Djokovic described as “my legs were not there”, “a lot of unforced errors”, “no serve really”, and “below par with my game” - beneath all of this was his body. A body under threat. At no point during the match, from the very first point to nearly the last, did his body find safety and free up. At no point did he “play”. In fact, he put up very little fight. This isn’t typical for Djokovic, as he usually fights, defends, adapts, figures out a solution, and finds his way back into controlling his body and the match. But this didn’t happen on this day, until it was all over.
This was the pinnacle moment. The big reveal of what’s always been beneath his relentless hunger and unstoppable drive on the court. Although the match wasn’t officially over on the scoreboard, it was finally over for Djokovic. RELIEF! Relief from a long, hard battle he’d been fighting since he began his personal quest to be the best. RELIEF! Relief from the relentless battle with the world - always compared, criticized and coming up short to the likes of Federer and Nadal. RELIEF! Relief from the ongoing battle with himself of being, or not being, enough. As he went to his seat at 4-5 in the third, all by himself, it happened.
He was exhausted. Tapped out. Unable to run, hide or fight any longer. So he gave up. He gave up the match. He gave up his battle with the world. And he gave up the inner fight with himself. He gave up his defenses and he walked straight into his personal battles. He met his body where it was. He didn’t push it away, pretend it wasn’t there, or hide from it any longer. Instead, he sobbed. His body shook. He began to let it all go - releasing what he’s been storing, repressing and masking for a very long time. RELIEF! And he finally felt safe. Safe in his body. This was his greatest display of humanness yet to play out on the court. Putting down his weapons, and shedding his mask - he shared an authentic moment of pure vulnerability with us. The crowd recognized it, they felt it, and they loved it. They supported him. They cheered for him, and he received it. He felt seen. He felt heard. He felt accepted. He felt loved. For the first time on the court, Djokovic felt truly safe. Safe to be himself. Safe to lose. Safe to be vulnerable. Safe to be loved. In that moment, he was enough. And it was magical.
Robert Deutsch, USA TODAY
Although this might sound soft, this is actually hard science based on a neurophysiological framework developed by Stephen W. Porges Ph.D to optimize resilience and performance. Beneath the emotions, behaviors and reactions is a physiology - a body that feels safe, in danger or overwhelmed by threat. A body stuck in defense results in a player that under performs when it really counts, easily overreacts, tightens up, gives up too quickly, and no longer likes the game. In other words, the fear of losing takes over and the player fights, runs or hides until the body can’t fight, run or hide any longer. There is a solution - to recognize and regulate physiological state “on demand” for optimal performance in any situation, on AND off the court.
Sincerely,
Michael Allison
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