Show us and activity you enjoy doing.

Tell us how you think it contribute to your personal and professional development.

Silvia Alonso GómezIE MBA ApplicationNovember 25, 2014

Madrid, Spain

TENNIS“A way of life”

Sports have always been essential in my life.

Since my chilhood I have practiced most of them

(swimming, skiing, surfing, running, paddle,

mountain climbing, scuba diving, … etc)

competing also in every category.

But my real passion came at 8 years old when I

started to play TENNIS.

Tennis in my life as…

TennisPlayer

TennisInstructor

Tennis Player(1990 - 2001)

Tennis Player

I played tennis at professional level for11 years.

I started at age 8 and, only one yearlater, I had already won several citychampionships in the juvenile category.

Since then, tennis became a part of me.

Regional championships and trainingsalso began to multiply and mycontinuous improvement in the rankingkept motivating me every day.

Championships & Trainings

Tennis is one of the few sports without breaks in the

season .

Training planning and carrying it out efficiently

were the fundamental bases of my activity.

Principle based on PERIODIZATION:

• Determine training cycles

• Avoid overtraining

• Work and rest

• Combine training

• Deciding when to be at 100%

INSTRUCTOR(1996 - 2002)

Making my big dream real

During my professionalperiod I obtained theofficial tittle of tennisinstructor.

For several years, Icombined tennis classeswith my own training,and even, the beginningof my academic career.

It was a very rewarding and exciting timein my personal and academic life.

“Every great dream begins with a dreamer”

My ownTennis Classes

Exercise sequences were classified into different levels depending on their degree of complexity:

Solid Base of Learning

Initial learning wasbased primarily on:

Make lesson interactive and fun

Teach how to toss, catch, roll, bounceand move

New skills learned and allow kids towork together

Set quantitive goals

Every activity has a purpose

Keep competition cooperative and asa part of the group

Determine what the kids need to do to be able to move up

Skills based

Programs must flow seamlesslyinto one another

Make sure this is wellcommunicated to kids

No exceptions A logicalprogression

But..Why tennis?

Howdoes it contribute to my personal and professional development?

Personal Satisfaction

Health Activity

For me it is more than a greatway to stay active.

It delivers me physical, mental and emotional gains.

And also engages my mindand body at the same time.

I feel more confident, healthier, less stressed and more socially interactive.

LONGER AND HAPPIER LIFE

Always provides me…

I always love what I do and feel passion for it.Passion is energy.

Championship, victory, passionand preparation!!!

Motivation is what passion needs inorder to give birth to success.

Being passionate about something Ijust need that single push, that smallencouragement. And once I ammotivated, I become even morepassionate, engage myself in action,thus making success inevitable.

Motivation, Passionand Success

Success

Success is no accident.

It is hard work, perseverance, learning, sacrifice and most of all, love for what you are doing or learning to do.

“I always work with a goal and this is to improve as a player and a person.That, finally, is the most important thing of all”

RAFAEL NADAL

Sacrifice CapacityEffortDiscipline

I always push myself again and again andmake a total effort.

Talent is never enough. With few exceptionsthe best players are the hardest workers.

No excuses, without self-discipline, successis impossible.

Believing in myself makes me a winner rightthere.

AND DETERMINATION

Just keep going. Everybody gets better if they keep at it.

Persistence has changed me failure into extraordinary achievement.

Determination

Determination is crucial for talentdevelopment.

It helps me define and decide mygoals as well as find the resolve tosee those goals achieved.

For me the simplest form ofdetermination is sheer willfulness.

It is the will to work hard and towork smart.

With high level determination Ihave high level motivation andself-discipline.

I set my goals

high, and don’t

stop till I get there

Precision Concentration

Each stroke requires maximumconcentration and precision.

The key CONCENTRATION is tohave my mind on the here andnow, I mean, focus on thepresent in a productive way.

Tennis is a sport of PRECISION.My eyes fixed on the ball andwithout losing sight of it toreach my goal.

Always oriented to an objective..

Confidence

Most tennis players experiencelack of confidence sooner or laterin their tennis journey.

This feeling affects our shots,movement and decision makingprocess.

Being confident I can successfullyovercome a task ahead of me. I usually dig deep to find and face my fears.

Stop thinking, clearing my mind and lookingto enter the zone.

NO worrying thoughts to disrupt myconcentration. NO emotions like fearand anxiety to lower my performance.

But… how??

I believe I can do it and I go forward decisively focused on what needs to be done.

Initiative & Responsability

Competition

Without initiative the match is lost.

We always have to take it with security andconfidence in ourselves in order not to missany opportunity.

What to do to compete well?

- Follow a plan- Control the game- Exploit weaknesses of the opponent- Get and keep up the pace of the match- Take the initiative

Is the process of motivating and helping others to work enthusiastically toachieve the objectives. To grow or develop my leadership skills, I need:

ASSESMENT

I need to know what my strengths and weaknesses are, what I am good at,and what I need to develop. This is an honest and open look at myself.

CHALLENGE

I need to be able to step out of my comfort zone and overcome a hurdlethat is difficult, yet attainable.

SUPPORT

I need to get support from my colleagues and organization.• My colleagues need to play several roles (counselor, cheerleader,reinforcer, mentor, and/or coach.• My organization needs to provide rewards and recognition, time andresources.

THE LEADERSHIPCHALLENGE

Tennis is a sport of patience, ofcalm, of waiting your opportunityand finally as your skills improve,so will your performance.

Never lose patience. When thingsgo wrong, it is important to keepthe pace of the match.

The key: Do not lose too manyconsecutive points.

CONTROL DIFFICULT SITUATIONSControl Difficult Situations

When we are in a bad situation,we must go slowly, breathe, relaxand focus.

The “time” of the match should beslowed down to rethink our plan.

A match is very long, there isalways time to rectify and get backinto it.

Ambition

What makes me always win is the ambition and desire to fight every day.

Inside ambition lies the idea of personal achievement.

It is necessary to believe in a healthy ambition and not in an excessive one.This means to be happy with oneself and have the drive to fulfill new goalsevery time.

When you don’t have that illusion and ambitions to do other things appear, itwill be the moment to do those other things.

ACCEPTING MISTAKES

Work towards your goal keeping in mind what you learned from your last mistake, but also understanding that this is a new opportunity for success.

-> RECOGNIZE IT, ADMIT IT, LEARN FROM IT AND FORGET IT.

Everyone misess but the most important is to reactevery mistake you make.

How?

Accepting Mistakes

Encourages interaction, communication and teamwork

It is Social

Teamwork is essential to build a winning team.Together we achieve more.

In our team, we all had a clear goal, a results-driven structure, competent team members, anunified commitment and collaborative climate toachieve always the best results.

This also allowed me to meet great professionals.

Teamwork

Tennis teaches life lessons

We, as tennis players, develop a workethic, learn sportsmanship, acceptresponsibility, manage mistakes,enhance discipline, learn to competecope with pressure and adversity,develop healthy habits and learnteamwork among others.

Learning and Performance

“Always learning and improving”

Hard training, teaching classes and myacademic studies forced me to managetime in a completely efficient manner.

CLAY COURT

GRASS COURT

CEMENT COURT

Tennis forces me to accept and adapt to anyenvironment with flexibility.

It implies a continuous adaptation to change andchange is always unpredictible:

• There are variety of responses• Exciting/ dissapointing results

It is also always necessary:

Respond to the change Be an agent of change Rearrange my priorities Handle properly multiple demands Adapt responses and tactics to the changing

circumstances Flexible view of events

Adaptability to the Environment

Strategic and Analytical Thinking

Tennis requires alertness, tactical thinking and problem solving.

To be able to analyze the current state of play and set a strategic plan (tactical)are two fundamental keys to provide high performance responses in situationsof high competitive stress.

How to bring strategic thinking into practice?: Play point by point without thinking on the scoreboard Focus only on seeing the ball Do not think about anything, not to analyze Enjoy the match celebrating the points you win and forget those that are

lost Focus perfectly on the point of contact

Strategic thinking leads to perspective Long term planning leads to position Tactical planning leads to performance.

Never give up! Failure and rejection are only the first step to succeeding.

And…

Thanks!