Mardy Fish
Benefitting The Mardy Fish Children’s Foundation
If you follow the sport of tennis at all, you know the name Mardy Fish. He rose to prominence in the early 2000's and became the #1 American tennis player in the ATP rankings and #7 in the world. What you may not know about Mardy Fish is that during a career-defining match at the US Open against Roger Federer, in front of 25,000 people and with millions watching on TV, he walked off the court, withdrew from the match and simply vanished. It wasn't until many months later than Marty courageously revealed that he had suffered from a severe anxiety attack on the court, and was privately struggling to function in his daily life. Without a model to turn to for how to manage as an athlete with an anxiety disorder, he had to become the example he never found, and in doing so has inspired men and women all over the world to live a full and successful life in spite of mental illness.
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Wise Words
“We were in London just training and that was the first time I could really go out to dinner. I remember I had a caprese salad which had the mozzarella cheese and the burrata cheese in there. That was the first thing that I was like, “I should really enjoy this. I’m going to order a caprese salad.” That’s how disciplined I was to everything that went into my body.”
“Andy Roddick was the alpha male of my generation, he was always number one American forever. I got to seven and got to be the number one ranked player in the world. We were both in the top 10 which is really special because again, we lived with each other when we were 16 years old, dreaming about stuff like that. We were both in the top 10 together, which was really cool.”
“I wanted to crawl into a little ball and not have anyone talk to me or see me or anything, because it was like I felt really, really vulnerable.”
“I’m on YouTube, googling anxiety disorder, anxiety attacks, panic attacks. I’ve no idea what these are. I didn’t have any friends that were in it. I’m such a huge sports fan, so I didn’t have a role model or a success story to lean on because no one had really heard about it that much. And again, no one close to me ever had anything like it so I didn’t know what to do.”
“Over the course of the next two months, three months, I didn’t leave my house other than to go to the doctor. I didn’t leave one time. The first thing that I did was go to a movie with my wife. And we had to sit in the first seat next to the exit. I’d have a Xanax in my pocket just incase, knowing that I wasn’t going to take it, but it was there just in case. I was starting the healing process of being able to go out of the house.”
“...it’s part of my life forever and it’s daily.”
“The support system was massive because I was in a really bad place, and if I didn’t have a support system, I’m not sure I’d still be here or I’m not sure what would have happened.”
“...I don’t know where I’d be without that medicine to at least get me to a point where I felt comfortable leaving my house or having a normal day.”
“Everyone’s story is different. Your story is different than my story. Mine wasn’t worse than yours and yours wasn’t worse than mine. In our own little worlds, it was terrible and that’s all that we can...I can’t say, “Oh, you had (a) mental health (issue). Were you on the couch for three months? Could you leave your house? No? Okay, well, then mine’s tougher.” That’s not how it works. Mine was harder than yours. Everyone’s world is rocked by it when they get it.”
“My thought is to try and change the channel on my negative thoughts and turn it to positive, and so I just try to change the channel immediately. What I do is, I play every shot on a golf course. My favorite golf course that I played, the most beautiful place in Northern Carolina, in the Blue Ridge Mountains in North Carolina. I’ll get to the third hole, and it’ll be gone. I never get to the fourth or fifth hole.”
“At the end of the day, be comfortable with where you finish or where you fall. Just know that when you’re done, you’re done and you can’t go back.”
“All the moments where you’re really scared, where you’re really vulnerable, where you feel like you’re alone, you’re not. There are people that are going through what you’re going through in their own world, lots of people.”
Links
Website: mardyfishtennis.com
Charity: mardyfishchildrensfoundation.org
Twitter: @MardyFish