An Interview with Dacio Campos

It was during a National Junior Tennis Championship when I had a casual conversation with my friend and coach Dacio Campos, our Sport TV commentator.

I initially asked Dacio to give me an outlook of Brazilian tennis’ future after the Guga (Gustavo Kuerten) Era. Dacio unconditionally confirmed that, even after Guga’s Era, the remarkable presence of Brazilian tennis will remain in the international scenario. Guga decisively contributed to the expansion of tennis in the country, most notably being responsible for the intensifying interest of the national media to show matches. Sport TV, for example, a credible channel that shows the international sport to our nation exhibits 300 matches a year, with Dacio as a commentator before 150 of them. Dacio emphasized the need to take advantage of this historical moment in our tennis history to start a program that will expand the calendar of tournaments within national territory.

On the other hand, Dacio gave a realistic point of view about the future of the women’s tennis. The phenomenon Maria Ester Bueno was an extreme case at a different period of time, when the televising media was practically nonexistent. Therefore, when Maria Ester was no longer at the top of the international scenario, neither were the rest of the women, and there our women’s tennis future was gone. Besides, he points out the body type of the Brazilian women - which is more inclined to the sensual type than athletic - as a major drawback to the leverage of the women’s tennis. But also, tennis requires a lot of perseverance and extended years of practice, causing the women to give up turning professional.

I also asked Dacio to give his opinion on what is missing to improve the performance of our talented prospective athletes. His answer was very simple, “shortage of coaches,” to which I agree. We lack quantity and quality due to the rapid growing number of players. Coaches with little or no experience have been called to the market in order to fill in the gap. Therefore, thousands of beginners give up on tennis when they are convinced not to be inclined to the sport while the problem is in the coaches’ technical inability to perform in the position. Furthermore, Dacio talked about his experience abroad, emphasizing the importance of the coaches’ job on the pro tour and their high responsibilities guiding the athletes. He believes we need to bring in immediately the traditional style of some famous foreign programs where they take care of entire athletes’ careers attempting to turn them professionals. After seeing many examples of “talented” players’ short careers, Dacio is convinced that “talent” almost in all cases gets on the way, and “perseverance and modesty” are the true career drivers to success. I unquestionably agree with him from the continuous emergence of such cases. They start playing at early ages and are prematurely successful for their chronological ages, and as a result, they first struggle to overcome the more advanced obstacles presented by a professional career and, consequently, struggle even more to keep up with the level required.

I asked Dacio what he thinks about psychology orientation in the development of athletes’ mental element. He certainly believes that the psychologist would have to be a tennis player of some kind in order to understand and identify the mental problems and high-pressures that athletes of the sport deal with, so then he or she could find answers to them.

We also talked about the method “Power Yoga”, which he considers an excellent system of mental orientation and relaxation for athletes. Along with that, I raised a question about a neuro-linguistic program as a support to athletes’ mental conditioning. He unquestionably considers this source as the best fit to find quick answers to the emotional balance of athletes lately.

And I conclude this article showing great appreciation to Dacio Campos for taking his precious time to make this contribution to our home page and wishing him a continuous rising success as a commentator before the national television, which is a natural consequence of his extended experience on and off international courts.