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Maximizing Tennis Growth Potential

Posted on November 6, 2017 by in Blunders and Cures, Customized Organizational Plan, Maximizing Tennis Potential

The following post is an excerpt from the Second Edition of The Tennis Parent’s Bible NOW available through most online retailers!  Click Here to Order  black_ebook_design2

 

 

 

 

 

ACCELERATED GROWTH BLUNDER: Not Seeing Stumbling Blocks as Stepping Stones

 

Regardless of the comfort level, accelerated growth demands aborting ineffective strokes, strategies or tactics and systematically re-tooling them. Change is mandatory for growth.

 

“Change is the only thing that’s permanent.”

Here’s a terrific example: a few years back, Molly Scott (former 2006, SCTA #1, Dartmouth College #1 standout) sprained her non-dominant left wrist.

Her initial position was to follow protocol which was no tennis for 4-6 weeks. Molly called saying, “Frank, I have to cancel my training for 4-6 weeks because my left arm is sprained.”

I said, “That’s upsetting, but we needed some time to switch focus anyway. This actually fits into a new developmental plan. We’ll begin to organize your proactive patterns and between point rituals, we’ll develop your one-handed slice backhand drop shot and your low, backhand volley. Let’s begin today with a new 4-week crash course on lower body fitness and stamina.” Molly’s voice dropped to this low, quiet depressed tone, “ooohhh….really..aahh…that’s… um….super.”

 

Six weeks later Molly beat a top ten player in the nation as she applied her newfound slice backhand drop shot to perfection!

 

Overlooking Goal Setting

Posted on May 6, 2016 by in Blunders and Cures

The following post is an excerpt from the ebook- Blunders and Cures. Blunders & Cures by Frank Giampaolo

 

BLUNDER: Overlooking Goal Setting

Goal setting and organizational plans should be used as soon as you enter into the competitive phase. After an event, plan on setting some goals as you schedule your upcoming lessons. Sit down with your entourage to review your performance at an appropriate time. This analysis will provide your “Blue Print” for the upcoming weeks’ worth of lessons and clinics.

There are four basic sides to your game that need to be developed religiously. Examples include:

  1. Technical: (Example: Slice backhand)
  2. Tactical: (Example: How to beat a moonball/retriever)
  3. Movement/Fitness: (Example: Develop core strength and stability)
  4. Emotional/Focus: (Example: Practicing closing out 5-2 leads)

 

At all levels of competition, matches should be viewed as an information gathering session. The overall objective is to maximize your potential at the quickest rate. Winning comes from experience and experience comes from both winning and losing.

CURE: Identify an area in your game that can be improved upon in each of the four sides of development.

  1. Technical:
  2. Tactical:
  3. Movement/Fitness:
  4. Emotional/Focus:

 

Define a plan of attack for each of the 4 skills identified. Evaluate the plan after its implementation and determine if the plan is working? Adjust as necessary but continue to train on the skills you need most.

Ask Yourself?

Did you find one flaw per category you wish to improve? Di you set aside time to review your list with your coach and devise a plan on working to improve your identified weaknesses? Do you have a style of opponent that you hate to play? Have you ever taken a month and focused on developing the tools to actually beat that particular style of opponent? Or do you do the same drills week after week and hope for different results?

CONTACT:

Frank Giampaolo
FGSA@earthlink.net

College Tennis Scholarships

Posted on May 3, 2016 by in Blunders and Cures, Customized Organizational Plan, How To Attract A College Scholarship, Match Day Preparation

Special E-Book Bundle:

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The following post is an excerpt from How to Attract a College Athletic Scholarship.

“Buyers” Market Versus “Sellers” Market
In the college athletic world, being in the “buyer” market means college coaches from prestigious universities across the nation will be begging your child to attend their schools. This is a result of the player’s (and their parent’s) focusing on developing the skills of a champion from an early age. Athletic royalty takes commitment and passion years before college. Assisting your child to build their physical, mental and emotional tool sets early will ensure that coaches will be selling you and your child on the merits of their athletic and academic programs and not the other way around.
FUN FACT: On a personal note, building a champion in her early teens saved us approximately $240,000 K on our daughters USC education. Build it first and they will come.
If on the other hand, you and your child have failed to prepare early for college athletics, college coaches will most likely not be searching your child out- hence your child will be in the “seller’ market.
What’s the “sellers” market?
In this situation, the seller’s market refers to the job of “selling” your child’s possible athletic value to college coaches, along with the thousands of other talented but unproven athletes vying for the leftover scraps of scholarship funds. If you think the task of “selling” your child’s skills is tough, wait until you have to write those dreaded big checks for their education. So I’ll say it again, build a champion and they will come. I recommend reviewing the essential material in the book: Raising Athletic Royalty.
SPECIAL NOTE: I want to clarify that developing athletic royalty skill sets usually begins well before the athletes reaches their teens, whereas, initiating the college search process usually begins the freshman year of high school.

Contact:

Frank Giampaolo
FGSA@earthlink.net

Ignoring Your B and C Game Plans

Posted on June 2, 2015 by in Blunders and Cures

The following post is an excerpt from Blunders and Cures.  Thanks for visiting, Frank GiampaoloBlunders & Cures_final

 

BLUNDER: Ignoring Your B and C Game Plans

In the competitive stage of tennis, spending a few moments to organize your primary and secondary styles of play will push you ahead of most opponents.  Styles of play include hard hitting baseliners, all court players, net rushers, and retrievers. In lower levels of competition, continually bringing the opponent into the net can also be an effective style of play.

FUN FACT: In lower level tennis, players are often under developed.  While they may have solid ground strokes, their volleys and overheads are nonexistent.  Forcing a comfortable baseliner to play the match at the net, tips the odds in your favor. Brining an opponent into the net is a set of skills that needs to be developed as well. These secondary stroke skills are drop shots, dipping passing shots and lobs.  Rehearsing these skills would be a great example of one’s B and C game plans.

CURE: Set up practice sets against lower level players and force yourself to rehearse your secondary style of play. Champions have mastered more than one style and so can you!

Example: My step- daughter Sarah played her first adult U.S. Open at age 15. In the first round, Sarah’s opponent came out with her Plan A style (hard hitting baseliner). Sarah won the first set 6-4. At the start of the 2nd set, the opponent switched to Plan B (net rusher) and Sarah went up 4-1. The opponent then switched to Plan C (moonball/pusher), which was Sarah’s least favorite style of opponent. Sarah was amazed to see a 30-year old WTA veteran push her way to a $15,000 victory in the 3rd set.

Ask Yourself?

Winning whole tournaments often requires more tools in your tool belt. Are you a one trick pony? If your plan A isn’t working do you just get mad? So, what are your B and C Game Plans? Can you schedule time to develop those skills and then plan on playing practice sets with those secondary styles of play? Can you start this week?

Write down your Personal Action Plan:

Contact: Frank Giampaolo
FGSA@earthlink.net
MaximizingTennisPotential.com
Affiliate

Developmental Goals

Posted on June 1, 2015 by in Blunders and Cures, Maximizing Tennis Potential

The following post is an excerpt from Blunders and Cures.  Thanks for visiting, Frank Giampaolo

Championship Tennis Cover

BLUNDER: Overlooking Goal Setting

Goal setting and organizational plans should be used as soon as you enter into the competitive phase. After an event, plan on setting some goals as you schedule your upcoming lessons. Sit down with your entourage to review your performance at an appropriate time. This analysis will provide your “Blue Print” for the upcoming weeks’ worth of lessons and clinics.

There are four basic sides to your game that need to be developed religiously. Examples include:

  1. Technical: (Example: Slice backhand)
  2. Tactical: (Example: How to beat a moonball/pusher)
  3. Movement/Fitness: (Example: Develop core strength and stability)
  4. Emotional/Focus: (Example: Practicing closing out 5-2 leads)

At all levels of competition, matches should be viewed as an information gathering session. The overall objective is to maximize your potential at the quickest rate. Winning comes from experience and experience comes from both winning and losing.

CURE: Identify an area in your game that can be improved upon in each of the four sides of development.

  1. Technical:
  2. Tactical:
  3. Movement/Fitness:
  4. Emotional/Focus:

Define a plan of attack for each of the 4 skills identified. Evaluate the plan after its implementation and determine if the plan is working? Adjust as necessary but continue to train on the skills you need most.

Ask Yourself?

Did you find one flaw per category you wish to improve? Di you set aside time to review your list with your coach and devise a plan on working to improve your identified weaknesses? Do you have a style of opponent that you hate to play? Have you ever taken a month and focused on developing the tools to actually beat that particular style of opponent? Or do you do the same drills week after week and hope for different results?

Write down your Personal Action Plan:

Contact: Frank Giampaolo
FGSA@earthlink.net
MaximizingTennisPotential.com
Affiliate 

 

Neglecting Smart Work

Posted on May 29, 2015 by in Blunders and Cures

The following post is an excerpt from Blunders and Cures.  Thanks for visiting, Frank GiampaoloThe Tennis Parent's Bible by Frank Giampaolo

BLUNDER: Neglecting Smart Work

Great coaches have the ability to zero in on a player’s weaknesses long before players or parents know they even exist. This is where smart work comes into play. Up until this point, we have touched on the subject of proper organization, but fixing what actually needs to be fixed is crucial if you want to improve at the fastest rate.

Let’s use an analogy. If a race car continually loses race after race due to its tires blowing out, will spending 4 hours a day polishing the fenders solve the problem? Not likely!

As I travel across the world conducting tennis workshops, I talk with juniors who claim that they despise playing moonball/pushers, Yet, when I witness the same players training,  they are simply playing “catch” with their coach, -as they rally back and forth to each other for the entire lesson.

CURE:  Smart work would be to replace those hours playing “catch” with “keep away” patterns designed to defuse a back court retriever. They include side door patterns and moonball approach to swing volley patterns just to name a few. You may be working hard over 4 hours a day, but are you working smart?

Ask Yourself?

What are your typical lessons and practice sessions like? Do you spend the majority of the time hitting ground strokes that are fed right to your strike zone? List three ways that you can possibly improve your lesson plan? Memorize this: “Practice in the manner you are expected to perform.”

Write down your Personal Action Plan:

 

Contact: Frank Giampaolo
FGSA@earthlink.net
MaximizingTennisPotential.com
Affiliate 

 

Enjoying the Journey

Posted on May 27, 2015 by in Blunders and Cures

The following post is an excerpt from Blunders and Cures.  Thanks for visiting, Frank Giampaolo

Frank Giampaolo

BLUNDER: Postponing Happiness

Happiness is the state of being satisfied- choosing to experience more positive emotions than negative emotions. Happy memories are one of life’s’ most valuable possessions. Despite the challenging full time demands of the competitive tennis player, tennis offers secret rewards.

Even though happiness is within everyone’s reach, some players (and their entourage) spend their entire tennis career frustrated, anxious, and depressed by choosing to dwell only on failures, problems, and future concerns. I often hear players say, “I’ll be happy when I finally win one!”

Don’t be the player who postpones happiness, gratitude, and love. Enjoy the journey. If you are a junior competitor you will be off to college and missing junior tennis sooner than you think.

CURE: Take some time to enjoy the “positives” tennis has to offer. Begin by looking at the benefits the game has brought into your life.  Tennis is known to help people develop valuable life skills.  Here are just a few: strong work ethic, discipline, perseverance, responsibility, problem solving skills, time management skills, networking skills, team work, improved fitness, coordination, balance and flexibility. Tennis also opens the door to friendships across the world by giving you reason to visit other cities, states, and even countries.

Ask Yourself?

Has tennis helped you improve any of the above life skills? Do you know those same life skills are mandatory in order to be successful later in life? What makes you happy? If you listed winning, then you are deceiving yourself! Do you think winning a tennis tournament is going to give you lasting satisfaction? The reality is that winning bumps you up into a tougher level of competition. True competitors hate losing more than they enjoy winning. They find satisfaction in their performance. The tragedy is not enjoying the moment. Here is a trick to turn pessimism into optimism: List 5 things a day to be grateful for? Can you make a list each day for 5 days?

Write down your Personal Action Plan:

Contact: Frank Giampaolo
FGSA@earthlink.net
MaximizingTennisPotential.com
Affiliate 

 

Accepting Change

Posted on May 24, 2015 by in Blunders and Cures, The Tennis Parent's Bible

The following post is an excerpt from Blunders and Cures.  Thanks for visiting, Frank GiampaoloBlunders & Cures_final

BLUNDER: Overlooking the Pain Principle

Remember the old saying? “If you keep on doing what you’ve always done, you’ll keep on getting what you’ve always got.”

Players hit common walls in their development. One of those walls is resisting change.

If you view the process of change as more painful than losing, then you will continue to go down the same losing path. For some players, it’s so painful to change a flawed grip, stroke, stance, or even adding more off-court training time, that they would rather accept the pain of losing than deal with correcting their flaw. However, great things begin to happen when the pain of losing starts to be more powerful than the pain of changing. Once a player accepts the fact that a change has to be made, they are on their way to the next level.

CURE: The cycle of change is a three step process:

  1. Step one is accepting change.
  2. Step two is letting go of the old, comfortable flaw and embracing the new change which will most likely be uncomfortable at first. It is important to resist going back to your old strokes or tendencies.
  3. Step three is a 4-6 week developmental cycle. During this phase, your new motor program becomes personalized and over-rides the old motor program. This phase is critical in order to bring confidence to your new changes and prepare you for competition so that you don’t resort back to your losing ways under tournament pressure.

Ask Yourself:

Is the pain of change greater than the pain of losing? If you choose to fix a flawed fundamental stroke, can you take time off of the tournament trail?  Think back to your last few pressure packed tournaments, was there a stroke that let you down? Did your conditioning/stamina fail you? Did you lack the tactical answers to pull your opened out of their comfort zone? Did your emotions (fear) prevent you from playing your game at crunch time? If so, a change may be in order. Can you list a recurring theme that causes you to break down under pressure?

Contact: Frank Giampaolo
FGSA@earthlink.net
MaximizingTennisPotential.com
Affiliate

 

 

Goal Setting

Posted on May 18, 2015 by in Blunders and Cures

The following post is an excerpt from Blunders and Cures.  Thanks for visiting, Frank GiampaoloBlunders & Cures_final

BLUNDER: Overlooking Goal Setting

Goal setting and organizational plans should be used as soon as you enter into the competitive phase. After an event, plan on setting some goals as you schedule your upcoming lessons. Sit down with your entourage to review your performance at an appropriate time. This analysis will provide your “Blue Print” for the upcoming weeks’ worth of lessons and clinics.

There are four basic sides to your game that need to be developed religiously. Examples include:

  1. Technical: (Example: Slice backhand)
  2. Tactical: (Example: How to beat a moonball/pusher)
  3. Movement/Fitness: (Example: Develop core strength and stability)
  4. Emotional/Focus: (Example: Practicing closing out 5-2 leads)

At all levels of competition, matches should be viewed as an information gathering session. The overall objective is to maximize your potential at the quickest rate. Winning comes from experience and experience comes from both winning and losing.

CURE: Identify an area in your game that can be improved upon in each of the four sides of development.

  1. Technical:
  2. Tactical:
  3. Movement/Fitness:
  4. Emotional/Focus:

Define a plan of attack for each of the 4 skills identified. Evaluate the plan after its implementation and determine if the plan is working? Adjust as necessary but continue to train on the skills you need most.

Ask Yourself?

Did you find one flaw per category you wish to improve? Did you set aside time to review your list with your coach and devise a plan on working to improve your identified weaknesses? Do you have a style of opponent that you hate to play? Have you ever taken a month and focused on developing the tools to actually beat that particular style of opponent? Or do you do the same drills week after week and hope for different results?

 

Contact: Frank Giampaolo
FGSA@earthlink.net
MaximizingTennisPotential.com
Affiliate