Tag Archives: elite coach Frank Giampaolo

Tennis Anxiety Issues- Part 1

Posted on December 23, 2020 by in Preparing for Pressure

The following post is an excerpt from Frank’s Amazon #1 New Tennis Book Release, Preparing for Pressure.

 Click Here To Order through Amazon

 

PERFORMANCE ANXIETIES

Preparing final cover 3D

Most athletes experience performance anxiety. It’s only natural when being judged. Performance Anxieties Insights were written as a guide to problem-solving real-life fears through exposure versus avoidance. Exposing an athlete in practice to match-day stressors helps to desensitize the athlete to their anxieties.

Each player’s genetic predisposition and upbringing play critical roles in the amount of stress they choose to suffer.

Often at tournaments, I witness role models (parents and coaches) who are far too focused on the outcome. When this occurs, the athlete is sure to follow with timid play, which is a sign of an outcome-oriented athlete on the verge of self-destruction.

On a deeper level, we as parents and coaches want our athletes to experience consistent, daily satisfaction. This type of long term happiness doesn’t come from winning tennis trophies. Instead, it stems from constant, daily growth. Confidence skyrockets only when the athlete’s effort and parental praise is placed on improvement versus winning. By focusing on the effort versus the outcome, performance anxieties are diminished. Let’s look at a few common performance anxieties.

 

 

Strive for Tennis Improvement

Posted on December 19, 2020 by in Preparing for Pressure, The Second Edition of The Tennis Parent's Bible

The following post is an excerpt from Frank’s Amazon #1 New Tennis Book Release, Preparing for Pressure.

 Click Here To Order through Amazon

 

 

True Happiness Stems From ProgressFrank Giampaolo

 

“Seek daily progress versus daily perfection.”

As crazy as it sounds, true happiness doesn’t always come from winning. It comes from performing at one’s peak potential under pressure.

Did you ever win a match against a player whose ability was levels below yours? It wasn’t truly satisfying, was it? Did you ever compete against a player whose ability was several levels above yours and you played amazingly, only to lose in a tightly contested battle? Remember walking away proud of your performance?

Choosing to feel passionate about performance as opposed to the outcome opens the doors to progress. Only with constant progress is consistent victory insight.

Let’s do a comparative analysis: 32 girls play a weekend soccer match and 16 players go home losers, and 16 go home winners. The same weekend 32 girls play a junior tennis tournament and one player wins, and 31 go home losers.

 

Tennis families that are only happy if they win the whole event are not likely enjoying the journey.

 

Teaching Tennis Life Skills

Posted on December 16, 2020 by in Preparing for Pressure

The following post is an excerpt from Frank’s Amazon #1 New Tennis Book Release, Preparing for Pressure.

 Click Here To Order through Amazon

 

 

 

Teach the Value of Keeping Promises with YourselfPreparing final cover 3D

 

“False promises are a form of self-sabotage.”

Confidence is built when athletes know they can rely on themselves. The top contenders that I’ve had the privilege of working with routinely matched their intentions and their actions on a daily basis. Procrastination and excuses are left to the weaker players. The fragile athletes avoid keeping promises.

Improvement typically stems from changing behavior. And changing behavior requires a commitment to training. Athletes choosing not to keep their commitments with themselves are destined to suffer when the pressure begins.

Athletes who have problems with matching their words with their actions would be wise to commit to a simple 30-day challenge. The task is to complete a 5-minute nightly journal. Listing five of their tennis related daily accomplishments that will significantly assist them in staying on track.

Often junior players say, I want to be a top player. But their actions say I want to be a normal kid. It is important to remind athletes that they cannot be a Champion and a normal kid.  They have to pick one because the pathway to becoming a Champion is far different than the path for normal kids.

 

Keeping promises makes the athlete … Breaking promises breaks the athlete.


 

Tennis From The Parent’s View- Part 4

Posted on December 6, 2020 by in Maximizing Tennis Potential, Preparing for Pressure

The following post is an excerpt from Frank’s Amazon #1 New Tennis Book Release, Preparing for Pressure.

 Click Here To Order through Amazon

 

 

Keep Your Athlete On-Script before CompetitionPreparing final cover 3D

 

“Your athlete’s script is their repeatable dominant patterns.”

Let’s go a step deeper into how parents can assist their athletes in preparing for pressure. When your athletes are uncertain, they play confused and fearful. Fear is the enemy of peak performance. When your athletes and their coaches design scripts (with clear physical, mental, emotional protocols), these intentions breed confidence. Focusing on their script of pre-set patterns and solutions serves two purposes for the athlete.

The first benefit is that a proper headspace distracts the athletes from the onslaught of contaminating outcome thoughts. Worrying about the possible upcoming catastrophe gets most athletes into a horrible mindset. While they can’t really stop themselves from thinking, you can purposely distract them from outcome dreams and nightmares. It’s important to note that often, the parents are the instigators of the contamination.

The second benefit is strategic- pre-setting rehearsed patterns and plays prior to competition. This is accomplished by asking your athlete to review their current performance goals, strategies, and contingency plans. Mental rehearsals through visualization is a terrific way to assist the athletes to adhere to their script mentally and emotionally before competition.

 

Great performances begin with an optimistic organized mindset.


 

Tennis from the Parent’s View- Part 5

Posted on November 27, 2020 by in Preparing for Pressure

The following post is an excerpt from Frank’s Amazon #1 New Tennis Book Release, Preparing for Pressure.

 Click Here To Order through Amazon

 

THE CULTURE OF BELIEFPreparing final cover 3D

 

“If you keep working this hard, you’ll be playing at the US Open!”

This was my actual weekly battle cry to my stepdaughter. By the age of 15, Sarah was competing at the US Open. The typical parental pre-match pep talk sounds like this: “Today’s so important! Don’t blow it again! You have to win!”

Belief stems from habitually using life skill terms such as effort, fight, resiliency, courage, persistence, and focus. Parents should routinely apply these lure words to subliminally planting the seeds needed to be clutch under pressure.

Molding belief is similar to molding memories. Do you remember hearing a childhood story throughout your youth that actually never really happened the way it’s told? These embellished accounts spun by family members eventually become real memories. Similarly, parents can apply a form of positive brainwashing to motivate athletes to believe in themselves in the heat of the battle. Children are impressionable. It’s within the tennis parent’s job description to convince their athletes that they can and will succeed.

 

Nurturing life skills and positive character traits should be every parent’s daily battle cry.

Tennis from the Parent’s View- Part 4

Posted on November 25, 2020 by in Preparing for Pressure

The following post is an excerpt from Frank’s Amazon #1 New Tennis Book Release, Preparing for Pressure.

 Click Here To Order through Amazon

Preparing final cover 3D

 

CONFIDENCE STEMS FROM CULTURE

 

“Parents, your thoughts and emotions are highly contagious.”

The parents are the athlete’s most consistent sphere of influence. Parents can help prepare athletes for pressure by priming confidence through solution-based optimistic dialog. They should also model positive life skills daily.

Parents would be wise to nurture their athlete’s software (mental and emotional skills) as much as they expect a hired coach to develop their child’s hardware (strokes and athleticism).

Let’s look at a typical week. We all get 24 hours a day, seven days a week. That’s 168 accountable hours. If a high-performance athlete is training their hardware with their coaches for approximately 20 hours a week, how many hours are left for parents to assist in the software development? The remaining 148 hours a week offer wonderful opportunities for mental and emotional growth.

Being clutch at crunch time is a learned skill. Understanding how to thrive versus wilt under pressure is developed by master coaches and master tennis parents. Another great question parents should ask themselves:

Is someone routinely mentoring the mental & emotional protocols needed to handle pressure in competition? If not, consistent disappointment is sure to shadow most upcoming tournament competitions.

Parents, if you’re not developing incredible character traits, a moral compass, and essential life skills, who is? Preparing for pressure requires the development of the athlete’s software skills.

 

Parents are the athlete’s most consistent sphere of influence.

 

Tennis from the Parent’s View- Part 2

Posted on November 19, 2020 by in Preparing for Pressure

The following post is an excerpt from Frank’s Amazon #1 New Tennis Book Release, Preparing for Pressure.

 Click Here To Order through Amazon

Preparing final cover 3D

PARENT’S, DO YOU HAVE A PLAN?

 

“Your Weekly Initiative Separates Your Athlete From Their Peers?”

All throughout the history of tennis, we have seen ordinary men and women come from humble backgrounds with nothing but a dream. Most of these athletes weren’t especially gifted or financially wealthy. Yet they were able to become top ATP and WTA professionals. What separates us from them is their family commitment to push beyond mediocrity. It doesn’t take much effort to be average. Follow the crowd, and you’ll reach that level.

Most athletes dream of playing professional or NCAA ball but only a few are destined for greatness. It’s estimated that only 5% of High school varsity tennis players move on to play high-level college tennis. It’s not their lack of athleticism, it’s their lack of a deliberate, customized developmental plan.

 

The tennis success you seek requires a high tennis IQ, well developed emotional aptitude,
and the acceptance of serious weekly growth.

 

ELITE TENNIS PARENT JOB POST

Posted on November 12, 2020 by in The Second Edition of The Tennis Parent's Bible

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

Frank wrote the ELITE TENNIS PARENT JOB POST as a humor piece while addressing the tennis parent’s extreme importance to maximize tennis potential and facilitate a healthy and positive environment. Enjoy!

 

Frank Giampaolo

ELITE TENNIS PARENT JOB POST

Before we dig deeper into the more serious components of the tennis parent’s role, let’s first laugh a bit about what a “Tennis Parent Needed” internet job post would look like…

With “tongue firmly in cheek,” I created the below piece for Tennis Magazine, which ran last year. The point of detailing this incredibly difficult and sometimes thankless job is acknowledging the love and dedication that go into developing and nurturing your child’s life skills.

 

Tennis Parent Job Description:

  • Positive team player needed for 168 hours per week position.
  • Candidate must possess a universal desire to be screamed at, talked down to, and be willing to be hated 5-6 days a week.
  • The successful applicant must have an uncanny sense of “Buddha-like” calmness in an often psychotic, stressful, chaotic environment.
  • Candidate must be willing to work early mornings, late evenings, and most weekends.
  • Candidate must be willing to forget about their own personal interests, workout routines, sports, and hobbies.
  • Candidate must not expect to go on vacation due to the year-round tournament obligations.
  • The successful applicant should plan on missing traditional family holidays due to Thanksgiving Nationals, Winter Super Nationals, Spring Break/Easter Bowl, Labor Day, and Memorial Day Events.

 

 

Requirements:

  • H R Skills– Interviewing, hiring, and firing tennis coaches, trainers, hitters, and off-court specialists…with the enthusiasm of Donald Trump.
  • Accounting /Banking Skills- Possess an extremely thick checkbook and be willing and able to max out all of their major credit cards.
  • Designated Driver- Must be willing to put 100 thousand miles on the family car and enjoy most of your meals behind the wheel.
  • Expect your child to occasionally go “Tennis-Brain Dead“- Be willing and able to accept that your child will occasionally forget everything they were taught during the last $5000.00 worth of lessons and blow several events a year.
  • Scheduling Manager- World-class juggling skills required to organize the ever-changing schedules of booking practice courts, times & logistics, hired hitters to practice partners, lessons, and events.
  • Booking Agent– Flexible skills required to book last-minute airlines, cars, and hotels.
  • VIP/24 Hour Courier Service: Laundry service, racquet re-stringing service, drug store pharmaceuticals pickup and delivery service, bedtime psychology sessions.
  • Fashion Coordinator/Personal Shopper- Purchasing only the latest and greatest shoes and matching clothes.
  • Maintenance Knowledge– General Maintenance of equipment such as racquet re-gripping, clothing malfunctions, shoelace replacement…
  • Parental Intuition- Must have the uncanny ability to become expendable and invisible in a seconds notice and/or appear bright-eyed/ happy to help two minutes later.

 

  • Match Performance Review- Must be willing to evaluate a crummy performance by first pointing out fifty positive observations but NEVER share negative feedback without starting WWIII.

 

Wages and Expenses:

  • There is no pay for this position.
  • All the work and travel-related expenses will not be reimbursed.

 


 

Learn How To Compete

Posted on November 11, 2020 by in How To Attract A College Scholarship

The following post is an excerpt from Frank’s updated release:  How to Attract a College Athletic Scholarship.

College standout Steve Johnson provides his view on college tennis. Special e-Book price is $1.99

To Order Click Here

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Eliminating Internal Judgment- Part 3

Posted on November 3, 2020 by in The Soft Science of Tennis

The following post is an excerpt from Frank’s newest book, The Soft Science of Tennis. Click Here to Order through Amazon

Eliminating Internal Judgment

 

soft science

How to Strengthen Self Coaching Solution #2:
Judgments through Comparisons

Judgmental thoughts typically stem from past or future thought comparisons. Typical thoughts of comparison in the heat of battle include, “Jason beat this dude. I can’t lose, I’ve got to prove I’m better than Jason,” “Kristin is ranked below me, and if I lose today, she’ll take my spot on the team,” “What are my parents and coaches going to say if I lose?” “Here I go…Choking again!”

Judgmental thoughts play havoc in the minds of our competitive athletes every day. Athletes in competition, with judgmental comparison thoughts, contaminate the match play process, which results in fighting two opponents, simultaneously- their negative thoughts and the real opponent.

Advanced athletes seeking better results often don’t have to learn more technical skills; they have to shift their attention to developing better self-communication skills. Keep in mind that the athlete’s inner voice will be with them long after they stop competing on the tennis court. Isn’t it worth the time to assist them in developing their lifelong self-coaching tools? Winning is much more likely when our athletes understand the art of self-coaching.

How to Strengthen Self Coaching Solution # 3:
Positive Inner Dialog

The third method of conquering the athlete’s negative inner dialog is through positive self-coaching with Neuro Priming. It is estimated that individuals have roughly 60,000 thoughts per day. Trading in a turbulent mental state for a relaxed, calming proactive state is essential.

What is Neuro Priming and why is it an essential addition to an athlete’s preparation? Neuro Priming is the science of preprogramming the athlete’s inner trust in their match solutions.

Mental rehearsals customize each athlete’s positive inner dialog by organizing their physical, mental, and emotional solutions into audio recordings in their voice. Listening to one’s inner dialog audio tapes increases tennis IQ, reprograms old pessimistic beliefs, changes negative behaviors, speeds up the learning process, increases focus, assists the athletes in quickly fixing stroke flaws, staying on their script of patterns, coping with stress, nervousness and the fear of failure. Neuro Priming isn’t meant to replace on-court physical training; its purpose is to enhance it. It’s self-coaching at its best. (Visit #1 Best Seller on Amazon: Neuro Priming for Peak Performance, Giampaolo).