Tag Archives: elite coach Frank Giampaolo

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).

Eliminating Internal Judgment- Part 2

Posted on October 31, 2020 by in Maximizing Tennis Potential, 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

 

frank

How to Strengthen Self Coaching Solution#1:
Video Analysis

One method of combating the athlete’s negative self-dialog begins with videotaping tournament matches and providing non-hitting match play video analysis. This process accesses the specific stressful environment that needs to be studied.

As the high IQ coach quantifies the match data alongside the athlete, I recommend identifying how the athlete’s inner dialog helped or hurt their performance.  Were they able to self-coach successfully?  When providing match play analysis, remember to apply the five optimistic comments for every one pessimistic statement. Following are video analysis topics the athlete and coach would be wise to discuss.

Match Play Video Analysis

  • Strokes & Movement Efficiencies & Deficiencies
  • Anticipatory Efficiencies & Deficiencies
  • Staying on Script. (Top 7 Patterns)
  • Opponent Profiling
  • Between Point & Change-Over Rituals & Routines
  • Emotional Control
  • Focus Control
  • Cause of Errors
  • Court Positioning Cause & Effect
  • Score Management

Athletes who are trained to monitor their emotions and inner dialog via post-match video analysis are much more likely to become aware of the software complexities of competition.

 

DOES YOUR CHILD NEED MENTAL/EMOTIONAL TRAINING?- PART 3

Posted on October 7, 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

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DOES YOUR CHILD NEED MENTAL/EMOTIONAL TRAINING?

Is a lack of Mental/Emotional training holding your child back from getting the results they deserve?

  • My child has problems managing their stress, anger, and mistakes. Yes/No
  • My child hasn’t yet developed their groups of proactive patterns. Yes/No
  • We do not understand or utilizes periodization training. Yes/No
  • My child has trouble dealing with external and internal distractions. Yes/No
  • My child doesn’t spot mega points and mini mega points. Yes/No
  • My child doesn’t know the difference between a positive mega point and a negative mega point. Yes/No
  • My child lacks confidence in his/her abilities. Yes/No
  • My child has trouble coping with cheaters. Yes/No
  • In matches, my child’s mind often wanders to the past or the future. Yes/No
  • My child’s training has primarily focused on stroke mechanics. Yes/No
  • My child wants to win so badly it affects his/her performance. Yes/No
  • My child freezes under stress and plays “Not to lose” instead of playing “to win.” Yes/No
  • My child’s words, “I want to be a pro”, don’t match his/her actions. Yes/No
  • My child doesn’t know how to spot the opponent’s tendencies in match play. Yes/No
  • My child hasn’t spent time identifying his/her mental game strengths and weaknesses. Yes/No

 

ANSWERS: If you or your child checked “Yes” to any of the above questions, you may want to consider mental and emotional training.

 

Peak performance under stress is not reserved for the gifted few, it’s the “software’ that needs to be developed along with the athletic hardware. Simply put, being mentally or emotionally tough under stress is a learned behavior.

Three Phases of Athletic Development

Posted on September 29, 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

 

THE THREE PHASES OF ATHLETE DEVELOPMENTblack_ebook_design2

 

Once you’ve discovered which type of tennis parent you want to be, the next step is to identify which phase of development best categorizes your child’s current level. All too often, parents have an unrealistic view of their child’s current phase of development.  This is a result of the parent’s lack of awareness of the developmental process.

Due to personality profiles, growth development schedules, and maturity levels, I don’t like to pigeon-hole athletes based on their age. At each level, customization is encouraged. It is very common to find mature 9-year-olds in phase 3 and immature 17-year-olds in phase 1. Customization is the key.

 

The Introductory Phase:

In this stage of the game, children are sampling many sports. The primary objective is enjoyment while developing sound fundamentals.

Special Note: I’m a firm believer that proper motor programming is essential. Allowing a child to groove poor mechanics only to spend thousands of wasted dollars, hours, and tears fixing them later doesn’t make sense. You can still laugh and have fun while developing world-class strokes.

The Developmental Phase:

Also known as the intermediate phase. In this stage, tennis is the main hobby. Social clinics are the norm. Specialized training has begun and juniors are experiencing sectional tournament play.

Special Note: This is when the parents, uneducated in the process unintentionally push talented athletes away from the sport by allowing them to train like a hobbyist and then expect the child to be getting championship results.

The Break-Through Phase:

In this stage, athletes are dedicated to the sport and are engaged in full-time training. Each component of the game is developed as the athlete begins to invest in the future. Players begin to look towards National level or ITF level events to secure a college tennis scholarship at a major university.

Special Note: This is when a shift from hardware development (strokes and athleticism) to software development (mental and emotional) is most often needed.

Training Periodization

Posted on September 13, 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

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INTELLIGENT TRAINING BLUNDERS

 

Being Oblivious to Periodization

Parents are often so blinded by winning that they unknowingly sabotage their child’s success. This is especially true in the beginner and intermediate levels of competition.  Understanding when to train the different elements of your child’s game is called periodization. It’s based on the upcoming tournament schedule.

Asking your child to bulk up in the gym, run five miles, or to dismantle and fix a flawed stroke a day or two before a big event are samples of poor periodization training. Adding an unfamiliar element the day of a match also falls into this category.

An essential parental skill is choosing your battles. It is important to understand when to put your foot down and pick a battle. Starting a war right before a scheduled lesson will pull your child into the wrong mental state and surely destroy any hopes of a productive session. It is also a waste of your money. Likewise, choosing to battle the day of a scheduled match is a sure-fire way to drain your youngster’s emotional batteries and sabotage the actual peak performance you are seeking.