Tag Archives: tennis elite training

DOES YOUR CHILD NEED MENTAL/EMOTIONAL TRAINING? – PART 2

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?

 

TAKE THE QUIZ

The following questions can be used to determine whether your child is in need of mental/emotional training. Good Luck!

  • My child plays incredibly on the practice court but often falls apart in matches. Yes/No
  • My child avoids playing full practice matches most weeks. Yes/No
  • In matches, my child’s focus is only on winning versus actual performance goals. Yes/No
  • My child doesn’t apply proper change over and between point rituals in matches. Yes/No
  • My child is unorganized in planning their weekly training schedules. Yes/No
  • My child has not yet developed his/her secondary strokes. Yes/No
  • My child has super high expectations and expects to perform perfectly every match. Yes/No
  • We haven’t yet put together our entourage of hitters, teachers, and trainers. Yes/No
  • My child hasn’t developed plans or patterns to beat moonball/pushers. Yes/No
  • My child hasn’t developed plans or patterns to beat hard-hitting baseliners. Yes/No

Intelligent Tennis Blunders

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

 

“If you’ve never faced conflict with your tennis phenom, you’ve never been a great tennis parent.”

 

Parents who fully commit to their child’s passion can spend the rest of their life satisfied that they’ve succeeded in the most important job of their lives.

 

Not Having an Entourage

Youngsters that improve at the quickest rate have a full entourage. This includes private hitters, technical teachers, mental/emotional coaches, off-court trainers, and clinics.

Customizing the style of coach to your player is important. Choose wisely because the two leading influences on your athlete are you and the coaches you hire!

Understanding Internal Pressure

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

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Understanding Internal Pressure

 

“Thriving under pressure requires exposure- not avoidance.”

Teaching a junior competitor to handle internal pressure is a complicated affair. It greatly depends on their genetic predisposition. Some personality profiles are wired to overthink, worry, and stress, while others are natural-born competitors. If your athlete wilts under pressure, this is for you!

A solution that will help athletes to become comfortable in match play is replacing the mindless grooving of strokes in the academy with actually competing in real practice matches. Organize your athlete’s training sessions to focus on competitive, simulated stressful situations on a daily basis.

After a solid foundation is built, redundant technical training is counter-productive. Preparing for pressure demands exposing the athlete to more live ball flexible skills training. This allows them to make the software mistakes and learn from them on the practice court long before tournament play occurs.

A second solution in preparing for pressure is to avoid always enrolling your athlete in events above their actual match play level. I recommend also registering your athlete into lower level, winnable tournaments. This will allow them to gain the much-needed experience of playing longer at their peak performance level six matches in a row. Athletes need to routinely experience what it’s like to compete in the semis and finals of events.

Athletes need to become accustomed to the physical, mental, and emotional symptoms and cures found in real match play. Only with experience will they learn how to perform under pressure.

 

Parents, it’s your job to fluctuate your athlete’s exposure to the different levels of competition at the correct time. Their tournament scheduling should be customized to their current needs.