Frank Giampaolo's Maximizing Tennis Potential

The following post is an excerpt from the Second Edition of The Tennis Parent’s Bible
Available through most online retailers!

 Click Here to Order

How do we assist our son in decreasing his unforced errors?

All of his coaches say he is one of the most talented players they have ever seen. His form looks great. Why does he lose to less talented players? Let’s look deeper into the different causes of errors, starting with the mental side.

Shot selection starts with understanding that in between each shot in a rally, there are only about two milliseconds of actual decision-making time. So, how much can you analyze in that small amount of time? The answer is not much. This means that most shot selection options are learned behaviors acquired on the practice court. That is right. These tools must be wired into a player’s game way before the tournament begins. This is mental training.

To explain the importance of shot selection, we will use two of my students, Jack and Jason (brothers that couldn’t be more different). Jason has chosen to focus on tennis’s mental/emotional sides early in his development, while Jack was and still is too cool to listen to this silly stuff.

Strength and Weaknesses

Situation: It is add-in. Holding serve means a comfortable 5-2 lead.

Jason: Selects to serve a big kick serve wide to the opponent’s weaker side; He runs a boring, successful pattern to close out the game.

Jack: Selects to go for a huge ace down the center (the one that he made once in 2010); He misses, gets angry, and rushes into a double fault.

Broad Vision

Situation: Our player just hit an offensive shot and has the opponent on the dead run; the opponent is stretching and lunging at a low slice backhand.

Jason: Spots the visual clues like the defensive court position, body language, open racket face, and defensive strike zone of the opponent. He moves in, takes away the opponent’s recovery time, and steals an easy volley winner.

Jack: Didn’t bother to learn to spot these clues, so he stands at the baseline, lets the opponent float the ball back, and he re-starts the rally. Jack just missed an

The following post is an excerpt from the Second Edition of The Tennis Parent’s Bible
Available through most online retailers!

 Click Here to Order

PLAYER ACCOUNTABILITY

Player accountability stems from a champion’s mindset- which includes a positive moral compass, core values, and a high standard of behavior. Teach your children that even though the hardest path is often the road less traveled- it is also the quickest way to the top!

QUESTION: Why do some athletes thrive under extreme pressure and some meltdown?

Frank: Here’s my understanding of how the brain functions under stress. Nobel Prize-winning Neuro-Scientist Julius Axelrod found that some people crack under pressure more than others because they process slower and become overwhelmed in time-sensitive stressful environments.

In the brain, this is seen as an over-flow of dopamine in the prefrontal cortex (Where quick decision-making and conflict resolution take place.) Stress floods the synapses of the prefrontal cortex with too much dopamine. After the flood, the gene called COMT (catechol-O-methyltransferase) is stimulated to come to the rescue…

Scientists have found that this gene actually comes in two types: fact-acting and slow acting. Those athletes with fast-acting COMT enzymes clear the excess dopamine quickly, allowing the athlete, not to overload. Those with slow-moving enzymes cause some folks to overload and shut down under stress.

The good news for these natural-born worry warts is that if they rehearse being comfortable with the feelings of being uncomfortable, their dopamine doesn’t overflow the prefrontal cortex. Meaning performing under pressure isn’t felt as such intense pressure any longer. You see, what becomes a habit, isn’t as scary. So if your child melts down under stress, ask their team of coaches to add stress simulations to their daily drills and watch your child become “clutch.”

QUESTION: Why do some juniors see a performance review as character assassination?

Frank: Successfully navigating the world requires continual analysis and review. An effective developmental plan needs to be tweaked and enhanced for continued growth. The art of becoming athletic royalty demands the player, coach, and parent communicate about the developmental direction. Players that thrive in the college world have nurtured their communication skills as well as their athletic skills.

Unfortunately, some juniors view performance reviews as lengthy rants pointing out all of their failures. Of course, in the eyes of an experienced coach or parent, performances are actually seen as information-gathering missions- not as life or death or win-or-lose affairs.

Performance reviews are a beautiful chance to discuss issues (successes and failures) so successes continue to increase, and failures decrease in the future. Ignoring successes or failures and assuming they all happen by chance is delusional.

Juniors who don’t bother to learn from their shortcomings are destined to repeat them. I challenge the coaches/parents to communicate with their child about the event. Dig deeper, learn from the facts and review the stats, charts, and video analysis. Juniors, try your best to understand why you’re not getting the results you’re capable of getting.

The following post is an excerpt from the Second Edition of The Tennis Parent’s Bible
Available through most online retailers!

 Click Here to Order

QUESTION: Should my son copy Nadal?

Frank: Before I answer this question, let’s review some of the facts I love about Rafael Nadal…and you should too.

His Uncle taught him how to play. They’ve stuck together as a team. That’s respectful. At 14, The Spanish Federation invited him to train in Barcelona, essentially taking over his training.  He already had a great team so he declined. That’s loyalty.

As a youngster, his emotions were like a volcano, so his uncle made him play with dead balls and inferior gear to teach him how to deal with adversity. That builds character.

• Nadal has an entourage: His coaches, trainers, hitters, and agent has been with him for the long haul. That’s smart!
• Nadal has a pre-match routine that he uses before every match: He gets to the site a few hours early to warm up on a side court; he showers, eats, then gets taped up; he plays the match in his head (visualization) a half hour before it begins; he puts on his favorite Spanish pop music and then The Phantom of The Opera on his iPod; he jogs, jumps in place and builds a sweat while visualizing his performance goals. Great preparation- that’s admirable!
• Nadal focuses on the need to improve versus the need to win. Rafa was quoted as saying, “To improve, you have to make mistakes.  That’s the problem with improving; you have to accept this.” That’s intelligent!

In early 2008 at #2 in the world, Uncle Tony decided that Rafa needed to improve his offensive court position to win major hard and grasscourt events. They worked on positioning on the baseline for months, taking balls early, and stealing volleys.   He went from being a retriever to a counterpuncher to an attacker. Knowing he could still improve, Rafa’s insight yielded him an Olympic gold, a Wimbledon Championship, and the world’s #1 ranking. That’s brilliant!

• Rafa has had more than his share of injuries yet comes back stronger than ever.  That’s character!  (2004- A stress fracture took him off the court for three months; 2005- a mysterious foot injury sidelined him for months; 2009- knee tendentious took him out for two months… the list goes on.)
• Rafa is a well-rounded person who has outside interests and hobbies. He can be found enjoying golf and fishing on his days off. He also champions his own charity foundation called Fundacion Rafa Nadal.  That’s honorable!
• Rafa is disciplined. The next step after motivation is discipline. He does what he has to do when he has to do it.  No excuses, no procrastination. That’s commitment!

So, should your son copy Rafa? You Bet!

Below are tips your child can implement to attain Champion Skill Sets like Rafa Nadal:

• Hit the gym to gain tennis-specific strength.
• Commit to improving with unrelenting determination.
• Develop the mental side of shot selection to master offense, neutral & defensive skills.
• Schedule time to strengthen their speed, stamina, and agility.
• Revise their between-point rituals to enhance their “clear-headedness” of shot selection on big points.
• Upgrade their ability to apply spin.
• Cultivate the competitive attitude. Do this by adding simulated stress with every drill. We call them “stress buster drills.”
• Perfect the ability to live in the moment (producing precisely what the moment calls for) by rehearsing closing-out sets. Replace the need to win with the love of the battle.
• Reform their calmness under stress by simulating those intense moments.

FUN FACT: Average ball rotation off Agassi’s forehand: 1800 rpm, Federer’s forehand: 2500 rpm, Nadal’s forehand: 3200 rpm

The mental and emotional strength of being a fierce competitor and a respectful human being is a learned behavior and is a factor in player accountability.

SPECIAL NOTE: No one can outperform their self-image. Due to their work ethic, perseverance, and consistent discipline, athletes like Rafa have inner strength and inner excellence. They truly believe in themselves and their abilities because they’ve earned the belief.

The following post is an excerpt from the Second Edition of The Tennis Parent’s Bible
Available through most online retailers!

 Click Here to Order

PLAYER ACCOUNTABILITY

Player accountability stems from a champion’s mindset- which includes a positive moral compass, core values, and a high standard of behavior. Teach your children that even though the hardest path is often the road less traveled- it is also the quickest way to the top!

QUESTION: What is drive time training?

Frank: In Southern California, I’m seeing most top juniors that I train spending upwards to two hours a day driving to coaches, trainers, practice sessions, their academy and/or tournaments. A solution is “Drive Time Training”- the training strategies of educating, strength training, motivating, and visualizing while held hostage in that comfortable passenger seat. Taking advantage of the time spent traveling is a great way to handle the frustrations of downtime spent in the car. Below are a few meaningful exercises your junior player will enjoy in the car.

Benefits of Drive Time Training:

Educating

There is a huge variety of tennis CDs and instructional DVDs

available on the market. (Visit: USPTA.org) Topics include stroke production, tactics and strategies, movement & fitness, and our favorite, the mental/emotional sides of competition. (www.MaximizingTennisPotential.com offers a series of junior tennis workbooks.) And of course, YouTube is a wonderful place to seek free advice on almost any topic.

Strength Training

“How do they strength train in a car?”  Most junior players lack upper body strength. Building the upper body will assist them in enjoying more powerful serves, stronger slice backhands, and crisper volleys. Remember the old formula for power is: Mass x Acceleration = Power.

More importantly, training the upper body will help prevent injuries. Prevention of injuries is a critical factor in high-performance tennis. Consider leaving bands under the passenger seat and/or light dumbbells stored away in the trunk, and check with your athlete’s trainer to customize your routines.

Motivating

Listen to motivational iTunes/YouTube/CD. Some are so powerful they are literally life-changing! My favorite motivators include Jack Canfield and Anthony Robbins. Check the Internet and read the reviews.

Visualization Exercises

Take their head phones off and ask your player to close their eyes and visualize perfect primary and secondary strokes. Then visualize the variety of their flawless patterns used to beat the different styles of opponents. Lastly, visualize walking through changeover and between-point rituals. If your child has difficulties beating retrievers, here’s a visualization exercise. I call it mental imagery: Ask them to visualize “mock” rallies to 20 with you as you drive. Again, turn off the radio, iPods, video games…etc. The goal is to rehearse, focusing on a single topic for a set period of time.

Try this exercise as you drive to your child’s next tournament. They say hit; they then visualize a slow, high arching stroke leaving their racquet, crossing their service line, crossing the net, crossing the opponent’s service line, landing deep into the opponent’s court,  bouncing high, and pushing the opponent back. Now, the parent says hit, and they repeat the visualization of the slow, high arching ball passing the opponent’s service line, passing the net, passing their own service line, bouncing deep on their child’s side. Next, they say hit as the slow moonball rally continues up to twenty. Cut them slack if they can’t focus on a pretend moonball rally. My bet is that you can’t either. (You’ll laugh because your mind will wander all over the joint).

SPECIAL NOTE: If they can’t focus intently on a few pretend 20-ball rallies, how will they ever apply the actual focus skill to do it for a three-hour match?

As tennis parents, it is your job to select how and when they program their minds and bodies. Positive programming to and from tennis will lead to increased knowledge, power, motivation, enthusiasm, and calmness on the court. Use drive time training as you enjoy secretly preparing better than all of your child’s rivals.

The following post is an excerpt from the Second Edition of The Tennis Parent’s Bible
Available through most online retailers!

 Click Here to Order

PLAYER ACCOUNTABILITY

Player accountability stems from a champion’s mindset- which includes a positive moral compass, core values, and a high standard of behavior. Teach your children that even though the hardest path is often the road less traveled- it is also the quickest way to the top!

QUESTION: How can we assist our son in decreasing his unforced errors?

Frank: In my opinion, decreasing unforced errors always starts with the identification process. On numerous occasions, I have asked parents and coaches to chart players utilizing The Cause of Error Chart. (Found in Match Chart Collection at Maximizingtennispotential.com). The results were very interesting.

While most of the international coaches solely focused on stroke production year in and year out, the main cause of errors were consistently shot selection and NOT form.

Upon analyzing The Cause of Error Charts with high-performance athletes, the leading cause of errors was Mental-Shot Selection, followed by Movement-Spacing, a very close third was Emotional-Performance Anxieties…and last on the list Technical-Stroke Mechanics!

Because poor shot selection is the leading cause of errors at the higher competitive junior levels, let’s focus on that aspect. Shot selection starts with understanding that in between each shot in a rally, there are only about 2 milliseconds of actual decision-making time. So, how much can you analyze in that small amount of time? The answer is not much.

This means that most shot selection options are learned behaviors acquired on the practice court. That is right. These tools must be wired into a player’s game way before the tournament begins. Pre-setting offense, neutral, defensive, and directional options is mental training.

“High Percentage shot selection is mental readiness.”

To explain the importance of shot selection, we will use two of my students: Jack and Jason (brothers that couldn’t be more different). Jason has chosen to focus on tennis’s mental/emotional sides early in his development, while Jack was and still is too cool to listen to this silly stuff. Below are a dozen shot selection scenarios.  Let’s see how each brother chooses to handle the situation.

The Tale of Jack and Jason

Situation #1: It’s an add-in. Holding serve means a comfortable 5-2 lead.

Jason: Selects to serve a big kick serve wide to the opponent’s weaker side. He runs a boring, successful pattern to close out the game.

Jack: Selects to go for a huge ace down the center (Like the one that he made once in tornado liked conditions back in 2014.) He misses, gets angry and rushes into a double fault.

Situation #2: Our player just hit an offensive shot and has the opponent on the dead run, stretching and lunging at a low slice backhand.

Jason: Spots the visual clues like the defensive court position, body language, open racket face, and defensive strike zone of the opponent. He moves in, takes away the opponent’s recovery time and steals an easy volley winner.

Jack didn’t bother to learn to spot these clues, so he stands at the baseline, lets the opponent float the ball back, and re-starts the rally. Jack just missed an important opportunity to win the point.

Situation #3: The opponent hits a deep cross-court ball.

Jason: Hits a neutral building shot 4 feet over the net and back cross court.

Jack: Tries for a screaming net skimming half volley winner down the line and creams the ball into the bottom of the net.

Situation #4: The brothers are in a vulnerable position running fifteen feet behind the baseline, retrieving the opponent’s terrific shot.

Jason: Throws up a deep, high, defensive lob to push the opponent back and gain valuable recovery time.

Jack: Goes for an offensive, down-the-line pass that lands near the back fence…Then screams…AAAHHHH!

Situation #5: Our player gets to the ball late. He is off balance and ends up striking the ball down by his socks.

Jason: Quickly dials his offensive shot selection down to neutral and elects to simply keep the opponent from taking an offensive position.

Jack: Is still in full flight and goes for a topspin rip-off of his shoe laces. The ball rips into the net.

Situation #6: Our player is winning comfortably 6-3, 4- 1.

Jason: Continues to do the exact same boring shot selections. He closes out the match in a routine fashion. He realizes the importance of saving physical and emotional energy for the next round.

Jack: Gets bored with such a lead. He begins to throw in a bunch of more exciting yet low percentage new things. In essence, Jack has changed the shot selections that have gained him a comfortable lead. Now the set is 5-5, and Jack is so angry that he is acting like a Crazy Person, throwing his racquet and yelling, “I Hate Tennis.” His situation is a result of his wandering mind.

Situation #7: Our player is down 1-4 but is actually controlling the court and the points. His hard-hitting baseline style is working, but he is simply missing the put away balls by a few inches.

Jason: Spots that the style is working. He adapts by staying with the hard-hitting style of play and chooses to apply more topspin to his shots and simply aim three feet inside the lines.

Jack: Is so upset that he is missing that he does not spot the fact that he is actually controlling the points with his hard-hitting baseline style of play. So, he changes his hard-hitting style, stands flat-footed, and pushes every shot. Jack’s slow, short balls are now “Sitting Ducks,” and the opponent has a field day hitting winner after winner. After the match, Jack says, “He was too good.”

Situation #8: Our player wins the first set 6-2. Upon the start of 2nd set, the opponent shifts from his hard-hitting baseline style into a conservative, retrieving style of play.

Jason: Spots the change in style and counters by simply adapting to the “New Look.” Since he is no longer receiving FREE points, Jason begins to work on his selection of patterns.

Jack: Does not spot the shift in style. He begins to get frustrated by the fact that the opponent is not missing the second or third ball anymore. Jack begins to panic, play faster, and hit harder without even knowing. Jack is trying to force winners left and right. Jack implodes once again and breaks another brand new racquet!