The following post is an excerpt from the Second Edition of The Tennis Parent’s Bible NOW available through most on-line retailers! Click Here to Order
Blunder: Ignoring Off-Court Training, Proper Nutrition and Hydration
When your athlete gets fatigued their movement gets sloppy, their stroke spacing is off and unforced errors begin to fly off their racket. Poor decision making and negative emotions set in. Often, the actual cause of a child’s emotional breakdown is a lack of fitness. Unfit players do not perform their rituals, they do not spot tendencies and they do not manage their mistake. Poor physical fitness manifests in mental and emotional breakdowns. For instance, most juniors go for low percentage shots due to the fact that they are too tired to grind out the point. So is off-court training linked to the mental side? Absolutely!
Proper hydration and nutrition is also a critical factor in the physical, mental and emotional links of every tennis competitor. As parents, we have to insist that our players fuel up before battle. Dehydration triggers fatigue, dizziness, headaches and nausea. Lack of adequate nutrition affects the blood sugar levels to the brain.
Improper nutrition and hydration guarantees poor decision making skills at crunch time.
CONTACT: Frank Giampaolo
FGSA@earthlink.net
