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Game Day Emotional Train Wrecks?

Posted on May 8, 2019 by in Customized Organizational Plan, Maximizing Tennis Potential, 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

QUESTION: What causes my son’s game day emotional train wrecks?Frank Giampaolo

Frank: All too often, it’s the little preparation failures such as a lack of routines and rituals that cause catastrophic game day failures. To understand preparation failures, let’s sneak a peek into my friend John’s world:

John needs to lose weight- but he can’t seem to find consistent success. His weight goes up and down and it’s a direct result of his of routines and rituals. One week he scheduled morning breakfast at IHOP with a “Grand Slam Breakfast” and then returned home and sat in front of the computer for four hours, then broke for a fast food lunch followed by four more hours of sitting behind a computer and then met friends for dinner…John preset weight loss failure with excessive calories and no physical activity. With those behaviors in place, weight gain was sure to follow.

Now let’s look at the routines and rituals of a different week. In this week John woke up and drank a green veggie concoction for breakfast, hit the gym and ate a salad for lunch, followed by four hours of training on the tennis court and a healthy dinner. These are weight loss behaviors and these daily mini successes will result in consistent weight loss. It is not rocket science…it is just hard work.

 

The same type of scenario plays out with most junior athletes. Unfortunately, many juniors believe they’re doing everything right but under closer inspection, they’re almost always “way off” target.  In sports, match day failures stem from the dozens of smaller preparation failures.

NOTE: Keep in mind that losses are not necessarily failures.  If a player is performing in the manner in which they have been trained, they may have just been outplayed.

As an example of poor rituals and routines, let’s look at a comment from a tennis parent prior to our Customized Evaluation Session with her daughter Jenny.  Mrs. Clements complained, “My daughter, Jenny, can’t beat a top-level retriever. Those pushers drive her crazy!”

Now let’s look at what we discovered about Jenny’s actual training schedule and developmental plan:

  • She only grooves stationary fundamentals.
  • She perfects her primary strokes for 10 hours a week.
  • She doesn’t focus on the development of her secondary strokes.
  • She doesn’t focus on the aerobic fitness needed to play 15 tough sets in a singular event or a 3-hour moonball battle.
  • She doesn’t focus on developing the actual patterns needed to take a retriever out of their comfort zone.
  • She doesn’t focus on patience or the emotional demands required to withstand the emotional trauma that comes with playing someone who doesn’t miss.

 

After Jenny’s assessment, it was clear to her and her parents that she needs to re-vamps her deliberate, customized developmental plan. So, parents and coaches, if your talented athlete isn’t getting the results they’re capable of, it may prove wise to raise their preparation standards.

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Here’s a story about my dog Moses. He’s a gifted, highly intelligent English White Golden Retriever. He and I have spent hours upon hours in the yard playing catch. He’s talented and we’ve played catch A-LOT for 6 years. So, if talent and repetition make a champion, it’s safe to assume that Moses should win every United States Dog Agility Association National Event, right?

Well…no. Moses and I don’t practice in the manner he’s expected to perform. I enjoy the quality of time we spend playing together but we are not spending our time together applying deliberate, customized training.

Frank in Print

Posted on May 6, 2019 by in Frank Giampaolo Publications, Maximizing Tennis Potential, Neuro Priming for Peak Performance

Check out Frank’s latest tennis article in the upcoming May/June TennisPro Magazine, the official publication of PTRfrank

 

Check out the May edition of the TENNIS Magazine to hear about Frank’s Neuro Priming techniques. tennis mag

Control the Controllables

Posted on April 26, 2019 by in Maximizing Tennis Potential

 

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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Control the Controllables

Another anxiety reducing emotional protocol is to encourage your athlete to focus on simply controlling that which is truly under their control and to ignore everything that is out of their control.  Understand that champions trim the fat and focus only on what they have control over versus outcome issues out of their control. Most performance anxieties stem from focusing on contaminating issues that have no place inside the head of an athlete during competition.

 

“The player’s performance anxieties lessen greatly when parents stop obsessing about the outcome and rankings and encourage belief, effort, and improvement.”

 

Ask your child to forget about the outcome of matches for a while. Instead, ask them to focus on being better than they were yesterday.  A long term goal to strive for is to be twice as good this year as you were last year.

Losing Versus Getting Beat

Posted on April 20, 2019 by in Maximizing Tennis Potential, 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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LOSING VERSUS GETTING BEAT

For every 64 talented juniors that enter a six-round tournament draw- all 64 have the same outcome goal: “I want to win!” Unfortunately, 63 of those players go home losers. Although the nature of the draw format dictates only one champion, not all 63 lose- some of them get beat. There’s a big difference between getting beat and losing a match. Being defeated should be viewed from a new perspective.

“Attempting to never make a bad shot stops your athlete’s flow of great shots. Great winners and correct errors come from the same relaxed, free zone.”

Let’s look deeper into the cause of the loss:

In my book, being outplayed by someone is getting beat. It is absolutely fine to get beat by someone who is:

  • Executing their best style of play.
  • Performing their best strategies & tactics.
  • Working harder.
  • Controlling the mega points.
  • Choosing to utilize the rituals they’ve developed.

 

In the above situation, the opponent may actually deserved the victory. On the other side of getting beat, is losing. It is much more painful to lose a match when:

  • Your child is more talented but their opponent is a harder worker.
  • Your child chooses not to employ their best style of play or falls into their opponent’s style of play.
  • Your child makes too many reckless, unforced errors.

 

  • Your child is too passive to compete at crunch time.
  • Your child doesn’t bother to spot and attack the opponent’s weaknesses.

 

Making your opponent beat you while applying your best style of play is actually a win-win situation. It’s what I call a mental and emotional commitment. When your player is confident and committed to playing their patterns and tactics, they often beat even the top seeds. But even if they don’t win the match, they’ll have no regrets. They will have attempted their best systems and that is all that can be expected.

Parents, please promote that learning to win or getting beat by confidently playing their best style of play is learning to “compete” correctly.

“There is a difference between missing the actual shot the moment demands and missing random, reckless shots.”

“Parents and coaches must acknowledge that by taking the risk to compete, your child will likely lose in almost every high-level tennis tournament. Parents must reinforce that losing the correct way, playing the game systems they have been trained, is their best shot at beating the best players.”

 

Opponent Profiling

Posted on April 18, 2019 by in Maximizing Tennis Potential, 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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OPPONENT PROFILING

 

Top competitors are continually seeking an advantage. One of the best strategic (mental) and calming (emotional) advantages comes from scouting an upcoming opponent. Casually observing is one thing, but profiling the opponent is a skill set. Each playing style has an inherent group of strengths and weaknesses. Opponent awareness is an important part of match day preparation. Player profiling involves looking past strokes.

NOTE:  Whenever possible, as I coach players from the 12’s to the ATP/WTA pros, I apply the below profiling topics.

 

Opponent Profiling Scouting:

  • Primary style of play.
  • Preferred serve patterns (especially on mega points).
  • Preferred return of serve position and shot selection on both first and second serve returns.
  • Favorite go-to rally pattern.
  • Dominant short-ball option.
  • Preferred net rushing pattern.
  • Stroke strengths and weaknesses (Advanced players should also consider the strengths and limitations of strike zones.)
  • Movement, agility and stamina efficiencies and deficiencies.
  • Frustration tolerance, focus, and emotional stability.

Opponent profiling should continue from the pre-match phase, all the way through the actual match and into the post-match. Intelligent athletes even jot down notes regarding the opponent’s game on their post-match match logs. This is used as a reminder for the next time the two meet.

 

Looking Past Strokes:

During the warm-up, the uneducated player/parents/coaches often think Player A has the match in the bag.  But what they do not realize is that Player B often wins because of their ability to identify and execute a game plan exposing their opponent’s weakness. Player A may have great looking fundamental strokes but “hidden” flawed mental and/or emotional components. Player B may have average looking strokes, but an incredible proficiency in their mental game. Hence, giving player B the edge due to his ability to isolate weaknesses or exert emotional intelligence at crunch time.


 

COMMON PERFORMANCE ANXIETIES – Part Four

Posted on April 13, 2019 by in Maximizing Tennis Potential

Common Performance Anxieties -Continued.

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10) Common Anxiety: “I focus the whole match on perfect form. That’s Correct …right?”

“Athletes nurtured to focus on mechanics in match play seldom
perform in the flow state.”

I recommend that athletes save most of the detailed analysis of strokes for the improvement phase which takes place on the practice court. Bio- mechanical analysis surely has its place; it’s just not in the midst of competition. Focusing too much on “bend your knees,” “close the racket face 30-degrees and brush up,” and  “tuck the left hand in on the serve to block the third link of the kinetic chain” pulls athletes out of the flow state and into their editing, analytical brain.

The week leading into an important event I recommend trading in the need for stroke perfection and replace it with practicing picking up relevant cues like proficient pattern play, score management, and opponent profiling. This prepares the athlete for pressure by allowing their judgmental ego to slip away. Performing in the zone requires relaxed contentment, which can’t be found if you’re focused on fixing every micro-flaw.

Preparing for pressure requires the athlete to focus on the art of competing.

 

 

11) Common Anxiety: “Yeah, I know I should practice more, but I’m so busy.”

“It’s not the most gifted athletes who typically succeed; it’s
the most organized and disciplined.”

Preparing athletes for pressure include pointing them in the right direction. One of my assessment tools is the 168 Hour Rule. We all get 24 hours a day seven days a week. That equals 168 hours.

I ask junior athletes to begin with 168 hours a week and then deduct their hours for sleep, school, homework, and other serious interests. Most often, the very same athletes who claim that they’re too busy realizes that they have 60-70 free, unaccountable hours weekly! This exercise is very eye-opening for both the parents and the athletes. After we identify the athlete’s free time, we re-design their weekly developmental plan. Together we assess the quality of the hours they’re dedicating to their long-term goals.

Example conversation after reviewing time assessment, “Joey since you just revealed that you have 60 unaccountable hours weekly; would it be possible for you to increase your deliberate customized tennis training to 20 hours a week? That’ll still leave you with 40 hours a week to hang out with friends, socialize, and play

COMMON PERFORMANCE ANXIETIES – Part Three

Posted on April 10, 2019 by in Maximizing Tennis Potential, Preparing for Pressure

Continuation of Common Performance Anxieties Posts.

 

SAMPLE COVER PRESSURE

7) Common Anxiety: “It’s Losing To The Weaker Players That Kills Me…I Self-Destruct!”

“Self-destruction unknowingly begins in the preparation phase.”

The worst part about the feelings of self-destruction in competition is that the athlete is fully aware it’s happening but can’t do anything to stop it. Their muscles begin to tighten, they shank every other ball, and their brain is fixated on contaminating outcome thoughts. We’ve all been there. You’re choking, and you know it, the opponent knows it, even the spectators know it, but you weren’t taught any self-destruction solutions, so the match feels like a slow death.

Rehearsing self-destruction solutions on the practice court provide the athlete with a practical “go to solution.” The following are a few proactive solutions to employ during match play to aid in regaining focus:

  • Focus on Hitting 3 Balls Deep Down the Middle
  • Apply the Old School Bounce-Hit Method of Vision Control
  • Return to your Script of Top Patterns of Play
  • Reboot your Between Point Rituals

I recommend the player choose two of the above solutions and play a few practice sets while focusing exclusively on employing the solutions to stop the imploding.

Preparing for pressure requires pre-set solutions to common problems.

 

8) Common Anxiety: “I used to beat these toads…now I’m losing to them.”

“Revitalizing begins by assessing the athlete’s
efficiencies and deficiencies.”

When athletes aren’t getting the results they believe they’re capable of getting, I recommend conducting an honest assessment of their current training and match preparation. With few exceptions, I find that the athlete has changed their developmental routines…and not for the better.

I’m a bit more detailed than the average coach. When I’m hired to revive a stalled career, I begin with a 300 Point Assessment of the athlete’s life skills, weekly developmental routines, primary & secondary strokes, mental skills, emotional skills, and incorporate match video analysis. Together, the athlete and I assess their confidence level, under pressure in each category. By doing so, we relaunch their progression
with a new plan.

Preparing for pressure often requires rebooting training modalities.

 

 

9)  Common Anxiety: “In real matches, I’m so stressed. All I think about is don’t lose …then I lose!”

“Internal dialogue refers to the unspoken conversations
we all have …”

Athletes are often unaware of the inner conversation they have through the course of a tennis match. Internal dialog is the conversation our ego is having with ourselves. The old Henry Ford saying is “Whether you think you can…or think you can’t…you’re usually right,” refers to one’s inner dialog. In match play, inner dialog takes place in-between points and during changeovers. This is when athletes are encouraged to program themselves towards a more constructive mindset. With practice, athletes will learn to focus on what they want versus what they don’t want.

It’s true that society programs a negative bias day in and day out. Athletes would benefit from committing to replacing the typical negative statement, “The problem is …” with “The solution is …”

Positive self-coaching revolves around a reoccurring theme of this book: Gratitude. It shifts our mentality from pessimistic to optimistic. I encourage my athletes to apply the mantra: There’s nowhere I’d rather be than right here, right now!

Preparing for pressure demands the athlete control their mindset because energy flows wherever their
internal dialog goes.

COMMON PERFORMANCE ANXIETIES – Part Two

Posted on April 7, 2019 by in Maximizing Tennis Potential

Common Performance Anxieties- Continued.

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4) Common Anxiety: “It’s not my strokes that fail me; it’s my mental toughness.
I just freak out!” 

“Mental toughness is often confused with emotional toughness.”

Mental toughness is often confused with emotional toughness. My definition of mental toughness in the tennis world is the understanding of strategies, tactics, and patterns. It also includes opponent profiling and problem-solving skills. My definition of emotional toughness is the ability to overcome the onslaught of performance anxieties and outcome-oriented emotional thoughts.

Solutions to match issues begin with understanding the actual cause of the problem. Is the athlete’s above statement: “I just freak-out!” A mental issue or an emotional issue? I would say it is an emotional issue. Because the correct solution is customized to the issue, I recommend digging deeper into why this particular athlete “freaks out.”  Does it involve the above mental categories, emotional categories, or a combination of the two?

It’s important to note that a seemingly unrelated component may be the root of the athletes break down. For example, if an athlete is physically unfit for serious competition, that lack of fitness can cause stroke mechanics to break down, reckless choices in shot selection, and manifest negative emotional outbursts.

Preparing for pressure involves knowing the difference between mental and emotional components.

 

 

5) Common Anxiety: “Johnny screams and throws his racket, why can’t I… ?”

“Attitude and emotions are highly contagious.”

Remember the old saying, Monkey See Monkey Do? It’s human nature for people to subconsciously model themselves after their sphere of influences. Preparing athletes for pressure include carefully navigating athletes away from bad influences. Negative parents, coaches or other athletes in their peer group can and will sabotage the strong character traits you seek.

Behavior modeling is a form of social learning. It states that most behaviors are picked up through imitating who and what they see.

Parents who are over anxious, prone to excess worry, stress, and fear are inadvertently conditioning their athletes to be a pessimistic emotional train wreck under pressure. Coaches who lack self-esteem because they couldn’t “make it” on the tour may project a deep-seated doubt in their student’s chances. Their passive-aggressive underlining message is “If I couldn’t succeed neither will you.”

Supreme confidence is essential in preparing athletes for pressure. Be aware of the behavior of those influencing your athlete.

 

 

6) Common Anxiety: “I’ve lost confidence. How do I get it back?”

“Your positive performances are imprinted in your memory, so choose to re-live them.”

A re-occurring defining characteristic of champions is their strong software skills. There are many times in an athlete’s career when they’ve lost their confidence and had to reboot their motivation.

One solution lies in choosing to focus on past successes more than past failures. Failure is no doubt part of the learning process but revisiting past successes via- match video analysis is one method used to rekindle self-esteem. If your athletes don’t already videotape tournament play and analyze (along with an experienced coach) their performance, now’s a great time to start.

Past successes leave a footprint in the brain.

Ask the athletes to remind you of previous pressure-packed situations when they performed spectacularly. Go into detail. Where did it happen? What event? What round? How did they overcome the challenges? Why were they determined to fight? What was their inner dialog? This process stops the discouragement and replaces it with the realization that they’ve done it before and they’ll do it again.

Preparing for pressure comes from realizing that you have come through under pressure before.

COMMON PERFORMANCE ANXIETIES -Part One

Posted on April 5, 2019 by in Maximizing Tennis Potential, Preparing for Pressure

 

COMMON PERFORMANCE ANXIETIES SAMPLE COVER PRESSURE

Performing in an athlete’s peak performance state of mind requires morphing into character and memorizing their scripts of top patterns and emotional protocols. Parents have an essential role in this process. Uneducated tennis parents unintentionally sabotage any real chance of their children performing well when they need it the most. An important job of any tennis parent is to help prepare their athlete for pressure.

 

1) Common Anxiety: “I don’t want to play, what if I lose?”

“Devalue the event to deflate the anxiety.”

 

A common outcome-oriented mindset is that each tournament is a life or death crisis. This negative frame of mind is counterproductive and incredibly stressful. It would be wise to educate the athlete and their entourage that tournament play is only an information gathering mission. Each match should be analyzed to determine why they won points and why they lost points as a result of their competitive decisions. The objective is simple, quantify the data and learn from it.

Competition should be seen as a fun challenge, not intensely difficult or dangerous.

To prepare the athlete for pressure, decompress the situation.

 

 

2) Common Anxiety: “I hit for 10 minutes … I’m ready!”

“Prepare both hardware & software for battle!”

Pre-match preparation begins the weeks leading into the event. During this prep phase, avoid significant mechanical changes or adding brand new concepts. It takes approximately 3-6 weeks for a new motor program to override an old one. The days leading to an event are not the correct time to introduce a new skill.  Starting a new routine may cause the athlete to become confused, sore, or injured and require recovery time not available.

Morphing into a match warrior involves building confidence in their existing skills. Begin with dead ball drills focusing exclusively on neutral, offense, and defensive skill situations. Rehearse court controlling top patterns and solutions in live ball settings. Ask the athlete to incorporate plenty of complete practice matches and listen to their customized audio tapes recorded on their cell phones to visualize solutions (mental rehearsals.) The night before is a terrific time for them to organize their clothes, equipment, and their nutrition and hydration requirements.

Come game day; I recommend athletes prepare their mental and emotional components by reviewing their audio tapes, once again, the morning of the match. Complete a dynamic stretch and warm-up primary and secondary strokes with multitasking movement. (Hitting on the move instead of just standing still.) Prior to checking in, hydrate and go for a short run to reduce anxiety and warm-up the body.

Preparing for pressure requires the confidence that comes from complete preparation.

 

 

3) Common Anxiety: “Everyone says ‘JUST PLAY YOUR GAME.,’ but I don’t know what my game is?”

“Top contenders have defined their global style & most proficient patterns of play.”

Upon arrival at a coaching gig in Spain, I noticed the coaches on all ten red clay courts running the same drill. Player A hits a high & heavy ball deep to player B’s backhand. Player B retreats, contacting the ball above his/her shoulders and produces a short reply. Player A moves into no-man’s land and screeches “AHH …HEEE” and drives a winner into the open court. I asked the famous director “What’s the drill they’re all working on?” He laughed and said, we call it, “How to beat the Americans.”

Athletes should start each match with their global style of play. Whether they’re in Miami or Moscow, in the first round or finals, on hard or clay courts, starting matched by doing what they do best is an intelligent formula. Their global system is their most proficient style of play (not necessarily their favorite style). Styles include hard hitting baseliners, counterpunchers, retrievers, and net rushers.

The athlete’s global system also includes their strategic plan – which is their most proficient patterns of play. These patterns need to be designed and developed. They include: serving and return patterns, rally patterns (like the above Spanish group), short ball options, and net rushing plays.

In competition, each athlete has to know what they do best and must routinely apply their global plan and hitting the same old, boring winners over and over.

When you preach “Just go out there and play your game.” do your athletes honestly know what their game is?

Preparing for pressure consists of exposing the athlete’s strengths to the athlete.

Frank Speaks at High School Tennis Coaches Conference

Posted on April 3, 2019 by in Maximizing Tennis Potential

boston hsThe two teaching professional organizations of New England, USPTA and PTR, partnered with USTA New England to host their annual High School Tennis Coaches Conference at Longfellow Tennis and Health Club on March 2nd. Despite a typical snowy New England day, 70 coaches attended to network and learn. Click Here for more information.

The faculty consisted of national and highly regarded local experts including PTR’s Chief Operating Officer, Brian Parkkonen and Frank Giampaolo.