The following post is an excerpt from my New Zealand Player, Parent and Player Summit. Thanks for visiting, Frank Giampaolo
Contact: Frank Giampaolo
FGSA@earthlink.net
MaximizingTennisPotential.com
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The following post is an excerpt from my New Zealand Player, Parent and Player Summit. Thanks for visiting, Frank Giampaolo
Contact: Frank Giampaolo
FGSA@earthlink.net
MaximizingTennisPotential.com
Affiliate
The following post is an excerpt from The Tennis Parent’s Bible. Thanks for visiting, Frank Giampaolo
What is a Daily Focus Journal?
A daily focus journal is a written schedule or goal. It may include specific achievements, progress and necessary actions needed. The serious contenders I know, who are finding the success they deserve are completing a daily focus journal. Every night they are listing three to five things they did that day to progress their tennis career.
The key words are “Every Night.” Success is not a random act. It comes from a preconceived set of circumstances. It’s planned. If our child needs to gain confidence, help them by tackling their organizational skills.
FUN FACT: Choices Equals Consequences
Examples of daily activities that could be listed in a Daily Focus Journal include:
FUN FACT: When real preparation meets opportunity, success will follow.
Contact: Frank Giampaolo
FGSA@earthlink.net
MaximizingTennisPotential.com
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The following post is an excerpt from The Tennis Parent’s Bible.
Thanks for visiting, Frank Giampaolo
Top Ten Tools Needed to Attain Tennis Excellence
The mental and emotional strength of being a fierce competitor and a respectful human being is a learned behavior. Building mental and emotional muscle takes time and effort.
The way you think and feel effects how you perform. Rafa Nadal is a prime example of player that has built mental and emotional strength through hard work.
If your player truly believes in his or her game as a result of proper training and hard work he or she is bound for greatness.
No one can outperform their self-image. Due to their discipline, athletes like Rafa, have inner strength and inner excellence. They truly believe in themselves and their abilities because they’ve earned the belief.
Top Ten Tools Needed to Attain Tennis Excellence:
For more information read The Tennis Parent’s Bible– hundreds of hours of lessons for less than a half hour lesson!
Contact: Frank Giampaolo
FGSA@earthlink.net
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The following post is an excerpt from The Tennis Parent’s Bible. Thanks for visiting, Frank Giampaolo
Another Holiday Spent on the Tennis Court?
How many times have you had to defend not being at a holiday celebration because of a tennis tournament?
Many non –high performance family members and/or friends do not get it? And that is okay, but when parents put regular social life events first, their child’s tennis progress can be delayed. It is very important for the family to decide on their comfortable level of commitment to tennis.
It is not fair to expect the child to perform at peak performance if the parents are not making a 100% commitment. For example: sending your child to the Spring Nationals the week after returning from a family vacation, away from homework, tennis and work, and expecting success.
High level tennis requires proper preparation. There is a time and place for tennis breaks. It should be joint decision. Preparing for a tennis tournament is twofold.
Hours before a match, Nadal morphs into a different personality. Chris Evert said she wouldn’t even call a friend before a match in fear that it may break her concentration. Before each concert, Tom Petty sits quietly alone with his acoustic guitar visualizing and preparing for that night’s concert. Michael Phelps even swam on Christmas Day-practice always came first.
Preparing mind, body and soul before a match is a learned behavior. Allowing your son to go wrestle in the grass with the other kids before a big match isn’t in his best interest. Allowing your daughter to text 39 friends then fight with her boyfriend hours before a big match isn’t in her best interest.
Knowing how and when to turn on the competitor within is critical. Assist your child in finding their own unique game day rituals. After the match is complete, your child can leave it all behind with no regrets.
SPECIAL NOTE: Attending tennis tournaments can be very memorable. I would always make a special effort to travel and visit local tourist sites or plan special dinners when my daughter was on the tennis trail. To this day, my family has very fond memories of our tennis travels. Many of our tennis memories will outlast another holiday sit down dinner. Enjoy the journey!
Contact: Frank Giampaolo
FGSA@earthlink.net
Maximizingtennispotential.com
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The following post is an excerpt from Frank’s New Zealand’s Player/Parent/Coach Summit. Thank you for visiting, Frank Giampaolo
The following post is a link to one of my instructional articles printed in Tennis Industry Magazine- February 2015. The article is about the importance of understanding your athlete’s make-up. Thanks for visiting, Frank Giampaolo
http://www.tennisindustrymag.com/articles/2015/02/10_your_serve_mind_and_body.html
Contact: Frank Giampaolo
FGSA@earthlink.net
www.MaximizingTennisPotential.com
The following post is an excerpt from The Tennis Parent’s Bible. Thanks for visiting, Frank Giampaolo
Establishing Expectations and Guidelines
Parents have to communicate their expectations to their child during both practice as well as match play. This is especially important in the beginner and intermediate levels of the game. It may also be in your best interest to share your list with your child’s primary coach. You will develop an alliance through clarifying your expectations and guidelines.
When speaking with your child, avoid starting with the standard “When I was your age, I had to walk to school uphill…in the snow…both ways…”
Here are my top twenty practice session tennis parental expectations:
Ask your child to challenge themselves daily. Remind them that choosing to train below their capability breeds “mediocrity.” A customized evaluation/plan will ease the stress and lack of communication that often results with lack of preparation.
Contact: Frank Giampaolo
FGSA@earthlink.net
www.MaximizingTennisPotential.com
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The following post is an excerpt from The Tennis Parent’s Bible. Thanks for visiting, Frank Giampaolo
In my opinion, confidence is one of the top factors in achieving peak performance. To achieve confidence as your child progresses on her journey, it is first best to consider her goal in tennis matches. Keep in mind that the best parents and players strive for a certain type of success. That success comes in the form of performing in tournaments at the child’s highest level versus having to win every match.
“The second week in a Grand Slam is all about belief.” Chris Everett
FUN FACT: Often professionals are quoted as saying “I’m satisfied and happy when I play in a match at the same level I do on the practice court!”
Lack of confidence issues such as self-doubt and a negative self-image arise from how athletes view past experiences. Often, when asking an adolescent what happened in the match they reply, “I don’t know, I‘m horrible!” Getting to the root of the issue is done by organizing tournament experiences by using match logs.
Champions have experienced losing hundreds of times more often than your junior player. The difference is how they view it. So, how should your daughter view tournament competition? Junior tennis tournaments in general should be viewed as information gathering missions. Success lies in doubling your child’s level of competence every six months. They have to be twice as good as they were six months ago. Replace focusing on winning with focusing on improving every week. Lack of confidence is a common issue. It sneaks into every athlete in every sport.
Confidence Fades:
Players in a slump may be under achieving in more than one of these issues simultaneously.
Rebuilding the Belief
Confidence is a progressive spiral of positive input which leads to positive attitude. True belief and trust is earned by doing everything in your power to be the best you can be. Let’s first look deeper at ten common stepping stones that will rekindle your daughter’s confidence.
FUN FACT: Girls 14’s, Super Nationals Clay Court Championships in Florida. Minutes before a second round match a Southern California parent cornered my daughter, Sarah, to inform her that she is about to get killed by the next “Martina Hingis.” He practically chased Sarah to her court as he continued to banter about how unbelievable her opponent was and how she should not feel bad about losing to this “great” player.
Luckily for us, Sarah had no idea about this second round match up. We simply told her the parent was a jealous nut and just keep the ball to the girl’s pitiful backhand and we’ll go to her favorite lunch spot in an hour or so. Result: My daughter won in two and 6 years later this parent is still causing trouble on the tournament circuit.
Examples:
Parents, ask your player to read through these ten common confidence busters. Do any of them apply to your child? If so, customize a plan to erase them!
Thank you visiting, Frank
Contact: Frank Giampaolo
FGSA@earthlink.net
www.maximizingtennispotential.com
www.RaisingAthleticRoyalty.com
The following post is an excerpt from The Tennis Parent’s Bible. Thank you for visiting, Frank Giampaolo
Those strategy books seems so technical. Can you make it easy?
What is strategy? Tennis is a very strategic sport. Strokes may get you into the match, but strategy brings success.
Let’s look at strategy in a simple, yet effective format. There are three factors in understanding strategy on the tennis court. They are generic, stylistic and customized.
Generic Strategy
Generic strategy is simply applying the player’s core strengths in patterns. The plan is that the opponent has to respond to your child. Create your child’s patterns, plans and tactics ahead of time. Your child’s generic strategy is to run their patterns and plays. Generic strategies and tactics could include getting in 70 percent first serves or staying neutral until you get the opponent vulnerable, then attack. Patterns can be detailed or so simple. In times of trouble, saying “bounce, hit” as the ball actually bounces off the court and hits their racquet is an s age old generic tactic. It is a wonderful tool used to control the player’s vision and calm them down when they are overcome by the occasion. These generic tactics will be used in January through December, from the first round through the final, In Miami or Moscow, on clay or hard courts. These are your child’s everyday “nuts and bolts” game plan. The idea is to make the opponent react to them.
Stylistic Strategy
Stylistic strategy is your child’s ability to adapt tactics depending on the current style of the opponent. Remind your child not to change a winning tactic just because the opponent changes game styles. A change is only made if the opponent starts to win and the momentum has switched to their side. Styles include retriever, hard hitting baseliner and all court players. It is imperative that your player develop and rehearse patterns used to beat each style of opponent.
Custom Strategy
Custom strategy is your child’s ability to adapt to the day. Your child has to customize or adapting to different elements (wind, heat), court speeds and surfaces as well as the particular strengths and weaknesses of the current opponent. A common word in this phase is tendencies. To borrow from the boxing world, your child needs to spot what is causing the opponent to hurt or “bleed” and then do it more. It is just as important for your child to spot what is causing their own “bleeding” and systematically stop the bleeding. If your child is competing well in every game and often has the winning shot on his/her racquet, it is in their best interest to modify their tactics slightly while keeping the current strategic style of play. If they are losing and are not even in the points or games, a much larger shift of complete game styles may be in order. (For example: Take a bathroom break then change from a hard hitting baseliner to a steady retriever style of play.)
SPECIAL NOTE: A wonderful tool is video analysis. Record a tournament match every week. Have a weekly “Match Play Video Analysis Lesson” with an experienced coach. That’s right, a non- hitting lesson.
The preferred learning style of most players is “Visual Learner”. A picture is worth a thousand words, right? Together, they will spot strokes that break down under stress, movement and footwork issues, opponent awareness issues and of course tactical and strategic issues that arise under stress. This allows your coach to customize the lessons as they actually provide solutions to the real issues!
For more information: The Tennis Parent’s Bible Thank you for visiting, Frank
Contact: Frank Giampaolo
FGSA@earthlink.net
wwwMaximizingTennisPotential.com