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Managing Training Time

Posted on August 19, 2019 by in Maximizing Tennis Potential, Preparing for Pressure

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Managing Training Time

“Value isn’t directly correlated to volume.”

Quantity versus quality of training is an underrated affair. Each minute isn’t equal to the next. Effective time management is essential in a deliberate, customized developmental plan. In regards to maximizing a student’s potential at the quickest rate, training should be intensely focused on the individual’s unique needs.

If athletes aren’t getting the results they’re capable of; it may be the perfect time to design a new developmental plan.

I’ve witnessed expensive training sessions ranging from total time-wasting games to fun/socialization, to the development of skills and the repetition of those skills. While they all offer value, mastery of an individual sport requires a tailor-made, personalized plan.

 

Properly preparing for pressure requires evaluating the athlete’s competence and confidence.

Blame Shifting

Posted on August 16, 2019 by in Maximizing Tennis Potential, Preparing for Pressure

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BLAME SHIFTING

 

“Lack of results typically don’t stem from a lack of resources, but rather a lack of courageous effort.”

Intermediate athletes occasionally self-sabotage their confidence, preparation, and efforts through blame-shifting. “I don’t have enough time!” “My coach didn’t tell me!” “It’s too far away!” “There is nowhere to train!” Shifting accountability is dishonest, immature, and cowardly. These qualities aren’t found in champions.

Habitually shifting-blame results in a loss of self-respect, increased poor performances, and decreased confidence in abilities. Avoidance of taking responsibility becomes contagious and contaminates all aspects of one’s life. In an effort to console the athlete, it is very common for parents and coaches to comply with their athlete’s blame-shifting behaviors to lessen the burden.

Parents who blame shift after their child’s losses unknowingly teach them how to fail consistently and comfortably.

Parents and coaches need to stand firm and constructively call out blame-shifting and resist the temptation to augment the athlete’s excuses. It is critical to reinforce the learning experiences gained through proper training and competition and not condemn mistakes or failures. Athletes maximize potential with continued learning. Learning often comes from failures. Accountability is an essential life skill in successful individuals, and though some athletes may need to fail by first choosing the wrong path, it is incumbent that the coach and parents rein in poor behaviors sooner than later.

 

Blame shifting results in being ill-prepared for battle.

Cultivate Gratitude As A Daily Attitude

Posted on August 14, 2019 by in Maximizing Tennis Potential, Preparing for Pressure

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So what are the benefits of gratitude? The attitude of gratitude will benefit your athlete by providing:

  • An Optimistic Viewpoint of Every Situation
  • More Connections-Friendships/Partners/Networking Opportunities
  • The Ability to Focus on Fewer Physical Aches & Pains
  • The Need to Chase Less Toxic Emotions
  • The Ability to Handle Gamesmanship
  • Greater Self-Esteem/Confidence
  • Reduced Ranking Comparisons
  • Appreciating Versus Resenting Other’s Accomplishments
  • Reduced Fear, Stress, and Nervousness
  • Resiliency in Overcoming Hardships

 

Gratitude studies in sports psychology found significant links between gratitude and well-being. Mental and emotional strength is what every athlete seeks. Before bed, ask athletes to build their ‘gratitude muscle’ by completing a gratitude journal.

According to a study published in Applied Psychology: Health and Well-Being: Even after devastating losses, being grateful fosters the resiliency to bounce back quicker and stronger. Spend five minutes jotting down a few grateful sentiments before bed quiets the restless, unsatisfied mind. Nurturing gratitude is a daily gift one gives to oneself.

 

A grateful mindset better prepares the athlete to
handle pressure.

ATTITUDE IN BATTLE

Posted on August 12, 2019 by in Maximizing Tennis Potential, Preparing for Pressure

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ATTITUDE IN BATTLE

 

“It’s impossible to be grateful and angry simultaneously.”

Athletes who routinely choose to play grateful versus angry have a distinct advantage under pressure. A proactive attitude helps players perform in the flow state they desperately seek but unintentionally destroy.

Even with the best of attitudes, athletes need emotional preparation. Pushing your athlete past discomfort on the practice court is often a heated affair. It’s much more difficult than the typical snow job tennis lesson witnessed at the country club. (Snow job: An avoidance of the real issues as the coach simply flatters the student until their lesson time runs out).

Preparing for pressure consists of building the competitors emotional walls of defense. This competitive development includes both delivering big weapons as well as taking repeated hits. As the famous boxer, Mike Tyson says, “Everyone has a plan until they get punched in the face.”

 

“It ain’t how hard you hit. It’s how hard you can get hit and keep moving forward.” Rocky Balboa

Cultivate Gratitude As A Daily Attitude

Posted on August 9, 2019 by in Maximizing Tennis Potential, Preparing for Pressure

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Cultivate Gratitude As
A Daily Attitude

 

“Comfort stems from a grateful mind.”

Some athletes thrive in those pressure-packed moments. How? By simply loving being in those big moments. They want to play on court #1, center stage, in the finals with a packed house. These exceptional athletes prepare for pressure by applying gratitude daily.

Without getting too fluffy, preparing athletes for pressure demands nurturing gratitude life skills because grateful people are mentally and emotionally healthier individuals.

COGNITIVE CONTROL

Posted on August 6, 2019 by in Maximizing Tennis Potential, Preparing for Pressure

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COGNITIVE CONTROL

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“Great competitors don’t just control the ball…they control their wandering minds.”

Preparing for pressure requires the ability to avoid meltdowns. The athletes wandering mind is a precursor to the bad patches that are often present in match play. Just because the athlete is physically standing on court #6 in tournament competition, doesn’t mean his/her mind is present. In intermediate tennis, thoughts routinely drift from past to present to future sabotaging their performance.

 

Encourage Smiling, laughing, and having fun

Posted on August 3, 2019 by in Preparing for Pressure

The following post is an excerpt from Frank’s soon to be released book, Preparing for Pressure. Click Here To Pre-order through Amazon

Encourage Smiling, laughing, and having fun

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“Adding ranking pressure is sure to add the exact performance anxieties, great coaches
work hard to avoid.”

Parents, if you make the junior ranking race too important, you’ll quickly see your athlete’s performance diminish. When rankings are seen as more important than fun, athletes suffer. Preparing for pressure involves creating a culture of gratitude and enjoyment.  Athletes who perform at their peak level in competition are first and foremost having fun. Enjoyment is the secret ingredient that assists the athlete when they need it the most.

De-stressing the athlete comes from promoting growth and weekly progress over the outcomes of events. After events, routinely discuss 3 successful aspects of your athlete’s performance and 3 improvement goals. Win or lose, celebrate the performance goals hit, and then get to work on the development of the athlete. According to brain function analysis in sports, performing calm when it matters the most is a creative, right-brain dominant affair. Athletes pulled into their editing left-brain typically suffer due to overthinking under pressure.

 

Parents, coaches, or athletes who make a match too important witness the athlete’s ability disappear. When the outcome overshadows the enjoyment, catastrophe strikes.

Confidence Bias: The False Reality- Part 2

Posted on July 31, 2019 by in Preparing for Pressure

The following post is an excerpt from Preparing for Pressure – my book to be released on August 20th. Click Here to pre-order your copy.

 

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Over-confidence Vs Under-Confidence

 

“Under-confidence in match play is often a result of false-confidence in preparation.”

 

Let’s look deeper into a pre-tournament conversation with our friend Cocky Craig:
Frank: “Craig, Did you review your audio tapes/mental rehearsals?
Craig: “Nah…, I’m good.”
Frank: “Craig, Did you play your practice matches this week?
Craig: “I forgot to call-em in time, and they already had plans.”
Frank: “Craig, Did you do your off-court cardio routine?”
Craig: “No, I’m sore from last Mondays hit. I didn’t want to get injured.”
Signs of Over-Confidence in Athletes:
  • Avoids Pre-Match Preparation
  • Avoids Off-Court Training
  • Lacks Secondary Strokes
  • Avoids Playing Sets
  • Unrealistic Outcome Goals
Signs of Appropriate Confidence in Athletes:
  • Grit
  • Relaxed Breathing
  • Millisecond Problem Solving Skills
  • Perseverance
  • Resiliency
  • Determination
  • Smiling
Signs of Under-Confidence in Athletes:
  • Choking/Panicking
  • Shallow/Heavy Breathing
  • Impaired Memory
  • Anger/Indifference
  • Tight Muscle Contractions
  • Impulsive-Irrational Decision Making
  • Pessimism

Confidence fortifies… but overconfidence and
under-confidence destroys.

Confidence Bias: The False Reality-Part 1

Posted on July 29, 2019 by in Preparing for Pressure

The following post is an excerpt from Preparing for Pressure – my book to be released on August 20th. Click Here to pre-order your copy.

 

Preparing final cover 3D

“Every athlete feels pressure; it is how they’ve been nurtured to deal with it that counts.“

I find athletes are far more willing to groove fundamental strokes than to develop the skills necessary for competition. The often debilitating high-pressure scenario athlete’s face during competition is remedied with deliberate mental and emotional training. Athletes aren’t born competitive tennis experts. Performing their best when they need it the most is nurtured.

The US Navy SEAL’s motto, “We don’t rise to the occasion…we sink to the level of our training,” best describes performing under pressure.

Confidence Bias: The False Reality

“Pre-match over-confidence leads to match-day under-confidence.”

Athletes and parents often have skewed opinions of their competitive skill levels. Is it because Molly, once held her own against a much higher level opponent in a practice set in 2019? Or maybe because Mrs. Johnson watches her son Zack hit beautiful groundstrokes while his coach feeds balls right into his strike zone for the entire lesson. These false leaders cause skewed opinions in parents and athletes.

Confidence bias leads to an inaccurate belief in one’s true competitive skill sets. The concern with over-confidence is that the athlete is positive that they have all the skills necessary to compete supremely without actually ever training those skills. False reality result in devastating losses and blame games. The opposite, under-confidence, bias also wreaks havoc under pressure. Some well-trained athletes suffer from their lack of confidence in competition; harboring unjustified negative beliefs or nurtured undermining pessimistic viewpoints. Either way, their lack of self-esteem seriously affects their performance.

The good news is that with proper software development, false confidence from both the parents and the athlete can be re-wired. Re-routing inner dialog through self-coaching is a great start. Athletes who suffer from confidence bias would be wise to trade in some of their hours grooving groundstrokes and replace them with solution-based software sessions.

Preparing for pressure includes the awareness of the athlete’s confidence bias. Allowing false belief systems leads to future anguish.

  “Come tournament day false confidence sabotages.”

 

Conflict Resolution

Posted on June 28, 2019 by in Preparing for Pressure

Discuss Conflict Resolution and Fear of Confrontation

“Solving problems begins by confronting problems.”
sarah

When athletes are expected to be the competitor, the score-keeper, the linesman, and the umpire conflicts will exist. “Being judged” can bring out the best and worst in all of us. Often opponents who believe that they don’t have the physical tools to win employ gamesmanship to sabotage their opponent’s level of play. There are many gamesmanship situations that athletes need to be aware of, and it is the job description of the coaching staff to address these scenarios. It is also important to teach them to look systematically beyond the incident.

Often, it is not the specific opponent’s gamesmanship tactic but your player’s response to the drama that causes the emotional break the opponent seeks. Preparing for pressure includes how an athlete responds to confrontational situations and whether or not they can remain focused on their performance goals and avoid unraveling.

Covert gamesmanship in tournament play is also applied when the crafty opponent spots the nonverbal clues found in our athletes’ fear of confrontation. If your athletes have a fear of confrontation, address why standing up for themselves versus enabling the “bully” is in their best interest. Nurturing timid athletes to stand up for themselves improves their confidence as they learn to solve problems.

In the intermediate levels, emotionally weak competitors assume that confrontation is bad. If they disagree, the opponent won’t like them and therefore not want to play with them in the future. This is a false assumption. In tennis, the opposite holds true. Opponents that can easily bully and beat your athlete don’t return their calls. Athletes that stand up to gamesmanship and triumph, not only earn respect, they also benefit by getting to choose their future practice match opponents and doubles partners.

Confidence is earned by standing up to conflicts.