The following post is an excerpt from Match Day Preparation. Thanks for visiting, Frank Giampaolo
Prior to Match Day
Success in tournaments is directly related to the quality of preparation. Champions become champions because they’re the few who are actually willing to put in the grueling hours of pre-match preparation. Spectacular achievements are preceded by spectacular preparation. This section of your book is dedicated to proper preparation. Remember the old saying “Failing to prepare is preparing to fail”. Make today be the last day that you go into an event under prepared.
PERIODIZATION TRAINING
Players need to balance their preparations for short-term goals—such as an upcoming tournament—with their long-term improvement schedule. Managing these training phases is called periodization. When preparing for an upcoming match, a player’s plan for training to reach a peak level at the event should be customized to the player’s current comfort and ability level. Trying to perform skills that have not yet been securely ingrained is a recipe for disaster. The following are examples of both poor and intelligent pre-match preparations through periodization.
Poor Pre-Match Preparation
- Changing fundamental grips or strokes– Changing fundamental grips or strokes often leads to not having the old stroke any longer and not having the new stroke ready for match play.
- Cramming for the event by overloading the practice schedule. This behavior often leads to drained, low batteries on match day.
- Overdoing the off-court training– Overdoing the off-court training, often leads to soreness, fatigue, and injuries come match day.
- Adding unfamiliar things to routines– Adding unfamiliar things to routines could lead to physical, mental and emotional confusion.
- Seeking out only “Up” practice matches– Seeking out only “Up” practice matches breeds low self-esteem and zero confidence.
- Warming up past the point of diminishing returns-Warming up the same strokes too long often leads to your mind playing tricks on you. A seemingly solid stroke may appear to be flawed by over analysis.
Exception to the Rule: Often players and/or parents do not want to get off the tournament trail due to the ranking race. In this situation, changes must be made to improve while on the tournament trail. Players/parents will have to accept the fact that losing a battle or two may be in order to win the war. In other words a player may have to lose a minor tournament or two in order to improve enough to be able to win Major tournaments in the future.
Intelligent Pre-Match Preparation:
- Train repetition of primary and secondary strokes, which grooves the timing and increases confidence.
- Train repetition of proactive patterns, which leads to fast cognitive processing speed and faith in the patterns.
- Perform light off-court training, this leads to strength and stamina.
- Preset mental protocols, this leads to dependable problem-solving skills.
- Preset emotional protocols, which leads to self-assurance and trust under stress
ASSIGNMENTS:
Review the above Poor Pre-Match Preparation actions and list the actions you have regularly included in your pre-match regime (if any) and how you will change these regimes.
Contact: Frank Giampaolo
FGSA@earthlink.net
MaximizingTennisPotential.com
Affiliate
