Accelerate growth | Frank Giampaolo's Maximizing Tennis Potential

Maximizing Athletic Potential

Posted on January 17, 2017 by Frank Giampaolo in Emotional Aptitude in Sports, Maximizing Tennis Potential

The following post is an excerpt from Emotional Aptitude in Sports NOW available through most on-line retailers! Click Here to Order

Studying Successful Role Models

A terrific solution to becoming more responsible is to observe athletes who successfully perform at a higher level. This could be accomplished live or via YouTube. Emulate their work ethic, their demeanor, their schedule and their training methodology.

Intermediate athletes will quickly see that the winners approach their development very differently. Here are the criteria I see around the globe with high achievers:

They don’t rely exclusively on group training. Most often, elite athletes customize their developmental plan and schedule time to focus on their own priorities.
They care desperately and strive for weekly improvement.
They organize their schedule, developing every component needed to excel.
Top athletes hire an entourage of coaching experts to assist them throughout their journey. It is common for an elite athlete to have a team of technical/mechanical coaches, fitness gurus, mental/emotional experts, nutritionists, and physiotherapists, as well as a logistical manager.
Top athletes place their sport above their social calendar.

While recreational hobbyist may still want to maximize their potential at the quickest rate, they may not choose to invest so heavily in their chosen sport.

Second Edition of Tennis Parent’s Bible

Posted on January 7, 2016 by Frank Giampaolo in The Second Edition of The Tennis Parent's Bible

The following post is a quote for The Second Edition of the Tennis Parent’s Bible. Ebook Amazon pre-orders are now available (Click Here) Over 500 pages of invaluable information to maximize your child’s athletic potential !!!

“A first-class book from a first-class coach. Frank is an encyclopedia of tennis knowledge, has extraordinary talents to share and is a model of professionalism. When all of these components come together, an excellent book such as The Tennis Parents Bible appears.

By educating yourself, your children will have better results. This book is a must read for parents to understand how to educate themselves and to appreciate the extensive process they, their children and their coaches are undergoing while their children are developing their tennis skills.”

Shaul Zohar, Manager, Kiryat Shmona Israel Tennis Center

KEYS TO ACCELERATING LEARNING

Posted on December 23, 2015 by Frank Giampaolo in Customized Organizational Plan, The Second Edition of The Tennis Parent's Bible

The following post is an excerpt from the soon to be released Second Edition of The Tennis Parent’s Bible! Happy Holidays, Frank

Regardless of the sport, excellence does not happen by chance. It takes a deliberate customized plan, hard work and dedication. Accelerate your child’s learning curve with a plan.

KEYS TO ACCELERATING LEARNING

How do you take a kid with potential and develop them into a proven champion? What predetermines their success? How do you convince them that they’re special? What factors build passion? How does a parent and coach develop a consistent winner?

Let’s use my step- daughter Sarah Fansler as a quantifiable example of gauging the development of a kid’s potential. Most would agree that Sarah had a flair for the game. She was ranked top in the nation. Sarah won multiple gold, silver and bronze balls. She won a total of 10 U.S. National titles. She’s played the junior U.S. Open twice and the adult U.S. Open once before the age of 16. She was honored as he NCAA College Freshman of the year while at USC.

Now, let’s uncover her underlying story and take a deeper look at Sarah’s training regimen. As a junior player, Sarah had spent six years training full time. That’s about 20 hours a week or a thousand hours a year practicing in the manner in which she was expected to perform. Sarah only followed a deliberate, customized developmental plan.

Sarah did a private lesson with me from 6:30 am -7:30 am before getting ready for school. Sarah’s after-school regimen included playing full matches against paid college players and/or off-court training at a specialized gym called “Get Fit”, a Vert system off-court training center. After dinner Sarah and I drilled for an additional hour and a half. On weekends, Sarah played tournaments.

Sarah followed my Customized Player Evaluation (Found in section VII) – a formula for deep accelerated learning. Her training regimen was more intense than the typical training program of an average high performance player. The hidden factor to her tennis success was her hard work on and off the court each week. The accelerated learning process catapulted Sarah above her rivals.

“You can’t simply place your athlete in with the group… if you actually want them to get ahead of the group!”

So, was Sarah’s success due to her natural gifts or was it earned through a planned process? My answer is that approximately 20 percent of Sarah’s junior success was due to her natural talents, 80 percent was due to her learned behaviors. The development of life lessons was a major factor. (Fast forward 2015: Sarah’s life lessons learned through tennis are now accelerating her career in business!)

So talent is actually measured by the preparation before the performance. Often professionals say “I didn’t just win this event today…I won it through the last three months of customized preparation.”

So, my question to the parents and coaches is: What’s your deliberate, customized developmental plan for your athlete?

Contact: Frank Giampaolo
FGSA@earthlink.net
www.MaximizingTennisPotential.com

Overlooking the Pain Principle

Posted on July 16, 2015 by Frank Giampaolo in The Tennis Parent's Bible

The following post is an excerpt from The Tennis Parent’s Bible. Thanks for visiting, Frank Giampaolo

Overlooking the Pain Principle

Remember the old saying? “If you keep on doing what you’ve always done, you’ll keep on getting what you’ve always got.” Players hit common walls in their development. One of those walls is resisting change.

If your child view’s change, as more painful than losing, they’ll continue in the same losing path. It’s so painful for some to change a flawed grip, stroke or stance; they’d rather accept the pain of losing than deal with changing.

Great things begin to happen when the pain of losing starts to be more powerful than the pain of changing. Once they accept the fact that a change has to be made, they are on their way to the next level. This is where great parenting comes in.

The cycle of change is a three step process:

Step one is accepting change.
Step two is uncomfortable because they have left their old strokes and their new strokes are not fully formed.
Step three is a 4-6 week developmental cycle. During this phase, their new motor programs become personalized and over-ride the old motor programs.

NOTE: At stage 2, the pain of being uncomfortable often pulls them back to their old strokes.

SPECIAL NOTE: Placing your youngster into a competitive situation before the three phases are complete may destroy their new motor program and the old strokes will surely return.

Contact: Frank Giampaolo
FGSA@earthlink.net
MaximizingTennisPotential.com
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