Tag Archives: accelerated training

Intimidation and Athletics

Posted on October 3, 2015 by in Maximizing Tennis Potential

The Second Edition of The Tennis Parent’s Bible is coming soon! The following post is an excerpt from  The Tennis Parent’s Bible.  Thanks for visiting, Frank Giampaolo

 

Frank Giampaolo

Question: My daughter is easily intimidated out of competing. Is this fair?

Frank: Yes, intimidation is fair. At the higher levels, tennis is a game of intimidation. If your daughter has terrific strokes but is an inexperienced emotional competitor, it is your child’s coach’s responsibility to assist them in developing a “thick skin.”

Dealing with gamesmanship should be part of your child’s basic training. The first step in handling gamesmanship is devising customized solutions (protocols) for each form of gamesmanship.  The second step is rehearsing those solutions on the practice court to gain confidence in applying pre-set counter gamesmanship solutions in a real match.

To progress into the higher levels of the game, mental and emotional skill set development is crucial. Parents, if you’re not taking an active role in helping to develop these critical components in your child, please don’t blame your child when tournament after tournament they lose as a result of gamesmanship.

Contact: Frank Giampaolo
FGSA@earthlink.net
MaximizingTennisPotential.com
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Decreasing Unforced Errors Part One

Posted on July 26, 2015 by in The Tennis Parent's Bible

The following post is an excerpt from The Tennis Parent’s Bible. Thank you for visiting, Frank GiampaoloThe Tennis Parent's Bible by Frank Giampaolo

Decreasing Unforced Errors -Part One

 

If the most common cause of errors in competitive tennis is shot selection, can you share some examples?

Shot selection starts with understanding that in between each shot in a rally, there are only approximately 2 milliseconds of actual decision making time. So, how much can you analyze in that small amount of time? The answer is not much. This means that most shot selection options are learned behaviors acquired in sparring session, under the watch of a high IQ coach on the practice court.

To explain the importance of shot selection, we will use two of my students, Jack and Jason (brothers that couldn’t be more different). Jason has chosen to focus on the mental/emotional sides of tennis early in his development, while Jack was and still is too cool to listen to this silly stuff and enjoys grooving back and forth to the pro for his entire lesson.

 

Strength and Weaknesses

Situation: It is add-in. Holding serve means a comfortable 5-2 lead.

Jason: Selects to serve a big kick serve wide to the opponent’s weaker side; He runs the same old boring, Winning pattern to close out the game.

Jack: Selects to go for a huge ace down the center (the one that he made once in a tornado back in 2010); He misses, gets angry and rushes into a double fault.

 

Broad Vision

Situation: Our player just hit an offensive shot and has the opponent on the dead run; the opponent is stretching and lunging at a low slice backhand.

Jason: Spots the visual clues like the defensive court position, body language, open racket face and defensive strike zone of the opponent. He moves in, takes away the opponent’s recovery time and steals an easy volley winner.

Jack: Didn’t bother to learn to spot these clues, so he stands at the baseline and lets the opponent float the ball back and he then re- starts the rally. Jack just missed an important opportunity to win the point.

 

Offense, Neutral Defensive Options

Situation: The brothers are in a vulnerable position running fifteen feet behind the baseline retrieving the opponents terrific shot.

Jason: Throws up a deep, high, defensive lob to push the opponent back and gain valuable recovery time.

Jack: Goes for an offensive, down the line pass that lands near the back fence…Then screams…AAAHHHH!

 

Movement, Balance and Strike Zones

Situation: Our player gets to the ball late. He is off balance and ends up striking the ball down by his socks.

Jason: Quickly dials his offensive shot selection down to neutral and elects to simply keep the opponent from taking an offensive position.

Jack: Is still in full flight and goes for a topspin rip off of his shoe laces. The ball rips into the net. Then yells “Geez!!!”

 

Winning Score Dynamics

Situation: Our player is winning comfortably 6-3, 4- 1.

Jason: Continues to do the exact same, boring shot selections. He closes out the match in routine fashion. He realizes the importance of saving physical and emotional energy for the next round.

Jack: Gets bored with such a lead. He begins to throw in a bunch of more exciting, yet low percentage new things. In essence, Jack has changed the shot selections that have gained him a comfortable lead. Now the set is 5-5; Jack is so angry that he is acting like a Crazy Person; throwing his racquet and yelling, “I Hate Tennis.” His situation is a result of his wandering mind.

 

Losing Score Modifications

Situation: Our player is down 1-4 but is actually controlling the court and the points. His hard hitting baseline style is working, but he is simply missing the put away balls by a few inches.

Jason: Spots that the style is working. He adapts by staying with the hard hitting style of play and chooses to apply more top spin to his shots and simply aim three feet inside the lines.

Jack: Is so upset that he is missing, that he does not spot that fact that he is actually controlling the points with his hard hitting baseline style of play. So, he changes his hard hitting style and stands flat footed and pushes every shot. Jack’s slow, short balls are now “Sitting Ducks” and the opponent has a field day hitting winner after winner. After the match, Jack says, “He was too good.”

 

In summary, thinking, reacting, adjusting and problem solving are critical dimensions in top level tennis. Without it, the physical and technical sides of the athlete tend to drift off course. The key tools needed to compete at higher are developed by training the mental and emotional components of the game. If your child is more like crazy Jack, it may be time to organize their developmental plan before another critical year is wasted away.

Contact Frank Giampaolo
Cell: (949)933-1272
Web Site: www.MaximizingTennisPotential.com
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Neglecting Smart Work

Posted on May 29, 2015 by in Blunders and Cures

The following post is an excerpt from Blunders and Cures.  Thanks for visiting, Frank GiampaoloThe Tennis Parent's Bible by Frank Giampaolo

BLUNDER: Neglecting Smart Work

Great coaches have the ability to zero in on a player’s weaknesses long before players or parents know they even exist. This is where smart work comes into play. Up until this point, we have touched on the subject of proper organization, but fixing what actually needs to be fixed is crucial if you want to improve at the fastest rate.

Let’s use an analogy. If a race car continually loses race after race due to its tires blowing out, will spending 4 hours a day polishing the fenders solve the problem? Not likely!

As I travel across the world conducting tennis workshops, I talk with juniors who claim that they despise playing moonball/pushers, Yet, when I witness the same players training,  they are simply playing “catch” with their coach, -as they rally back and forth to each other for the entire lesson.

CURE:  Smart work would be to replace those hours playing “catch” with “keep away” patterns designed to defuse a back court retriever. They include side door patterns and moonball approach to swing volley patterns just to name a few. You may be working hard over 4 hours a day, but are you working smart?

Ask Yourself?

What are your typical lessons and practice sessions like? Do you spend the majority of the time hitting ground strokes that are fed right to your strike zone? List three ways that you can possibly improve your lesson plan? Memorize this: “Practice in the manner you are expected to perform.”

Write down your Personal Action Plan:

 

Contact: Frank Giampaolo
FGSA@earthlink.net
MaximizingTennisPotential.com
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Attending a Tennis Academy?

Posted on February 3, 2015 by in Maximizing Tennis Potential

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

A tennis academy has offered us a scholarship. Should we take it? 

This is a touchy subject. Some of my best friends and lifelong business partners run successful academies. I am often presented business plans to open a full time academy, but I am convinced that a new blueprint is needed to ensure that each student is receiving the customized attention he/she deserves. I’ve opened and directed clubs and academies since the mid 1980’s. These include Vic Braden Tennis Colleges, the Rancho San Clemente Tennis Club and the Sherwood Country Club- some of Southern California’s most prestigious clubs. As a result, academies are very familiar territory.

Here are my feelings toward academies in this stage in my coaching career.

The Positive Side:

  1. Academies provide a terrific social environment for the players. The players can hang out with their peers of both genders.
  2. Players can experience the bonding of a team versus the individualism the sport often requires.
  3. A few top players receive free t-shirts, bags and sweats with the academies logo. Other players may receive a discount.
  4. Academies provide a convenient one-stop shop for parents. In essence, the parents can rely on others to organize and develop their child’s career.
  5. Academies should provide plenty of free hitting, off- court training options and match play for the motivated individuals.
  6. Live ball sparring. Players grow from the daily battle.
  7. Academies get players good. How good? With the rare exception, most attendees advance to high school varsity, top sectionally ranked and/or NCAA to Division 2-3 level college ball.
  8. A fact is that most juniors are not truly interested in putting the hard work it requires to be a national champion. They are hobbyist. In that situation, academies could be the right choice. Remember, tennis is a terrific hobby.
  9. Players experience many different coaches and coaching styles.

 

SPECIAL NOTE: If your child is ranked higher than most players in the academy, you may be able to negotiate attending for FREE in exchange for attracting paying customers to the program. Also, some academies give every attendee a price break thus giving everyone a partial scholarship. That is, if you pay up front! Folks, that’s marketing 101.

 

The Negative Side:

  1. Most academies recruit their top players AFTER a quality teacher has developed the student’s skills.
  2. The paying customer should receive instruction equal to that given to the elite superstars, that attend for FREE. Unfortunately, in some cases, the experienced coaches are busy working privately with the non-paying super stars and NOT with your child.
  3. In the higher levels of high performance tennis, detailed customization of the lesson plans are required. For example, if a player has holes in their transition game, sending them down to court #6 to get in line with the rest of the group and hit forehands and backhands may not be in the student’s best interest.
  4. Paying customers do not progress at the quickest rate. Often they have to win to move up into the “higher” level courts. This forces the junior to choose outcome goals over performance goals. This means they avoid building their new weapons as they choose to use their old comfortable “flawed strokes” to try to win. This behavior stalls the exact progression you seek.
  5. A great young talent positioned in an unsupervised setting will often learn how to goof off, throw their racquet, waist time, go for low percentage shots, over hit, and give half effort.
  6. Often inexpensive overworked introductory coaches are employed to oversee the paying customers.

FUN FACT: In the last decade, most park & rec’s, high school courts, apartment complex, college courts, country club and city facility have changed the name of their after school junior tennis program to an academy. It sounds more official, doesn’t it?

Thanks for visiting, Frank Giampaolo

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