Tag Archives: athletic blueprint

Is Your Athlete Organized?

Posted on January 14, 2018 by in Raising Athletic Royalty

The following post is an excerpt from Raising Athletic Royalty NOW available through most online retailers!
Click Here to Order

Frank Giampaolo

 

ORGANIZATION

LESSON: Israel Tennis Centers

While consulting in Israel, I had the opportunity to train sports psychologist, tennis coaches, players and parents at several beautiful Israel Tennis Centers.

I had the privilege of meeting one extremely insightful individual heading the programs in Kiryat Shemona, Israel, named Shaul Zohar.  Shaul is an excellent coach and mentor. His teachings go beyond tennis and nurture life skills like organization, time management, scheduling, perseverance, work ethic, punctuality, and optimism, to list a few.

I sat down with his 10-13-year-old high-performance group. I threw out typical questions and surprisingly they had all the answers and then some. I asked about their weekly components:

Q: “How many hours a week do you spend on off-court tennis specific training?”
A: “2.5 hours in the gym and 3 hours doing speed and agility work,” replied Moses.

Q: “How many hours do you spend developing your primary and secondary strokes?”
A: “Four hours on the primary, 3 hours on our secondary,” said Paul.

Match play versus pushers? Pattern repetition? Designing and rehearsing your between point rituals? Handling gamesmanship? …Whatever I threw at Shaul’s group, accurate and precise answers flowed from the mouths of these young players.

Typically, when I ask these very same questions to parents, players, and coaches at my workshops, seminars, and summits the answer is… “Aaahh …What’s that?”

Customizing your child’s developmental plan and systematically organizing it is the parent’s initial job. Dropping them off at a clinic or team practice isn’t going to produce Athletic Royalty.  Parents, you should plan on making the time to manage your child’s career unless you are paying a top coach like Shaul to manage it for you.

 

“A CUSTOMIZED ORGANIZATIONAL BLUE-PRINT IS YOUR CHILD’S NAVIGATIONAL SYSTEM. IT MAXIMIZES POTENTIAL AT THE QUICKEST RATE.”

 

ASSESSMENT: Customizing a Developmental Plan

Posted on November 3, 2017 by in Raising Athletic Royalty

The following post is an excerpt from Raising Athletic Royalty NOW available through most online retailers!
Click Here to Order

Raising Athletic Royalty

 

ASSESSMENT

LESSON: Customizing a Developmental Plan

When I accept a new client, I begin their session with a collection of detailed information as part of my Customized Evaluation Package. Upon completion of the evaluation, each component of the athlete’s game is systematically graded by three separate entities: the player, the parent, and I. Most often, three different opinions result.  Typically, the players think they are great in all categories regardless of their actual skill level, the typical Type A personality parents believe their children are underachieving in most categories and I represent an unbiased professional opinion (usually somewhere in the middle). My role is to find a synergy of energy to bridge the gap between parent and child so a harmonious organizational plan can be activated to maximize potential.

I begin by gaining an understanding of the child’s personality profile, their athleticism, their athletic history, as well as their family’s athletic history. We don’t stop there. Discussions cover their general sports IQ (intelligence quotient), their current weekly developmental schedule, their academic schedule, their social calendars and their sport-specific schedules. We then dive into their sport-specific IQ, their existing technical skills, their opinions regarding the demands of physical fitness, mental tenacity, and their emotional skill sets. All assets and liabilities are assessed before a customized developmental plan is put into effect.

This organizational process of designing an athletic blueprint should be the parent’s primary responsibility but is most often left to chance. Parents who take the time to develop a customized plan put their child in a position to maximize their potential at a faster rate. Note that for each stage of adolescence (early/mid/late), there are several standard developmental protocols that most coaches follow. I challenge you to go deeper.

 

“ASSESSING YOUR CHILD’S ABILITIES AND DEVELOPING A CUSTOMIZED GAME PLAN BEGINS WITH UNDERSTANDING THEIR INBORN STRENGTHS AND WEAKNESSES. THEIR BRAIN TYPE AND BODY TYPE PLAY THE MOST IMPORTANT ROLE IN UNDERSTANDING THEIR DEVELOPMENTAL PATHWAY.”