Tag Archives: nurturing tennis strengths

A New Way to Look at Strategy – Part 2

Posted on February 7, 2020 by in Maximizing Tennis Potential, The Second Edition of The Tennis Parent's Bible

The following post is an excerpt from the Second Edition of The Tennis Parent’s Bible NOW available through most online retailers!  Click Here to Order  

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Weaknesses

Ann is light in stature. Her opponents are generally much bigger and stronger. We checked off and excluded the “Power Contest” from her A game plan. This is not to say that she might use power as a B or C game plan. Ann also has focus issues. We checked off the “Patience Contest” and excluded it as her A game plan.

 

Strengths

Ann possesses great speed and anticipatory skills. We chose the “Speed Contest” as her A game plan. Ann is extremely intuitive. She can sense when the opponent is vulnerable and knows “How” and “When” to move in and take away the opponent’s recovery and decision-making time.

When Ann chooses to play her “Speed Contest”, she most often is able to move the bigger girls enough to force errors. She can also pull the retrievers off the court to open up winning angles. When Ann chooses to get into a “boomball-power” contest with bigger, stronger girls, she loses. When she chooses to out moonball a “World Class” moonballer she loses!

 

As I mentioned earlier, this section should be a conversation opener with your athlete and their entourage.  Knowing who you are is an important step in formulating your most successful game plans.

The Importance of Proper Breathing Techniques

Posted on September 20, 2019 by in Maximizing Tennis Potential, Preparing for Pressure

The following post is an excerpt from Frank’s NEW Amazon #1 New Tennis Book Release, Preparing for Pressure.
Click Here to Order

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The Importance of Proper Breathing Techniques

 

“Proper breathing boosts performance.”

Josh, a witty student of mine said, “Come on Frank! It sounds a bit silly that you are reminding me to breathe.  What next? Reminding me to blink? Look, coach, no offense, but I’ve been breathing my whole life effortlessly!”

Without oxygen freely flowing to the muscles, lungs, and brains of our athlete’s, catastrophe is likely to strike. The following scenarios result when deep breathing routines and rituals are not implemented:

  • Fluid strokes stiffen
  • Athlete’s body tightens up and often cramps
  • Fatigue sets in prematurely
  • Core stability lessens
  • Anxiety levels increase
  • Concentration levels diminish
  • Problem-solving skills decrease

In match play, there are two phases of correct breathing techniques.

 

During Points Phase: Educate the athlete that inhaling begins while tracking the incoming ball and during the coiling phase of the stroke. This energizes the uncoiling links into impact. Exhaling at impact relaxes and loosens their “swoosh” swing, as it grounds the athlete and stabilizes their strike zone.

 

During the Between Points & Changeovers Phase: Educate the athlete to switch their focus on the benefits of applying calming, deep breathing techniques. By slowly breathing through their nose, the athlete will lower their heart rate as they take in greater amounts of oxygen into the bloodstream.

This, of course, provides physical, mental, and emotional benefits such as increased energy, sharper memory recall, relaxed muscle exertions, reduced anxieties, calmer nerves, improved judgment, and decision-making ability.

Breathing properly during match play has emotional benefits as well. Athletes focused on their breathing techniques ward off contaminating anxiety that can creep into an empty mind. Correct breathing significantly improves performance under pressure.

 

Ask your athletes to play a few practice sets while focusing their attention on their breathing techniques. By simply paying attention to correct breathing, they are sure to boosts performance under pressure.

Nurturing Tennis Strengths

Posted on March 15, 2015 by in Maximizing Tennis Potential

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

Frank Giampaolo

Nurturing your Child’s Tennis StrengthsChampionship Tennis Cover

 

Your child has a genetic predisposition to excel at a particular style of tennis. A common parental mistake is assuming that your child is wired like you! Most likely they have a different brain type. They may see the world differently and approach tasks differently than you would.

I’ve found that by understanding each player’s brain type, body type and personality traits similar patterns emerge as you examine obstacles and skills. Other similarities are found in frustration tolerance levels, similar styles of play and decision making abilities. The player’s upbringing, family, friends, and cultural environment also play a large part in shaping their game. This is called the “nurture” side. (The other is called the “nature” side.)

To dig deeper into brain typing I suggest you visit my friend Jon Niednagel’s site: www.braintypes.com or Google brain typing and read about your child’s preferred learning style. I suggest, that you first take a few minutes to accurately brain type yourself, your spouse and each family member. It may open a whole new world of communication.

Note: Since writing The Tennis Parent’s Bible, Jon Niednagel’s site is no longer free.

Once you have identified your child’s brain type, consider your child’s preferred learning style. The three preferred learning styles are visual learners, auditory learners and kinesthetic learners. The following is an example of talking to a visual learner.

Mr. Kolouski says to me, “I’ve explained numerous times to my son, about decreasing the racket face angle 30 degrees. I told him to rotate his right palm a quarter of a turn. I’ve expounded on the 60 degree lift through the shoulder hinge. I decipher things for hours. I explain everything in detail, yet my son’s still confused. I feel like I am conversing with a granite wall!”

Explaining detail after detail for hours on end to a visual learner is just plain preposterous.

Different people have different learning styles or preferences. Getting into your child’s world and understanding how he’s wired is the key. Remember that a parent and coaching blunder is forcing your child to enter your world!

Dozens of my students annually win their first National title and skyrocket their rankings by applying brain typing.  Their training was systematically customized to their unique brain and body types and their rankings greatly improved. Best of all they enjoyed tennis again!

 

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