Tag Archives: personality profiling

Personality Profiling: Mental and Physical Predispositions- Part 1

Posted on February 8, 2019 by in 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

black_ebook_design2

Personality Profiling: Mental and Physical Predispositions

 

What if I told you that you think you know your athlete, but you don’t?

What if I shared a tool to assist you in understanding why your son, daughter or student acts the way they do? What if I explained why different personalities are better suited for different sports, styles and/or positions? What if I said, to accelerate growth, it is essential that you get into your child’s world instead of forcing them into your world? What if I explained how motivating within their genetic guidelines will maximize their potential at a much quicker rate?

The old school teaching/coaching methodology demands the student get into the coach and/or parent’s training philosophy with total disregard to the student’s unique brain and body design. (Remember our friend Jose in the previous section?) More often than not, this archaic approach produces average athletes at best. At its worst, it quickly causes gifted athletes to leave the game.

Let’s begin by recognizing and respecting your child’s inborn characteristics.

Personality Profiling

Because the most universal personality type indicator is the Myers Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI), I chose to use it to help you understand athletic/personality profiling. It must be noted that although profiling brain and body types is not a hard science and I am not a neuroscientist or clinical psychologist, I am qualified to maximize athletic potential.

Also worth noting, the founders of the MBTI, Katherine Briggs, and Isabel Myers, were not licensed, psychologists. They were students passionate about the findings of Carl Jung, the “father” of analytical psychology, and nurtured their love for their chosen field as they designed the now famous MBTI questionnaire.

The MBTI is grouped into four categories with 16 different possible configurations of personality profiles. The four categories list opposing brain types. Each person is assigned a four-letter acronym to best describe their primary tendencies. While each of us exhibits multiple sides of our personality, we possess a genetically dominant trait. For example, we all exhibit extraversion and introversion to some degree, but most of us tend to have an overall preference for one over the other.

Listed below are the four MBTI categories with their opposing personality profiles. To help identify your athlete’s personality profile, it may be in your best interest to first categorize yourself. Simply read through the four groupings listed below and choose your dominant brain function.

Brain and Body Type

Posted on June 24, 2015 by in Customized Organizational Plan, Maximizing Tennis Potential, Personality Profile/Learning Preference

Thanks for visiting, Frank Giampaolo

Championship Tennis Cover

To best help your students, you need to understand the mental and physical predisposition of “athletic royalty.” It’s time to get into your player’s world, instead of continually forcing them into yours.

Old-school teaching and coaching requires the student to get into the authority’s training methodology — which disregards the student’s unique brain and body design. This archaic approach produces average athletes at best, and causes gifted athletes to leave the game at worst.

To get into your player’s world, you need to recognize and respect a student’s inborn characteristics, which mean understanding their brain and body types.

Personality Types

To understand brain (and personality) types, we can use the Myers Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI), which has four categories with their opposing profiles.

Introvert vs. Extrovert: Introverts (I) are more comfortable laying back than retaliating. They need alone time to recharge and prefer to be inside their inner world. Extroverts (E) prefer to initiate action. They gain their energy by bringing people together.

Sensate vs. Intuitive: Sensate (S) individuals prefer to collect data and facts before making decisions. Intuitive (N) persons trust their gut instincts and are better quick decision-makers.

Thinkers vs. Feelers: Thinkers (T) make decisions through objective logic and impersonalize the situation. They enjoy the technical components and choose truthful over tactful. Feelers (F) are in tune to the emotional climate of the event and others’ actions; harmony is paramount.

Judgers vs. Perceivers: Judgers (J) prefer structure and like things orderly; they make lists and prefer to work before play. Perceivers (P) are adaptable and flexible; they enjoy experiencing new ideas and methods, rather than agonizing over details.

To help identify your athlete’s personality profile, first try categorizing yourself. Choose your dominant brain functions and write down your four-letter acronym. (While each of us exhibits multiple sides to our personality, we each have a genetically dominant trait.) For example, if you believe you’re an extrovert, intuitive, feeler, perceiver, then you are an ENFP.

Now, sit with your young athlete to brain type him or her. (Be aware that young people sometimes misdiagnose their own personality profile as they may choose characteristics they believe to be more popular.)

Motor Skills

The other part of this puzzle is how body types affect motor skills and athletic potential. The two opposing body types are called “fine-motor-skilled dominant” and “gross-motor-skilled dominant.” We all have a genetic predisposition to one or the other.

Fine-motor-skilled athletes excel from the muscles found from the elbows through the hands and fingers. A common compliment is that the athlete “has good hands.” Gross-motor-skilled athletes prefer the use of the larger muscle groups in the torso, legs and feet, and are known for superior core balance and body coordination.

Raising athletic royalty requires matching your young athlete’s preferred brain type and body type design with the right sport, style of play and/or position. Here’s one example, using two students of mine. Evan and Jarred are 14-year-old twins. They take the same number of private lessons and clinics but their training regimen is polar opposite. Evan is ENFP and fine-motor-skill dominant; Jarred is ISTJ and gross-motor-skill dominant.

Evan, being an extrovert, prefers to make things happen on the court. He often charges the net and ends the point with his volleys (good hands). Jarred is more comfortable assessing and then retaliating — the classic counterpuncher. Being gross-motor-skilled dominant helps Jarred uncoil the larger muscle groups of the kinetic chain — enhancing his textbook groundstrokes.

Teaching each student within their genetic guideline will maximize their potential at the quickest rate. Knowing your student’s genetic makeup and natural strengths and weaknesses helps to avoid the needless frustrations in their development and will better prepare you to assist and encourage them.

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

Athletic Personality Profiling

Posted on April 2, 2015 by in Parent Player Communication, Personality Profile/Learning Preference, Raising Athletic Royalty

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

 

Athletic Personality profiling

Terrific children, wonderful adults and tennis champions aren’t born, they are developed. It’s not simply heredity. It is an organized plan. No one becomes extraordinary on their own. The Williams sisters are an actual example of a parent with a plan!  The stories goes: Richard Williams planned to have more children for the sole purpose of developing them into professional tennis players. Wayne Bryan also had a plan with his twin boys, the Bryan brothers.  Without an actual plan, you’ll never know your child’s true capability.

Preparing an organizational blue print will save you thousands of dollars annually. It will also save your child thousands of wasted, unproductive hours, sweat and tears.  Applying the International Player’s Evaluation comprehensive guide will assist you, the tennis parent, in having a world class plan!

Your child is born with a unique genetic predisposition and pre-wired with a specific brain and body type. Consider it carefully as you and your coaches (your team) nurture your child’s talent. This is an important consideration at all levels of the game.

So, what’s the key to maximizing success in the shortest period of time? Is it purchase the latest equipment? Maybe it’s hiring a great local pro?  What if I said neither? The first and most important tool you will ever apply is discovering your child’s personality and brain design.

Old school tennis teaching looks a lot like this. The local pro Jose Gonzales came to the United States from Chile. He was a terrific collegiate player earning a full scholarship to Virginia Commonwealth. Jose even played a few ATP pro challenger events. He found success by being extremely patient. He had a natural gift with his quick feet and he enjoyed running. He took delight in being a steady counter puncher. Jose’s shot tolerance was a 20-ball rally!  As a teaching professional, he demands that each of his students abide by his playing style, disciplines and logic.

Your thinking, boy that guy sounds pretty experienced, let’s hire him as our child’s coach! So, is this the right mentor for your child?

The answer is, not likely.  Why? Because Jose demands that each student plays his style. The style of tennis that your child needs in order to thrive is based on his or hers own unique design. AKA: brain and body type.

Asking your child to play tennis in a style that opposes their skill sets, beliefs and temperament is a recipe for disaster. This is especially true at the beginning levels of player development. One of the quickest ways to ensure that your child will quit the sport is to demand that they play a style that opposes their brain and body type.

Understanding brain and body types is one of the first steps to becoming a world class parent.

 

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