The following post is an excerpt from Frank’s NEW Amazon #1 New Tennis Book Release, Preparing for Pressure.
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SPOTTING ANOMALIES
“You can’t spot competitive tendencies by simply feeding balls to your students.”
Profiling athletes begin with spotting anomalies. I like to start the analysis by observing them playing a set. My initial focus is on two main issues: what is currently present that shouldn’t be there and what is not present that really should be there. Anomalies are components that deviate from what is standard, normal, or expected at the higher levels of the game.
My internal coaching inner dialog includes:
- “Is he patient or impatient?”
- “What’s her shot and frustration tolerance levels?”
- “What are his stroke weapons and weaknesses?”
- “How’s her foot speed, strength, and endurance?”
- “How’s his cognitive processing speed and focus ability?”
- “Does she apply between point rituals and problem-solve?”
One of my favorite ways of gathering information to prepare athletes for pressure is identifying trends within the cause of errors. In competition, errors stem from four leading causes: poor form, reckless shot selection, inefficient movement/spacing, and of course, negative emotions/focus. Errors may also be the result of a combination of the four causes.
Why is spotting the cause invaluable? If 22 of the athlete’s 28 backhand errors were caused by reckless shot selection, would feeding balls right into the athlete’s strike zone and continuing to perfect their form be the appropriate training pathway? Not likely.
Preparing for pressure requires identifying both the athletes winning and losing trends.
