The following post is an excerpt from Frank’s newest book, The Soft Science of Tennis. Click Here to Order through Amazon.
Physical Skills Versus Life Skills
Marcus is a gifted tennis player from Phoenix, Arizona. At 16 he possesses incredible athleticism. He’s 6’3” and is ripped. His speed, agility, and stamina are off the charts. His tennis-specific skills are also above average. He possesses a huge serve and a killer forehand. Marcus’s UTR is hovering around 10.8. College coaches recruiting should be salivating for him, but sadly for Marcus and his folks, tennis scholarships are not being offered.
The red flags that the experienced college coaches quickly identify are underdeveloped character traits and life skills. You see, Marcus can’t communicate with others, and when he does, a storm of pessimism engulfs everyone around him like a dark cloud. As for his life skills, the college coaches quickly pick up on the fact that he’s late for their meetings, unorganized, and blames others for his downfalls. On-court Marcus shows irrational anger, reckless shot selections, and a lack of perseverance, adaptability, and resiliency even in practice match play. Due to Marcus’s underdeveloped software, his D-1 College dreams won’t be coming true. It’s within the job description of coaches and parents to teach positive character traits and life skills along with their tennis skill sets.
High-performance tennis is the combination of four required skill sets: character skills, life skills, athleticism, and tennis-specific skills. Customized training focuses on all four of these components, however, the degree of focus is based on the athlete’s specific needs. It is the job description of a progressive coach to navigate the mastery of all four of these skills effectively.
- Character Skills
Character skills are productive personality traits. These habits include empathy, interpersonal skills for communicating and interacting effectively with others, a positive-optimistic attitude, ethics, morals, and leadership traits.
- Life Skills
Life skills are defined as the abilities to thrive within the challenges of an athlete’s everyday life. These include cognitive skills for analyzing performance and personal skills for organizing developmental plans and managing oneself.
- Athletic Skills
Athletic skills are defined as the physical qualities that are characteristic of well-rounded athletic individuals regardless of the individual sport. Athletic skills include upper and lower body strength, fitness, stamina, speed, core balance, and agility.
- Tennis Skills
Tennis skills are the particular skill sets that define a high performance-tennis specific athlete. Experts in this field possess a complete tool belt of strokes, tactics, strategies and of course, emotional aptitude to compete at the higher echelons of the game.
I work primarily with nationally, and ITF ranked juniors, college athletes, and young touring professionals. Athletes at this level are successful due to their skills management. In my world of high-performance athletes, stats are important because they help customize the athlete’s training regimen.
In regards to stats, the following are the typical percentages ratios of physical skills to life skills that I have witnessed throughout the three primary stages of junior tennis. I’m convinced that positive character traits and customized life skills development hold the secret key to maximizing athletic potential.
At Ages: 7-11, junior athletes I work with possess:
- 10%: Medium physical talent, medium desire, medium commitment.
- 40%: Medium physical talent, maximum desire, maximum commitment.
- 10%: Gifted physically, maximum desire, maximum commitment.
- 40%: Gifted physically, no desire, no commitment.
In this introductory stage, there is nothing more heartbreaking than the estimated 40% of gifted athletes I see with zero desire or work ethic (AKA life skills.)
At Ages: 12-15, junior athletes I work with possess:
- 25%: Medium physical talent, medium desire, medium commitment.
- 45%: Medium physical talent, maximum desire, maximum commitment.
- 5%: Gifted physically, maximum desire, maximum commitment.
- 25%: Gifted physically, no desire, no commitment.
In this developmental stage, the medium talented athletes with customized developmental plans and well-nurtured life skills begin to shine. Simultaneously the gifted athletes with poor nurturing, and life skills development are dropping out.
At Ages: 16-18, junior athletes I work with possess:
- 10%: Medium physical talent, medium desire, medium commitment.
- 70%: Medium talent, maximum desire, maximum commitment.
- 20%: Gifted physically, maximum desire, maximum commitment.
- 0%: Gifted physically, no desire, no commitment.
At the top of the junior tennis food chain, life skills trump physical talent.
The outcomes (wins and rankings) are contingent on how well the parents and coaches deliver the four skill sets and how adept the athlete is at assimilating this information.
As youth sports researchers often say, “Life skills are purposely taught, not hopefully caught.”
The following chapters will identify the hidden benefits of life skills and character building. Life skills and positive character traits are essential elements found in The Soft Science of Tennis.
