Tag Archives: tennis coach

The Formula for Achieving Results- Part 1

Posted on February 24, 2019 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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THE FORMULA FOR ACHIEVING RESULTS

All too often, competitive parents and athletes have dreams they mistake for goals. The disconnect starts with confusing dreams with goals. A dream is only a goal if it has an organized plan. For example, when I ask naturally talented athletes about their goals, they most often answer with uncontrollable outcome dreams. Such as: being ranked top in the nation, winning the state championship, receiving an NCAA D-1 athletic scholarship or playing pro ball.

These are nice dreams but remember:

“A goal without a deliberate customized developmental plan is actually a dream in disguise.”

Although elite athletes may also have the above dreams, the difference is that they realize their success is a result of quantifiable performance orientated process goals. It isn’t always the most naturally gifted athletes that are successful, it is the athletes with strong work ethics, resiliency, and a plan. Below are seven insights that parents should apply while navigating their child’s pathway to greatness.

“Championship results are achieved by focusing on the process and the process starts with a plan.”

 

Achieving Results: Seven Insights  

Insight 1: Establish an outcome goal but then let it go because it isn’t in your athlete’s immediate control. What is? The process. The plan is everything.

The process starts and ends with the constant development of character. Daily focus on character building will shape your child’s life – on and off the playing fields. Character building develops your athlete’s inner voice through optimistic self-coaching. One of the most important jobs of a parent is to focus on character building through life skills.

Insight 2: Assist your athlete in developing calm, positive, proactive “self-talk.” This inner belief in themselves is the basis of the exact mental toughness they need at crunch time.

Your athlete’s inner voice is nurtured to either build them up to think clearly under duress or to tear them down and hinder their efforts at the most inopportune times. Often when things go south in competition, junior athletes allow their mind to drift away from the present process at hand (performance goals) and into past or future thoughts (outcome oriented thoughts). This is commonly followed by negative inner-chatter. Character building provides the optimistic scripts used to turn a possible disaster into another win.

Why Video Analysis Doesn’t Help

Posted on August 14, 2018 by in Tennis Professional Interviews

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By Frank Giampaolo

 

While it’s enlightening and even exciting for athletes to see themselves hitting in slow motion on a split screen serving next to Roger Federer, it typically doesn’t help. Why? Cognitive dissonance is too powerful for most students to overcome. So, what does the psychological term, cognitive dissonance mean? It refers to the discomfort the athlete experiences by simultaneously holding two contradictory mental habits (motor programs.) The flawed behavior they own and the new behavior that they don’t quite recognize. As a result, the constructive and informative video analysis leads to temporary learning due to the athlete’s internal conflict with change. Let’s unfold the mystery.

 

Research shows that replacing an old stroke with a new one takes approximately 3-6 weeks of deliberate, customized, focused practice. Sticking with the replacement plan requires the discipline and patience of both the athlete and the coach. Most athletes are interested in the improvement, but not committed to the process. Most athletes don’t possess the resolve to feel uncomfortable as the natural cycle unfolds. Understood that in the realm of improvement; it gets worse before it gets better.  The following is a typical scenario demonstrating why improvement via video analysis often doesn’t stick.

 

The coach shoots the video and offers the athlete suggestions. Motivated and convinced the change is needed, the student focuses for a week or two on their new skill set.  At the 2- week mark, like clockwork, they can‘t resist competing. So they call Bertha, whom they have never beat, to play a practice match armed with an unrealistic new “weapon.”  “Sunday morning you & me. It’s finally go-time!” The athlete prematurely competes two weeks into their transformation. Their old stroke is dismantled, and their new version isn’t fully formed. Catastrophe strikes as the new stroke predictably breaks-down under competitive stress. The athlete then says “I know what Coach Frank said, but I can’t lose to Bertha again. I’m going back to my old one.”

 

Here’s the psychology: The older more comfortable version of the stroke will initially overtake and resist the new stroke in the first few weeks because the flawed old stroke still feels more comfortable. After all, the athlete has been loyal, nurturing and motor programming the lousy stroke for years. The inner conflict between the new and old often stops the metamorphosis dead in its tracks.

 

“If the pain the athlete suffers from losing is greater than the pain he suffers from changing a flawed stroke, the prognosis is good. If the pain of changing is greater than the pain of losing, the prognosis isn’t so good.”

 

Can video analysis help athletes? Of course, but improvement stems from the time and effort they put into the rerouting process. Some athletes will choose to speed up the transformation with several hours of on-court deliberate, customized, focused practice sessions along with hours of neuro priming per week. Athletes that embrace this route have an excellent prognosis. The normal, less committed athletes believe that merely seeing themselves on video will magically change their strokes. It won’t. Even if they choose to set aside one hour a week for a couple of weeks; it’s just not enough to override the old motor program.

 

The time dedicated to the project after the video shoot dictates the speed and effectiveness of the transformation.

The Power of Choice

Posted on July 19, 2018 by in The Soft Science of Tennis

The following post is an excerpt from Frank’s newest book, The Soft Science of Tennis. Click Here 

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The Power of Choice

Positive character motivates the athlete to forge ahead. Negative character allows the athlete to give up. A critical question in our sport is “How do we teach our athletes to handle losses?”

A modern term used in sports psychology is Posttraumatic Growth (PTG). Psychologists apply the term PTG to describe a positive psychological change that can result from a traumatic experience, such as athletic failure. Though losing may not seem like a tragic event to some, to others competitive losses can be mentally and emotionally crippling.  PTG methodologies help clients through difficult situations by encouraging them to take responsibility with the power of choice.

The athlete can choose to fight or retreat. Tennis champions actually lose and lose often throughout their career. The athletes who choose to use their scar tissue as motivation to fight and endure the athletic pressure persevere and reach the top. Admirable character opens up the athlete to forge ahead instead of shutting down and giving up.

 

“You need to develop a thick skin” is a common mantra for strong character building. It’s an effective defense to the critics. Trust me, the most common way you know you’re rising above the crowd is when others begin to trash-talk and criticize you solely because of their petty jealousy. If athletes aren’t able to take criticism, they should stay home, lie on the couch and stop improving immediately!”

 

In regards to character, actions speak louder than words. Parents and coaches need to remember that they are modeling character and that their actions have a more significant impact than their words. It is the role of parents and coaches to create a positive environment for ideal character building. Build character and lead by example:

  • It’s cool to be kind so choose kindness.
  • Vulnerability is a courageous character trait and not a weakness. So embrace vulnerability.
  • Share successes and failures. Share your story as a learning tool.
  • Laugh and joke as you apply humor to your daily training sessions.
  • Give credit to others for your success.
  • Compliment others daily on everything and anything.

 

“Invest more time and energy in your positive character building, and you’ll witness your athletes
modeling positive behavior.”

 

Character Traits

Character and a solid moral compass are part of the athlete’s foundation, which dictates behavior and facilitates success. The same is true for a successful coaching business; the character traits found in a champion are the same character traits that provide the foundation of a sustainable business.

20 Essential Character Traits Worth Educating

Print the following 20 Essential Character Traits and review with your athlete. Discuss how each trait affects their personal tennis development.

  • Motivation: The reason or reasons for attaining your goals.
  • Trustworthiness: The ability to be relied on as honest or truthful.
  • Gratitude: The appreciation of actions and benefits bestowed upon you.
  • Accountability: The condition of being responsible for your actions.
  • Commitment: The position of being dedicated to your cause.
  • Respectfulness: A curious regard for others feelings or situation.
  • Grit: Strength of character; courage and resolve.
  • Integrity: Having a strong moral compass and principles.
  • Innovative: Applying creative problem solving and advanced thinking.
  • Competency: The ability to perform efficiently and successfully.
  • Honesty: Acting with fairness and righteous conduct.
  • Loyalty: A strong feeling of support or allegiance to your supporters.
  • Ethics: The morals and principles that govern your behavior.
  • Patience: The capacity to tolerate delay or suffering without getting upset.
  • Desire: A deep feeling of acquiring something or wishing for it to happen.
  • Effort: The amount of energy put into an attempt.
  • Sincerity: The quality of being free from pretense and deceit.
  • Open-Mindedness: The willingness to consider new ideas without prejudice.
  • Unselfishness: The desire to accept the needs of others before your own.
  • Humble: Showing a modest estimate of your importance.

 

So does the participation in sports help build praiseworthy character traits? Yes, but an athlete’s character must be first introduced, nurtured, and developed by parents and coaches. The essential character traits demonstrated on-court in competition were first gained off-court. These traits were nurtured by choice …not by chance.