Tag Archives: tennis development

The Pain of Changing

Posted on April 12, 2023 by in Maximizing Tennis Potential

The Psychology of Tennis Parenting

The Pain of Changing

Improving stems from changing; to some junior athletes, change is more painful than losing. That’s correct. The pain of making needed changes is more agonizing than losing tennis matches. Use the dieting industry as an example. We know that exercise and eating healthy are the answer, but that agony is more painful than not fitting into our skinny jeans. So, we don’t change.

For some, change only happens when the athlete is tired of not getting the results, they are capable of reaching. When that pain is greater than the pain of hard work, they’ll choose the hard work because it’s less painful. If improving is of the utmost importance, I suggest a quarterly reboot. Here’s how:

Solution: To maximize potential, routinely take your athlete out of the tournament cycle for a couple of weeks every quarter. This scheduled time off will kick start the freedom change demands for improvement. After all, if they don’t continually improve, their results will disappear.

Opponents around the globe are training with sports science efficiency. If your athlete wants better results, they must become better athletes. This desire takes a parent who can organize the athlete’s enhancement schedule and an athlete mature enough to focus on making the changes required. You first have to develop a better competitive athlete to achieve those better results.

THE THREE PHASES OF ATHLETE DEVELOPMENT

Posted on March 4, 2022 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
Available through most online retailers!

 Click Here to Order

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THE THREE PHASES OF ATHLETE DEVELOPMENT

 

Once you’ve discovered which type of tennis parent you want to be, the next step is to identify which phase of development best categorizes your child’s current level. All too often, parents have an unrealistic view of their child’s current phase of development.  This is a result of the parent’s lack of awareness into the developmental process.

Due to personality profiles, growth development schedules and maturity levels, I don’t like to pigeon-hole athletes based on their age. At each level, customization is encouraged. It is very common to find mature 9 year olds in phase 3 and immature 17 year olds in phase 1. Customization is the key.

 

The Introductory Phase:

In this stage of the game, children are sampling many sports. The primary objective is enjoyment while developing sound fundamentals.

Special Note: I’m a firm believer that proper motor programming is essential. Allowing a child to groove poor mechanics only to spend thousands of wasted dollars, hours and tears fixing them later doesn’t make sense. You can still laugh and have fun while developing world class strokes.

 

The Developmental Phase:

Also known as the intermediate phase. In this stage, tennis is the main hobby. Social clinics are the norm. Specialized training has begun and juniors are experiencing sectional tournament play.

Special Note: This is when the parents, uneducated in the process unintentionally push talented athletes away from the sport by allowing them to train like a hobbyist and then expect the child to be getting championship results.

 

The Break-Through Phase:

In this stage, athletes are dedicated to the sport and are engaged in full time training. Each component of the game is developed as the athlete begins to invest in the future. Players begin to look towards National level or ITF level events to secure a college tennis scholarship at a major university.

Special Note: This is when a shift from hardware development (strokes and athleticism) to software development (mental and emotional) is most often needed.

 

Navigating the Athlete’s Pathways – Part 2

Posted on December 16, 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

 

Navigating the Athlete’s Pathways – Part 2

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Talent is a kid with potential. No, it’s even more than that. It’s a kid with potential with parents who were deeply involved in the development of skills and the stimulation of passion. So, what does this new definition of talent mean for the rest of us mere mortals? It means that if a child has parents who are determined and passionate about the game and extremely patient and persistent, they’ve got a real shot at greatness!

In every field talent is a learned behavior. What do Wayne Gretsky, Yo-Yo Ma, Bill Gates, Bobby Fischer, Tiger Woods, Mozart, Miley Cyrus, Bruno Mars, and Michelangelo have in common with tennis greats? They were all children who developed a remarkable talent from an early age. A spark became a flame as they persistently developed their talent. What seems now like a god-given natural gift is actually a deliberate, customized learned behavior.

In my opinion, most of the ATP and WTA professionals you watch on television did not demonstrate early phenomenal promise.  You can YouTube most of today’s stars playing tennis at the earliest stages. Guess what you’ll see? A bunch of average-looking kids enjoying the process of learning. They simply were solid athletes, with potential who were nurtured the love for the game.

 

“Talent is determination, passion and persistence.”

 

A question often asked during my tennis parent workshops is, “How do we motivate our athlete?” When it comes to instigating the hunger, it may prove wise to understand what “buttons” to push as you encourage your special athlete. There are two very powerful psychological forces, extrinsic and intrinsic that parents and coaches should identify when motivating their athletes.

Extrinsic Motivation: Implies being motivated by outside forces. Examples include praise- and lots of it!  Belief in their abilities by the entourage, trophies, awards, playing for a D-1 NCAA squad, ensuring a better future, money, and/or fame.

Intrinsic Motivation: Implies being motivated by inner forces. Examples include a love for the mastery of the game, the need to win or the hatred of losing, keeping up with successful siblings, seeing someone just like them succeed so they believe they can also succeed, finding the journey challenging and enjoyable.

 

Navigating the Athlete’s Pathways

Posted on December 14, 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

 

NAVIGATING THE ATHLETE’S PATHWAYS

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Regardless of the stage of development, parents should seek coaches and trainers with high tennis IQ’s and optimistic attitudes- which will stimulate growth and happiness. Hire great educators to join your elite team and they will take your child beyond your wildest dreams.

 

Identifying and Motivating Talent

So, you’ve got a promising young talent, that’s a great start. Now how do you manage that talent, their entourage of coaches, academies, and teams?

Let’s look deeper into the facts and myths of talent. There are a lot of myths surrounding the word “Talent.” If sheer natural talent was gifted to an individual, then the naturally talented would drift to the top without effort. Unfortunately, by the time a junior reaches the competitive stages of the game; their sheer physical talent isn’t enough. Why? Because at the high-performance level, most of their competitors are also solid athletes, but with great work ethic, deep desire and a deliberate, customized developmental plan.

I know… many of you reading this may be thinking:

 

“Yeah but…My kid was endowed by my superior gene pool; they inherited my awesomeness …so they are obviously destined for greatness.”

 

While that may be true, success at the higher level demands a bit more than genes. It takes years and years of applying a customized deliberate developmental plan.

Talent is considered by most to be a genetic predisposition, a sense of natural ability handed down through the family gene pool. Expert educators in various fields agree that every decade one truly gifted individual walks through their doors. Does this mean that most truly successful people aren’t genuinely talented or does it mean that talent is more than merely good genes?

“Junior talent is only a foreshadowing of  future greatness.”

 

Managing Accelerated Learning

Posted on December 9, 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

MANAGING ACCELERATED LEARNING

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It’s our job as tennis coaches and parents to organize accelerated learning.

“Accelerated learning is the art and science of applying quality over quantity.”

Accelerated learning starts with you, the parent. The first step in managing the process is digesting the information presented in The Tennis Parent’s Bible. Once you have immersed yourself into the process of athletic development, you are better equipped to assist your coaches in prioritizing and accelerating your athlete’s learning curve.

A marvelous example of applying accelerated learning is recognizing when the athlete should stop focusing solely on block learning repetition and shift to the multi-tasking harmony of integrating each component together.  Accelerated learning starts with managing the development of consistent skillsets through flexible skills training.

Consistent skill set training is simply focusing on developing one component of the athlete’s game in isolation.  Examples include:

  • A motor programming sequences that need to be followed to ensure a sound fundamental stroke.
  • A specific mental strategic-shot sequencing pattern designed to beat a retriever.
  • An emotional protocol rehearsed to help close out a 5-2 lead.
  • An athletic component such as agility around the tennis court.

Flexible skillset training is integrating the “games approach” to learning. High-level tennis players have been taught to quickly quantify game situations, make multiple pre-set situational decisions and execute the correct responses. Cognitive processing skills need to be integrated early.

 

“A common mistake I witness around the globe is the obsession of focusing solely on acquiring perfect fundamental strokes in a block learning environment.”

 

I recommend introducing multi-tasking drills and problem-solving situations as soon as possible. This is a form of stimuli overload. Examples include: Adding a stress-related emotional element to a stroke production drill. Combine on-court quickness with a specific sequence of patterns. By overloading the athlete’s stimuli in practice, the uncomfortable becomes more comfortable. Being okay with feeling uncomfortable prepares the player for the integrated approach needed in match play.

Different sports require different brain functions and development. A world-class figure skater or gymnast simply focuses on recreating the exact sequence. Their performance goal is to match their exact predetermined routine. In their performance they only recreate, they don’t create. So, would they train with flexible-skill sets? Not likely.

Should a tennis player train flexible-skill sets? You bet! Playing sports like basketball, hockey, soccer or tennis are requires random split-second decisions making skills. It’s about adaptation, creativity, spotting options and aborting missions. Flexibility and millisecond decision making “on the fly” are critical functions in flexible skillset dominate sports.

Encourage Smiling, laughing, and having fun

Posted on August 3, 2019 by in Preparing for Pressure

The following post is an excerpt from Frank’s soon to be released book, Preparing for Pressure. Click Here To Pre-order through Amazon

Encourage Smiling, laughing, and having fun

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“Adding ranking pressure is sure to add the exact performance anxieties, great coaches
work hard to avoid.”

Parents, if you make the junior ranking race too important, you’ll quickly see your athlete’s performance diminish. When rankings are seen as more important than fun, athletes suffer. Preparing for pressure involves creating a culture of gratitude and enjoyment.  Athletes who perform at their peak level in competition are first and foremost having fun. Enjoyment is the secret ingredient that assists the athlete when they need it the most.

De-stressing the athlete comes from promoting growth and weekly progress over the outcomes of events. After events, routinely discuss 3 successful aspects of your athlete’s performance and 3 improvement goals. Win or lose, celebrate the performance goals hit, and then get to work on the development of the athlete. According to brain function analysis in sports, performing calm when it matters the most is a creative, right-brain dominant affair. Athletes pulled into their editing left-brain typically suffer due to overthinking under pressure.

 

Parents, coaches, or athletes who make a match too important witness the athlete’s ability disappear. When the outcome overshadows the enjoyment, catastrophe strikes.

The Formula for Achieving Results- Part 2

Posted on July 18, 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

The Formula for Achieving Resultsfrank

Insight 4: Focus on controlling the controllables versus focusing on the uncontrollables. In the competitive moment, is your athlete able to change past issues or forecast future issues? No, during competition, your athlete is only able to control the controllable – which is the present task at hand.

Parental focus should be on the effort and let go of results. Excellent physical, mental and emotional effort for the duration should be the entourage’s mission.

 

“Remember, there is a significant difference between excellence and perfection. Excellent effort is controllable. Perfection is a lie.”

 

Insight 5: Seek to educate your children to strive for excellence, not perfection. The effort is in the process which will obtain winning results -not perfect results.

Your child’s success begins with preparing their character for the process of improvement. Only by achieving continuous improvement will your athlete be prepared when opportunity knocks. Unfortunately, many juniors get great opportunities but fail to capitalize, not because their lucky shorts were in the wash, but because they simply weren’t prepared.

 

Insight 6: Ask your athlete to complete a daily focus journal to assist them in self-coaching. Which of their components are weakest? Why? What would they suggest they could do differently to improve this weakness? The process of improvement needs a plan.

What drives your athlete to actually document their successes in their daily focus journal? What motivates them to wake up and put in the hard work? The answer is their moral compass, also known as their character. It’s their honest relationship and dialog with themselves that allows them to achieve their goals.

Insight 7: Character skills are life skills that parents can focus on daily. They include personal performance enhancers such as effort, dedication, time management, perseverance, resilience, and optimism. They also include personal ethics such as honesty, appreciation, loyalty, trustworthiness, kindness, unselfishness and respect. Parental coaching starts here.

 

Let’s review. The formula for parents to assist in skyrocketing their athlete’s chances of achieving championship results is to begin with the character skills needed to implement their deliberate, customized developmental plan. An organized plan will be the foundation of the athletes accelerated growth. This is how you maximize your child’s potential as the quickest rate.

 

INDUSTRY TESTIMONIALS

Posted on July 24, 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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“Ground Breaking! The ‘In the Trenches’ research, wisdom, and inspiration are becoming Franks trademarks. As a fellow trench pro for 40 years using the court as a laboratory, I believe it’s the job of the coach to get in the world of the student, not the student getting into the world of the coach. The Soft Science of Tennis will change the way you look at yourself, your loved ones, and your students forever.”

Angel Lopez, Director of Tennis/Head Tennis Professional, San Diego Tennis and Racquet Club/Angel Lopez Tennis Academy

 

“Communication is at the center of a healthy parent-child and athlete-coach relationship. Sadly, many parents and coaches aren’t the best communicators. In Frank’s latest book, he gives concrete evidence and advice to both parents and coaches so they can do a better job interacting with their developing players. Frank is a regular on the ParentingAces Podcast – our audience loves his brutal honesty and no-nonsense approach to helping athletes develop to their full potential. The Soft Science of Tennis is one more valuable addition to any Tennis Parent’s home library.”

Lisa Stone, Atlanta, Georgia Owner, ParentingAces

 

“Coaches and Parents will love Frank Giampaolo’s The Soft Science of Tennis! Frank provides a clear picture of how to work with athletes from the player’s perspective and learning style. He discusses Mental and Emotional strategies that players need in order to perform on the court as well as in life. He, then, gives the reader strategies to implement them! Coaches and players will greatly benefit!  If you want to take your players to the next level, I highly recommend The Soft Science of Tennis!”

Linda LeClaire, Hilton Head, South Carolina, Energy Coach, Mental Coach, author of The Confidence Factor and Yes, God Speaks to Women, Too! A Message of Health, Healing, and Hope

 

“Well done Frank! Yet again you have written another wonderful and insightful body of work. By utilizing The Soft Science of Tennis, coaches, and parents will drive athletic performance, productivity, boost morale, and have a greater impact on the athlete’s results.”

Neil Biddle, United Kingdom, PTR Professional, Great Britain National tester, Director: The Tennis Coaches Network

The Missing Link to Maximizing Player Potential

Posted on December 8, 2017 by in Customized Organizational Plan, Maximizing Tennis Potential

Parents Educated about the Tennis Developmental Process:
The Missing Link to Maximizing Player Potential

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To maximize tennis potential, it is crucial that the competitive tennis player develop strokes, athleticism, emotional and mental strengths. Unfortunately, many parents are led to believe that developing stroke proficiency is enough.  Great primary strokes and solid athleticism is a terrific start but without the development of the mental and emotional skill sets the athlete will not thrive in the elite levels.  Educating the tennis parents about the tennis developmental process will help facilitate the proper development of the athlete.

 

A great analogy is the home computer. A fully functioning computer system is dependent on its hardware and its software. One without the other is useless to the home user. The same holds true for your junior athlete. The athlete’s hardware includes their physical strokes and movement, and their software includes their mental and emotional components.

 

Systematically developing your child’s hardware and software will produce more confident, self-reliant and skilled competitors as well as young adults.

Doubles Part 2

Posted on June 26, 2015 by in Maximizing Tennis Potential, The Tennis Parent's Bible

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

DOUBLES- PART 2

Question: My son is on the court working on his strokes five days a week. He practices more than most kids ranked above him at the club. My question is why are doubles so hard for him?

Answer: Winning doubles consist primarily of serving, returning and secondary strokes. In fact, with high school age boys, the doubles points last an average of 3 hits. That is a serve, a return and maybe a volley. Practice in the method in which you are expected to perform. To be great in doubles, spend at least one day a week on serving, return of serve and transition volleys.

 

Question: When should a net player look to poach in modern tennis?

Answer: There are 3 basic poaching opportunities. Poaching as well as “fake” poaching is a critical element in keeping the opponents uncomfortable. Emphasize that poaching is tons of fun! Reward your child every time they attempt a poach.

FUN FACT: Often the poaching player draws errors and wins points without ever touching the ball. Visual distraction is an important element in competitive tennis. If your child needs to poach more, they should look for an opponent who is vulnerable. This could be a vulnerable court position or strike zone at contact.

SPECIAL NOTE: The primary strike zone is waist level. An opponent striking a ball around their shoe laces or leaning back to strike a ball above their shoulders puts them in a vulnerable position. So…poach!

Here are the three most common times to poach:

(For the below example, A= Server; B= Servers Partner; C= Return of Server; D=Return of Server’s Partner.)

1.) A serves to C’s backhand= B is poaching.

2.) A serves & volleys, C returns at the feet of A= D poaches.

3.) A and C are in a baseline exchange, B or D spots a vulnerable strike zone, body language or court position from the opponent= poach.

 

Question: How are doubles different than singles?

Answer: The only true similarity is that both games are played on the same of court. Here is how we break down the differences:

  • Different “secondary” technical strokes are called upon more often
  • Different tactical patterns are used in different formation
  • Different movement is required
  • Different communication and anticipatory skills are required

SPECIAL NOTE: Plan on training doubles and/or playing doubles a minimum of one day a week.

 

Question: My daughter doesn’t like to volley. Can she still win at doubles?

Answer: You bet! At least up to a certain level. Her first step in playing doubles without attacking the net is to choose a partner that’s ok with this fact. Second, she’ll need to choose a system of doubles that exposes her strengths and hides her weaknesses.

The four common systems we see on the WTA pro tour are:

1.) Both players rush the net

2.) One up and one back

3.) Double back

4.)”I” Formation

FUN FACT: The most vulnerable system in doubles is one-up- one-back. The most common system played around the world? One up one back!

 

Question: Our high school coach says don’t ever look back at your partner’s ground strokes, yet I see pro’s doing it. Which is right?

Answer: In my opinion, slightly using your peripheral vision to quickly detect the quality of your partners shot is a huge advantage. Picking up visual and audible clues as soon as possible is a major part of the evolution of the game. Pros make their living by picking up these clues and moving before the opponent even makes contact with their shot. Anticipatory speed is a learned behavior.

FACT: Let’s say you are at the net, only looking forward. Your partner is in trouble hitting a vulnerable, lunging floater. Well, your partner knows your dead, both opponents know your dead…Guess who does not know you’re dead? …You!

 

Question: My son and his partner serve 120 mph and can rip the ball. They are super aggressive, yet they lose in doubles to less talented players. What are they doing wrong?

Answer: Being aggressive in doubles is critical. Offense, unfortunately, is more than just hitting hard. Ask your son to look into the other sides of offense.

  • Time management: Taking away time with aggressive positioning.
  • Changing the angle of the ball versus just crushing it.
  • Applying building shots: These are essential in forcing the opponent into vulnerable strike zones and positions.

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