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Between-Point-Rituals and Change-Over-Rituals

Posted on August 22, 2022 by Frank Giampaolo 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
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Frank Giampaolo

BETWEEN POINT RITUALS AND CHANGE-OVER RITUALS

Most intermediates think, “What’s the big deal with these between point rituals? The balls not even in play!” Unfortunately, this is a result of not properly educating our youngsters about the importance of rituals- early and often. Athletes that neglect to implement rituals are missing an important opportunity to dissect the opponent, relax and recover, and organize future patterns. Their mind is too caught up with contaminating thoughts regarding the ramifications of the future outcome, whose winning on court #6, or any of their invented performance anxieties that have been keeping them from getting the results they deserve.

It’s estimated that during a match, the athletes are actually playing in-the-point approximately 20-30 percent of the time that they are on the court. Seventy-eighty percent of the time they’re in between points. That’s a staggering amount of time. Wouldn’t it be wise if they learned how to put that time to good use?

In the 25 seconds allotted in between points, it’s advisable to create a customized 3-part routine that the athlete is comfortable performing each and every point. There are two forms of these rituals that are performed simultaneously:

1) Internal Rituals: I refer to internal rituals as the mental/emotional doorways a player must pass through. I have categorized them into 3 phases: Getting over the last point, planning the next point’s pattern and applying a relaxation ritual.

2) External Rituals: These rituals are the routines outsiders see. They commonly consist of taking the racquet out of the dominant hand to relax it, time management routines such as taking extra time to prepare, toweling off, or looking at their strings to relax the eyes. Once an athlete buys into, understands and develops these rituals they’re on their way to a higher level.

Parents, along with your child’s coach, schedule time for practice sets with the mandatory between point and change over rituals firmly in place.

The second most important “down time” in match play is during the 90 seconds allotted for changeovers. While this is a physical rest-break, it is not a total mental/emotional detachment from the task at hand.

During changeovers, there are, once again external rituals like toweling off and hydrating. It is during this phase of the of the match cycle that important internal routines should be executed. I recommend beginning by briefly thinking only about the previous two games. Assess what went right-what went wrong in the previous serving game as well as the return of serve game. Make a strategic plan to repeat what’s working and to re-vamp what isn’t. After the athlete performs their external routines, they go internally once again and review.

Experienced competitors visualize both their upcoming service game as well as their upcoming return of serve game. They choose to plan on running the same past successful patterns and avoid past failures. Applying this change over rituals will keep your athletes attention in the present-task oriented, peak performance state of mind.

Remember the boxing analogy, “Stop the bleeding”- Shut down their winning patterns and “Cause more bleeding”- Keep pounding away at their weaknesses.

IMPROVING CONFIDENCE AND LOW SELF ESTEEM- PART 2

Posted on August 17, 2022 by Frank Giampaolo 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!

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The Match Collection

Let’s first look deeper into common stepping stones that will help rekindle an athlete’s confidence:

Re-Commit to Getting Fit

Start with being the best athlete they can be. Hit the gym and hit the track – gain strength and improve your stamina, speed, agility.

Clear the Mind: Re-Focus on Tennis

Teens can get derailed by numerous factors including: school, parties, peer pressure, other sports, hobbies, shopping, etc. Re-organize your weekly planner.

Customize the Instruction

Practice in the manner in which you are expected to perform. Build a game plan around exposing strengths while hiding weaknesses. Customize the athlete’s style to their brain and body type. Develop and rehearse the critical Top 7 Patterns of play.

Promote and Educate Independence

Independent problem solving promotes confidence on and off the court. Even though some parents think they are helping, it may be wise to slowly stop doing everything for your little Phenom. (See: “Are You a Helicopter Parent”- found in Section IV Common Questions and Solutions: Parental Accountability)

Surround Them with Supportive People

Positive coaches, trainers and friends with good character are key. Is his new girlfriend pulling his focus in a new direction? Do her new friends at school want to party and shop all the time? Is her coach pessimistic?

Help Others

Ask your athlete to teach the under privileged kids for free at the park and rec or assist the local food bank once a month and feed the homeless. Seeing the positive attitude of someone less fortunate reminds them how fortunate they truly are…

Avoid Negative Comments

Derogatory comments, a negative tone of voice, offensive, threatening body language or even facial expressions can tear down a sensitive player’s confidence. Cut out the negative influences in their life. Pessimism is contagious and very toxic.

Perfectionists Set the Bar Too High

Unrealistic expectations kill confidence. Parents, just because your son won last week’s tournament, don’t expect him to win every one from now on. Players, a sure fire way to disable your confidence is to expect perfection. Even if you’re in the zone for a while, it’s a borrowed experience. No one owns the zone. No one stays in the zone and lives there year around.

“Parents and coaches, it’s important to communicate to your athlete that they can’t go back and rewrite a better past…but they can start today and write a better future.”

CURING PERFORMANCE ANXIETY

Posted on August 12, 2022 by Frank Giampaolo 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
Available through most online retailers!

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CURING PERFORMANCE ANXIETY

Overcoming performance anxiety is a very common developmental issue. As you have probably witnessed, this component is most often ignored by intermediate players and coaches. If physical or emotional danger is perceived, the fear pathways short circuit rational processing and basic motor programming is lost. Meaning even if perfect form is seen on the practice court, stress can often de-rail it.

So how can parents and coaches spot performance anxiety?

Many parents report that their athlete’s extreme competitive anxieties are masked with pre-match physical illnesses, fake injuries and/or preset excuses before each important match. Yet their player avoids any talk of solutions to remedy their anxiety issues.

“Even on the playground, young children who fear competition fake an injury as an easy way out.”

Intermediate competitors often choose to avoid these topics, which is the worst thing they can do. Avoidance only magnifies their anxiety and keeps competition scary and uncomfortable. This growing fear fuels the player’s lingering self-doubt. Fear of confrontation is extremely typical in the world of junior tennis. Conquering that fear is actually quite simple.

“The best way to alleviate performance anxieties is through exposure not avoidance.”

Psychologists report that the central nervous system decreases its arousal state with extended exposure to the same stimuli. In other words, if ones nervous system is exposed to the same arousal stimuli… the feelings of excessive performance anxiety are reduced. It is worth noting that every athlete experiences some degree of anxiety and nervousness in the competitive arena, but excessive uncontrollable anxiety destroys athletic performance. To ease a player’s fear of competition, the player needs to devise protocols that will deflate their arousal state during competition. By dodging and evading their fears, the player is actually increasing their anxieties. Every time a player side steps their issues, the thoughts of possible failure multiply into an unreasonable lack of confidence and self-esteem, which is later magnified during competition. Apprehension to compete will actually increase until the player agrees to stop avoiding their fears.

“The familiar becomes commonplace, both positive and negative. This is human nature.”

If extreme performance anxieties exist, protocols to implement before important competition may include:

Arrive at the tournament site days early to get comfortable in the environment.
Drill and play practice sets with other competitors on site to get comfortable in the environment.
Meet, mingle and hit with as many “new” people as possible to get comfortable with varying ball speeds and trajectories.
Stay on-site and profile the top seeds after your match is complete to take the mystique out of the top seeds.
Ask your athlete to chart the competitor’s cause of errors. Documenting opponent’s cause of errors will prove to your “stressed out” player that their opponents are beatable.

Plan on networking, mix and mingle with other teaching pros, parents and players. Why?

Finding better quality doubles partners.
Getting acquainted with higher level coaches.
Discovering new academies, programs or tournaments.
Meeting the current crop of USTA coaches- which hold the wild card power.
Increase personal communication skills- essential life lessons.

“Avoiding competition magnifies ignorance and multiplies fear, nervousness, uncertainty, distress and disorganization.
Although confronting performance anxieties is difficult, it’s the exposure to these fears that brings empowerment and reduces
performance anxiety.”

PERFORMANCE ANXIETIES IN TENNIS-PART 2

Posted on August 8, 2022 by Frank Giampaolo 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
Available through most online retailers!

Click Here to Order

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Solutions and Cures

Individual personalities come with unique frustration tolerance levels. So it’s safe to say that symptoms and cures are often remarkably different. Listed below are the anxiety reducing strategies that I teach my students to handle pressure. Set aside time to discuss the below 6 performance anxiety busters with your team.

1) Pre-match preparation is essential. Prepare all strokes, patterns, one’s physical body and one’s state of mind properly before each match. Top professional have a specific routine before and after every match.
2) Keep your self-destruction notes handy. The mental section provided you with a list of ten “Self-Destruction Solutions.”
3) To avoid choking and panicking requires understanding the under arousal, ideal performance and the over arousal state of minds.
4) Emotional toughness is being bigger than the moment. This state of mind requires three months of practicing in the manner in which you are expected to perform versus simply hitting tons of balls back and forth.

5) Remember the acronym for WIN- W: What’s; I: Important; N: Now. Dummy up and only focus on what’s important now, from pre-match rituals, through each point of the match, to post-match rituals.
6) Be prepared in every possible way- technical, physical, emotional and mental.

Technical Preparation: The “tool belt” of primary & secondary strokes are all pre-developed and wired for tournament play.
Physical Preparation: Aerobic and anaerobic capacities are ready to handle the long standing suffering of winning six matches in a row.
Emotional/Focus Preparation: Pre-set protocols/solutions have been discussed and developed to handle any crisis.
Mental/Strategy and Tactics: Pre-set patterns to successfully pull all four different styles of opponents out of their comfortable system of play.

“The very best way to destroy performance anxiety is through growth.”

Confidence Is Nurtured by Positive Self Talk

Encourage your athlete to think positively, such as, I deserve my success, I have trained for it, I am a problem solver, I am resilient, I will do my best and/or I can. A positive attitude is a critical first step when tackling performance anxiety issues. Sadly, I’ve found that many athletes are actually nurtured pessimism. This happens when players are raised by parents or trained by coaches that see the negatives in every situation- which is actually programing pessimism unknowingly to their children. Ironically, the very same parents and coaches often report, “My kids are so negative!”

If the family environment is becoming a bit too negative, a fun game to play for the entire family is an old psychology exercise called the “Flip It” game. Trust me, it could change your lives.

Hold a family meeting and introduce a one week exercise. Everyone is encouraged to say “Flip It” whenever they witness another family member saying something pessimistic or acting negative. Athlete example, “I don’t want to eat this healthy stuff.”- FLIP IT, “I hate this drill”-FLIP IT, “It’s too early…I don’t want to go for a run before school.” FLIP IT! Parental example “Yea, he won 6-2, 6-4 but he should of won 0-0”, -FLIP IT! This exercise spotlights the negative behavior. It makes the negatron aware of his/her reoccurring pessimism and encourages optimism in a light hearted, non-threatening way.

“Learning to spot and flip pessimism and replace it with optimism is presenting the moral code needed to champion tennis and life.”

Control the Controllables

Another anxiety reducing emotional protocol is to encourage your athlete to focus on simply controlling that which is truly under their control and to ignore everything that is out of their control. Understand that champions trim the fat and focus only on what they have control over versus outcome issues out of their control. Most performance anxieties stem from focusing on contaminating issues that have no place inside the head of an athlete during competition.

“The player’s performance anxieties lessen greatly when parents stop obsessing about the outcome and rankings and encourage belief, effort and improvement.”

Ask your child to forget about the outcome of matches for a while. Instead, ask them to focus on being better than they were yesterday. A long term goal to strive for is to be twice as good this year as you were last year.

PERFORMANCE ANXIETIES IN TENNIS-PART 1

Posted on August 4, 2022 by Frank Giampaolo 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
Available through most online retailers!

Click Here to Order

frank

PERFORMANCE ANXIETIES

“Juniors need to understand that during matches, negative emotions come and go like flights landing and taking off from an airport. They can choose to hop on the looney flight or simply let it take off without them.”

During match play, negative emotions reveal fear and insecurity, while positive emotions reveal confidence and control. The ability to control one’s emotions is a critical high performance skill. Emotional intelligence is a learned behavior.

“Emotional Development is just as important as stroke development.”

Below, I’ve listed four categories of common performance anxiety symptoms. If you suspect that your child’s fear of competition, confrontation or adversity is affecting their performance, it may be time to gather the coaches for an emotional training session. Ask your child to check any below symptoms that they feel describes them on match day. Design a new action plan to overcome each issue.

Match Day Symptoms

Physical Symptoms:

Shallow, fast breathing
Increased muscle tension throughout the body
Increased perspiration
Feeling dizzy and weak in the knees
Feeling that your body is on the court but your mind is somewhere else

Mental Symptoms:

Inability to focus one point at a time
Over thinking (choking)
Under thinking (panicking)
Reoccurring thoughts of failure
Worrying about others opinions of their performance
Obsessing about others rankings & successes

Emotional Symptoms:

Self-doubt in strokes as seen in “pushing”
Self-doubt in stamina & strength as seen in reckless shot selection (to end points prematurely)
Nervousness, hesitation & fearful performance
Stressing about uncontrollable variables
Not taking the time to enjoy the moment

Behavioral Symptoms:

Not performing match day routines & rituals
Hurrying & fast pace walking
Having mini tantrums, racket cracking or mindless fast walking/play
Forgetting the basic ball striking functions
Allowing the opponent or situation to control your playing speeds

TEN SECRETS TO STOP SELF DESTRUCTION

Posted on July 30, 2022 by Frank Giampaolo 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

TEN SECRETS TO STOP SELF DESTRUCTION

“Hi Frank, This is Mr. Patton. I’d like to talk to you about helping my daughter. Another tournament is over and once again we’ve witnesses the unthinkable. Samantha lost again to a weaker, lower level player. This happens all the time! Maybe she’s just not cut out for competition? I send her to an Academy. She hits almost every day. Why isn’t she winning? Is there anything my wife and I can do as parents to help? Please call me back. My number is …”

If you’re athlete suffers from losing to lesser players, relax there is a solution. As a matter of fact, there are ten solutions! This is a major factor in the mental skills department. Begin by reviewing the below list of self-destruction solutions with your player and entourage of coaches. Ask your athlete to circle their top 3 favorite solutions. Along with their coaches, schedule time to rehearse the repetition of the solutions.

Self-Destruction Solutions:

1) When you are donating points with first or second strike errors, simply focus on hitting three balls clean straight down the center of the court. You’ll go from handing the opponent the trophy to making them earn a seven ball rally. Trust me, this really works!

2) While being too eager to see your beautiful shot, you sneak a peek early, pull out of the strike zone and shank balls off the frame. A great tip is to simply say “plant” when the incoming ball lands on your court and “turn” as you begin to uncoil the kinetic chain into the ball. Trick yourself into thinking that you can see the ball “hit” the strings of your racket. Wa-la! No more shanks!

3) Future thoughts are a common enemy of high quality tennis. Thinking ahead to the award presentation, their new ranking or what their friends are going to say when they beat this seed is a sure fire path to “Loserville.” Focus on the present execution of your performance patterns versus the post-match outcome drama.

4) Mistakes often lead to anger. Anger leads to increased ball speed. Increasing ball speed leads to more errors. To steady up, sometimes match the opponents ball speed until you get your game back to a controllable level. Yes, champions often simply match the ball speed.

5) Use the tactics found in applying the proper air zones and court zones. Understanding zonal tennis will greatly reduce the sheer numbers of unforced errors.

6) Another critical function of reducing the “avoidable” error is the proper use of offense, neutral and defensive choices. Pro tour studies show that professionals hit on average 60% neutral, 20% offence, 20% defense. Match play video analysis of intermediate juniors show an average of 80% offence, 15% neutral, 5% defense. Hum…no wonder the unforced error count is through the roof!

7) Most juniors use changeovers to watch the other matches, check out that cute chic or guy over by the fence, watch cars go by or even spot the American airlines jet overhead. Proper internal changeover rituals would be to simply think two games back, fix flaws and design proactive plans, then organize how they will be using the information during the next two games.

8) If you’re self-destructing and want to respond to adversity like a champ, copy Serena. She reads her notes during matches to relax and stay focused. She’s earned a few bucks playing this game and seems to have a future. Haha! You should have your notes prepared and actually choose to pull them out and read them if needed.

9) As the “deer in the head light’ spaced out look comes across your face, remind yourself that you can break free of all this panicking by taking a few “swoosh” shadow swings. Be aware that one of the first fundamentals to shut down are your quick little steps. Move your feet and use verbal and physical triggers to re-gain composure.

10) On a parental note, often a large portion of the stress that inhibits your child’s peak performance is unknowing caused by you. Stress causes poor brain function and tight muscle contractions. Are you successfully de-stressing your athlete on game day?

Training how to handle ADVERSITY is a major contributor to a champion’s success. I often remind intermediate athletes that they have to be comfortable…being uncomfortable. Spending a couple hours each week for the next month focusing on a few of their solutions may be the exact protocol your athlete needs to salvage a routine match that has gone south.

PERFORMANCE ANXIETY SYMPTOMS AND CAUSES – Part 2

Posted on July 23, 2022 by Frank Giampaolo 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

Solutions and Cures

2) Keep your self-destruction notes handy. The mental section provided you with a list of ten “Self-Destruction Solutions.”

3) To avoid choking and panicking requires understanding the under arousal, ideal performance and the over arousal state of minds.

4) Emotional toughness is being bigger than the moment. This state of mind requires three months of practicing in the manner in which you are expected to perform versus simply hitting tons of balls back and forth.

5) Remember the acronym for WIN- W: What’s; I: Important; N: Now. Dummy up and only focus on what’s important now, from pre-match rituals, through each point of the match, to post-match rituals.

6) Be prepared in every possible way- technical, physical, emotional and mental.

Technical Preparation: The “tool belt” of primary & secondary strokes are all pre-developed and wired for tournament play.
Physical Preparation: Aerobic and anaerobic capacities are ready to handle the long standing suffering of winning six matches in a row.
Emotional/Focus Preparation: Pre-set protocols/solutions have been discussed and developed to handle any crisis.
Mental/Strategy and Tactics: Pre-set patterns to successfully pull all four different styles of opponents out of their comfortable system of play.

“The very best way to destroy performance anxiety is through growth.”

Confidence Is Nurtured by Positive Self Talk

If the family environment is becoming a bit too negative, a fun game to play for the entire family is an old psychology exercise called the “Flip It” game. Trust me, it could change your lives.

“Learning to spot and flip pessimism and replace it with optimism is presenting the moral code needed to champion tennis and life.”

Control the Controllables

“The player’s performance anxieties lessen greatly when parents stop obsessing about the outcome and rankings and encourage belief, effort and improvement.”

PERFORMANCE ANXIETY SYMPTOMS AND CAUSES – Part 1

Posted on July 21, 2022 by Frank Giampaolo 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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PERFORMANCE ANXIETY SYMPTOMS AND CAUSES

Performance anxieties appear in a broad spectrum. Some athletes seem to fear nothing…some fear everything. Most have their personal anxiety triggers that should be discovered and examined. If you suspect that your child is experiencing excessive performance anxiety, it’s time to look at the common signs. If your athlete’s lack of personal belief is over-riding their actual ability then they’re battling performance anxiety which is part of the emotional development of the game.

“Emotional Development is just as important as stroke development.”

Match Day Symptoms

Physical Symptoms:

Shallow, fast breathing
Increased muscle tension throughout the body
Increased perspiration
Feeling dizzy and weak in the knees
Feeling that your body is on the court but your mind is somewhere else

Mental Symptoms:

Inability to focus one point at a time
Over thinking (choking)
Under thinking (panicking)
Reoccurring thoughts of failure
Worrying about others opinions of their performance
Obsessing about others rankings & successes

Emotional Symptoms:

Self-doubt in strokes as seen in “pushing”
Self-doubt in stamina & strength as seen in reckless shot selection (to end points prematurely)
Nervousness, hesitation & fearful performance
Stressing about uncontrollable variables
Not taking the time to enjoy the moment

Behavioral Symptoms:

Not performing match day routines & rituals
Hurrying & fast pace walking
Having mini tantrums, racket cracking or mindless fast walking/play
Forgetting the basic ball striking functions
Allowing the opponent or situation to control your playing speeds

Solutions and Cures

Tennis Tipping Point Tendencies

Posted on July 19, 2022 by Frank Giampaolo 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

TIPPING POINT TENDENCIES

Experienced champions have developed seemingly hidden skill sets I call, Tipping Point Tendencies. To the untrained eye, as the athletes warm up, opponents may appear to be equally matched with similar physical abilities. It is during match play that tipping point tendencies become apparent. The game is on and “playing catch” is over and playing “keep away” begins. These pre-developed skill sets are the critical factors that tip a close match in ones favor.

The tipping points are those hidden moments in each match when an emotional energy shift is about to happen.

“In close tennis matches, positive and negative energy and attitudes flows back and forth.”

Most intermediate athletes and their parents don’t even realize that this critical struggle for power is taking place. That is… until now! Mental readiness is required to control the positive energy.

Think back to the last few times your athlete lost tight matches. Chances are you blamed the losses on bad luck, or the opponent cheated, or your kid just did not have the “feel” that day, or for you superstitious types… you went to Quiznoz’s instead of Subway. Those re-occurring close defeats are most likely due to your child’s incomplete training and not lunch meat. Tipping point tendencies are essential learned behaviors that athletic royalty must master.

An athlete that shifts focus to the following tipping point tendencies, accelerates the learning process and a competitive warrior is born. Close matches are often decided by a handful of points. Let’s look a little deeper at ten of the top “hidden” tipping point tendencies that can help tip your athlete’s matches in their favor. Once again, these are terrific conversation starters for your athlete and their coaches.

Top Ten Tipping Point Tendencies:

1) Pay attention to the energy flow throughout the match. Who’s cranky and negative, who’s eager, hungry and positive? If you’re negative, apply your triggers and steal the energy back.
2) Monitor your state of mind. Is your mental and emotional state in the under arousal state of mind, in the optimal peak performance state of mind or in the over arousal state of mind?
3) Learn to spot the mental and emotional signs of choking (over-thinking) and panicking (under-thinking).
4) Manage the score to manage your adrenaline. Different points have different psychological values. Pay attention and get pumped up before big points.
5) Note that tennis scoring isn’t numerically fair: You can win more points than the opponent in the match and still lose the match. Winning requires spotting tipping points.
6) Spot the mega points (game winning points) and run the appropriate pattern that you’ve trained to death versus going rogue.

7) Spot mini-mega points. A 30-15 lead isn’t the correct time to relax. Winning that crucial point earns you a 40-15 advantage, lose it and you’re staring at a 30-30 tie.
8) Spot mini-mega games. These games in a set hold crucial building blocks. A 4-2 lead isn’t time to relax. Winning that mini-mega game earns you a 5-2 lead. Lose is and the sets a 4-3 dog fight.
9) Opponent profiling is crucial. It’s the flip side to running your Top 7 Patterns. Competitors who pay attention not only spot the opponents preferred patterns but actually shut them down on these big occasions.
10) Self-chart both sides of the net. Witness where errors and winners stem from and problem solve accordingly.

In regards to higher learning, I’m amazed at how often very young intermediate athletes understand this type of mental and emotional training. It is not reserved for the older advanced group. Parents and coaches, please remember, their world isn’t remotely like ours at their age. With Google on their smart phones, they are accustom to collecting and quantifying data at lightning speeds.

Have you ever witnessed your child on their phone with one friend, doing their homework, skyping another friend, snap-chatting, while eating and watching TV? Children can multi-task. Asking an intermediate tennis player to improve their mechanical stroke components while improving their mental components is a piece of cake!

Mastering the tipping point tendencies is the art of winning under stress. Those seemingly “little things” are actually the extremely “big things” that make all the difference in tipping the odds in your favor.

How to Beat Moonball Retrievers – Part 2

Posted on July 13, 2022 by Frank Giampaolo 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

Four Major Tennis Components:

1) Technical Strokes

Your child must develop world class “secondary” strokes. Patterns used to pull a retriever out of their comfort zone consist of secondary strokes such as: drop shots, short angle swing volleys…Etc.

Your child may have better “primary” strokes, but unfortunately they are little use against a pusher. It is important to understand that often good primary strokes will only work in the pusher’s favor! A tool belt full of great secondary strokes needs to be developed.

Often your child’s loses are caused by their lack of secondary strokes. Each primary stroke has secondary stroke “relatives” that also need to be mastered. For example: A primary volley is the traditional punch volley. Secondary volleys are swing volleys, drop volleys and half volleys. These secondary volleys are needed in order to beat a retriever.

2) Tactics and Strategies

While the game continues to evolve, the foundation of strategy has not changed much over the past 100 years.

Jack Kramer taught this theory to Vic Braden, Vic Braden taught this to me and I am passing it on to you. “If your strengths are greater than your opponent’s strengths, then simply stick to your strengths. If your strengths are not as great, you must have well-rehearsed B and C plans to win the match!”

Example: If your child can out “steady” a world class moon ball pusher…simply pack a lunch for them and plan on a 3 hour “push-fest.” If your child can hit so hard that they simply blow the ball past retrievers …simply instruct them to hit a winners every point. If not, it may be in your youngster’s best interest to develop the secondary strokes and patterns used to take a retriever out of their game. Below are three patterns that work beautifully against pushers.

Best Patterns to Beat Retriever’s:

Moonball approach to a swing volley.
Short angle building shot to drive winner.
Drop shot to dipping passing shots or lobs.

“Often the weakest ball a crafty retriever will give your athlete is their serve. I encourage your athlete to focus on the above three patterns
while returning the retriever’s weak serve.”

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Frank Giampaolo's Maximizing Tennis Potential

Between-Point-Rituals and Change-Over-Rituals

IMPROVING CONFIDENCE AND LOW SELF ESTEEM- PART 2

CURING PERFORMANCE ANXIETY

PERFORMANCE ANXIETIES IN TENNIS-PART 2

PERFORMANCE ANXIETIES IN TENNIS-PART 1

TEN SECRETS TO STOP SELF DESTRUCTION

PERFORMANCE ANXIETY SYMPTOMS AND CAUSES – Part 2

PERFORMANCE ANXIETY SYMPTOMS AND CAUSES – Part 1

Tennis Tipping Point Tendencies

How to Beat Moonball Retrievers – Part 2

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