Frank Giampaolo's Maximizing Tennis Potential

The following post is an excerpt from the Second Edition of The Tennis Parent’s Bible
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PERSONALITY PROFILING: MENTAL AND PHYSICAL PREDISPOSITIONS

What if I told you that you think you know your athlete, but you don’t?

What if I shared a tool to assist you in understanding why your son, daughter or student acts the way they do? What if I explained why different personalities are better suited for different sports, styles and/or positions? What if I said, to accelerate growth, it is essential that you get into your child’s world instead of forcing them into your world? What if I explained how motivating within their genetic guidelines will maximize their potential at a much quicker rate? The old school teaching/coaching methodology demands the student get into the coach and/or parent’s training philosophy with total disregard to the student’s unique brain and body design. (Remember our friend Jose in the previous section?) More often than not, this archaic approach produces average athletes at best. At its worst, it quickly causes gifted athletes to leave the game.

Let’s begin by recognizing and respecting your child’s inborn characteristics.

Personality Profiling

Because the most universal personality type indicator is the Myers Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI), I chose to use it to help you understand athletic/personality profiling. It must be noted that although profiling brain and body types is not a hard science and I am not a neuroscientist or clinical psychologist, I am qualified to maximize athletic potential.  Also worth noting, the founders of the MBTI, Katherine Briggs and Isabel Myers, were not licensed psychologists. They were students passionate about the findings of Carl Jung, the “father” of analytical psychology, and nurtured their love for their chosen field as they designed the now famous MBTI questionnaire. The MBTI is grouped into four categories with 16 different possible configurations of personality profiles. The four categories list opposing brain types. Each person is assigned a four letter acronym to best describe their primary tendencies. While each of us exhibit multiple sides of our personality, we possess a genetically dominate trait. For example, we all exhibit extraversion and introversion to some degree, but most of us tend have an overall preference for one over the other.

Listed below are the four MBTI categories with their opposing personality profiles. To help identify your athlete’s personality profile, it may be in your best interest to first categorize yourself. Simply read through the four groupings listed below and choose your dominant brain function.

Introvert versus Extrovert

Introverts (I) are comfortable lying back then retaliating. They need alone time to recharge their batteries and they prefer to be inside their inner world. Extroverts (E) make things happen as they prefer to initiate action. They gain their energy by bringing people together.

Sensate versus Intuitive

Sensates (S) prefer to collect data and facts before making their decisions. Facts trump opinions. Intuitives (N) trust their gut instincts and are better quick decision makers with 2 seconds left on the clock. They like to “do” first, analyze second.

Thinker versus Feeler

Thinkers (T) make decisions through objective logic and impersonalize the situation. They enjoy the technical components and choose truthful over tactful. Feelers (F) are in tune to the emotional climate of the event and others actions. Harmony is paramount and they are affected when it is missing.

Judger versus Perceiver

Judgers (J) prefer structure. They like things settled, orderly and precise. They like to make lists to organize their thoughts and prefer to work before play. Perceivers (P) are adaptable and flexible. Their thoughts are often found in the future and they enjoy experiencing new ideas and methods versus organizing and agonizing over every boring detail.

Now, write down your four letter acronym. For example, if you believe you’re an extrovert, intuitive, feeler, perceiver, then you are an ENFP. Next, Google ‘personality profile ENFP’ and explore to confirm your assumption.  After getting acquainted with the basic personality identification procedure, it is time to brain type your young athlete.

A word of caution: Often certain young people will misdiagnose their own true personality profile as they swap out their true genetic predisposition for what they believe to be a more popular choice.

Body Typing

Now that we have introduced you to brain typing, let me review how body types affect motor skills and athletic potential.

The two opposing body types are called fine motor skilled dominant and gross motor skilled dominant. Individuals have a genetic predisposition to have a motor skill preference. Motor skills are signals sent from the brain through the nervous system into the different muscle groups.

Fine motor skilled athletes excel from the muscles found from the elbows through the hands and fingers. A common complement given to a fine motor skilled athlete is, “They’ve got good hands.” Gross motor skilled athletes prefer the use of the larger muscle groups found in the torso, legs and feet. Gross motor skilled athletes are known for their superior core balance and elegant body coordination. Raising athletic royalty requires matching the demands of your child’s sport, style of play and/or position with your child’s preferred brain type and body type design.

Here is an example of motor skill dominance in American football: a wide receiver’s primary job description is to catch the ball. It may prove beneficial if that particular athlete playing that particular position be fine motored skilled dominant (Good hands). However, the field goal kicker in the very same sport, on the very same football team has a very different job description. His primary job is to simply kick the ball. In this athlete’s role, it may prove beneficial that his genetic predisposition be gross motor skills dominant (core and leg drive). While it is essential to develop a well-rounded competitor, it’s important to note that all athletes possess a dominant body type which will naturally excels in the ideal environment position and/or sport.

“Raising a champion requires the development of a well-rounded athlete. For example, if your child is fine motor skilled dominate, plan on spending
more time and energy developing their gross motor skills or vice versa.”

Knowing your child’s genetic makeup is critical. It helps to avoid the needless frustrations found in athletic development and in life. Being aware of your athlete’s natural strengths and weaknesses will better prepare you to assist your child and their coaches in their sport, style of play and/or position that they would most naturally excel.

The above section is courtesy of my book: Raising Athletic Royalty. If this topic is of interest to you I recommend Googling: Braintypes.com

Jon Niednagel coined the term “Brain Type” and holds the registered trademark.  Jon’s brain typing system (The Brain Type Institute) was developed by applying a combination of sciences to estimate athletic ability. Though his work stemmed from the teaching of psychiatrist Carl Jung and the later work of Katharine Cook Briggs and Isabel Briggs Myers, his innovative approach may become the most accurate science of human understanding on earth.