Understanding your athletes is one of a coach’s primary responsibilities. Knowing players’ needs, what motivates them, and what is happening in their lives is critical to your work with them. This, however, is not an easy task. You cannot read minds and you are often responsible for a large number of players. Keeping track of [...]
One of the most difficult tasks for coaches from the development level to the professional tours is seeing that their athletes develop in a consistent and progressive manner. This process involves many decisions such as what is the appropriate level of off-season physical training, how much on-court training do they need, and how often should [...]
On the day of a match, the time you spend before your match is the most crucial period of match preparation. All of the hours of practice you spend on the courts may go for naught if you do not use your pre-match time wisely. What you think, feel, and do before a match will [...]
Becoming a better tennis player is, at the same time, satisfying and frustrating. It is wonderful to learn to hit new shots or become more consistent. However, improving is a slow and difficult process. Perhaps the biggest obstacle to learning is focusing on the skills as you play. Typically, you will be thinking about the [...]
A major source of stress for professional tennis players, and players at all levels of ability, is the unexpected things that come up before and during matches. The natural reaction to unexpected events is to back off, become tentative and anxious, and lose confidence and focus. Unexpected events hurt performance. During a match, all kinds [...]
The life of a professional tennis player is stressful. There are many things that they can worry about and which can make them depressed, angry, frustrated, and distracted, all of which will hurt their tennis. Unfortunately, many players, pros or junior players, worry about the wrong things. The big problem is that people get stressed [...]
For players on the pro tours, being the best tennis player they can be is simple, but not easy. It is simple because all that is required is that they do everything possible to be their best. It is not easy because to do everything requires Total Commitment. Whether you are a touring pro or [...]
Perhaps the single most important thing you need to do before and during a tennis match is reach and maintain your prime intensity. Intensity refers to amount of adrenaline, oxygen, and blood flow your body has. Too much intensity and your muscles are tight, you can’t breath, and your body is shaking from fear. Too [...]
A disagreement I have gotten into with coaches involves whether it is good for players to think about technique right before and during a matches. They argue that if they don’t think about technique they won’t play well. But it is my belief that if you focus on technique you will do that technique well, [...]
Though negative thinking is something that should be avoiding as much as possible, it is a normal response to poor play. In fact, some negative thinking is healthy because it means that you care about how you are playing. However, the wrong kind of negative thinking can be very harmful to your tennis. There are [...]