If a student loses a match and wants to take a tournament off, what to do.

Each person develops a method for coping successfully with loss and challenges. One weekend tournament off won't change the long view outcome for her or anyone, or it shouldn't. I'd use it as a training opportunity and would be hesitant to push someone who may already know what works for her.

Everybody is playing injured - or so they say

 A new strategy has emerged in tennis.  Claim injury before the match to change the perception of how you play and also add a variable for your opponent to consider.   Following the Nadal loss to Fritz at the Indian Wells final, Nadal announced an injury in addition to his bad foot.  Fritz followed up with an announcement that he played on a bad ankle despite advice from his coach not to play.  

https://www.tennis.com/news/articles/rafael-nadal-to-miss-4-6-weeks-stress-fracture-cracked-rib-roland-garros

Nadal Loss to Fritz

The new psychological strategy is to lay blame on injuries for a loss and also claim hero status if you win in spite of one. It also helps to play the wounded animal going into a match to change how your opponent might play you. This Fritz announcement helped neutralize the opposing "why I lost" narrative/positioning so it can't be claimed that it wouldn't have happened but for an injury.

Does tennis represent single combat?

There's combat and then there's mortal combat. 

Tennis allows for the psychological strains of one-on-one combat minus the threat of annihilation or permanent physical injury, though I've seen psychological injuries result at all levels. Some are never the same after a certain loss. 

 

Martial arts can be to the end, but primarily it is just pain or possibly permanent injury at risk. Then there is actual mortal combat with loss defined as death. None of the rest truly compare.

Anger Management on the Court

 To me, anger on the court usually indicates external issues that we carry out there, and most of us have experienced it.

 If playing matches against even friends is no longer fun, I'd just stop doing it. Find practice partners that will be happy to hit and play points without the competitive pressure. Unless you're playing for big money there is no reason to submit yourself to something you no longer enjoy.

 Tennis can be enjoyed in many ways other than just playing games and matches.

Golden Match: Winner wins all of the points - Rare

Golden Match in DOHA

You would think that the other player would at least try to grab a point by going for aces to avoid this outcome.  I guess that it's possible that a non-ranked player could be so outplayed by the other player for this to happen but it seems that there must be something else to this story. 

Update:  Watch the Video and you'll understand why he couldn't win a point.  This must have been a college dare or something and he had the money to throw at it.  Sad!

Worst Player ever to play professionally?

Worst Tennis Match in History?

We could all be pros if this is the standard.  Shady?

Worst Player Ever to play a Pro Match?

Golden Match? Not a chance. Watch the video and you'll know it was shady. Most of us played better tennis three weeks into learning the game as kids. I'm heading to DOHA next year to play pro tennis arthritis and all. LOL

Focus: Another way to achieve it.

Focus on your training requires sacrifices.   Here is a good and quick rundown of the benefits of not having a social life to distract you from success.   In tennis, you'll see this among the high achievers.


Social Isolation has benefits  - no social life

How to maintain Focus based on the methods used by Medieval Monks

How lack of discipline destroys tennis careers!

I can name you a long list of failures at the Professional level of Tennis.

First to me is Nastase who though he won many tournaments and matches could have probably won many more were it not for his antics.  His talent seemed unlimited.

Then comes Rios who fell to his demons before he actually won a slam but had already shown that he could dominate men's tennis after achieving number 1.

On the women's side, I see fewer examples but Capriotti comes to mind as a talent that was wasted for most of her career.  At least she proved that she had it later, much later, but all of that time was missed in between.

Now we have more on the men's tour who again have physical mastery of the game but lack the discipline to hold off their demons that invade their thoughts and come out in the form of bad behavior.  Some make excuses that tennis isn't important to them anyway so as a way for the ego to justify this failure pretend that it doesn't matter.  Think Kyrgios.  He has unbounded talent but lacks the discipline to hold his bad thoughts in check when faced with a challenge on the court.

Here is a comment by Ken Rosewall on the subject.  Rosewall was a master of the game and self-control and I never noticed anything but a gentleman on the court when he played no matter the outcome.  It's hard not a admire a person of such worth not only to our sport but to civilization.

Health: Happiness as Social Glue

Happiness

Spread it around and smile more often.  It really does help others and yourself. 

Winning and Success in Tennis

If I had a kid that showed up for lessons and didn't seem to care or try and then while asking the kid about it the kid said, "It's not all about winning."

Here is how I would handle it. First background and then the answer.

I had a teacher tell me in 9th grade that it's not all about winning. She was a nice lady but didn't agree with a paper that I wrote on competition. I forget the details including the grade but remember that I essentially said that it's all about winning. Now let me move the clock forward 50 years. I still think that it's all about winning. Now though, I tell students that it is how you define winning and success that give you the most benefit and ability to move forward. Of course we want to win by the score if possible, but to even be on the playing field is a win if you are improving, learning, and competing. I only left the court unhappy after a loss if I let myself down for some reason.

Think of the future

Sometimes surviving to fight another day can be a win especially if you're in a life and death circumstance like cancer or war. I think almost tennis player would agree that to come up short against Rafa in a final anywhere at any time would be a win. I'd take it. Call me number two or three. " I'm good." The fact that I could honestly say that I was in his league or at least was there to be crushed by him would still mean I was better than 99%+ of all the other players out there. This would be especially true if I took games off of him since he doesn't give away gift points or games to anyone that I've seen. If could walk around saying that I met Rafa, Fed, or Novak on the court for a match and wasn't leaving in a wheelchair or on a stretcher and had taken some points, games or even a set would make me feel like winner. If you can't say that, well I suggest looking closely at how you measure success which is another way to say winning.

Set Your Own Definitions of Success and Winning

I made it through 40+ years of teaching a sport that I love though I never played professionally. I don't consider myself anything but a winner since I came out of the other side with a lifetime of pleasure on the court, a solid income, respect from those who wanted to learn tennis, and am able to share some lessons to others like this.

So when you hear, Winning isn't everything, it's how you play the game." I'd add , no it's how well you play the game. Well enough to call it winning. To quote Vince, "Winning isn't everything, it's the only thing." Then go about defining it for yourself so you can claim success and a win by the standard you set and not those set by others including misguided teachers. Even on the court a score loss can be a win for the future.

What I'd say to the kid.

I'd tell the kid that his teachers must not understand winning and the if they never talked about how to define it or how to measure success then they needed to study the concept further. Otherwise, they are setting up anyone in this competitive world to have their delusions crushed. Did the teachers not chase a win by getting their credentials to become teachers and if they hadn't they wouldn't be there parroting such a false truism since credentials are everything in the realm of Education.


2 Mental Shifts Highly Successful People Make
This is good reading with some concise information.

Tennis Coaching and Teaching - Avoiding Misunderstandings

How a Tennis Coach or Instructor Interacts With Students Can Make all the Difference

Your Personality

First off we all have a template of behavior formed by our upbringing and sometimes that is helpful in teaching and other times it must be overcome.

Self Assessment

Here is how I see my own actions over four plus decades of teaching:

For me, looking back at my early teaching compared to now I was a hard case drill sergeant and I didn't care who was on the other side of the net, they all needed to work. It was probably because I was raised in a military family where discipline was everything. I've softened up a lot and now think happily of my last twenty years of teaching where I just loved being out on the court with anyone else who wanted to be there.

You can adapt and change

To me if we aren't all laughing at least part of the time I wasn't doing it right. As for exposure to varied groups of people, my last post retirement gig was teaching at a college where I had exchange students from all over the world including Asia, the Middle East, Africa, and South and Central America. Treating everyone with respect worked well and I can say that everything came down to careful communication to avoid misunderstandings. If you're smiling, laughing, and people see in your manner and behavior that you are genuinely happy to have them out there with you there never seems to be a problem.

Focus on the Job - Teaching Tennis

Focus on getting the job done of teaching tennis rather than taking sides in the current social issues. That to me is how it should be handled.

Book Recommendation: Talent is Overrated by Geoff Colvin

I highly recommend this book for anyone hoping to improve their performance in any realm.

Reading through this book I agree with the author and the conclusions ring true while his analysis of what is important for success is observable.  This book is research based and is an excellent perspective for helping students and athletes understand how to achieve a high level of performance.  Success often comes down to hard work and focused practiced or what he calls deliberate practice.  Many great coaches know that to raise the game of a player it can often be helpful to pick a specific skill and then break down that skill into motions or very specific elements and practice and refine those while adjusting with feedback on performance.

If you want to learn a sport like tennis then the concepts found in this book can add a very useful perspective for improving performance.

This book should be on the shelf of any coach.

Talent is Overrated by Geoff Colvin

***** Five Stars

The Path to Expertise

Hopkins Study shows you a new approach to learning and mastery

This mirrors some of the ideas written on how learning by deliberate practice as outlined in the book Talent is Overrated by Geoff Colvin.

Use this approach to get yourself to the next level.  I suggest reading Colvin's book if you want to become an expert in any field and to make yourself an exceptional performer.  If you choose to accomplish this on the tennis court then you have an advantage of a large talent pool of coaches and teaching knowledge to get you there as well.  You have to do your part though.

Life Lessons from Tennis: On the Court

Life lessons learned on the tennis court

The first order of business is to learn to enjoy the game so as a coach you should follow the path of least resistance to making students comfortable and criticism is not an ideal approach.

Make it fun for youngsters and adults alike.

Find ways to get students to look forward to another class both for their benefit and yours if you're the coach.

Kyrgios: Out of Control

Tantrum ends match

What is there to say but that he is proving that talent isn't everything.  It takes the right mental framework which he apparently lacks.

Tennis News: Never had better personalities, Petra talks of Knife attack, Osaka out, Davis Cup, Match Fixing, Yelling and Grunting

Personalities

Petra talks of Knife attack

Osaka out with back injury - Qatar 

Davis Cup Changes

Match Fixing Prodigy

Yelling and Grunting Tennis Players Yells some more after win
Hopefully with this behavior it will be dealt with if he goes any further in Tennis.

Tennis Coaching: Is it a Flaw or Just a Mistake - Jacques Tennis Seminars

Jacques Tennis Seminars

Is it a flaw or just a mistake?”

By Nick Jacques and Mark Tennant

(Reprinted with Permission)

Original Post on Nick Jacques Tennis Seminars

I was a national champion swimmer as a junior and technique was very important as in swimming which is closed skill sport, your success as an athlete hinges on how efficiently you can move through the water. Air is 784 times less dense than water and requires an entirely different set of technical skills than any other land-based sport. For this reason, any flaw in form is magnified exponentially in the water.

Tennis being an open skilled sport requires many skills and techniques. There are the fundamental tennis technical skills that every beginner player should acquire but these skills needs to be adaptable and relevant to the game of tennis so as the player matures they can learn more advanced skills. Honing in on your technique is a great way to reach your potential in tennis as it can drastically improve your efficiency, speed, consistency and confidence on the court.

However during a coaching session it’s important to identify if what we see is a flaw or a mistake. Are we jumping in too soon and preventing the child from correcting their own mistakes and assuming there is a lack of skill, when actually it could just be a matter of application, time or understanding? (competence). Are we taking away the students opportunity to correct their own mistake and take responsibility for their own tennis and their own learning? (autonomy). Are we being too fussy and not working towards the player’s wants and needs, and is what we are working on aligned to clear goals which the player owns and which are agreed between player and coach? (purpose)

It is worth pointing out that this article focusses on technical aspects of the game, and that we recognise that flaws could also be personality traits or psychological/mental weaknesses which can have an adverse effect on the player’s training or competitive mind, decision making or attitudes to the events which occur in matches or the life of a tennis player.

Examples of a flaw

- A fundamental breakdown due to lack of physical, coordinative or technical efficiency, which if uncorrected, is likely to remain or even become worse over time. It could lead to injury or to a permanent weakness in the player’s game. A flaw is likely to need the intervention of an expert (coach) to correct it
- Lack of motor skills competence
- Over complicated swing
- Unnecessary movements in the swing
- Lack of adaptability
- Lack of coordination in the kinetic chain
- Grips

Examples of a mistake

- A mistake could be a one off, a temporary or a permanent feature of a player’s game, which could be a wrong decision in the heat of the moment, or due to a more fundamental lack of understanding by the player
- Lack of ownership
- Not enough repetition of the skill
- Not understanding the purpose of the exercise
- Misjudgment of the situation or shot
- Concentration
- Tiredness

Flaws are often quite easy to spot if you know your player well, or if you regularly analyse or chart their matches, because it is likely that a pattern of evidence will emerge over time which becomes a feature of their game. For example, analysis might show a weakness in consistency or effectiveness due to an extreme grip when a player is forced out wide on the forehand. Evidence will probably show a higher than expected number of lost points resulting from that shot. Such a flaw can sometimes be predicted by others, including the opponent! Mistakes, however, are less likely to show in a pattern, are more likely to be random and cannot be predicted, to such an extent that we sometimes hear advice suggesting that the player should wait for a mistake.

So now that we understand the difference, what do we do about them? How can we train in such a way to reduce mistakes or flaws in a game?

What recommendations can we make in coach behavior best deal with mistakes and flaws?

Coaches can help players understand and deal with mistakes in training by:
1. Understanding if it really is a mistake or a flaw!
2. Understanding that mistakes happen. Even the pros make them, and no child should ever be criticised for making mistakes. However, it is important to understand why mistakes happen, and to help players become resilient to the challenges of competitive tennis so that they make fewer mistakes as they gain experience. Make sure that parents of your young players understand this too!
3. Encouraging players to try to play their best and to try to win, rather to try not to lose. By being brave and by trying new things, players develop their game skills, learn more about themselves and their game, and eventually accept mistakes as part of learning. Better to try and fail than not to try at all!
4. Practising decision making in training. Start with simple either/or choices with young children, and gradually extend the range of options as players gain experience. Challenge and discuss decisions players make in training, not only when they make wrong decisions but also when they make right decisions, so that they can talk about their decisions
5. Develop little routines to deal with mistakes on court. The key is acceptance, not to dwell on the mistake and to move on quickly

Coaches can help eradicate flaws in training by:
1. Understanding if it really is a flaw or a mistake!
2. Watching players in matches. Many flaws may not come out until players are under competitive pressure
3. Have a clear analysis checklist so that you can go through a clear process to understand why the flaw exists, and to avoid reacting randomly to every error which happens. Remember that flaws aren’t just technical, and many technical flaws could originate in the incoming ball and not necessarily with the outgoing ball
4. Video analysis. As players improve it can become hard to see the little details
5. Getting a second opinion. Do you know another coach whom you trust and who can maybe cast their eye over your player. It can be really helpful to get a second opinion when you aren’t 100% sure of something

Nick Jacques/Mark Tennant

You can find the Original Post on Nick Jacques Seminars Facebook Page  

Health: Your Feet, Chemicals in Water Threshold, Regrets - Mental health

Foot Health

This is a good article on keeping your feel in tone and strong for balance and safety.   The article suggests it's even the secret to a long life but aren't so many things according to the experts.  But we all have to walk so having your feet in tip top shape makes that happen.

Chemicals in Water Threshold Lowered for Safety

Life of Regret - how to avoid it.

This is great advice and what it ties into is your self image and what you expect of yourself.  If you don't match up to what you dreamed of doing and being or at least working toward it then yes you might feel failure and regret.  Relative to your dreams of a career in tennis many of us have had to make compromises.  In my own case a matter of injuries, finances, and reality of my existing options led me to choose teaching tennis as a life career.  Of course we all would love to play competitively for a living but I saw teaching as a way to stay with tennis throughout my life.  The reality is that a majority, a very big majority of those who tried to make a living playing end up teaching anyway.  Of course it does give you a leg up in terms of credentials to at least have played professionally even if not successfully enough to stay with it.  Think of this when you plan your future on the court and consider that everything you do is eventually leading you toward sharing your skills and what you have learned with others.  In the meantime enjoy every day on the court whether it's as a player or teacher.

Visualization to Improve your Tennis Performance

Practicing mentally is an important component of sports performance.  It is proven in scientific studies that imagining clearly the motions and actions you take in hitting a ball can actually improve your skills as much as going out on the court and doing so.  This applies to golf, archery, and any other discipline that you can practice in your mind as well as on the field or court.  Of course you can't bypass physical efforts completely or even the majority of your training, but adding a considerable amount of time using mental imaging will give you fast improvements.

The original theory for this approach to self improvement is a book titled Psycho-Cybernetics by Maxwell Maltz.  It is well worth reading and using the knowledge you get from it to change many aspects of your life.  In addition to working for your sports performance such as how you stroke the ball you should consider also imagining yourself winning against specific types of players or even specific players.  Go through the mental steps of visualizing your strategy, how you hit the ball, the movements you make, and the shots that you take.  All of these aspects of your game can benefit from imagining yourself doing something as an accompaniment to your on court efforts.

Here is the book that I suggest you read to understand fully the value of this added aspect of training for mastery.



If you're not into reading a tremendous amount or don't have the time consider an audio version of the book.

Tennis News: Bizarre, Sharapova to Qualify, Real Writers, Head Shot

Bizarre Match - focus on play.  If this was supposed to psych out her opponent it didn't work.

Halep Advances in Rome

Sharapova to try qualifying for Wimbledon rather than Wild Card

Real Writers Play Tennis

Head Shot almost causes concussion

Tennis News: Player Hits Umpire in Eye with Ball - Defaults Match

Canadian Player hit's ball at Umpire's face to hand GB Davis Cup Win
This is not only unfortunate for the Umpire but for the Canadian team to lose simply because one player on the team loses control.  It is justifiable to hand over a win to the other side.  An umpire shouldn't have to worry about being attacked.  An errant ball is one thing but this ball was hit when play was finished so whatever happens when you fire a ball off is your responsibility.

Eye Balled

Tennis player gets mad

Competitors can learn from this.  Most of the time it goes beyond self control issues and it has to do with ego.  Some players act out as if to say they are better than what just transpired in the point.  As frustration builds some players resort to physical displays not much different than a tantrum.  It rarely helps though at times if the umpire doesn't act these displays will interfere with the match and distract an opponent.  In the 70's and 80's some of the players used antics as a form of gamesmanship to disrupt the match when they were losing.  Rule changes have made this less of a problem but actions like this cannot be managed.  The fine is justifiable as well.  Hopefully this players will fully learn from it.  It is apparent that he didn't purposely try to hit the umpire based on his reaction when he hit him but by then it was too late.

#1 rule.  When you hit a ball and send it downrange and it is not during a point whatever happens is on you.  During a point it can still be on you if you appear to purposely aim a ball at a linesman or referee and umpire while throwing away a point.