Tennis Rockers

With all the money parents spend at tennis clubs and kids spend in lessons, shouldn't there be some sort of "board of directors" organization made up of customers, management, and tennis teachers to get the most out of everyone's experience? In this episode, we introduce and explore the concept of such an organization.

The ATP, USTA, and WTA need to establish a national testing plan for kids to provide them with transparent feedback and a path forward to try to achieve their potential. In this episode, we explore why we need it and what that plan could look like.

The conclusion is clear - tennis coaches and clubs, the people who serve the players and students, need to start asking a better more informed question of their clientele if tennis is to once again scale to the status it once held in amateur sport.

Could burnout come from not communicating a clear path for the player? Recreational, tournaments, tennis team, college, even professional? Are all players aware of these paths? How could it help prevent burnout? In this episode, we consider communicating these paths to players early and often in the hopes of avoiding burnout.

Can the tennis club offer nutrition messaging that counters the proliferation of food products, help people get healthier, and build goodwill that gets 'em coming back?

If you are a tennis pro, are you hearing about "things that were said" about what you taught? Does it feel a bit like sabotage? Maybe it's just another pro trying to prove their value and make their mark with the student. What if you are a student and you hear or see a "snicker" from another student? What if the other people even say something that "sounds" harsh or uncouth about your movement, shot selection, technique, or general outcome of your efforts? Are they trying to sabotage you or simply inserting their own impression into the conversation or in a conversation with someone else? In this episode, we consider the misinterpretation of people's comments.

Time to look at nutrition from a different direction! It's undeniable that people get tired of being preached to about diet. So, today we take a look at why people wouldn't want to change - they don't feel the effects of their nutritional choices!

Ever talk to yourself on the court - in a game, lesson, or practice? If you don't, you possess an extraordinary amount of self-control congratulations! But for the rest of us who are toyed with emotional and mental torment, we need to figure out what is going on and how we work to a more positive place. That's why we're talking today about self-talk!

Doesn't everyone want the coach who kicks it on the court? When you do find one, they're inspiring and sometimes humbling. But they're not easy to find because our standards have sunk. Instead of expecting student excellence, we're willing to deal with apathy and convenience. The results are the creation of idols of indifference - people afraid to push themselves and others in favor of the consistency of a paycheck.

What happens if you can't control or regulate your emotional arousal states - feeling too excited or not feeling much of anything? Can everyone play better by recognizing and regulating their own emotional arousal states? In this episode, we take a look at the power and danger of emotional arousal states.

We see physical rigidity in new tennis players all the time but are we able to appreciate their perspective and in turn handle it with care? In this episode we consider what emotions and thoughts feed into emotional rigidity that lead to physical rigidity and eventually overwhelm and a decision to peace out from tennis.

Are you familiar and on the look out for your child's or student's "thinking face"? It's an external indicator or secret signal a fully engaged student is sending out when they are trying to learn a new concept or work on a particular part of a concept that you or your coach is teaching. Such a signal is the point at which you should fall silent and let them mentally stew. But are you?

Boredom in a lesson isn't always a bad thing. Maybe having too many choices allows us to avoid the arduous stuff. Let's not run sprints to the net or shuffle drills and just work on our serves for the next 45 minutes - it's too hard and too big of a bummer. Let's rally instead! But if the only choices are those drills or nothing, after awhile, the boredom of nothing is likely to push a player over the edge and get them to do the tough stuff.