Tip #1: Dr. Jim Loehr recently offered a graphic example of the importance of rituals during a NASA spacecraft launch.  Think about it.  NASA has an incredibly elaborate countdown and checklist to prepare for each launch.  Similarly, a world-class performer or coach has an equally elaborate series of rituals leading to that ideal performance state.

Tip #2: Jim described mental toughness as containing the following two qualities which move a person’s emotions: Positive thinking and imaging, and positive acting.

Tip #3: As far as stress is concerned, he provided an interesting perspective by describing that to become a world-class athlete or coach, we must each take on stress.  And, specifically as coaches, we must also administer stress.  The best coaches administer stress perfectly according to each player’s needs. 

Tip #4: As far as recovery is concerned, Jim explained that recovery is relative to the stress that one faces, and that it has to be equally strong and effective as the initial stress in order to be effective.  There are two types of recovery that he described: One is called “active rest” which would include engaging in activities that are both relaxing and recovery-oriented yet active at the same time.  Examples of this would include cycling for fun, jogging for fun, or going for long walks.  The second category is called “passive rest” which would include reading a good book or going to the movies.

The biomechanical benefits of the semi-open stance have been long discussed and documented.  Since body rotation is one of the keys to efficient stroke production, comparing groundstroke stances and rotation clearly indicates that a semi-open stance allows the body to coil and uncoil in one continuous motion, as it also achieves sufficient forward weight transfer.

And, since there are different body sections that coil and uncoil (hips, torso, shoulders, etc.), coaches and players need to also be aware that these rotational components occur with one lagging behind the other.  In other words, the hip rotation lags behind the knee rotation and the torso rotation lags behind the hip rotation, etc.  And, as one goes up the kinetic chain each of these segments accelerates faster than the previous segment.  A good metaphor is to consider racquet head speed like the cracking of a whip when the stroke is executed with the proper biomechanics.

According to well-respected sports scientist, Dr. Jim Loehr, world-class rituals or patterns of behavior are as required to maintain a successful career in coaching as they are to compete successfully as a world-class player.  He advises that we should think of rituals as anchors to our identities as a person.  Rituals, when correctly practiced, will yield the following results: rituals increase personal control, rituals create rhythm and meaning in our lives, rituals express who we are, rituals reflect a person’s deepest values.

Then he explained that the most important rituals are connected to the following twelve activities:
1. Sleep – by regulating one’s hours of sleep.
2. Exercise – he commented that the afternoon times are best because not only is exercise good for overall well-being, but it is a good stress-reliever.  By the time the afternoon rolls around, one’s stress level is built up and exercise serves a double function of both developing fitness and relieving stress.  However, he cautioned the audience that if one exercises too late at night, that it can inhibit one’s ability to go to sleep easily. 
3. Nutritionally speaking, he recommended small meals to maintain a proper balance of blood sugar throughout the day.  Additional he commented that breakfast, which balances the blood sugar level immediately after waking up, is also critical.  Too many people say they have no time for breakfast.
4. Family time on a scheduled, regular basis was also stressed as important.
5. Spiritual rituals were also emphasized as important depending on one’s own personal beliefs and practices. 
6. Pre-performance rituals would include the types of meals one eats and how they prepare for a day’s work or an important meeting. 
7. Travel rituals would include how one adjusts to new time zones or minimizes stress before and after traveling.
8. Telephone rituals deal with balancing the stress of the often overwhelming hours of telephoning which is required of coaches.
9. Office recovery has to do with coping with the stress of an office environment, particularly for the coaches who are not office-oriented.
10. Creative rituals reconfirm that everyone has a creative side and this side must be nurtured by each person. 
11. Home recovery was explained by Jim as connecting the quality of one’s own private personal time and one’s shared family time.  And, finally,
12. Time alone rituals – He asked the audience of more than 200 coaches how important time alone was to each of them, and this was one area which received almost 100% unanimous confirmation.

To bring home the importance of stress management, Jim believes that the tennis coach needs to perform the remarkably challenging task of career coaching for themselves.  In other words, coaching a sport like tennis require long hours and coping with tremendous stress. He asked the audience of coaches to both visualize and feel the stress of the long hours demanded by their career.  Then he asked everyone to imagine themselves bearing this responsibility for twenty or thirty or even forty years.  Incredible! 

Then Jim asked a more narrow-focus question to the coaches in attendance: “How do you get your best players to evolve and handle the stress and strain of competition.”  The obvious answer came forward: through proper training.  Well, according to Jim, coaches must train also.  In fact, from this perspective, it is even more important for coaches to train than for players since their careers in coaching are many times longer than the relatively short career of competitive play.  He also commented that the biggest role of a coach is to be the “mover” and “shaker” of someone else’s emotions.

He then moved on to describe strength as the ability to both exert strength and resist strength.  Resisting strength means maintaining balance and your own ideal performance state despite negative outside forces.  And, as far as exerting one’s own strength, this is best accomplished when living in the ideal performance state which he describes in twelve words: Relaxed, calm, anxiety-free, high-energy, positive, enjoyable, effortless, automatic, confident, alert, in control, and focused.

5 Tips from Vic Braden

Tip #1: Regarding serving, coaching legend Vic Braden has recently explained that the racquet head will accelerate 1.7 times as fast when the non-racquet hand drops and blocks the body as compared to when it simply swings to the opposite side of the body. Now the question is whether players can learn this motion of snapping and blocking. Vic joked in his usual hilarious manner that the only time he’s seen this type of snapping and blocking motion was in Junior High School in the boys’ locker room when they learned to snap towels at their fellow students as they would come out of the showers.

Tip #2: According to Vic’s studies, the back scratch position for starting the serve is completely antiquated and should not be taught any longer.  Efficient acceleration of the racquet head becomes lost when the linkage process is limited to starting in the back scratch position.

Tip #3: He also shared some opinions on gross motor-skilled players versus fine motored-skilled players.  Although a combination of both of these skills is required for tennis, he shared his observation that many recreational players tend to be predominantly one way or the other.  For example, gross motor-skilled players will typically have longer swings with stable racquet heads.  On the other hand, fine motor-skilled players are often the people who quickly roll their wrists.  These people should be strongly encouraged to lengthen their swings and have as stable a racquet head as possible.

Tip #5: According to Vic, great players plan practices intelligently, practice intelligently, and play how they plan.

Many coaches are getting away from jump ropes totally in terms of movement training for tennis. Rather, they focus more on other tennis-related movement exercises, even incorporating shadow swinging. And, as far as stretching is concerned, many leading coaches and trainers are now advocating minimal stretching before playing. The old-school on stretching would have players stretch out completely before competition. Consider a pre-match stretch to last just a few minutes at most.