PERSONAL ACHIEVEMENT PLAN SEAN BRAWLEY S PLAYER DEVELOPMENT PROGRAM THE 5 PILLARS TO MASSIVE CONSISTENCY

Transcription

1 SEAN BRAWLEY S THE 5 S TO MASSIVE CONSISTENCY

2 SEAN BRAWLEY S THE 5 S TO MASSIVE CONSISTENCY Why do I play so well one day and so poorly the next? Why do I play tight in competition and miss easy shots? From the professional ranks to the club player, the most agonizing aspect of a tennis player s experience is inconsistency performances vary widely from one day to the next. So what is the secret to consistent performance? Is there an easier, more effective way for players improve their technique? What role does focus of attention play? How does the mind help or hinder learning and performance? How can a coach use the latest research on mindfulness and neuroscience to improve his or her coaching results? In the following pages, I make a clear case for why so many junior and adult players struggle with consistency and why they haven t been able to improve their games despite putting in many hours on the court and taking weekly clinics or lessons. I have played this great game of tennis for over 40 years and logged nearly 20,000 hours of coaching. I have also worked with athletes from a wide variety of other sports, as well as the player development programs of the New York Yankees, Seattle Mariners, San Diego Padres, PGA, NFL Youth Football, and Pete Carroll and the USC Football team among others, so I feel I have a broad perspective as to how coaches attempt to develop and train athletes. I will share with you much of what I have seen and learned, including how the Culture of Tennis suffers from what I call the myth of perfect technique, and how the way we are currently being taught, with a great emphasis on technical instruction, may actually be limiting player improvement. I will provide you with a Personal Achievement Plan Assessment form so you can rate yourself on specific aspects of the five most critical factors for consistent performance and more clearly understand what you need to develop to get to the next level. Finally, I will also provide a description of five mindful exercises that, if you practice them consistently with intention and purpose, will help you increase your focus and dramatically improve your consistency. 2

3 The Four Reasons Why Tennis Players Don t Improve In tennis, I believe there are four main reasons why tennis players don t improve the way they would like to: 1. Players don t have a development plan with clear goals and objectives. 2. Coaches focus too much on technique and fixing what is wrong instead of developing critical skills such ball tracking and balance, which is an entirely different model. 3. Players practice inconsistency. In practice they typically miss every 3-4 shots yet expect a different result when they play matches. They don t have the experience of hitting balls in a row so they don t know what that feels like. In fact, deep down, many players don t even think it is possible. 4. Players don t practice with purpose. Research clearly shows that one of the critical success factors for long term mastery and sustainable high performance is to practice with a clear intent. To improve a specific aspect of your game, every shot must have a purpose! Your Personal Achievement Plan Every year players spend a lot of money taking lessons and clinics in the hopes of improving their strokes, playing better, and winning more matches, yet rarely do the players or coaches have a clear, proven plan for development. As a result, players often do not improve as much as they would like (or at all) and don t fully understand why they don t win more matches. After working with players of all ability levels and ages, in a wide variety of sports, I have developed a simple, easy to understand Personal Achievement Program that I call The 5 Pillars to Massive Consistency, that can help you improve quickly and easily, without consciously changing your technique! In just a matter of weeks not months you can become more consistent and accurate than you ever thought possible by simply focusing your attention on what is most critical and practicing mindfully and purposefully. The program is simple, yet has proven highly effective with tennis players of all levels, from the advanced beginner, to the highly ranked junior, to the German Davis Cup team. It works off the court too. I tailored this program quite successfully for the New York Yankees player development program helping them go from a #23 ranking out of #32 teams to #1 by the end of the 2001 season. I also used this approach when I worked with Pete Carroll, as his Coach Advisor, helping the former head coach of the USC football team win two National Championships. If you set a clear goal for improvement and practice these mindful exercises consistently, you too can dramatically improve your game. The Myth of Perfect Technique The biggest myth in tennis is that if you hit the ball with the right technique the ball will go over the net and land where you want it to. This, of course, leads to the pervasive idea that if you missed a shot it was due to some error in your form or technique, and if you correct it on your next shot, all will be well. This process of looking out for what we are doing wrong and correcting it is often called the medical model due to the idea that a player is lacking in some way and the coach is going to cure them by giving them prescriptive instructions. This is a tried and true approach that is embedded in our culture. It has been around for as long as anyone can remember and for good reason. It has worked! If it didn t work, we wouldn t have used it for so long. 3

4 But this model is not the only way to improve, nor is it arguably the most effective. Below are just a few of the problems with this approach. Problem #1: Constantly fixing what is wrong is inherently judgmental and often causes players to doubt themselves. Self-doubt is one of the biggest performance killers that I know. It causes players to be indecisive, to worry about hitting it the right way, and to constantly give themselves instructions, all of which interferes with watching the ball and the natural, fluid movement of the body. Problem #2: Good technique does not guarantee a good outcome or a good shot. Billy Beane is the General Manager of the Oakland A s and is famous for being the central character of the highly successful book and movie, Money Ball. As a major league player Beane was regarded as having near perfect hitting technique, so it baffled both him and his coaches why he was such a poor hitter and couldn t translate that great technique into great performance. The book and movie were fascinating because they looked at a strange fact. There were many players in the minor leagues and major leagues, who did not look like your typical athlete. They were overweight, or really slow, or had glitches in their technique but they could hit the ball well and get on base a high percentage of the time. In tennis, I have worked with many junior and adult tennis players who had really good technique but were highly inconsistent. They would typically miss after 3-4 shots. Surprisingly, the same is true at the pro level. An analysis was conducted recently by both the ATP Tour and WTA Tour and, for both men and women, the average point lasted only 4 shots. Competing against their peers, they too are inconsistent. In fact, unforced errors are still the #1 reason why players at every level of the game lose matches. Problem #3: The technique required to hit the ball into the court is actually subtle and beyond what the normal eye can see. It requires the use of fine (for example, small muscles in the wrist and hand) motor skills which can be easily learned by our powerful natural learning system but cannot be taught! At a USTA Teachers Conference a number of years ago, Howard Brody, a well-regarded sport scientist, conducted a study. He discovered that in a normal rally from baseline to baseline, if a player s racket face angle was open by 1/8-1/4 inch the tennis ball would land 4-6 feet beyond the baseline. So the proper technical instruction in this instance would be, Hey Jane, that landed five feet out. On the next one, close your racket face by 1/4 inch! But, of course, that sounds completely absurd. And well it should. Again, this is also true at the pro level. Here is a quote from Rafael Nadal s autobiography: You might think that after the millions and millions of balls I ve hit, I d have the basic shots of tennis sown up, that reliably hitting a true, smooth, clean shot every time would be a piece of cake. But it isn t. Not just because every day you wake up feeling differently, but because every shot is different; every single one. From the moment the ball is in motion, it comes at you at an infinitesimal number of angles and speeds; with more topspin, or backspin, or flatter or higher. The differences might be minute, microscopic, but so are the variations your body makes shoulders, elbow, wrists, hips, ankles, knees in every shot no ball arrives the same as another; no shot is identical. So every time you line up to hit a shot, you have to make a split-second judgment as to the trajectory of the ball and speed of the ball and then make a split-second decision as to how, how hard, and where you must try to hit the shot. 4

5 Based on much of the research that has come out of the human potential movement, the latest studies in neuroscience, mindfulness, and my own experience, I believe there is a better, more effective way to learn. While there are a few instances where I still give technical instruction, it is often as a last resort. I would much rather have my students focus on what is important, explore their experience with freedom, notice differences between the way they hit the ball on one shot and another, and feel the rhythm and fluidity of their bodies. It is a much more enjoyable way to learn. The Power of Purposeful Practice There is a lot of current information available about the power of purposeful, deliberate practice. It can readily be found in popular books such as The Talent Code, The Practicing Mind, Outliers, and Focus: The Hidden Driver of Excellence. I was brought up to believe that simple repetition was the key to improvement. Hit down-the-line and crosscourt forehands and backhands, do drills like approach the net-volley-overhead, take a few lessons, play some matches, and voila you will improve. And I did. So there is nothing wrong with this approach. But this approach is old school. It is typically performed mindlessly without purpose, focus or intention. Mindless repetition does work but is not the most effective way to train, plus I found I got bored quickly practicing that way. It was rarely fun or engaging, but I was constantly told to grind it out. In this old model, the player has no purpose or goal for the practice, is not paying attention to what is important, and is simply going through the motions. The key to accelerated learning and long term sustainable performance is Purposeful or Mindful Practice. In a mindful practice session, players set a clear intention of what they will work on and how it relates to their overall development plan. In this way, every shot has a purpose and practice is highly engaging, intense and fun, allowing players to focus easily and effortlessly. To get a quick idea of what I m talking about just imagine the first snowboarders and the way they continuously experimented with new moves. Why is this approach so effective? Simply put, when you establish a reference point for your awareness and focus your attention on what is critical for improvement, you stimulate the brain and receive high quality, relevant input related to what you want to improve. The brain learns best and makes greater neurosynaptic connections when it is relaxed and focused, yet stimulated. As you will see, some of the skills you ll be practicing you might already be familiar with like balance and footwork, or hitting to a target, or even the old faithful down-the-line/crosscourt. But in my approach you will be doing them differently. Each exercise asks the player to focus his or her attention on a critical aspect of being consistent, such as the height of the ball over the net and getting feedback from his or her own experience. Based on my experience, some of the exercises will, however, be different. In fact, a few are often overlooked or ignored by the tennis teaching culture. These include skills like reading and reacting to the ball, quieting the mind, hitting while relaxed, solid contact, and proper targeting. I call my program Massive Consistency so that everyone is crystal clear what the overall goal is. When massive consistency is the goal one comes to soon realize that it is only possible to reach it by including, yet going beyond, technique. It must also include the mind and the body. Of the literally thousands of players and coaches I have worked with over the years, the vast majority are tired of playing well one day and poorly the next. What they most want is to be more consistent and to stop missing easy shots they know they can make. 5

6 WHO IS THIS PROGRAM FOR? This Program is for all those tennis players who long to be more consistent. If you are a 3-ball player, that is you hit 3 balls over the net and then say to yourself, Oh no! because you usually miss the 4th shot, then this Program is definitely for you! If you are looking for more power, this program is not for you (although greater power eventually comes out of what you learn by becoming more consistent.) If you are looking for lessons in effective strategies, this program is not for you (although the foundation for all strategy comes out of the basic knowledge of being more consistent.) If you are looking for keys to becoming more mentally tough, this program is not for you (although practicing mindfully with focus and intent does create a quiet, relaxed mind and body which is the goal of all mental toughness programs.) Well, on second thought maybe this program is for everyone after all! The Purpose of the Personal Achievement Plan The purpose of having a player development plan is threefold. First, it provides you with a clear roadmap for your development that can be easily measured and tracked. This will help you better understand what you need to focus on to become a massively more consistent and strategic player so you can ultimately win more matches and achieve your performance goals. And, equally important, it will help you know when you are off track. Second, having this knowledge will help make your practices more meaningful and relevant, and it will motivate you to get the most out of your time on the practice court. Third, with this clear plan everyone you and your coaches can now be on the same page and aligned in helping you reach your goals. Your coach will be more accountable for your results and you will better understand what and how to train in order to improve and play better. The Player Development Process The development process occurs in three phases that often overlap. It can be summed up simply in the following way: 1. Learn what and how to train 2. Learn how to compete 3. Learn how to win Many players who work hard and have good strokes often fail to win matches in tournaments due to a breakdown in one or more of these areas. Players often don t understand what it takes to master each of these levels. In this Five Week Lesson series we will be exploring the first two phases. Learning what and how to train will lead you to play much more consistently; and consistency is the first and most important strategy and a necessary ingredient for learning how to compete and win. Sustainable High Performance and the Inner Game There are five key principles behind the 5 Pillars development program: 1. Performance = Potential minus Interference There is a far more natural and effective process for learning and performing than most of us realize. It is similar to the way we all learned to walk and talk as young children. As we get older, however we find that it is not so easy. We often wonder why we play so well one day and so poorly the next, why we choke during competition or miss easy shots, and why it is so hard to break a 6

7 bad habit or learn a new one. We all would like to play better tennis, but are often frustrated in our efforts. The simple truth is that we all have a tremendous amount of potential that we are not able to fully express. Equally true is that this is due primarily because we all get in our own way. Our conditioned habits of self-interference thinking too much about what we are doing, lapses in concentration, fear, doubt, self-judgment and negative self-talk prevent us from learning and playing our best. To achieve more consistent performance we need to develop our tennis and athletic skills to be sure, and we also need to learn the important inner skills like focus, trust and emotional resilience that can help reduce our self-interference. 2. The Oh No Reaction: How we perceive a situation dramatically impacts our ability to respond It is much easier to play up to our potential when we feel comfortable or confident. But if a player perceives the situation as a threat the ball approaching to their weak backhand or serving a second serve on break point it often triggers what is commonly called our fight, flight, freeze reaction. Most players are familiar with the feeling of choking. The heart starts beating rapidly, the hands shake, and it is difficult to move. In this state we can miss easy balls that we normally make. I ve found the other two reactive states equally common though. The fight response often leads to overly aggressive hitting or trying too hard, while the flight response typically expresses itself as hitting off the back foot or rushing to end the point too quickly when we get that uncomfortable feeling that the point has gone on too long. Needless to say, these three reactive states are a major source of self-interference and is why it is so critical to practice staying calm and relaxed on the practice court. 3. Focus: the hidden driver of optimal learning and performance Tim Gallwey, author of The Inner Game of Tennis, says that relaxed focus is the mother skill. Phil Jackson, 11-time NBA Champion basketball coach, says focus is everything. Neuroscience now shows conclusively that the ability to control our focus of attention is the foundation for optimal learning and peak performance. When we focus our attention on what is most important like the spin, speed, direction or height of the tennis ball the brain receives high quality, relevant information or feedback that enables a player to learn and perform more naturally and easily, without so much thinking. Non-judgmental focus of what is quiets the mind and helps players see more clearly without their normal biases, interpretations, and reactions. It eliminates the oh-no feeling and reduces reactions based on fear. Enhancing a player s visual and kinesthetic awareness typically leads to more natural, effortless learning because the player can see and feel what he or she is actually doing and self-interference is reduced or eliminated. When constantly trying to follow detailed instructions or fixing what they think is wrong, players are taken out of the present moment, become disconnected from their bodies and natural instincts, and often fail to get feedback from their own experience. 4. Learning is Progressive: Feeling safe comes first, then challenge What exactly does it mean that learning is progressive? You will notice that each exercise is usually constructed in a progression from easy to more challenging. This helps the player to feel safe and relaxed, which reduces fear and self-judgment, and increases their chances for success. And, of course, success breeds success and leads to greater feelings of confidence and capability. In my opinion, it makes no sense to practice a drill where players are continually missing every 3-5 shots. In effect, they are practicing and perfecting being inconsistent. A player can become much more consistent in a short period of time by first practicing being consistent and then gradually increasing the challenge and level of risk. 7

8 Slowing the pace of the rally is an easy way to reduce the level of challenge and help a player feel safe. Some players who consider themselves a highly ranked player, but who are nonetheless inconsistent often challenge me when I ask them to hit at 20% of their normal pace. Junior players often think I m treating them like babies! In these cases, I will ask them to trust me and to carry out a scientific experiment to see what the real effects are when you slow the pace down. It doesn t usually take long for them to see the beauty and practicality of this approach. Practicing exercises where players hit balls over the net has a dramatic effect on their technique AND their mindset. They start to believe in themselves and see solid evidence that they are, in fact, capable of being highly consistent. It tends to obliterate their limiting beliefs of who they are as a player and what is possible for their tennis. 5. Beginner s Mind: Growth Mindset vs. Fixed Set There is an old Zen story about the university professor who travels a great distance to visit a wellknown Zen master. Please teach me about Zen, he asks. The professor talks about his many years of experience and accomplishments, while the master prepares tea. Back at the table the master begins pouring the tea and continues pouring as the tea fills the cup, falls onto the table and then on the professor s clothes. The professor can no longer contain himself and he exclaims for the master to stop. The master then puts down the tea pot and says, You are full like this tea cup. Come back when your mind is empty and you are open to learning. It is sometimes difficult to admit that we don t know something or that we need to change the way we are practicing. It requires us to be vulnerable as well as humble. But if a player keeps training the way they have always trained, how can they expect to have different results? Another attitude that gets in the way of having an open mindset is the inner perfectionist that wants to look good, do it right, hit the ball perfectly, and win the match. This character is one of the main causes of performance anxiety and hates making mistakes. Carol Dweck wrote about this in her bestselling book, Mindset. She says that the only way to move out of our comfort zones and to improve our skills in any activity is to have emotional courage and be willing to make mistakes. Mistakes are not a bad thing, they are necessary for the brain to understand how to get it right. They, in fact, serve a valuable purpose. 8

9 The 5 Pillars of Massive Consistency There are many ways to approach player development and any Program will necessarily reflect the philosophy of the coach. I believe that: Success in competitive tennis requires players to learn and develop certain physical, mental, and emotional skills. More specifically, a highly ranked player is typically one who: is consistent and accurate is capable of strategically constructing points to leverage their strengths and exploit their opponent s weaknesses, and recognize patterns that are successful can successfully manage his or her state (meaning their focus, energy, and emotions) The beauty of the Massive Consistency Program is its simplicity. In order to become a highly consistent player, I believe there are five critical factors that must be mastered. I use these as an integral part of my assessment process and how I diagnose what to work on with players. It has been effective over many years and has helped players get to the next level more quickly than they ever thought possible and in a much more effortless, positive way. 9

10 The Five Pillars are: FOCUSED MIND/RELAXED BODY Every athlete in every sport has uniformly expressed that when they have played their best playing in the zone as it is called their minds were quiet and focused, and their bodies were relaxed. Thinking too much about what we are doing and trying too hard are two of the biggest interfering obstacles to high performance. Relaxed focus is the key to excellence in all activities, yet rarely do we practice it! QUICK REACTION TO THE BALL (tracking the ball and initiating movement to it) When a player perceives the ball late and reacts slowly to the ball it sets up a domino effect that can negatively impact their movement to the ball, their footwork and balance, and their contact leading ultimately to inconsistent play. Quickly reading and reacting to the ball is critical, yet is arguably the most overlooked and/or misdiagnosed factor in tennis. DYNAMIC BALANCE: MOVEMENT/FOOTWORK Simply put, if you are consistently off balance when you hit the ball your probability of making solid contact with the ball and hitting it on the sweet spot will be low. In the not too distant past, the closed stance was the most frequently taught footwork technique in tennis. Now we know that there is a full spectrum of stances that can be effective depending on the situation. But regardless of which stance you choose, balance will always be critical. SOLID CONTACT It s important to know where your ideal contact zone is for each stroke. Knowing where you want to contact the ball is the key determinant for your movement to the ball and your stance. Many players hit the ball too low, too high, too close to their body or too far away and don t realize it! We can only change what we are aware of. CLEAR INTENDED TARGETS All movement and technique is in the service of our intention. Usually, if a player sees the ball clearly and has a clear intended target their chances for success increase dramatically. Having a clear specific target or target area (versus just cross court or down the line or deep ) provides a reference for awareness and an important opportunity to notice differences; differences in where the ball lands relative to the target as well as differences in how it feels to hit each ball. By practicing consistently with targets, players become more accurate as they learn to make subtle adjustments in their movement, stance and contact to achieve their intended goal. I have observed that this carries over into competition with players more capable of being consistent under pressure. 10

11 The Five Week Lesson Plan FOCUSED MIND/RELAXED BODY CLEAR INTENDED TARGETS PERSONAL ACHIEVEMENT PLAN & WEEK 1 This week we will practice Pillar 1: Quiet Mind/Relaxed Body and Pillar 5: Clear Intended Target. This way you can experience the feeling of relaxed focus for yourself and discover the many benefits of training this way. Exercise: Playing at 30% (speed of the ball/100% is the hardest the player thinks he or she can hit a shot) Purpose: Slows the action down. Benefits: Players see the ball earlier and more clearly, have more time to move to the ball and reduces the feeling of being rushed, and provides them with the experience (some for the first time ever) of hitting a ball while being physically relaxed. 1. Players warm up with mini-tennis in the short court with a CLEAR TARGET (middle of the box). It is best if a visible target is used such as a flat, round, rubber target or a tennis ball. a. Primary Focus points of this exercise are: 1) hitting at 30% and 2) how far away the ball is landing relative to the target. b. Especially in the beginning, players often miss the target by a large amount simply because they have forgotten or gotten distracted, not because of their skill level. 2. When you have become more consistent (8-10 shots in a row), have them move back to halfway between the service line and the baseline. Stay hitting at a 30% pace AND move the target. I think you will find that putting the target just in front of the service line is most effective. 3. When you are able to hit balls over the net without a miss in no man s land, it is time to move to your normal position just behind the baseline. a. Stay at 30% and should move the target (approx. 2 feet past the service line) 4. When you are consistent at this distance, you can increase the speed of your shots to 50%. 5. When you can hit balls over the net without missing at 50%, they you can increase your speed to 75%. 6. It can be fun trying to play at 90% or all out. It will allow you to experience first-hand how this negatively impacts your consistency and/or accuracy! Self-Coaching Questions for Relaxation Awareness: Are you hitting at 30%? What percentage do you feel it is? For those players who tend to hit harder than 30% and can t seem to slow it down: What would 10% look like show me? Self-Coaching Questions for Target Awareness: Are you hitting in front of or behind the target? How far away from the target did that last shot land? 11

12 QUICK REACTION TO THE BALL WEEK 2 Pillar 2 Reading and Reacting to the Ball This week you will be exploring the single most important aspect of the game: reading the ball. You will also continue to build on the player s ability to hit the ball while calm and relaxed. Reading and reacting to the ball is the most important aspect of the game. I have found that the vast majority of players at every level of the game recognize the ball and initiate movement to it a bit late typically just before or just after the net. This idea is fairly well known in tennis. In fact, the #1 instruction given in tennis is watch the ball. The problem is it doesn t work! Why not? Because seeing the ball is not the same as reading or recognizing the ball. What neuroscientists tell us is that reading the ball, which means tracking the movement and position of an external object relative to your body, occurs in parietal lobe and seeing the ball occurs in the occipital lobe. So a player may actually see the ball, but they won t initiate movement towards the ball until the parietal lobe recognizes it. (Imagine the experience of someone calling your name. There are times when you can hear the person but you don t respond until you wake up from what you are doing. Sometimes the person needs to say your name several times in order for it to register!) Poor tracking and reaction to the ball sets up a negative chain reaction. Poor tracking leads to a slow reaction leaving the player feeling anxious and rushed because he or she doesn t have enough time. This in turn leads to slow movement to the ball and tightening muscles of the body that shouldn t be tightened. This in turn leads to sloppy footwork and poor balance. Poor balance leads to poor posture and ineffective technique, which in turn leads to less than optimal contact with the ball. And this, of course, ultimately leads to an increased likelihood of a weak return or the player missing the shot. One of the best exercises for tracking the ball is called bounce-hit. Jack Groppel, honorary chairman of the USTA Sports Science committee, calls this the single greatest exercise ever created for tennis yet few players or coaches have heard of it or use it consistently. Saying Bounce and Hit helps quiet the mind and compels the player to focus. Focusing on the ball in this way gives the parietal lobe in the brain the vital information it needs about the ball s spin, speed, direction and height, to move properly, get set, and have good solid contact. 12

13 QUICK REACTION TO THE BALL WEEK 2 Exercise: Bounce-Hit Purpose: Compels the player to focus on the tennis ball Benefits: Helps the player track the ball better and tends to reduce self-interference 1. Say out loud so you can hear yourself) the word bounce the moment the ball makes contact with the ground and the word hit when you feel the ball hit your racket. 2. You should start calling bounce-hit on your own side of the net first. When you are at least 80% successful saying these words on-time (versus saying them early or late) you can then include the other side of the net as well. 3. It s fine of course to use variations. USC tennis coach, Peter Smith, likes to use numbers instead of bounce and hit. Another well-known coach likes to use carry instead of hit. He feels the word carry is more elongated and therefore leads to a longer, more fluid follow through. Feel free to be creative! Recommendations: Do the bounce-hit exercise at 30% speed at first to make it easier for you and your partner and then progress to 50% when you are both able to say the words at least 80% on time. Notice the rhythm of the exchange. It s quite relaxing and fun! Self-Coaching Questions for Focus Awareness:: Are you saying bounce and hit? Are you saying them on-time? Notice if you are saying bounce or hit before, after, or right when the ball bounces or when it hits your racket. 13

14 DYNAMIC BALANCE: MOVEMENT/FOOTWORK WEEK 3 This week we will do two simple exercises to raise your awareness about another crucial element of playing consistently well: dynamic balance. Have you ever hit a ball when you were off-balance? When we do, it is hard to make good, solid contact with the ball and it is often hard to recover to hit our next shot. Most players and coaches don t realize it, but hitting the ball off-balance leads to what sports physiologists call movement dysfunction and what sports coaches call poor technique. The primary reasons why players may hit the ball off-balance are either because of bad posture, the feet being too close together, and/or the ball being too close or too far away from the body at contact. In all of these cases, the body is forced to compensate in order to hit the ball. Over time this compensation becomes a habit. Players will often try to change their poor technique without much success because they haven t corrected the underlying root cause first. This can be a long and frustrating process. And yet, when players greatly improve their balance, technique often corrects itself naturally and easily as it is no longer necessary to compensate. Exercise 1: Pay attention to your balance and rate it on a scale from 1-10 Exercise 2: Hit and hold Purpose: Improves a player s body (kinesthetic) awareness and ability to get feedback from his or her own experience; increases a player s ability to notice and differentiate Benefits: improves balance, solid contact and ability to control the ball Exercise 1: Rally and Rate: Notice and rate your balance 1-10 after each shot Full court rally at 50% Self-Coaching Questions for Balance Awareness: Are you leaning forward, backward, or balanced in the middle? Is your head moving or still? Exercise 2: Hit and Hold (10 min) If possible, get your coach to feed you 20 balls on your forehand and then your backhand side. After you hit the ball, hold your body position for a count of When rallying with your partner simply call out the number of your balance (1-10, 10 being highest) 14

15 SOLID CONTACT WEEK 4 Week 4: Pillar 4 Solid Contact Contacting the ball in the sweet spot is one of the best ways to ensure hitting a solid, accurate shot. This isn t as easy as it sounds even for the very best professional players. Yet with simple awareness we can greatly improve this important skill. Patrick Kuehnen, the former German Davis Cup captain, told me a story about how one of his top players was struggling in practice just prior to an important Davis Cup match. Patrick asked him to notice whether he was hitting the ball solidly or whether it felt off center. The player noticed very quickly that he was hitting the ball off center causing it to shake or wobble a bit in his hand. Through simple awareness the player began playing well again within just a few minutes. A player s contact point often varies dramatically. Sometimes it s too far away from the body, sometimes it s too close. Sometimes the contact is too high and out of the strike zone and sometimes the ball drops too low. As you can imagine, this, of course, leads to inconsistent results. Improving this crucial skill requires the player to tap into their natural, instinctive proprioception sense. Proprioception is a high falutin neuroscience word that simply means, knowing where your body is in space. The body has over 1 billion proprioceptor cells from head to toe that are constantly sending signals to the brain and are processed and integrated by the parietal lobe (which we discussed earlier) and are connected with tracking the ball. Not everyone has the same Ideal Contact Zone. This will largely depend on your height, arm length, leg length, and grip. As with the other Pillars, when a player s contact point improves it typically has an impact on everything else in the chain link. In fact, clarity about where you want to contact the ball determines all movement to the ball! An often overlooked key point to the whole equation of hitting a ball. Exercise: Discovering Your Ideal Contact Point 1. Shadow swing to find your Ideal Contact Zone 2. If possible, get your Coach to feed 20 balls of differing heights to your forehand side and then your backhand side 3. Use your waist as a reference point for your awareness. Notice whether your Ideal Contact Zone is above or below your waist and by how much TIP: Don t guess! Give yourself some time to really explore. You might be surprised at what you discover! After you have found your Ideal Contact Zone it can now be used as a reference for your awareness. You will now have a greater ability to choose where you hit the ball relative to your ICZ. Self-Coaching Questions for Solid Contact Awareness: Am I hitting above or below my ICZ? Am I contacting the ball out in front or late? How far? Am I reaching or cramped when I make contact with the ball? 15

16 CLEAR INTENDED TARGETS WEEK 5 As I stated previously, it is very important to practice with clear targets. This is the bridge between playing well in practice and carrying that over into the match. When you have the confidence that you can hit balls in a row to a specific target area AND you know how you are doing it, you trust your capabilities more and become far less nervous in competition. Most players and coaches practice with single targets, but I have found that this causes performance anxiety. The most effective approach is to create a target area with either a rope, line or two targets and don t try to hit the target! Yes, that s right! Don t try to hit the target. Simply, notice how far your shot landed from the target (in terms of the number of feet). When the player looks across the court and sees a big area to hit into they feel relaxed and more confident that they can accomplish the task. As the player gets more accurate I simply decrease the target area in a progressive way. In short, targeting is the key for both improving accuracy and for handling pressure in practice. Exercise: Practice with targets Purpose: A clear target determines ALL movement. Technique is in the service of reaching your intended target. Benefits: Helps a player become more accurate. Greater accuracy = greater consistency Exercise: Hit cross court with your partner with two targets 6 feet apart, set up about 4 feet past the service line. Hit between the targets. Once you can hit balls between the targets shrink the target area to 4 feet. If you miss a lot of shots or get tight, set the targets back to 6 feet apart again. Self-Coaching Questions for Target Awareness: TIP: Do one dimension at a time! How far away, in terms of the number of feet, did your ball land from the target? Variation: How far to the left or right/in front or behind? 16

17 The 5 Pillars Self-Assessment Tool The 5 Pillars On a scale of 1-10, 10 being best, rate yourself on the following. After you have rated yourself, choose one or two areas to improve. INITIAL RATING GOAL IN 3 MONTHS Focused Mind Relaxed Body Reading and Reacting to the ball FH side BH side Short balls Volleys Dynamic Balance FH BH Volleys Serve Recovery after hitting shot FH BH Solid Contact Hitting in Ideal Contact Zone Clear Target Change Pace Change Arc Accuracy 17