My Coach - August 2011 issue

A SECTION DEDICATED TO TENNIS AUSTRALIA COACH MEMBERS

MyCoach

56 Building mental toughness: a powerful

mindset can create an edge in competition.

58 What do you see? A left-handed serve will differ from a right-handed one, but comparing them both can show similar strengths.

60 Player development and other sports:

examining the variables in strength and conditioning techniques.

62 Modified tennis the way to go: Matt Bull is a strong believer in developing juniors in a customised environment.

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Coach drill Coach talk Coaches’ corner

Australian Tennis Magazine | August 2011

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A SECTION DEDICATED TO TENNIS AUSTRALIA COACH MEMBERS Tennis Australia Coach Membership T: 03 9914 4191 F: 03 9650 1040 Email: coachmembership@tennis.com.au Website: www.tennis.com.au/membership Pete Sampras adjusted his serve to suit various match situations.

Building mental toughness Mental toughness has been the defining characteristic of successful individuals in all walks of life; mental strength therefore has the capability to provide the edge in tennis competition.

By Daniela Toleski

MyCoach

Setting the foundations – learning through play Children love playing games and, from an early age in the backyard, they start problem solving to work out how they can make the game work for them. In some instances, they even begin to invent new rules to suit their capabilities.

“What’s naturally happening is you’re getting kids playing and being active so from a physical perspective they’re learning about their bodies, improving coordination, building skills … but the main thing is, they are constantly having to problem solve and evaluate what is happening,” Tennis Australia’s Developmental Tennis Manager, and former tennis and golf professional, Scott Draper says.

This process allows children to learn how to attack, defend and create better space to succeed in any game they are participating in.

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“They start improvising and being innovative and to me these are the building blocks of what you want to see with kids on a tennis court. If we stifle that, if we control that environment too much, then we’re numbing kids of their ability to problem solve and evaluate situations. It’s a ‘play to learn’ rather than ‘learn to play’ approach.”

Therefore, continuing to provide your athletes with this freedom to experience situations and exposing them to a variety of conditions will only help them to naturally learn how to be a competitor.

Understand the individual Once the basic foundations have been established, the coach’s role is to maximise learning by catering for the player’s individual needs and personality.

“We all have a preferred learning style and we all perceive information differently,

so that’s the challenge of a coach, you have to learn and understand what’s in front of you, and adapt your coaching accordingly,” Draper says.

Pressure situations in tennis are a given, but it comes down to having the ability to play with fear or a certain level of anxiety.

“You need to find what makes a player uncomfortable on court during a match and then put players in similar situations in practice. You need to explain the reason why the player is doing the drill,” Draper says. “Exposing players to situations in which they experience anxiety can help them to develop psychological skills to better manage this anxiety.”

By observing your athletes during tournaments and practice sessions, you’ll start to learn about the way they problem solve and reply to specific situations.

“The coach can assist players to become

more aware of how they respond to pressure and work with them to develop mental skills to better manage the pressure and change their unhelpful responses both on- and offcourt.” Draper explains.

This is also when the role of the parents can be highly influential. For a player, the pressure to win, whether self-imposed or perceived from others, may result in elevated anxiety levels before, during and after a match.

It is helpful to have the parents and coach on the same page when it comes to assisting the player to manage their anxiety. Consistent messages and behaviour from both the coach and parents in response to a player’s nervousness or worry are important.

Maintain focus on development In most cases, players have a natural tendency to focus on the result of each match rather than the long-term development, but coaches need to reinforce the importance of development.

“Obviously kids want to win. You’ll never take that away from them. If they’re a competitor and they love the game they want to win,” Draper says. “But, as a coach, you’re looking at the needs of the player in the long-term.”

It is important the parents and the coach agree on the key messages about long-term development. Inconsistent reinforcement of these messages from parents may have a negative impact on the player’s development.

“For example, if a player comes off the court and has achieved their performance goal for

the match and lost in straight sets, you can high five them and celebrate the achievement of the player’s goal,” Draper says.

Breaking point … players can respond to pressure in many way s.

Adaptability Mentally tough players are those who not only recognise that things are not going well during a match but have the conviction to adapt their game plan.

“Players often misunderstand the concept of ‘high percentage’ play. It’s usually seen as the safe play and can range from playing cross court, using plenty of spin, hitting with margin. During the course of a match, conditions can change and, in turn, so can the high percentage play,” Draper says.

“If you’re playing great one day this would mean going for your shots, hitting lines. That’s the high percentage play but if you’re struggling, well it’s maybe safe zones and shape.”

The high percentage could even refer to something that needs to be changed based on the playing ability of your opponent. What works for you against one player may not be the high percentage option when you’re playing someone else. “[Pete] Sampras is one of best of all time of knowing that. He served his second serve 30 km/h faster against [Andre] Agassi than any other player. Because on that day he knew if he didn’t serve that fast and accurately Agassi was going to beat him,” Draper says.

“And if you don’t allow kids to experience different ways to get it done, to have that freedom then you nearly numb that ability of

player’s to reflect and change their tactics to get the job done.”

If you can empower your athletes to start feeling each match is really about their development, they will be able to freely experiment and learn from their experiences rather than being worried about their result.

This in turn will build their mental toughness and over time their ability to react and re-assess quickly will allow them to reap the rewards.

Draper’s top 10 ways to build mental toughness 1 Normalise tough emotions – teach players it is normal to experience strong emotions such as anxiety before a match and disappointment after a loss.

2 Focus on long-term development – look at the things the player needs to work on and really celebrate those developmental outcomes more than results.

3 Give players the freedom to make mistakes and learn from these mistakes.

4 Put players in as many competitive situations as often as possible (including other sports).

5 Discuss the high percentage concept and what it really means.

6 Perspective. Let players be happy and understand the tennis journey. Help them to be at peace with their effort.

MyCoach

7 Foster independence. Build resilience and problem solving skills. Make sure players do things for themselves, such as pack and carry their own bags and enter their own tournaments.

8 To be mentally tough players needs to be physically fit. Help players to do everything in their power to be prepared. Tick all the boxes of preparation.

9 Encourage honesty so players are willing to admit to themselves the things they need to continue to improve.

No hiding … Ana Ivanovic understands there’s often no cap on high emotion.

10 Role models. Encourage players to watch other sports and become a student of the game.

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What do you see?

By the Stroke Master

Even though Daniela Hantuchova and Petra Kvitova are right and left-handed respectively, there are similarities in their service action.

4

Eyes are focused on the serving target with a balanced head position.

Pronation of the dominant hand is evident in the follow through.

2

5

Both players have used internal rotation in the shoulder which is evident with the high finish of the elbow position.

Both players have completed a shoulder over shoulder motion and finished with trunk flexion.

3

6

Non-dominant arm has tucked into the body (to act as an anchor), which allows the dominant arm to continue accelerating after contact.

Both players have landed in an arabesque position which allows for great balance and quick recovery in preparation for the return.

MyCoach

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1 1

2

2 5 5

4

3 3

4

6 MyCoach

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Player development and other sports There are some differences and similarities between sports in terms of what strength and conditioning coaches implement when trying to progress athletic development and ultimately improve physical performance.

W

hether it is in AFL, cricket or tennis, all training programs are developed via the same fundamental principles.

When working with any athlete, I start by assessing and gaining an understanding of the athlete’s overall physical competence.

This competence has been described as “an efficiency of movement throughout the entire kinetic chain regardless of the skill being executed” (Giles 2000). It includes aspects of range of motion, movement control and coordination across a variety of fundamental movements. The results of this needs analysis then highlights those aspects of movement that are lacking. This may be due to poor range of motion at a joint/s, lack of strength, poor coordination or a combination of all three. All of this then forms the basis for the early training intervention/program.

In a number of cases, particularly in the earlier stages of athlete development, a training program from two different sports may therefore look very similar, as they both may be addressing the fundamental foundations of athleticism, that is; general development and efficiency of strength, stability and range of motion of all muscle groups, ligaments and tendons in multiple planes of movement (Movement Dynamics 2005).

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Figure 1: Lunge walk – tennis

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Using a tennis example, the execution of an open stance forehand requires the athlete to perform a complex sequence of muscle and joint actions from the ankle through to the hand. For instance, on the outside leg, the muscles at the ankle, knee and hip must first reduce force to decelerate and establish a base, then ultimately produce force to extend and rotate out of that position to begin to generate racquet head speed. This will all require certain physical qualities to be present to allow this sequence of events to occur efficiently and effectively, otherwise the athlete will use less efficient and potentially risky compensatory movements to achieve the outcome desired – in this case a forehand.

THE ASSESSMENT Figures 1 to 4 show two of the movements that are used to assess for competence in both tennis and cricket.

The lunge walk is used as a way to assess some of the underlying physical qualities needed in the running motion, and the single leg squat highlighting the athlete’s ability to handle their own body weight when they are loaded on one leg. This is of great importance in most field and court based sports, but particularly in tennis, with the high degree of directional change and lateral movement that occurs on the tennis court.

Figure 2: Lunge walk – cricket

From the competence assessment, a radar graph can then be generated. This is a useful method of highlighting the areas of competence across the relevant movements, as well as those areas that need addressing prior to the athlete progressing to a more advanced level of training prescription.

This may involve medical or physiotherapy interventions to address underlying structural problems or range of motion issues, as well as some specific exercise progressions to begin to strengthen the qualities of the movement. Figure 5 below is an example of a radar plot for a 13-year-old National Academy tennis player.

Figure 5

Athlete Name: Example

Pull-ups

Push-ups

Lunge walk 5 4 3 2 1 0

OH squat

SLS – left

Hop & hold – right Hop & hold – left

Figure 3: Single leg squat – tennis

SLS – right RDL

Figure 4: Single leg squat – cricket

Figure 6: Intro/General example 1

Figure 7: Specific prep example 2

WARM-UP

Mini band walks

Tubing pullbacks

NOTES

S&R

Side/side, zig-zag 2 x 10ea fwd & bwd

2 x 15

Exercise

NOTES

Session 1 S&R

Exercise

NOTES

CRICKET Session 1

Session 1

Exercise

NOTES

2mins

Single leg glute raises

Foot on bench

2 x 8ea

S&R

S&R

Mini band series

Fwd, bwd, side/side

2 x 10ea

Rope skipping

Fast – no heels touching

Theraband internal & external rotation (90 deg ADB)

2 x 15ea

4 point lunge & touch

Control

2 x 3ea

Single arm DB snatch

2 x 3ea

OH plate walking lunge

Control

2 x 6ea

2 x broad jumps

Continuous

2x2

Arm stepping

Use BOSU

2 x 5ea

4 point lunge & reach

2 x 3ea

Face down on bench

2 x 10

DB push up roll circuit

4 positions

2 x 1ea 2 x 20

WARM-UP

Exercise

TENNIS

CRICKET Session 1

2 x 10

Weightshifting

2 x 8ea

Push-ups with twist

2 x 5ea

Single leg glute raises

2 x 12ea

Lateral weightshifting

Aim butt to heel

2 x 10ea

Single leg squat to bench

2 x 6ea

Prone shoulder rotate & press

Med ball overhead walking lunges

1min

Push-up twists

2 x 5ea

Single leg squats on bench

Control

2 x 6ea

Tubing pullbacks

Varied angles

1a

Med ball squat & press

3 x 10

DB squats

Suitcase carry pos’n

x 6ea

1a

Back squats

4x5

Front squats

4x4

1b

Vertical jumps

Reset after each rep

3x5

DB single leg RDL

x 8ea

1b

Box jumps

4x3

Up & out jumps

Vertical then broad jump

4 x 2ea

2a

3 point lunges

Fwd, side, bwd

3 x 4ea

Smith rack horizontal pull-ups

x8

2a

Feet elevatated TRX pull-ups

3x8

Tripod row

Hand on bench

3 x 8ea

2b

Skater hops

Landing focus

3 x 5ea

Static side lunges

x 8ea

2b

Dynamic 4 point lunges

3 x 2ea

Fwd hop into MB overhead catch

Landing

3 x 6ea

Horizontal body weight pull-ups

Smith rack or TRX handles

3 x 3ea

x 5ea

Plate 3 point lunges

Fwd, side, rotational

3 x 3ea

Serve return med ball throws

3 x max

Lateral cone hop & stick

2c

3a

3a

Face pulls

3x8

TRX scarecrows

3 x 10

DB single leg RDL

Hold DB in both hands

3 x 8ea

Band pull aparts

x 10

3b

Open stance MB throws

3 x 3ea

3 x 6ea

Med ball overhead v wall

Kneeling Superman

Lateral resisted step-ups into arabesque

3 x 10ea

Kneeling overhead MB throws

Ecc.

2 x 10

Single leg med ball slams

3 x 6ea

Med ball woodchops

Low to high

Plate 3 way rotations

3 x 6ea

2 x 10ea

Med ball rotations

Standing med ball overhead v wall

3 x 10

2 x 8ea

TORSO

3b

2 x 10ea

THE PROGRAM Above are two examples of introductory training programs for a National Academy level athlete in tennis and cricket with similar physical competence assessment results.

As you can see in figure 6, there are a high number of exercises that cross over between the two sports.

This is as a result of the general philosophy of addressing the underlying movement capacity of the athlete (to establish movement competence) prior to moving to more specific training as the athlete develops. The use of general squat and lunge movements, along with the use of jumping and hopping exercises to develop landing and deceleration abilities are a cornerstone of this type of approach.

Once a solid base of movement skills is developed, this competence can then be maintained and consolidated through prescribing consistent exposures to a variety of movements, as well as activities and exercises that promote good mobility and appropriate joint range of motion.

However, it is also at this point that a greater focus is placed on the needs of the athlete in the context of the specific sport.

Bigger differences in programming between sports/athletes become apparent as the

TORSO

Stick waiter’s bow

FB running man

Rotate

2 x 10ea

BB landmines

Wedge bar in corner

FB bridging Russian twists

Brace

2 x 5ea

Single leg cable chops

High to low

performance enhancement strategies now more specifically reflect the athlete’s needs relative to the sporting requirements.

Figure 7 is an example of where you can start to see the differences in exercise selection between the two abovementioned sports. The cricket program is for a fast bowler, while the tennis example is for an aggressive baseliner who uses their return of serve and a powerful first strike in rallies as a cornerstone of their game style.

From the tennis example in figure 7, you can observe the inclusion of more sport specific movements, with the use of rotational throws from different start positions, along with increased movement speeds in lunging. This helps to increase the speed at which this athlete can produce force, which directly translates to a specific area of the player’s on court tennis performance.

In the cricket program in figure 7, there is a marked attempt to improve the fast bowler’s braking/landing abilities on back and front leg (where impacts can reach nine x body weight), with the use of drop landings for the back leg, and lateral resisted arabesques and various single leg med ball drills on both back and front legs.

(Note – the athlete completes these on both sides for symmetry). These exercises

work to strengthen the key mechanical links between the front leg release position and the trunk and arm involvement in the delivery action.

It should be noted that even though the specifics of the sport become more evident, the athlete should still be engaged in exercises that continue to strengthen the key fundamental movements that underpin the various aspects of general athleticism (i.e. maintenance of the movement competence described above), and particularly that have been identified previously as being areas of weakness. In figure 7, this is evidenced through a similar warm-up focus, as well as the use of the main lift (in this case a squat variation) and assistance exercises like multidirectional lunges.

So in summary, while specificity is an important component of a good training program, understand that this does not mean being specific to the needs of the sport alone.

It is critical to understand the foundations of movement in an athletic context, and then analyse, apply and progress this in relation to the specific needs of the athlete and the sport – but always with the player’s athletic development journey in mind.

Aaron Kellett is Tennis Australia’s Strength and Conditioning Coach.

Australian Tennis Magazine | August 2011

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MyCoach

TENNIS

Modified tennis the way to go

lub ia C ull tral s B u t A at nnis e: M : Te s Nam n o ati ry, ch lific coa acto , WA Qua sional is F n th r n Te fes , Pe Pro lub: is Club C / s n ce – ines rk Ten llen Bus Pa xce E , w tion g o 0 l crea chin ots 201 Ons e a R o Sh s: C and ard Hot ort Aw nis f Sp r 2011 n o e t T a en is MLC partm f the Ye enn o LC T De h M c A ia W Coa tral nis Aus or s Ten i n d sa Ten bas er: Am Oth s t o Sh Hot

Matt Bull is a strong believer of a modified tennis environment for teaching children the way to play the sport and his efforts in the area have been rewarded with a national accolade.

MyCoach

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hoosing a career wasn’t a hard decision for Matt Bull. After taking his personal playing career as far as he could, he turned his attention to coaching.

“You spend a large part of your life working so I knew I just had to do something I love. I wake up every day and don’t see what I do as work. I’m very fortunate,” he says.

Originally from the United Kingdom, Bull started playing tennis at the age of eight and now passes on his experiences and knowledge to his participants.

“My most memorable moments as a player were the times I spent playing in Florida, in the US. I trained and played tournaments there a number of times including training at the Nick Bollettieri Tennis Academy,” he says.

Bull had five years of coaching experience before he made the move Down Under and has resided in Perth for the past 10 years.

These days, Bull runs his business The Tennis Factory at The Onslow Park Tennis

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Club at Shenton Park where he specialises in the development of five to 12 year olds.

“It’s developing their games through modified tennis,” he says. “My aim with the better ones is to get them to national level and then hopefully beyond.

“It is fantastic thinking back to when these players were playing red and orange tournaments and then to be able to watch them win their first Australian Ranking tournaments, represent the state or go on to make their nationals debut. It’s very satisfying.”

Bull made his mark back in October 2006 when Australia’s first modified tennis tournament was organised, which allowed the children to go one step further in the program and participate competitively.

“We ran the first official modified tournament in partnership with Tennis West and I think the best thing about it is that it gives the kids something to work towards,” Bull says.

“We have a tournament every term and it just means the kids during the term are working on their games knowing that they’re going to play in the tournament at the end of the term and because of that they just work a little bit harder in the lessons and obviously most of them do alright in the tournament on the day.”

In 2009 Bull was appointed as one of Tennis Australia’s MLC Tennis Hot Shots Ambassadors and was honoured to win the inaugural Australian Tennis Award for Coaching Excellence – MLC Tennis Hot Shots in 2010.

“It was nice even to be recognised as a finalist, but to actually win the award was really humbling and it was great because I put a lot of hours and hard work into the program,” he says.

“I’m hopeful through the program that we have a lot more children involved, get a lot more kids playing and hopefully turn a couple into future Aussie champions.”

With more than 300 children participating in his MLC Tennis Hot Shots program Bull has witnessed a 75 percent retention rate and also experienced a 25 percent increase in his Term 1 participants this year.

“We should be getting all kids playing modified tennis. So long gone are the yellow ball and teaching the kids with a yellow ball, we should just be using modified tennis and the main reasons are it’s just a lot easier for the kids to play with it,” he says.

Bull is on a mission and is confident that a modified tennis environment will translate to participation numbers.

“I want to keep spreading the message amongst the Australian tennis community that modified tennis is so important in helping to get more kids playing the game.”

Matt Bull experienced a 25 percent increase in his Term 1 participants this year.

Pick the Shot Focus: Stage: Equipment: Time:

By Rob Leeds, Tennis Australia Talent Search and Development Coordinator

developing anticipatory skills in developing athletes develop (7–10 years), encourage (10–12 years), enhance (12–15) green balls, yellow balls 10–15 minutes C

A

Objective Tennis is a high speed ball sport and therefore players must be trained to better anticipate what their opponent is likely to execute before they have made contact with the ball. To do this, players must be aware of their opponent’s body cues, racquet cues, swing shape and court position.

B

Description 1: PICK THE FEED • Players A and B are the feeders (starting on baseline).

Players C and D are the anticipators.

• Feeding players vary the length of their swing for each feed. Short swing = short feed. Longer swing = higher deeper feed.

• Players C and D must make the appropriate movement response as early as possible and the point is played out.

• As players enhance their ability to anticipate the coach can add to the feeding player’s repertoire. For example, the feeder makes a sudden quick movement back from the baseline = high, heavy feed or the feeder moves inside the court = aggressive ground stroke feed etc.

• Bonus points are awarded if anticipators make correct early response. Activity can be carried out with two, three or four players.

D C

A

A

B

Slice

Description 2: PICK THE SPIN C D

Topspin

BA

• Players A and B rally either up and down the line or cross court with players C and D looking to hit each and every ball over the service line.

• Players A and B mix up slice and topspin ground strokes.

• Players C and D must call loudly the spin that their partner is about to impart on the ball before they have made contact.

• Swap roles after five minutes.

• As players enhance their ability to anticipate the coach can now get the players to try and hit, on the full, any ball that is sliced by their opponent. For every successful attempt the coach rewards the player with bonus points.

A

Key

• Commence each point with a serve and return.

• Players must look to put their opponents in defensive positions such that they hit the ball high into the air.

• Players must attempt to anticipate as early as possible that their opponent is in trouble.

• If a player can catch the defensive ball then bonus points are awarded.

Coach

Coach feed

Ball direction

Player

Thrower/Catcher

Player movement

Spot markers Drop down lines

Buckets Hoops

Australian Tennis Magazine | August 2011

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MyCoach

Description 3: CATCH THE DEFENSIVE BALL Catch

Coach Talk

Do you want to purchase the Ticketing upgrade to add to your membership?

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Benefits of the ticketing upgrade include: Australian Open 2012 Two Australian Open ground pass tickets (valid for any day of the tournament) OR Two Australian Open Series 2012 tickets Two reserved seat tickets for one of the following: Brisbane International, Medibank International Sydney, Moorilla Hobart International or Hyundai Hopman Cup (valued at $50 or higher).

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2012 Australian Grand Slam Coaches’ Conference 12–14 January 2012, Melbourne, Australia

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Save the date!

ustralia’s premier professional development event for coaches will be held on site at Melbourne Park prior to Australian Open 2012. Registrations open in September. Please contact coachesconference@tennis.com.au for further information.

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Australian Tennis Magazine | August 2011

Series packages are on sale from noon 29 August to noon 1 September 2011.

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17th ITF Worldwide Coaches Conference by BNP Paribas 20–24 November 2011, Port Ghalib, Egypt

T

he theme of this year’s conference is ‘The Long-term Development of a High Performance Player’. The conference will deal with issues related to professional tennis coaching, applied sport science for top coaching, high-level player development and coaches’ education.

This five-day event offers a perfect combination of coaches’ education, the latest sport science information and practical on court presentations. For more information and to register please visit www.itfcoachesconference.com/2011.

Coaches’ corner

Coaching = Engagement

The one thing that separates great coaching from average coaching is engagement – whether that be the hearts or minds of your athletes. By Wayne Goldsmith

A training session without engagement is just a bunch of people exercising together.

Communication without engagement is just talking.

Sports science without engagement is just measurement.

Periodisation without engagement is just a plan.

Having the world’s best facilities and equipment without engagement is just window dressing.

Coaching without engagement is ... not coaching.

new techniques and bright shiny exercises machines. You become obsessed with finding a short cut, a quick fix, an instant answer, a miracle ingredient to fast track the improvement of your athletes.

And there are plenty of people out there ready to offer it to you. So you buy videos and books and new gym equipment and DVDs and testing products and supplements and keep looking for something – that one thing that will enhance your coaching performance.

But, no matter what you buy, no matter what you read, no matter what you watch, in the end, the effectiveness of everything you do comes down to the level of engagement of your athletes.

You spend millions on a state-of-the-art gym but your athletes turn up late, don’t warm-up, don’t stretch, train with poor technique, don’t rehydrate and perform their exercises with minimal effort so you might as well have built them a garden shed and given them a few big rocks to throw around.

So why is engagement so critical? And it is critical – it underpins everything. Because athletes (and coaches and managers and staff for that matter) who are truly engaged with what they are doing, consistently train and compete to their full potential and from potential comes peak performance.

No one wins by giving anything less than their best: winning happens by consistently preparing and competing to your full potential. And this is the real gift that all the great coaches possess – to be able to turn involvement into commitment – to be able to turn desire into action and to be able to turn potential into performance.

Summary: 1. Use any technique or philosophy or paradigm or coaching school you like in your coaching: what you do, is up to you – the critical issue is engagement.

2. More than ever coaching is about how – not what. You can get any ‘what’ you want from the internet. Want to really improve your coaching? Forget buying books on physiology, biomechanics and nutrition – forget buying heart rate monitors and lactate analysers – invest some time, energy and money into enhancing your ability to engage your athletes to the full extent of their potential in every training and competition activity.

Wayne Goldsmith presented at the 2011 Australian Grand Slam Coaches’ Conference – make sure you save the date for the 2012 event. On site at Melbourne Park prior to Australian Open 2012. Australia’s premier professional development event for coaches.

MyCoach

W

e have all done it. We have all been involved in debates, discussions and deliberations about what coaching is.

Some people say it is about teaching and learning skills. Others say it’s about sports science and applying a scientific method approach to planning and periodisation.

Others say it’s about communication and caring. Others still believe coaching is about emotions like passion or it’s about values like commitment, honesty, integrity, humility, courage and discipline.

Coaching is about one thing above all others … engagement. The one thing that separates great coaching from average coaching is engagement: it’s what it’s all about. The ability to consistently engage the hearts and minds of your athletes – it’s what we strive for – it is the very essence of coaching – it is what makes coaches (and athletes) feel alive.

As an inexperienced coach, you continually seek new ideas, try new products, learn

Read the full version of this blog at sportscoachingbrain.com/coachingengagement or sign up for regular email posts from Wayne Goldsmith at sportscoachingbrain.com.

Australian Tennis Magazine | August 2011

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