Fantastic Week + More

Congratulations to 

Team Chimichangas 

lead by

Team captain Mike 

Hello everyone!!! I can't begin to express how excited and pleased I am of this past week's training effort. Here is a glimpse of the happenings that happened: 

1, 20 meter beep test 

2. Match play 

3. Mental fitness - How to Fail Properly (podcast) 

4. Reminder ITF Bermuda 

As coaches, we are always finding ways to push and challenge our athletes. And we did just that this week. Ok, I lied. We do that everyday and every week anyways:-). 

1. 20 meter beep test. It's been four months since we did the last beep test. We decided this week was a perfect time to do another so we pulled one on the kids. It may sound crazy but I was nervous for them. I know how hard we pushed them and how hard they worked on and off the court. So, the whole time while the kids were running I was having this dialogue in my head what if, what if???? 

To put the test to its purest form, we purposely did not disclose the result from the last log. We didn't give them an incentive. With no reference, they had to do the best that they could. Well, I am happy to say all of the them who did the test improved their fitness considerably. 

2. Match play. If you've ever done a beep test, you'd know that this exercise is one of the most demanding and unpleasurable experience. Your muscles are depleted, your lungs are burning, your heart feels like it's going to explode, you can't breathe, you are hunched over like someone just punched you in the stomach, So, after they got physically challenged we then imposed on their mental and emotional state by having them play matches. We put on a team event with singles, doubles, and mixed doubles headed up by team captain Andrea and team captain Mike. The prize for the winning team was not having to pick up balls at any practice for the entire week. And the winner goes to Team Chimichangas lead by team captain Mike. 

Upon observing the matches, there was a distinct improvement on the fitness aspect comparing to four months ago. We did the same method of testing in January playing matches after the beep test. An extremely difficult task to complete. Unlike the last test, this time all of the players competed hard. You could see they were tired but not exhausted to the point of throwing in the towels. They were fighting and competing on the court. There were no signs of negative body language. They were frustrated but they were in the matches. As an athlete, you never want to lose a match because you got tired because fitness is one of those things that is totally within your control. I believe that mission has been accomplished. From now on we will just need to maintain the fitness level. 

3. Mental fitness - How to Fail Properly. Okay, don't panic. Let me explain. With exams, Sectionals, Provincials, Nationals, and tournaments in the next few months, there will be a lot of stress on the kids. When we are successful, getting good grades, doing well at tournaments, it is easy to be mentally and emotionally healthy. But what happens when they do not get the results that they hope to get? When they fall short from their own expectations? What should we do? How can we help our kids when they fail? But wait, what is failure? 

One of the definitions for Failure on Google search is "the neglect or omission of expected or required action." So, if failing is only because I did not do the required action then I can just try harder next time, right? I don't need to feel all bad and negative about the experience. I just need to keep on working at it with intense focus, right? This is where I feel it is important for the kids to understand. Just because they didn't achieve the thing they set out to do that does not mean they failed. They don't need to lose interest in it because they think they are not good at something at the moment. We all want our kids to succeed and some time we don't know how to help. I have good news for you. I came across this marvelous podcast that I want to share with you. I really hope you will take the time to listen to it. It's about 30 minutes long. The kids already listened to it but I would encourage them to hear it again. Maybe take some notes in their tennis journal. Please click on link to begin listening The Life Coach School. 

4. Reminder ITF Bermuda. Please remember to email me at hytennis@gmail.com asap, if interested for your kid to play the ITF in Bermuda. We need a head count if we are to send a coach. Thank you. 

THE END

Information Week - Please Read

Happy Monday everyone.  A big shout out to all the players in the Elite program for raising their level of intensity in training over the last several weeks.  They were pushed and pulled every which way and they all prevailed with flying colors.  With this type of intense effort, only great things can happen.  A glimpse to some of the workouts are on the links here.  Sit back and enjoy!
ORC Fitness #1.  
ORC Fitness #2.
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What to expect for this summer?  Tennis, tennis, and more tennis.

1. Summer camp.  Did you turn in your summer camp registration yet?  Last day of training for Elite program is June 17th with the first day of camp starting on June 27th.  Sign up for all 10 weeks and receive 3 weeks for free.  This is designed specifically to accommodate players competing at the Provincials and Nationals.  I strongly encourage you to sign up for all 10 weeks to ensure a proper training ground to ensure continuity in your athlete's training development and preparation for tournaments during the summer.

Please contact me or Rouba with questions.

2. Tournaments.  We will be organizing a tour to some ITF tournaments this summer with 6 players minimum requirement.  The tournaments are the following:

• June 20 - 25 Bermuda.
• July 11 - 16 Dominican Republic.
• July 18 - 23 Jamaica.

 If interested, you need to do two things:

• Enter your child in the tournaments mentioned above.
• Inform Patricia immediately of interest by emailing hytennis@gmail.com.  No verbal information, please.

 Have a wonderful week. 

Become an Emotional Master Athlete Part 2 of 2

As promised, here is part 2 of 2 of Become an Emotional Master Athlete by Dr. JIm Taylor.

What emotional style best describes you?  Think back to competitions you have performed in that did not go well. How did you respond emotionally?  Were you a seether, rager, brooder, or Zen master?  It's likely that a pattern of emotional reactions will emerge in your sport that place you into one of the four emotional styles.

Emotional styles are not easy to change. In fact, there is evidence that we are born with a particular temperament, in other words, we are "hard-wired" that way and rewiring our emotions is real challenge (though not impossible). A first goal is to gain control of your emotional style so that it helps rather than hurts your sports performance, with a more long-term goal of actually altering your emotional style in a way that allows it to naturally facilitate rather than interfere with your efforts toward your competitive goals.

Emotional Master or Victim
Many athletes believe that they are the way they are emotionally, have little control of their emotions, and there is nothing they can do to gain control of them. If their emotions hurt them, well, they just have to accept the situation because they can't do anything about it. I call these athletes emotional victims, where their emotions control them, they possess unhealthy and unproductive emotional habits, and their emotions hinder their ability to perform well and achieve their goals.

Despite these perceptions, my work has clearly shown that athletes are capable of becoming emotional masters. Athletes can gain control of their emotions. They can develop healthy and productive emotional habits. And their emotions can facilitate their ability to perform well and achieve their goals.
Emotions are a simple, but not easy, choice. They are a simple choice because if athletes have the option to feel badly and perform poorly or feel good and perform well, they will certainly choose the latter option. However, emotions are not an easy choice because their hard-wired temperament, past emotional baggage, and old emotional habits can lead athletes down the bad emotional road can cause them to respond emotionally in ways that are unhealthy and result in poor performance. The choice comes with awareness of when old emotional habits will arise and choosing a positive emotional response that will lead to good feelings and successful performance.

Will discuss throughout this and next week.

Resubmitting Become an Emotional Master Athlete Part 1 of 2

Happy Monday May everyone.  Throughout last week, it came to my attention that not all of the players in the Elite program receive my blog.  I have added a few since then so hopefully everyone is on board.

I am reposting an earlier blog of part 1.  It is an important piece to the things that we are working on.  Please read it for on court discussion.

Sports can evoke a wide range of emotions, from inspiration, pride, exhilaration, and satisfaction, to fear, frustration, anger, and panic, often in a very short time span during training or competition. Emotions lies at the top of the Prime Sport Pyramid because it has been my experience that they ultimately dictate your ability to achieve Prime Sport (defined, if you recall, as being able to perform at a consistently high level under the most challenging conditions). Your ability to perform consistently is often determined by the consistency of your emotions; as your emotions go, so go your performances. And your ability to respond positively to the inevitable challenges you will face in training and competition are, again, often impacted by your emotional reactions to those challenges. Because of this influence, your ability to master your emotions gives you the power to use emotions as tools to facilitate individual and team performance rather than weapons that hurt you and your team.


Emotional Styles
I have found four emotional styles among athletes. These styles involve characteristic ways in which athletes respond emotionally to their sport. Athletes with a particular style react in a predictable way any time they find themselves in a demanding situation.

The seether feels frustration and anger build slowly during the course of a competition. They appear to be in emotional control, but that is only because the negative emotions haven't surfaced yet. They're able to keep the frustration and anger in check as long as they are performing well and the competition is mostly going their way. If the competition turns or they make a crucial error, they can explode and lose control emotionally. Often, they're not able to reestablish control and end up losing the competition.

The rager also feels anger and frustration strongly, but it is expressed immediately and openly. For this type of athlete, showing strong emotions acts as a form of relief (or so they think). The emotions arise, are expressed and released. By doing this, the rager is able to maintain a kind of emotional equilibrium. Up to a point, this ongoing emotional outlet helps their performances by increasing motivation and intensity. However, though these athletes let the negative emotions out, they do not really let them go. If the competition turns against them, the rage builds until it finally engulfs and controls them. At this point, their emotions become their enemies and their performances deteriorate.

The brooder also feels strong emotions, but, unlike the seether and the rager, the most common emotions are despair and helplessness. These athletes tend to dwell on negative experiences, thoughts, and feelings and can be seen as pouting during a competition. Brooders are very sensitive to the highs and lows of a competition and their emotions tend to mirror its course. If they're performing well and winning, they're fine, but if they perform poorly and are losing, the "down" emotions emerge and hurt their performance. They may possess a strong defeatist attitude and are best known for their giving up in pressure situations. There are no world-class or professional athletes who completely fit this emotional style because someone could not reach such a high level of performance if their dominant emotional style was as a brooder. However, there are many successful athletes who have some brooding qualities, which can prevent them from getting to the very top of their sport.

The Zen master is the rarest of the emotional styles because they're largely unaffected by threat and negative emotions. Errors, poor performances, and losing seem to slide right off of them, as if they are made of Teflon. They have the ability to not let pressure situations affect them and they're able to let go of past mistakes and failure. The Zen master rarely shows emotions, either negative or positive, and maintains an consistent demeanor even in the most critical competitive situations. This equanimity results in consistently high performance and positive reactions to the normal ups and downs of sport.

Tune in to tomorrow of part 2 to  Become an Emotional Master Athlete.