#BP

Team Coach 23 Practicing On Purpose: Develop Trust

A collaboration of Bill Patton and Styrling Strother (USATennisCoach is no longer...) (From Bill) A coach can develop greater trust with their players based on the challenges they give their players. We at USATennisCoach try not to use the word drill, instead we say challenge. Why? Challenges are fun and exciting, drills sound like painful drudgery. The challenges we place our players in express a lot about how well we know them, and what they can handle. What is the next

Athlete Centered Coach 24. Develop Decision Makers, Early and Often

I am not a product of my circumstances, I am a product of my decisions. ~ Stephen Covey All three of our last three posts could have occurred in a different order. We started very heavy with the ultimate consequences of leaving the character development, as it pertains to our athletes in the arena of our influence, to someone else. I am not talking about going out of our way on a regular basis to be a surrogate parent. Yes, we do play a role, and many times coaches can be her

Athlete Centered Coach 23 Helping Athletes Make A Course Correction

Coach, neither you nor I will be someone’s total solution in life. But, how much effort we give in helping guide youth into making great decisions so that they can live a life that they will be proud of when they are old and gray, this is a tremendous privilege. The stakes can be high, or maybe not so high, but the impact we have on young people can be a strong value added equation. In the case where a young athlete is troubled for whatever reason, it’s possible that we can c

Team Coach 22 Momentary Impact

Now I may be a mean cuss. But I’m the same mean cuss with everybody out there on that football field. The world don’t give a damn about how sensitive these kids are, especially the young black kids. You ain’t doin’ these kids a favor by patronizing them. You crippling them. You crippling them for life. ~ Coach Boone, Remember the Titans Begin with the End in Mind Some people may object to holding up an old school model of very tough coaching, but the premise behind this quote

Athlete Centered Coach 22 Can We Start To Be More Mindful?

I felt sad because everyday I had to wake up early to practice before going to school. After school I had to go back to tennis again, and then after tennis I had homework. I didn’t have time to play. ~ Li Na It’s All about Play For many years it has been known that Tennis is a sport that players may practice and practice, but don’t often play. Very slowly the tide has turned with the ‘Game-Based Approach’, but the needle may have swung almost completely the other way, in many

Team Coach 21 The Object Of The Game

(As you may have noticed I am posting some recent blog posts in a new format, this one was mainly written by Styrling Strother when we collaborated on the blog) Winning isn’t everything, but wanting to win is. ~ Vince Lombardi We call them tennis players, not tennis performers. The outcome of the match is never determined by a subjective judging scale. Perhaps he perceived value and potential of a player can be judged in this way. “When everything clicks, they are going to be

Team Coach 20 Building the Best Foundations for On Court Success

It does not matter how slowly you go, as long as you do not stop. ~ Confucius Do we work on the shots that really matter, in the order in which they matter? Do we teach players how to find a way to win? Do we equip them with effective mental and emotional skills to help them through a difficult match? The serve is the most important shot in tennis. The foundation of high effort level and self-belief are more important than a serve. Do our players know how to serve different s

Team Coach 18 Infatuation and Saturation with Technique

March 21, 2017 Insanity: Doing the same things over and over again and expecting different results. ~ Albert Einstein Too Much Love for Technique The infatuation and saturation with technique is insane. Here watch this brief video of a player winning his first round match. https://www.instagram.com/p/BRwB_YDFKqE/?taken-by=usatenniscoach when you see it, note that it is very representative of how that player looked all match long. People have been missing the point of what is

Athlete Centered Coach 21 Great Leaders Are Strong Mentors

June 23rd, 2022 We Don’t Know that We Don’t Know Many sports leaders unwittingly build a wall between themselves and the common rank and file member of their coaching fraternity. They may wish to be influential with all stake holders, but the way they carry themselves, acts to prevent it. Quite a few so-called leaders, walk amongst the crowds with scales on their eyes, the scales that weigh the value of objects, to check for the value of a transaction. When each encounter bec

Athlete Centered Coach 19 Solving The Initial Problems

“Discipline is Remembering What you Want.” ~ David Campbell Deftly Done, or Heavy Handed? Quite often, what coaches think of as discipline, is really heavy handed punishment. As younger coaches, Styrling and I each had some bouts of not doing a great job disciplining our teams, either coming across in a heavy handed way, or not dealing with a smaller issue early enough. We want to use more of an educational tone in the way we help our teams learn self-control. If discipline,

Athlete Centered Coach 18 Foolish Consistency

A foolish consistency is the hobgoblin of little minds. ~ Ralph Waldo Emerson Strong Templates for Creating What can a tennis coach learn about running a practice from an elite high school football team? I am a huge fan of the De La Salle High School Football program. For some of you, that could touch off controversy, but that’s another issue. I want to focus on how they practice. Every single move on the field has a purpose. That team, has what some consider, to be among the

Athlete Centered Coach 17 Coaching Is Like Flying A Helicopter

It’s a Dangerous Mission Coaching a team is a lot like going on a helicopter mission. No matter how good your skills as a helicopter pilot, that machine is unpredictable and dangerous. One of my favorite TV shows ever, “The Unit” portrayed special operations military personnel in action. In one episode, my favorite character, Bob, after crashing the helicopter, has to answer to his fellow crash survivor. His statement is a cautionary tale, “Look, from the moment that machine

Athlete Centered Coach 16 Setting The Tone

Few Talk About Setting the Tone What is it that no one tells you, when it comes to coaching a team? One of the most important topics, that can have a major impact on the outcomes, experiences, and development of your players, is how you deal with the first few days. Some of you started practice yesterday, many will start on Monday and in the next few weeks. There is time for you to make a few vital tweaks to dial this in, and improve the overall experience, for your players,

Athlete Centered Coach 15 Getting Assistance

Working Alone: Ego Satisfaction When I am working on a puzzle or solving a problem, I like to own it. When a problem seems really tough, that’s when I like to bear down with a lot of determination, and then I get a lot of satisfaction when I solve it myself. Then someone comes and looks over my shoulder alerting me a piece that fits with another piece, and I am having mixed emotions. I did not fix that one myself, and now I have to say thank you. They made it easier, but I m

Athlete Centered Coach 12 The Power Of Stories

Stories: Off-putting, Challenging, Empowering What is your story? That is one of my favorite questions, but it wasn’t always. Initially I didn’t like it when first asked, as I did not have a story to tell. Later, when I had a story to tell, I wasn’t sure if it was one that people wanted to hear. As I get further along in life, I feel very blessed to have confronted by this question. It challenged me, it taught me, it opened me up to learning and engagement. What is your story

Athlete Centered Coach 11

Road Trip to See Dave and Adeline I took a trip to Southern California to meet with a few people that I consider to have among the great mindsets for athlete centered coaching. I spent three days with Dave Borelli, who in 25 years of coaching won 18 Conference Titles and 7 NCAA National Championships. You can see videos from these talks soon when our course on Athlete-Centered Coaching is ready. The amazing thing to me, is how fluid the subject of athlete-centered coaching is

Athlete Centered Coach 7 Giving Dissenting Players Voice

Dissent Mostly Seems Ill Timed One of the uncomfortable moments in coaching comes when players use their voice, and they do it in a dissenting way. However, this may be among the most important life lessons players can learn. Player’s gaining their voice, helps them quite a bit in life moving forward. The way these dissenting moments are handled can be the most pivotal in developing a deep and abiding trust between coach and players, helping or hindering the growth of players

Athlete Centered Coach 6 Creating A Culture Of Rising Up

Though a righteous man fall seven times, seven times he shall rise up. ~ King Solomon What you will see here are some outcomes of the creation of an atmosphere where players can rise to the occasion. You will see that there was history between player and coach. Trust had been established. A mutual problem solving approach based in a collaborative relationship was key, leading to the empowerment of the player. At its root, was a growth mentality, a process orientation toward s

Athlete Centered Coach 5 The Pursuit Of Excellence

Excellence is doing ordinary things extraordinarily well. ~ John W. Gardner The Pursuit of Excellence Challenge the Top Level Pursuing excellence is the ultimate conclusion to this work. In my entire life, one of the most critical pieces of advice I have ever received was stated very simply by Geoff Fong, Geometry Teacher, a mentor of mine when I was teaching public school, who said, “Teach to the top kids, keep them challenged. The next level of student’s will also be challe

Team Coach 17 KAOS V. CONTROL

KAOS v. CONTROL September 2016 Styrling, who sometimes needs to be placed in the ‘Cone of Silence’, referenced that snarky old TV show Get Smart. It was a show that depicted the protaganists of CONTROL against the antagonists of KAOS. We all naturally want to feel a sense of control over our outcomes, but some amount of chaos is always there. Chaos to many means – adversity! Adversity for Coaches How can a trip to Southern California be full of adversity? Styrling and I are

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