Bigger Better Tennis - Paul Dale

  You can't worry too much about the present... because yesterday took care of that already. 'Stay in the moment', y ou hear it all the time  whenever someone is trying to tell you why you're not succeeding at something . While it might be great advice for someone facing immediate danger, it's lousy advice for tennis coaches to develop future champions.  I can honestly say that I have spent my whole coaching career living in the future, days, weeks, and sometimes months ahead. Here's why... 1. DURING PRACTICES Tennis Coaches should be constantly projecting themselves mentally into the future, that's why aspiring tennis champions are coming to us! What all young players are wanting from us is a road map showing them how to reach their tennis dreams, which can include how to win tournaments, be the best they can be, and how to continually improve their game.  As coaches, we need to help them by  designing a pathway for them to reach those goals by setting o...

During my school years in New Zealand, the school board in my city decided to create a scheme to raise money for a charity. I forget now what that charity was, but I'm certain they did very well from the scheme in the end. The idea was to have every school pupil in the city, boy, and girl, go door to door selling sacks of potatoes. Before you start wondering how the children managed to carry such a heavy load around the various neighborhoods in my city, the children didn't actually have to carry the sacks from door to door, each child had a sheet of paper to record the name of the customer, their phone number, and the number of sacks they wanted. It was a brilliant idea because New Zealanders love their potatoes and include potatoes in almost every meal! Being able to order a large amount and have the potatoes delivered to their house was very convenient. Looking back to that time, at ten years old, there were several key elements to the 'Potatoe Project' that hooked m...

THE NEW GENERATION The established trio of Djokovic, Nadal, and Federer are under threat. A talented group of Next Generation players are breathing down their necks each week, and the Next Gen players know that the big three can be beaten.  But just who are the best Next Generation players around today?  My picks for the best of these Next Gen players, and possible future world number 1s, include Dominic Thiem, Alexander Zverev, Stefanos Tsitsipas, and Denis Shapavolov.  Other Next Gen players right behind them include Felix Auger-Aliasimme (20), Borna Coric (23), and Alex Rublev (23). They're all knocking at the door as well. For me, Jannik Sinner, from Italy, at 19 years old, is also highly talented and is currently the youngest player in the top 100 (ranked 78). He has the game and temperament to go to #1 and stay there. WHO CAN BE THE NEXT WORLD NUMBER 1? My answer as to who will be the next world number 1 player from our list... none of them! Well, certainly not a ...

BECOME AN OUTLIER... I'm not a big fan of attending ITF coaches workshops anymore and here's why. Much of what is presented at these Workshops is standard stuff, and listening repeatedly to similar topics and similar points of view will, unfortunately, stifle your creativity.    Here's what I would suggest. Once you have attended several Workshops already, you should take yourself out of the workshop scene and begin to integrate your new ideas and methodologies from the workshops onto the court, with the long-term goal of developing some of your own philosophies for later. It's important to understand that workshops in themselves are a tool, and that to get the full value from them, the ideas you pick-up at workshops need to be implemented and tested on-court over time.  At the beginning of my coaching career, I joined a tennis company that staffed resorts, hotels, and tennis clubs all around the world. After training with that company for a short time I was dispatche...

Before being escorted onto Wimbledon's famous Centre Court, Baron Gottfried von Cramm was told that he needed to take an urgent phone call. After the call, von Cramm again joined his opponent, Donald Budge of the US, and quietly informed him, "It was Hitler; he wanted to wish me well." Only moments after his phone call with Adolf Hitler,  Gottfried von Cramm (left)  and Donald Budge enter  the Centre Court at Wimbledon for  what was  to be "...the most beautiful match." Cramm started well in the match, leading Budge by 2 sets to love. But Budge managed to work his way back into the game by returning serve well to take the 3rd set and won a tight 4th set that could have gone to either man.  Now it was all tied up at 2 sets all, and they were into a deciding 5th set. The German shrugged off the loss of the previous 2 sets and again started to dominate in the 5th set, breaking Budge's serve and taking a 4-1 lead. Many watching thought the match was virtually o...