Bigger Better Tennis - Paul Dale

As a coach, I've always believed in allowing my students to develop their own games naturally as much as possible. I often provide the lead but later I like to see my players find solutions to their own problems. I design the lesson plan, create the most appropriate drills for the topic and provide feedback whenever necessary.  However, once all this is successfully taking place on the practice court it's often best for me to literally take a step back and allow players the freedom of self-discovery. The only time I seldom let this happen is when I'm teaching the Volley. I find that most players have a warped idea of how the Volley should work. Perhaps this is because they've watched the pros volley on TV and feel they now understand how it should be performed and can easily imitate what they saw.  If left to their own devices the vast majority of students would flounder around in lessons trying to perfect their volley game over a long period of time.  Because of the ...

Starbucks knows its coffee-drinking customers much better than any of its competitors. How else do you explain why Starbucks customers happily purchase its products at inflated prices, and yet their stores are always full of contented patrons? If you know me at all you know that I'm a huge Starbucks fan, it's my go-to place to work and relax. But I don't like coffee! Often as I make my way to a Starbucks coffee shop (Starbucks operates 372 stores in Thailand, most of them located in Bangkok), I can't help but notice the other empty coffee shops within the exact same mall. The difference is stark and anyone interested in marketing or improving their own business should be looking at this phenomenon and trying to understand what's going on here. The stores of Starbucks competitors in the same mall look great and their drinks taste great too, probably in some cases even better. Why then are Starbucks still able to do so well in the face of so much competition? The answ...

1. LESS TALK IS BETTER Better to remain silent and be thought a fool than to speak out  and remove all doubt    - Abraham Lincoln You're not learning when you're talking. You can only learn or understand something when you are listening to what others have to say. While in conversation the advantage goes to the person saying less and listening more! "There are none of Man's  problems that can not be  solved by sitting alone in a quiet room"    - Anonymous   2. HAVE A MORNING ROUTINE   How you wake up each day and your morning routine (or lack thereof) dramatically affects your levels of success in every single area of your life. Focused, productive, successful mornings generate focused, productive, successful days - which inevitably creates a successful life.   -Hal Elrod   Morning routines are in equal measure about what you do, and what you don't do.  The bottom line is for you to find a morning routine that helps you set up ...

  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...

MONICA SELES... THE BEST EVER? GUNTER PARCHE Gunter Parche was sitting in the stands watching the world's number one player, Monica Seles,  play her quarter-final match against Hungary's Magdalena Maleeva in Hamburg, Germany. No one in the crowd could have imagined that Parche's aim that day was to get as close to Seles as possible, then stab her with the long boning knife he was hiding in his jacket. During a change of ends, Parche made his way down from his seat to courtside and, with the players seated close to the advertising hoardings, stabbed Seles between her shoulder blades to a depth of 1.59 inches. THE SELES DOMINANCE Imagine you are only 16 years old and have just won the French Open Singles title. In an era that had Steffi Graf (arguably the best female player of all time), Seles put together a record that was nothing short of phenomenal. She had won 8 Grand Slam titles before the age of 20. From January 1991 until February 1993 Seles won 22 titles out of the 33...