THE 3AM THEORY

By Paul Dale | www.3amtennis.com Most coaches look at their student and silently ask, "What should I add to their game?" The real question is: "What's getting in their way?" The Addition Trap Most coaching involves adding to a player's game to achieve improvement Your coach watches you lose another close match. The debrief starts: "Let's add a pre-serve routine. We need to improve your second-serve placement. Maybe try a new string tension. Have you considered sports psychology? Let's schedule extra practice sessions..." Six months later, you have: 14 technical cues to remember during your serve A mental checklist longer than a pilot's pre-flight routine Three different grip adjustments to practice A pre-match ritual that requires arriving two hours early More anxiety than ever Here's the problem: Western coaching is built on addition. What can we add to make you better? What new drill, technique tweak, mental strategy...

By Paul Dale | www.3amtennis.com Last Sunday started like most Sundays. Coffee. Emails. A quick scan of world news. Then, early morning Bangkok time, a message popped up from a player in Eastern Europe. He'd just walked off court after another three-set loss—this time in a tiebreak. His message had that familiar tone of frustration I've heard so many times: "Paul, I played well. The whole match was good. Then the third-set tiebreak... I just didn't play the way I needed to. Another match I should have won. This keeps happening." I could feel the frustration through the phone. Another wasted opportunity. Another match that could have been a win if he'd just been mentally better in that crucial moment. I started typing a response when a call came through from Nepal, where an ITF Junior event is currently taking place. Different player. Different continent—this time Asia. But the timing was eerie. He'd also just finished his match. Different story, thou...

TRAINING FOR PRESSURE: Why 95% of Practice Sessions Build Fragile Players By Paul Dale | www.3amtennis.com Most coaches treat stress like a disease to be avoided. They're accidentally building players who collapse in crucial moments of matches. You've seen it countless times: A player dominates in practice, hits every ball cleanly, executes perfect technique... then steps into a tournament and, during those big moments, they fail to deliver. Everything seems to leave them, their decision-making, their self-belief and their survival instincts. Points that should be routine become challenges. Here's what 50 years of coaching has taught me:  Stress and its related fallout could be the single biggest factor in poor tennis performance. But here's the real question that should keep every coach awake at night: What are we actually doing in our practice sessions to prepare players for the stress that will inevitably overwhelm them in competition? The answer, for 95% of co...