I have been following the work of Steve Chandler for some time now.  He has an amazing way of making profound distinctions between one thing and another.  I recently listened to an audio he made entitled The How To vs. The Want To.  I could not help but relate this distinction to the development of a tennis player because it is so true.

Junior tennis players spend so much time taking lessons, doing group clinics, and hopefully playing practice sets.  They spend their whole entire career searching for the perfect way how to hit the ball, to serve, and to play the game.  In other words they spend all their time focusing on how to play tennis.  However, they are missing something more basic that is even more important than the how to, they are missing the want to.

Think about this for a second if a teenager does not clean their room is it because they do not know how to or is it because they really do not want to?  The answer is simple, they do not want to.  As a parent it would be highly unlikely that to remedy this problem you would give your child a manual or directions for how to clean their room.  That would be silly because the real problem is they do not want to, instead you just tell them they have to or they are grounded.

Nationals Wall at JTCC

So think about this deeply for a minute, if a player truly wanted to become excellent at tennis, finding out how to do so would actually become quite easy.  The real key to success is the burning desire to want to become excellent.  It would be easy to find how to instruction on the internet, take a lesson, or even just follow this free blog.  Players and parents search all over for the best instruction in the world of tennis but are failing to see the most important part of the puzzle which is the want to.  Think about the greatest players of all time like Pete Sampras, Roger Federer, Novak Djkovic, and Rafael Nadal, certainly they know how to play tennis but more importantly they wanted to be #1 in the world much much more than most others.

So as a coach I approach getting my players to discover how critical the want to is in two different ways.  First, I ask my players if they absolutely had to become excellent at tennis or win a tournament or else something terrible would happen to them what would they do?  When they really think about if they absolutely had to get really good at tennis all kinds of ideas come to mind like they would do extra practice, get strength workouts done in the morning before school, study professional matches, read books, and stop wasting time on their phone and use that time to get better.  It is amazing what they come up with when they absolutely would have to get better at tennis.  Second, I ask them what they would do if I guaranteed them a $1,000,000 if they would win a big tournament 6 months from now?  Again all kinds of unique answers come up on how they would prepare to ensure they won and received the million dollars.  Those two scenarios put the emphasis on the want to and the how to easily comes into focus.

Then I ask them if it is really that they do not know how to become excellent at tennis or win their next tournament?  Or is it that they really do not want to become that good at tennis badly enough?  If you think back to a time in your life that you really wanted something badly enough you probably figured out how to make it a reality.  I can think of many instances in my life where this was the case.  I am not saying it was easy but if you really have the want to it became easy to find the how to.

Finally, Steve Chandler was nice enough to give me permission to give you FREE access to his audio recording How To vs. Want To.  Just click the link, download, and enjoy.

Tennis is an individual sport, regardless if the competition is in a tournament or dual match, ultimately it still comes down to player vs. player on the court.  In a team tennis setting getting a group of individual players to commit to a common goal and ask “what can I give?” instead of “what can I get?” is arguably the most difficult thing for a coach to accomplish.  I use the scene below in the movie 2004 Disney movie Miracle to make my point.

Throughout the beginning of the movie all the amateur hockey players constantly refer to themselves as playing for a college or university.  They say something like, “My name is Mike Eruzione. I play for Boston University.”  After one game Coach Herb Brooks skates them for hours on end well beyond the point of exhaustion.  One player finally realizes the message Coach Brooks has be trying to convey to them for a long time and says, “Mike Eruzione, I play for the United States of America!”

If you have any great ideas for bonding your team together to sacrifice and work together for a common goal leave a comment below.

My wife and I love going to this restaurant in Pittsburgh called Hyde Park.  It is downtown right by PNC Park.  We call and make a reservation.  When we pull up the valet parks the car for us and we walk right in and are seated at our table.  The waiter or waitress always comes right over and makes sure we have everything we want at all times.  My wife always orders a salad, filet mignon and french fries.  I typically get the wedge salad and an enormous prime rib.  The food always comes out exactly as we ask it to be prepared.  When we leave the car is always waiting for us curb side and in the winter they even turn on the heated seats!  All-in-all we love going to Hyde Park because they provide us with everything we want in a very comfortable environment.

If you are looking for a great restaurant I am sure you’ll agree my experience at Hyde Park is spot on.  However, if you are looking for a good coach to truly progress a player then the last thing you want is someone who acts like a waiter or waitress and brings a player what they want.  Instead you need a coach who brings a player what they need.  I tell my players this all the time, “my job is not to make you comfortable and bring you what you want like a waiter in a fancy restaurant.  Instead, my job is to give you what you need to improve and continue improving.”

I like to think of a coach as a guide you hire to get you to the top of the mountain.  Why hire a Sherpa guide to help you climb Mt. Everest?  Plain and simple the Sherpa has been to the top and knows the path to get you there.  The same is true with a good coach.  They know what you need in order to get you better.  However when a coach knows how to get to the top of the mountain and they are willing to prioritize a players needs over their wants, you have a great coach!

I believe there is a major component missing in the world of player development.  I have to admit I was totally in the dark about what I am going to share with you early in my career until I met Coach Chuck Kriese and he shared with me the concept of Momentum.  Momentum is maybe the best-kept secret in the world of coaching tennis and I want to introduce you to how it fits into developing a player so you are not in the dark either.

When I look at developing a player long-term there are 3 fundamental stages I want to get that player to go through.  First, the player has to build a solid technical foundation.  Players have to hit tons of balls so their strokes become as automatic as brushing their teeth.  Technique has to be learned to the point where it will hold up under the intense pressure of competition.  In an ideal world this happens early in a player’s development.  This is the exact reason why you often see the players with the best technique and who have practiced the most winning in the 10’s and 12’s tournament age groups.

The second stage of development is learning and utilizing a system of shot selection.  What that means is a player has a strategic place to hit the ball during competition.  There are many systems that work very well for this but regardless of the system utilized what really matters is that it is practiced so much that it becomes automatic.  The game starts to become too fast and time to think about where to hit the ball is non-existent.  Shot selection must become reflexive and practiced to the point where it will hold up under pressure just like stroke production.  In the 14’s and 16’s age groups the players who succeed are those who have practiced to the point where both strokes and shot selection does not break down under intense pressure.

Once these two stages of development are completed this is where most players hit a plateau.  Players often begin to see a lack of growth and burnout sets in.  This is probably a major contributing factor to the big drop off in players from the 16’s to the 18’s.  Coach Vesa Ponkka shared his thoughts on burnout and I think they fit in very well right here.  Mr. Ponkka thinks kids burnout on tennis not because they hit too many balls, train too much, or play too many tournaments.  Instead, he thinks they burnout because they stop growing and learning.  I would have to say I agree.  I know in my life anytime I stopped growing, improving, and learning I felt the grind myself.  So what is the final stage of development?  The answer is momentum.

When technique and shot selection are automatic there is no need to think about how to hit the ball or where to hit the ball during a match.  In fact, thinking about them only clutters a player’s mind.  So what should a player be thinking about?  Without a doubt they should be thinking about momentum.  In the simplest of terms momentum is knowing how to attempt to get things going your way, keep them going your way, and reverse things when they are going your opponent’s way.  Momentum is all about recognizing the flow of the match and knowing when to strategically apply different types of pressure.  Basketball coaches are excellent at attempting to control momentum.  They know when to put on the fast-break offense, when to speed things up, when to play zone defense, and when to slow things down.

As tennis coaches we have a problem because unlike basketball coaches we cannot call the plays for our players during a match.  Instead, we must teach them about momentum, how to recognize shifts, and then teach them what to do so they can in essence coach themselves.  This is the final stage of player development and in the 18’s, college, and beyond this is what wins matches and sets top players apart.

Here are 3 Podcasts on Momentum from my mentor Coach Chuck Kriese.

Here is a link to an article in the Wall Street Journal titled How Much Tennis Is Played During Matches?  In a 3-hour match at the ATP level players spend 31 minutes & 30 seconds or 17.5% of the time physically engaged in a point.

It is no wonder why a player’s thoughts can be their own worst enemy.  Regardless of the level of competition, routines between points and during changeovers are absolutely critical.  When you watch the U.S. Open appreciate how players do the same thing each time between points and realize they are going through a mental routine each and every time.  The best players think the same handful of thoughts hundreds of times over and over again during a match.  That is in direct contrast to players who think hundreds of different thoughts just a few times each throughout a match.  If you are interested in learning more about routines check out my friend Frank Giampaolo’s Tennis Parent Bible.

Tennis is a game that requires tons of repetition.  Acquiring a motor skill requires practice, practice and more practice.  Allow me to get nerdy for a minute.  What happens is the brain sends electrical impulses through the nerves to your muscles.  There is no such thing as muscle memory, your muscles are dumb and only react when they receive an impulse from the brain.

When first learning a new skill the electrical impulse is weak when it reaches the involved muscles causing the motor pattern to be uncoordinated.  However, practicing the same thing over and over again causes the brain to send the same impulse repeatedly.  When a particular electrical signal gets sent enough times the body senses that this signal must be something important and it wraps the pathway of the impulse with an insulation called myelin.

Myelin is basically like insulation and it allows the signal to traveling from the brain to the muscles to do so faster and remain strong.  The more a person performs a skill the more myelin is wrapped and the more automatic the skill becomes.  The is especially true from young children who are in the optimal window of opportunity to learn new motor skills due to adaptability of the brain and nervous system.  We all have motor patterns that are myelinated.  Think about walking for example, when you were a toddler the walking impulse was sent so many times the patten became coordinated and automatic.  Learning the motor skill of how to hit a tennis ball is no different.

Now watch the video below and you will understand exactly why we try at times to not have the kids in tennis camp always just stand in line waiting.  Certainly there is a time to use waiting in line as a chance to recover from a difficult drill.  However, when the drill is designed for skill development shadow stroking provides way more repetitions which means more impulses being delivered.  I tell kids all the time they do not even need a tennis ball to practice.  They can go home and shadow stroke in the driveway or backyard until their heart is content.

I literally have a crystal (possibly glass) tennis ball.  My girls tennis team got it for me as a gift last season.  They had no idea how useful this gift was going to end up being for us all.  The story I am about to share with you is one of the greatest long-term motivators ever and it all has to do with gazing into the future through a crystal tennis ball…

Coach Slezak’s Crystal Ball

Everyone who has ever set a goal and worked tirelessly to accomplish it knows that is takes a lot of sacrifices along the way.  Regardless if the goals are academic, athletic, or otherwise they will undoubtedly require a person to make sacrifices along the way in order to achieve it.  Kind of like paying a toll on the highway to proceed to your destination.

So where does the crystal ball fit in?  Well I pull out my crystal ball in front an individual player or the entire team.  I swirl my hand around making some magic and I tell the player I am gazing into the future….  What is that I see?  I see you years from now winning tournaments and achieving a high ranking, a college scholarship, or a team championship.  Then I see all the newspaper and tv reporters wanting to interview you asking, “How is it that you achieved this great accomplishment?”  The player answers, “Well I stayed focused on my goal, listened to and trusted in my coaches, learned from my losses, hit extra serves, did extra running, did extra technical work, and studied matches on the tennis channel.  I worked relentlessly hard to achieve it.”

After I go on and on with this story I ask the player, “Would you be willing to do all that extra work if I could guarantee those results?”  The answer is always, “Yes!”  I then go on to explain that most people are willing to commit to pay the price for a guaranteed result.  Do this, this, and this and you will get that.  If this was the way it was in tennis more people would be doing it, believe me.

I then go on to tell them that in life there are no guarantees and the same is true in tennis.  I wish I could gaze into my crystal ball and guarantee specific results, but that is not how it works.  However, what sets great players apart from the rest is a willingness to commit to the unknown.  Most people are not willing to take a risk and commit to an unknown or to no guarantee.  You see all that can be guaranteed is that doing the work will get you closer to your goal.  It doesn’t mean you will reach your goal tomorrow or even 4 years from now.  Players have to be willing to commit to the unknown and when they do great things usually happen.  Committing gives them the daily motivation they need to do all the extra work just for the chance at an opportunity to reach their goal.  It it typically those who commit to the unknown who become truly great.

I would like to thank my mentor Coach Chuck Kriese for teaching me the now famous “Crystal Ball Motivational Method” with me.  I used this exact story today in tennis camp with the advanced players to keep them focused, intense and motivated to train in the almost unbearable heat.