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How to Plan for the Future: Guiding Tennis Players to Success

When you’ve decided you’re going to go somewhere you either innately know how to get there (i.e. to the mall you’ve visited every week for the past 5 years) or if it’s somewhere you’re not as familiar with, you’ll most probably ask Google, Siri, Alexa or similar with the help of Maps. With step by step directions provided with additional options presented along the way (i.e. do you need to make a stop along the way), you’ll arrive at this ‘somewhere’ without much prior thought needed. Before Google, Siri and/or Alexa came along we had to rely on paper-form i.e. printed maps that were only accessible in larger books and then plan our journey before we left whilst stopping at a few key points along the way to check our location…

To read the full article please consider supporting my work through my new Book (pending release late 2024) that incorporates a variety of my writing — Dr Berge 

To learn more about our data, predictive analytics and how to optimise your own performance, head on over to AM8 International. To learn more about AM8 International check out our selection of Books and/or options to join Dr B’s Pack to gain exclusive access to the best in the world. Not quite ready? Head on over to Beyond Top 10 Tennis for free access to 100+ episodes directly from Dr Berge of what it really takes to win multiple Grand Slams to securing that Top 10 tennis ranking with new episodes each week. More? Catch up on our Tips over on TikTok, Twitter, Threads or Instagram for quick snippets to apply in your game, today.

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The Training Session that Can’t be Missed: is this the case Every Time?

Did you ever (or maybe still) rush home from school to make it just in time for your favourite sitcom and/or show of choice because you couldn’t bare to miss it? Now, is this the same for your training sessions…each and every time? This analogy hopefully gets you thinking about what excites you to motivates you and whether or not the same care is taken in ensuring this is the case every time you step onto the tennis court…or is it only periodically? You see, each and every coach has the power to ensure this in fact does happen with a few keys front and centre and there really is no excuse that this shouldn’t be the case every time your performance is on the line as you work to edge towards that next progression.

One of the primary concerns here is around planning and if it is being done on a daily basis and/or in advance for each and every player? Now, this might sound like a lot of work from a coaches perspective but this planning should be done prior to the week ahead and built upon after each and every session whether with a group of players in a squad environment and/or on an individual basis for one-on-one sessions. What matters is the planning and the adjustments. For the parents out there, if this is not being done this is a word of warning. Why?

If your child’s session is not being modified and/or planned specifically for them each and every session they’re left susceptible to developing an injury (i.e. due to null modification) and/or their performance progressions are not being taken seriously and as such, your child’s ability to steadily progress along The Pathway and in turn The Long Game remains susceptible to a regression, whether performance based or from the onset of an injury over time.

The thing is, planning matters. And to ensure the player/athlete remains engaged each and every session, that prior thought goes a long way. How do you ensure the player/athlete rushes to practice (or training) just like they would their favourite sitcom and/or show if you’re not putting in the work?

I’ll tell you a few secrets. Ensuring The 7 Keys are well-known is a significant head start. On the other side, being available for your player/athlete whether that be as a mentor or to discuss rates of progress it all counts. Being present matters and not just for a select few players/athletes — for all players/athletes you work with. Moral of the story then is of course do not take on more players/athletes unless you are prepared to give them your time and energy when they’re in need and plan for their progressions and modifications on a regular basis.

What differentiates good players from great players is often the difference between their coach-athlete relationship. Irrespective if a good player is ahead of that great player in performance and their ranking suggests otherwise, the good player will eventually succumb to one of the pitfalls not afforded to them by their coach whereby the great player will leverage these assets to their advantage with their performance and results steadily progressing to reach the same level as the good player — continuing along the set trajectory.

There is more to a players/athletes current performance than their results. The behind-the-scenes matters and what their coach is able to deliver and show up for on a consistent basis. Relationships of all variances can have profound impacts on all individuals — child or adult and putting the time and effort into creating conducive relationships to help build key performances is often overlooked. After all, if you’re set on that first 10 Years of Play you’ll want a coach-athlete relationship that is supportive and knowledgeable of The 7 Keys to keep you on the road ahead. To the contrary, if you’re in your second 10 Years of Play and the relationship has run its course, fear not — there are ample coaches available that can transition good to great with the keys included in their pedagogy that will allow you to succeed and ascend closer towards your optimal ranking range. However, without these keys and a mutually conducive coach-athlete relationship, the odds are not in your favour.

To learn more about our data, predictive analytics and how to optimise your own performance, head on over to AM8 International. To learn more about AM8 International check out our selection of Books and/or options to join Dr B’s Pack to gain exclusive access to the best in the world. Not quite ready? Head on over to Beyond Top 10 Tennis for free access to 100+ episodes directly from Dr Berge of what it really takes to win multiple Grand Slams to securing that Top 10 tennis ranking with new episodes each week. More? Catch up on our Tips over on TikTok, Twitter, Threads or Instagram for quick snippets to apply in your game, today.

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Respecting Yourself: as a Coach

The rollercoaster of respect is real. It comes, it goes and others may try to take it away from you. That’s when you need to grab it back and close the door on those people. Whether in tennis or in life, respect has an enormity of offshoots to dive into but at the end of the day it really comes down to how you respect yourself as a person and how that in turn transpires on the tennis court.

It goes without saying that the level of respect you have for yourself will in turn reflect through your performance. Whether that contributes towards an optimal performance or detracts from the potential to produce that optimal performance outcome. After all, if you don’t respect yourself to begin with how can you expect anything more of another person, let alone your opponent? The thing is, it comes down to your expectations. For example, would you talk to yourself the way you talk to your parent and/or guardian? Hopefully. Would you talk to yourself the way a potential bully speaks to you? Hopefully not. 

By building a healthy relationship with yourself you’re not only empowering your performance but you’re also setting the bar — high for others who would like to be a part of your circle.

Who you surround yourself with matters. Whether they’re negative or positive, the majority will influence. And this is why it is so important for coaches to lead by example to build positive environments and to ensure their level of respect for themself is held in high esteem. After all, if you have one player/athlete or a few hundred, who you are as a person and your level of respect held — for yourself and for others, is viewable externally through your actions to how you choose to speak to yourself and others.

Leading by example is a no brainer when it comes to best coaching practices. However, the impact on the player/athlete is often forgotten. How you behave matters. How your players/athletes behave matter. And it can be given a kick-start by feeding yourself positive affirmations to simply being conscious of your behaviour. To the coaches, what example would you (currently and/or in the future) set for your child? The example you set for your players/athletes should be no less in respect to how you respect yourself and those around you.

On a broader scale, self-worth dives into how you view yourself and in turn how you allow others to speak to you and/or treat you. The same applies for respect. By having coaches conscious of this allows the player/athlete access to healthy role models that lead by example. It also keeps respect front and centre to help pave the way for these players/athletes on the importance of self-respect and how these behaviours really are influential to performance outcomes. At the end of the day it’s really simple. Look after yourself, be kind to yourself and your performance will continue along its set trajectory — steadfast in contrast to being susceptible to negative influence. Why? Because your self-respect is too high to allow it a seat at your table (metaphorically).

To learn more about our data, predictive analytics and how to optimise your own performance, head on over to AM8 International. To learn more about AM8 International check out our selection of Books and/or options to join Dr B’s Pack to gain exclusive access to the best in the world. Not quite ready? Head on over to Beyond Top 10 Tennis for free access to 100+ episodes directly from Dr Berge of what it really takes to win multiple Grand Slams to securing that Top 10 tennis ranking with new episodes each week. More? Catch up on our Tips over on TikTok, Twitter, Threads or Instagram for quick snippets to apply in your game, today.

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Mentoring and its Tie to the Tennis Players Success

A coaches role is incredibly dynamic when held in the highest regard and mentoring is just one element that can be leveraged to help players/athletes excel at their performance. Unfortunately, this view is often lost over the years with the majority of coaches who succumb to a more standardised practice. And by standardised I am referring to disregarding their role model status and position as a mentor to their players and limiting their focus to the tennis courts and the respective instruction.

Whilst this is incredibly disheartening there are those coaches who go above and beyond and establish healthy mentoring relationships with their players/athletes to help guide them through The Long Game and/or are trusted sounding boards for troubles at school to uneasiness at home. Irrespective the scenario, a coach is in a unique position to help and by making themselves available — in a professional context, allows the oftentimes gap to be bridged if and/or when needed to ensure the players/athletes parents and/or guardians remain informed.

Oftentimes a child inside the developmental spectrum that is progressing along The Pathway may be having trouble managing their workload from their range of subjects to their training load. At some point, one begins to suffer until a healthy balance is found where the child/player/athlete eventually finds a manageable solution. But this is a simple example where a coach that is a trusted mentor can help.

After all, each session a coach has with their player/athlete they should be engaging with the player/athlete and if any concerns and/or anything out of the ordinary comes about, to take note.

If a player/athlete trusts you, the coach, with a concern and/or area they’re trying to navigate, it’s incredibly important to keep abreast of the issue and when necessary to leverage the coach-parent relationship to share these concerns as applicable. Oftentimes the coach can be the ‘middle person’ between the child/player/athlete and the parent/guardian to simply be a sounding board. However, to the coaches who do not take the time to make themselves available as a mentor to their players/athletes this can be at a detriment to their performance and also yours long term.

Of course, a coaches pedagogy and how this is shaped to influenced comes under the spotlight. With the right tools and proponents of best practice, mentoring is a part of your daily activities whether on or off the tennis court. But it takes time. It also takes patience and a heightened level of awareness to astuteness when dissecting what’s really behind what a player/athlete is sharing. It may be absolutely nothing — the case the majority of the time when they’re simply using you as the coach as that sounding board; nothing more, nothing less. But on the odd occasion it might be something else. And these occasions can make all the difference to that player/athlete when they know their coach is their to help.

Being a mentor may sound like a lot of work but in reality it’s nothing more than being available for those conversations and when needed, a little nudge in the right direction if they happen to be a little lost. No one is asking you to be anything more than a good human being with the best interests of your players/athletes front and centre each and every time they’re within earshot. And all it takes is making yourself available. The best part? Mentoring and its tie to the Tennis Players Success is undeniable which means if you’re putting in the work with a conducive coaching pedagogy then there’s a good chance your player/athlete will keep pace with The Long Game in the years ahead.

To learn more about our data, predictive analytics and how to optimise your own performance, head on over to AM8 International. To learn more about AM8 International check out our selection of Books and/or options to join Dr B’s Pack to gain exclusive access to the best in the world. Not quite ready? Head on over to Beyond Top 10 Tennis for free access to 100+ episodes directly from Dr Berge of what it really takes to win multiple Grand Slams to securing that Top 10 tennis ranking with new episodes each week. More? Catch up on our Tips over on TikTok, Twitter, Threads or Instagram for quick snippets to apply in your game, today.

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Injuries in Junior Athletes — not just Tennis and how it is Connected to their Technique

Truth be told most techniques in tennis have a correlation with the development of an injury over the course of a players/athletes career if not modified and/or amended for that specific player/athlete. It is that simple. The majority of these players are taught a specific technique to ‘play’ the game and yet these techniques are one and the same in the onset of injury. Ironically, players within the developmental spectrum will not notice an immediate discomfort due to the somewhat pliability of their growing bodies. Unfortunately, once this development phase has run its cause the player becomes more susceptible to the very same technique they were taught years prior. But it doesn’t need to be this way.

The principles of human movement are readily available for all and to help navigate the core principles that are responsible for the development of the respective discrete and serial skills…

To read the full article please consider supporting my work through my new Book (pending release late 2024) that incorporates a variety of my writing — Dr Berge 

To learn more about our data, predictive analytics and how to optimise your own performance, head on over to AM8 International. To learn more about AM8 International check out our selection of Books and/or options to join Dr B’s Pack to gain exclusive access to the best in the world. Not quite ready? Head on over to Beyond Top 10 Tennis for free access to 100+ episodes directly from Dr Berge of what it really takes to win multiple Grand Slams to securing that Top 10 tennis ranking with new episodes each week. More? Catch up on our Tips over on TikTok, Twitter, Threads or Instagram for quick snippets to apply in your game, today.