Thank you, Debbie Graham Shaffer, for sharing a great piece on the importance of our athletes turning the adversity and failure that comes with competitive sports into success. For those of you who don’t know Debbie, she is a former #2 junior tennis player in the world, NCAA Individual and Team Champion from Stanford (graduated in 3 years while being undefeated in dual match play), top 10 WTA doubles, top 25 WTA singles, and a high-performance coach. The best part, of course, is she is now a sports mom like the rest of us! I am constantly…
As a former collegiate and professional tennis player, I know the value of setting goals. I am a huge proponent of setting goals, especially with student-athletes. In my work as a coach and a parent, I know how challenging the process can be! The challenge is finding “their goal, their dream, and what they are willing to do to get there.” Download my free eBook Here In this eBook, I outline the steps I use in my work setting goals with athletes. I have attached worksheets and resources to help you with the process. I hope you find it…
I have not had an enormous amount of success with New Year’s resolutions UNLESS I connect them to my goals. I am a huge proponent of setting goals, especially with student-athletes. Let’s face it; many times, the grind of school and sports is simply not fun. It can’t always be fun, and if you are trying to avoid that reality, well… good luck with finding that fairy dust. A good set of goals helps the student-athlete stay on track and remember why the grind is worth it! Setting goals, especially helping a child set goals…
I was recently invited to be part of a USTA Foundation Fantasy Camp at the USTA Campus in Orlando, Florida. It was an incredible weekend with many great speakers and coaches, including Chris Evert, Sloane Stephens, Nick Bollettieri, Jim Courier, Jimmy Arias, and Brian Godfried. One of my favorite events was having breakfast with Gil Reyes, Andre Agassi’s (and many other top players’) long-time trainer. All professional athletes have trainers and physios to guide their training specifically for their sport. Very few of these trainers become well-known out of their sport. Gil Reyes made his…
As parents and coaches in youth athletics, we are bombarded with articles, information, and research on how this generation is playing too much. Too much time practicing, competing, and training. We are all hesitant to be the ones to lead a new trend, so I thought I would take a different angle and talk about the importance of the rest day. Do what you want for six days a week, but your athlete MUST have one rest day per week. Let’s just concentrate on that piece of it. Sounds simple, doesn’t it?! Some of us fall prey to…