DO YOU WORK WITH A SPORT PSYCHOLOGIST? YES, I DO.
Sports psychologists are not new to tennis. Ivan Lendl travelled with Alexis Alexis Castorri in the 1980s, and Martina Navratilova worked with one too. When somebody asks me if this role is key to a successful tennis team, my answer is always ‘no’. However, I would argue that working with a sports psychologist brings a lot of benefits, and can help tennis players, coaches, parents, even businessmen and women, to develop their game.
#9 SUCCESSFUL HABIT FOR OVERCOMING ADVERSITY
With 17 Grand Slams in his pocket, Roger Federer has lost multiple finals since 2008: to Nadal four times, once at the French Open, once at Wimbledon and once at the US Open; and to Djokovic, three times.
This amounts to more than ten Grand Slam finals lost – we can only imagine where he would be in the ATP ranking. However, today I’m not going to talk about the matches in particular, or about tactics, physical condition or mindset. Today I want to commend Roger Federer as a role model, as a player who respects his rivals when he is defeated.
A STORY OF SPORTING AND ACADEMIC SUCCESS
At Sánchez-Casal Academy we have been using tennis and education as a vehicle for the personal development of our young players for almost 20 years. We are extremely proud of all who have trained and studied with us. One of those is Mike Vermeer, who has graduated Cum Laude from Columbia University.
#08 SUCCESSFUL HABIT FOR OVERCOMING ADVERSITY
Tennis is an individual sport. However all the preparation, the travel, etc. is normally done in a team, the team who stands by you in both the best and worst of times – or at least that’s how Emilio Sánchez Vicario has experienced it.
From the Olympic Games to the US Open: are we abusing our players?
In the aftermath of the Summer Grand Slams and Olympic Games, today I would l like to offer an analysis of some after event facts. As usual, I will try to focus on the technical, tactical, physical and mental ‘pillars’ of tennis, with a special emphasis in the US Open and the Olympics.
#07 HABIT FOR OVERCOMING ADVERSITY
Controlling timing and breathing are two powerful tools which help us to plan our next steps and overcome difficulties. If you are capable of perfecting these skills, your ability to overcome challenging situations increases. You just have to work at it.
Attention, a powerful tool for athletic performance
Optimum control of attention is a powerful tool to improve our results in sports competitions. But what, exactly, is attention? Can we work on it? Monica Monserrat, psychologist, explains it to us.
#6 SUCCESSFUL HABIT FOR OVERCOMING ADVERSITY
In many of my conversations with players at any level, the mention of “pressure” appears: “I felt under too much pressure”, “The pressure meant I couldn’t move”, “I completely froze under the pressure, I didn’t know what I was doing any more” … These are some of the examples of the effect of pressure, which on top of everything, usually manifests itself at the worst times, when nobody asks for it.
DIARY OF A COACH, PART II: EDUCATING YOUR CHILDREN ¨ON TOUR¨ IN BERMUDA
When summer arrives and the school year ends at ESIS – the Emilio Sanchez International School based in Florida – my role as a coach continues. Our student athletes at the Sanchez-Casal Academy, along with other players, can join our Traveling Team, a year round program in which we coach and accompany players to ITF tournaments in the Caribbean, Latin America and Europe.
Why will American players dominate the world tennis rankings soon?
This past January I prepared a chart for the International Coaches Institute, comparing US and Spanish tennis. Over the last 20 years, Spain has been the world’s leading country in tennis, not just in the number of top players but also prospective players to reach the top.
While I was working on the report I realized that something was changing. I was in San Francisco, sharing my views with a group of coaches, but they were quite skeptical about my explanation. The topic of my speech was the headline of this article.
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