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May 25, 2007
Little Virtues
This week has seen many of our former students who are now in college return to the Austin Tennis Academy. It has been great to see the growth and maturity of young men and women like Ryan Berber, Brent Werbeck, Simone Templeton, Gigi Lopez, Brett Powers, Adam Slagter, Santiago Montoya and others. Many of them will be attending our end of the year party and some will speak at the party. If you would like to see what your young tennis player might look, act and sound like in a few years, have chat with one of these college students.
Some of what we hope to impart to our students is encapusulated in Natalia Ginzburg's "Little Virtues". I was reminded of it seeing many of our college students coming back to ATA. Here is a quote I like and what I hope is some of what we are imparting to our students:
"not the litte virtues but the great ones. Not thrift but generosity and an indifference to money, not caution but courage and a contempt for danger; not shrewdness, but a frankness and a love of truth; not tact but a love for one's neighbor and self-denial; not a desire for sucess but a desire to be and to know."
End of the year party, Sunday, June 3, Commander's Point.
Posted by Jack Newman at 7:54 AM | Comments (0)
Using the summer to improve
Today is the last day of our regular school year tennis program. Next Tuesday we begin the summer phase of our program. Summer can be a time of great improvement for junior tennis players, there is more time to train and more time to compete. Here are some suggestions for various levels of students in our program:
All Stars/Pee Wees: These players under 10 years old need to get on the court before it gets too hot. We are providing an 8am-9:30 mini camp and an 8am-11:30am half day camp for players in this level. Players sign up for camp a week at a time. Tennis skills, competition and athletic skills are all stressed in the All Star Camp. Some of the more advanced All Stars may wish to consider the CATA tour 10 & under tournament competition.
Junior Development: These players can improve the most this summer. They are usually old enough to tolerate a good volumne of training and are ready to make a move in their tennis. If a child is between 11-15 years old and really wants to improve their tennis, our all day camp: 8am-11:30am on court, 11:30-12 lunch, 12-3:30 on court will provide a tremendous level of improvement in a short amount of time. For those younger JD players, just the morning camp would be appropriate. Junior development players should definitely be trying to compete in CATA tour events and should begin playing in the lowest level of statewide competition. Zone Advancement Tournaments or ZATS are the first level of statewide competition, divided into 12 & under, 14 & under, 16 & under and 18 & under age groups. In addition, JD players should be preparing to be on a competitive team tennis team in the Fall.
Junior Academy: These players are already seasoned competitors. They should be using the CATA tour events to build game point, set point and match point experience. They should be actively competing in ZATS or Champs tournaments as well as local open events like the ATA SPENCO open in June. They should be training a minimum of 15-20 hours per week during the summer, depending on their age. Either a full day or half day camp for a good portion of the summer is appropriate for this level.
Academy players: These players are competing at a high level. The summer is a time to make a jump in level by training hard and continuing to compete. Most Academy players will train at least 20 hours per week, depending on their age. Many will be traveling across Texas and the United States to seek out the best competition and to test themselves against the best players Texas and the United States has to offer. Players can make significant progress in technical, tactical, physical and mental areas during the summer.
Primary coaches should be consulted about the right training and competition plans for your junior tennis player to help them reach their goals.
Posted by Jack Newman at 6:56 AM | Comments (0)
May 10, 2007
"What did you do at practice today"?
Sometimes what you do in practice and what gets reported through the prism of an 11 year old or 15 year old mind is two very different things. I sent this email to our Austin Tennis Academy parents recently to help them understand how to talk to their child about practice.
I think that question: "What did you do in practice today?" gets asked a lot and probably does not get answered in a complete fashion. A typical practice works on many things and players often rotate through a good number of drills, courts, coaches and other players as practice partners. What I have found is that players often time latch onto one of the things that happened at practice and talk about that. Sometimes that is something amazing that happened, other times it is complaint about who they practiced with. In order for you to more fully understand what happens at practice, I would like to use yesterday as an example:
As an example, yesterday's practice looked something like this:
3:30--Players arrive, fill out daily goal sheets (which they find in folders that hold their long term, intermediate and short term goals, as well as articles handed out). Players warm-up--we ask them to warm-up with the first person they see, and not wait around for their best friend.
3:40--Players come in from warm-up (the last one in has to do 10 pushups, so it is a competition to get into the staging area near the ATA ball) We talk about the goals for the day and an outline of what will happen.
3:40-3:52--3 sets of 10 hits in a row, with each partner on your court, three drills: cross court, down the line, and 1 person at the net and one person at the baseline. Each court has a leader, in this first set of drills we normally assign an older, more experienced player as the leader with a group of 3 younger or less accomplished players. The leader does the count of shots and when any pair on a court gets their 3 sets of 10 the whole court moves to the next series. Once they have completed 3 sets of 10 on cross court, the same group moves to down the line and then to one up, one back. The first court to complete the three series calls out and every one comes in (again, last person in does 10 pushups) This series usually takes between 9-12 minutes. We have a record time and the players know it and want to beat. Additionally, their is pride in being the first court done with the three drills.
3:52-4:00 Same drills with different partners. This time players go out with peer group age or skill players on each court with one of them assigned as leader. Three drills, three sets, everyone comes in, last person does 10 pushups.
4-4:15 Games based on the concept of winning two or three or four points in a row. Players are paired up into groups to compete. The idea is to win a single point in the game, you have to win consecutive points, either 2,3 or 4 in a row. This forces the players to see the connection between points and to try to interrupt an opponents flow of points to keep them from scoring.
4:15-4:30 Team singles games, 4 players on a court, one vs one, the winner stays in the loser moves out and their teammate moves in, you can stay in for a maximum of three in a row. Players compete for a game to 7 or 11 points. Score is kept, top two finishers on each court move up a court, bottom two finishers on a court move down a court, the same series of games is repeated 3 or 4 or more times as players move up and down by their results.
4:30 Additional players join practice, they fill out goals, warm-up and we start another series of drills usually. Yesterday, Younger players compete in sets, older players meet with Coach Newman to discuss an article about the Bluffton University baseball team bus crash.
5:15-5:30pm Older players return from fitness center, Two rotations of 3 drills described earlier all players.
5:30-6:30 Older players in gym for fitness or sets in preparation for tournaments, Younger players sets in preparation for tournaments
6:30-7:30- Continue with sets, (depart for 3:30 starters), as players come off sets they rotate into drill/competition courts with coaches. As players leave they complete an evaluation on the day's practice.
7:30 4:30 starters depart
I will, from time to time, try to give you reports like this for you to see the structure of practice.
Some questions to ask your player to help prompt them about giving you more feedback about practice?
What did Coach Newman talk about at practice today?
How many different groups of kids did you practice with today? Who were some of them?
What was your daily goal today? How did you evaluate yourself today Physically, Technically, Tactically and mentally? (Each player has a sheet each day to write down a goal and to evaluate themselves at the end of practice)
Posted by Jack Newman at 9:14 AM | Comments (0)
May 2, 2007
NCAA Tennis Bracket URLs
Posted by Jack Newman at 8:22 AM | Comments (0)
NCAA D1 College Tennis Championships
The brackets for the Men's and Women's NCAA Tennis Championships were released yesterday. You can see them at the following URLs. 1st & 2nd round matches will take place the weekend of May 11-13. Most of our students are entered in USTA Texas Section tournaments that weekend, but you might be able to get your tennis player to some NCAA action around their tournaments.
Texas and Baylor Men's and Baylor's Women's teams are hosting the first two rounds of the NCAA tournament. So you will be able to see some of the tournament either here in Austin or in Waco if you are in that area for the weekend.
Seeing the high level college action for junior tennis players is very inspiring. Do it if you can.
Posted by Jack Newman at 6:43 AM | Comments (0)
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