Coach Newman's Corner

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September 13, 2008

2008-2009 Academy Kickoff Speech: How to Reach Your Dreams and Accomplish Your Goals

How to reach your dreams and accomplish your goals
And…it’s really not as hard as you think.

Assembled for your development
Coach Lucie Schmidhauser NCAA Champ Team Capt, College Coach
Coach Doug Davis, Long timer developer with many D1 college and professional former students
Coach Cristina Moros, NCAA Champ, Co-Director of the Roddick-Moros Academy, top 200 WTA player, former #1 junior in world
Coach Brian Notis, College Coach, Tennis Director 15 national championship balls
Coach Kendall Brooks, College Coach, Team Captain
Coach Estevam Strecker, College Coach, Team Captain
Coach John Schoenmakers, Multiple Academies including Spain
Coach Simon Boyce, College Coach
Coach Anthony Martinez
Coach Norm Houston
Coach Lisa Weinhold, Pro Shop
Coach Deb Cahill, Chief Operating Officer
Coach Stephen Moros, Coach Tommy Collins, Coach Grant Doyle

If you look at the posters I have put up across the gym, you will see the preseason 2008 tennis rankings for NCAA D1 mens and womens tennis. Take a good look, what do you see? How many Americans? How many Texans?

Give out goal sheets & pens (Write 3 goals for the year)
Goals: What does it take to accomplish them?

I usually bring a bunch of props for my speech, today, just facts, tangible things you can hold in your hand.

Questions to ask yourself:

• If you were absolutely guaranteed to succeed, what would you dare to do?
• What are you most passionate about?
• What are your greatest strengths? Do you use them as an athlete?
• How can you get paid to do what you love doing? Down the line.
• When (what circumstances and what people) do you feel most alive?
• What were your 5 greatest accomplishments this past year?
• How can you best share your gifts with the world?
• What would you do if you were not afraid?

These questions are critical for you to understand the demands of reaching your highest potential.

Look around you. Someone sitting next to you may have already done what you what to do in tennis. How did they do it?

What does it take to reach your dreams? What does it take to accomplish your goals?

Claire Cahill gets a call at 11pm on a Friday night, there is a spot for you in the qualifying of the excellence, would you like it? Gets up at 4am the next morning, drive to Dallas and plays in the Excellence tournament. This dedication is what it takes. You cannot win a match, if you don’t put yourself in the arena.

Taylor Shamshiri, alternate to the Excellence, gets in the qualifying, qualifies, beats two top 10 players, including the defending sectional champion. This dedication is what it takes, to go to the tournament, not even knowing if you will get to play a match and then doing the maximum you can when you do get the chance.

Sydney Young, went to the excellence as the 3rd alternate. Waited all day to try to get in, never did. But supported her teammates and cheered and watched. This is the dedication it takes, to go and wait and see if you get the chance to play. After you left on Saturday practice, Sydney stuck around and hit serves for 30 minutes on her own. This is the dedication it takes.

Blake Davis had major Knee surgery that has kept him out of training and competition for almost a year. He went to the USOPEN as a spectator, knowing he should be there as a participant. He is back practicing with a vengeance, this is the dedication it takes.

Allie Burak, could not keep score in tennis a year ago, in the qualifying of the excellence in Girls 12s. She so wanted to have a good time in our fitness testing mile run, she got boxed and tried to fight her way out and took a nasty spill. This is the hard work that it takes, to go from ZATs, to Champs, to Supers, to the top of Supers in a Year and to take a fall to try to have the best time.

Ben Smith hit his first tennis ball at ATA 14 months ago. This weekend he won a champ tournament to become superqualified. This accomplishment came after this summer spending 7 hours a day training for most of the summer. You don’t get that far, that fast without working hard. From running the warmup in the morning camp, to getting his butt kicked in Academy practice, Ben has shown what it takes to become excellent.

Most dreams remain only dreams, most goals go unreached because people are not wiling to do what it takes to reach them. Your lives are very easy. Compare your life to the life of some student your same age in Ethiopia. They do not have the nice clothes you have, they do not have the nice school and education you have, they would be poorly fed, poorly watered, poorly educated and would probably end up living half the life span you will enjoy. Never mind the time to pursue sport, no time for sport when you all you have time for is trying to stay alive and well. You are lucky to have been born into one of the richest, most advanced societies that has graced this planet. You have a running start so big on every boy or girl in Ethiopia, it’s a joke.

Do YOU GET THAT. You are lucky. What have you done to earn the life that you have? The wealth that you posses, both in material things and in knowledge and opportunity and exposure to learning both in the classroom and as an athlete is amazing. The reason NCAA D1 teams are full with foreign players and not players from America is easy.

• You are soft, they are hard.
• You are satisfied, they are hungry.
• You are weak of will, they are full of will.
• You take things for granted, they are grateful.

You have no chance to compete with someone who’s only way to a better life is a tennis scholarship to a US university. A better life bought and paid for by the blood, sweat and tears of tennis skill earned over years of sacrifice and hard work.

YOU HAVE NO CHANCE

UNLESS…

You are extremely gifted…

Or…

You are willing to pay the same fare they pay to reach the top. Blood, sweat and tears. Hard work and sacrifice. Most of you will not be willing to do what it takes. You will be nice tennis players and be able to play with anyone for the rest of your lives. But you will not ever reach the highest level of your potential because you will not be willing to work hard enough, long enough, or sacrifice enough to develop your potential. You will not push yourself to your limit because it is too hard and you do not want it enough.

What does it take to become a champion?

We have designed our training program on the research done by the national governing bodies of tennis across the world, including the USTA.

9/10 years old-12/13 years old
40 Competitive matches per year (Age 11)
2 tournaments per month/2 matches per tournament = 48 matches
11 Hours of training per week
(Min 5 hours of tennis training)
Academy L2-3 & 4 day

12/13 years-15/16 years old
70 competitive matches per year (age 14)
2 tournaments per month/3 matches per tournament= 72 matches
24 hours of training per week: Tennis, physical, mental, group & private
(Min 12 hours of tennis training)
Academy L1

15/16 years old and upward
90 competitive matches per year (age 16)
2.5 tournaments per month/3 matches per tournament= 90 matches
30 hours of training per week: Tennis, physical, mental, group & private
(Min 17 hours of tennis training)
Academy L1 Plus

We have designed and provided both the tennis and physical program to push you, but will you push yourself?

Are you making all the hours deemed necessary to reach your goals? What causes you to miss? In our first week of practice, I watched players with high goals miss practice for:

• A football game
• A Birthday party
• High School Tennis
• Other social events

We provide practice rain or shine, we spent over ½ a million dollars to build this gym to have a place for you if the weather does not allow us to go on court. How many times have you blown off coming to practice because you knew you would be doing fitness or mental training instead of hitting balls?

Do you come rain or shine to train? Everyone wants to be mentally tougher, but when it comes to the hard academic work of writing an effective script, many of you falter.

Do you make every morning workout that you are invited to? Or is too early, too hard, too far away?

What will you do when no one is watching you?

Is it our responsibility to accomplish your goals for you? You will notice there are a few kids not here this year, that were here last year. Where are they? Gone. This program is not for every player or every family. Why are they gone? Unless you are committed and willing to sacrifice to reach your highest potential, this is the wrong program. If you are not committed there are better fits for you in other programs.

This group has the chance to be great. You have “IT”.

The same as the class of 2005, who’s pictures you see on the wall. Lots of talent, lots of drive, lots of hard workers. You can accomplish great things. You can accomplish great things together. Let me set some goals for us to shoot for as a team.

Here is what I think can happen in 12 months.

• Every Academy zat player to champs
• Every Academy champ player to supers
• 10 superchamps going to nationals
• Team Tennis dominance at national level
• Revive Texas Cup and Beat Newks
  

• Winter Excellence in Jan 10 Qualifiers
  
• Winter Excellence in Jan, 16 main draw
  
• 1/8th 12.5 % of excellence players, top players in Texas, should come from this program.
  
• 10 major zone victories in singles or doubles
  

• Winter Nats 10 players
  
• Spring Nats 14 players
  
• Hard Ct. Nats 20 players

What will it take to reach these goals?

1. Belief and Drive that you can do it. You need to believe in yourself, your coaches and your program. You need to have faith and belief in what you are doing and you have to want to do it.
2. Love for the sport. If you are not doing what you love and loving what you do, you will never master this sport or reach your goals. You have a choice. Change what you do or change how you feel about what you do.
   James Allen 19th Century writer wrote:
   

   As the physically weak man can make himself stronger by careful and patient training, so the man of weak thoughts can make them strong by exercising himself in right thinking

   Thoughts of courage, self-reliance and decision crystallize into habits, which then solidify into success, plenty, and freedom.
   
   

   A particular train of thought persisted in, be it good or bad cannot fail to produce its results. On character and circumstances. A man cannot directly choose his circumstances, but he can choose his thoughts , and so indirectly, yet surely, shape his circumstances.

3. Create Rivals
   
   

   Are you a climber or a camper. Only climbers get to the top of the peak. Campers get part way up and stop.
   
   

   You each influence each other every day. How you do your work is one big influencer, how you treat yourself is another great influence. And, mostly, how you treat each other, you can influence someone for life. Many of you had an influence on Conor O’Rourke this summer when he was considering if tennis at this level was something he really wanted to do.

4. Team Spirit
   
   Each of you has the chance to make a difference. All of you together can change the world. Take for example Josh Hagars playing for glimmer campaign. From something small to something very big.
   
   

   What you say to each other matters. How you say things to each other matters. Last year I played a game with Claire Cahill, everytime she said something that pulled someone up, a gave her a plus, everytime she said something that pulled someone down, a minus. Trying to help her be conscious of what she was saying to people.
   
   

   You that are juniors and seniors and those that are highly accomplished, need to be playing the same game. What are you doing to bring things up.
   
   

   You are a part of something special …talk about Jacqulines dad conversation. In the academy…”wow”.
   
   

You are part of something extraordinary. Our uniforms, our rituals like the ATA ball, warmup rituals, team meetings, our involvement in a glimmer of hope all add to the overall team spirit. I told Jon Stockdale that I needed his voice in practice this year, and he has stepped up. I am excited to have Alex Durham, capt of the Westlake HS team who also brings energy to practice. I am pleased to see the return of Cameron Relic, He has a very high level of spirit and energy at practice which brings the level up. Each of you should aspire to bring it up in your own way.

Surround yourself with the best peers, coaches and friends because you become the average of those who are in your personal environment.

• Be prepared to outwork the competition
• Be prepared to be more disciplined than the competition
• Be prepared to take more risk than the competition

We have assembled a

• Fantastic Staff
  
• Best Facility
  
• Dedicated Coaches
  
• Peer Groups of significance

The engine of this development machine is you the players.

• Do your work
  
• Pull others up and help them do their work
  
• Be mindful of your luckiness
  
• Improve the lives of those around
  
• Use your power for good, both small and large

Each of you has power, how will you use it?

Posted by Jim at 3:40 PM | Comments ()