Everyball International Academy of Tennis

Combination of bungees and an orange (low compression/bouncing) ball sees Scarlett Hutchinson (11 years) work on her athletic, low base yesterday.

Well done Hannah on winning your first Grade 5 14&U Event held at David Lloyd Heston last weekend beating Muchaneta Nhau (Bucks) in the final.  Great stuff Hannah.

Full-time player Erika Dodridge  gives her best effort in the gym yesterday.  Nice work Erika!

At 'cause' we know our outcomes (set goals), we have choice (choose our attitudes), we take responsibility (show an ability to respond), we accept ourselves and others, are adaptable and control our (emotional) states.

At 'effect' we don't know what we want, we have no choice and respond only out of necessity, we blame others, are judgemental, rigid and stuck and at the mercy of our own emotions - we become emotionally lazy!

Clearly we want to live 'at cause' because it's the most healthy, effective, fun place to be.  The best 'competitors' in sport live their lives here.  No doubt we all slip into being at 'effect' at times - the key is to recognise it and get out of it as soon as possible.  

Players - the LTA Goal setting/planning/scheduling tool available to all of you is a great way of getting to 'cause'.  Set your goals, know where you are at, be the captain of your own ship, take responsibility for your own game.  We often get asked what we do to help our players become 'tougher' mentally.  This  is where mental toughness/resilience begins as the simple act of having a plan, knowing where you are going and how you are going to get there reduces uncertainty and therefore anxiety, and builds confidence.  There is a great new 'app' from the LTA that you can download free from the app store to help with this.

EBI's Jemima Hayward has recently taken on the role of 'Player Support Manager' to help Academy players and parents in this incredibly important area.  Please speak to Jemima or your individual coach if you need further help.

$10,000 Bastad, Sweden - Rising Star Tour

1st Round - EBI's Katy Dunne beats Katarina Adamovic (SRB) 2-6, 6-1, 6-3

2nd Round - Katy loses to Torin Kinard (USA) seeded 7, 7-6, 6-1

Katy's WTA senior world ranking moves towards 950 and she now begins preparations for the French Open Juniors.

Meanwhile, Holly Hutchinson prepares for two weeks of Clay Court action in Montenegro on the ITF Junior Tour with one of our partners Rob Smith from 'International Travelling Coach' - www.itc-tennis.com

In June we look forward to welcoming Laura Deigman onto the touring team as she joins Katy and coach Pete Thorne,

With the creation of Everyball's 'Touring Team' the Academy can now boast a true 'cradle to tour' programme.

And especially so on a tennis court. 

We need our training partners to improve so that we can.

We need our training partners to hustle down one more ball so we can play another.

We need to raise our own effort levels to give others permission to do the same.

We need the courage to encourage each other.

We need to cultivate a culture of recognition and acknowledgement when others do well.

We need to build each other up rather than tear each other down.

We need to get over the fact this is, for the most part, an individual sport

We need to embrace a team mentality.

We need to get over-ourselves, our insecurities, our independent, wilful selves and realise that....

We are inter-dependent with the other guy, the other side of the net, because he provides us with the opportunity to be the best we can be.

Alex Clark began to train with EBI as a 11 year old and after a time at WIN Tennis returned to Halton as a full-time player from which she embarked on her US Collegiate adventure just over a year ago.

Alex will be back in a couple of weeks training with us through the summer and doing some work at Wimbledon so look forward to having that smile back with us.  Bring some sunshine as well Alex and a Mizzou T-shirt for me!

www.mutigers.com/allaccess?media=388778 

'The truth is, when you are starting out, you do not 'play' tennis, you struggle and fight and pay attention and slowly get better.  Effort based language works because it speaks directly to the core of the learning experience.' 

So what is effort based language?

Dweck (Carol Dweck, Mindset) notes that motivation does not increase with increased levels of praise but often dips.  When we use  'motivational language', we are generally referring to language that speaks of hopes, dreams, and affirmations ('you are the best').  This kind of language, high motivation - has its role, but it is not the kind of language that ignites people.

What works is precicely the opposite: not reaching up, but reaching down, speaking of ground-level effort, affriming the struggle.

 'Wow, you worked unbelievably hard today - that was a tough session.'

'It's not about recognising talent, whatever the hell that is.  I've never tried to go out and find someone who's talented.  First you work on the fundamentals, and pretty soon you find out where things are going.' (Tom Martinez, quarterback Guru whose best student he calls Tommy, better known to the world as Tom Brady, a three-time Super Bowl-winning quarterback for the New England Patriots).

(Quotes and info from Daniel Coyle's The Talent Code)

Nice article supporting EBI Key Beliefs around failure.

http://www.success.com/articles/1181-why-failure-is-good-for-success

Lauren Armstrong wins her first round match at the 23eme Passagepoirs in Le Passage D'Agen, France 12&U Tennis Europe event.  She beat Salma Djoubri (France) 6-4, 4-6, 6-4 and now plays Lind Alessi (Italy).  Good luck today Lauren.

Watched 'The Voice' on Saturday night. Pleasantly surprised - genuine performers seeking to break through.  Will.i.am advises his last recruit TJ to 'come with a humble heart, open ears and wide eyes'.  Great advice for all of us in the 'learning game', players and coaches, young or old. 

Rafa Nadal in 'Rafa My Story' writes: 

'...A large part of the reason I have been successful is my humility...Understanding the importance of humility is to understand the importance of being in a state of maximum concentration at the crucial stages of a game, knowing you are not going to go out and win on God-given talent alone.'

Greatness and humility connected? Very much so.   Let's be 'wide eyed'!