Everyball

Children Learn What They Live - Dorothy Law Nolte

Sat, 12 May 2012 00:35:04 -0700

If children live with criticism,
They learn to condemn.

If children live with hostility,

They learn to fight.

If children live with ridicule,

They learn to be shy.

If children live with shame,

They learn to feel guilty.

If children live with encouragement,

They learn confidence.

If children live with tolerance,

They learn to be patient.

If children live with praise,

They learn to appreciate.

If children live with acceptance

They learn to love.

If children live with approval,

They learn to like themselves.

If children live with honesty,

They learn truthfulness.

If children live with security,

They learn to have faith in themselves and others.

If children live with friendliness,

They learn the world is a nice place in which to live.

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Who's the greatest?

Fri, 20 Apr 2012 00:43:06 -0700

It's been said that the greatest amongst us are those who can serve and not mind. The ones who can put others in the spotlight. The ones who can create and not fear to fail. The ones who can risk and not worry about ridicule. The ones who come with their strengths and weaknesses, their happiness and their sorrow. The ones who come humbly as themselves. That's how to be great.

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Thought for today

Wed, 18 Apr 2012 23:58:35 -0700

It has often been said there are 3 kinds of people:

Those that make things happen
Those that watch things happen
Those for whom things happen to them

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mistakes

Tue, 17 Apr 2012 13:58:30 -0700

Make mistakes. Just make sure they're new ones.

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Ricky roundup

Tue, 10 Apr 2012 13:32:37 -0700

There was heavy 'Everyball' involvement at the sharp end of the Rickmansworth LTA Grade 3 event which concluded on Saturday.

In summary:

Calum Mckinlay beat Joe Tingey in the 16s boys final 6-3, 6-1 having one of the best weeks of his young career in which he also took out the number 1 seed Jake Muns and number 3 seed Michael Shaw each with tie break wins. Well done Calum for an excellent week and also to Joe for consistently being at the sharp end of these events year after year.

Gavin Mckinlay and Jack Mordey won 18s boys doubles beating Calum and Joe 6-2, 7-5, whilst Tor Pisani beat Carly Williams in the U21 final 6-4, 6-3 as well as reaching the semis of the 16s as well.

Jack Mordey lost in the final of the u21s against Adam Coyne whilst Gavin lost to Adam in the 18s final in a close fought match, 4-6, 1-6 in which he performed extremely well.

Sam Gough made semis of the 14s losing to rival Michael Shaw, with Jake Williams winning the consolation final. Sam and Toby Rogers (comeback kid!) beat Halton's Oscar Glenister and Jake Williams to get to the finals of the 14&U doubles.

Below Calum and Tor take home their victory spoils.

Well done to all players!

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Halton's Everyball player Holly Hutchinson makes her move

Thu, 05 Apr 2012 13:58:54 -0700

Halton's Holly Hutchinson justifies her seeding and more at the LTA Grade 2 14&U event in Nottingham this week.

Holly, the tournament's 7th seed, plays Eden Richardson tomorrow in the semi-finals after taking out 4th seed Sian Payne today in two close sets, a win that will see her break into the Top 10 14&U Girls in GB.

See Holly's 1st round pre-match interview in which she beat Camille Verden Anderson 6-4, 6-2.

Congratulations also to Everyball's Joe Tingey and Calum McKinlay who will meet each other over the weekend in the boys 16&U final at the LTA Grade 3 event in Rickmansworth.

IMG_0194.MOV Watch on Posterous

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'Mind the gap'

Tue, 03 Apr 2012 07:51:18 -0700

Reminded last week of the quote: 'train like you fight, and fight like you train'.

At certain stages within the training programme, minimising the 'gap' between practice and competition is critical, and has to be the responsibility of coach AND player. For the coach to use creativity around climate setting and conditioning of drills where 'consequence' is an integral part of each session and for the player to bring a 'match' like attitude of effort and competitiveness to the court.

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practice!

Sun, 25 Mar 2012 08:11:00 -0700

See Peter Crouch's goal for Stoke against Manchester City yesterday? Luck some say. Result of deliberate practice I say!

This is what Crouch said about it: 'When the ball dropped, I tried to pop it up and try a volley technique. I do it a lot and practice it, though they don't always fly in like that! Every day in training I practice volleying. It's something I've always enjoyed doing since I was a kid.'

Ed Smith in his book 'Luck: What it Means and Why It Matters' defines luck as circumstances over which one has no control.

Crouch's goal was not luck but the result of hours of practice, no doubt beginning in the back yard or street at home.

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The right to be right

Sat, 17 Mar 2012 01:30:18 -0700

I was reminded the other evening by a friend of 'giving up the right to be right'.

Imagine the quality of our relationships if we could truly live this out.

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Relentless work to raise your average game

Tue, 13 Mar 2012 03:12:02 -0700

I asked our squad of Top Team Seniors last night what percentage of the time they perform (when competing):

A. Really well

B. Average

C. Really poorly

Most players scored A and C around 10-20 % of the time, which leave a huge percentage of the time where we perform 'average'.

Of course we work hard and smart to increase the number of times we play really well and minimise the times we play really poorly, but if the greater % of time is always going to be spent playing 'average' then we have to ask ourselves the question, how good is our average? That is probably the true 'measure' of our games, and by raising our average performances we'll begin to take our games to the next level.

Kevin Anderson played Djokovic at Indian Wells last year and was nowhere close. He played him again yesterday, and lost in a much closer match 6-2, 6-3. He played average, but his average game has improved considerably in a year. According to Arsene Wenger, the key to last night's win against Newcastle was 'relentless work'. What does it take to raise the average level of your game? Relentless work!

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Player Profile - Oscar Glenister

Sun, 11 Mar 2012 09:21:16 -0700

The following is the first of a series of 'player profiles' within the Everyball Academy at Halton.

Oscar Glenister

Born: 1999

Current age-group: 12&U

Current national ranking: 38

Current LTA rating: 7.1

Plays: right handed, two handed backhand

Been playing: 4 years

Favourite player: Tsonga

Individual coach: Peter Thorne

Racket: Babolat Pure Drive

Oscar (Ozzie to the rest of us!) has been steadily moving up the National rankings over the past year and qualified for the Grade 2 National Winter Tour event in Nottingham this weekend mixing it up with some of the country's top 12&U players.

Next year his goal is to qualify for the 14&U National Championships and he intends to be one of the country's top juniors in a few years time. With his hard working attitude and huge desire to compete there will be no surprises when he achieves this. He trains 8-10 hours per week and continues to love his football as well as tennis!

Oscar on a short break from his training session last week

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Acting, thinking, feeling...

Sun, 11 Mar 2012 01:04:06 -0800

Act your way into a new way of thinking/feeling, or think/feel your way into a new way of acting?

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balls!

Sat, 10 Mar 2012 05:31:00 -0800

The subject of balls has been the prevailing topic of the week.

We tried the Babolat VS ball this week in training - not bad.

We had a major sort of the ball shed - we can never keep it tidy....in doing this we had a good 'ball sort' . Some made the cut, some didn't...felt bad.

Phil, just about to head on court for a lesson, had apparently lost his balls and asked me, 'where are my balls?' I thought the answer was obvious.

Youngest son Jude has been pestering me all morning for a new football, only because him and his brother have kicked all of theirs into the neighbours garden. He seems to be making a point of not returning them. Possibly something about them hitting his roof on a fairly regular basis.

Oldest son Joel (9 years) has decided to write a letter to him. It reads: 'Sorry for hitting your house, please forgive us. We will try not to hit them over. From Joel. PS - give our balls back.'

And I thought chasing down every ball was just meant for the court....

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Comfortable with the ball in play

Fri, 02 Mar 2012 01:44:53 -0800

Listened to an excellent presentation yesterday by John Black, former coach to Kyle Edmund who has just picked up his first ATP points on the men's tour. Some key points that really resonated with our philosophy of 'everyball'

- Start with trying your very best every day

- How good is your average performance?

- Performer before the player - you can get to the tennis after you've dealt with the performer

- Mental fight and belief are your biggest weapons

- Don't ever lose sight of the goal

- Basics - be an expert, know more about less

- Be comfortable with the ball in play

- Forget others and forget about making comparisons

- Didn't care 'who' he was hitting with

- Win in your own backyard before you think about somebody else's

- Play the best players at the best tournaments

- Every experience is vital

- Miss the net!!!

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excuses!

Wed, 22 Feb 2012 02:01:13 -0800

Spent the day yesterday with some top sport psych guys from Holland and Belguim.

Some good material but one thing made me chuckle; we were talking about 'excuse making' or finding something to blame a poor performance or result on, which of course we can all fall into the habit of doing now and again. Anyway, psych speak for excuse making is 'external attribution'. Makes it sound so much more clinical and intellectual. So remember next time you're digging for some excuse for whatever reason, you are indulging in the art of external attribution!

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work, work and then work some more!

Mon, 20 Feb 2012 08:48:35 -0800

Snow, ice, blizzards, -10 degrees

Not enough to stop us getting the work done!

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Everyball players make their mark during half term

Mon, 20 Feb 2012 08:27:10 -0800

Report by Phil Hill, U14/Tennis Europe Captain, AASE Manager, Everyball International Academy at Halton

Everyball Players Lauren Armstrong and Kiran Kudaravalli won the U12 & U16 titles respectively at the LTA Grade 3 event at Gosling, Hertfordshire.

Lauren Armstrong beat the no1 seed Michaella Brown (7.1) 7-6 (5) 3-6 11-9 championship tiebreak in 2 hour 39 minute epic before beating in the final Emily Small 6-1 7-6 (7.2 no 4seed). Lauren had performed well all week including an 2 hour 40 minute battle against Celine Zoetelief Tromp (6.2) before eventually losing 1-6 5-7 in the U14's!

Kiran was equally impressive having beaten Luke Power the no 4 seed 6-2 6-3 and no 5 seed Jake Munns 6-1 6-4 to reach the final to then eventually beat Chad Richards no 6 seed 7-6 6-7 14-12 in championship tiebreak saving 3 match points in the championship tiebreak! Another 2 hour 42 minute epic!

There were also good Performances by Thomas Schmidt , Sebastian Harris and Indu Ragunather and Alice Patch, all eventually losing in the quarter finals of their respective age groups. Finally, Daniel Dean competed well in the Winter National Tour Event at Gosling winning two matches and losing two.

These were my observations having watched our players all week at Gosling:

Areas of improvement after Spring Term block 1 of training were:

- Consistency in the rallies and ability to maintain quality trading when both back

- Good use the double opener - when serving 1st serve and when both back

- Ability to compete for every point and maintain focus/attentional control.

- Finishing at net

Areas to be addressed in next block of training:

- Bravery and aggressiveness on 2nd serves

- Reading and movement up the court to the midcourt ball

- Use of drive volleys

- Developing control and feel when forced into the net together with smarter tactical decisions.

Holly Hutchinson continued her run of good form with another Grade 3 title in the Girls 14&U Grade 3 at Northwood, Middlesex with a 6-2, 6-1 win over Nanami Yamaguchi.

Well done to all players for your effort and performances.

Indu Ragunather sits with Coach Phil Hill reviewing her performances last week

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Morocco experience

Mon, 13 Feb 2012 13:47:44 -0800

Everyball's Liberty Crawford gains valuable experience in the Women's 25K in Rabat, losing in the last round of qualies to 430 world ranked Italian Carolina Pillot.

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Holly wins Grade 3 Regional Tournament

Sun, 12 Feb 2012 10:27:56 -0800

Everyball's Holly Hutchinson won the 14&U Regional Grade 3 tournament today in Kent with wins over Elizabeth Hodge , Hannah Ferrett, Jennifer Gogova, and Holly Thompson who she beat in the final 6-1, 2-6, 10-4. Holly said: 'I played confidently and fought really hard all weekend. Yea, definitely proud of the work I put in.'

Nice job Holly!

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Everyball's Liberty Crawford off the mark in Morocco

Sat, 11 Feb 2012 08:01:09 -0800

16 year old Liberty Crawford is off the mark in her first Women's 25K event in Rabat, Morocco. She won her first qualifying match today against Salma Charif of Morocco 6-4, 6-2. She plays Italian Carolina Pillot ranked 430 in the world (WTA) tomorrow for a place in the main draw.

Nice work Lib and good luck!

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