March 2014

Overhead sports are more likely to develop muscular discrepancy, even more when athletes start at a young age. They will be more likely to experience bad posture and continued errors in technique, which would put them more at risk for injuries. The best way to avoid any complication is prevention, which is why technique and exercise choice are paramount in resistance training and cannot be done randomly.

Has anyone not heard of the power of goal-setting? Yet, even in this age of goal oriented sports, business, science, etc. tennis coaches are typically not very good at incorporating goals into their daily activities. Too many coaches come to lessons on ‘wing-it’ mode. Oh sure, they can do fun activities, however, these don’t add up to effective improvement as they should. To harness the power of practice, goals are required. Goals increase the effectiveness of your annual plans, seasonal plans, monthly plans, weekly plans, lesson plans, right down to the drill or activity being done. You can almost use the term ‘goals’ and ‘plans’ synonymously. The old adage, “When you fail to plan, you plan to fail” is applicable here. A great plan is a series of goals that are SMART.

It was a Saturday late in August 2011 at Mont Tremblant in the finals of the Under 14 Nationals that I came to respect Raheel Manji the way I do. He was a scrawny kid from Pickering playing in his first National finals. As the Ontario coach, I had been preparing Raheel for his matches all week. He was a joy to work with because he was so committed to his objective of winning a National Championship. I must admit I was influenced by the fact that he really seemed to respect my opinion. What is funny about that is now I know that that is the way of Raheel. He asks everybody, listens to everybody, makes everybody feel like they are the only one he listens to and then….does what he wants.

For most sports fans in North America tennis is still a fringe sport.  The sport comes to life four times a year in Melbourne, Paris, London & New York City.  Eight weeks out of 52 is not enough to bring the sport to the upper echelon. To find tennis on most websites in North America you have to scroll down to the “other sports” category. It is not front and center and on the main pages like it is in Europe, South America and Asia. It can’t compete with the likes of the NHL, NBA, NFL or the MLB.  Women’s golf – a sport on life support – has gone this route – they added a fifth major to their schedule and broke with tradition. What’s wrong with the concept of adding another Grand Slam to a sport with a rich history? It’s along the same lines as the major sports increasing the number of teams participating in the playoffs. It’s a risky move but in all instances it has been successful.

Former Canadian tennis player, coach, & Fed Cup captain Rene Simpson, who passed away in 2013 of brain cancer, was an inspiration and a role model to all of those involved in the sport. She was inducted in the Canadian Tennis Hall of Fame in 2011.

As a tennis player, most of us are always told to stretch. Okay, but stretch what? And why should I stretch? Also, what is stretching actually doing? As an athlete, we need reasons and goals attached to the activities we do, otherwise we are perhaps wasting time.