Talking Sports

Slapping Your Forehand and Backhand

2026-02-12T09:41:00.000-05:00

Feel Tennis (Tomaz Mencinger) posted several YouTube videos on slapping or smacking the ball on the forehand and backhand. The idea is that the wrist bends backward (wrist extension) during the takeback when the racket lags the arm then the wrist straightens as the racket moves forward to make contact but does not go into wrist flexion (bending forward). The coach likens it to beating a rug to knock out the dust.

Here are the links. (There is a fourth video that is accessible only to people who subscribe to his members-only channel.)

https://youtu.be/9BQBRkYHpq0?si=qY3-5GVHspjNhdbV

https://youtu.be/5rTG-uxWmsg?si=u_vviAvQ55GOt9cT

https://youtu.be/2D7UlPQHce4?si=ctScS2NuT_VOrFBc

I think the movement Coach Mencinger recommends increases the racket head speed because it lags the wrist at first then catches up at impact. Most of the people with whom I play keep their wrist locked during the swing. (I did too until trying this idea.) Swinging with a fixed wrist does make that the racket tip move faster than the wrist, but the additional wrist movement used in Mencinger’s tip should increase the racket speed even more.

When I incorporated this into my groundstrokes they do have more power. I use the TennisKeeper app which picked up a few mph change in speed. I think the actual speed increase is higher because the app (which tracks movement of my Apple Watch) measures wrist speed, not racket head speed or the speed of the ball coming off the strings.

It took a while to get used to this technique because timing of the wrist movement can affect when the ball is contacted. The first few times I tried it some of my shots sailed a bit long. But once I made this adjustment, I believe my shots have more zip on them. The TennisKeeper apps confirms this, plus I’ve noticed that my opponents are having a harder time dealing with my shots.

Try it and see if it works for you!

How to Whip your forehand for more speed by One Minute Tennis Coach

2024-01-30T20:12:00.001-05:00

This video by Stephen Bourne ("One Minute Tennis Coach") offers a way to increase the whip of the forehand. As usual, Bourne provides a different take on tennis technique and with a clear explanation. In this video he shows that the professionals hit their forehands with more power than us amateurs because they're rotating around the left shoulder (if they're right-handed), not their right shoulder. He shows how they tuck their left (non-racket) hand in a way that causes their body to pivot around the left shoulder, not the right, thus increasing the length of the swing. (I don't know if this is the same reason mechanically but I've noticed that many professional football quarterbacks make the same motion with their non-throwing hand when they throw the ball.)

I recommend Bourne's YouTube channel. Many of his tips provide a unique -- and useful -- perspective.

Doubles Strategy: On Which Side Should the Stronger Player Play?

2024-01-30T20:05:00.000-05:00

One of the topics that comes up on tennis forums and in coaching videos is this: where should the stronger doubles partner play? One theory recommends putting the stronger player on the ad side because four of the six game ending scores occurs on the ad side: 40-0, 0-40, 40-30 and 30-40. Only two occur on the deuce side: 40-15 and 15-40. So the idea is that the stronger player can either close out the game if his or her team have a lead or can prevent losing the game if they're behind in the game. Having the stronger player on the ad side also puts their overhead and forehand in the middle (if they're right-handed).

Recently I've experimented with playing on the deuce side if I'm the stronger player. I've noticed that one advantage means my team has a better chance of being ahead in the score (15-0, 30-15, 40-0 or 40-30) because I'm more likely to control the point. I have a better backhand return of serve than some of my partners and therefore can handle the opposing server if they consistently serve up the center on the deuce side.

I know this puts the weaker player on the ad side but it also puts their forehand in the center; most players have a stronger forehand than backhand. Having them on the ad side put their backhand on the outer quarter of the court rather than in the middle.

I'm not saying this is a hard-and-fast rule. Sometimes I play the ad court depending on the strengths of my partner and how we match up with the opposing team. For instance, I'll play the ad side when faced with a left-handed player who is able to hit a severe slice serve that breaks to the returner's left and pulls them off the court. Because I've worked hard on having a solid backhand I can handle this serve.

Change in Scope - Again

2024-01-30T19:41:00.001-05:00

When I started this blog way back in 2007 it focused on soccer because I was coaching it at the time. In 2014 I changed and expanded the scope to cover other sports. I did this because there are lessons we can learn things like mental toughness and how to overcome challenges by studying how champions in other sports perform.

The main focus moving forward will be on tennis, primarily because I'm currently playing every day (sometimes twice). I also coached a local boys high school varsity team for six years. When I'm not reading related to my other blog, Thinking Objectively, I'm reading about tennis and watch the Tennis Channel almost all of the time. My goal is to continuously improve my game.

My goal with this blog is to share ideas that I come across in YouTube or books. Occasionally I'll share an insight that is all my own!

The Power of Unlearning: Serena Williams' Story

2020-06-16T18:27:00.001-04:00

The Power of Unlearning: Serena Williams' Story

Here is a key paragraph.

Unlearning is the process of letting go, reframing, and moving away from once-useful mindsets and acquired behaviors. It’s not forgetting, removing, or discarding knowledge or experience; it’s a conscious act of letting go of outdated information and actively taking in new information to inform effective decision-making and action.

I have some experience with this from surgeries. In 2012 I had rotator cuff surgery then double knee replacements in June of 2018. In both cases I was unable to play tennis for several months. When I returned to practicing I used this as an opportunity to work on aspects of my game. I think it worked because people commented on how my tennis had improved from the last time they played with me.

Rafael Nadal on Doubt

2020-01-10T21:20:00.002-05:00

The Tennis Channel previewed an upcoming 60 Minutes interview of tennis player Rafael Nadal by Jon Wertheim, Tennis Channel commentator and Sports Illustrated executive editor. Nadal ended 2019 with a number 1 ranking in the world and with 19 Grand Slam titles, only one behind Roger Federer. The clip starts with Wertheim asking Nadal to talk about the importance of doubt in his game. Nadal: “If I don’t feel doubt I’m going to be in trouble. Doubt is very important to my success.” Wertheim expressed surprise at Nadal’s answer because Wertheim thought top performers wouldn’t claim doubt as their strength. Nadal’s reply: “If you don’t have doubt it probably means you’re being arrogant. I think it [doubt] is good for me because I feel alert. Tennis is a sport where things can change very quickly.”

I think what Nadal refers to isn’t doubt in oneself but doubt in the outcome, maybe even doubt in how well you will perform that day against that opponent. I also think Nadal is saying that you can’t assume you’re going to win a match against someone whom you’ve beaten before. By avoiding overconfidence you stay alert and not allow yourself to be lured into complacency. As is commonly said in professional sports that’s why the games are played: the outcome is not guaranteed. The underdog can sometimes win if they’re having a good day and the presumed winner is having an off day or doesn’t adjust to something their opponent is doing differently.

In an interview after the 2017 French Open Nadal also said that doubt drives him to improve the weaknesses in his game. This reflects his belief in an growth mindset in which you think you can improve with thoughtful effort as opposed to a closed mindset which believes our talents are set in stone and can’t be expanded. You think either you’ve got what it takes or you don’t. Nadal applied this open mindset when he changed his service motion before the 2019 Australian Open to boost the speed and penetration of his serve.

On the other hand if the doubt we feel reflects a fundamental lack of belief in one’s abilities it would undermine our performance in the heat of competition. It can make it even more likely that we will choke under pressure.

I’d summarize it this way. Doubt about outcome keeps us on our toes while competing and drives us to improve. However doubt in ourselves makes it more likely we won’t step up to the challenge.

Learning is optimized when we fail 15% of the time -- ScienceDaily

2019-11-06T10:14:00.001-05:00

Learning is optimized when we fail 15% of the time -- ScienceDaily

As a junior varsity high school tennis coach I tell the players that they should look at losing matches as an opportunity to learn what they can do to improve their game. (I tell myself that too when I play tennis matches.) If the players can learn from losses they still win in the long run even though they lost the latest match. (I’d also say they can also learn from wins by looking at what they can improve. I do this by keeping a journal in which I rate whether I improved in technique, tactics and mental parts of my game and rate what needs to be improved.)

The Science Daily article links to a paper titled The Eight Five Percent Rule for optimal learning that is fairly technical. The Science Daily article summarizes:

Educators and educational scholars have long recognized that there is something of a "sweet spot" when it comes to learning. That is, we learn best when we are challenged to grasp something just outside the bounds of our existing knowledge. When a challenge is too simple, we don't learn anything new; likewise, we don't enhance our knowledge when a challenge is so difficult that we fail entirely or give up.

So where does the sweet spot lie? According to the new study, to be published in the journal Nature Communications, it's when failure occurs 15% of the time. Put another way, it's when the right answer is given 85% of the time.

So we optimize our learning if we fail about one out of six times. Good to know!

I believe these results parallel what it takes to achieve a state of mind that is called Flow, a concept identified by Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi, a Hungarian-American psychologist. The Wikipedia entry describes flow as “the mental state of operation in which a person performing an activity is fully immersed in a feeling of energized focus, full involvement, and enjoyment in the process of the activity. In essence, flow is characterized by the complete absorption in what one does, and a resulting loss in one's sense of space and time.”

I say that there is a connection between optimal learning and flow because achieving a flow state requires facing a task that challenges you without being daunting. The Positive Psychology website explains: “an optimal Flow state was created when people tackled challenges that they perceived to be at just the right level of ‘stretch’ for their skill sets. In other words, neither too tough nor too easy as to be boring.”

Putting together the findings on optimal learning and flow it appears that both need a “Goldilocks” challenge: one that stretches you to achieve flow and reveals what you need to improve for the next time.

Lessons from the NFL AFC Championship

2019-01-22T09:51:00.001-05:00

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I know many people outside of New England are tired of seeing the New England Patriots playing in the Super Bowl. There are a lot of reasons why the Pats dominate so much but I believe we can apply a couple things Tom Brady said in the post-game interview of the 2019 NFL’s AFC Championship (in which the New England Patriots beat the Kansas City Chiefs 37-31). We can apply these ideas not just to sports but how we live. I’ve provided his response to a reporter’s question with key words in bold.

Q: How do you stay so calm in the biggest moments, especially when your team is down and you have to drive the team right back?

BRADY: “Part of playing sports is just staying in the moment. We always say one play at a time and you can’t make up for things that happen in the past. You just have to think about what you are going to do moving forward. Start of the fourth quarter, they scored. We are up three to start the fourth quarter. What a great opportunity to be against this team and to be ahead three in the fourth quarter with a chance to win is pretty sweet. They blew so many teams out this year. It is just a great opportunity for us, and we took advantage of it.”

His first point, staying in the moment, is key. I’ve seen players and teams get desperate or angry when losing or when calls go against them then try for plays or shots that aren’t part of their normal repertoire. They’re upset about what just happened then try to make up for it by hitting the ball harder or going for shots they don’t “own.” For instance, in tennis (the sport with which I’m most familiar because I play it almost daily) I’ve seen players go for a shot or an angle that they normally wouldn’t try if they were ahead. Instead, they often end up making an unforced error, which only makes things worse. (I know because I’ve done it!)

As Brady says it’s better to forget about past mistakes or calls that go against you and focus on two things: stay in the moment while thinking of what you’re going to do next. One tip I use in tennis after making a mistake is to tell myself, “Next time” while making a couple shadow swings on how I wanted to hit the shot that I just missed. “Next time” means I’m telling myself I’ll do it better the next time I have the chance. This attitude implicitly represents a focus on the process rather than the results. It also reflects their confidence in themselves. And, it also means that their self-esteem isn’t tied to the outcome. Sure, it doesn’t feel good to lose but someone like Brady or Federer just use the loss as motivation to learn from what happened and try to improve. (This also reflects something I’ve written about in a previous post: the difference between having a growth mindset rather than a fixed mindset.)

Later Brady said that the Pats had a “great opportunity” when starting the fourth quarter with a three point lead over a team that was seeded #1 and had beaten other teams by large margins. I find it interesting that he didn’t say it was a challenge or that they were nervous. This is one of the qualities I’ve noticed with champions like the Brady, the Patriots or, switching to tennis again, Roger Federer. They are unflappable. They see facing a tough opponent as an opportunity to excel rather than a challenge for which they might not be good enough.

So what accounts for this calmness? I’d say these factors: focus on the present, confidence in yourself without tying the outcome to your self-esteem and a process-oriented mentality.

Tennis Reminders (Updated)

2019-01-02T15:58:00.001-05:00

In an earlier post, Can I? versus I Can!, I shared results of research on how people performed when they asked themselves the question “Can I do this?” versus coaxing themselves with “I can do this!” I mentioned that I apply this by asking myself “Can I play well today?” then answering “Yes!”

At the end of that post I also mentioned that I also use the acronym LIFE³ as part of my pre-match routine to remind why I’m playing: to Learn, Improve, have Fun and to Express myself, to Explore my capabilities and to Exercise.

The final pre-match self-talk covers key reminders on the techniques I want to use. I use two phrases, one for groundstrokes and one for serving. For groundstrokes I say, “Watch me Catch Butt.” This actually contains three reminders in one. Watch: reminds me to watch the shadow of the ball. Why the shadow? To narrow my focus to something specific on the ball, not the ball itself. (I actually don’t watch the ball over its entire flight. More on that in a later post. Hint: has to do with something called saccadic eye movements.) Catch: reminds me that on my forehand I’m holding my left arm across my body and basically parallel to the baseline as if I’m going to catch the ball. This forces me to turn my upper body, which sets up the coil needed to generate power. On the backhand I pretend I’m going to catch the ball with the butt of my racket. On volleys Catch reminds me to set up my racket as if I’m catching the ball with it. Butt: reminds me to pull the racket through contact to help generate racket speed.

Finally, when serving, I use the word UP to remind myself that I’m hitting Up on the ball and to Pronate.

By the way, in case you were wondering, here is a little background on my tennis playing ability and experience. When I’ve taken tennis lessons in the past couple years I’ve asked the four different instructors how they’d rate me on the NTRP (National Tennis Rating Program) scale. All of them say I’m at least a 4.0, maybe a little higher. Of course, all of them say this is based on what they see during lessons and that the rating could change depending on how I play in actual matches.

I constantly study the game by watching YouTube videos, reading many books and subscribing to a bunch of email newsletters of pros and instructors such as Wil Hamilton, Clay Ballard, Brent Abel, Peter Freeman, Ramon Osa, Jorge Capestany, and Ian Westermann. For the last three years I also have kept a tennis journal in which I rate myself whether I made incremental improvement in technique, tactics and my mental/emotional state. The journal also records observations on areas that need to be worked on for the next match.

I also use the Babolat POP wrist sensor to track my strokes. The POP collects average and maximum speeds of groundstrokes and serves, the kinds of groundstrokes (top spin, slice or flat) and gives an overall rating based on spin, speed and style. (I record this information in a spreadsheet to look for trends.)

All of this information aims to show that even though I might not be a 4.5 or higher rated player my constant study has resulted in my game continuing to advance. I believe I’m playing better now at the age of 67 than I have ever played before in the 50+ years that I’ve played this sport. And I’m not done!

UPDATED 1/2/2019

Since writing this a year ago I've tweaked and added to my pre-match routine. The UP reminder for serving now is PUPSS which stands for Point at the toss, hit Up, Pronate, start the serve take back Slowly and try to keep my body Sideways longer. I added these to my pre-serve reminder because I was finding myself starting the take back too fast then stopping or slowing down and my body was opening to the court too early which I think caused my first serve to go into the net too often.

The following might sound hokey but I also ask why am I playing. The answer is LIFES. This stands for to Learn more about the game and myself, to Improve, to have Fun, to Explore, get Exercise, have Excitement and Express myself with Style. The Style reminder is to get me to focus on playing smoothly and on the process of hitting the ball rather than the results. I got this idea after reading Gabriele Wulf’s Attention and Motor Skill Learning in which she describes the results of her research on the difference between having an external focus rather than an internal focus in performing athletic skills.

Here is how Amazon summarizes her book. “Attention and Motor Skill Learning challenges traditional views that the method of learning a motor skill involves focusing attention on each part of the skill and internalizing proper execution. Instead, author Gabriele Wulf argues that the learning of new motor skills suffers when attentional focus is on the coordination of movements. When attention is directed to the desired movement effect, however, performance levels rise. Not only is a higher level of performance often achieved faster with an external rather than an internal attention focus, but the skill is retained better.”

Her book discusses experiments she conducted with people doing a variety of skills such as standing on a balance bar and trying to keep it steady. The internal group was told to try to keep their feet as steady as possible while the external group was told to try to keep two lights that were on the balance beam as steady as possible. The external group consistently did better than the internal group and maintained this advantage when tested days or weeks later.

You could argue that my emphasis on making my shots with style actually is an internal focus but I would say it’s more of an external focus. By thinking about making my strokes with smooth style I’m thinking about the result, not on the mechanics of how to play with style. And I’m thinking mostly about how the forehand, backhand or serve look when they’re completed rather than the whole stroke. Bottom line: I think it works, at least for me!

What Separates Champions From ‘Almost Champions’? -- Science of Us

2018-07-05T09:48:00.001-04:00

What Separates Champions From ‘Almost Champions’? -- Science of Us

I’m going to start of with a long series of quotes from an article in The Cut titled “What Separates Champions From ‘Almost Champions’?

It’s the perennial million-dollar question of nature versus nurture, sure. But the difference between the greats and the almost-greats (which, by the way, applies well beyond sports) also appears to be at least partially driven by one specific thing — how each group responds to adversity. The greats rise to the challenge and put in persistent effort; the almost-greats lose steam and regress.

For a recent study published in the journal Frontiers in Psychology, talent development researchers Dave Collins, Aine MacNamara, and Neil McCarthy examined the differences between athletes who overcame adversity and went on to become world-class (what they call super champions) and those who struggled in the face of hardship (the hearthbreakingly named “almost champions”) . Whereas super champions were playing in premier leagues and/or competing on national teams (think: Olympics), almost champions had achieved well at the youth level but were playing in the less prestigious leagues as adults.

The researchers found that super champions were characterized “by an almost fanatical reaction to challenge.” They viewed challenges in a positive light — as opportunities to grow — and overcame them thanks to a “never satisfied” attitude. This runs in contrast to almost champions, who blamed setbacks on external causes, became negative, and lost motivation.
....

Super champions were driven from within. Their primary concern was self-improvement. They held themselves to high standards, but judged themselves against prior versions of themselves, not against others.
Almost champions, however, were focused on external benchmarks, like national rankings or how they compared to rivals, a mind-set the researchers speculate why almost champions got discouraged during rough patches.

.......

World-class performers, then, don’t rely on either nature or nurture, but on a combination of the two — and they are really good at nurturing their nature. All of which suggests the recipe that gives rise to super champions is worth emulating: Individuals who demonstrate persistent effort follow their interests; practice foremost to get better, not to outdo others; derive satisfaction from within; and feel constantly supported, but not pressured, in their journey toward achievement. If these criteria are in place, experiencing failure doesn’t weaken motivation — it bolsters it. In the words of Michael Joyner, an expert on human performance at Mayo Clinic, “With enough persistent effort, most people can get pretty good at anything.”

These results touch on a number of topics I’ve covered in previous posts: having a growth mindset versus a fixed mindset, focusing on the process rather than results, focusing inwardly on how you’re performing per your own standards instead of worrying about how you’re being perceived externally by your opponent or your friends, engaging in deliberate practice to improve, not just repeating what you already do well and not pushing yourself in practice and having grit as a personal quality. The Cut article doesn’t specifically touch on all of these points while I think they’re all implicitly involved.

I figure someone reading all of this might ask how studying world-class performers applies to us. How many of us really fall into that category? I know it will sound arrogant or obnoxious but I like to think I applied these ideas when designing and delivering presentations when I was working, in my tennis game and in other areas of my life such as relationships, etc. While I’ll probably never climb to the A level of players at the clubs where I play I do know my game has continually improved thanks to my constant investment into getting better. I like to think I’m now a B+ player! ;-) That’s why I believe the quote at the end of the article is key, which is why I’m repeating it below.

In the words of Michael Joyner, an expert on human performance at Mayo Clinic, “With enough persistent effort, most people can get pretty good at anything.”

Amen!

Coaching Junior Varsity High School Tennis: 2nd Year Observations

2018-06-29T11:47:00.002-04:00

This spring I completed the second season of coaching a boy’s junior varsity team for a local Catholic high school. Although I haven’t coached a high school sport before I have coached town and club soccer teams from Under 12 up to U18 teams. However, as you can imagine none of the drills and exercises I used for coaching soccer helped with coaching tennis. The only commonalities shared by both centers on my general preference for coaching. This includes finding ways to set up practices so that the players aren’t standing around in lines waiting for their turn, keeping instructions short and to the point rather than long lectures, and not having the players run laps. (No lines, lectures or laps.) Fortunately for me, the varsity coach (who started at the same time as me) has coached high school tennis for 15 years and designed most practices for both varsity and JV.

In any case, I’m glad to say that the JV record for the two seasons I’ve coached was 6 wins and 6 losses in 2017 and 7 wins and 4 losses in 2018. For what it’s worth here are some conclusions and lessons I learned from these two seasons.

1. Relative coaching pressures between varsity and JV. While varsity plays to have a good enough record to qualify for the end of season state tournament, JV doesn’t have the same tournament. (At least that’s true here in Massachusetts. I don’t know if this is true in other states.) That doesn’t mean I don’t care about the win-loss record. I know the boys (and their parents) do keep track of how they’re doing. This gave me the freedom to experiment with different lineups without being unduly concerned about the results.

2. Statistics. I use a spreadsheet to track the win-loss match record of each player as well as the number of sets won or lost and total number of games won or lost. I also tracked how many times each boy played an exhibition match. (Exhibition matches are those that we play after the initial three singles and two doubles matches that determine which school won that day. With 11 players on my roster and 7 playing official matches I had 4 extra players who would play exhibition matches with the extra players of the other team.) I also tracked the win-loss record of the different doubles teams so that I knew which teams were stronger.

3. Coaching technique. You’d think the fact that we worked with the boys five days a week for ten weeks that the varsity coach and I could work on their technique. However, we usually had 2 or 3 matches a week, leaving only 2 or 3 days a week for practices. Plus it was difficult spending too much time with any one player when you have 11 or 12 at the practice. So the best we could do is make some suggestions. (I liken it to the difference in what you can learn in taking a tennis clinic versus a private lesson.) We had a couple players who asked for specific help on a specific stroke like their backhand or serve. For them we’d have the player stay after practice so we could work with them. The bottom line: we spent more time working on singles and doubles tactics.

4. Chalk talk sessions. We started try-outs and practices in the third week of March. However, New England weather often forced us to cancel practice or run them in a basketball gym, which limits the amount of tennis-like activities you can run. When forced indoors the varsity coach and I would use foam balls or low-pressure balls to work on technique. Sometimes I would have JV meet in a conference room where I could go over some of the info I shared with them in emails and to explain handouts showing positioning in singles and doubles.

5. Designing practices. I mentioned above that I was lucky to have an experienced varsity coach (who also instructs at a local tennis club) who designed the practices. Still, there were times when I was on my own because varsity had a match while JV didn’t. I was frustrated when looking for ideas on designing practices in the various books I have as well as coaching web sites. Most of the drills and games offered in these sources involve only 1 to 4 players. I wanted to create practices that involved everyone, if possible. One of my solutions was to use a game-based approach in which the boys played singles or doubles games but with conditions I imposed to get the boys to play in a certain way. For example, I set a condition where all of the players had to be inside the lines of the court after the serve. This encouraged them to play a bit more aggressively instead of retreating behind the baseline and playing defensively all of the time.

6. Pre-match talks. While I tracked individual win-loss record in addition to the team’s win-loss record I never talked about winning or losing during the pre-match team talk. Why? Because I know that the players can’t control whether they win or lose. They can only control how the thought and effort they put into their play. I came up with a mantra that I repeated before each match: Give 100% effort (or take no points off), act strong and poised regardless of the score, enjoy the competition (because it shows where you can improve and what you do well), and learn from every mistake and every match.

7. Between the points ritual. I told the boys that they spend more time getting ready to play the next point than they do actually playing the point. To help the boys focus between points I recommended a three-step process: Review, Rehearse, Relax. When the point ended I recommend that the player review what happened, especially if it was an error. Then rehearse what you wanted to happen by taking a couple shadow swings while visualizing the shot they wanted to make. Relax by taking a couple deep breaths while looking at their string dampener.

8. Importance of team captain. The team elected the same team captain in both seasons. He turned out to be a great asset. I had him introduce the players to the opposing teams but also had him organize getting parents to volunteer providing drinks and snacks for our home matches. He also ran the warm ups before practices and matches. He also told me if he knew certain guys would not be able to attend a practice or match due to illness, school commitments, etc.

9. Team emails. In addition to using the school email system to inform the boys of the upcoming practice and match schedule I’d also use the email to share important information on technique and tactics from a variety of sources such as web sites or email newsletters from a variety of online coaches. I’d also print out key diagrams as handouts.

10. Parent emails. From talking with the parents who would come to watch their son play at home matches I learned that the amount of information the boys shared with their parents varied wildly. Some parents had no idea how the team was doing or what we worked on during practices. While I know I don’t need to cater to the parents I also know they’re more likely to complain to the Athletic Director if they don’t know what is going on with the team (in general terms). I’m not talking about giving parents a blow-by-blow accounting of everything we do. But I figure it helps to explain my coaching philosophy and provide some key information on tactics and techniques to make them feel a bit more comfortable. It appears I struck the right balance because all of the input received from the parents has been positive.

11. Cheat sheet. I’m not sure why I saved this for the final point but I distilled key points for singles, doubles and general tips into one double-sided sheet. We covered this sheet during our chalk talk sessions and referred to it sometimes during the pre-match talks. It was an interesting process whittling the tons of info I have into what I think are the most important.

That’s it!

Can I? versus I Can!

2018-01-17T10:26:00.000-05:00

Having read many self-help books over the years I’ve constantly encountered the idea of using positive self-talk and affirmation statements to help improve your chances of achieving your goals. Many of these books tell you to write positive “affirmation” statements. Examples would be:

I have plenty of creativity for this project.
I am successful.
I complete tasks and projects on time.
I expect to be successful in all of my endeavors. Success is my natural state.

A tennis example could be, "I always play my best" or "I love competition and do well."

When I read these books years ago and tried affirmations I believe they helped put me in a more positive frame of mind. However, as I wrote in my April 23, 2017 post “Moving Beyond Positive Thinking”, research has shown that if we vividly visualize our goals our mind doesn’t know the difference between the imagined outcome and the actual results! We can end up having less motivation not more. In this post I referred to work done by Gabriele Oettingen, professor of psychology at New York University and the University of Hamburg and covered in her book Rethinking Positive Thinking: Inside the New Science of Motivation.

Daniel Pink, author of books such as Drive: The Surprising Truth About What Motivates Us and To Sell Is Human: The Surprising Truth About Moving Others, reports on research that says we can be more productive by asking if we can do something then answering with a “yes” rather than declaring “I can do it.” Pink describes research done on a method used by Bob the Builder, an “overall-clad, stop-motion animated construction executive – who debuted on CBBC in 1999 and whose television programme now reaches children in 240 territories and 45 languages – is a management radical. His approach to directing projects, people and himself runs counter to the prevailing wisdom about business performance.”

Most of us believe in positive self-talk. "I can achieve anything," we mouth to the mirror in the morning. "Nobody can stop me," we tell ourselves before walking into a big meeting. We believe we'll do better if we banish doubts about our ability or our strategy and instead muster an inner voice that affirms our awesomeness.

But not Bob. Instead of puffing up himself and his team, he first wonders whether they can actually achieve their goal. In asking his signature question – Can we fix it? – he introduces some doubt.

…

In a nifty set of experiments, three social scientists explored the differences between what they call "declarative" self-talk (I will fix it!) and "interrogative" self-talk (Can I fix it?). They began by presenting a group of participants with some anagrams to solve (for example, rearranging the letters in "sauce" to spell "cause".) But before the participants tackled the problem, the researchers asked one half of them to take a minute to ask themselves whether they would complete the task – and the other half to tell themselves that they would complete the task.

The results?

The self-questioning group solved significantly more anagrams than the self-affirming group.

…

By asking "Can we fix it?", Bob widens the possibilities. Only then – once he's explored the options and examined his assumptions – does he elicit a rousing "Yes, we can" from his team and everyone gets to work.

So the next time you're feeding your inner self a heady brew of confident declarations and bold affirmations, toss in a handful of interrogatives with a few sprinkles of humility and doubt.

The research that Pink reports relates somewhat to Oettingen’s WOOP process. WOOP stands for Wish, Outcome, Obstacle, and Plan. You define what you wish [W] to accomplish, determine the outcome [O], identify the likely obstacles [O] then design a plan [P] to overcome those obstacles.

Am I saying not to use positive affirmations? No! I think they have a place. For an interesting perspective see Scott Adams’ How to Fail at Almost Everything and Still Win Big: Kind of the Story of My Life. Adams in hardly a raving advocate of positive mental attitude but he admits to have tried positive affirmations. I think the key take away is not to expect affirmations to have magical powers that will make things happen without work or without accounting for obstacles that could derail your efforts. We need to have a positive idea where we want to go while also asking ourselves what could go wrong and what can we do to deal with it.

-->

By now you’re probably wondering, “How does this apply to tennis or other sports?” Here’s how it applies for me. When I step onto the court I ask myself a version of Bob the Builder’s question: “Can I play well today? … Yes!” (I also use the acronym LIFE³ to remind why I’m playing: to Learn, Improve, have Fun and to Express myself, to Explore my capabilities and to Exercise.)

Process Improvement: This Coach Improved Every Tiny Thing by 1 Percent by James Clear

2017-12-07T12:04:00.000-05:00

Process Improvement: This Coach Improved Every Tiny Thing by 1 Percent

This article by James Clear touches on what I covered in the previous post about journaling. As I mentioned I found that using a journal to record my progress in tennis technique, tactics and my mental/emotional state have helped me become a better player through incremental improvement. Clear's article shows how the British cycling team, which had never won the Tour de France, ended up winning it in 2012 as well as pulling in 70% of the gold medals in cycling in the 2012 Olympics. They did it through “aggregation of marginal gains” as described by Dave Brailsford, General Manager and Performance Director for Team Sky, Great Britain’s professional cycling team.

Keeping a journal helps me keep track of where I'm improving and where I need to spend more time and effort.

While I'm on the subject, Clear also suggests it's better for us to focus on the system we put in place to accomplish goals, rather than the goals themselves. (A point that Scott Adams also makes in his book How to Fail at Almost Everything and Still Win Big: Kind of the Story of My Life.) Another way of saying it is to focus on the process (the system) rather than the goal (the outcome). Here are some of his examples.

If you're a coach, your goal is to win a championship. Your system is what your team does at practice each day.
If you're a writer, your goal is to write a book. Your system is the writing schedule that you follow each week.
If you're a runner, your goal is to run a marathon. Your system is your training schedule for the month.
If you're an entrepreneur, your goal is to build a million dollar business. Your system is your sales and marketing process.

Clear goes on to explain the reasons why setting up a system works better than focusing strictly on goals. Rather than repeating them, here is the link.

Continual Improvement Journaling

2017-12-06T09:20:00.002-05:00

A couple years ago I read a tennis book that recommended using a journal to rate yourself after each match on how much incremental improvement you made while playing. (Unfortunately I don't remember the book.) It suggested rating yourself on a scale of 1 for low to 5 for high in how much incremental improvement you made in the areas of technique, tactics, mental/emotional, and adjustments. It also asks what you did well and what you could improve. The idea behind this is that we usually don’t drastically improve our games. It’s more a process of continual improvement, often with the quality of our play declining a bit because we’re trying to change things. (This is a common occurrence when people take lessons.)

After doing this for about two years I can say that keeping this journal has been helpful. For one thing, I’ve noticed trends that help me know what to work on, such as I’m not tossing the ball forward enough when serving or I’m hitting overheads long. It’s also been helpful seeing progress as my self-ratings in the categories have increased over time. It probably sounds like bragging but I have to think more about what needs to be improved because I’m making fewer errors or clusters of mistakes in one area.

As part of this, I’ve also started to record the results from my Babolat POP sensor where it tells me what strokes have improved or declined based on today’s results versus the most recent six matches. The POP sensor, which is worn on the wrist, measures a variety of things related to tennis: maximum and average speeds of swing, number of strokes, and kind of strokes (forehand, backhand, serve, volley and overhead as well as topspin, slice and flat for the groundstrokes). The POP summarizes your performance in a match or practice by showing which two categories improved and one area where the quality has dropped. Adding this information to the self-evaluation ratings in the journal has helped me focus on the areas I need to improve the next time I play.

Overall I believe this journaling exercise has been worthwhile.

Blog: Change in Scope (Again)

2017-11-11T09:21:00.001-05:00

This blog originally started out sharing my experiences in coaching youth soccer at the recreational and club level. It morphed a bit when I gave up coaching to focus just on refereeing. However the scope of this blog will change once again. Due to issues with my knees I chose to take a year off from refereeing (and might not resume in 2018). On January 1, 2017 I also retired from my full time job of 43 years, which means I’m playing tennis more than ever. Six to seven times a week! So the scope of this blog has changed with my life changes. While earlier entries talked about coaching soccer or refereeing, going forward it will share what I’ve learned and observed about playing and coaching tennis or how the mental/psychological aspects can be applied to playing other sports.

I say “coaching tennis” in the above paragraph because in the spring of 2017 I got to coach the junior varsity boys’ tennis team for a local private high school. It was a rewarding and interesting experience! And it allowed me to share what I’ve learned both in technique and tactics from playing tennis for more than 40 years. (!) While my NTRP (National Tennis Ratings Program) rating is 4.0 based on input from coaches when I’ve taken lessons and I might never reach the 4.5 level due to my age and other limitations, I believe my understanding of tennis is more advanced than the people with whom I play. Being an analytical engineer helps!

For me studying tennis is almost a full time job. (Ask my wife!) This study consists of reading books, analyzing slow motion replays of the strokes and strategies of professional players, taking lessons every year, buying courses such as Craig O’Shannessy’s Brain Game tennis or the Bryan brothers videos on playing doubles, visiting instruction forums and subscribing to many instruction newsletters. I’ve found that no one source provides everything you need to know about this fantastic and almost infinitely deep sport. To capture this information I’ve filled notebooks with handwritten notes, scanned key pages of books and articles and keep a spreadsheet with tips. When the TV is on 90% of the time it’s set to the Tennis Channel.

I like to think that this study has paid off. Why? Because I’m playing better tennis now at the age of 67 than I have ever played. People with whom I play comment on how my game continues to improve. I think becoming a better and smarter player has helped me compensate for the affects of aging (and somewhat arthritic knees).

The real Super Bowl lesson wasn’t about revenge - The Boston Globe

2017-02-09T08:55:00.000-05:00

The real Super Bowl lesson wasn’t about revenge - The Boston Globe

This article nicely captures my feelings about the New England Patriots' incredible come-from-behind win over the Atlanta Falcons in Super Bowl LI. As a Pats fan it was sweet to have them win despite Brady's suspension for the first four games of the season due to allegations that the Pats lowered the pressure in their footballs.

But the satisfaction of getting this win (with properly inflated balls) pales to the spectacle of watching the Patriots methodically, relentlessly and calmly chipping away at the Falcons' lead. Meanwhile the Atlanta team could have easily added a field goal to put the game even further out of reach but succumbed to some head-scratching decisions. There easily were half a dozen or more plays that would have thwarted the Pats' comeback if any one of them had not worked in the Pats favor.

It seems that everything is politicized these days. We know that Robert Kraft (the team owner), Bill Belichick (head coach) and Tom Brady (quarterback) are Trump supporters. We know that some of the players have said they will not attend the team meeting at the White House for political reasons. Yet it's great to see that both sides could set aside these differences (at least publicly) to work toward a common goal.

It was as if everything our parents, our teachers, our coaches had tried to teach us transpired in the last 18 minutes of this magnificent spectacle, this Super Bowl. In the end, it wasn’t about revenge. It was about not giving up, about perseverance, about not panicking, about having a backup plan if the original plan isn’t working, about believing in yourself and your ability and in one another.

...

The roots of the comeback were embedded in another of our parents’ mantras: that you lay the groundwork for success in ways you often can’t see, simply by persevering. Even after they had fallen behind by so much, the Patriots were controlling possession and running the Falcons defense ragged. In the fourth quarter, and especially during the winning drive in overtime, the Atlanta defenders were gassed, exhausted.

...

So many of us had assumed that Tom Brady wanted to win this game so he could rub it in Goodell’s face. But it turns out he really wanted to win the game to put a smile on his mother’s face. There’s something much stronger, sweeter, and more satisfying than revenge. It’s called love.

Resilence and Choking: Federer vs. Cilic Wimbledon Match

2016-07-07T07:14:00.003-04:00

Yesterday Roger Federer narrowly avoided being eliminated from Wimbledon at the hands of Marin Cilic. He was down two sets to none and even had a couple match points against him. Yet he prevailed. We think that Roger has nerves of steel and therefore never chokes but he did shank several balls, revealing that, yes, even Roger is human. In fact, I read a book on Federer recently that reveals he was very temperamental as a junior player. He had temper tantrums that made John McEnroe look mild. If he lost a match he would cry and pout for a while afterwards. Roger made a conscious decision to change his ways and become more Stoic.

This post by Allen Fox talks about how Roger handled choking by not panicking.

I should add that if there was anything to learn from this match it was that you can choke and still win as long as you don’t get rattled about it. And the topic of “courage” comes up when people think about choking. In my opinion, it doesn’t show courage to not be nervous and make the big shot on the big point. It takes courage to choke on the big point, not get upset about it; fight your way to another big point; and finally come through, either by making a good shot or your opponent missing.

Fox's point can apply to other situations beyond sports. That it's OK to tighten up under pressure as long as you recognize it and keep trying to do your best.

Late To The Ball: Tennis and Relationships

2016-06-09T14:44:00.002-04:00

I just finished reading Late To The Ball by Gerald Marzorati, a former editor of the New York Times Magazine, in which he tells his story about taking up tennis in his early 60s and the lessons he learned, both in terms of technique/tactics and lessons about himself. I liked his book (and the clever title) very much. He started playing singles competitively but toward the end of the book he shifted to play doubles. He quotes an email from his wife on the differences between singles and doubles that I like.

“Singles is a fearsome struggle for independence at best; at worst it is a denial of the other’s humanity. But doubles is different. A devoted team can help each other grow so much. You’re talking about fellowship, and the delicate, intricate, wondrous balance between autonomy and dependency.”

I think her description of the dynamics of doubles actually applies to relationships in general whether it’s friendships, family or marriages.

I also think her depiction of singles is a bit harsh. I’m sure many people who play competitive singles do indeed want to impose their will on their opponent. I lean more toward Tim Gallwey’s idea that a goal of playing tennis, whether it’s singles or doubles, is to bring out the best in yourself. To do that you need the best from your opponent. Therefore playing ultimately is a cooperative exercise. I figure if you’re playing on the professional circuit your goal is strictly to win, rise in the rankings and make enough money to survive, without being concerned how your opponent feels about losing. The same for playing in USTA amateur leagues and tournaments. Yet, I noticed at the very top of the pro ranks (Djokovic, Nadal, Federer and Murray) there is mutual respect and appreciation for a well-played match. Even in the mixed doubles USTA matches I played this winter (for the first time in my tennis career at the age of 65!), there usually is mutual respect. Most of my opponents were fair and friendly. A few resorted to gamesmanship in an attempt to get into my head. (Good luck finding anything in there!) But overall all four of us on the court were looking for a competitive, well-fought match.

Getting back to Marzorati book, you could also take the title to mean arriving late to a ball as in a formal dance party. Whether or not this double meaning was intentional I’d say the second meaning of the “ball” is appropriate too. Playing tennis can be thought of as a dance.

Chi Running: How It Has Helped Me After Major Knee Surgery

2016-03-15T18:22:00.000-04:00

In the fall of 2002 I was playing in a men’s Sunday morning soccer game. While playing outside left fullback a ball was struck in my direction but was way over my head. I thought I could head it by jumping. No dice. The ball was so far over my head I would have needed a ladder. As I came down my leg was straight and my body was turning. My cleat did what it’s supposed to do and firmly grounded my left foot. Unfortunately the rest of my body turned and put a lot of pressure on my straight leg. An explosion of pain rippled up through my leg and I landed on my side writhing in agony.

To make a long story short an MRI revealed that I had blown the ACL, MCL and PCL. Plus a hamstring detached as well as the muscle bundle at the top of the fibula. I ended up having 6 hours or surgery to install cadaver ligaments and to reattach the muscles. The surgeon also had to sever my quadriceps to repair something behind it. I had to wait a month before starting the 7 months of PT to ensure that the reattached muscles were grafting back to the bone. In addition, the surgeon told me that the replacement MCL couldn’t be made as tight as factory-installed MCL so my leg has a slight instability even with the strengthening exercises I did and continue to do. I need to wear a custom-made ACL brace for tennis, refereeing soccer and skiing. But at least I can continue to do them!

Why am I telling this story? To talk a little about a running technique that I found during my rehab. I found that traditional running where the heel hits first put a lot of pressure on my repaired knee even with the brace. I happened to be at a party shortly after my rehab was completed and started talking to a fellow who was a fellow technique geek. He told me about the Pose method of running which uses a different running technique. When I read the book on it I happened to stumble on ChiRunning and Danny Dreyer’s book and DVD on this. http://www.chirunning.com/ I’m probably not doing ChiRunning justice in my description of the method involves having the landing leg staying under the body as opposed to reaching out and landing on the heel. My landing foot stays directly below my center of gravity. It also involves leaning my body forward so that it almost feels like I’m falling. My lower legs lift behind me almost as though I'm trying to kick myself in the rear.

I’m not guaranteeing I’m doing the ChiRunning 100% correct. But I can say that what I’m doing now has helped significantly reduce the pain in my leg while also lessening the pounding my body feels. It also seems to take less effort to run this way.

Inner Game of Tennis - 40th Anniversary: Some Thoughts

2016-03-15T18:11:00.000-04:00

Tennis magazine recently ran an article on the 40th anniversary of The Inner Game of Tennis. While I’ve been a big fan of Inner Tennis I have to admit that I still struggle knowing exactly how to apply Gallwey's ideas or if I’m even interpreting them correctly. I recall that he tells stories in his book how he helped beginners learn how to play by not doing what traditional coaches do. I know he believes traditional coaching has players over-focus on the details of the mechanics. I recall Gallwey had the student watch him execute, say, a forehand several times then had them do it. Or he has the student swing in front of a mirror. While I think Gallwey’s approach is valid I also think there is time when it is appropriate to be aware of the mechanics and work on them until they become automatized.

Here is a recent personal example. I’ve noticed that the many of the pros hit the ball on their groundstrokes with their racket tilted slightly forward by several degrees at impact. This produces a somewhat flatter shot but still with topspin. So I started trying it by consciously setting my racket with a slight forward tilt. Eventually I didn’t have to think about doing it; it became automatic.

In his second book on inner tennis Gallwey even mentions the idea of not consciously choosing targets but letting the Self 2 figure out where to put the ball. I do apply this especially on certain shots. The one that comes to mind is when I’m on the ad court in doubles and the cross court opponent is coming to the net. One of my favorite shots is to hit a short crosscourt ball that just clears the net then dips sharply and lands in the outside alley. Yet I can’t describe exactly what I’m doing different with my stroke to make the ball to that. I just know that’s what I want to do and let the rest happen. If I think about how to make that stroke I’m more likely to miss. Maybe that’s an application of Inner Tennis.

The compromise I’ve developed is when I’m trying a new tweak to a technique I’ll focus on it until it becomes automatic. If I’m not working on any technique in particular I then focus on weight transfer, the point of impact and trying to watch the ball hit the strings from behind the racket (i.e. looking at the impact point through the strings). My tendency is to let the ball come in too close. One of these days I’ll get it right! ;-)

What Does It Take To Be a Soccer Referee?

2014-12-22T16:20:00.001-05:00

Last Sunday I took my annual referee recertification course, a requirement for referees like me to maintain our United States Soccer Federation badge. Without this certification I would not be in the state referee data base and would not get game assignments. I don't know how many parents or coaches know what is involved in maintaining a referee certification. Here is a summary.

Every year Mass State Referee Committee holds recertification classes in various cities throughout the state. As a referee you log in to your account to register for the class that is closest and is at a convenient time. They're held on the weekends and typically run from 8:30 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. Once you register for a course a link becomes available online where you log in to take a 50 question test. To pass you need to get 75% correct or 38 questions. If you fail you can take the test again as many times as you want. (Last year it took me two tries. This year I got 92% on the first try.) When you pass the test the referee web site then lets you print a letter proving that you passed. This letter is presented to the instructor at the end of the class.

The classes are taught by referees who have officiated for many years. This year the instructor for my class had been involved for 20 years and refereed high level matches. In years past the first thing the instructors would do is hand out another test consisting of the questions that were missed the most often. After taking the shorter version of the test again the instructor picks participants to give their answer and their explanation for their choice, after which the instructor gives the right answer. This year was different in that we skipped this step.

We did cover offside, a call that many parents, players and coaches do not understand. We watched about a dozen videos of simulated match conditions then voted if we thought the attacking player was offside. The instructor then showed the clip again in super slow-mo. We got many of the calls right but also missed a bunch too. The point being made: our brains deal with motion of objects by skipping ahead in anticipation. Sometimes our brains get it wrong.

We then discussed the process of completing game reports. After every game referees are supposed to fill one out, usually online. In 99% of the games it's just a matter of recording the scores at half time and at the end, the field conditions and the weather. However, if there was a serious situation involving disciplinary action such as a red card the game report calls for a detailed description of what happened without getting polemical. It's "just the facts, ma'am." Game reports can become important if the offenders need to be sanctioned or if they challenge the referee's decision. In extreme cases the game report can become a legal document if the courts get involved. Therefore the referee needs to be factual and accurate!

I won't go into all of the rest of our agenda other than an exercise in which we reviewed an actual game video of a youth soccer game in which two players got tangled up and fell down. The first player to get up stepped onto the thigh of the opposing player who was still down. We discussed what decision the referee should have made. (In this case it was a red card which means the player is ejected from the match and can't be substituted, causing her team to play one player down.)

I hope this description shows what is involved in being a referee! If only coaches had to go through the same kind of certification! Naturally this is unrealistic because coaches at the youth soccer level are parent volunteers. I know referees can take a lot of heat while working. I know there might be lazy referees out there but in my experience the ones I've dealt with all want to do aa good job and not influence the outcome of games with bad calls. So, anyone out there who reads this and has a kid playing soccer, I hope you now have a better idea of what those nameless officials running with the kids have to go through in order to be out there.

Change in Scope - Change in Name

2014-07-23T16:31:00.002-04:00

Anyone who has visited this blog can see that I haven’t posted anything for a couple years. That’s because after 13 years of coaching youth soccer I “retired” and shifted my focus to refereeing. While my daughters ended their soccer career in 2006 when they graduated from high school I continued coaching at a club and with a friend whose son played in the town’s recreational program. I enjoyed it but the demands of business travel and family commitments won out. Rather than pull the plug on this blog I decided to expand it’s scope to include other sports, primarily tennis and skiing. I thought about rolling this into my blog on flourishing but some of the things I’d like to talk about have to do with technique lessons I’ve learned.

Getting back to soccer, I started to referee because I blew out my knee playing soccer in a men’s pick up game in 2002. (The same year I got a kidney stone so I call 2002 the Year of Pain.) Torn ACL, PCL and MCL plus a detached hamstring and the muscle bundle at the top of the fibula. Had to have two cadaver ligaments installed and the surgeon needed to sever my quad to make a repair behind it then reattach the quad. The surgery took 6 hours while the rehab took 7 months. I now have to wear an ACL brace to give my leg lateral stability because the replacement MCL isn’t as tight as the factory installed MCL. When I asked the surgeon (whose specialty is knee and shoulder repairs) how my injury rated on a scale of 1 (minor injury) to 10 (major injury) he said it was a 9 for a sports-related injury. (!) Still, I was actually thinking of playing again! That was until my wife threatened to divorce me if I stepped foot onto the pitch again. My compromise was to get a referee license so that I could still be out on the field even though I’m not passing or shooting the ball.

It was a good decision. I was still coaching during the first five years of refereeing so I think seeing things from the player’s perspective helped me see things differently than standing on the sidelines. You also hear the players grumbling about what their coaches and parents are yelling at them. Refereeing gave me the workout I’m looking for but there was something else: the camaraderie with my fellow referees. I have chosen to referee just the games in my town’s recreational program where there is a small pool of referees. And each game typically has three referees assigned: a center and two assistant referees. As a result we get to know each other. It’s similar to the camaraderie that I experienced playing in the pick up games.

So what does this have to do with the change in the blog? Good question! I guess it’s my final installment on a purely soccer-related subject. In future posts I’ll share my experience trying techniques that don’t fall into the traditional advice that people are given when they want to learn to play tennis, ski or even run. As a preview I’ve worked on applying the ideas of the late Mark Papas at Revolutionary Tennis, Harald Harb’s “phantom move” in skiing and Danny Dreyer’s chi running which I use when refereeing. Stay tuned!

Mia Hamm Interview

2012-04-12T10:29:00.000-04:00

I found this interview with Mia Hamm to be interesting. I like her comment (quoting a coach) that parents should be parents. "As a parent myself, I can pay other people to do their job in terms of coaching my kids. I don’t want anyone but me and my husband to be their parents."

RickyMasterCoach.com

2012-02-02T07:07:00.000-05:00

Recently I happened to come across this web site, RickyMasterCoach, that has exactly the kind of information I've been looking for a long time. Some of his posts show a point he wants to make, say how to make a penetrating pass or defending, by providing photos of professional players in action. He then adds comments and arrows onto the photos to explain his topic. Highly recommended!

Women's World Cup Final: Another Perspective

2011-07-22T15:33:00.000-04:00

Scott Carlson thinks the U.S. ladies suffered from overconfidence.

In the end, I think the U.S. team’s overconfidence/borderline cockiness also came back to bite them in the worst way. At first, it was too much swagger, and then when PK’s came around, it was not enough. Three missed PK’s in a row, wow, what can you say? Despite some great individual efforts (Megan Rapinoe is an absolute beast, that girl can play), the team collectively crumbled, and I ‘m not afraid to say it.

I think he has a point based on the quotes he provides in his article. I think the results also showed the resolve and determination of the Japanese team. I'm sure a large part of this will to win was rooted in the Japanese player's desire to give their compatriots at home something to lift their spirits after the earthquake and tsnunami.