"The little things make the big things happen." Let's all be dilligent at each of the easy little things we work on in practice(i.e. service toss) from day one of the 2014 season. That's how your start a foundation for success.

The ''Pyramid of Success," formulated by John Wooden, one of the greatest athletic coaches ever, are ideas to live by, whether it be on the athletic field, classroom or whatever career you find yourself in one day.  I've encouraged and applied them in many ways, since I started team coaching, back in '07, for the Haddon Heights girls tennis team.  My favorite pyramid block, is the one in the middle, under the header "Skill."  It states, "What a leader learns after he's learned it all is what matters most."  I interpret this statement by Wooden to mean that part of my role as a coach, but really responsibility to my students,  is to forever seek to learn more and even challenge what I already believe to be true, thus always bettering myself as a coach.  I am confident in my abilities as a coach, but I am never going to let that confidence stop me from trying to improve all of these skills, each and everyday

  My secondary goal, and one I think about all the time, is simplicity, moreover how can I be more effective  and efficient, in teaching the ideas and skills which are important to the the sport of tennis and the individuals I teach it too.  I hope I am a better coach this season than I was last. I also feel that you, the player, should seek to improve yourself everyday, no matter how good you may actually be, wherein the best players of all time subscribed to this idea too.    

This link is to a post I did a few years ago on the "Pyramid of Success," along with obituary of sorts on the man himself, John Wooden.
http://paulvitennis.blogspot.com/2010/06/video-essays-coach-wooden-pyramid-of.html


The excerpt below, from a book written by one of my favored tennis writers, Jim Loehr, are words I live by when coaching tennis.  I think they are priceless, and hope you enjoy reading them here and are reminded of the great value they hold to your mental game.   If these simple ideas are applied to your tennis game,  in some ways, via my interactions with you, I think they already are, then I am certain you'll see that same value anew.  I feel strongly that by presenting them in such a way here, that said ideas will be reinforced to another degree.   These simple concepts have the power to maximize you growth as a competitive tennis player.  When I read them again here, I am reminded of how important and simple it is to gain the proper perspective of the mistakes/lost points that we all make on a tennis court, wherein how liberating that knowledge can be to the competitive tennis player within all of us.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BQoM_VNqt-E
The man Jim Loehr speaks of above, Jimmy Connors, is one of the all time greats.  This link is for a ESPN produced movie,  about his legendary run to the 1991 US Open semi-finals, at age 39. 

The above video clip, on the service toss, and why and how it's important to practice this simple movement, is just one of the little things which I referenced in the lead of this post, that we'll pay mind to this season.   The serve is the most important stroke in our sport, which you'll hear stated, in the first few seconds of this clip.  A good serve can breed confidence into your entire stroke arsenal, conversely a bad one can be poisonous.  You'll see ESPN's top two tennis commentators, Brad Gillbert and Hall of Famer Pam Shirver give great explanations on the service toss.  You'll also see snip-its  of successful and well known touring pros and their good and bad service tosses, to further demonstrate how and why it is so important to a successful serve.  I think we'll practice a lot of target specific serving exercises this upcoming season.