Sports Participation Trophies: A New Perspective by Brad Jubin of APIVEO
From Dr. Larry Lauer‘s Blog -
Sport psychology consultant to:
USA Hockey’s National Team Development Program in Ann Arbor, MI;
Michigan State University Men’s Tennis team;
East Lansing High School Girls Varsity Basketball,
St. Stephens Tennis Academy in Austin, Texas,
Professional Tennis Player Marcio Torres,
and many other athletes from youth to professional.
I would like to begin by saying that I am not in favor of “participation” trophies for youth athletes. The reason is not that we are giving out trophies to every player; instead, it’s the lack of creativity in what we call them and the meaning behind them. After coaching dozens of youth teams, I know that an eight- year-old player who came to practice, worked hard, played in the games and cheered on his/her teammates is not excited to be recognized as a “participant.” As parents and coaches, we have to be able to come up with something more meaningful than “participant.”
Kids love getting trophies and adults love handing them out. Trophies are a good thing. However, there is something missing here: the sense of accomplishment.
Original Article from Blog
- Sports Participation Trophies: A New Perspective by Brad Jubin of APIVEO (larry-lauer.com)
Andy Murray Interview
“The Slice” blog came up with this You Tube video of an Andy Murray interview with Green carpet hosts Colin Fleming and Jean-Julien Rojer
Tweet, Tweet – March 7, 2013
Posted by Coach Craig Cignarelli: Since no one seems to have any research to determine which one is better, over the last few years, I’ve done the following. I’ve trained a group from age 7 to 9 with ROG and another group from age 7 to 9 with yellow balls. Here’s what I’ve found: The kids who trained with ROG are consistently beating the yellow ball kids when they play with the green ball. The kids who trained with the yellow ball are consistently beating the ROG kids when they play with the yellow ball. Tactically, the ROG kids have a better sense of angles and coming forward. The yellow ball kids hit with better depth and can adapt to different ball heights much better. The ROG kids have much better drop shots. The yellow ball kids have more power. After almost three years of doing both, I’m sticking with yellow balls. If you are going to master a saxophone, it’s probably better to just start playing the sax than to start on a kazoo.
Some Comments:
Mirka Vavrinec – Mrs. Roger Federer
The last in the series of the Women behind the Men of the ATP from “The Tennis Space” blog.
In recent years, she has become Mrs Federer and then a mother, giving birth to twin daughters in 2009. But her commitment to Federer did not slow down one bit; instead she just upped sticks, packed a few extra bags, hired some nannies and continued to accompany her man around the world. In the near four years since they got married, Federer has won four grand slam titles and continues to hang around the very top of the game, winning his record 17th grand slam crown at Wimbledon last summer.
“It is just incredible that she’s willing to make all of that effort. I’m happy that it’s this way, because anything else would make it more difficult to compete and to play at the highest levels. It would basically be impossible.”
Read the whole article – HERE
What is Mental Toughness – Coaching and the Zone
Brian Lomax of Peformance Xtra in Marlborough, Mass writes:
If you’re a sports fan, you have certainly witnessed a coach seemingly losing his mind on the sidelines. He’s yelling at his players, he’s castigating officials, or he’s just throwing a tantrum. Why do some coaches behave this way? Does this behavior motivate players? Does it help them play better? Does it help them get in the zone? And what is the job of a coach anyway?
Coaches can have a tremendous effect on the body chemistry of their players in both a good and bad way. When a player makes a mistake during an event, and a coach immediately screams at him, what do you think happens to his body chemistry? Does it get closer to being in the zone or does it move away? In all likelihood, it moves away. Being yelled at instills anxiety and fear in many athletes which will induce the body to release stress hormones to deal with the threat. Were fear and anxiety in our list of characteristics of the zone? No, they certainly were not because those things don’t help you play better. Stress hormones reduce our ability to make good decisions and they also affect our ability to control our motor skills and balance.
Read the whole article – HERE
DANES TURN THE TABLES ON THE RAMS, 5-2
(Schenectady, NY) UAlbany women’s tennis won the doubles point decisively, then had to battle from behind to take enough singles matches to clinch their first victory in over two weeks, downing a feisty Rhode Island team, 5-2. Last year the Rams prevailed 6-1, so it was a sweet win today for the Danes.UALBANY 5 RHODE ISLAND 2
- Saturday, March 9, 9:00 a.m. vs. SIENA @ Sportime, Schenectady, NY
- Saturday, March 9, 7:00 p.m. vs. HARTFORD @ Tri-City, Latham, NY
Proposed Expansion at the National Tennis Center
Borough residents have had mixed reactions to the USTA’s expansion plans at Flushing Meadows Corona Park since they were first announced last June.
The expansion plan, which will utilize an additional .68 acre on top of the 42 acres the USTA currently sits on, includes construction of two new stadiums and two parking garages and is in addition to other proposed projects at the park which include a new soccer stadium and retail mall near Citi Field.
Proponents of the tennis center’s expansion, including Mayor Bloomberg and Borough President Marshall, say that the project will be a boon to the local economy while providing additional jobs. The USTA says that the annual US Open tournament creates 6,000 seasonal jobs with about 585 full and part-time positions for Queens’ residents.
“The USTA has created an extremely lucrative business utilizing this public parkland that last year made $ 275 million while giving just $ 2.5 million back to the city,” said Geoffrey Croft, of NYC Park Advocates, a nonprofit group dedicated to improving public parks.
“The USTA is a wonderful organization but the impacts to the park are well known and should not be increased.”
Read More – HERE
Related articles
- Everything But the Roof (blogs.tennis.com)
Safin’s Mom and Murray’s Mom
More of the Women behind the Men series with Marat Safin / Dinara Safina‘s Mom and Andy / Jamie Murray‘s mom.
You wouldn’t mess with Marat Safin. And you certainly wouldn’t mess with his mum. Rauza Islanova was a good enough player to be ranked in the top five in the former Soviet Union but it is in her role as coach that she came to prominence, with Safin, his sister Dinara Safina, Anna Kournikova and Elena Dementieva all coming through the famous Spartak Club in Moscow, where Marat’s father happened to be the director. Islanova used to take Marat along to the club when she was working and coached the future world No 1 between the ages of six and 13, before sending him packing to Spain, where facilities were much easier to come by. Famed as a hard task-master, she knew her own mind and was never afraid to speak it.
Needless to say, there were times when he children didn’t listen to her but her track record is second to none. Both Safin and Safina became No 1 and many, many more made it thanks to her coaching and moulding.
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Judy, a former Scottish national champion (she was the tartan Chris Evert), did not take kindly to past suggestions by Boris Becker and others that she was too closely involved with Andy’s career. “The apron strings stuff is ridiculous – Andy lives in Surrey, and lived in Wandsworth, South London, for a number of years before that. I have always lived in Scotland. But there are people who really think I travel with him around the world telling him what to do. I only attend six or seven competitions a year. There have been times when I have been around more often, but that has been when he is having a tough time and needs support.”
As Steve Bierley, the former tennis correspondent for The Guardian, once said, “Judy Murray should be held personally responsible for the ills of British tennis; she stopped producing children after she had Andy.”
Read the Whole article on Rauza Islanova – HERE
Read the Whole article on Judy Murray - HERE
More Women Behind the Men
“The Tennis Space” Blog is down to it’s #5 and #4 Women behind the Men of the ATP. #5 Jelena Gencic, Novak Djokovic‘s first coach and #4 is Olga Lendlova, Ivan Lendl‘s mother.
It was back in Kopaonik, Serbia’s most prominent ski resort and the place where the Djokovic family ran a local restaurant, where the two first met; Novak a young boy trying to get the ball over the net and Gencic looking for her next star. As a former national tennis champion (she also played handball for Yugoslavia), Gencic became Fed Cup captain and then as a coach, she discovered Monica Seles and Goran Ivanisevic; now she had a third superstar on her hands.
Read More – HERE
Olga was fierce. To help you understand Ivan Lendl’s relationship with his mother, Olga, have a flick through back issues of Sports Illustrated magazine. According to one old profile of Lendl, when Ivan was a boy Olga would strike him with her left hand if he talked back, until she broke her wristwatch with one of the blows, and she then had to remember to hit him with her right. Another issue told the story of the time he initially refused to eat his carrots and peas, and so she set a timer for ten minutes and left the room – he knew then to clear his plate. Olga, who was once the second-ranked female player in Czechoslovakia, was always tough on her son. He was just six years old when she told him at the courts: “If you’re going to cry, go home.”
Read More – HERE
Youtube Video Against 2014 Changes in the National Junior Schedule
Here is what the video description says:
USTA President & National Junior Competition Committee Members passed changes that will eliminate some National Tennis Events. In others it will reduce draw sizes. One of these is Kalamazoo. This event is Little League World Series of Tennis. Help us save these events. Tennis sections will vote on this soon. Get involved and make your voice heard. Protect Junior tennis and it’s future professional and college stars.
Intercollegiate Tennis Association (ITA) Names 2013 ITA Men’s Collegiate Tennis Hall of Fame Inductees
The Class of 2013 to be inducted on May 22 in Champaign, IL
SKILLMAN, NJ (Mar. 1) — The Intercollegiate Tennis Association (ITA) announced today the 2013 inductees for the ITA Men’s Collegiate Tennis Hall of Fame. The 2013 class consists of seven inductees: Coaches - Bobby Bayliss (University of Notre Dame), Dennis Emery (University of Kentucky), and John Peterson (Tyler Junior College); Players - Paul Goldstein (Stanford University), Kelly Jones (Pepperdine University), and Harold Solomon (Rice University); and Contributor - Alan Schwartz (Yale University). The 2013 honorees will be inducted at the 2013 ITA Men’s Collegiate Hall of Fame Enshrinement Banquet, which will be held on May 22 during the NCAA Division I Men’s and Women’s Tennis Championships at the University of Illinois in Champaign, IL.
Bobby Bayliss, head men’s coach at the University of Notre Dame, will be retiring at the end of this season, ending a 26 season stint at the helm of the Fighting Irish men’s tennis program. Entering his 43rd season as a Division I head coach, Bayliss owns 746 career victories, the most by any active tennis coach in the nation which also places him sixth among all-time tennis coaches. He is a three-time ITA Midwest Region Coach of the Year and was honored in 1992 as the Wilson/ITA National Coach of the Year after guiding the Fighting Irish to the NCAA finals. Bayliss also helped the United States win a gold medal at the World University Games in Sheffield, England in 1991.
Dennis Emery was a men’s head coach at two institutions during his 35 year career, spending 30 of those years at the University of Kentucky. He finished his coaching career with 655 wins, 568 of those during his time with the Wildcats. Emery guided Kentucky to two SEC championships (1992, 2012), finished in the Top 25 of the final ITA National Men’s Rankings 23 times, and led the Wildcats to 11 Sweet 16 and four Elite Eight appearances. He was also honored as the SEC Coach of the Year on three occasions, the last coming in 2012.
John Peterson coached the men’s and women’s teams at Tyler Junior College from 1987 to 2011, finishing with an unprecedented 25 National Junior College Athletic Association (NJCAA) tennis championships. With 828 career wins, Peterson is already a member of both the NJCAA Men’s and Women’s Tennis Hall of Fame, the Texas Tennis Coaches Hall of Fame, and was named the Wilson/ITA Junior College National Coach of the Decade.
Paul Goldstein, a 1998 graduate of Stanford University, helped guide the Cardinal to the NCAA Team Championship each of his four seasons from 1995-98. He was a four-time ITA All-American in doubles and an ITA All-American in singles. In 1998, Goldstein reached the NCAA singles final and was named the Pac-10 Player of the Year. He finished his collegiate career with 84 singles victories, fifth most in Stanford history, and three All-Pac-10 selections. Goldstein is an ITA/Rafael Osuna Sportsmanship Award winner and is a two-time recipient of the ITA/Arthur Ashe Jr. Award for Sportsmanship and Leadership.
Kelly Jones, a 1986 graduate of Pepperdine University, played for the Waves from 1983-86. Jones was a three-time ITA All-American in doubles, an ITA All-American singles, and claimed two NCAA Doubles Championships in 1984 and 1985. He also helped guide the Waves to an NCAA finals appearance in 1986. Jones went on to have an outstanding professional career, reaching the mixed doubles final of Wimbledon in 1988, the men’s doubles final of both the Australian and US Open in 1992, and reached the No. 1 spot in the ATP Doubles Rankings.
Harold Solomon played at Rice University from 1971-72, earning ITA All-American honors before turning pro. During his time at Rice, Solomon led the Owls to back-to-back Southwest Conference team championships, while also claiming the 1971 Southwest Conference singles title. In his professional career, Solomon was ranked as high as No. 5 in the world, won a total of 22 singles titles, and reached the finals of the 1976 French Open as well as the semifinals of the 1977 US Open. He was also a member of two winning U.S. Davis Cup teams in 1972 and 1978. He would eventually go on to coach champion players Mary Jo Fernandez, Jim Courier, Jennifer Capriati, Monica Seles and Anna Kournikova, among others.
Alan Schwartz, the former Chairman of the Board & President of the USTA, has played an integral role in developing the growth of tennis throughout the years, and has always been highly supportive of collegiate tennis and the ITA. He served two terms as the president of the National Indoor Tennis Association (NITA), from 1973-74 and again from 1978-79. Schwartz also co-founded the Midtown Tennis Club in Chicago, which is the largest indoor tennis club in the world. Since 2003, Schwartz has represented the USTA internationally through the International Tennis Federation (ITF) and is credited as the co-author of the National Tennis Ratings program. A three-year letterman of his varsity team at Yale, Schwartz served as the captain of the team during his senior year.
About the ITA Men’s Collegiate Tennis Hall of Fame
The ITA Men’s Collegiate Tennis Hall of Fame, housed at the University of Georgia’s Dan Magill Tennis Complex, was inaugurated in 1983 and has inducted more than 200 players, coaches and contributors. The ITA Hall of Fame museum displays over 2,000 rare photos and memorabilia. Its members include the late Arthur Ashe (UCLA), Jimmy Connors (UCLA), John McEnroe (Stanford) and Coach Dick Gould (Stanford). The ITA Women’s Collegiate Tennis Hall of Fame is located at the College of William & Mary in Williamsburg, Va. For a complete list of the Hall of Fame Inductees, please visit www.itatennis.com
DANES SERVE UP DOUBLE DUALS THIS WEEKEND
The UAlbany women’s tennis team takes to the courts again this weekend. Following the pattern of last weekend’s opposition, the Danes take on an Ivy League team on Saturday, followed the next day by a team that beat them 6-1 last year.
For you hometown supporters, the URI match starts at 1:00 p.m and will likely go until 4:00 p.m., or later. Sportime is a quick 15 min. drive west on I-90 to the first Schenectady exit, then west on Curry Rd. An EASY DRIVE to see the DANES AVENGE last year’s 6-1 defeat. And the viewing is excellent at Sportime!!- Saturday, March 2, 9:30 a.m. vs. CORNELL at Ithaca, NY
- Sunday, March 3, 1:00 p.m. vs. UNIV. of RHODE ISLAND at Sportime in Schenectady, NY
Maryse Gasquet & Gloria Connors
More of “The Tennis Space” Women behind the Men series:
Today, a double header.
Maryse Gasquet - no one would dispute that Gasquet’s mother, along with his father Francis, have been hugely influential on the Frenchman’s career. If Gasquet’s parents had not been tennis coaches, it is questionable whether Richard would ever have taken to the sport. Or whether he would have appeared, at the age of nine, on the cover of France’s tennis magazine with the caption: ‘Is Richard G the champion France is eagerly waiting for?’ (Though many would suggest that his fame before his tenth birthday harmed him more than it helped him). And would he have such a fabulous one-handed backhand?
Read More – HERE
Jimmy Connors was a cage-fighter of a tennis player. For that, thank/blame (delete depending on your point of view) his mother Gloria, truly a tennis matriarch. She would urge little Jimmy to “play like a crazed animal”, and “to knock the ball down my throat, and he learned to do this because he found out that if I had the chance I would knock it down his”.
Read More - HERE
Roddick Stands on Principal
What if you were a big name athlete and you performed in a charity exhibition and never got paid? Well if you are Andy Roddick and that charity not only failed to pay you, but failed to provide the services it is supposedly set up to provide, you sue the organization and if you win the lawsuit, you give the money to a legitimate charity.
This from Yahoo’s “Busted Racquet” Tennis Blog:
The charity Miracle Match Foundation was set to pay Andy Roddick $100,000 for an appearance fee at an exhibition match last September, and while they gave the former U.S. Open two checks for $50,000, both checks bounced and Roddick had to take matters into his own hands.
“I simply expect Miracle Match Foundation to live up to their word and obligations,” Roddick said to Tennis.com. “They have repeatedly had issues paying the participants of their matches and very little of the money raised from these events actually goes to charity. 100% of the money I win in this case will go to the charities, which were originally supposed to benefit from that night.”
Read all about it – HERE
