How many "athletes" really know themselves, how to perform consistently and get more out of sport than winning and losing ?
How many "parents" feel the emotional strain of their kids competing, financial worries and how to support their child's dreams ?
How many "coaches" do their coaching qualifications and would love someone to call on, listen to their concerns and help them know how to improve their students faster ?
ATHLETES
As a former professional athlete, I strive to be my best everyday as I believe I was born to compete. My parents nurtured my own talent even though my 3 brothers were exceptionally talented individuals, they understood me and have imparted their knowledge to myself on how they spotted my individual talents. Growing up and wanting to make a career out of sport is very demanding, the life balance and team support is critical and if you asked any athlete they will always say that a family member was most important as to why that child succeeded in their sport. Today, after working with thousands of students I have noticed many athletes want more than just sport, they want self fulfilment, a " living the life " feel good experience from day to day and want to launch a new career or multiple career opportunities during or after they compete at their highest level.
My 3 tips
Get to know yourself: your vision, the 5 questions WHO ? WHY ? WHAT ? WHEN ? WHERE ? devise an action plan to own success story and know what makes you "YOU" and so talented.
Understand that an athlete needs support and the understanding of how to add value and members to their team.
Sport success does not define an athlete as its the athlete within that is of most value and you will be known for " YOU" not what you just did in sport.
PARENTS
I am first and foremost a person but also a parent of children that fell in love with the sport of tennis. Both my kids have played and competed internationally in the sport of tennis. I have also coached my own children alongside my husband and know what its like to sit on the side lines emotionally invested, financially troubled of the investment of kids playing sport and have searched for ways to help my kids improve and play their best more often. Over many years I have travelled with parents, families and devised long term planning with families and the athlete in unison. I have also spent many years recapturing the reasons my parents were able to support my dreams and helped me be able to be a Grand Slam tennis champion and play on the biggest global tennis events in the world.
My 3 tips:
Be clear about what parents expect to gain from investing in their child
Know how to emotionally detach from results and more on performance and family values.
Understand everyone in the family plays and integral designated role be it actively or passively involved in the journey.
COACHES
I have been a coach for 25+years, a parent coach to international level players and been trained and mentored by 3 Davis Cup players, leading coaches in the industry that have defined coaching and been coached by my own father in the early years. I have also trained coaches to be coaches, mentored global coaches with large visionary projects and delivered speaking roles to educate new coaches in creating their own vision of how to grow the sport and develop their own niche talents. As a former coach I have partnered and worked alongside coaches producing Top 100 ATP players and personally produced National champions.
Coaching is a "tough gig" because you are responsible for not just creating an athlete, but the overall enjoyment of the process of learning the game and leaving a lasting experience that can stay with that child for a lifetime. Tennis is a sport for life.
My 3 tips:
Define your own qualities as a coach, explore how to utilise them and then create "your own niche" and "vision" of what you feel you can impart to help others.
Engage others around you to keep you accountable, add resources you don't have or tennis knowledge that is beyond your years of experience. This helps take stress off a very physically demanding job.
What is your end goal to gain from being a coach ? How does this impact your life and make it better ? If there was one thing you wanted to be known for that students remembered what is it ?
If you would like to get in touch log onto my landing page website and send me an email.
Examples of what mentoring is about:
A Mentoring future players alongside junior mentors during the Australian Nationals at the Australian Open practice site. One of these players won Nationals recently and both now aspire to their long term vision of becoming pro athletes and making a career from sport. Training others to give back to help others is part of the purpose of reaching as many people as possible to share knowledge, actions and how the process is done.
B Mentoring at the Federation Cup finals with my daughter. Its important we give people opportunities and open doors to give them exposure to assist and speed up the process to reach dreams and find their purpose in life. Learning first hand from the sporting champions allows to show you what your best performers do to believe they can be their best.
C This is MY favourite inspirational quote as to WHY it's important that I mentor others.
My aim is to share to as many people around the world just like me who want more than what they ever thought possible. My aim is to give resources to as many people at the ground level so many more can know HOW.
BELIEF is where it all starts ........
