15 th Year, Issue 44, April 2008 1 Dave Miley Executive Director, Tennis Development Miguel Crespo Research Officer, Tennis Development/Coaching Scott Over Assistant Research Officer, Tennis Development/Coaching The Official Coaching and Sport Science Publication of the International Tennis Federation SCIENCE REVIEW COACHING & SPORT ontents Editorial C Welcome to issue 44 of the ITF Coaching and Sport Science Review, which is the first edition for 2008. We would like to extend our thanks to the coaches and experts who have contributed articles. This edition includes articles on core stability, mental strength, performance profiling, nutrition, talent, sport psychology and focus during stroke production. In order to facilitate our readers, the articles include an abstract, some key words and the e-mail address of the authors. During the past months, more online eLearning modules have been finalised. There are now 20 new presentations available on www.itftennis.com/coaching which support the Coaching Beginner and Intermediate players course (Level 1) which include quiz sections at the end to test understanding. The eLearning and quizzes for the Coaching Advanced players course (Level 2) should be available in the next months. These new resources are an expansion to the educational resources which are currently available and they provide coaches with an easy to use interactive program to use both pre and post course. It is recommended that coaches participating in these courses will utilise these e-learning modules before attending the course. The tennis i-coach website continues to attract more members with close to 5000 coaches now registered members. A number of video presentations have been added recently including: „ Integrated approach to improving effectiveness of t echnique. - Doug MacCurdy. „ Vic Braden interviewed at the Australian Open. „ Can visual t echnology assist stroke analysis and development? What is measurable? - Bruce Elliott and Machar Reid. „ Preventing shoulder injury in elite tennis players - Todd Ellenbecker. An important educational tool of the ITF's Coach Education Programme are the bi-annual Regional Conferences. These events cover both high level player development and increasing participation in tennis. Coaches who are interested should approach their National Associations who will shortly be receiving detailed information regarding the conferences. More information will be included in www.itftennis.com/coaching. The ITF Regional Coaches Conferences are conducted in partnership with Olympic Solidarity and the Regional Associations (ATF, COSAT, COTECC, and CAT) and the tentative dates for the Regional Coaches Conferences are as follows: „ The ITF Central American & Caribbean Workshop is yet to be confirmed but will be held in Puerto Vallarta (Mexico) from the 15-21 of September. „ The ITF African Regional Coaches Workshop will be held in Pretoria (South Africa) during the week of 24- 27 of September. „ Shenzhen (China) will host the ITF/ATF Regional Workshop will be during the 27 October - 2 of November. „ The week from 3 - 9 of November will see Foz do Iguazu (Brazil) host the ITF South American Workshop. In addition to the ITF/ Olympic Solidarity Conferences this year, Tennis Europe is hosting the Tennis Europe Coaches Symposium in Roehampton (London) from 22nd until 25th October. The Tennis…Play and Stay Campaign continues to have a big impact on tennis worldwide. A promotional DVD has been produced recently which features Roger Federer and Ana Ivanovic promoting the key messages including "slower balls, smaller courts, easy game". The DVD is available to view and download on www.tennisplayandstay.com. We hope you enjoy edition 44 of the ITF Coaching and Sport Science Review, and welcome your comments on any of the information published in the Review either to the editors or to the specific article author whose email has been provided. COACH, CAN YOU HELP 2 ME TO BE MENTALLY TOUGH? Janet Young (AUS) SIX GOOD REASONS 5 TO KEEP YOUR EYE OFF THE BALL Damien Lafont (FRA) CONSIDERATIONS 7 ON TALENT IN TENNIS Miguel Miranda (ITF) THE INVISIBLE ASPECT 9 OF TENNIS: A REVISION OF THE PSYCHOLOGICAL PROCESSES OF THE ACTIVITY Carlos Ferres Rial (URU) PERFORMANCE 12 PROF ILING IN TENNIS James Newman & Miguel Crespo (ITF) FIT TO PLAY™ & 17 PERFORM - CORE STABILITY Carl Petersen & Nina Nittinger (CAN) ITF LESSON PLANS FOR 19 BEGINNER PLAYERS: LESSON PLAN 4 TENNIS NUTRITION 21 FACTS Page Love (USA) SITUATION TRAINING: 24 KEY TO TRAINING IN A GAME-BASED APPROACH Wayne Elderton (CAN) RECOMMENDED 26 BOOKS AND DVDS