The Ups & Downs Are Part of the Journey

"The difference between me at my peak and me in the last few years of my career is that when I was the champion I had the ultimate in confidence. When I decided, under pressure ... that I had to go with my very weakest shot – forehand down the line – I was positive that I could pull it off ... when it mattered the most. Even more than that; going into a match, I knew it was my weakest shot, and I knew in a tight spot my opponent was going to dare me to hit it, and I knew I could hit it those two or three or four times in a match when I absolutely had to. ... The cliché is to say that ... champions play the big points better. Yes, but that's only the half of it. The champions play their weaknesses better....[24]"




Billy Jean-King was quoted saying the above, and I can't think of a better thing to dwell on for our players heading into the new Summer season of tennis. Some of you have battled away hard over the Winter, turning up ridiculously early on court and displaying supreme commitment to strive for more. Others have taken the Winter off and are now dusting off the racket ready to do battle in Junior Interclub again, and good luck to you!




No matter what you're level of tennis or what you are wanting to achieve, there will be tough matches, times when you feel you are not improving. And a lot of it does come down to confidence as the legend Billy Jean-King mentions above! But enjoy it, that is part of the journey to being a better player, working out how to do that better next time. To take something back to the practice court and go 'hey coach, I need to work on this' .




No single players progress has been all upward. Injuries, setbacks, hard losses, early exit from a tournament. How you deal with that is the true test. Certainly I found it tough as a junior as I was the only one at my club playing tournaments (imagine that!) - I stopped for 4-6 months a couple of times because I couldn't cope with the setbacks. Looking back it was really naive to do so as a couple of tough losses shouldn't have made me throw in the towel! Imagine that, the momentum I had gained in training hard, and then because of 1 or 2 defeats I thought were 'wrong' - I gave up for 4-6 months. In that time I lost a lot of ground on my fellow competitors as when I picked up a racket, it was like re-learning the game again! If only I had learnt to change my attitude back then it would have helped a great deal...and it is a good lesson to remember!




Bringing this to the present rather than back in the 90s, for those of you who have seen the improvement of Marizka Oberholzer and Paddy Cameron, take a look at their NZ Rankings over the last 2 years. http://www.tennis.org.nz/ For Paddy an increase in 800 Top Dog points in the last 2 years. That sounds impressive (and is!) but no one sees the hours on court, the early mornings, and if you chart that, certainly it has not been a complete upward slope. There have been setbacks and will continue to be but that is the beauty of the game. The same with Marizka who has gone up 2 grades also and gained over 700 points in the last 2 years. That is not all plain sailing though! It comes with a lot of commitment, desire and a willingness to get back out on court and keep improving. That steely determination makes reaching for the next goals and enjoying the training that much easier - it is 100% accurate that these two have earned the right to get the wins and the points through hard graft on court.




And for those of you struggling with your rating, or wondering what you can do to try and get better, stick in there and keep working hard because the breakthrough will come. Like good old Nutri Grain - you only get out what you put in! And no doubt we will have some others coming through in the coming months and years to match the achievements of where Marizka and Paddy are at.




And let's be fair; it is not like they are at the end of their journey. They are right in thick of it, learning the art of how to win big matches and play the big points like BJK speaks about so well!




So enjoy your Summer of competing, don't throw the towel in because of a setback, but treat it as a challenge to overcome, a problem to solve. Keep that racket in hand and not smashed on the floor!! And if Interclub Teams all adopt this attitude and train hard, the results will come! Looking forward to the new season!

Weddings, Honeymoons, Tournament Tours, oh and a Summer of tennis coming up!

So it has been a little while since the last post, because as many of you will know I have been back in the UK for my wedding. The new Mrs Bishop or former Jennie Coker somehow decided I was kind of ok and agreed to marry me. We had an amazing day and thank you to the kind messages we received!! They were much appreciated and it was so nice to be back with friends from the UK.

After a magical day (will add some more photos once we get them!!) that did not last long enough, it was then off to the Honeymoon. We had a super 9 days in Koh Samui in Thailand to be refreshed and then back to NZ. So here we are back into it ready for a great Summer of Tennis. I couldn't quite time my visit to Bangkok with seeing Andy Murray play at the Thailand Open, but he walked the tournament from what I saw!

So while Vicky and I have been on the other side of the world, Robbie and Pete have done an awesome job at keeping things ticking over here back in the Waikato. Pete is taking some of the boys on a 3 week tour including tournaments in Wanganui, Hamilton and Tauranga and will keep us updated via Facebook and this blog as to the boys' progress.

The Term 4 coaching programme is now live and we are taking registrations. So take a look on www.crc.org.nz for all the happenings at Cambridge and to see what squads are available, right from Tiny Tots, to Mini Tennis Tribe, Teens and Performance Levels. Oh and lets not leave out the many offerings for Adults as well!

We have had a healthy number sign up for the Holiday Programmes as well, so that will be awesome fun the next 2 weeks. Both myself and Pete are leading the Programme next week, and Vicky will be back to lead the camp the following week from 17-21 October!

Senior & Junior Interclub
Junior Interclub is soon kicking off - we need players of all levels to sign up. Last year we had 8 teams who all had a great time! Get involved by emailing melanie@shelleytweedy.co.nz.

Our Premier Team have had a tough season being a little vulnerable if we lose one of our top two players, but we are still in a creditable 4th position!

Right, well we will keep this updated now the Summer is here....and looking outside it is perfect tennis weather...time for a hit!