Simple! “HIS UNDIVIDED ATTENTION”
Ripley’s reputation in the tennis industry is widely known, over half of his students come from referrals alone! Every new player is welcomed with a personal interview that walks each parent/player through the process of establishing whether Ripley is the right coach for their needs. From the onset this close relationship sets the tone and guarantees answers to questions, helping you make one of the most important decisions in your child’s tennis career. Following your decision, you will still continue to receive communication through a spirit of inclusion from Ripley on planning, process and achievements your child experiences.
Ripley’s COACHING COMMITMENT.
Although we work small we are laser focused on excellence! We strive not to meet your child’s expectations, but exceed them. After all, if we don’t excel, then how can your child excel? Ripley is committed and dedicated to bringing each player a “Personalized Coaching Solution.” He continuously grows and develops his training programs by understanding and adapting to the present and future trends in the tennis world. He will meet and exceed your expectations as a tennis parent in every way possible!
PLAYER CONNECTIVITY.
Ripley will always be cultivating each player’s growth and development requiring ratios that must be kept to an ideal state of 1:1 or 2:1. He encourages player diaries to help shape players tennis mindset, coping skills and positive healthy attitudes.
TRUST.
Unlike many other tennis academy’s, Ripley is a parents first, enabling him to make split second decisions that would reflect your parenting beliefs and as parent’s first and a coaches second keep our players on task which is so important in our culture today. Typical tennis pro’s today making the transition to becoming a coach find it hard to “unload psychologically” meaning “they” are still the center of their universe. One of the hallmark qualities Ripley is to take himself out of the center of their universe and place your child first.
philosophy.
Ripley’s philosophy is to work with the each student’s short, medium and long term goals and backward chain each of them, establishing priorities, with laser focused intensity that reinforce tennis ethics. He believes that every player must have a master plan and train from the same sheet of music. The most effective way to reach each goal is through quality over quantity. Research has proven a program blending the combination of volume and intensity periodised over a training period is the most effective method of training. Ripley has been well trained in “periodisation” as part of Tennis Canada’s Coaching staff from the early to late nineties when the concept was widely used and integrated the system into the Saddlebrook Tennis Academy in 2001.
THE SYSTEM.
Ripley’s system respects the technical, tactical, physical and psychological components of a player development combined with tournament scheduling.
Managing these player components is crucial to developing a complete athlete able to make complex decisions in the pressure of competition.
PERIODISATION.
Periodisation allows us to plan ahead and to anticipate possible contingencies that may surface during training and competition. In the elite game, it is largely governed by medium and short term goals related to the competitions in which our player’s participate. The nature of the super series, designates, state and ITF tours, where some uncertainty (injuries, illnesses, physical or mental form of the player, competition results, match times and durations, etc) is commonplace makes it necessary to continuously review and adapt the training and competition plan. Similar flexibility is also important in handling the varied physiological demands of competition, where different surfaces, opponents, and formats (3-5 sets) can all affect the intensity and duration of physical effort.
Periodisation’s adaptability to the goals Ripley set’s and the individual characteristics of the player make it an excellent tool to facilitate the control of training. Thus, the improvement or deterioration of a player’s form can be attributed to the work performed and changes can be made accordingly. “Periodisation drives the modification of training using well established criteria based on the continuous evaluation of training progress.”
DEVELOPING THE ‘IT’ FACTOR IN ALL OUR PLAYERS
In order for a player to come to the realization of their true potential and embrace their ‘it’ factor we must respect the most comprehensive sport science system to date: (Download Periodisation PDF)
Individuality, identify learning style for each player is crucial
Work Load, Ripley’s method is based on gradually increasing their work loads, their volume, their intensity and the amount of information given to the player
Specificity, each practice is designed to achieve a particular result. His practices are intense with a common theme of “is what I’m doing right now moving me closer to my goal” His mandate is to increase each players skill set so ultimately they are never confused with a situation on court while making the correct decision
Repetition, or Grooving is very important but must always be balanced with a “horizontal” skill development approach
Variation, in order to avoid the adaptation syndrome, and to keep students interested, motivated and improving it is important to be creative and change constantly
Ripley’s individual program are divided into several phases to help each student manage the information and training:
Pluriannual cycles which is divided into annual cycles (2-7 years)
Annual cycle which is divided into periods of macro cycles (preparation, competition, transition)
Macro cycles which are divided into mesocycles (3-5 weeks to 1 month)
Mesocycles which are divided into microcyscles (1 week)
Microcycles which are divided into daily cycles (6 cycles pre week)
Daily cycles which are divided into training sessions (warm up, situation of the day, cool down)
Training sessions are divided into minutes