Our BLOG
Struggle… a blessing….
Struggle is a word that always comes to mind when I reflect on my years as a junior player. As a late starter in the tournament scene, the insecurities that ... Read more
A change in the approach, and a change of outcomes…
Because I was lucky enough to do my share of travelling in the 90s in the professional tour, I was often a witness of the following. One would walk into ... Read more
College players
Dear Academy Family, One important piece of our program (and one of our favorite ones) is the open-door policy that we have with our former students who are now participating ... Read more
Rafa
My first memory of Rafa is from 2002 while attending the ITF junior event that happens right before Wimbledon in London (I was coaching the IMG players who were competing ... Read more
Year one flew by…
This past weekend was exactly a year since the time that I decided to take a step into the professionally unknown world of independence after having worked for two incredible ... Read more
HOW and not WHAT
As we navigate the process of our junior players in their pursuit to maximize their potential and reach high level goals, we find ourselves looking for what to do to ... Read more
Problems
As part of the USTA National Faculty coaching program, I had t the opportunity to participate as one of the coaches of a National Camp last weekend at the training ... Read more
It Takes What It Takes
The story goes that when the last crew of GREAT men American players was active (Sampras, Chang, Agassi, and Courier), a person would walk into the player lounge area of ... Read more
Maximizing our potential….
It only takes a few minutes watching Rafael Nadal in person to realize what incredible natural ability he was “born” with. Standing at a big and strong 6’2” of height ... Read more
Nerves vs Fear…
The tournament system in the US has to be used as a positive tool for our youngsters to develop throughout the difficult junior years. The fact that we have opportunities ... Read more
Doubles weekends!
As a junior player, I was not a doubles’ specialist because there was not such a thing. Doubles were a part of the national and international events that I competed ... Read more
Tournament tips…
I had a nice conversation with a family from the Netherlands who is considering moving to the Boston area next year, and they wanted to find out more about what ... Read more
Cheering for him!!
During the mid 1990s, one of the touring professional players who would stop by and do short training blocks at the Nick Bollettieri Tennis Academy was an American guy named ... Read more
New Year
Back in 2005, two of the most promising 18-year-olds in the world had to face each other in the first round of the US Open main draw. The names are ... Read more
Every Ball!!!!
At the beginning of August of this year, my wife told me to leave a particular Friday evening open at the end of the month because she had gotten tickets ... Read more
Thanksgiving
In Colombia, we don’t have a holiday celebration like Thanksgiving. For me growing up, it was simply something that we saw in all the TV shows, but I actually had ... Read more
Let the racket do the talking (at least most of it)
When the USTA had its national training center in Boca Raton (Before they moved to Orlando), they had a series of banners around the courts with famous sayings from former ... Read more
It has always been about the people
Dear Tennis Academy Family, Yesterday, we said goodbye to our dear Coach Fanni. Fanni and her husband (Omar) have decided to move to California because he has signed a fulltime ... Read more
Focusing on Progress
My first attempt to become a competitive junior player and follow my father’s steps didn’t go well at all. As a ten-year-old, I played in 5 or 6 tournaments and ... Read more
Hard Work and Attention to Detail
Juan Carlos Ferrero (Former Number one player in the world and French Open champion) coached Alexander Zverev for seven months in 20217. During the time that they spent together, Zverev ... Read more
Roots
The New England player has to endure the weather challenges to reach their potential every single year (with at least 7 training months of indoor court time). One of our priorities as a program is to train our athletes to develop offensive skills that will help them differentiate themselves from the players who grow up on environments that include more outdoor training (clay courts, wind, sun, and more).