How FBTL Works
A Brief Overview
Regarding emotional health, we have never known more, been more aware, and had many helpful resources available. Yet, as a society and more specifically, tennis as a sport, we continue to fall further and further behind. What gives?
FBTL approaches our struggles with emotional wellness from a different angle. So much of sports psychology, therapy and treatment, the modern mentor/ coaching world, and psychology/psychiatry in general approach problems after they've arisen in a reactive/corrective way—and don't get me wrong, that's important.
FBTL addresses problems from a different angle, a proactive and preventative one, attempting to get ahead of issues before they occur. This begs an obvious question: How do I know what issues someone might have? Having spent 50 years deeply embedded in the tennis life as a player, coach, author, and analyst, I’ve lived the challenges of the tennis life intimately, knowing exactly what can and will happen to a player living this life.
There's nothing novel about Preventative care. It's all the rage in modern medicine today. Much of it is simple common sense. With FBTL, I aim to apply said common sense to something vastly more complicated: the emotional lives of the tennis competitor.
In our tennis training, we spend so much time on shot selection. What if we were to invest equal time in Thought Selection?
Focus
FBTL aims to enhance every player's Emotional Intelligence, regardless of their level, which I submit will improve their overall enjoyment and performance in tennis and life.
My approach to teaching emotional intelligence to competitive tennis players comes from several angles.
Through my Teaching Academy, we expand our Emotional Knowledge, helping us strengthen our Immune System.
Through our Power of Daily Routines, we heighten our Emotional Awareness, which I refer to as checking our Vital Signs.
Through our Emotion Racket, we heighten our Emotional Identification and Regulation skills.
Through our Pep Talk series, we strengthen our emotional troubleshooting skills and learn to manage the tennis life's conflicting, extreme, and sudden emotional swings.
And much, much more...
More specifically, thoroughly explaining each section here would take too long. As I open the site to the public, the following sections will have concise, topic-specific explainer videos for you to understand how each section best strengthens our emotional health and wellness.
But in General, this is the Program and How It Works
Teaching Academy
Building Our Immune System
Knowledge is strength. In my Teaching Academy, the idea is to establish the concept of the ideal player. We take our tennis idols and compose a list of all the qualities the best and healthiest among them embody—qualities like perspective, attitude, work ethic, focus, resiliency, grit, etc.
Each topic will be presented first in essay form on my Substack, which I share here on the FBTL platform. I plan to publish these essays in book form as Sport For A Lifetime, aiming to do for Emotional Intelligence what the Inner Game of Tennis did for sports psychology.
For example, Columbus Day and the spirit of the journey, New Year’s Eve and the embodiment of hope, National Bagel Day and how to deal with humiliation
Within the Teaching Academy section, the topic will be brought within the FBTL platform, where a player will take a simple test assessing their initial grasp of the topic. Over the next two weeks, I will post regularly about the topic, personalizing, inspiring, and broadening the user’s knowledge and understanding of the importance of being strong in a said topic. Then, at the end of two weeks, we retest the topic, hopefully seeing a measurable improvement in understanding and utility, before introducing the next topic. Rinse and repeat every two weeks. I already have 50 topics scoped out—two full years of material. More will be added in time.
In my most ambitious model for the FBTL program, when players complete the two-week tutorial on a topic, they earn a badge/token, similar to the Boy Scouts and their merit badges. Complete them all and become an Eagle Scout. The same reward system within FBTL would be sweet. Complete all the topics over two years, and a player can become a mentor/advisor to an FBTL participant or even run/host one-day UTR FBTL-themed events I've designed and aim to host later this year.
I refer to my Teaching Academy as building a player's Immune System...
Think of your role models. Think of all the admirable qualities they embody. Let us develop those in ourselves. We may never be able to play like Nadal or Serena, but we can incorporate all of their greatest attributes, attributes that are not only performance-enhancing but life-enhancing
2: The Power of Daily Routines
Checking Our Vital Signs.
We're not reinventing the wheel here. All of these practices are time-tested and effective, practices the best and healthiest among us utilize daily, and they're all brought to you in one place explicitly tailored for the tennis experience.
Practices like Meditation, Mindfulness Practices, Mantra and Affirmation, Daily check-ins, Goal setting, Journaling, Visualization work, and many more. People strong in these qualities are the healthiest and most grounded among us. And it's all laid out for the competitor here in simple, clear tones. Speaking from personal experience, my daily routines are the most essential part of my overall health. But they only work if we work them.
3: The Emotion Racket
Tool for Emotional Identification.
I've taken the concept of the Emotion Wheel and brought it to tennis with our Emotion Racket. We look at this section a couple of times daily. We check in in the morning to ensure the best possible attitude to start the day. More importantly, we check in here before training or a match. To train or compete at our best, we need to manage the strong emotions that can surface during the intensity of play.
Start in the middle, the sweet spot. The state of Flow is our tennis and emotional goal. Work your way out from the center. We still have positive emotions, but it is essential to understand how to manifest and maintain them. On the frame, we are mishitting badly. We must know why we're feeling out of sorts and what steps to take to regain a positive state of mind.
4: Pep Talks
Tool for Emotional Regulation.
My PepTalk section for emotional regulation. I identify various situations that bring forth strong emotions, not all of which are positive and empowering. Our mission is to identify the causes/triggers of these emotions and not allow them to overwhelm us. Our PepTalk explainer video provides more details.
5: FBTL Testing Section
I've devised a unique FBTL Emotional Intelligence Test. Let's measure where you are and see if we can improve by engaging with the material. In its full manifestation, a player working through all the steps on a topic will receive some form of badge or acknowledgment of their work on their Profile Page. I have several ideas about how to display this. More about this to come.
6: Character
Nothing assures one of success more than belief in oneself. Only those of sound heart and mind can genuinely believe in themselves in life’s tightest moments. My goal here is to build a community of values. Of aiding in developing the highest quality people who happen to play good tennis. A rich field I feel strongly about. More about this in the Character section to be added.
7: The Player's Box
A section dedicated to the support system of a player, either parent, teammate, coach, or partner. This is my wheelhouse. Everyone needs to know their role in the tennis environment. Much more to be discussed
8: Personal Profile Page
Personal Profile Page with Gamification. It is not pertinent for now, but within a fully functional app, an enhanced user experience and motivational tool to keep players engaged with the FBTL materials will be essential to long-term success. I have files of ideas for this to keep the subscriber coming to the APP daily, if not several times daily
9: Additional Services
A Services area where more intensive work with a player will be available by myself and hopefully a group of mentors well-versed in the FBTL material.