A new perspective
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On tennis
Coaching
Bridging the strategy gap in tennis.
Matches are won by the player who makes the least amount of losses. Instead of focusing on diminishing your mistakes we focus on maximising profit to ultimately win more.
How do YOU win?
Do you love winning or hate losing?
Focusing on making more profit can be challenging, especially when unsure how to do so.
Down the middle DTM is one of the most effective shots.
It can neutralize a rally when under attack while simultaneously serving as a bridge to your offensive game!
Just remember to:
‘Tanking’ a match can turn things around.
These accelerations are typically fueled by anger. However, it’s possible to raise your average outgoing shotpressure without anger. It starts with being able to HIT IT.
Oops. Made a typo! CTRL-Z
There are numerous ways to neutralize a rally and reset it. We love to talk about this because being able to reset the situation increases your chances for winning the point. This turns a general feeling of being helpless towards a feeling of being in control.
Everyone’s familiar with that feeling of sliding down the negative spiral.
It’s okay to be there, it’s another thing to get stuck there. How long can we allow ourselves to stay? Flip that thing around and focus on something that is in your control:
Game plans don’t always work against every opponent…
We’ve all studied strengths and weaknesses before, but do you know the rules of the court?
They serve as a guide for creating and maintaining shot pressure against every style, and are much simpler than studying something like all the chess openings.
Open on Open
Oh yeah. Our favourite one is the simplest way to become a profit maker on court.
When the court gets opened by a high-pressure shot, instead of giving in and opening back, from now on, CLOSE the damn court!
The most important rule of them all.
Once we are at rule #5 you’ll have enough of these rules. It kills creativity right?
That’s why there’s rule #6, curious? The internet knows, but a slight hint is in the next card.
Open on Open, never?
No, sometimes those camera’s are rolling and you need to get on that ATP hotshot highlight. Rules are meant to be broken.
The G.O.A.T. position is taken right now.
Super Highly Effective & Efficient Pressure-Player.
When you know the pressure dynamics, you know with what intention to accelerate. You’ll make more profit.
With these services we help you step up your game
Analysis
Match per Match Analysis
Analysis
Looking for detailed information about a specific opponent or daily analyses of upcoming or past tournament matches? This is the right place to start. Our innovative approach draws parallels with chess, offering a groundbreaking perspective on strategic play in tennis that doesn't only generate statistics but also provides specific game plans.
Coaching
Strategy Coaching
Coaching
Through tailored exercises and personalized coaching, you'll experience rapid improvements in comfort, performance, and creativity on the court as you embrace the strategic playbook. Learn more about the tools mentioned above and maximize your potential with Assertive Tennis coaching and dominate the game like never before.
Consulting
Tailored Consulting
Consulting
Want to upgrade your vision as a coach or accelerate the process of the player(s) you're working with, then our tailored consulting work will be of great value. Set your goals and work with us through physical or digital sessions, analysis and much more. An easy way to start improving on strategy without any long term obligations at all.
Tim van der Horst
Winning is everything
Milan Kalaba
Process is everything
By combining both Tim and Milan’s knowledge, experiences and beliefs they created a general strategic vision. They both implement this vision not only in tennis projects, but also off court. Milan runs an importing business and plays and writes music in his own band. Tim was active in different projects in management, one of which was a start-up focused on improving the educational environment for students in the Netherlands. For both, one could say that it’s all about growth – as tennis players, coaches, parents, and in general. When you grow in one aspect of life, it reflects in many situations around you.
Below, you can find both their individual paths and perspectives.
I feel for sports what some feel for art. For me, the most beautiful aspect of sports is inspiring through complete expression in the most intense moments. Courage is the guiding principle for this, and I always keep that in mind. If it feels exciting but the ego gets in the way? Go for it. And that’s precisely what sport is all about, doing what you feel inside at the most crucial moments. Those are the countless goosebump moments that exist, and that’s why I am in this field.
As an athlete, you always want to push yourself to the maximum. This has always been my motto: ‘become the best possible version of yourself on the tennis court.’ However, there is often a caveat that I’ve witnessed in sports. The greatest artists and sports heroes often have a very dark side to their success. How do you overcome that, and as an athlete, can you lead a physically and mentally healthy life alongside achieving results?
How did I end up here? Sport has been a constant thread since my birth; practically my entire life has revolved around daily sports, starting with football and tennis. After completing my studies in business and consumer sciences at Wageningen University, I spent three years playing tennis full-time (ATP 1396).
Following a brief detour where I served as a restaurant manager, this is the moment to return to the sport that means so much to me. This time, not as a player but as a coach.
After reaching some national success in tennis u14 and u16, my upbringing that was rather philosophical and thus promoted thinking, was one of the bigger challenges I faced in further achieving my dreams of performing at the highest level. One of the constant questions I had in my head was the ‘why’. So you can imagine how Richard Feynman (physicist) was one of my idols.
Obviously when performing, you want to prevent thinking and especially asking yourself the ‘why’. I learned this lesson the hard way, but as a coach, both my childhood and this way of thinking actually helped me develop a vision and kickstart the search for this answer in a healthy way. After I quit tennis due to a heart condition I felt there is more to life. So I followed the thing that just activated me the most, coaching and performance. I made the decision to work towards becoming a tennis coach that could not only answer the questions I had as a player but also to inspire others to choose for yourself and follow your gut.
I travelled around the world to find answers to the ‘why’, this time both as a former player and as a starting coach. From working 60-hour weeks in NY as trainer, coach and marketeer to working privately with numerous Tennis Europe, ITF and futures players I slowly started to get some answers, until I developed my own analytical program (based on Nikola Tesla’s 3, 6, 9 theory) and concluded that the game of tennis is to its core just like tug of war. When you have no pressure, you lose grip. So, the sole question remained, how do you get a grip on tennis, and in life? After finding some answers to this question and exploring ways to teach this to players through rules, tools and fun exercises a tactical and strategical vision arose. This helped the players I worked with towards numerous ATP points, making me one of the youngest full-time coaches to ever do so.
Dave de Haan, Cristina Rolo and Zoki
There is an epidemic failure within the game to understand what is really happening. This has led to a misjudgment of the game, it’s players and overall strategy.
Tennis players face significant strategic challenges and an information overload during matches, limiting their ability to make optimal decisions on the court. This strategic deficiency is prevalent across all levels of play, from beginners to professional athletes. Players often grapple with multiple choices, leading to doubt and suboptimal shot selection, ultimately affecting their performance and mental state.
Players often find themselves in a strategic maze, where they must make decisions at each turn. If they can’t see the bigger picture, they take wrong turns and end up lost.
In other words: we want to change the general feel of minimizing losses to maximizing gains.
Currently, most matches are being won by who’s least bad instead of who’s best.
The game of Chess
The analogy between chess and tennis is striking. In chess, lower-level players can see up to 100 moves, while grandmasters only see one, maybe two realistic moves ahead. Especially when time’s a factor, GM’s have so many rules, situational knowledge about the game, that there are many conscious and subconscious filters in play when deciding their next move.
Similarly, tennis players have limited time to decide their next move on the court. Despite a lifelong engagement with tennis, and highly skilled teams. Both the players, coaches and analysts have not fully harnessed the game’s strategic potential. This can be proven by looking at the sentiment of each ATP match.
A straight highway
Assertive Tennis proposes to bridge the strategy gap in tennis by offering players a strategic rule- and toolset, allowing them to simplify their decision-making process and increase their creative input.
Rather than considering multiple options, players will focus on one optimal shot, leading to rapid improvements in their comfort and performance on the court. Creating a platform for highly effective creative plays.
The promise of our coaching includes the development of the following fundamental skills: (clickable)
Highly Effective Decision Making
Assertive Mental State
Improved Shot Accuracy
Creative Play
Setting sail on a prosperous voyage
In the short term, Assertive Tennis can implement strategic tools to ensure players are always aware of the safest and most advantageous options on the court. This gives players a competitive edge and shifts the focus from minimizing losses to maximizing gains. The goal is to level the playing field and promote strategic thinking in tennis.
“Like setting sail on a prosperous voyage rather than constantly repairing a leaky ship.”
To achieve this, we provide players with tailored situations and exercises on-court to reinforce strategic thinking. These exercises challenge players to consider shot placement and tactics in various scenarios. By working closely with players, we’ve already demonstrated the transformative impact of this approach in high-performance training.
The Strategic Playbook
Assertive Tennis presents a groundbreaking approach to enhance the strategic aspect of tennis by drawing parallels with chess. By adopting our innovative tools and strategies, players can expect rapid progress in decision-making and analytical skills, resulting in a more successful, comfortable, and rewarding tennis experience. This approach has the potential to elevate the game of tennis to new heights and change the way players approach strategic challenges on the court.
Think of Assertive Tennis as the strategic playbook that champions use to dominate the game, just like a brilliant general wins battles with superior tactics.
Embrace Assertive Tennis and maximize your potential on and off court!
We want to help players become self-confident through the process of maximizing ‘profit’ on court.
In chess, lower-level players can see up to 100 moves, while grandmasters only see one, maybe two realistic moves ahead. Especially when time’s a factor, GM’s have so many situational rules and strategic knowledge about the game, that there are many conscious and subconscious filters in play when deciding their next move.
Similarly, tennis players have limited time to decide their next move on the court. Despite a lifelong engagement with tennis, and highly skilled teams. For players, coaches and analysts there is still a big opportunity in the game’s strategic potential. We aim through strategic coaching that players get to a ‘GM’ level of thinking where there is one realistic shot to go for.
With time and training, rather than considering multiple options, players will focus on one optimal shot like GM’s. This leads to rapid improvements in their comfort and performance on the court. Creating a platform for highly effective creative plays.
The promise of our coaching includes the development of the following fundamental skills:
- Highly effective decision making. Players make better strategic choices, reducing doubt and hesitation. Increased knowledge of the game results in having one or two options per situation like GM’s.
- Assertive mental state. Once a player understands their game, they stop doubting the decisions made on court. This means that they can fully focus on their shots, and when being ‘unsuccessful’, able to come up with alternatives. This way their recovery will be faster, which can be described as mental toughness. At this time a player is building their game in all situations.
- Improved shot accuracy. Only having 1 option leads to more focus and a cleaner and more effective shot execution. The player’s confidence grows in their game which results in higher 1st and 2nd serve percentages as well.
- Creative play. Creativity is the ultimate goal of the assertive tennis methodology. There is often a misconception that strategy kills creativity. This is incorrect; in fact, the opposite is true. Take chess again, where Magnus Carlsen is seen as one of the more creative minds. He understands the game better than anyone else, which allows room for creativity, precisely because he recognizes the dangers and potential of every situation.
By adopting our innovative tools and strategies, players can expect rapid progress in decision-making and analytical skills, resulting in a more successful, comfortable, and rewarding tennis experience. This approach has the potential to elevate the game of tennis to new heights and change the way players and coaches approach strategic challenges on and off the court.