THE EFFORTLESS APPROACH™
-WHAT IS IT?-
The Effortless Approach is a simple and systematic
process that helps us to become aware.
-WHY IS IT IMPORTANT?-
1) Our unconscious choices are blocking our growth,
restricting our performance, and eroding our health.
2) Our vascular system has a switch that decides whether we are in
growth mode (thriving) or in protection mode (surviving).
3) We can’t be in both modes at the same time.
4) It is our perception of our environment that decides which mode we are in.
If we perceive the world as a safe place, and competition as enjoyable, then our growth is stimulated, our learning is maximized and our health is enhanced. If we perceive the world
as a scary place, and we perceive competition to be threatening, then our learning is impaired, our growth is stunted, and our health is weakened (surviving mode). The longer we stay
in surviving mode the more we compromise our well-being.
5) It is not enough to survive. We can develop the skills to thrive!
At the moment, many of us are treating everyday life activities, such as exercise,
eating, conversation, and even homework, as an emergency. We are actually engaging our fight or flight nervous system (sympathetic) for these activities and we don’t even know it. The Effortless Approach teaches us how to consciously access and engage our relaxation nervous system (parasympathetic) so we can move at full speed, accomplishing all
that we want; without having the feeling of being in a hurry.
This enhances our growth, our health and our life.
-MY VISION-
To teach our children how to get the mind and the body to work together
in harmony in order to fulfill their goals and objectives,
with maximum efficiency and joy.
I AM DRIVEN by my desire to share with people how to develop the skills necessary to maximize their potential in tennis and in life. I have created my Peak Performance Training Program at this moment in time in order to focus on teenagers and their incredible importance in our world. I believe that every single child is of equal value no matter what their skill level. I am not interested in sacrificing hundreds or thousands of children in order to produce one champion. However, if it is your destiny
to be a champion, you are in the right place.
-WHY MY PEAK PERFORMANCE
PROGRAM NOW?-
I AM INTRODUCING my program this summer, for the first time, because of what I have witnessed during my son’s experiences in today’s sports academies and high performance programs. They waste an enormous amount of time and energy. I have found that all of them have excellent parts, but none of them have focused on what I consider to be “the whole picture”: teaching our children how to get the mind and the body to work together in harmony in order to fulfill their goals
and objectives with maximum efficiency and joy.
-HOW DID I DEVELOP THE
EFFORTLESS APPROACH?-
WHEN I WAS 25 YEARS OLD my professional tennis career ended due to a back injury that I sustained from the grind of the professional tour, and from my lack of awareness, and respect, for my physical, emotional, mental and spiritual needs. I did not fully understand the profound benefits of listening to, and honoring, the body’s voice.
TODAY, I AM GRATEFUL for the injury that ended my career. It provided me with the relentless drive to figure out how to heal myself, which has led me to search out people who have taken a different road than I have; people who think differently than me, who have a different perspective than I do. Through a process of trial and error I have applied many of their ideas to my life. Along the way I rediscovered my connection to inspiration, to the place where ideas come from. From that place, I figured out what I consider to be the essential components of well being, and the mechanics of creation, and then applied this systematic process, which I call The Effortless Approach, to all of them.
The daily and constant practice of this approach allows me to continue to
refine and fulfill, my goals and dreams.
-THE COMPONENTS OF
THE
EFFORTLESS APPROACH-
1) THE BREATHING TECHNIQUE we will use is called nasal diaphragmatic breathing. It is our natural breath when we are relaxed. It is the breath we use when we sleep. It will help you anytime you feel anxious on the court or off the court. When we use this breath we consciously engage our parasympathetic nervous system, otherwise known as our relaxation nervous system. We can physiologically access relaxation, intentionally. Instead of telling you to relax under pressure we show you something you can do
that will produce relaxation when you want or need it. Then we begin to condition
ourselves using this simple breathing technique, and we learn how to go
full speed without having the feeling of being in a hurry.
We learn how to be in the zone every time we step on the court.
2) THE INTENTION of The Effortless Approach is to create mind body harmony. This is not a new age term without meaning. It is a very practical approach on how to be present in the moment, without judgment. It is the mind and body working together, in harmony, in order to fulfill your agenda.
3) THE AGENDA is our goals and objectives. We work together to create clear and positive goals and then use the Effortless Approach to help clarify and achieve them.
It can be as simple as, I want to learn how to hit a backhand down the line,
or how to hit a kick serve, or I want to get fit.
4) THE GUIDEPOSTS for the effortless adventure are the four internal monitors that we must pay attention to in order to fulfill our agenda. By focusing on these internal monitors we will learn to notice the moment we are off course, and then quickly
and easily make the necessary adjustment to get right back on course toward fulfilling
our dreams and goals. I will introduce you to these monitors during your
first day in my training program.
-THE PROCESS OF
THE
EFFORTLESS APPROACH-
1) establish mind body harmony (the intention).
2) pursue the agenda.
3) if the intention and the agenda conflict: let go of the agenda,
for the moment, and
re-establish the intention (mind-body harmony).
When I am back, firmly grounded in my intention, I pick up my agenda again, and perhaps clarify it, in order to be more productive, more efficient. That’s the process. It is that simple, but it is not necessarily that easy. Some of us have a very difficult time letting go of our agenda, even for a moment. The mind does not want to slow down in order to accommodate the body. It has been taught not to! The Effortless Approach will show us how destructive that habit can be and how enjoyable the most direct route to fulfilling your goals can be. I have seen many jaws drop open when they realize how much easier and more efficient The Effortless Approach is than their current approach.
-INTENTION ENERGIZES:
ATTENTION TRANSFORMS-
That is the mechanics of creating what we want: intention energizes and attention transforms. It’s that simple. Imagine you live in an apartment and you have a plant that is dying. You set the intention to have the plant thrive. Then you put your attention on the plant in order to know what to do to help it live. Move it into the sun, or move it into the shade, give it more water or perhaps less water, but pay attention to it and the plant will thrive. It is not necessary to pull on the leaves of the plant in order to get it to grow. We don’t yell at the plant to grow faster or better or try harder. In fact, all those things slow down growth! It is the plants nature to grow and once we have taken care of its needs, and removed the obstacles to its well being, it will thrive and grow in the most efficient way possible according to it’s nature! Children and Adults are exactly the same. To become the best player you can be we simply need to remove all unnecessary
stress and obstacles between you and your dreams and goals.
-THE INTENTION TO CREATE MIND
BODY HARMONY-
IS THE ULTIMATE AUTHORITY
If you find yourself in a sustained period of discomfort or pain, you can be confident that your mind has overridden your body in order to fulfill its agenda.
Much of the time we don’t even know what our agenda is. If we take a moment to
become aware of our agenda, and then let it go for a moment, we will be
back on course to fulfilling our goals and objectives.
-ONE MAJOR OBSTACLE-
ONE MAJOR OBSTACLE to fulfilling our goals and objectives is that we are trained to not pay attention to the body’s voice. We are taught to clean our plate even if we are full. We are taught, “No pain no gain”. This idea is actually quite inefficient and
self-destructive. For most of us, (according to recent studies 85% to 90%),
this idea leads to burn out, and injury.
ACCORDING TO EXERCISE PHYSIOLOGISTS, today’s mainstream approach to exercise is that we need to maintain a sustained period of discomfort in order to produce a training effect. In other words, you have to do something that is consistently uncomfortable in order to get the results you want, and when you stop doing the thing that is consistently uncomfortable, the results you worked for will disappear. This means that whether it is a bigger muscle you want, or to lose or gain weight, or any other training effect that you might want - the result will disappear the moment you stop maintaining a sustained period of discomfort as your approach. This is why diets don’t work. This is why we can’t keep our new year’s resolution to get in shape. This is why 85% to 90% percent of adult Americans don’t exercise regularly despite a consensus among health care professionals that it is essential for our well-being. This mainstream approach to exercise reduces our joy, our satisfaction, our productivity, our longevity, and ultimately our desire; and on top of that it costs us billions of dollars every year in health care costs.
SO WHY DO WE FOLLOW THE MAINSTREAM APPROACH? I believe it is because we are not fully conscious of the choices we are making and the natural consequences of those choices. The Effortless Approach shines a light on our moment to moment choices and helps us to realize the inefficiency and self destructiveness of the no pain, no gain approach. The toughest thing for our minds to accept is how easy it can be to create the life we want. Think about it, do you only feel like you have accomplished something if the road has been hard and you have persevered in the face of adversity? Could you be comfortable accomplishing things if they came to you easily? Below, I have highlighted a few ideas that I believe are obstacles to accelerated growth and abundant joy.
-IDEAS THAT AFFECT OUR GROWTH-
STRESS IS NOT OUR ENEMY. The idea that stress is our enemy is currently interfering with our growth. Stress is not our enemy. It is a known fact that without stress we would die! Stress is essential for growth. Unnecessary stress is our enemy. The Effortless Approach systematically removes unnecessary stress.
THE DEFINTION OF WORDS CAN CAUSE US UNNECESSARY STRESS.
Many of us strive to be fit but don’t actually know what definition of
fitness we are using. The definition of fitness I like is, that if I can do what
I want to do without huffin and puffin; I am fit!
THE IDEA OF PERFECTION CAUSES US UNNECESSARY STRESS. It causes us pain and interferes with our growth. I remember reading a story that caused me to shift my perception and to change my definition of perfection. The story said that automatic pilot on an airplane is off course 90 to 95% of the time. It then explained that due to the forces of nature (in this case the wind) it is not possible to travel in a straight line. Evidently, jumbo jets adjust every time they are a 10th of mile off course and smaller planes adjust more quickly. Anybody who has ever sailed understands the need to tack in order to reach his or her destination, or goal. After contemplating this story, I understood for the first time, that the fastest way for me to get from point A to point B is to notice the moment I am off course, and then simply, without judgment, correct it. . If you think about the automatic pilot you could say that if you are on course 5 to 10% of the time…you are are perfect!
Perfection has it’s roots in fear, and fear slows down our growth.
TODAY, I LOVE the fact that there is nothing wrong with being off course, and that in fact, it is natural. This means that the mark of excellence is about how quickly we recover. I remember hearing a story about the founder of the martial art Aikido, Morihei Ueshiba (or as he was known as O’Sensei). One of his students asked him how is it that he never seems to fall, and then without allowing O’Sensei time to answer the first question, asked him how did he obtain such perfect balance. O’Sensei, reportedly replied that actually he was always falling down; it was just that he recovered more quickly than most.
The Effortless Approach is a stress and recover approach that is about being aware and recovering in the moment. It is not about stressing so hard on Monday that you have to rest on Tuesday. That approach leads to burn out and injury. If you stress and recover in the moment then you will be able to exercise everyday if you want to.
The person who excels in tennis and in life is the one who recovers quickly.
For our children to thrive they must let go of their perfectionist tendencies
-THE ACT OF STRIVING-
CREATES UNNECESSARY STRESS
AND
ACTUALLY SLOWS DOWN GROWTH
My peak performance program is for kids who want to take the most direct route to excellence, consistency and joy. There is no other tennis program out there that I know of that has the focus that this one has. Your children will not only excel in their tennis, they will also learn the skills that will allow them to thrive in the world no matter what they choose to do. As a matter of fact if they practice The Effortless Approach on a daily basis, it has been my experience that it will help them to figure out what their unique gifts, talents, and passions are, and how they can use them to serve the world. This skill set promises a meaningful life filled with joy and accomplishment. They are the keys to satisfaction and success. It is my pleasure to share what I know in order to help
your children to grow into confident and successful human beings,
and perhaps, championship tennis players.
My peak performance program is the product of over 17 years of clarifying my intention, and my goals. I have watched over and over as life gets easier, more productive, and more joyful, for myself, and for the people who practice The Effortless Approach.
Less is more.
-SOME OF THE BENEFITS OF
THE EFFORTLESS APPROACH-
increased awareness, increased efficiency, accelerated growth,
improved skill development, improved cardio conditioning,
increased strength, increased joy, improved vision,
reduction of unnecessary stress, significant reduction of amount of injuries,
significant reduction of severity of injuries
