Coach Jorge Capestany is our guest for Episode 6 of the Tennis IQ Podcast. Jorge is one of only eleven people worldwide that has earned the distinction of Master Professional with the USPTA and International Master Professional with the PTR. Jorge is also a certified Mental Toughness Specialist through the Human Performance Institute based on the life work of the legendary Dr. Jim Loehr, and he holds a USTA Sports Science certification. He has coached three US national champions (Gold Ball winners) and players from his programs have won more than 180 High School State Tennis Championships in Michigan. In addition to coaching, Jorge is an author, worldwide speaker, and he is the founder of Capestany Tennis Inc. (CapestanyTennis.com) which includes a website with drills for tennis coaches (TennisDrills.tv) as well as video lessons for tennis players (JorgeCapestany.com).
In this interview, we discuss Jorge's background as a junior tennis player and his introduction to the world of coaching. We talk about the importance of having a well-rounded game from a young age which includes the development of every shot and style of play. We also discussed the use and training of "sabotage" tactics within his tennis program, which allows players to disrupt the rhythm of their opponents and make themselves tougher to compete against. Lastly, we discuss Jorge's concept of Tennis IQ, which was part of the inspiration behind the name of this podcast; Jorge describes how he conceptualizes Tennis IQ and breaks down this concept into three levels.
Interview highlights:
3:38 - Jorge describes his introduction to the sport of tennis
5:32 - The importance of playing multiple sports as a kid for athletic development
8:10 - Jorge talks about how he started coaching and the development of his coaching philosophy
13:58 - The concept of "Tennis IQ" and its three levels
30:17 - Seeing tennis as a combat sport and looking for ways to sabotage the game of your opponent
37:43 - The importance of having a clear game-plan going into a point to utilize your strengths and target your opponents weaknesses, and how this can be trained in practice
43:07 - How competing regularly and playing more practice matches leads to tennis players developing mental toughness
51:43 - How tennis players can focus on the present moment and the next point by directing their thoughts to the acronym WIN (What's Important Now?)
54:28 - Playing "mission-based tennis" and having a clear intention going into every point
58:17 - The importance of having options instead of just playing one-dimensional tennis
1:00:50 - Establishing a junior tennis development plan and helping players improve on the five most important aspects of the game at every age
To learn more about Josh and Brian's backgrounds and sport psychology businesses, go to TiebreakerPsych.com and PerformanceXtra.com. If you have feedback about the show or questions on the mental game in tennis, email us at TennisIQPodcast@gmail.com or use the hashtag #tennisIQ on Twitter. Don’t forget to subscribe on YouTube or your podcast platform of choice (Spotify, Apple, Google, etc.) to stay up to date with future episodes!