Second Serve Tennis

7 Tips to Win More Matches from a National Champion

• Second Serve with Carolyn Roach & Erin Conigliaro • Episode 284

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Do you want to be a National Champion?

We are replaying a few of our most popular episodes and this was one of them!

Imagine setting impossible goals and constantly reaching them! That's precisely what our guest, Kenny, has done. Kenny was the 4.0 18 plus singles National Champion! He is a former division 1 football player, a former top ten track cyclist in Thailand, and won the UK cheese rolling competition.

If you would like to watch Kenny winning the cheese rolling competition please click below:
Kenny winning the Cheese Rolling Competition
Sports Illustrated Article about Kenny

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Speaker 1:

Hi, this is Carolyn, and I'm here with Aaron, and we are thrilled to have Kenny here with us. Kenny is the 4.0 18 plus singles national champion. He's also a former division one football player and former top 10 track cyclist in Thailand. And, most importantly, he's the winner of the UK cheese rolling competition, which has been featured on ESPN's Top 10 Plays, good Morning America, yahoo homepage, sports Illustrated and over 100 media outlets. So we have a lot of questions for you, erin. Can you start us off with the first one?

Speaker 2:

So my first question is not about tennis. We need to hear about the cheese rolling championship that you won.

Speaker 3:

Yeah, so it's um it. I first found out about it I'm doing a project in college about obscure sports and it was, you know, one of the most obscure sports going around and it's, you know, if you've never seen videos, a lot of people have heard of it. If you've never seen the videos, you definitely got to check it out, because it it's literally running down like a ski slope where they roll this giant block of cheese. The cheese can go 70, 80 miles down the hill. No one can beat it. But basically you're racing it and to see the first one down the hill is, you know, crown champion. And it's a tradition that's been going on since, like the Roman times, for like 500 years and it's only been canceled like two times or three times in the last 500. One like world war ii, two was like covid and then one year they just had tons of injuries. So like even to watch it is kind of crazy, because you see people, you know, major broken arms and legs.

Speaker 3:

so oh my gosh yeah, it's, it was pretty spectacular and crazy, but uh where did you do that?

Speaker 3:

yeah. So I, um, was filming like a documentary project called One in a Million, about inspiring a million people to check off their bucket list, pursue their dreams, and it was a goal that I had that I always kind of pushed back when I was working and like, okay, like. So I refocused and I was like, okay, I'm finally going to check this one off and go do it. So I wanted to do really big things that year with that project and just in life. So I set the goal for basically impossible goals.

Speaker 3:

One was to be the first American to win the cheese race. Two was to they actually do an uphill race too. It's not quite as popular, it's not as dangerous, but it's still an uphill race so that you run up the hill. It's a separate race and they have women's and men's divisions and things like that and kids divisions. And then three was to make ESPN SportsCenter top 10 plays, which was a goal that I had in football that I never accomplished. And the four was to inspire and reach a million people with my story. And I can proudly say that, with winning the cheese race, winning the uphill, and then you know, the story went worldwide. So I accomplished all those goals.

Speaker 2:

You are such an inspiration because Carolyn and I set goals all the time and we talk about them. We put it. We always say we put it out to the world, right? We write them on our Google Doc and Carolyn's was to play Ash Barty. She put that out like one of the first episodes but Ash has since retired, but we're going to keep putting it out to the world, cause now we feel like she has more time to play tennis with Carolyn.

Speaker 3:

Absolutely no. I, I remember that. Listen to the episode and I yeah, I I don't know her personally, but I know she has more time now since she's retired. So you know, I really hope she can get that done and I'm a big believer. If you know, you write it down, you talk about it, you keep saying it that it's going to happen eventually.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, I put it out to the universe. So now I'm just waiting for the universe to respond. So we'll see. I'll keep everyone posted and I'm a big believer of that year like that. Six degrees of separation, right, and this tennis community is not that big. So, absolutely, I think like you just need one person that knows one person that knows one person and you're there.

Speaker 3:

Yeah, we're one degree from Roger Federer, because we just interviewed someone from Tennis Warehouse, Michelle, who interviewed Roger Federer.

Speaker 2:

So no, we're two degrees there you go, I guess we're close, we're two degrees, we're close, we're two degrees, we're close, we're getting there.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, that's right, we're getting there. Well, kenny actually won the national championship in singles 18 plus it's amazing and he came up with the title, which is seven tips to win more matches from a national champion. So I'll start off with the first one, which is setting expectations, goals and plan of action. What did you mean?

Speaker 3:

For me, you know, I guess it's important to, like you know, set those, define those, write them down, review them. So you know, your goal might not be, you know, natural champion right away, or might not even be to win a tough match, but for me you might be working on something, you might just be playing your best tennis, have opportunities to win, because I certainly play matches against tough opponents where I'm literally just trying to hold my serve. Every time, I'm willing to try to win three, four games. So for me, once I qualified nationals, the goal was to win and I did lay out a three-month plan of playing matches, tournaments, gym workouts and mental and physical training. And then, important, with goal settings, understanding and developing, you know, growth mindset. You know you can always improve, you can always get better. You know our talents and our skills are not fixed. And then, ultimately, specializing my training and I laid a roadmap out for success. And you know, while trusting the entire process, that's great.

Speaker 2:

So the second one that you talked about was be familiar and comfortable with scoring format, facility and schedule. Tell us about that one.

Speaker 3:

Yeah, so you know, with this format it was the fast four format, so it's definitely something that's not common. You know it's short games, it's no ad scoring the way let's play the way tie breaks it's just not something you're used to. If you're playing regular, you know adult tennis typically. So my tip here is really just you know, make sure that you really understand especially if it's a new format how the tie breaks work, how the points work, how the switches and just get as comfortable as you can. And I'm big about practicing tie breaks for pressure, to simulate pressure. And for this particular case, I played and practiced matches a lot of those matches with friends in that fast four format, just so I could get familiar with it Smart. Have you guys ever played any weird formats or Fast Four or any other pro sets or anything like that?

Speaker 2:

Yeah, just at States.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, or even World Team. I think this is such a good point because it does make a difference. And what we don't do, erin, we'll tie 6-6 with our friends and we won't even play the tie break because we're like, oh, let's just stop. We're both winners, but maybe we should be.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, obviously, then nobody loses. If you don't play a tiebreaker, then you both walk away winners. Yeah.

Speaker 1:

But maybe we do need to practice it because I've been losing a lot of my tie breaks lately.

Speaker 3:

My format, especially in a new facility, is I like to get there at least one hour early before a match.

Speaker 3:

I like to find a check-in table for a tournament, find the trainer station, find the bathroom, the warm-up areas, the food station, the tennis shop, and then I really like to, you know, lay out my bag and really, and I'm just trying to get the most comfortable and really kind of create in many ways a home court advantage for myself.

Speaker 3:

And there's an interesting study about this that they actually studied English Football League, which is, you know, soccer over as we know it, and they analyzed like 10,000 matches actually and they found that the home team won 64% of their matches and even with the absence of fans, like obviously, okay, that's the fan support, that's the fan cheering and all that. But even they went back and analyzed this with the absence of fans during COVID, and the numbers stayed the same. The research asked like, well, how are these numbers staying the same when fans weren't there? And they showed that, you know, playing in one's home stadium, sleeping in your own bed, the added pressure of expectations of we should win because we're playing at home, you know, certainly were key factors. And so really the takeaway from this is you know, try to create yourself a home court advantage wherever you play.

Speaker 2:

That's really smart. Yeah, just being comfortable in your environment, that's great.

Speaker 1:

And number three, we've got getting prepared for match day routines warmup focus mindset.

Speaker 3:

Yeah. So I'm big about you know all these things and routines is about getting familiar and I think they help you focus. So, like it kind of starts with match day and it's like so, my, my go-to meal is like strawberry oatmeal with banana and coconut water and like every time I eat that I just like I start to feel ready, because I really don't eat that, honestly, when I'm not playing tennis. So that's like my go-to meal and then like my go-to snacks, like crackers with cheese, rice krispies I actually heard that from other tennis players they use that also and then I always have, you know, like extra fruits, fruit snacks or glucose gummies, and I always make sure, especially when it's hot, to carry a couple cold sport drinks and cold water for every match. What do you guys use for your? Do you have like your go-to meal, your go-to snacks?

Speaker 1:

I don't, but I need to. And when you said Rice Krispies, is that Rice Krispies with milk, like Rice Krispies, cereal.

Speaker 3:

No, like Rice Krispies treats. Yeah, something with sugar, Like yeah.

Speaker 2:

So I'll answer that question, because we have um Carolyn and I have an episode coming up about superstitions. So my um meals and sometimes my preparation I feel like I actually am going to change my mindset after this conversation, cause that's actually. You're calling it preparation and I a lot of times thought of it as superstition. So I would listen to the same music on the way to matches. I would um do what you did eat the same thing.

Speaker 1:

What were you eating? Erin.

Speaker 2:

Well, I stopped doing that because I thought it was kind of taking over and I was feeling a little bit crazy that it was more of a superstition rather than a prep. But I eat bananas. I do take stuff to matches.

Speaker 3:

I actually take those applesauce squeezers because that's something you can just get quick sugar.

Speaker 2:

But I really only typically drink water. Carolyn, you do have a routine, you're just not saying it, but she always has like Gatorades or some sort of hydration drink and Coke and water yeah, coca-cola.

Speaker 1:

There's a lot I can improve on. There's some things I can improve on. I can feel it.

Speaker 3:

I think we all have these, these rituals and these super, whatever you want to call them. It's just like if you think about them and review them and learn how to like get them, help you to focus. I think that's a great thing. So, like with mindset for me, like when the match is about to start, you know you got to focus on that match, cause, especially when you're playing tournaments, it's easily get focused on your last match or the next match and you're kind of like, really you have to play in that mindset of this match is the most important match of my life, right, you want to focus in the now. So, before a match, to help me focus, I, especially in singles, even in doubles, I don don't, I don't like to socialize much, I like to put my phone on, do not disturb, and just really think about my keys to winning, even in doubles, like I'm normally off kind of getting myself ready and mentally prepared. No-transcript, my match ritual is you know, when I'm playing a tournament, I you know I get the court assignment from the check-in table. I walk over with my wife, I give her a kiss and I get ready. I always wear a headband pretty much all the time, so I put my headband on and I kind of turn that switch on like it's time to go. So just in the last couple years I think I've always been doing these kind of things but just in the last couple years I've really started to think about it and kind of make sure that I'm doing my rituals and plan it out, just to kind of check it off and move through that process. Because before I thought these rituals honestly were kind of weird, all these quirky things. Because, like you know, you watch pro tennis and there's these people that you know I'm sure you guys know but like Nadal I love to watch Nadal and he's super OCD about his bottles and like stepping on lines and all these things. And then you talk about, like Djokovic, like he can bounce the ball like 20 times sometimes. But I realized that like having rituals kind of like this really helped me calm down and focus and really serve better and play better in those biggest pressure points.

Speaker 3:

So my personal ritual is like, especially when I serve, I like to wipe my forehead, like just to touch myself, get focused, like, okay, tap my head. It's like that I do three or four bounces and then I serve and then when I return a serve, I like to self-talk. So if someone was standing right next to me, they're like, why is this guy talking to himself? But like you know, return a serve, you know I tell myself, like okay, get ready. I say it out loud, like, get ready. And then like, especially in a tough point, I have this three keywords. Like I say fight, grind, win. And that really just like whenever I say that, you know, like if you ever feel those moments where, like, the back of the hair is on your neck, stand up, like you get that adrenaline rush, even by me just saying that right now I can feel like the adrenaline pumping a little bit.

Speaker 2:

I love that. Yeah, he's Matt talking himself.

Speaker 3:

Yeah, you can call that meditation in some ways, like there's a lot of different terms you can use, but just, you know, if you can figure out how to you know, use that, then it's definitely, uh, definitely, will help. And then the last part of that was the focus focus on what you control. What you can control is your preparation, your effort, your mindset, your reactions and your adjustments to play, and then don't focus on what you can't control. Right, you can't control your opponent, you can't control weather and court conditions, you can't really control bad calls or really on-court distractions. So, if you want to learn more about this, I'm big into these studies and I read a lot. So, like you want to learn more about flow theory or getting in the zone, and there's a really cool study even about tennis, about quiet eye study, and I've, you know, my sports background has enabled me to work with sports psychologists in multiple sports, so I totally, you know, grab this stuff and I really do think it's powerful stuff that everyone should incorporate.

Speaker 1:

I agree. Thanks very much to Kenny for being on the podcast. We have one more episode with Kenny where he gives us more tips. Also, if you would like to see him winning the cheese rolling competition, we have a link to it in our show notes. Thanks so much for listening and hope to see you on the court soon. Outro.

Speaker 2:

Music.