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GRIPS PROGRAMMAY 2008 Quote of the Month:

“What you receive when you reach your goals, is less important than what you become when you reach your goals.” -Craig Cignarelli

Welcome to Volume 5 of the Grips Program

Newsletter! COMING UP!May 16th

• Ruby Hill Ladder Tournament and Test Day

May 17th• ASRC Jr/Adult Tennis and Pizza Event Dark Blue Level

May 18th• ASRC Grips Test Day

• Claremont Club Test Day

May 19th• Tiburon Peninsula Club Grips Kickoff

• Club Sport Valley Vista TENIZZA DAY

May 20th• Club Sport Valley Vista Grips Testing

May 21st• San Jose Swim & Racquet Club Test Day

May 21st• Riviera Country Club Test Day

June 6th• Pennsylvania Pro Certification

June 7th• Bent Creek Country Club Grips Kickoff

• Coronado Tennis Association Test Day

June 8th• Wisehaven Tennis Club Grips Kickoff

• ASRC Test Day

GRIPS FEATURE “I've missed more than 9000 shots in my career. I've lost almost 300 games. 26 times, I've been trusted to take the game winning shot and missed. I've failed over and over and over again in my life. And that is why I succeed.” -- Michael Jordan

Even with all of his failures, Michael is known as the greatest basketball player in the

history of the game. Under pressure, Michael always wanted to shoot the last shot,

believing he would succeed, and knowing that with great risk comes great reward. Vic

Braden said “There is no such thing as failure, only feedback.”

This is true in the Grips Program. To get better, you must risk failing certain parts of

your test to find out your weaknesses. Once you do, you and your pro can get to work

on those skills. By the end of your development process, you’ll have mastered a

complete skill set and be ready to compete against the best players in the world.

Michael Jordan did not even make his high school varsity team. With hard work and a

complete commitment to developing all of his skills, he became a role model for

excellence. Perhaps one day we will be saying the same thing about you. Turn today’s

failures into tomorrow’s successes. Good luck on your next test.

MAYPLAYER OF THE MONTH:

SAM CATANZARO!

Sam has been working incredibly hard on his game over the past several months and has just earned his Purple Grip! We are sure your hard work will be contagious. Thank you for inspiring other! Make sure you check out his profile at www.gripsprogram.com

www.gripsprogram.com

SAM CATANZARO

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THIS MONTH IN THE COACH’S CORNERDale Miller of Club Sport Valley Vista is the regional manager for all ClubSport clubs and the Tennis Director of ClubSport ValleyVista. Over the past few months, Dale has managed to educate players and parents about the Grips Program and get the Grips color levels into the culture of his junior program. Getting your players to talk about “what grip color are you?”, turns the tables so that players begin to push themselves. When your program reaches this point, your program will start to work for itself. Trying new things can be scary. We commend Dale on his leadership and the value he has added to his program!

Notes from the Courts...We would like to welcome our new players to the

program, and inspire you to test your way to the top! With school just weeks away from letting out for the summer, we would like to remind you to check out your club’s summer programs! Summer is a great time to raise your level, catch up with old friends and make new ones!

The Grips team has been busy at work. April and early May brought a host of new clubs into the Grips world. We introduced the program to the beautiful community of Palm Springs and received an overwhelmingly positive response. On your next trip down to the desert, seek out a club running the program.

Coronado Tennis Association runs the entire island of Coronado down in beautiful San Diego. With the great help of Sue Hites, Rob Lebuhn, and Mario DiLonardo the program kicked off to great enthusiasm and they are on their way to their 2nd test day!

Ruby Hill Golf and Tennis Club got off to an early start before summer. In 40 mph winds, we introduced players and parents to the program. Kevin Pope and Jim Swansiger are talented coaches with a strong commitment to developing good players. Ruby Hill is a great facility and we look forward to many quick successes under their excellent staff.

A special thank you to Al Juodikis and Ken Dehart who have their program in full swing! They have been scheduling test days and continue to educate parents and players on the importance of the Grips Program. Your support is greatly appreciated gentlemen! Ken and Al run the program at San Jose Swim and Racquet Club.

Mike Bolla has taken the management reigns of the Grips Program and testing at the Riviera Country

Club. A big thank you to Mike as he continues to roll with the program where it was born! Grips would also like to thank GC Cava and Kirk Schaaf who have been supporting and utilizing the Grips Program! Quietly, this program is continuing to grow, with players reaching skill levels far beyond expectations.

And lets not forget our friends along the central coast. Paige Esparza in San Luis Obispo and Darrien Wright in Santa Maria are both amazing leaders and have taken the Grips Program to new heights! Just the other day, we saw Paige on-court with a group of players working on hand-eye coordination and balance drills. Darrien puts so much energy into her program, its no wonder the kids and parents love her! Thanks to both ladies for your amazing input into the game of tennis! We wish Paige best of luck as she travels into the heartland next week with her Cal Poly team, which qualified for nationals!

Once again, Larry Parker at the ClubSport Fremont has provided one of the largest and most successful test days in the state. We spent nearly six hours handling all of the player tests and noted a great number of successes. Congratulations to Larry, Steve Miller, Dan Leon, and Minh Nguyen for establishing a great motivational program for the kids.

This coming month, we are off to New York and Pennsylvania to kickoff Grips Programs at several clubs. As our calendar of events fills up, we are always looking for pros interested in joining our team, certifying testers, and hosting events. Please send us a note with feedback or suggestions if you believe the program can do more. The quiet whisper of a new player development template is turning into a strong voice. Over time, we hope to hear more players screaming for Grips! Thank you for all of your support.

ARAG WORLD TEAM CUP 5/18THE ARTOIS CHAMPIONSHIPS 6/9

ISTANBUL CUP 5/19***THE FRENCH OPEN 5/25-6/8 ***

FOR MORE INFO GO TO WWW.TENNIS.COM/TVSCHEDULE

ON TOUR NEXT:

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Ask a ProGrips Program Co-Founder Aaron Fox is responding to this month’s questions.

Q. My parents, friends and sponsors put a lot of pressure on me to win. How do I deal with this?A.First of all, congratulations on reaching a level where your play means so much to other people. The wonderful thing about tennis is it is an individual sport. Ultimately, once you walk into the court, you are on your own, without a coach, parents, or friends to influence the match. Each decision you make is yours, only you can

control your own fate. When you finish, you will have to look at yourself in the mirror and decide whether you gave your best effort. If that’s not good enough for everyone else, then that’s just too bad for them. What you should care about, is whether you represented yourself well.

Q. What should I know about tournaments?

A. Well, start by bringing your rackets, water, and a snack in case you reach the 3rd set. You get a break in between the 2nd and 3rd sets unless you are playing the 18 year old division. You MUST check-in at the tournament desk before your match

time. Why am I telling you this? This info is on the online tests. You’ll learn it when you need to.

Q. How do I hit my

volleys deeper? A. Many young players volley with a forehand grip, making the face of the racket too “closed” to hit for depth. Make sure you are using a continental or #2 grip. Then, pretend there is a nail sticking out of your strings, and try to put the nail right through the ball. This will keep you hitting through the volley and ensure that you hit the ball cleanly. And if you can get the feeling right, make sure you open your racket a face a tiny bit to help the ball go deeper.

Trivia Question:

“ If he wins another major title, who will Roger Federer pass on the all-time slams win list?”

(The first player to post the correctly spelled answer on the grips Message Board receives a free grip.)

ATP TOUR RANKINGS

1. ROGER FEDERER2. RAFAEL NADAL

3. NOVAK DJOKOVIC4. NIKOLAY DAVYDENKO5. DAVID FERRER

6. ANDY RODDICK7. RICHARD GASQUET

8. MIKHAIL YOUZHNY9. DAVID NALBANDIAN10. TOMAS BERDYCH

WTA TOUR RANKINGS

1. JUSTINE HENIN2. ANA IVANOVIC

3. SVETLANA KUZNETSOVA4. JELENA JANKOVIC5. MARIA SHARAPOVA

6. VENUS WILLIAMS7. ANNA CHAKVETADZE

8. DANIELA HANTUCHOVA9. MARION BARTOLI10. SERENA WILLIAMS

Founders Notes...For those of you who understood the potential of the Grips Program over the last year, we’d like to say thank you. Grips is now getting attention across the globe, and we are proud of our California base. Your acceptance of the program, innovative additions, and evolution of the curriculum, has been wonderful. This program is truly generated from the grassroots tennis community and we are so proud of everything the kids and coaches are accomplishing in the quest to improve. As we begin to travel across America and the rest of the world, we will always be reminded of your efforts.

--Craig and Aaron

MAY RESULTS 1. ClubSport Valley Vista

2. Almaden Swim & Racquet Club

3. ClubSport Pleasanton (tie)

3. Spanish Hills Country Club (tie)(Top Dogs are those clubs that have had the most tests passed within the past month. Online Tests count, but Placement Tests do not!) Coach Bill rewarding a

player with a Blue Grip!

TOP DOGS: