MMP Philosophy

How everything did start…

As a young, enthusiastic tennis coach I had a big challenge: I was to train a young very promising talent, the best teenager of his category. The tennis association, the parents, the young boy and myself were convinced that he had a great tennis career ahead.

One day after a first round defeat he came to me and said very calm: Kurt, for me this is all too complicated, I don’t have fun anymore playing tennis, I quit. Thank you for everything. Said and done – I didn’t see him anymore. This was a great set back. I couldn’t handle this experience so easily. Too many questions and thoughts went through my mind. Isn’t it incredible ? Both of us gave their best and yet it didn’t work out.

I was looking for explanations, wanted to know it there could be more effective ways to teach. So during the next years I got interested into different teaching methods, starting with sport psychology, looking into various body and mind awareness exercises like it is known in Yoga.

Step by step I discovered that self awareness is the key to a successful learning process. My personal observations during lessons, the exchange with many tennis trainers and coaches, feedbacks from thousands of students have confirmed me that this is the right approach to go on with my method. ( to further develop this teaching method. )

So I developed in over 35 years Mental Match Play, a self coaching training program, which can be used not only in tennis or other sports but also in management and in daily life. There are different tools and excercises for an individual learning process in whatever field is chosen. With MMP we have one principle: no matter where we go and what we do – we always take ourselves with us.

Mental Match Play was basically influenced by three methods

1. The inner game metod

When Tim Gallway wrote his book “the inner game of tennis” in 1974, he was a pioneer who brought mental elements into the tennis lessons. He talked about the continuous inner discussion that happens in our head, how we constantly correct and critisise ourselves if we can’t bring the performance we intend to achieve. The main goal is to achieve an inner calmness through a clear ( deliberate) focus which helps us to use our full potential instead of correcting our actions the whole time.

2. The Charly Principle

A theory coming from the behavioural research, develpped by Dr. Walter Stille which describes the effect of the thinking on our doing and shows ways to come to  solutions.

3. Solution focused coaching by Steve de Shazar

A situation can only be seen as a problem, if it is compared to the solution, therefore the person who has the problem also knows how the solution would look like. Through specific questions the coach helps the coachee to fnd a functioning final picture. Only through a precise idea we can develop trust in our abilities and find motivation.