Heart Waves: An Inside-Out Personal Development Journey

By Tomás Ruzicka

This book will forge a new connection between you and your heart. It will foster the development of your talent and guide you to its use. Author Tomas Rika shows you a step-by-step approach and levels to access before you can connect and harmonise your heart with your mind. It is a truism that, under pressure, winners exhibit winning behaviour and losers exhibit losing behaviorbut how do winners develop the strength of mind that separates them from otherwise equally talented losers? The answer to that question is to be found in this book. A lifetime of tennis coaching has provided Tomas Rika with the opportunity to observe tennis champions and tennis also-rans on an up-close-and-personal basis. He has now distilled what he has learned on the court in the pages of this book. Athletes, businesspeople, and all who are fed up with a life lived in second place will find this book a valuable addition to their library.

Thomas Tait, Acting Head of OxEthica, Oxford, England

• Language: English
• Publisher: Balboa Press
• Release date: Oct 3, 2014
• ISBN: 9781452521473

Tomás Ruzicka

Tomas Růžička is a professional tennis coach. Coaching and developing his student’s skills become his way of life. InbetweenPoints Academy is a unique concept to help his students on individual basis. Tomas’s approach to coaching is based on a holistic, mind-body approach. His way of developing people is the “inside-out” way. It is his goal to find and to connect authentic talent with individual skills and to make personal dreams a reality.

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Copyright © 2014 .

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced by any means, graphic, electronic, or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, taping or by any information storage retrieval system without the written permission of the publisher except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews.

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The author of this book does not dispense medical advice or prescribe the use of any technique as a form of treatment for physical, emotional, or medical problems without the advice of a physician, either directly or indirectly. The intent of the author is only to offer information of a general nature to help you in your quest for emotional and spiritual well-being. In the event you use any of the information in this book for yourself, which is your constitutional right, the author and the publisher assume no responsibility for your actions.

Any people depicted in stock imagery provided by Thinkstock are models, and such images are being used for illustrative purposes only.

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ISBN: 978-1-4525-2146-6 (sc)

ISBN: 978-1-4525-2148-0 (hc)

ISBN: 978-1-4525-2147-3 (e)

Library of Congress Control Number: 2014915902

Balboa Press rev. date: 10/3/2014

Contents

Foreword by John Spratt

Foreword by Phil Hill

Introduction

Part 1 - personal background

The mystery of 1939

Becoming a student of life

My Father

My Education

Moving on with Tennis and Life

Humility

Widening horizons

Inner child

Part 2 - Coaching philosophy

Inside - Out approach

Development of inside out

Breathing

Space between action and reaction

Person - Athlete - Player

Part 3 - Heart waves

Heart Waves

Levels of Heart

1.Peace

2.Love

3.Joy

4.Inspiration

5.Courage

6.Trust

7.Willingness

8.Acceptance

9.Understanding

10.Reason

Levels of heart

10.Reason

9. Understanding

8.Acceptance

7.Willingness

6.Trust

5.Courage

4.Inspiration

3.Joy

2.Love

1.Peace

Going through levels

In-between layers

Part 4 - coaching heart and mind

Sharing

Energy

Thinking of the school

Purpose

Levels

HE and his ART

Our journey

Person-Athlete-PlayerPerson-Athlete-Player

What we think

Winning and learning

The Caterpillar and the butterfly

Inner Time versus Clock Time

Teachers journey

Imagination

Connection

Note

Appendix

The first level questions:

The second level questions

The third level questions

The fourth level questions

The fifth level questions

The sixth level questions

The seventh level questions

The eights level questions

The ninth level questions

The tenth level questions

Author’s note

Acknowledgement

Foreword by

John Spratt

I first met Tomas when, as a chairman of the Oxfordshire Lawn Tennis Association Performance Committee along with John Harrop and Mark Cox, we were interviewing for a coach to produce a performance player or two out of Oxfordshire. we were impressed by Tomas’s track record and commitment, and he stayed as our Performance Coach for a couple of years.

We discovered that Tomas’s vision of a performance tennis player went far beyond requirements of our county squads.

Tomas is unusual: he thinks deeply and says what he thinks. Not only does he love tennis, but he is also a philosopher. He thinks deeply about both tennis and life, and when he talks about the one he also naturally includes other.

As a coach he is very hard physical master, demands total concentration and a good attitude, but beyond these two areas of focus, he is interested in each of his players as a whole person.

Tomas sees route to success as a tennis player as following exactly the same path as the route to success as a person.

His style is not to dictate to his players rules which they must follow, but rather to listen to them and to challenge their thoughts and in that way to allow them to reveal to themselves the path to increase their stature as players and persons.

In this book Tomas bravely chosen to write in English, exactly as he speaks English, and wisely in my opinion he has chosen to avoid having his English edited for mistakes of grammar and vocabulary. When you read his book you will be listening to Tomas himself.

Tomas is not the only Czech to have these qualities of philosophy and unusualness, but all of Tomas’ qualities and values are his own.

Any tennis player will benefit from reading this book. It is not an easy read because the issues that Tomas deals with are not easy. But to the same extend that they are difficult they are valuable. They are made accessible by Tomas.

John Spratt

10 March 2014

Foreword by

Phil Hill

When I first met Tomas back in September 1994 at Match Point Southampton [as fellow tennis coaches], my first impression was that he was quite aloof and self obsessed. I was told that he was a troublemaker and to stay clear of him! The one thing that intrigued me however was his ability to produce very good performance/competition players. As we got to know each other better [partly through Tomas making an effort to talk to me rather than the other way round] I discovered that we had a lot in common in terms of values and coaching principles. the most predominant thing that come across was his passion for the game. He was like lighting magnesium [a bright white flame] when we talked about tennis. I was and I still am ‘a anorak’ when it comes to the tout [ATP & WTA] and here I found someone who not only understood what I was talking about but had a deeper knowledge than me having worked with professional players from the czech republic. What I liked instantly about Tomas was his ability to develop strong relationship with his players [and with me as a friend]. they trusted, respected and listened to what he said. I later discovered myself why they did as he was open, honest and straight talking with me. his ability to see the bigger picture and assess the situations was remarkable.

He was [and still is!] able to get inside the heads of the players as he gives the belief and courage to his players and friends to pursue their goals and dream.

We are now in 2014 and that friendship still remains as strong as ever. we have, like all of us in life, been through some tough good and bad times but I know he has been there for me to support and to help to clarify my thoughts. i would like to think it was the same for him but his giving is enormous.

I am delighted to be able to contribute to this book, which I feel optimizes Tomas as person and I am thrilled that he has been able to express himself [very much in Tomas’s way] as a deep thinker with his unique perspective on life.

This book will help not only coaches, players and parents but anyone looking to understand and help solve challenges of life.

Introduction

We want to understand the world around us. To understand what is going on. To find our place in life, and be able to anchor ourselves in that busy place whilst life is going at hundred miles and even faster.

We are in love, then we not. Things are taken away from us and people come and go. We don’t always remember what went well, but usually or more likely, what went or could go wrong.

We are trying to cut corners and to find an easy way out on our personal journey. It is hard when we fall down and it is a long way up when we are looking down. Somehow we need to make a sense of what is going around us. We must find out who we are by understanding our heart

We are looking for ourselves, our company through the journey we call life. Looking for our heart to guide us. To get up on top of our world where we have a best view to what is going on!

We have been there as children. On the top of our world until we have been told that our view is not quite good and has to be corrected by our teachers.

This book wants to help you to get back on the top of your world and to connect with your heart. To connect and to develop your way of feeling and thinking so you can act spontaneously and authentically. Bringing love and joy to yourself and to others.

A man went along the beach picking star fish. He took one and threw it back into the sea. He continued picking up and throwing the star fish back into the see as he carried walking along the beach. Walking in opposite direction was a man who stopped and asked him what he was doing? There are thousands of starfish on this beach and they will surely die here, and what difference can you make? He continued to say. The other man bend down and pick up another star fish and said to the man you see this star fish? It makes a difference to him! he answered as he carried on throwing another star fish into the sea.

We all belong to the deep see of humanity. And yet we still have to learn how to think for ourselves. To become who we are, we have to first connect with our hearts to learn and trust our feelings in our heart, before radiate our heart waves.

Getting to know ourselves helps us to know what’s in our hearts. Through the connection with hearts we become more authentic and in turn we begin to understand better the world around us. We then experience more joy and start to get closer to our calling in life.

PART 1

PERSONAL BACKGROUND

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THE MYSTERY OF 1939

The background to my story begins when Ladislav Znojemsky, a professor of history at Gymnasium in Duchcov, a little Czech town in the former Sudetenland, was transferred to Gymnasium in Kutna Hora.

It was time when German tanks has moved into Czechoslovakia, and life