Loving the Battle - Second Edition

Former professional player and WTA coach Mark Tjia shares the tennis knowledge gained through junior, collegiate, and professional playing experience, as well as coaching experience.

Former professional player and WTA coach Mark Tjia shares the tennis knowledge gained through junior, collegiate, and professional playing experience, as well as coaching experience. This book offers insightful information on the mental, physical and emotional elements of the game of tennis, breaking down the mental strategies that will help players get to a higher level of overall competitivity. The book uses narratives, real-life situations, and real statistics to illustrate important concepts - concepts that are applical to players of all ages and levels. Loving the Battle has been mentioned in newspapers and magazines such as Florida Tennis, Baselines, the Gainesville Sun, and ADDVantage. Foreword by former NFL-All Pro Neal Anderson.

Mark Tjia was born in Columbus, Ohio in 1971 and has spent most of his life on the tennis court either as a player or as a coach. He originally picked up the game by tagging along with his parents when they could not find a babysitter, and by age eight was already playing competitive tennis. He began his career by playing junior tennis in Florida, moving on to play collegiate tennis on several top 10 teams at TCU. Eventually he competed in ITF satellite circuits and challengers. He has traveled throughout Asia, Europe, and North America in pursuit of his childhood dream of playing professional tennis, achieving his career high ranking of 589th in the world in November of 1994. Shortly thereafter he stopped playing professionally, and began traveling with and coaching world #60 Shaun Stafford on the WTA Tour. He then served for 13 years as the Head Tennis Professional and Director of Tennis at the club where he played as a junior in Gainesville, Florida. Mark is currently the Assistant Men’s Tennis Coach at his alma mater, TCU, in Fort Worth, Texas where he has been since 2010.