Month: June 2018

If I hear one more time that tennis is just mental game I’ll scream.

People who believe that tennis is half mental hasn’t seen the Williams sisters serve or hit a forehand shot to the corner.

People who believe that haven’t received a serve coming at them over 90 miles per hour or played a match that took over 2 hours in 90 degree heat.

Don’t get me wrong I believe that a tennis match can be lost because a player wasn’t mentally ready to handle the challenge, you do need to learn to stay cool, be patient, and play your game, but if you don’t got the goods to play great tennis your mental game won’t matter much.

In order to dominate your next match you’ll want to focus on getting the goods to play better tennis.

The first place that you need to start is with is getting is shape to play the game and then with
learning how to make solid contact with the ball every time you strike no matter what type of hit your making at any time in the game.

Let’s talk about getting in shape.

There’s nothing worse than watching a tennis player loose a game because they got winded. They were to
tired to finish playing the game strong to the end.

Actually there’s nothing worse than being that player.

How do you think Aggassi has won so many of his matches. Yeah he’s a hall of famer, but how many times did he have to come back to win.

When you are exhausted it’s hard to stay focused.
When you are exhausted it’s hard to make solid contact with the ball.
When you are exhausted it’s hard to get to the ball.
When you are exhausted you don’t play the best game you can.
When you are exhausted you can’t get in solid practices to get better and you end up practicing bad habits.

So first things first, get in shape. Spend time everyday conditioning your body to handle the vigorous play of tennis.

That way when it comes times to put your foot down and pull the best out of yourself, your leg doesn’t wobble and is able to stand strong and play to the end.

Secondly you want to focus on making good contact with the ball.

Being in shape will help you with getting to the spot on the court that best suits playing a set up or point scoring shot.

To learn how to make good contact with the ball you simply need to work on good hand eye coordination, you want a racket you can handle and feel comfortable with, and you need consistent repetitious practice.

Good hand eye coordination will help you hit the ball in the center of the racket everytime. This will help you decrease unforced errors and will increase your return without any added effort.

Start with hitting basic forehand shots over and over from the same spot and to a predetermined spot on the opposite side of the court.

Then change the place where you are hitting from while still hitting the ball to the same predetermined place you where hitting to in the previous spot. Don’t be ancious to start hitting to a new spot. Be patient. Once you’ve gotten consistent at making good contact and hitting your predetermined spot pick a new place to hit the ball to.

The best scoring places on the court occur at sharp angles away from the center of the court. Meaning the further and the faster the ball is moving away from the center of the court the better chance you have of scoring.

In conclusion the “tennis game in the millenium” takes real athletes who want to work hard to be great. The first steps to being great are getting in superb shape learning how to make great contact with the ball at all times in any situation.

Do you expect your tennis kid to always perform well or win? Do you have a hard time focusing on what your kids do well on the court instead of focusing on mistakes? I receive many questions from sports parents about their young athletes performance. One question parents ask me: Am I too hard on my young athlete? Yes, most parents are.

Just today, I received an email from a sports parent about his child. He stated, I am sometimes hard on my son and tend to see his weaknesses more then his positive qualities! As a tennis parent myself, I have to agree. I find myself focusing more on the mistakes my child makes in matches instead of the wonderful shots she makes.

I think one reason many tennis parents focus on mistakes and weaknesses is that they know what their kids are capable of in practice and matches. For example, one week your child might play flawlessly winning every match in the tournament. Naturally, our expectations as parents shoot up: My child should be able to perform like this all the time!

I call this the peak performance dilemma. Some athletes judge every performance based on their best performance! They think, If I can play great one time, I should do it all the time. I think tennis parents adopt this same attitude. When our kids dont perform up to their potential, its easier to focus on the mistakes and what they are doing wrong (compared to their best performances).

Whats the solution to this dilemma? First, you want to be careful not to compare every match your athlete plays to his best match. Second, you have force yourself to focus on what your child is doing well in each match, especially after the match on the car ride home. Dont pick apart every mistake your young athlete made in the last match. I suggest to parents that you compliment your player for one or two things she might have done well in the match, before saying anything else.

When you think your child under-performed during a match, giving complements is very hard to do (trust me I know this personally). Try to focus on your players positive qualities. Your kids know what mistakes they made and dont want to be reminded after the match!