McEnroe Serving Way off Line
Are there takeaways from this delivery that might help you (and I ) ? YES !! Observe his “dual leg drive” up and into the hit – by staying balanced and getting good use from his back foot he maximizes his leg drive Observe his head with reference to something behind him and note how…
Cat and Mouse – the Waiting Game – Training for Positioning and Movement
Mouse: cornered, no options desperate, will move first Cat: playful quick, waits for the mouse to move then pounces And for sure on court it is fun to be the cat! To play very well, you must hit sound shots and move quickly, and very little else. But … the real time connection between hitting and…
Quantum Tennis, Coaching and Your Game
Quantum from Latin for “how much.” How much effort do you use when driving the forehand or delivering your serve?. Not your technique just how much effort. Some do play effortlessly, they appear fluid, with minimum muscular force they make our difficult game look easy. Others players have trained all the technical elements, but often…
Court Sense
“Court sense” speaks to your awareness of the court, your awareness of your opponent’s options, and how you might best respond to those same options. Decisions about “what to do” based on your and the opponents court position, and decisions about “where to be” to identify and antcipate their most likely reply. You need to…
Footwork Patterns
David Bailey the prominent footwork Trainer on Carlos Alcaraz, his court coverage, quickness, speed and so much more, all about the starting move … “I was watching Alcaraz and believe the reason he is so quick and effortless is his use of anticipationary splitting steps……..see photos above This technique helps him keep his momentum and…
Learning by Playing the Game
Thinking our loud here ……… Likely we have lost tennis games to players who appeared to have inferior technical skills And most have seen a video where an unorthodox left handed player skillfully competes against a well trained player – maybe even the leftie won There may be only two cardinal rules in the game…
Hitting the ball or Playing the Game
Hitting the Ball – Mechanics, Posture, Balance and Rhythm, Playing the game – only two cardinal rules Put the ball over the net (translated – hit up) Always be ready and positioned for your opponent’s return And as much as this means centering on the opponent angle of play it also means anticipation and the ability…
Underspin Backhand
A bit of history here, back to my childhood coach Blackie Jones. He specified that all my drop hits to start a rally, or to reply when another court called, “Ball please” be topspin backhands with a full backhand grip. And he told me, most attack the opponent’s backhand, in your case they will be…
Simplicity
James Clear, “The highest level of mastery is simplicity. Most information is irrelevant and most effort is wasted, but only the expert knows what to ignore.” “Beginner = ignorant simplicity Intermediate = functional complexity Advanced = profound simplicity“ Certainly there is some obvious judgment in the beginner to advanced spectrum above, but for sure we can…
Implicit Teaching
Implicit Teaching – an Alternative to Explicit Methods From – Tomorrow’s Teaching and Learning By Rick Reis – Stanford University Instead of a detailed explicit description of a tennis skill, the implicit approach uses far less words and encourages exploration and guided discovery to access feel. Educational researchers suggest we have an overemphasis on memorization…
What’s Up With The Toss?
For sure the game has changed, and will keep changing The same goes for the toss Years ago on Tennis Channel there was a clip of a doubles exhibition – with Rod Laver, Arthur Ashe, Bjorn Borg and Ilie Nastase. Just an exhibition, but I remember thinking they all had the same serve – rhythmic,…
Second Serve – The Glancing Blow
There is a lot here Rod Laver,”You are only as good as your second serve.” Pete Sampras about his 7 Wkmbledon titles, “I had the best second serve in the game.” Whenever possible the first and second serve deliveries should be similar And certainly when watching Federer, the first and second delivery appear remarkably similar…
Roger Federer – Sequential Photos
The following sequence is excellent – with very basic elements highlighted Within the 7 images please note the following He tosses with his weight on the back foot, his tossing arm is parallel to the baseline His body weight is centered as he extends his tossing arm but his right hip is lower He accelerates up…
Early to Step
Download this Video The most difficult opponent we face is often the “dreaded pusher” – but in spite of this players consistency, this players movement, and often how “poor we think they look” – often the simplest issue here is that their soft floating moon balls deprive you and I of the rhythm we get…
(Re) Building the Serve
Balance Rhythm and Efficiency – your keys to an Effortless Service Delivery The following materials are suitable for juniors and adults The primary target are those who are young and developing service habits, or those who are older and are willing to try something different I will be using Roger Federer and Serena Williams as…
Alcaraz Serve Live
Video courtesy Jim Fawcette ©jfawcette The following is research by Jim Fawcette “You had mentioned Ferero’s role in coaching Carlos Alcaraz. Searching, it looks like he came onboard in 2018, after being fired by Zverev. So … were Alcaraz’s strokes pretty much fully baked by then? I remember Fed saying something like “With serving,…
Alcaraz the Serve
Photo courtesy Jim Fawcette ©jfawcette More and more my observations are less “biomechanical” – just about basic positions that you can come to appreciate, and in some instances approximate on your serve Frame…
Transitioning to the Net
The most difficult aspect of the game, may be the ability to play in “open” areas Meaning, closed skills are repetitive – the serve, bowling, movements that are repeatedly similar Open skills are totally random, each event may be different from the previous – and for sure when learning how to follow your shot to…
Tennis on the Theory of Golf – Explore with an Open Mind
Your back knee – as in, “the knee bones connected to the hip bone” In golf, as you finish your swing, you are able to easily walk down the fairway Similarly, Tom Stow (who taught the game based on the form of a 3/4 nine iron) trained that on the follow thru if you so…
The Dog Wagging Its Tail
In this photo Djokovic demonstrates perfect posture, and how his body (dog) has truly pulled the arm and racquet (tail.) So how to synchronize the arm and body? Getting the racquet back is not the issue, but rather the rhythm of the racket back and the rotation of the body. Do you take the racquet…
Sidespin – means hitting the side of the ball
The following is meant to be visual, with very few words about how to serve, which grip to use, or really anything else. I am choking up on the racquet so that positions of the butt-cap highlight various moments in the action. I am demonstrating with a slow swing, the toss is exaggerated well to…
A Teacher Never Knows …
How I got here At 11 years old I would bicycle to Acalanes High School, sit in the shade amidst the trees, and watch Blackie Jones give lessons. He was firm, he was gruff, but equally he loved the game and his students. His lessons were interspersed with questions to see if the student was…
This and That – Looking back
We are, as likely are you, sheltering in place. Quite a bit of time for me to revisit 10 years of work on this site, and the previous 20 years of work on TennisOne. One of the teaching notes I have been given reads, “A good teacher tells you where to look but not what…
Loosening the Fingers – think Quantum
In physics, a quantum is the minimum amount of any physical entity involved in an interaction Many interesting parallels have been drawn between the tennis serve and the golf swing. Once the tennis player (or golfer) gets the feel for the mechanical elements of the serve (or golf swing) then rhythm becomes the overriding issue.…
Centering the Opponent- Deep and Down the Middle
Jack Kramer (hopefully you have one of the old Wilson Kramer autograph wooden frames) played deep and down the middle when in a rally. Note, with his serve and volley game, rallies were less frequent, but if he was stuck in a neutral position, he favored deep and down the middle. Deep and down the…
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