Longtime high school tennis coach Howie Arons has ended his 36-year coaching career, stepping down as coach of the Cardozo Boys Tennis Team. Through Howie's illustrious career as head coach at Cardozo, he has amassed 582 career wins against only 51 defeats, and won 18 New York City Championships.

The Long Island tennis community has some of the sport’s best facilities, both indoor and outdoor, and best coaches in the world. With this wealth of talent available right in our own backyard, Long Island Tennis Magazine recently took the opportunity to pick the brains of some of these top coaches.

As a tennis professional, I always hear people use general terms and phrases to describe very specific actions. For example, you have probably read or heard the term “racket head speed.” This is just the common, quick reference to a very detailed and intricate action.

Many tennis players spend a lot of time and money learning the tactical and technical skills of tennis. Few players invest the same energy in mastering the mental skills. Yet any competitive tennis player will tell you the mind is the one to conquer. Tina Greenbaum, LCSW, Sport Psychology Consultant and Fred Sperber, Prince Pro Staff Team member, have joined together to create a unique program combining mental skills training both on and off the court.

Robert Kendrick is director of tennis at Sportime Syosset and co-director of the John McEnroe Tennis Academy Annex at Bethpage. Robert joined the Sportime team in the fall of 2012 after a decade as a successful singles and doubles player on the ATP Tour.

Professional coaches are receptive students and as eager to receive information, critique and criticism as they are to give it. They think independently, solve problems creatively, and assimilate and integrate information into a message that works best for each student. Great coaches are constantly learning and growing by questioning teachings of the past and uncovering the most progressive methods.

Coach Frank Dolan has announced that he will be offering a Free Speed Training Workout, this coming Saturday, Nov. 17 from 10:00 a.m.-11:00 a.m. at Sports and Fitness Performance, located at 4 Cedar Avenue in Islip, N.Y. This is a great opportunity to see what a real speed development program is like.

The audience who reads this magazine has an affinity for the game. However, we are approaching football season, and a significant amount of sports media turns their attention to NFL training camps as well as NCAA Division I football. Aside from the U.S. Open, tennis finds itself fighting for its place in the sports media pie.

We live in a world where resources are limited and people are increasingly trying to find ways to squeeze more out of less. In a tennis match, there are a multitude of opportunities to extend rallies, points, games and sets to get as much as you can out of your time on court.

In today’s game, there are many schools of thought as to how to create the best serve. The information is often unclear, the terminology is difficult and the execution is near impossible. I’d like to give you three clear and simple concepts to think about that will change your serve for the better in a relatively short period of time.

The tennis player is a person first and a performer second. This idea may seem obvious, since we are all born without a racket in our hands, and when we first walked onto the court to play, we didn’t miraculously change identities—we were the same person.

Winning Tennis Strokes is a short guidebook to tennis techniques and a splendid general introduction to tennis strokes. With this book, Bill Longua, a veteran tennis instructor and USPTA pro, has produced a concise guide to learning the fundamentals of the game.