Flushing Meadows, N.Y. was the center of the tennis universe again and it wasn’t the U.S. Open that got thousands of tennis fans to gather at the USTA Billie Jean King National Tennis Center on a beautiful Sunday. If you love tennis and you stayed home, you missed out on not just the biggest, but the…
On April 16, the New York State Department of Education begins administering the English Language Arts (ELA) tests for grades 3 to 8. A similar math test begins next week. A small, but vocal, group of parents are objecting that schools are spending too much time in the classroom preparing kids to take tests and…
A New York Times article titled "Reasons Not to Stretch" by Gretchen Reynolds was published today, April 3 and posted on the USPTA Eastern Division Facebook page. This article refers to two recent studies that add to the scientific body of evidence that pre-exercise static stretching alone is counter-productive to athletic performance, and dynamic warm…
Less than 10 percent of all tennis shots are hit from a center position on the court. Note that every serve is hit from a slightly off-center start, and each return of serve is hit from even closer to the sideline. Why is it then that more than 90 percent of all tennis balls are…
Tennis, at the most elite level, is incredibly physical. The very best players may be some of the best athletes in the world … in any sport. That’s why when I hear the simplistic statement "at the top level of tennis, everyone has the physical skills to succeed. The difference is mental," I wonder what…
A burst of speed to gain position is what is needed for most shots to succeed. It is imperative to be in the most fantastic position to hit every ball if you want to hit a great shot. Most of the time, the only way to gain that position is with a burst of speed. Where does that…
Jesse Owens, the great Olympic champion in the 1936 Berlin Olympics, was taught by his coach at Ohio State to run like a horse. What he meant was, look straight ahead when you run, with a singular purpose of getting to the finish line first. Just the way a horse runs. Have you ever seen…
As a preface to this blog, I will state the obvious, which is the opinions expressed here while perhaps shared by many are mine and mine alone. I’m usually not a big fan of tennis politics and those who follow this blog know I’m even less enamored of tennis politicians. David Sickmen, publisher of United…
In the first half of this recent Super Bowl, San Francisco QB Colin Kaepernick was shut down by the Baltimore defense. His "play action" fake handoffs to his running backs were just awful and fooled absolutely no one. As an analogy to tennis, disguise in shot-making can be an effective method to take away time…
In the third set, it seemed that Serena had fully recovered from a back ailment. Both women were serving well, hitting great groundstrokes. Many of the rallies were long standoffs. However, the game-changer was that Sloane was very comfortable and adept at coming to the net. She had a great feel for her approach shots,…