When you think about improving your on court speed you probably don’t think too much about your feet and ankles. Believe it or not, it could be a major factor diminishing your speed potential. A lack of ankle range of motion can create a number of problems like putting too much stress on your knees,…
If you are a high school senior who plans on playing college tennis, get ready for the most rewarding experience of your career. In order to learn more about how players can best prepare themselves, I asked one of the best and most experienced college coaches in the country, Paul Wardlaw, head women’s coach at…
Practice, right? Yes. However, it’s how you practice. Repetition is how you do it. Unrelenting repetition. Whatever it is that you are trying to improve, keep practicing it, over and over again. It must become second nature. The only way to reach that advanced state of execution is to practice it repeatedly. Usually, you would…
Boys High School Tennis is starting, and hundreds of Long Island players are transitioning from placid indoor conditions to the variable and harsh early season outdoor tennis environment. A select few players are readying for Spring Super Nationals. While sun, wind and temperature are the most obvious outdoor variables, reaction to diminished sound might be…
At the recent 2012 Annual Meeting of USTA Eastern, Section President Jeff Williams addressed junior award winners with these words of wisdom … "If you work hard in the classroom and continue to develop the skills for which you are being honored here today, you will turn out to be someone that is unbeatable in…
I am not anti-USTA. Well, I should correct that. I don’t want to be anti-USTA. Yeah, they stiffed me 20 years ago from the National Team, but after all, they are the national governing body of our great country. Whether they want to be or not, they are bullies. I can’t get around it. …
If I were a college coach, I would look very closely at a potential recruit’s tournament back draw record. Specifically, I would look for a persistent pattern of back draw defaults, and if I identified it, I would have concerns. Almost every player defaults a back drawn match once in a while. It may be…
About 10 years ago, I had a lifelong memory when I was asked to practice with Pete Sampras for a day when he was in New York City while his wife was filming for a movie. Except for the fact that he stuck me for the court and ball fee even though he made about 600 times…
Do you take control at key moments? Do you make everyone on your team better? Do you know the strengths of your team members and give them opportunities to produce results using them? Do you make good decisions under duress? Do you take some calculated risks, fail occasionally, get up and keep going with a…
I just filled in as "guest instructor" at one of our QuickStart after school programs in Pelham, N.Y. for kindergartners, about 5-years-old. There were 12 children in the class. Each child had a racquet and sponge ball. The first exercise was hitting the ball up with the racquet, letting the ball hit the ground, and then…