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…
Caroline Wozniacki has fired her coach, Ricardo Sanchez, after two months. Sanchez responded by saying, "Wozniacki … she must be more aggressive." He continued by adding, "Wozniacki should be a racehorse, not a pack horse." Perhaps if Coach Sanchez called his student a "pack horse" sooner, Wozniacki would have displayed her aggressiveness on the court,…
The energy expenditure numbers in the five-hour, 53-minute epic, Australian Open men’s finals are astonishing. According to Dave Martin, senior sports physiologist at the Australian Institute of Sports, and David Hornery, author of the report, "A Review on Fatigue in Tennis," Novak Djokovic and Rafael Nadal ran approximately 1,100, 10-meter sprint intervals in the match covering…
The giants of tennis keep moving forward at the Australian Open. Four Grand slam winners, as well as the top four seeds, are still alive on the men’s side in the quarterfinals including Novak Djokovic, Rafael Nadal, Roger Federer, Andy Murray and former U.S. Open Champion, the 11th-seeded but always dangerous, Juan Martin Del Potro….
Boys’18’s: 2011 January regionals had 5 easier cutoffs; 2012 had 3 that were easier Boys’ 16’s: 2011 3 easier; 2012 5 easier Boys’ 14’s: 2011 4 easier; 2012 4 easier Boys’ 12’s: 2011 5 easier; 2012 3 easier Girls 18’s: 2011 4 easier; 2012 4 easier Girls’ 16’s: 2011 5 easier; 2012 3 easier Girls…
Forgive me if I’m slightly underwhelmed by the news as reported by Longislandtennismagazine.com that the Tennis Channel will have, "Thirteen Days of Televised Match Coverage for Australian Open." It’s a reminder that since last September, very few Long Island households get the Tennis Channel since Cablevision and Verizon dropped coverage of this network and are…
I’ve just returned from my annual holiday mountain biking trek to Tucson, Ariz. It’s not easy for me to escape from tennis responsibilities while in Tucson because the 12’s and 14’s Winter Super Nationals are here, and this year, five of my players competed. While watching a student one afternoon in the Boys 14’s, I…