The spoiled child will always grow into the athlete who gives up and throws in the towel at the first sign of pressure or adversity. Here is why. A child who is given everything he or she asks for never learns the important psychological skills of patience, perseverance and determination. Since they never learned delay…
As we all know, no matter our level of skill, tennis is a “mental game” and often won in the head. Anyone who has ever picked up this wonderful, yet sometimes unbelievably frustrating game will know exactly what I’m talking about. Learning a specific stroke or technique and mastering it to its fullest in practice…
The net height on the center of a tennis court is three feet from the ground and slightly higher near the sideline. Cross-court shots are therefore safer because the net is lower in the middle, right? Not so fast. While the net is lower in the center, it is also further away than the sideline…
One of my very astute tennis buddies once said about me that I love everything about being in tennis tournaments except for playing the matches. Maybe ONE-ON-ONE DOUBLES is finally getting me over that last hurdle, learning to enjoy the competition without being overwhelmed and waylaid by all of the other stuff that accompanies it….
How many of you take lesson after lesson, hoping to learn the latest technique that will give you the edge? And how many of you read all the key tennis publications, looking to glean one or two valuable instructional tips? Most probably answered “yes” to these questions, but what if you could improve your game…
Usually, when I sit down to write, I follow two simple rules: Write what you know (suggested by a pretty good writer, Ernest Hemmingway) and “Never marry your first date or your first draft” (source unknown, but good advice on both accounts). This is different. This is difficult. John Lennon once said that “Life is…
In my previous article, I discussed the problem that underrated players present in USTA league play. It is difficult to be critical of a system without being able to propose an alternative system. In this article, I hope to put forth what I believe can improve the accuracy of rating new players coming into USTA….
Tennis is a game where you cannot succeed if you are afraid to miss. When learning a new shot or tweaking your technique consistent success often will only follow a disappointing inconsistency. Even at the highest level of the game, players will miss shots; that being said, not all misses are “bad” misses. There is…
I am out on the tennis court at 7:30 a.m. in the morning working out on the tennis court, and on the court next to me is a wonderful scene. Two former students, home from college, are playing doubles with the parents of one of the boys. It turns out that these two boys (one…
Question … do you want to win or do you want to play well? A tennis match is a unique physical and mental competition between two individuals. I like to call it “a test of skills and wills.” The loser of a tennis match sometimes experiences feelings of hurt, shame or even sorrow (sounds farfetched,…