One of the more curious things that tennis players tend to do is give up the lead when ahead. They could be dominating, have a set lead and are cruising along just fine, but when victory is in sight, they soften up and fold. It’s as if a switch has been flipped off and all…
Recently, the United States Tennis Association (USTA) held a QuickStart training for tennis professionals at Sportime Lynbrook. QuickStart Tennis is the USTA’s new play format for juniors ages 10 and under. It has been designed to make tennis learning and playing more fun, and to help juniors have more success and learn to love the sport…
Will you know it when you see it? In fact, we have all seen it when watching tennis. To most, it is the pink elephant in the room that we do not know what to name. Last year, Karen Crouse of The New York Times began naming it when she wrote an article called “Toss…
One of the greatest misunderstandings in tennis is the topic of control. All tennis players desire to have more control, more control of their emotions, more control on their shots, more control over their opponents; the truth is though that the things we think gives us more control often do not. The three things we…
Sports are almost entirely a visual motor game, and when the mind fills with chatter, this is when the trouble starts. Many players begin to over think when under pressure. They secretly believe that words will help them make better shots. They will say things like “don’t hit it long, do not double fault, don’t…
The Tennis Channel has a feature in which top professionals dig into their bags to see what they have inside. I suspect that they find some long lost items when they do this bag check, and the tone of this feature is more flippant than serious. Junior tournament players, however, should recognize that having a…
I scored two goals playing tennis in one day … how you may ask? I mishit a ball so severely on two separate occasions that it flew backwards over the fence and into two soccer goals which were adjacent to the court. It may be one of the biggest clichés in sports, but “keep your…
“I’m the better player, how did I lose?” Does this phrase sound familiar? Imagine this: it was the finals of the annual 16-and-Under Tournament, the weather was hot and muggy, and the sun was beaming down like a laser. The time was 3:00 p.m. and the stands were jammed with fans, coaches and the local…
We know teaching is more art than science, but we’re still undecided on what matters the most … the message or the messenger? First, let’s take a look at the messenger, or the way in which we deliver the “goods.” Methodology is determined by many factors. Every teacher and coach, has their own shtick or…
Whenever I step on to the court to teach a lesson, I ask myself three things: (1) Who am I teaching? (2) What am I teaching? (3) How am I going to teach it? When planning my lessons, I consider the age and level of the student, what the student’s goals are, the strengths and weaknesses in his…