November 2010

Tip Of the Month  

How to cure the erratic swinger! 

Have you ever seen a player who seems to have nice stylish shots but once in a match hits the ball as accurately as a scud missile? Maybe it’s you or one of your friends? The issue is normally one of timing, as they are making contact with ball at varying distances from their body. 

One of the best cures for this type of player is to start by stopping them swinging. Get the player to hit some easy fed balls to a target as hard as they can without a swing or a take back.  

So in effect they are pushing the ball as fast and as hard as they can. 

There are 6 things that will start to happen straight away: 

1. They will discover how powerfully they can hit the ball without a swing or take back 

2. They will be using their hand, wrist and elbow naturally to create massive RPM (rotations per minute) thus creating more topspin and control 

3. They will be timing the ball correctly 

4. The hitting zone will be correct every time 

5. They will feel confidence in their ability through the accuracy and control they achieve 

6. And consistency will return to their game 

The key to keeping this improvement in their game is to hit loads and loads of balls, keeping the swing short but most importantly of all tracking the ball in front with both hands... just like the pros do. 

I hope this helps you in some way? 

Until next time 

Warmly John and The MTI team 

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October 2010

Tip Of the Month 

Having a Champions Mentality 

“If you played a tennis match today, before you go to sleep, go back through the events of the match. Any situations or shots that were not what you wanted, replay them in your mind the way you wanted them to go....”  John Littleford of MTI 

This is how champions think. They rid themselves of the negatives and see themselves performing the task at hand as they wanted it done.  

I recently played my first tournament for 11 years.  During the final of the singles I hit a shot that truly bugged me. It was a mid court backhand at a set up, 5-4 30/30 all, serving for the match...  

...An easy topspin backhand that would give me match point. I missed it and lost that game. I eventually won the match on a really close tie breaker.  

Within an hour I had to be on court again to play in the doubles final. 

During that hour I replayed that backhand I had missed and in my head... I hit it like have done hundreds of times in practice for a winner. I knew I had rushed it because I was eager to finish the final and was a little nervous. All I had to do was wait for the ball and accelerate on contact! 

During the doubles final my backhand was my best shot and I had totally eradicated the backhand bug from my singles final. 

One of the best practices you can do is visualising the shots the way you want them to occur. It’s called ‘the law of attraction’. If you are constantly thinking about your weaknesses and your errors that’s exactly what you will attract in your matches.  

Have you ever thought I hope I don’t double fault here and then double fault?  I know I have! 

Next time you play clear your mind of negatives and see what you want to see. If you make an error replay in your mind the shot you wanted to play. Don’t get too technical just see what you wanted to happen... 

I hope this helps you in some way? 

Until next time 

Warmly John and The MTI team 

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September 2010

Tip of the Month  

Let’s take his never say die attitude. Rafa makes it his goal to be a better player year after year. And he works so hard, with so much passion and drive to do so. 

So how can we instil this work ethic into the juniors of today? A million dollar question! 

The first thing to do is to be careful how you praise. The key thing to do is stop praising talent and ability! Praise their hard work, diligence, patience and graft!  

Why? 

Conclusive tests have shown that once people are told and praised about their natural talent or ability (in most cases) they can become lazy and opt for the easy life. 

If a young player hits a super talented shot for a winner... praise the effort and hard work they used to produce it. Get them used to the fact that it’s the hard work that produces results not talent and ability. 

Yes they may have the talent but let them work it out for themselves when they’ve reached their potential.  

Do you thing Uncle Tony (Rafa’s Coach) praises Nadal’s talent or his graft and hard work? 

So should we label groups as elite or performance? I think not. Just have stepping stones and always have another rung on the ladder for the player to reach.  

I’ve seen so many players get to these high performance elite squads and fail. Not because of lack of ability or talent but because of their attitude and work ethic. 

How many children are now rewarded with certificates and prizes just for turning up? This has to be detrimental to their development. Reward them when they’ve done something well or reached a goal. Give them targets and a syllabus to follow so they know exactly what they need to do to get their rewards. 

Last month we did a free lesson in a school and the first thing they asked was what do I get if I do this class? In other words what will you reward me with for attending this class? Crazy, but a common attitude! 

So be careful how you praise... sometimes it’s better to say nothing at all! 

Modern Tennis News 

It’s been a very busy summer for MTI. We’ve run successful courses in Staffordshire, Cyprus, Edinburgh, Manchester, Birmingham, Heston, Enfield and Romford.  

Staffordshire
First we tutored a group of 17 year olds from Rugby School on an incredible 400 acre estate. As well as learning to coach they really improved their game in our 5 Day MTI qualification course.  

He said; "MT is the best way to develop a tennis player no matter what level. It also simplifies the information given to coaches. Anyone who has studied bio mechanics properly will understand where power comes from. MTI 'Vertical Power' shows all this easily. Andy is a very dedicated tutor with exact information required for everyone to use for their own level of play and coaching.”

Heroclis Miltiadou also attended and he runs his own academy in Cyprus was sceptical at first but when he saw how quickly the beginner players improved in just 5 days he suddenly realised just how powerful the MTI system really was. He said; 

 "I have been on the PTR, RPT and ITF courses, but for me this was the best course I have been on!"

We had a great week out there and the guys made it a lot of fun!  

Head tutor; Andy Magrath was presented with a plaque. Tennis player and parent; Nicholas Karides said; "Andy your professionalism, commitment and inspiration have been outstanding!" 

Our thanks go to all you guys, especially Nicholas Georgallides who is the head coach at Tennismania for his hospitality and arranging the course. 

Our MTI Academy in Cyprus is now the biggest provider of top junior players in Cyprus.  

We have backed it up with first class 4 week course called Fast Track Tennis that will be free to all new members. In just 4 weeks players get a taste of every shot available to them. Not only that they learn the basic fundamentals, tactics and rules of tennis.  

During our roadshow we met many of the top pros in the David Lloyd set up and we received 99% approval and feedback for our system. Many coaches have been using this system for a year now and report it’s had a remarkable effect on their programmes. 

Dissenting Voice
This respected and highly experience coach thought we should teach a closed stance two handed backhand to beginners, and that the open stance backhand can only be taught to the top 200 players in the World, plus he felt we should concentrate more on footwork.  

Hmmm! Better tell all those 6 and 7 year olds that have been trained successfully around the World to hit open to stop until they’re 200 in the World.  

MTI Academies
All around the UK we are opening MTI Academies that will match our academy in Cyprus. Every academy is run the same and follows our MTI syllabus that gives coaches, players and parents a definitive guide to progression. 

If you wish your club to have MTI Academy status, please contact us for more information. 

On top of that we have our Academy in Egypt where we have ATP tour players training and will be running MTI Tennis holidays there. This officially opens in October. 

Become MTI Qualified and become the best coach or player in your area.
We have two 5 day courses planned for October and December if you are interested please click here for further information.  

We hope you enjoyed this edition and that we see you soon. 

Until next month...   

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June 2010

Tip of the Month 

POKER FACE - keep your cards close to your chest and play like a warrior  

Well we have seen plenty of seeds been sown in the garden this spring and plenty of seeds, both male and female, tumbling at Roland Garros! With Rafa as the last survivor of the top 5 players going into the men's quarter finals.  

When Andy Murray stepped onto court to resume his match against Berdych, you only had to look at his face to know what he was feeling.  

He didn't look like a man who was ready for the fight. He looked dead behind the eyes. His body language exuded that of a teenager who had been told he had to get out of bed before noon!  

Berdych on the other hand was laughing and joking with his entourage just before he went on and looked ready.  

I thought if Murray was going to get the job done today, he is wearing the greatest negativity disguise ever! Alas it was no disguise.  

Let's take nothing away from Mr Berdych. He played superbly. He took the ball so early, thus taking advantage of Murray's short second serves and lack of footwork. Murray just looked dead on his feet.  

Murray then just threw the toys out his pram with a string of expletives which the commentators had to apologise for.  

This just added fuel to Berdych's fire. He played better and better and although there were sparks of inspiration from the Scot, they were never maintained.  

Let's turn to Soderling's master class against Federer. The first set looked like it was going to be a landslide for the Swiss master but all credit to the Swede as he gave Federer no time on the ball by taking it early and keeping consistent three quarter depth from where Federer was unable to dictate the rally just merely trade shots. Plus the fact that Soderling served extremely well too.  

My point here is that although Federer was staring defeat in the face, not once did his mental guise fall. You wouldn't have known whether he was up or down score wise. He just played to the tune of 'ok you've done well but you still have to beat me to win this!' Which Soderling did but they were few free points given away by the defending champion.  

Whenever I attend junior tournaments and adult matches for that matter, you always see the players who maintain a poker face. They give nothing away to their opponent, even if they are feeling like death warmed up, they never let their guard slip and feed confidence to their opponent.  

Then you have the players who wear their heart on their sleeves and like Andy Murray on Saturday, behave like a petulant child when things aren't happening for them for whatever reason. They go into 'sulk' mode.  

In the game of poker, it is well known that you always play the opponent NOT your hand. You try and read their expression and body language whilst trying not to give anything away yourself. Then there's the bluff element of making out you have a certain hand value when you have completely the opposite.  

So must this principle must be adhered to in tennis.  

Players must be taught to discipline their minds to focus on positives, channel any frustrations into passion to win and hence maintain control of the match.  

They must learn to fight when the chips are down and not give away the body language of a beaten player.  

What I really admire about Rafa is that he plays like a warrior. He loves getting his hands dirty in a real scrap. He plays with blood sweat and tears and always gives 110%. Perhaps this never say die attitude has resulted in his tragic knee problems.  

Take a leaf out of Roger's book. 'You are going to have to really beat me to win today!'  

Set up plenty of drills with your partner or coach where you as a player are under pressure and where you have to fight for every point. Above all, work on your 'poker face'. Ask your partner whether they can read your demeanour. Hopefully you aren't giving anything away apart from being very cool.  

This pressure could be score wise or being fed balls side to side where you are being run ragged (you have to play balls that are way outside the court too!) but you will NEVER let any ball beat you!!  

Mind over matter, so the next time you feel that a certain match is a thousand miles away from you, you must put on an act as if it's very much in your grasp and like Rafa, become a warrior not a whinger! 

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May 2010 

Tip of The Month

Are your tennis errors mental or technical?

Let's see what I mean by this question...  

Many people believe that most of their problems on the tennis court are technical (eg. The action of hitting a forehand, backhand etc) and not mental (thought process behind the action).  

Players practice the technical aspects of their shots or pay huge sums of money to coaches to work on areas of their game that probably don't need as much technical attention as they may think. Here's my advice...  

 When you play a match you need to focus at the other end of the court tactically  

Every shot you play must have a purpose to either neutralise or hurt your opponent tactically 

The only thing you must be aware of at your end of the court is the ball and where you are aiming to hit it 

During a match you MUST NOT think technically. As soon as you do... more often than not you lose the match. Why? Because it's almost impossible to mend a shot during a match  

When you play a match you go into battle with what you have and you have to make the best of it 

 If you try to hit shots you have not mastered in practice then you will probably end up disappointed 

Most errors are mental because they have a lack of purpose or the players' concentration is on technique and not where the ball is being aimed!  

Here's a typical example:-  

A player came to me after a recent match and said that his forehand needs a lot of work because it let him down big time in his last match.  

Now I know this guy can hit great forehands and does so regularly in lessons. I asked him "When did your forehand let you down?"  

He answered "It was okay at first but once I made a few errors it just seemed to get worse and worse from them on."  

This statement told me a lot. It told me he was analysing his technique because of an error and became more and more conscious of what he was doing at his end of the court instead of trying to affect the points tactically at the other end.  

So we hit a few rallies and played some points out. Something went wrong as I approached the net and his forehand flew out the back of the court.  

I asked him what he was trying to do.  

His answer was "I didn't cover the ball with enough topspin and lost control."  

He was right - his ball flew out because it had no topspin on it. BUT... it wasn't a technical error.  

So I asked him the same question again but wanted a more specific answer. So I said "tell me exactly where you pictured the ball going and where you expected it to land?"  

His answer was "Cross court somewhere!"  

This guy wanted a technical answer... but the answer was mental. His ball went 'cross court somewhere' and that's all he'd asked from himself. So in effect he actually succeeded.  

If you want to hit a short angled topspin forehand cross court to a target and you miss then that's a technical error and we can then work on that.  

BUT if you are not aiming specifically and don't know where you want the ball to land without first visualising it, then how can you be upset when you miss?  

If you don't know where you are aiming then that is a mental error. Your racket can't do the aiming for you ... no matter how much it cost you!  

If this guy had pictured the exact shot he wanted he would have automatically covered the ball, and hit with more topspin, and been successful, because he has done it in many practices before.  

You wouldn't shoot a gun without aiming would you, as it would be dangerous? To hit a tennis shot without purpose is effectively doing the same thing and is a danger to your confidence.  

How many people do you know who don't aim their second serve but just try to get it in? (are you one of those people?!). Visualise and aim. You have a much better chance of hitting the target and succeeding.  

So the key is to practice these shots and scenarios... so you know what to do in these pressure situations  

You will then build up a visual memory of succeeding under pressure  

Then all you need to do is watch the ball and visualise what you want to happen 

What you focus on in life becomes reality 

If the shot has been practiced enough it will begin to happen in those pressure situations as pure muscle memory. (See it...Do it!)

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April 2010

Tip of the Month

Buddy coaching is buddy brilliant! 

Firstly, I want to relate a fable I heard many years ago. 

The difference between heaven and hell 

One night a tennis player was awoken by an Angel. The Angel asked would you like to be shown the difference between Heaven and hell. Intrigued the tennis player accepted the Angel’s offer. 

The Angel took the player first to hell. They went to a most beautiful grand house that had a huge hall where there was the most luxurious banquet of the most sumptuous food imaginable. At first the tennis player thought this looks alright but then noticed how sad and distressed all the people were around the room. These people were manacled so that their arms were straight and they could not bend their arms to eat the food. It was a very sad scene! 

The Angel then took the tennis player to Heaven and to his surprise he was taken to an identical place to hell. It was the same grand house with the huge hall and sumptuous banquet. The biggest difference was the people, they were manacled the same but they were all happy and content! They were happy and enjoying the banquet because they were feeding each other with the glorious food on offer. 

I think the meaning here is very clear. The idea of players ‘coaching’ each other has to be one of the most effective tools of teaching. This applies to all sports.  

If you are an expert in your field and are in some form of teaching profession, take our advice, choose and learn another skill from scratch. I realise that people’s time is at a premium but believe me, by putting yourself in the position of a student will help your own profession no end. In particular, try and learn in a group and through the coach’s direction or your own initiative, put into practice the ‘buddy’ system with a partner. 

Suddenly the lesson becomes not only so much more interactive and fun, but also more effective. The reason being that by teaching others, you also engage your own learning receptors.  By teaching others and being their mirror so to speak, you are essentially teaching yourself. 

The voyage of discovery! 

Too many coaches and teachers enjoy the sound of their own voice and become this dictatorial presence in the learning environment. They are in a sense force feeding their students. They should back off and let the students embark on the voyage of discovery through working with each other. All they have to do is set the scene by certain tasks and let the student take command and ask them what their five senses are experiencing. This should be married with the topic of ‘problem solving’ issues that happen to arise in the particular subject. 

All Modern Tennis Coaches are taught to be the ‘Guide on the side, not the sage on the stage!’ As a result, the coach’s job becomes twice as easy and twice as effective for the pupil. That’s what I call a ‘Win, Win’! 

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March 2010

Tip of the Month

A tennis lesson learned from the rest room!

Let me set the scene....

Before big matches I used use the rest room cubicle as a place to focus my mind before going into the match.  

A lot of players do it and my coach could tell I was a bit tense for this match so he told me to go find somewhere quiet to collect my thoughts and get focused.

Now while sitting their running through my game plan I had discussed earlier with my coach, I overheard 2 players talking.... about me!

The conversation went something like this....

Player A – “Who are you playing next?”

Player B – “John Littleford”

Player A – “Oh that’s good I will watch that... it should be a good match.”

Player B – “Yes, I like playing John he hits a nice ball!”

Obviously player B was my next opponent and can you imagine what I felt when I heard what he had just said?

I was devastated that someone would like to play me because I hit them nice balls!!

For me this was the day I grew up as a tennis player!

I had been obsessed in my training with hitting perfect technical shots deep to the base line at a certain height over the net, over and over again. My shots looked good aesthetically but you don’t win points for a nice swing shape, it’s what you do with the ball that counts.  

Suffice to say I changed my game plan totally that day and endeavoured to give my opponent some ugly awkward tactics that I was sure he wouldn’t like.

I hit high balls to his forehand, short low cross court slices to his backhand and then vice versa, I also hit dropshots and lobs and many other scenarios I worked out he wouldn’t like.

All in all I probably over did the variation that day, but wow what fun I had. When I shook hands with the guy after beating him, (fairly comfortably I might add) he had a puzzled look on his face. He didn’t know it but he had given me the most effective lesson of my early career.

I had in essence learnt to play at the other end of the court. Concentrating my efforts on where I put the ball, not how I hit it or if it felt a clean and perfect hit. I practiced varying the, speed, height and spin of the ball and not hitting the same predictable tempo. I tried to make my serve more difficult to read by variation of aim off the same toss.

I learned when I practiced to always build points and the winners happened on their own when I hit quality to the space.

For me...tennis all of sudden became more interesting... it became an art!

Learn from Today’s Top Players

So if you look at the modern game and at the top players, they all have these awkward game styles that the majority do not like to play against. This is what gets them to the top. Andy Murray has probably one of the least liked games to play against in Men’s tennis. He takes the pace off the ball, spoils your rhythm, hit drops shots and is exceptionally quick around the court making every point a real chore for his opponents.

You can do the same. Find out what players hate to play against, or at first try playing the game you hate to play against. Experiment and see if you can find an edge that suits your playing style. Become UGLY to play against! But most of all play your tennis at your opponent’s end of the court.

If you want to develop this side of your game as a player or a coach our Module 3 Course would be ideal. It shows you how to plan practices, lessons and tactical scenarios for all levels of play.

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February 2010

Tip of the Month

ADVANCEMENT IS SIMPLIFICATION NOT COMPLICATION! 

Coaching tip for the Topspin Forehand 

Track the ball and wait for it!  

When the ball is coming to your forehand side, from ready position, place your racquet to your forehand side but make sure you are keeping it in front of you!  

Make sure both hands are on the racquet as well and your elbows are flexed but relaxed. This posture should make you feel that you are tracking the ball with the racquet. 

As the ball bounces commit to your natural swing. All top players keep an element of flexion in their elbows as they do this to stop them from swinging or looping too far.  

BUT do not think too hard about this!! 

Let this action be totally natural. In fact do not think about the word ‘loop’ which you hear so often, instead just concentrate on what’s going on in FRONT of you by finding and feeling the ball NOT what shape you are making BEHIND you whilst you do it!!  

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January 2010

Tip of the Month

What is good technique? Visualise it!

As a player in the modern game you may have been swamped by loads of technical jargon like swing shapes, footwork patterns, grips and so on.

But if you are an emerging player just starting out or even a recreational player looking for inspiration, just remember that spin is everything in tennis. Without it you will not be able to control the ball no matter how quick you are!

If you have lessons with an MTI qualified coach, they will teach you all about timing and the feel for the ball. They will also teach you about the different spins used in tennis. They will teach you this from day one.

Once you have mastered and totally understood what a controlled shot looks like, then you will progress to power production. Don’t run before you can walk! You must be able to control the ball first and gain total feel for the ball.

Once you have become a spin doctor, you need to develop a natural technique that gives you the optimum power output, whilst still maintaining your spin control. A good MTI coach will show you simple progressions to develop this too.

You will develop your natural ‘shape’ through your own acceleration and above all visualization. You must always visualize the shot you are going to play no matter where you are on court. This will include the direction, spin, angle, height over the net and the depth.

When addressing a free kick, David Beckham visualises the ball in that top corner of the net and the shape on the ball required. As does Tiger Woods when negotiating a tricky ‘dog leg’ at Augusta.

However, even when developing your technique, do this slowly initially. Your power will come naturally and you will be able to repeat this again and again. Why? Because it works and it has been developed totally naturally. As a result you will feel great!

This is how you develop ‘good technique’ on all your shots

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December 2009

Tip of the Month

The strengths of a Double Handed Backhand 

The three major assets of a double handed backhand are: 

1. Strength 

2. Control 

3. Disguise 

How we can consider these assets tactically 

Hitting on the Rise (Taking the ball early) 

By using both hands, great strength can be imparted which allows a player to hit this shot both consistently and effectively. 

The advantages are numerous: 

• Hitting on the rise gives the opponent less time to recover 
• Hitting further up the court creates more angles i.e. widens out the opponent’s court 
• Easier to generate pace – the longer the wait the slower the pace of the incoming ball 
• Sends a message of aggressive intent to the opponent 

This aggressive tactic is applied in particular to the second serve return. You only have to watch Nadal, Sharapova or either Williams’s sister to notice this. They move towards the ball in order to cut off the angle. 

First Serve Returns 

The use of both hands helps the player absorb fast incoming serves and then able to discharge ample amounts of force in deflection. 

This does not take anything away from single handed backhands, where you will see Roger Federer topspin a backhand where most players will slice, but most club players who use single handed backhands tend to block fast returns and create a more neutral return where a double handed shot can impart a more aggressive response with topspin. 

This is especially true when dealing with a ‘body’ serve. 

High and Wide Balls 

Many single backhand players may struggle with these types of balls, especially young juniors. I maybe should not be saying this because as you know I teach Charisma who as petite seven year old hits a one handed backhand and we have been working on this very issue. 

Yes she can hit a very useful two hander but it is entirely her choice to play one handed. Who am I to argue? She will find her way, at least she can do both and therefore has options. 

Though it is possible to counter a high ball with one hand the two handed shot has the strength to hit up and across this ball at shoulder height especially for junior players 

Summary 

No I do not necessarily favour a two handed backhand over a one handed backhand! My philosophy is like buying a pair of shoes. Try lots of pairs on. They all have their good points but eventually you will find the pair that is right for you, even though your partner may say “well I thought the other ones suited you better!” 

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 November 2009

Tip of the Month

Taking the ball on the Rise Drill

This is also known as ‘taking the ball early’ BUT please be careful with your terminology! Saying the word ‘early’ can lead to players taking premature backswings!

You want the player to hit the ball as it rises off the floor because of the amount of kinetic energy still contained within the ball which the player can redirect against their opponent, plus hitting the ball early gives their opponent less time to recover and therefore react.

One of my favourite drills is this.

As part of your warm up stand inside the baseline and rally normally but the rules state here that you are not allowed to stand outside the baseline at all!

If you do then it is a point against you.

By standing inside the court you will hit almost every ball on the rise.

Suggested progression: Perform the same drill but start with a serve. Play the first to 10 points on each other’s serve.

Try it, its great fun for both coach and pupil and makes you a more aggressive player!

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October 2009

Tip of the Month

“Yes I know Im too close to the ball Coach! What Do I Do about it!!”

I wish I had a pound (or maybe a dollar or euro in this climate) every time I heard this remark from a coach feeding to their pupil; “You are too close to the ball!”

It’s a fair comment and we offer superb ways of tracking the ball in order to hit the ball efficiently BUT it’s time for a reality check.

Let’s face it; even with all the best coaching in the world, it’s going to happen at some time, especially to the amateur player. So the question one posed by the coach should be: “Ok you know it’s not ideal to be too close to the ball when you want to play it, so what do you do when it does happen? Do you simply throw in the towel for that point?”

Tactical Scenario Poser: What happens when you are facing an opponent with a 100 mph serve aimed straight at their body?

Answer: You are more than likely going to be very close to the ball when you return the ball. So what can you do? Well you should do one of the following; body shift to one side in order to expose your forehand if you had time or play either topspin or slice backhand from in directly in front of your body. All of these shots would require very little backswing.

Drill:

Stand in a return serve position. Get your partner or coach to feed medium over arm serves from the service line right at your body and hence to return the ball from in front of your body with no backswing but ensure that you finish properly. You can use either topspin and/or slice. You can also utilise a body shift so that you make slightly more room for yourself.

Progression 1: Speed your feed up as appropriate and play points. You score if you make the return to required target area and so on.

Progression 2: Then play the point out.

Then take turns

The objective of the session is to understand that even though being too close to the ball is not an ideal position to be in, you will both gain the confidence and knowledge of how to get out of trouble rather than just panic and slap across the ball, after which you just shout; “I was too close!!”

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September 2009

Tip of the Month

The service: Ball toss, ball placement or throw?

I have been coaching for many years now and I have lost count the number of times players of all levels have come to me with the dreaded ball toss problem.

Ok let’s look at the phrases ‘throw’ and ‘toss’, whilst being grammatically correct, they can suggest a crude, fast and random action.

I believe the term ‘placement’ leads to a more exact description and leads the player to slow down for more accuracy.

Ok, so what is accurate? The ball must be placed in a position where the racquet can easily find the ball. The player shouldn’t have to call a taxi to hit the ball!

How to achieve accuracy? If you look at any Pro serving, you will notice that their ball arm is across their body when they place the ball, not pointing to the net as a lot of club players do. In other words, the player’s hips, shoulders and trunk are approximately 45 degrees to the net and baseline when they are placing the ball, not 90 degrees.

Also notice that the arm is fully extended when they release the ball after a slow arm raise.

Most of important though, notice the arc (ellipse) on the ball when it is released. You will see the ball coming back to towards the player. (Side to side, NOT front to back!)

The drill I use to achieve this is very simple. Using soft balls stand your pupil close to a wall so they have to place their ball arm to the side. Tell them to place the ball so it comes down on their forehead. From here they will find the ball a lot more easily and be able to hit flat or slice serves.

 For topspin serves tell them to land the ball on the back of their head and hit a slice serve action. They will naturally hit a topspin serve without realizing it!

Try this, it does work and it can be a lot of fun.  Make sure you use soft balls though!

As for ball height control, simply use the next progression, this is to trap the ball against the wall or fence with the racquet at full stretch.

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August 2009

Tip of the Month

Returning the kick serve on hard court 

Several months ago we discussed the advantages of taking the ball on the rise or ‘early’ which is always a good idea when facing a kick serve. 

This tactic doesn’t allow the ball to spin away from you and gives your opponent less time to recover. 

How about this tactic on a hard court? 

We all know that the ball bounces higher on a hard surface, so why not stand back and wait for the ball and track in the normal fashion. 

Because the ball bounces higher and slower, you will have plenty of time. You only have to look at Rafa Nadal and Andy Murray to see how far back they stand for the second serve, especially on a clay court. 

Get your buddy to serve plenty of kick serves to you on a hard court. 

By standing back, tracking and waiting for the ball you will be surprised how easily the ball will sit up for you. 

By all means experiment with taking the return early as well. a good player can mix up both returns. 

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July 2009

Tip of the Month

Shot selection: To defend or not to defend! That is the question!

You have to agree the phrase ‘poor shot selection!’ is used by many spectating coaches and commentators alike at pro level and if it used at this level then at club level it must be in abundance!

Selecting the right shot at the right time can be tricky especially for amateur players. They then blame poor technique when they make an error trying to hit a down the line backhand when playing five feet behind the baseline and outside the singles line.

A defensive shot is not necessarily a shot without pace. It has more to do with the placement.

So a defensive shot is normally a shot that is placed cross court centre or cross court corner. This will drastically improve consistency

When first learning martial arts, you are first taught how to defend yourself via blocking techniques with only a small amount of counter attacking, this philosophy should be extended to tennis.

Once you as a player can deal with any amount of aggression being thrown at you then you can work on your counter attacks. The big hitters at club level are normally the most erratic, so if you don your running shoes and get everything back, you can wait for your moment to strike when your opponent presents you with an opportunity. If you really study the likes of Sampras and Federer in particular, that is what they are so good at. When playing from the back of the court they play simple shots all day long until they are able to strike

Remember; a simple shot can always be a shot with plenty of acceleration and spin but it is placed with a high margin for error including six feet clearance over the net as Nadal does.

So next time you play, if you are making errors, don’t always blame poor technique. Have a look at your choice of shot during certain scenarios. Play the shots you know that you do well on. This is playing to your strengths.  Your coach should be able to help.

For example; is your lob better than your pass? Should you chip the return more? and so on.

The stats say that more points at amateur level if not pro level are won via the opponent’s errors rather than a player’s clean winning shots.

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June 2009

Tip of the Month

How many times during a tennis lesson or even during a match have you hit a shot and the coach or opponent has yelled; “good shot!” 

This shot might have been a winning shot or a shot that just landed on the line. 

My question is; how many times have you thought ‘phew! That was lucky! I wasn’t aiming for that corner!’ 

Or you may have been aiming for that particular target area but your shot went far deeper than you ever imagined. 

My tip is this…. 

If you are a coach taking a lesson, you may have explained in infinite detail to your student what the aim of the drill is going to be, or you may be just having a rally. In either case the student may be still unsure as to what the aim of the drill is or what a good shot actually means. Therefore you just retorting ‘good shot’ could be meaningless because the student just doesn’t know why. 

So how can you be sure if the student understands? 

I think we are all in agreement when I say that the purpose of any lesson on any subject is to first make the student self aware, then to make them sub consciously aware so that they are eventually able to perform the task without thinking about it too much. 

So let’s first make them self aware. I do this in three stages; 

1. First I get the student to visualise the shot they are working on as they are tracking the ball. I get them to visualise the spin they are going to impart, the pace they are going to generate, the height over the net and lastly the placement. This sounds like an awful lot, so it is when you have to write it, but when you talk to your student about it, believe me, it’s ten times more effective. You essentially create the picture in the student’s mind’s eye.

2. When you think they can really see the shot, get your student to say out loud ‘good shot’ or just ‘shot’ whenever they think they have performed the shot or tactic correctly as they intended. So rather than you dictating what’s good and what’s not so good, your student is leading the way and therefore learning very quickly. What actually happens is that the student learns self satisfaction. As soon as they experience this, their brains will quickly seek to recreate that scenario again, because it’ felt good’ last time and they naturally want to do it again. This is how they develop consistency.

3. Now instead of crying out ‘good shot’ every time, get them to count each successful shot in their heads. You can do this in both the rally stage and the part point stage. If a parent is watching then get them to participate by counting as well. The difference of opinion as to what was a good shot is white remarkable sometimes! That’s why you must educate parents as well as their juniors!

The other essential point here is that you are also training them to take the positives out of the rally whether they have won the point or not. How many times have we seen our players play a superb rally, they get themselves set up but miss the final shot. What do they always then focus on? Their good shots during the last rally? NO they focus on that one shot they missed. They start to focus on the negative rather than the positive. As a result they attract more negative vibes. They must focus on the positives no matter what!! 

 When you try this for the first time, you will be amazed at the results. Your students will really feel the difference as mine do.

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May 2009

Tip of the Month

Warm Ups 

I think we all know that tennis is notoriously guilty of neglecting suitable warm ups, especially at club level. I think performance squads are getting better, but I have witnessed so called full time squads and their efforts at a warm up and it has been horrific! Five minutes of token gesture stretches then full baseline rally for the next twenty minutes simply is NOT GOOD, INTERESTING OR INSTRUCTIVE ENOUGH! 

However, I am not going to delve into the regions of pulse raisers and ply metric stretching during this article.  Suffice to say that student(s) should spend at least 15 to 20 minutes indulging in this area. Of course the imagination of the coach should be called upon with the employment of medicine balls, skipping ropes and so on. Nowadays good warm ups actually contribute to the performance conditioning of the players. 

Ok, I will move away from that area of warm ups and just focus on two, three or four individuals on court taking a lesson. 

 So let’s move away from the rudimentary 20 minute rally up and down the middle of the court at the start of the tennis lesson. As I mentioned before, modern warm ups are becoming more conditioning exercises, designed to help not only physical prowess but also technical, tactical and mental enhancement at the same time. This is proving far more specific to the game and above all, FUN!  

For example; throwing and catching rugby balls to aid upper body rotation, American footballs for the serve and so on. 

Another example would be a simple game of throw and catch which progresses to a more competitive stage. For beginners this game is crucial because they not only develop coordination but also learn about scoring and tactical awareness. 

Let’s get back to the ‘rally’ stage, where the coach is now barking seemingly endless instructions at their pupil who is probably nodding out of politeness at the other end. 

Two queries here. What are the teaching point(s)? And is hitting up and down the middle contusive to a tennis match? 

Whilst there is nothing wrong with hitting up and down the middle in itself; it is indeed a good way of warming up before a match as we know. 

BUT…. 

During a lesson, 20 minutes of barking generic instructions of ‘do this’ and ‘do that ‘will not generate a feeling self assurance from the student, as they will always be awaiting the coach’s next ‘pick up’ point. Neither does hitting up and down portray realism. 

My lesson warm ups are as follows: 

1. Have a good 5 minutes rallying in the service box

2. Move slowly back to the baseline

3. Now instead of hitting up and down, the coach should stand on the deuce court side and tell the student to hit everything to that side no matter what shot they are hitting. The coach can start the rally with a serve to the deuce court. Both players can move up the court and volley, the play is completely open. Start with medium pace and gradually build up the pace

4. After 5 minutes, repeat to the advantage court.

5. Now play the ‘cross court and down the line drill.’ One player elects to hit all shots cross court and the other down the line. The players play the first to 15 points wins and serve 5 points each. After which, they swap over.

6. Note any work that you wish to do. This should be a follow up from the pre ordained lesson plan!

So what are the advantages of these progressions 

1. Fun, competitive and game specific

2. Allows the coach to quickly assess the player, which is crucial especially if the student is new to the coach

3. This can be adapted for any level of player. For example, a beginner may play from either three quarter court or the service line.

4. The player starts to self identify their own strengths and thus produce favourite shots at certain situations

5 The player develops good tactical placement skills, without being dictated to.

6. Great source of anaerobic exercise.

7. Allows all shots into the warm up at the same time.

8. The player can focus on strengths as well as weaknesses.

The coach should concentrate on strengths and not just weaknesses. They should build the player’s game style. Use what is good.  

This sounds obvious but at I was at a local junior tournament recently, and by ear wigging a conversation between coach and parent talking about this boy who was suffering in a match, I could tell negativity was rife. Comments like “He’ll never have a good backhand.” “He is not aggressive” and my favourite of all time, “He doesn’t move his feet!” 

Negative, negative, NEGATIVE! No wonder that poor lad lost! 

We can therefore deduce that the tennis lesson is not a warm up followed by a hit followed by the rudimentary work done with the player. Indeed not, the lesson starts when the player enters the court and in most cases before. 

What I mean is the coach should take some time off the court in order to speak with their player. This can involve not only tennis issues such as matches but also the player’s life outside of the game. By taking an interest here, the coach can ascertain outside influences that may hinder/help their student. More importantly, this is a good source of the ‘bonding’ element between player and coach. Basically, be a ‘mate’. 

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April 2009

Tip of the Month

Don’t Hit Winners! 

Now before most of you jump out of your trees at me! Let me explain. I am not saying it is wrong to hit a winning shot. In my experience when coaching club players however, they are for the most part looking to do precisely that during every rally.  

Why is this mindset not healthy? 

Well for two reasons.  

Firstly, the players normally rush their shots in an attempt to hit that ‘golden’ shot. This leads to many unforced errors through mistiming. 

Secondly, when that magic moment arrives, they may well hit a fantastic shot right into the corner and not expect it to come back. When it does the player may well just be admiring their shot, believing they had done enough (ball watching) and not be ready for the reply. 

 Also the player can get despondent, when the shot of their dreams is returned and end up throwing the rally away with an error on the very next ball. Their mind set being “well, if the opponent gets my best shots back, what chance have I got to win?”  

Ok so why do players behave like this? 

Players do this for a couple of reasons. 

Firstly, some players believe that this is how you are meant to play the game. To be winning shot oriented. They see the Pros on TV and only notice the glory shots. 

Secondly, they may well be up against a ‘consistent’ opponent who ‘gets everything back’ (how many times have I heard that!!!!) and therefore be looking for quick ways to end the rally. 

So what are the solutions? 

•              Remember why you love playing tennis! Most people love to rally in a practice rally. They sub consciously say “give me another ball, I want to hit it!” However, during a point that mentality is completely reversed. They say “No don’t hit the ball back! I want to win so much!” You must love to rally! 

•              Be aggressive as far as power and direction but don’t say “this going to be a winner!” Just concentrate on placement 

•              You must be calm and patient during a rally, even against so called consistent players. Let them call you the consistent one for a change. Remember to wait for the ball. 

•              There is nothing wrong with hitting down the middle of the court. Some players hate this as this does not always present them with a natural angle to hit into the corner. 

•              Next time you watch a Pro match on TV, really study the rally from start to finish. You can do this by taping a match. Do the Pros hit winning shots all the time? No they do not. They hit powerfully but they are patient. They are waiting for a chance to put the ball into the corners and pressurise their opponent. 

•              Concentrate on hitting to an opponent’s weakness to force them into an error 

•              You must understand that tennis is a game of mostly errors not winners. These errors are categorised into both forced and unforced. Forced is when a player makes an error via a forcing shot from an opponent and unforced is when the player makes an error when under no real pressure from the opponent. 

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 March 2009

Tip of the Month

Nadal on the double!  

The French Open and Wimbledon have passed us by once again for another year but wouldn’t you agree that they have bequeathed us with many memorable moments! 

Surprise results, record breaking matches keeping this wonderful sport fresh and vibrant as ever! 

Once again the young Spanish warrior proved that you don’t need time off to reign supreme on both the red dust and green turf.  

King Rafa; The totally Modern Tennis Player!  

Many so called expert pundits look at Rafa Nadal and despair at his technique. Why? Because he throws the conventional coaching book out the window. 

They say…. 

‘Nadal uses an extreme forehand grip which shouldn’t be copied because you can’t deal with low balls and may cause injury. Nadal hits too high over the net with too much topspin!’ 

I heard a British coach say recently…’Nadal has ruined tennis….’ 

And the best one of all………. 

‘No one should copy Nadal. He can play like that because he is Nadal!’WHAT?!!! Mind you everyone said this about Bjorn Borg, and guess what? Many players copied him with great success.  

Success breeds success 

Mats Wilander used to study Borg and was mentored by him. Wilander went on to win multiple French Open titles imparting masses of topspin on his groundstrokes. 

Roger Federer has been often quoted that his idol was ‘Pistol’ Pete Sampras and that he modelled his game on him. You only have to look at the serving action. 

The same can be said of Mardy Fish’s serve. 

What about Gail Monfils’ serve? Ask Andy Roddick if he recognises the action. 

If wanted to make a fortune running your own business what would you do? Copy a business model that has proven to work wouldn’t you? 

Tennis myths exposed by the Spanish maestro! 

Rafa has just won Wimbledon for the second time which being a grass court tournament has one of the lowest bounces ever with an extreme forehand grip!  

Players should be allowed to discover their own topspin forehand grips that suit the shot they need to hit. 

Many top players adjust their grip according to the height, speed and depth of the incoming ball. So to enforce one particular grip on a player is massively restricting don’t you think?  

Welcome ALL tennis grips! Whatever you find comfortable and gets the job done! Don’t shoot it down just because it looks cosmetically ugly to you! 

Huge aggression and power with safety! 

Generating height and masses of topspin is one of Nadal’s many strengths not weaknesses! Just listen to what other players say when they face his forehand! The ball has so much spin and ‘kick’ which is no way easy to return, plus it takes them right out of the court.  

Plus when playing this way gives you a larger margin for error when both clearing the net and making sure that spin pulls the ball down with acres of court to spare aiding his consistency and reducing errors. 

This allows him to be continually aggressive with safety. As a result his confidence to really go for his shots again and again is obvious. This has to be the best of both worlds doesn’t it? 

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February 2009

Tip of the Month

The second serve – acceleration with spin is key! 

Many players come to me with the same problem; Their serve. In fact, many players don’t initially have an effective second serve at all which puts huge pressure on their first serve in match situations. Or believe incorrectly, that spinning the ball is purely used on second serves. 

However, let’s focus on the player with second serve issues and in particular with them slowing the serve down ‘just to get it in’. 

Apart from being highly attackable, what many players don’t realise is that the same errors can occur even with slow serves. 

So what have you gained? 

When mastering the serve, first master the spin. 

The solution is to first master ALL spin serves which can be used for either first or second serve. Believe it or not, even the ‘flat’ serve has an element of side spin! 

So what does spin actually do?  

Yes it can confuse opponents and make it awkward for the return. It also helps your desired placement. Eg; a slice serve out wide.  

More importantly, it gives you enhanced control of the ball. How? When you spin the ball, your strings spend more time against the ball giving you more ‘feel’ on the ball, rather like stroking the side of your face in any direction as opposed to a crude slap. 

Once you have understood the spins available to you, then practice spinning the ball making sure that you accelerate not decelerate in order to obtain the optimum amount of ‘safe’ spin control. Slowing up will be detrimental to your serve in your effort to find reliability. 

Our DVDs and membership site will totally show you how players of ANY standard can easily master all service contacts using the correct grip from day one. 

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January 2009

Tip of the Month

Gerry’s ‘Ghost’ of a chance wins the day! 

Ghosting - This is a tactic which most have heard of but perhaps under practiced. Anyway I just wanted to share my recent lesson experience with you. 

I just started coaching this guy who said; ‘Andy, I always seem to suffer against faster baseline players who just seem to be steadier than me. My regular practice partner is just one of those guys who are just content to sit and wait for me to make the mistake. Can you help me at all?’ 

Well the first thing I did was to evaluate his game by playing a few points. I discovered that he hit the ball quite well especially volleys. 

So I said to him; ‘Gerry what’s your game plan against this guy? How do you think you’re going to beat him? 

He looked at me as if I’d just spoken Japanese. 

‘Well… I just try and be more consistent than him’ he said. 

‘Of course you can still do that’ I said, ‘but how about inflicting some tactical approach that really will hurt him?’ 

So we discussed his strengths and he liked the net. We discussed his friend’s game style which was not a particularly powerful baseline game but very accurate nonetheless. Some may say a ‘hacker’ or ‘counter puncher’. 

We both agreed that Gerry needed to rush this guy and take charge of the net wherever possible, especially as it transpired that his opponent used a slice backhand as the norm. However this guy rarely hit short balls. 

It became clear we had to force the issue and shape the points on Gerry’s terms. 

I asked him about serve and volley and he never had the confidence to do it in singles only doubles, so there was a valid practice point there in itself. 

I then asked him about ghosting which as we know is attacking the net behind a shot that is not necessarily off a short ball but it could be off a slow ball. For example, you may have just struck an aggressive inside out forehand to your opponent’s backhand before racing in and opting to play a drop volley. 

I told him this is/was the tactic that made Sampras and Federer the players they are. They would steal into the net when playing a forehand from just inside the baseline when their opponent’s would least expect it! 

Gerry was quite enthralled by the idea so we set to work. 

I set up the 3 cross court target areas as per our DVD examples, and a volley target area. We then played loads of part points with me feeding balls for him to clobber inside out forehands to my backhand only for me to slice back as his mate would do. 

What a great fun drill! Gerry was inspired, playing drop volleys after closing the net after hitting very aggressive forehands! 

When we brought the serve into play, Gerry realized that he could do this off the return of serve which to him was ideal as his mate didn’t have a massive second serve.  

It so happened that Gerry was due to play this guy the following day and I asked him to keep me informed of how the game plan went. 

Well, I got a text from a very jubilant Gerry the following evening! His mate didn’t know what had hit him! 

‘I did what we practiced, I hit ball after ball to his backhand and I got in (ghosted) quite a few times which threw his timing out as he started to worry whether I was going to come in or stay back. He made so many errors on a shot which is normally so reliable!! He wasn’t a happy bunny! LOL!’ 

Gerry won 6-1, 6-3 I think it was. 

I asked Gerry to pass on my number to his mate. What do you think the answer was?