The 12 Days Of Tennis Xmas

“On the first day of Christmas my true love sent to me –

A Partridge in a pear tree

On the second day of Christmas my true love sent to me –

2 Turtle Doves and a Partridge in pear tree.”

To find out how this can help your game, grab your FREE pdf HERE and come back and leave a comment.

Also, don’t forget to check back for the rest of the 12 days of your tennis xmas.

Ho Ho Ho!!

Tennis Serve – Federer Ball Toss

Tennis Serve?

They are all the same aren’t they?

Well no actually, if you watch all the best players serving and you know what you are looking for you will see that there are many differences between them in terms of “style”.

BUT!!

What they all have in common are 3 or 4 things that go under the category of “principles” i.e. things that must happen.

One of those is the ball toss.

Most players I come across don’t appreciate how high they need to toss the ball.

You need a ball toss of a “certain” height to allow you to reach up and explode into the ball (that is if you want a powerful serve).

I could go on to describe it in more detail but let me just show you a picture that was taken courtside (at The Tennis Masters 2009 event at the O2) of one of the best servers of all time Roger Federer.

Note how high the ball toss goes!

By tossing the ball that high (and forwards into the court), he is able to use all the forces generated to his benefit with the end result of a powerful serve.

I have some more photos of the players (Del Potro, Soderling) at the event that show some interesting serve stuff.

Just comment below if you think you would find it useful and would like me to show them!

Tennis Training Programme – Your Questions Answered.

I got a great question after the mail I sent yesterday regarding the Bodyweight Tennis Training Program I have just released.

Here it is………

“Paul,

What about a program for the 3-day / week, open level, mature player?  Could your weekend warrior program be altered to this level?

I have worked with trainers for periods of 6-months on and then 6-months off and I can’t stand going to the gym.  The results were good, however toward the end of the 6-months, I began losing flexibility and became “tight”; even with stretching.

Then after laying off of the weights for 6-to-8-weeks, the hips lock up and the gluts start to get tight.

Is there some middle ground or would adding weight to your regimen be a good solution?

Thanks for responding.”

Here is my reply….

Hi Jeff, thanks for the reply.

Yes the bodyweight program is perfect for the “3 day/week guy/girl”.

The weekend warrior is just a term for the recreational tennis player and doesn’t mean you only play on the weekend

Anyway, there are several great things about bodyweight training (some of which i mentioned in my last mail).

I will do another mailout with those so look out for it.

In terms of you, I have found that one great thing about using your body as resistance is that you tend to use more muscles, more core and more flexibility than when you use “external” resistance (especially machines……NEVER BOTHER WITH MACHINES!!).

My inspiration for all of this were a couple of guys I met on holiday who organized the activities during the day.

One night, they told me they were going to do a show and to my amazement put on the most astonishing acrobatic/gymnastic display I have ever seen.

When I spoke to them later and talked about how long they train in the week to do this, they said they never go to the gym and only use their body’s for resistance.

And then it hit me……….OF COURSE!!

The strongest, most agile and flexible athletes on the planet are probably the gymnasts.

So, Bodyweight Training For Tennis Players was born.

With a little bit of thought you can make any exercise easier or harder depending on your level so it’s adaptable, progressive & portable.

In the program, I tell you never to skip flexibility and demand that you always do a hip flexor (psoas) strech as this is often a problem area especially as we get older (believe me I know!!).

You should have some resitance training in your tennis fitness regime and you just need to tailor the program to your own lifestyle.

It’s a 8 week program (up to 6 days per week) that you can just repeat after a break at the end.

Don’t worry 6 sounds a lot but I have just put tennis strength on 1 day and tennis conditioning (run/bike etc) on another.

If you can’t do 6 days per week then you have 2 choices that work equally as well.

1. Do the conditioning on the same days as strength..drops you to 3 days straight away

or

2. Go through the program but instead of everyday, do something every 2/3 days (whatever fits).  All that happens is that the program becomes an 11 week program for example.

Like I said.it’s adaptable

You can add weights along the line if you need to but in my experience unless there is a specific weakness that needs attention to that one part, most people do.t heed to.

I hope this answers your question.

Don’t hesitate to get back to me with anything else.

Paul

The Bodyweight Program can be checked out………HERE

How To Plan For The Perfect Tennis Tournament Or Match Part 3

So all is well.

Carol has made the final (so fingers crossed for that on Sunday).

If you don’t know what I am talking about then go to Part 1 and Part 2 to recap.

But I promised to tell you more about the tennis fitness work she had done.

In a nutshell, the aim was to turn back the clock a bit and add some  tennis speed, power & endurance back into her tennis game.

I decided to put a tennis fitness program together for her that involved not always having to get to the gym, something she could do at home if she wanted to.

I therefore put together a program that only relied on her bodyweight as resistance, which if any of you know me is plenty!!

What I mean by that is there is so much you can do with your own bodyweight, but too many people are too quick to run off to a gym & sit in a machine that far from improving your performance is actually making it worse.

Let’s get things straight, this is not a tactic only for the non pro, you will see many many top pros like Federer and Nadal using bodyweight exercises as part of their tennis fitness sessions.

As I have said before, if you can’t do 20 push-ups, what makes you think you should be getting under the bar and doing chest presses?

I have been to the big tournaments such as Wimbledon and the French Open at Roland Garros and seen all the top players – Andy Murray, Djokovic, Sharapova, Venus Williams & Serena Williams all doing this stuff on the tennis court.

Apart from all of that, the balance and stability you use when just using your own bodyweight is much higher and will give you the big plus where you need it most – on the court.

After all, playing tennis is all about manipulating your body around the court – isn’t it?

Well, the program was a mixture of upper & lower body exercises (for strength & power) on alternate days along with interval based conditioning (for speed & endurance).

Everything could be done in about 45 minutes which suited her busy schedule perfectly.

Some of the exercises she knew but hadn’t done in ages, while others were new to her.

If she couldn’t complete anything I had set her, she did what she could and that was fine.

The results were…….frankly breathtaking.

After week 2 had passed & she had got used to the routines and the soreness from not having exercised properly for a while, her capacity to work harder, faster and for longer was “off the scale”!!!

Best of all, the impact I noticed most of all was on the court.

Hitting harder, with more spin, getting to more balls, recovering after rallies so that she could get straight into the next point – all greatly improved.

This I believe gave her the confidence to put her game “out there” and is I believe the main reason why she has played so well so far and made the final in such fine style.

Let’s hope she can finish the tournament with a great performance and maybe even a win!!

You can get your hands on the same easy to follow, no gym, weekend warrior, training program by clicking………

HERE

The Tennis Serve – How To Slice It Out Wide With Ease

One of the most effective tennis serves you can hit is what is sometimes known as the “can opener”.

You see Federer and Nadal hit this serve a lot of the time.

This is when you slice the serve out wide and drag your opponent out of the tennis court.

It can often result in an ace or error but can also leave your opponent so far out of court that even if they do return the ball you have the whole court at your mercy to take advantage of.

But, so many people still struggle to hit it well.

Well, try this.

If you are a right hander hitting it from the deuce (right) court then just move your right foot to the right a touch (towards the right tramline) when you are setting up (I am obviously assuming your right foot is normally further from the right tramline than your left foot in your normal service stance).

This will line your body up more towards your target and make hitting that area by the opposite tramline sooooo much easier.

Note for all you leftys, just reverse the above instruction i.e. serve from the left etc.

For those of you worried about telegraphing the serve to the opponent – don’t worry.

If you are unable to hit the wide serve from the “normal” stance, you AND your opponent are unlikely to be at the level where reading and taking advantage of serves are a natural part of the game.

PLUS!!!

If you hit it well enough, it is still a difficult serve to deal with.

I saw Pete Sampras (who Federer copied) serve every ad serve (from the left) at the French Open, Roland Garros from wide out towards the tramline with kick.

Everybody knew where most of the serves were going but like I said earlier if you hit these wide serves well the worst that can happen is that you end up with an empty court to play into on the next shot.

He lost in the Semi-Finals!!

I also saw him serve nearly every serve in the Australian Open final against Thomas Muster (a lefty) as a can opener from the right (deuce) court.

He Won!!

Listen, it’s really important for right handers to have this serve against a lefty.

I say this because it seems that all leftys have this serve when they play us right handers……dammned leftys

Start working on it today!!

P.S. if you are a lefty and don’t have it as part of your service arsenal…………get it going

 

Secrets Of The Return Of Serve

Who has the best tennis return of serve of all time?

Agassi, Connors, Borg, Andy Murray?

Well it’s simply one of the most important shots in the game and you need to get it right.

Why is it important?

Simple, if you can’t return well then you can’t break serve.

If you can’t return serve, you can’t break serve and therefore you can’t win.

And don’t forget you don’t need to hit screaming winners to have a great return you often just need to get the ball back in play – give your opponent a chance to miss/make a mistake.

Remember to win a point in tennis you just have to be the last person to have hit the ball in the tennis court!!

If you want to learn how to hit an attacking return of serve though, just check out the video below.

Andre Agassi – Do You Care?

With the revelations about Andre Agassi’s drug taking and wig wearing past coming through thick & fast and the universal condemnation from other high profile players following close behind, there is only one question to ask.

Do you care?

Are you backing Federer, Nadal, Boris Becker and others who are shocked by the news and that the ATP may have covered up his positive drug test.

OR

Is this just an honest admission by a man who has clearly come a long way since then and is just mentioning these  things (1 of which cost him the French Open) to highlight exactly what went on in his eventful career.

After all, is this no different to reality tv??

What do you think and which side of the fence do you sit on (if any)?

Leave a comment below!

How To Plan For The Perfect Tennis Tournament And Tennis Match – Part 2

So, we had our plan in place (details HERE) and Carol was ready for action.

This is how we put it together.

In terms of fitness, I asked & got Carol to agree to 3 tennis fitness sessions per week which were not all in the gym (more about that later).

I only attended the sessions at the beginning of each phase to make sure things were on track and make any necessary adjustments by the way!!

We did 1 tennis coaching session per week which I decided to make very drill based with lots of tennis balls, feeding & hitting and not too much tennis technique work.

This is very much “The Spanish Way” of coaching which has proved very successful for them but also the fact that Carol was a seasoned player meant that whatever technique she had was pretty “grooved” and it would have been difficult to make any “positive” changes in the time we had.

This method of coaching is also great for fitness (a big weakness) and is one of the main reasons I went for it (despite the fact that I knew she would have to take many regular breaks in the early sessions.

By week 3, the combination of drills and fitness work meant that Carol was working hard right through these sessions with greater levels of concentration and that meant better play.

In terms of her coaching we looked at hitting deeper with more topsin (to keep her opponent driven back), along with drop shots, angled slices, approaches and chip & charges.

This was on the assumption that she may have to negotiate 1 or 2 of the young aggressive baseliners who would present a real problem if allowed to step in and “crunch” the ball but didn’t like coming forwards never mind going to the tennis net.

The Results

So far so good, she has had one bye and two straight set victories.

She is moving and hitting really well.

The final (if she get’s there) is next Sunday and now the players get tougher!!

I will let you know how she gets on as well as giving you more info about the tennis training program I put together for her.

Again, let me know below if you have ever tried to do something like this with a plan – and how you got on (even if it was a complete disaster)!!

How To Plan For The Perfect Tennis Tournament Or Match

It’s been a busy few weeks, with many of my full time players coming to the end of their season and The Club Tournament in full flow for many of club players.

It’s for that reason that I haven’t sent something out this week, but let me explain more.

I was approached by a Woman a few months ago for some instruction.

We spoke for a while, did an initial assessment lesson and decided to go full steam ahead on what we ended up calling “The Project”.

“The Project” as I will call it from now on was this – to see if she could get herself ready for the Club Tournament which was (at that time) a couple of months away.

Carol, was in fact a pretty good player who throughout the years (she was in her early forties now) had in fact won several Club Championships at several clubs but had also lost many more finals & semi-finals normally against players that she told me she “should have beaten”.

The main causes she told me were usually, lack of practise, fitness & match nerves.

We worked out that over the years she had had 6 wins and lost 6 finals in her “glittering” career and she really wanted to get ahead in the win column.

It would be difficult, because even though she had lost in the final two years ago (when she last played) there were many more juniors coming through the ranks who would surely pose a big threat.

They ran all day and hit the ball……………..HARD!!

So, first things first we needed a plan.

Ideally, I like to go for a 12 week plan but we that wasn’t an option so here was the deal.

Because of age and lifestyle (work etc), Carol didn’t have all day long to play & practise.

Add to that the fact that since the final two years ago she had only played a couple of singles matches and was (with respect!!) a little bit overweight – we had some work to do.

So this was the overall plan – it’s something we call Periodization.

This is exactly what the “Big boys & girls” like Federer, Nadal, Del Potro, Murray, Sharapova and Williams do when they are planning their tournament year out for things like Wimbledon, US Open, French Open etc.

I divided the alloted time into 3 “Phases”.

The first Phase is the Preparation Phase

This was a 4 week phase.

In terms of her tennis I told her to stick to lots of general (but high intensity) hitting to find timing with some first to 11 points at the end of those sessions.

In terms of tennis fitness, this phase is all about building what we call a good cardio vascular (CV) base especially as she hadn’t really exercised properly for years.

Any (inevitable) weight loss would have to be slow to maintain strength (about a pound a week).

The second Phase is the Pre-Competition Phase

This was a two week phase, where drills and points would become more competitive along with some practise matches and fitness, work switched gears to include more interval work

The third & final Phase is the Competitive Phase

This final Phase of 2 weeks was all about shifting the effort on to the court and just looking at maintenance in terms of her fitness work.

I will let you know a bit more detail about stuff in the coming days, but I hope you’ve got the picture and can add some mental encouragement to our cause from wherever you are

P.S. Also let me know if you have ever approached a big competition in this way i.e. put a plan (of any sorts) together & if so how did it go??

Tennis Training – The 2 Questions You Must answer Everytime To Make It Effective

Tennis training can mean many different things.

For some it is playing/training to improve your shots, strategy etc and therefore your game.

For others, it is the off court training that is needed to improve (strength, speed, footwork etc).

Whichever it is (and you need to be doing both), there are 2 questions you NEED to be asking yourself that will ensure you get the best out of either situation.

1. What am I looking to get out of today’s training?

2. What am I specifically going to do to make sure that happens?

If you answer these questions and even better write the answers down, you will go a long way to being more successful as you will have a purpose to what you are about to do.

Don’t just turn up and do whatever comes in to your mind.

Arrive at the courts/gym and know exactly what you are going to do & get on with it.

Remember this – You are more likely to hit your target if you know what & where it is!!

Do you really think Federer, Nadal, Del Potro, Sharapova, Serena Williams etc just turn up and play and never think about what they need to do to win at Wimbledon, The French Open – Roland Garros, US Open?

Hint – The answer is 1 word that begins with N