Know What Makes The Greatest Tennis Players Great To Make You Great

In the last couple of posts Your Game On Warp & Never Too Old, we have seen that tennis footwork is a key ingredient to tennis success and that age and injury are not barriers but in fact reasons to get it into your schedule asap.

Well, apart from all of that I believe that all success is traceable and that you should learn from the tracks left by success because they accelerate your progress.

So with that said, let me alert you to a paper that came out from Germany a few years back that looked into why so many very promising players never made it or had mediocre careers while others with so called “less potential” made it to the very top of the World game and also what the common traits of all of the greatest players (including Laver, Borg, Sampras etc) of all time were.

“Great players like Federer have traits that you can copy to get better”

 

Now, without going over the whole paper…..the dozen or so characteristics outlined included 4 (and I could easily make a case for more if I wanted to) related to footwork.

They were….

Economy in movement. Footwork and balance in all situations Speed of start/action and frequency (e.g. quick off the mark and quick feet) Low (if not zero) injuries (how often has Federer been injured….was Sampras injured???/) – I told you this kind of movement training significantly reduces injury!!!

No mention of a great forehand or backhand….in fact there was only one truly technical reason.

So what does this tell you?

It tells you that to truly excel in this game you need to pay more attention to this part of the game.

Think about it…you spend more time moving around the court than actually hitting the ball don’t you?

That being said, tennis players tend to fall into 3 categories -

1. They don’t know that improving footwork will dramatically help their game.

2. They know it will help, but don’t know where to start.

3. They are doing something to help themselves but are going about it the wrong way.

What category do you fit into?

In the next post, I will show you how to easily move from whichever category you are presently in to a place where quick efficient movement becomes the norm.

John McEnroe & Jim Courier – You Are Never Too Old

There used to be this myth that in order to play better tennis…..you made your shots better by playing tennis and that kind of makes sense……doesn’t it???

I mean, the more you play the better you get right?

Well, as we proved yesterday in our short maths lesson (hope you enjoyed it), that’s not strictly true because there are factors in play before and after we play shots that have a big if not bigger influence over how well we execute out there on the court.

Click Here if you haven’t seen the previous post.

We identified tennis footwork as the link before and between everything you do on the court that holds everything together…..it really is the glue that keeps everything in your game in working order.

In the eighties, Lendl & Navratilova dominated the World game with their new (at the time) attention to movement based fitness training.

The 90′s was dominated in the same way by players like Courier, Sampras and Agassi and there is no doubt the present day greats like Federer, Henin & Nadal show the same (domination by superior movement) qualities.

Even the most up to date Superstar Novak Djokovic owes most of his success to his fantastic court movement. Now, you don’t have to be a tennis top tenner for this to be relevant because it’s all relative…..just take a second and think about the difference great footwork will make to your game……..seriously imagine it………see it & feel it (I will wait for you).

Looked & felt good right?

Well the fact is you can improve your footwork quite easily, but in order to do that fully we need to address a couple of myths and false beliefs.

AGE & INJURY – many people feel that age &/or injury is a barrier for them in terms of achieving better footwork and movement.

WRONG!!!!

The whole reason people feel that they are getting older and less agile is that they stop doing the things that made them “feel” young. I have just come back from taking my son to football/soccer training and discussed the very same thing with another one of the other dads.

After a year or so after he had stopped any real physical activity, he told me he felt so much better now he was training regularly (using some of the tips I had given him), that he now felt more energetic and less lethargic than before and………younger.

The reason for this is simple, his body is upping the production of testosterone because he is moving more (after having shut down production because of the lack of energetic movement) and therefore the need for it in high levels in the body.

One of the reasons identified as the cause of older people falling more frequently in the home etc is the lack of footwork/movement/agility skills due to “not using it and losing it”………..what do they do to rehab these people??

Footwork training to help them regain their sense of agility & balance. Without going into too much detail, the whole movement process is about your body’s ability to fire impulses into your muscles.

You stop doing it regularly, you slow down and pick up more injuries as your body becomes less able to adjust and absorb it’s movement. You think you are slower and do less………..and get slower and more injury prone.

See what’s happening? The fact is that you need to do MORE of this stuff as you get older ….NOT less!!

To prove the point further here is one of my players in his 60′s working his footwork.

I saw interviews with John McEnroe & Jim Courier recently where they spoke about how they train for the Champions Tour.

Both stated that their main focus was their footwork and movement as this was the key ingredient that made the difference out there on the court, especially as they were getting older.

I personally won a ton of matches because of superior movement and these champions both said they were playing great tennis because of it….so even if you don’t believe me, you should listen to what these guys say

Ok, let’s recap the last couple of days.

1. Footwork & movement are the KEY ingredients behind great tennis.

2. Training your footwork properly is not even an option…..it’s a necessity and age/injury is not a barrier….it’s actually MORE of a reason to do it.

Next time, we will drill down into the success of the greatest players the World has ever seen and how YOU can emulate them………..if you know how.

Set Your Tennis Engines To Warp Speed

You know what modern life is like – Ipods & Ipads, Android & I-phone, Broadband & Blackberry, 2 zillion Cable & Satellite channels and so the list goes on.

The desire for technology gets quicker by the day and seems like it’s only going to get quicker.

Is it the technology driving or is it just human nature to want more, right now and………..all for less effort?

Well, this desire for access to results at warp speed is not just in the domain of computers,technology & Star Trek.

     “Set Your Tennis Engines To Warp”

I often get asked by people…”what’s the quickest way to improve my tennis game?” And that is quickly followed up by…..”oh, and I can’t spend 6 months working on it because there is this tournament I want to play in and it starts in 2 weeks!!”

Seriously, I get several of these questions every week and of course it’s obvious….people want to improve their game but don’t have 4 hours a day, everyday to do it.

Even the kids that I know who are “serious” about their tennis have to go to school, never mind the rest of us that have jobs and families and maybe even other interests……….I know just where you are coming from.

In fact, here is what I have found after digging deeper into the players who are going backwards versus the players moving forwards. The players staying static or going backwards are just playing tennis to improve and the ones going forwards are the ones doing “other” things to advance their games.

And we can take this on a stage further and be more precise…….the one’s on the up and moving forwards are working on their footwork & movement!!

Makes sense right??

Let’s do some basic maths to prove the point

1. You Don’t Move Well (DMW) + you get to the ball in the Wrong Position (WP) = Poor Shot (PS)

2. You Hit the Ball Well (HBW) + you Don’t Move Well afterwards (DMWa) = Poor Next Shot (PNS)

So you can see you will ALWAYS end up with a poor shot if the thing that happens BEFORE EVERY SHOT you play is sub-standard – YOUR FOOTWORK!!

This is the first of the 2 main reasons so many people lose to the dreaded PUSHER (the second is patience) but what’s worse is that it can easily be overcome and over the next few days I’m going to show you how easy it is when you know how.

You will want to see this because you won’t believe the results.

Tennis Technique – Why When Is Where It’s At Part 1

Us tennis players have a funny relationship with technique.

We can talk about it for hours…..the forehand of this one, the backhand of that one and how great the serve of so and so is. It ebbs, flows and changes direction like an undulating river in high winds.

One minute “you just have to” hit the forehand like Federer and serve like Sampras and yet almost overnight the forehand model changed to hitting with heavy topspin like Rafa and an abbreviated preparation like Roddick became “the” way to serve.

Anyway, if nothing else, that should tell you that there is no such thing as “the” technique for any shot as all this locker room chat stuff is mainly only about style.

It’s also a common misconception that “correct” technique is an isolated event. Most people believe that a stroke performed on its own with “perfect” form is going to be good enough to take onto the match court and do a job for you………….and why wouldn’t it?

Now, there are obviously degrees of that because any of us that have played the game for any length of time know that this is just not true, but certainly the true meaning of “correct” technique needs some clarity and definition.

So, here is a stab at it that I think is at least pretty close and certainly works for those of us that are….shall we say seasoned players and should certainly be what you should be aiming for if you are less experienced and “on the way up”.

I think that from here on in you should view your technique as “correct” only if……..you are able to achieve your tactical objective in a competitive situation.

What Do You Think About That?

Let me know by leaving a comment below!!

I will explore this further with a 3 stage breakdown of tennis technique tomorrow but if this kind of thing makes any sense to you, sets off any light bulbs in your head or makes you want to know more then I invite you to check out the Tennis Think Tank where this kind of thing is taken to new levels.

Tennis Strategy 102 – The Continuum

There is so much emphasis placed (by the tennis playing and coaching community) on technique that I almost feel players have lost sight of the one thing that I believe makes this such a great sport.

The tactical and strategic battle on (and sometimes off) the court. That is what makes this the great sport it is!! The pitting of one player’s game against another. The pitting of one player’s will against another.

It’s what makes some tennis matches go beyond tennis and is what touches even non-tennis people in a way that they can hardly explain (think about the effect the Federer vs Nadal Wimbledon final had on people who don’t even like tennis).

But even if you agree with me, how does that help you….because that’s what I am here to do right??

Well, I propose to you that in order to fulfill your tennis playing potential you need to move away from the importance of technique and over towards the emphasis on the outcome of the technique you are trying to implement.

It’s just as I have been saying for a long time now…..it’s not so much about the HOW that counts, it’s more about the WHAT you choose to do, WHY you choose to do it & WHEN you do things that ultimately dictate your success.

In fact would it be fair to say that “good” technique isn’t achieved unless it allows you to execute your desired strategy?

This is the area where technique fades out and skill takes over……..so where does your game sit on this continuum?

There may well be different positions for different parts of your game but it’s worth taking 20 minutes to think about it.

When you have done that, I have some tactics and strategies that have been noted by many to reap the biggest rewards.

I will do those in a video for you tomorrow.

Before you get the video, please comment below to let me know what you think about this argument and where your game sits.

Tennis Success – Why It’s All Down To You

I was asked to talk at a meeting of local tennis clubs the other day (adults and juniors attending), mainly about the far reaching effects of a specific type of tennis footwork and tennis movement training that I specialize in.

Anyway, I will reveal more about this stuff as I document it all but there is one thing that came out which I didn’t expect yet I think is pretty important.

During the talk I asked the question “what was the main focus of your schedule over the next 3 to 6 months” to which I got a lot of blank looks and a silent hum around the room.

As I probed deeper I realized that this was an area that people were not too forthcoming about.

After the talk (which opened a few eyes and was well received by the way), I hung around for some refreshments and had people coming up to talk about what they had heard that night and other things tennis.

After a while, much of the conversation shifted to what I had meant by the “schedule focus” question. I had presumed the general silence was because people were being secretive, not wanting to reveal what they were doing with their (or their kids) games, but I couldn’t have been further from the truth.

Time after time, player after player told me their schedule was set by the coach whenever they turned up for their lesson (weekly, monthly etc).

 

Now, that’s fair enough but here are the facts……

The more control and input you have over your own schedule the more successful you wil be at implementing it into your game and executing it out on the match court and don’t think you need to be a top junior or a full time Pro like Nadal, Federer or Djokovic because you don’t – even a beginner can understand what they need to focus on after only a few sessions (as you get better it does become more important though).

Now, I know some of you may need help along the way to do this, but it became pretty obvious from this talk and from the emails/messages I receive on a regular basis that this is something that needs addressing, which is why I am putting something together that I know is gonna be irresistable and I am going to let you see it along with my new web site in a day or so.

For now though start by thinking about what you need to be doing over the next 3 to 6 months to move your game forwards. Be realistic (but don’t be too narrow minded) and I want you to be “brave”………type whatever it is into the comment box below (or reply to the email that may have sent you here) and I will feedback on each and everything I get!!

Remember, YOU hold the power to your game success and I want to help you get it!! P.S. I have had some people notice that I have recently added some extra stuff to the Beat All The Tennis Players You Want Special Report deal.

That is correct, I have added the following……..”15 Practical Ways To Use Your Tennis Mental Game” and the video……”Winning Tennis 101 – WINNING TENNIS TACTICS & STRATEGIES“

This stuff will set you up to win the mental battle on the court and you know that tennis matches are won and lost in this arena.

Anyway, grab it now while you can and let me know how this stuff affects your results and how quickly!!!

 How’s that sound???