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.