The mind body connection is one that has been explored for many years. But a lot of us think of it as flowing from the mind to the body.

“A champions mind” is about how Sampras had the ability to simply elevate his game under pressure. Everyone talks about Nadal as being the toughest mentally.

But what if it is the other way around. What if it is actually physical toughness that is leading the way?

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If you’re a tennis player who gets upset or disappointed when he misses a shot, then consider the following philosophy…

Let’s take two club players who can play reasonably well (3.0 NTRP and higher) and give them 3 balls to rally cooperatively and play at their preferred pace.

How long will it take for them to eventually miss all 3 and start picking them up again?

30 seconds? 60 seconds? 90 seconds?

Note that a typical rally shot travels around 2-3 seconds from one side to another. So in a 30 second rally there are 10 to 15 balls exchanged and that’s 5-8 per each player.

How many 15 shot rallies can you hold if someone on the other side plays a little bit left – right and you try to do the same?

Not many. Even I at probably 5.5 or 6.0 level when I play with my friend who is about the same level typically keep the ball in play for about 5 to 20 shots total in a rally. (more…)

Rafael Nadal won his second Wimbledon title against Tomas Berdych today and his 8th Grand Slam title.

Rafael Nadal beats Tomas Berdych for the Wimbledon 2010 title / Photo by ADRIAN DENNIS/AFP/Getty Images

I watched the whole match and here are some of my thoughts that I wrote down during the match…

I knew that Nadal would play solid tennis at the start of the match. So my focus was on Berdych as I was looking to see any signs of pressure.

I was looking at the rhythm of shots from the baseline, how clean was Berdych hitting the ball and whether he’d go for the shots when he had an opening and whether he would be successful. (more…)