We all have that one move we know we shouldn’t make. We use it almost involuntarily at this point, and cringe every time thereafter.

While at first it wasn’t a big problem, it’s getting to the point where we are losing points—maybe even matches—because of it.

So how do you stop the vicious cycle?

First of all, recognize that it is a cycle: it’s self perpetuating.

The two main reasons you continue falling back on poor technique or a sloppy move are:

1)      You have become accustomed to it

2)      You are not confident in another technique
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Every tennis player has experienced that day where they can do nothing wrong.

Every shot comes off your strings with a crisp clean pop. Every ball you strike goes to its intended target like a magnet.

On those days, it’s easy to have a relaxed and easy going demeanor on the court and to compete hard without losing your temper.

But what about the other side of the coin? There are also days when you feel awkward and un-athletic.

Your shots seem to float and sit up for your opponent. You can feel your competitive fire boil over into a fit of rage at any moment.

You know deep down inside that you are a better player than this… (more…)

If you keep your eyes open you can discover many new good tennis warm up drills just by watching a promotional Youtube video.

The video below, shot in Beijing includes these WTA girls in their warm ups: Maria Sharapova, Ana Ivanovic, Sam Stosur, Caroline Wozniacki, Vera Zvonareva, Maria Kirilenko, Victoria Azarenka, Gisela Dulko, Flavia Pennetta, Jelena Jankovic, Kaia Kanepi, Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova, Andrea Petkovic, Yanina Wickmayer, Svetlana Kuznetsova, Vera Dushevina, Alicja Rosolska, Ekaterina Makarova & Sara Errani.

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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…)

What’s the best advice you can give me on how to improve my game most efficiently?

I’m an educator in passion and mathematician by training, so I’m always interested in the most efficient method.

Feenix Y. Pan, Ph.D.
Learning Consultant in Mathematics
www.door2math.com

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Hmm, tough question.

Let’s look at your question from this perspective: you need to play a lot in con-competitive situations and complement that with competitive play.

Fast improvement in technique and coordination and feel comes from NOT playing for points. (more…)

Hi Tomaz,

Got your Mental Manual yesterday, I’m reading through it and it looks great! I thought I’d take the opportunity to ask you a question.

First, a little background: I’m coaching a 10 year old boy who needs help in the mental side of tennis.

When playing a match, he’ll be all smiles when winning but if he starts losing he intentionally starts “bashing” the ball and becomes extremely erratic.

His technique breaks down and everything goes downhill quickly.The boy has good technique on his shots and serve, but is naturally a bit erratic. When he plays a solid junior, the above negative situation arises.

I coach the boy for 1 hour once a week, and he shares the lesson with his sister.

My question is:  What is your advice on how I go about incorporating some of the info from the manual into the context of the weekly lesson?

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Tennis ball machine drills are a great way to improve your game when you don’t have a partner to play against. Ball machines are also very useful for perfecting specific swings.

If you’ve just bought a tennis ball machine, or your thinking of renting time with one from your local club you probably could use some advice on how to get started.

Before we get into that you need to remember that there are a lot of different tennis ball machines, some are very complicated with many settings, others are simpler and give you less options.

It is well to your advantage when a machine has many settings so don’t be afraid to try it!

Here are some practice tennis ball machine drills that you can use to get started. These drills will work with most machines. (more…)

Tennis is a very challenging sport and there are many problems you need to solve, not just in the course of a match, but even in the course of one point.

These can include proper ball judgment, good footwork and setting up well for the shot, timing the stroke well, coordinating your whole kinetic chain and many other tennis skills needed for the technical part of the stroke.

Then there’s tactics which may include awareness of opponent’s strengths and weaknesses, awareness of your own strengths and weaknesses, deciding early enough for the right shot, playing high percentage shots and others.

The mental game may include the ability to focus, the ability to block outside distractions, the ability to be in the now and others.

But all these tennis challenges cannot be solved if you don’t solve the basic tennis problems in the order they will happen when you strike the ball. Which are they? (more…)

Hi Tomaz,

I gone through all of your postings but I didn’t find what I was looking for.

Quick facts: Right handed, western grip, 2 handed backhand grip.

Here is my 2 questions/my problems:

1) What is the best way to hit a ball on the run? I am not talking about stretching to reach the ball and hit deep forehand slice like  pro nadal do.  I mean you reach the ball comfortable on the run but not enough time you would have normally to hit a forehand.

On the run, I try to go with all my usual swing but I am most often late. Some times I anticipate the ball in advance but I will end up too close to the ball (overran) and hit weak ball.  In general what is the best to hit the ball on the ran? deep slice?

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Tomaz, I have been exploring vision and tennis a bit lately as I don’t think I am tracking the ball as I should.

I know you have articles on the site concerning watching the ball, but they introduce a theory, but they don’t seem to give a practical progression to improve in this area.

My reading has included the following:

http://www.eyesontennis.net/

http://www.arete-sports.com/

My question is what merit do you think this work has?  How do you work with your students?

How to best approach integrating this into my game? (more…)