Hi, well this is my problem: I have a good and strong drive but sometimes when I am receiving the serve my return, unexplainably, becomes too weak and goes to the net.
Why? Concentration matter? (more…)
As many of you already know, I sell 3 tennis related digital products on Clickbank besides providing you with tons of free content on TennisMindGame.com and Tennis Thoughts blog.
All these products (2 ebooks and 1 set of videos for tennis beginners - see graphics on the right side) come with a 8 week money back guarantee.
You can always ask for a refund and I just forward the receipt to Clickbank and they refund you in about 5 days. (more…)
Tomaz, I enjoyed reading your manuals and newsletters.
Your description of the psychology of understanding tennis is especially insightful in the tradition of “The Inner Game” which I read years ago.
I play doubles two or three times a week at a 4.0 level. I’m an average player, in not bad condition for my age. (more…)
How do you handle a top spin kick serve ?
Do you stay further back or take it before the ball bounces high ?
How do you take the ball on the rise ?
Yes, you can do it both ways - either go back and wait for the ball to lose some spin and speed and drop lower to a more comfortable hitting zone OR hit the ball on the rise, before it gets to high. (more…)
How could I win against players who are higher in ranking or have better play?
When I ask some coaches they say that those players are more experienced than me but if I keep gaining experience and they do then they will win forever, won’t they?
It’s hard to beat players better than you, well, because they are better than you. 
There are 4 major areas where players can be better than you:
1. Better technique which gives them better control of the ball and more effective and economical strokes
2. Better physical abilities - faster, stronger, better stamina, better coordination, better reactions, …
3. Better mental skills - able to keep concentration longer, able to ignore distractions, bale to cope with pressure, …
4. Better strategy and ability to play it - identifying your weaknesses and strengths and adjusting their game to be the most effective against you
The experience you mention is mostly mental and strategy part of tennis.
Although everyone becomes more and more experienced in time, not everyone improves at the same RATE.
Winning a match against a player is combination of all the above skills and of course sports luck and unpredictability.
Safin can score some unpredictable points against Federer but not enough in the long term to win.
Here is one more article on how to beat an experienced player.
I highly appreciated reading your ebooks. Great work!
I have a question for you: Untill recently I hit a lot of double faults every match.
Since I’ve started serving with courage this has improved a lot.
However, I find that some players tend to jump up and down or make sudden movements when I look up during the serve to distract me and this works very well on me.
As a result I start double faulting again. I don’t know what to do in this situation because I can’t not notice it.
Do you have any tips? (more…)
Hi Tomaz! I just ordered your videos today.
I have one question for you: do you lift or swing your racquet to the contact point?
Many thanks!
If I understand you correctly, then I would say that I swing to the contact point.
You would need to lift the racquet to the contact point if you started the forward swing below the ball.
The problem with that is that the racquet has no speed when it starts to move upwards. You start from zero speed.
But when you prepare with the racquet head up, then you just let go and the gravity pulls the racquet down and eventually it has to go up because that’s natural for your arm.
It will swing upwards.
Note that the feeling of moving racquet forward is similar to pulling since you initiate this movement with your legy, hips and whole body and you arm is the last segment of this kinetic chain.
I recently had a tennis lesson with an 11 year old girl in the tennis academy and we were working on top spin.
She was hitting sometimes with lots of spin and sometimes too flat.
So then I asked her: “Was this a top spin?”
She: “Yes.”
Me: “How do you know?”
She: no answer…
She knew that she hit a top spin backhand but she couldn’t explain to me how she knew.
2 days later I had a lesson with an adult advanced recreational player.
At one point, I asked him again: “Was this a top spin?”
He: “Yes, sure.”
Me: “How do you know?”
He: paused for 10 seconds then told me one thing right and two things that were not exactly necessarily true.
I realized that something what may be obvious to a tennis coach studying tennis for 20 years is not so obvious for a tennis player who hasn’t spent countless hours THINKING about tennis.
So here is a quiz question: How do you know that you hit a top spin?
Test your knowledge and reply in the comments box below.
The correct answer will be posted on Friday, 22nd of June here on the blog and in the next issue of the TennisMindGame.com newsletter.
You can check the past issues of the newsletter here.
I’ve been working on my tennis lessons lens on Squidoo lately. Don’t know what Squidoo is?
It’s a website where anyone can build a page (a lens). You can build a page about anyting you like, want to promote, want to share thoughts about and much more.
Here is a Squidoo FAQ…
If you do know what Squidoo is and you are already a member, then please rate my lens!
And let me know of your lenses too so that I can return the favor.
Feel free to comment too at the bottom of this lens…
I plan to add new tennis lessons every few days and right now you can read an introductory tennis lesson which covers the split step and ready position, and a forehand lesson which covers the grip, contact point, follow-through and preparation.
This a very short version of the full How To Play Tennis video instruction package for beginners that you can find on my website.
Stay in touch for more tennis lessons on Squidoo…
What intense exercises can I do inside (of my home) it it’s raining outside?
Can I improve my footwork by doing something inside?
Yes, I agree, there is not much you can do about your footwork inside if it is raining.
But…
If your room is high enough, you could do jump rope.
Even just doing the basic bounce step with both feet will help you improve your footwork.
There are many different jump rope drills so here is a website that goes much more into detail about jumping rope:
Another thing that you could do inside to improve your hand-eye coordination is to learn juggling.
It’s a great skill to develop not only for tennis but also to impress your friends.
So here how you learn how to juggle…
There are other exercises that you can do inside, especially work on your strength.
But I came across and article that gives you many more ideas how to work on your fitness at home.
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