Postcast #199: Holiday Special
January 4, 2012
Listen to all of the holiday messages left in the ET Voicemail Box over the past few weeks. Also, a huge “thank you” to everybody for their support during 2011. If you have listened to the podcast, watched my videos, attended a clinic, or signed up for any of my online courses this past year then you mean so much to me. I literally couldn’t continue with Essential Tennis without you! Happy New Year, all the best for your tennis in 2012.
Do you have a tennis-specific New Years Resolution? I’d love to hear what it is in the comments below! Don’t have any yet? Now is an excellent time to commit to a goal or specific improvement. Give it some thought and share below.
Hey Ian,
Just wanted to leave my tennis specific new year’s resolutionS!
-This will be the first time I enter a tennis tourney so I’d like to win at least 1 match.
To get there I have 4 mini goals.
-Listen to more of your podcasts.
– Improve my conditioning.
-Learn how to serve down the “T”.
-Perfect my juggling skills that I took up based on your recommendation to improve hand-eye coordination.
Thanks,
B
Ian
I didn’t get a chance to leave a voicemail message, but would just like to thank you for giving so much to the tennis community. You, personally, have helped my game so much and I really appreciate all your efforts.
My resolutions:
1. Practise my serve more.
2. Get better at footwork and movement.
3. Play more competitive matches (cut down on the aimless “fun” hitting sessions).
Ed
Many thanks for your professional knowledge, it’s really precious and I appreciate it.
Happy New Year! I resolve to be fit, improve my serve, my backhand, forhand focus on the ball during the game,
Happy New Year Ian and the same to Steve. Speaking of you two, I resolve to once again begin but this time FINISH the Complete Tennis Fitness course. I’ll start on my birthday later this month. When I turn 65 next year, I want to be in the best shape ever. Thanks to your course, I’ll have the foundation.
Warmest regards,
Jim
Happy New Year and kudos to you on your product! I look forward to hearing from you (and the pros) on the topic of erasing “muscle memory” that creates bad habits. It seems so hard to undo years of bad biomechanics, espeically on the serve, given all of its moving parts. Thanks! Bruce in Mile High Colorado.
Hi Ian,
Happy New Year to you, and all the best in this New Year for growing Essential Tennis to new heights.
1. Continue to put as much effort and energy to my tennis improvements while being patient, and not get freaked out when I lose to “lesser” players or feel that my game isn’t improving as fast as I’d like.
2. Incorporate footwork drills (agility ladder) and fitness (CTF) into my training.
3. Attain a consistent backhand and volley to be closer to becoming an all court player.
4. Be patient. Be patient. Be patient.
Regards,
Krishna
Ian,
Happy New Year. Loved the Holiday Special Postcast. Great stuff. All the best to you and your family.
Dear Ian,
First of all :happy new yerr for you and your family.
I really enjoyed your service course. And i highly appreciate your intention to help people in the whole world to improve their tennis skills. Thanks a lot!!!!
The topspin serve was not a topic in your service course. I have learned until now that i have to pronate when doing a flat serve and also even when doing a slice serve which i was very surprised about, but you were supplying the evidence with the videos about the pros doing their service.
My question is: do i have to pronate even while doing a topspin serve? i guess not but i was also thinking that it is not necessery to pronate for the slice service.
Best regards!
Sven from Germany
Sven,
I’ll be releasing more videos about different types of serves in the future, definitely keep an eye out for that. To answer your question quickly: YES, high level players pronate on every type of serve (topspin, slice, flat). It’s an essential part of a high quality service motion, period.
Thank you very much for your kind words, Happy New Year!
1. improve on my footwork
2. do more anaerobic workout with sprints and jogging
2. Serve, more power / overhead, placement and power
3. Work on mental game during matches/continue playing matches to develop confidence.
Great list! Make sure to do more sprints than you do jogging/long distance running. The sprints will help your tennis specific fitness 100X more. Happy New Year!
Dear santa ian, give me the courage to attach the net and take those dang balls out of the air please?
marjorie
Sure, here you go: http://essentialtennis.com/podcast/taking-lessons/139/371/
Mine ordered from the highest priority to lowest:
1 – improve the consistency of my backhand. My backhand has been a liability in my doubles games, less so for my singles games. I’m thinking about switching from a one-handed to a 2-handed backhand.
2 – get a little bit better on my overheads. It doesn’t need to be great. Just a little bit better.
3 – more power on my serves.
4 – more power on my groundstrokes.
5 – on power on my volleys.
As you see, it’s everything
Two days ago, I put together a plan which involves hitting with the ball machine weekly and doing one-on-one sessions with a pro. This is on top of the 2 weekly classes I currently take at a city facility.
I hope this will help me this year.
Henry,
That’s outstanding! Excellent job doing the mental leg-work to figure out exactly what needs to be improved (even better, prioritized). That plus your specific action plan are going to pay off big time for you. Please stick with it!
My resolution this year is to work up the courage to do more than just slice all the time at backhands.
Ranju,
That’s one of mine as well! I need to build my confidence up with my topspin backhand a great deal. Good luck!
Between wet weather, holiday activites, and now a long lingering cold, i’ve been away from tennis a little, so this morning I checked to see what podcasts i missed in the last few weeks, but I didn’t see one (it was probably just before the holiday podcast was posted).
So, I just went into the old podcasts and picked one based on the topic (if I haven’t heard it, it’s new to me). I chose podcast #107 which discussed footwork and playing in windy conditions–anyway, Ian throws in a cool line, “For those of you who don’t know how to hit topspin, God help you.”
How about a resolution to listen to all the podcasts–I’ll bet each one has something awesome.
Haha….I don’t remember that line, I’ll have to go listen to what the context was. There is now well over 100 hours of instruction in the podcast section. So, for those of you trying to listen to all of it, God help you!
Thanks so much for your support, Hilina’i, I really appreciate it.
I got an early visit from “Santa Ian” last summer when you helped me with groundstrokes, my one-handed backhand in particular. Since then, I’ve been facing backhands much more confidently and I enjoy watching the ball’s flight path as it leaves my racquet. I’m pretty sure that I’m putting better topspin on the ball based on its bounce after the stroke–it continues in a pretty straight direction rather than taking a funky spin-bounce. Thanks again for your great instruction, Ian, and have a great 2012 !