Thoughts on FYB’s most recent footwork video.

Yesterday Will and Adam over at Fuzzy Yellow Balls released another video focusing on footwork with the well known tennis coach Yann Auzoux. Check out the video below and then I’d like to make a few comments on it:

Mini Tennis: Do It!

I absolutely love that Will and Yann put out a video of the two of them performing a mini tennis rally. This warm up and practice method is hugely underused by recreational players! If you’re one of the many tennis enthusiasts that thinks hitting inside the service boxes is below you, amateur, or a waste of time you’re completely wrong. In FYB’s video both players demonstrate great footwork (which was the focus of course) but what you need to also take note of and try to emulate is their outstanding control of technique and swing. Within a 5 minute long rally (one take!) Will and Yann talk, demonstrate multiple types of footwork patterns, swing between forehand and backhand and even between topspin and slice all without losing control of where the ball was going. All of you reading this should be striving for this as you use mini tennis as a warm up every time you walk out onto a tennis court.

If you try mini tennis with a partner only to be frustrated please don’t give up on it. Will and Yann make it look really easy in their video, but in reality it isn’t. Only through years of practice, great athleticism, and high level skills are they able to rally for that long while demonstrating everything that they did. Start off with a goal of making 15 in a row with your hitting partner. Every shot must land inside the service boxes, no double bounces, no volleys, and you should be using a slower, slightly abbreviated version of your baseline techniques. If 15 is easy for you and your partner then start throwing in different directions on purpose (cross court/down the line rallies) as well as changing up between topspin and slice. Again, make sure that you’re using quality technique! Please don’t cheat the drill and yourself by pushing and poking at the ball with short, jerky technique.

“Not Thinking About It”

Yann makes a comment at the end of this video about Will completing all of those different steps during the rally “without thinking about it”. That should absolutely be your goal whenever learning any new tennis technique whether swing related or footwork, just make sure to keep in mind the amount of time, repetition and work that will be involved in creating this new habit. I think that the walking step, hop step, and inside step can all be used effectively by players on any level, but not everybody will simply pick them up first try and have it benefit their game immediately.

I’m definitely not asserting that Will or Yann made any kind of statement saying that this is easy, or that you’ll get it right away, they didn’t. On the other hand it can be really easy to assume that it’s not very difficult when watching two players as good as them do this type of practice. If you’re below a 4.5 level and don’t currently use the three types of steps described in this video then I would take quite a bit of time with each of the three individually as you try to get comfortable performing them. Don’t try to get all fancy and throw them all in together at the same time until each of them has been practiced enough that it starts to become second nature. How long will that take? Everybody is different. If you’re a great athlete it might only take 5 minutes each, a more average one might take half an hour of solid work, and somebody without much natural talent might not ever get comfortable with some of those steps at all (might be harsh to say but 100% true).

Work On Your Footwork

Lastly, I’d just like to briefly state how important I think footwork is to everybody trying to excel at the sport of tennis. When watching rec players at the club where I teach or at a public courts the types and amounts of footwork used makes it REALLY obvious what level of player is out there immediately. I think that footwork is really under taught both online and on the court since the modern recreational player is enthralled with the huge amounts of spin and power created by professional athletes. Well guess what? Unless your body is in a comfortable position in relationship to the ball you’ll never be able to use that great technique that you spent hours and hours practicing with easy feeds from a ball machine or tennis coach.

The walking step, hop step, and inside step can be great additions to already solid fundamental footwork but make sure that you are already great at the basics! To all of you 3.0 and 3.5 players out there dismissing my last sentence you need to really pay attention here. Simple patterns like the lateral shuffle, cross over step, backward shuffling and cross over (for deep groundstrokes and overheads) and the split step are HUGELY underused by average level players. Take some video of yourself in a baseline exchange and really take a long hard look at it. If you’re making contact at different heights and widths from shot to shot then completely forget about adding what’s be advocated in the video above, get better at the basics first!

Miss Serve and Volley? Get Over It.

Alright, that’s it. I’m tired of reading these rants from old school tennis fans that say our sport is going down the drain since they don’t see the stylistic choices of tennis players past any longer. I can understand where they’re coming from and don’t blame them for missing serve and volley a bit, but it’s time to accept the changes to our sport and stop the whining. Historically grass has been the fastest surface in tennis with low, skidding bounces making ground strokes challenging. Combine this with the lesser athletes and small, heavy wooden rackets of several generations ago and it’s easy to understand why getting to the net as soon as possible was the best play.

Since then serve and volley tennis has all but gone away at Wimbledon and it’s due to three main reasons:

The Grass

I’ve read several blogs recently that seem to regard the “supposed” slowing of the surface at Wimbledon as some kind of conspiracy theory, as if players are just saying this as an excuse. News flash: the type of grass being used has actually changed, it’s a documented fact. The new type (100% rye) plays much, much slower than the combination of rye and creeping red fescue that was previously used. The change was made back in 2001 and shortly thereafter the serve and volley game all but disappeared. Coincidence? No, it’s not.

The Players

Current professional players hit the ball harder and with more spin from everywhere on the court than ever before. It used to be that to hit a winner from the baseline you had to be in a balanced position with your weight moving through the shot and “stepping in”. That has completely gone out the window. Why? Today’s professional players have made training and physical strength into a science. They’re faster, stronger, and more versatile than ever before which makes ridiculous passing shots possible while practically falling over in the corner.

The Gear

Personally, I feel that way too much emphasis is placed on modern rackets and strings, I think the biggest difference between current pros and those 15 years ago is in training and athleticism, not rackets and strings. However, the more powerful rackets and polyester strings have definitely made a difference, no question about it.

Put It Together

So, we have a slower, higher bouncing surface, bigger, stronger, more versatile athletes, and equipment that accentuates both power and spin. Why in the world is anybody surprised that professional players are hesitant to get close to their opponents by coming to the net after taking all of this into account? It’s important that we never forget those who came before us and the lessons that they taught us, however it’s time for everybody complaining about this shift in tactics to put away their whimsical thoughts of the good old days and accept the facts: the times they are a-changin’.

The last thing that I’d like to say about this is that we need to give current professional players more respect. To those of you who are detracting the tactical choices of these players: what is your conclusion as to why exactly the pros are neglecting the serve and volley game? If the grass is the same as before and serve and volley still would be the best strategy to use, then how can you possibly explain why it’s gone away almost completely? Are they just stupid? Do you really know more than they do about winning against the worlds best players in 2010? If it is in fact true that Sampras could come out of retirement right now and dominate the field with his serve and volley game then why doesn’t he? You really think he enjoys the couch more than winning titles? And if serve and volley is so far superior against the modern baseline game then how come not even ONE player on tour hasn’t figured this out yet and even made it to the round of 16 serving and volleying exclusively at Wimbledon, much less won multiple titles?

To those of you who disagree with me, I’d love to see your answers to those questions in the comments below. And if not, quit your whining.

Good Tennis Instruction, Poorly Applied

So often I see and hear tennis instruction that just doesn’t make any sense. Recreational players can latch onto this poor information without knowing the difference and I think it’s really a shame. Below is a post on the ET forums from a new member, he gives a perfect example of what I’m talking about and then I answer his question!

The “Mogul Move”

“The other day I was exploring one tennis website and came across the explanation of Mogul move:

“Contact Move: The body becomes elevated after the hit where the hips shift powerfully sideways and both feet turn and finish pointing in the direction of the target. Again, weight moves sideways after contact and spinning or rotating the hips will cause the ball to be dumped into the net. Hit off a moving unstable stance, the secret to the Mogul Move is staying down throughout the shot instead of jumping or lifting on contact. ”

So how to do it? Only hips should move sideways but the weight should not?

This move is mostly used for a wide forehand, which is a headache for me. I’d really like to master it. In my practice, more often than not, I either dump the ball into net or hit the ball very long. Can someone explain to me why weight moving sideways and rotating hips will cause the ball to be dumped into the net?”

Response From Ian

“You’re describing things that I often read online, things that just don’t make any sense. I think you’re asking a really good question: why will moving your weight sideways while rotating your hips cause the ball to go into the net? This is a perfect example of somebody online trying to teach something pretty advanced to recreational players, and claiming that it will fix a problem that is much, much more fundamental in nature.

Any groundstroke will only really hit the net for one of three reasons:

1. The racket face is too closed at contact, the strings are facing down towards the court.

2. The racket didn’t lift the ball enough, it didn’t start low enough before contact, or didn’t finish high enough after contact. The swing was too straight, or maybe even downwards.

3. The ball hit off the frame, poor contact, it didn’t travel as it should have.

That’s it. Put me in any position on the court, with my feet in any stance, my momentum traveling any direction, my hips turning either direction, using any grip, and I can make the shot. Period. Now, any of those things may cause good technique to become more difficult, and can INDIRECTLY cause you to miss a shot by throwing you into poor mechanics, but which direction your hips are turning, and which direction your weight is moving has nothing to do with the direction that the ball travels.

Is the footwork described a good thing, can it improve your game and be beneficial? Yes, absolutely, I’m not knocking the idea of the mogul move, or saying that it’s wrong. All I’m saying here is that you should be careful what results you’re expecting to get out of instruction like this, and saying that doing a mogul move correctly or incorrectly will either cause you to make or miss forehands is just plain wrong.”

Next time you read tennis instruction online simply ask yourself “does this make sense?”. If you can’t answer “yes” then leave it alone, the vast majority of differences between different levels of tennis players are the basic, fundamental parts of the game. Anything more complicated than that shouldn’t be paid attention to most of the time.

Controlling Your Emotions

I recently answered a great question about keeping your cool on the tennis court. Basically the question asked: “How can we keep from going crazy after stupid errors out on the court?”. I’d like to share my answer with the rest of you because I know many of you reading this can fall into the trap of getting negative while playing tennis!

This is a really good topic. So many of us tennis enthusiasts take our game very seriously, so seriously that any kind of failure or mistake becomes inexcusable. I battled with this while I was in college and wish that I had learned how to deal with it then, I had so many practices and matches that made me just miserable on the court, it was really a shame. Here are a few of my thoughts on the subject:

Keep Tennis in Perspective

This is kind of an obvious thing, but something that I think many of us lose sight of since we take the sport and our improvement so seriously. None of us play professionally, whether or not we win is not going to have any bearing on our income, livelihood, success in life, or if our friends and family love us any more or less at the end of the day. It’s awesome that people love tennis so much that they take it seriously and really try their best to reach their full potential, but at the end of the day it’s just a game, something that we should all be doing for enjoyment! It sucks being so hard on yourself, it’s really not fun at all. Be realistic about the implications of your performance that day and lighten up a little bit. I wish I had started practicing this earlier in life.

Emotional Habits

Next I’d like to make the statement that emotional and physical reactions to both good and poor shots on the tennis court are habits, they’re practiced and learned whether you’re conscious of it or not. Somebody that I teach with recently had a great quote during a clinic: “If you practice being negative, you’ll get good at being negative. If you practice getting angry, you’ll get good at being angry. If you practice being positive, you’ll get good at being positive. What do you want to be good at on the court?”. Many of us fall intro the trap of thinking that when we hit a crappy shot we have to be disgusted with ourselves. Well, it’s your choice. You can make the choice between focusing on the negative emotions and feelings, and projecting those on the court, or to let those feelings pass and move on to the next point you have to play with a level head. I’ve recently started to make a habit out of smiling and making light of my errors, especially the really bad ones. Have a sense of humor about it. It’s not that I’m actually “ok” with screwing up, I’d obviously rather not, but heading out onto the court I know that errors will occur, and I want their occurrence to affect my game play as little as possible that day. Make a conscious effort to practice being positive on the court. It will improve your game.

Break the Cycle

Why will it improve your game? Because nobody plays well when they’re angry. Almost always getting angry and frustrating becomes a terrible cycle on the court. An error is made, your emotions go south, the next point is played with a poor attitude and another error is made furthering that crappy outlook on your game and the match. I’ve only ever known ONE player who honestly played better with a chip on his shoulder and angry at himself or his opponent, it’s an extremely, extremely rare trait. Break the cycle by forming new habits and having more positive emotions on the court.

Making Errors

Lastly, I’d like to reiterate something that I mentioned before: you’re going to make errors. It doesn’t matter how good you become, you will never leave a tennis court without making unforced errors. I’m not pointing this out to be negative or a pessimist, but rather to make sure that you all have a healthy expectation on yourselves out on the court. So many tennis players make those inevitable errors and immediately focus on how stupid they were to make a mistake, as if they’re above it and too good for such things. This kind of attitude will only set you up for frustration and a constant feeling of failure which is simply unrealistic. When errors happen immediately give yourself positive feedback, tell yourself specifically what you’re going to do better next time you get that same shot or are in that same situation on the court. It’s not the end of the world, errors are all just part of the game of tennis, nobody plays without them.

Cheers guys.

-Ian

Overhead Footwork and the Three Step Drop

Moving backwards is not something that us humans do very naturally. This makes sense of course since our bodies are designed to move forward. What does this mean for our tennis games? Moving back to cover a good lob is very often a huge weakness for tennis players, especially doubles players who spend a ton of their time up at the net. In my experience very few recreational level players move correctly when trying to get back towards the baseline for an overhead and this causes lots of problems when even a relatively easy lob gets hit up into the air. Don’t be this person! The lob is the highest, slowest, most defensive shot in tennis, not something that you should be fearful of or afraid to hit. Hopefully this quick article will give you a good idea of how to best move in a backwards direction to cover even the best lob and give you more confidence when you’re up at the net.

Three Step Drop

I want you guys to check out this youtube video of Jay Cutler demonstrating a “three step drop”. The three step drop is a series of steps used by high level football quarterbacks to get themselves off the line of scrimmage quickly and efficiently. The quarterback makes this move to give himself some space to work with and also to buy some time between himself and the oncoming defenders trying to make his life miserable. This guy is a professional athlete, he definitely knows how to move, even backwards away from his own end zone. Obviously his tips on where to hold the ball aren’t applicable to us, but I want you to pay very close attention to what he says about his feet and how he moves them.

Jay begins in essentially a “ready position”. Tennis players should be in a little bit wider of a stance than he demonstrated but everything else is identical: knees bent, facing forwards, and hands in front. From this position he turns himself to the side by bringing his right foot back around his left to put himself into a “square” or “neutral” stance. This is absolutely critical and where things break down for players who are poor at moving back for overheads. Not only does turning to the side give you a much wider base to move back from with your feet but it puts your body in a strong position to hit an overhead from as well. Imagine trying to hit an effective serve in a stance that starts you off facing the net head on, it just doesn’t make sense from a technique perspective.

From this sideways position Jay uses two different types of steps: a cross over step and a shuffle step. In my opinion as long as you get sideways to the net and lead with your right foot either type of step is perfectly fine to get yourself back underneath a deep lob. The cross over step will definitely get you back more quickly than only using a side shuffle, but it definitely takes some more coordination and athleticism to use. Try them both out, as well as combinations of each to see what feels most natural to move you back towards the baseline. When I get an easy lob I only use side shuffles to make adjustments while turned to the side, on a tougher lob that I’m really having to work for I’ll use one or two cross over steps at the most and then shuffle steps from there, just like Cutler did in his demonstration.

Check out the image at the top of this article of Favre and Rodgers as well (can you tell who my favorite football team is?). The images of both players show them in the middle of a cross over step. While their shoulders are perpendicular to the line of scrimmage their hips are actually facing back towards the opposing end zone. This is why they’re able to get back off the line so quickly, it’s almost like running backwards, but with their upper body sideways ready to throw. As I said earlier this takes a lot more athleticism and coordination, but definitely give it a shot. Moving back this way for an overhead is the ultimate in speed and balance.

Get out there on the court and practice this! With some time and repetition you’ll be moving back more quickly and in better balance in no time.

Tennis Video 101

Digital video has revolutionized so many aspects of our lives in the past decade, including how we learn and interact as tennis enthusiasts. It wasn’t so long ago that the only way we could view video of tennis players was either on TV or by checking out tapes at your local library. Nationally recognized tennis pros and coaches would often times come out with instructional videos as well which you could purchase from the backs of magazines or at tennis conventions.

These days absolutely anybody with an entry level camera, entry level computer, and connection to the internet can become a star on the tennis court. Below I’ve outlined the top 5 components of creating your own videos so that you can receive the best feedback and instruction possible. Follow these instructions and your videos will be a pleasure to watch instead of a pain.

Camera

Digital video doesn’t cost an arm and a leg anymore. In fact, you can now get full HD quality video right to your computer screen for less than $200. Hands down my favorite way of shooting high quality digital video on the cheap is the Flip UltraHD camera. This camera fits completely in one hand, takes two hours of HD quality video, and can be had for as little as $155. For examples of the video quality coming from this camera check out the point play analysis shown in the Video section of Essential Tennis.

The Flip Cam isn’t the only option for HD quality video at a cheap price. Take a little around Amazon.com and you’ll be surprised how many different companies are jumping on board to give us tennis players a wide variety of hardware.

Tripod

Sounds like a no brain-er, right? Well believe it or not people submit videos of themselves to me that were shot without the use of a tripod all the time. Do your viewers a favor and make a small investment in one of these incredibly useful devices, otherwise you’ll have myself and other tennis enthusiasts reaching for the motion sickness meds faster than you can say “action!”. This does not have to cost a lot of money! People are always surprised when I tell them that they can pick up a tripod to do the job for under $20, but it’s true. Here’s a link to a full sized tripod on Amazon that costs only $16 with shipping included. A favorite of mine is also the “Gorillapod” mini tripod that has flexible arms to wrap around things like a fence or net post. This is really cool when combined with my little FlipCam, especially since it only costs $17 on Amazon.

Framing

Your video camera is able to “see” a certain amount of space on the court and where you place yourself within that space is your framing. I often times see stroke videos where the subject is literally on the other side of the court, barely taking up any space in the frame. This makes it extremely tough to pick out technique keys and give good feedback to players. On the other hand, if you’re looking for feedback on strategy and point play you want to be able to see as much of the court as possible, which means both players are going to take up much less room in the frame. It totally depends on what you’re trying to get information on, strokes or point play. Do your viewers a favor and put a lot of thought into setting up your camera and tripod properly so that everybody can clearly see what you’re trying to show them!

Stroke technique videos: fill the frame as much as possible without leaving it constantly. Point play videos: place the camera to see as much of the court as possible. At the top of the back fence pointing down is definitely the best.

One more thing about framing your shot for stroke technique. In my opinion the two most useful angles to view tennis strokes from are either directly to the side of the player (90 degrees to the right or left) or directly behind the player looking forwards towards the net. Pointing your camera towards you from the other side of the net or skewed off to the side at a random angle makes it a bit more difficult to give the best technical feedback possible.

Editing

Have you thought about editing your technique or point play videos? I’m not talking about color correction, chroma key, or anything else fancy like that. What I suggest is simply cutting around your most important content to make it easy for your audience to watch. When editing out all of the dead time in a typical 6-4 set there’s actually only 6-10 minutes of actual play time. Not only will it be that much easier and faster to watch, but when all of the points are back to back it’s much easier to pick out patterns in the match play without all of the time searching for balls and taking water breaks in between. Just like tripods and cameras, it’s not necessary to spend a lot of money to get this done. In MacOS iMovie is definitely the way to go, very easy to use and included with the operating system. If you’re a Windows user then a great free option is Windows Movie Maker.

Publishing

Obviously YouTube is the most popular way to put your videos up for the world to see. Some tennis players don’t want their content to be available for just anybody to see, however. Within YouTube are a vast array of privacy settings, including ways to create private links that only certain people can access. It’s totally up to you how public or private your videos will be. Keep in mind that YouTube limits the length of your uploads to only 10 minutes, and file sizes have to be within 2gigs. Alternatives to YouTube include blip.tv, Vimeo.com, and Viddler.com.

Once your videos are published to a video hosting web site make sure to drop by the Forums at Essential Tennis to receive free feedback from certified tennis professionals!

Taking movement to the next level

I would like to address a question I was asked in reference to my last blog, “Movement is easy to understand, but tough to do right. It’s one thing to see it and know when each step type should be used, another to be able to feel it on court, and yet another to do it instinctively.

Any suggestions for going from one level of knowledge to the next?”

It’s correct to say that movement is easy to understand and tough to do right. This is in part because there are numerous steps to learn, correct patterns of movement, and more importantly, breaking through some of the counter-intuitive principles of associated moving correctly.

For instance, people understand that it’s faster to take large steps to the ball, but fail to realize that it’s not economical to take one last large step and effectively lunge to a ball. They don’t make the connection of the wasted energy and time it takes to do a lunge than take the extra 2-5 small steps to be on balance when they hit. I’ll often tell clients that if they feel like they can get to shot in 5 steps, to try to take 10. In essence, it forces them to break through their own psychological barrier.

Psychological barrier aside, people don’t understand how important maximizing time is while hitting. Many people from about a 3.0 level and up can hit decently when a ball is fed directly to them, but as soon as they are forced to move, their strokes diminish quickly. This is in large part due to people trying to time their movement to meet with the ball instead of getting there quickly and giving you the time to hit. If you’re timing is off by even the slightest margin, you’re going to be out of position for the rest of the point.

One of my old coaches used to tell me to just sprint to the area where the ball is going – I didn’t need to be exact, but to get to the area as fast as possible to set up for the shot. Since my game was and is based on foot speed, it instinctively made sense to me. Now as a coach, I try to teach the benefits of this mentality.

In terms of learning, it’s important to understand the movement, the patterns, the correct steps etc… but also the causation – what causes you to get out of position during a point.  Once you have a firm grasp on those aspects, just going out and doing it will really help you get a feel for what is correct and moving you from one level to the next. I remember when I first hit with Ian, Jason and the other guys on the team at Ferris – I had the strokes to hit with them, but I was nowhere close to being in the correct position to play points with them. I ended up feeling like a rag doll. After about a week or so of struggling to maintain my competitiveness, I started to be as aggressive as I could be with my feet. The subtly of being a passive observer to a conscious decision to be aggressive allowed me to play my game with them.

Am I advocating playing with better players? To an extent yes – they have a better grasp of the importance of time and from a movement perspective, it might mean taking a beating or two before you start to understand the subtleties as well.

Maximize Movement

Many people claim that the serve is the only shot in tennis that you control from begging to end – of which I won’t necessarily disagree with. However, each player can control their footwork and the aggressiveness of their movement. While a person’s energy will ebb and flow depending on the day, each person is still capable of giving 100% of what they can on every time they play.  It’s imperative to understand proper movement and the pressure it puts on your opponents.

Learning how to correctly move on a court is much more important than any single shot a player might hit. By being able to recognize where to move to on the court, and the speed it takes to move to the shot, puts pressure on your opponents to do more with their shots. Tennis is a sport dictated on time, those who maximize their time while taking the most away from their opponents will prosper.

Frequently, Club players cite difficulties with their mobility. However, that is only a small part of the equation. Even those players whose movement is above average often fall prey to bad footwork. One misstep per shot in a rally leads to off-balance play and limited shot making. More importantly, instead of dictating play the player becomes reactionary. Here are a few tips to help improve your movement on the court:

Split Step: Right before your opponent makes contact on every shot including the serve, you should take a small balanced hop. This action allows for quick movement in any direction.

Large Steps: Use large steps initially to get to the ball as fast as possible. The quicker a player can get to a shot, the easier it will be to take control.

Small Steps: As you approach the ball shorten up your steps. Using small steps allows for you to adjust to the ball and hit the ball in your contact zone all while staying balanced.

In conclusion, proper movement before and after your opponents hit the ball gives you an unbelievable advantage.

Why I’m Thankful For Tennis

Today is a Holiday here in the United States called “Thanksgiving”. It’s a time to slow down and reflect upon everything that we have to be thankful of which, if we’re honest, is a great deal no matter what circumstances happen to surround us. Below I’d like to briefly write about the different aspects of tennis that I’m truly thankful for, parts of the sport that have made me a better person and improved my life. Hopefully you share my appreciation for these benefits. Feel free to leave a comment at the bottom of the page with your own list of things to be thankful for as it pertains to the sport of tennis!

1. Physical Fitness and Conditioning

I’ve always been blessed to be a very active person through out my life and tennis has been a huge part of that. Training yourself to become a good tennis player includes by default physical conditioning and training, trying to wring as much out of your body as possible so that on the court you can perform to your best. Whether it was push ups after losing to my pro during private lessons, “one ball pick ups” in high school practices, or sprint after sprint in the middle of college practices I’ve always pushed my body as hard as possible, practice after practice and match after match. The benefits of this hard work extend beyond the tennis court. I’m lucky enough to be in very good condition and plan on continuing that for the rest of my life thanks to my enjoyment of tennis. Tennis truly is the “sport of a lifetime”, continue playing tennis and it will reward you physically for years to come.

2. Mental Toughness

It’s difficult to put a price on the overall mental toughness and competitive confidence that playing the sport of tennis for years can give you. Good tennis players are able to perform under pressure so well because they’re all alone out there on the court (unless you’re playing doubles of course). You don’t get teammates to pick you up physically or mentally, nor a coach to give you a kick in the butt when you need it or open your eyes to a strategy that you overlooked. Tennis players learn how to problem solve, trouble shoot, and never back down under the pressure of an attacking opponent. These mental skills are learned over time of course, so if the descriptions above don’t sound like you then don’t despair! Get out there and continue to compete as often as possible. Your learned competitive skills will transfer over to so many different parts of life, both in different sports and otherwise.

3. Strong Friendships

There’s something about the friendships formed around an athletic endeavor, among hard physical work and the thrill of competition in the air. Without a doubt most of my long term friendships over the years have been tennis teammates, guys who I’ve fought alongside with towards a common goal: win for the team. Such a strong bond is formed within these conditions, and I’ve been very fortunate over the years to know many people in this way. If you’re not currently playing on a club team, in a USTA league, or any other kind of team tennis competition I strongly encourage you to start ASAP, regardless of how long you’ve been playing or your ability level.

So how about you? What about tennis are you thankful for?

‘Andre– Oh Andre’, Letter from Home

Dear All,

Andre!  How much does it matter that he has disclosed probable abuse of substances by his father?  Abuses by his own choice of similar substances?  Clever manipulations to avoid being caught?   It would be so easy to judge him in whatever way anyone might choose, easy to find blame for his timing of disclosure.  BUT:  He has also decided not to agonize over the privacy of his truths.  They are on the table for all to see.  Does his disclosure influence or disrupt the wonderful energy he puts forth in his programs and community efforts?  I hope not.  Another celebrity with an abuse and drug history comes forward.  Is it amends?  Perhaps not.  BUT:  In the good work he does, moment by moment offering kids like he was hope for success, let’s continue to support him and his efforts.  Let’s accept that all of us, status not mattering, make ugly and stupid mistakes, and still have the capacity to live responsible and healthy adult lives.  YEAH to Andre for putting it out there for all of us to scrutinize and judge; BRAVO for all the good things he HAS done and continues to do.

I’ve always liked him; now I respect him.  KUDOS to Andre.

Ellie Fishman Sternquist
Ph.D. Psychologist