Essential Tennis Podcast #98

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Narrator : Welcome to the Essential Tennis Podcast. If you love tennis and wants to improve your game. This podcast is for you. Whether it’s technique, strategy, equipment or the mental game. Tennis Professional lan Westermann is here to make you a better player. And now here’s Ian.

[Ian Westerman] Hi and welcome to the Essential Tennis Podcast. Your place for free expert tennis instruction that can truly help you improve your game. This episode of the Essential Tennis Podcast is brought to you by somersetsportsperformance. Com. Thank you very much for joining me today and before we gets started with our instructional questions I just want to tell you guys about a new feature at essentialtennis.com and that is is transcripts of the podcast shows. So this show that you’re listening to right now you’ll be able to taking as text in several different ways. Each podcast is put up as a blog post.

So you’ll see that transcribed text for each podcast on the actual blog there and you can go to that by going to essentialtennis. Com. Put the mouse cursor over at podcast as a dropdown menu and click on transcripts. And once you’re there you can translate the transcript into any language. So if you are listening to the Essential Tennis Podcast outside of the United States and you’d like to read the show and any language of your choice you can do that. There’s a little dropdown menu on the right it says select language and you can read each show on whatever language you like.

You can also download each transcript for free and if you have a kindle or other E reader you can download the kindle format. You can download the transcript in PDF format as well and I think we are going to be putting up a word document file also. So lots of new ways to learn from the Essential Tennis Podcast besides just listening to it now. If you are a reader and would like to read the show you can now do that as well. So check it out. Again just go to essentialtennis.com and under the podcast heading select transcripts.

Alright, let’s get down to business. Sit back, relax and get ready for some great tennis instructions. [music] [music] [music] [music] Let’s get started with episode #98 of the Essential Tennis Podcast. And I’m only going to answering 2 questions on today’s show and that is, because I’m really going to be going into a lot of depth on both of my answers.

Both of the questions have to do with very important aspects or parts of your tennis game and I’m really going to go into detail on both today. So I hope you guys have your thinking caps on and hopefully you guys are taking some notes here, because it was going to be a lot of information. Again, I’m really going to go on depth on both of these questions. The first one has to do with attacking on the weak and this has been a topic that I’ve talked about before on the show, but I’m happy to go over it again and each time I explain a topic like this. I’m able to do a little bit better of it the next time.

So I’m always happy to revisit some topics like this especially when they are so important. Now this question comes to us from George in Romania. He’s unsure of his level. And here’s his question. He says, ‘What is often happening to my game is that I’m missing the easy shots. When the ball comes to me in the service box in slowly. For example, when my opponent serve for the second time. I’m hitting the ball over the base line or into the net. When I notice is that I get to the ball very quickly and then I have some dead time waiting for the ball and I lost my focus on it.

Also I think I hit it too hard like I do from the base line. I’m more than happy to receive a base line ball with speed than slow one into the service box. The percentage is higher for me for the first type of shot. Should in to be a vice versa. Thanks. George. ‘ Well, George I agree with you. It probably should be the reverse and this is a very, very common issue for players that around the 3. 0 or 3. 5 level as rated by our NTRP rating system here in the United States. And basically and average level of player right around the 3. 5 level. And this is definitely one of the biggest differences between a 3. 5 player and 4. 5 player is the ability to create your on phase and hit the ball aggressively and do that consistently. Anybody who walks out on to the tennis court with a tennis rack.

Any decent athlete can receive a shot and hit it hard. Regardless of where they are in the court. Whether it’s close or its an easy shot or too difficult shot. I mean we can all figure out how to swing the racket quickly and actually hit the ball hard. That’s not a problem, but doing a consistently and doing it consistently an easy shot, but we have a lot of time of think about it and really one of the biggest thing here when I sy easy shot and what George is talking about is the shot where we have to create phase and and spin ourselves and George mentioning his question that he’s very comfortable back at the base line when the ball is coming at him with phase there’s already speed and the reason why that’s easy typically or easier typically for a lower level player is, because there’s already momentum on the ball and it’s a less work for us to hit the ball back solidly and so we don’t have to create the speed or the phase on the ball ourselves with the good technical swing.

We can use technique that’s not quite as solid, but still hit a good solid shot back, because there’s already momentum on the ball and we’re just transferring it back. So this is very common problem among 3.0 to 3. 5 players and it’s really the roots reason why this level player has it’s a hard time with the pusher. The player who doesn’t really have any weapons, but just hits the ball back in place and play weekly again and again. And doesn’t really miss.

And so this really I encourage you George to listen to the show about beating a pusher. I don’t have the number of the podcast in front of me here, but if you got to the podcast archives and do a searh page for pusher. Listen to that show, because this is basically the same topic. So let’s talk about exactly how to overcome this problem and George talks about making 1 of 2 mistakes. Again this is very, very common. This is basically a carbon copy of so many different questions that I get that are basically sounded around the same issue.

And George describes either missing the ball on or into the net whenever he gets this short weak that is trying to attack on. So in order to hit this ball solidly and agressively and George you’ve got the right idea here. Yo don’t want to light off on this and hit it weak for the sake of keeping in and play. Now if that ‘s the only way you can keep in and play then by all means it is weak. I don’t want you to make a lot of errors and give away free points, but for the sake of advancing your game and becoming a better tennis player. You do need to learn how to attack on this short weak shots and do it consistently. So I’m going to be talking about how to do this.

And really you need to 2 skills in order to consistently hit this weak ball aggressively. And be able to do it again and again. 2 main skills. The first 1 is good positioning and that means putting your body in the right place in relationship to the ball so that it’s comfortable to hit. And I would recommend that making contact with this shot somewhere between waist height and shoulder height. We don’t want it any lower than waist height, because that means we’re really going to have to be hitting up to lift the ball over the net much more than we want to. We do want to attack on this shot and lower the ball drops the low waist heights the more and more difficult it is to actually attack, because we’re having a kind of curve the ball.

We can’t really hit it hard or else it starts going too far out. Unless you really put a lot of top spin the ball to curve it back and play. So George make sure that you’re making contact at in appropriate height and that would be somewhere between waist and shoulder heights. Anywhere in there is fine. We don’t want to make contact to both shoulder height either, because it becomes very difficult at that point to hit the ball with good technical form with good technique.

Once the ball gets up above shoulder height. So that’s the positioning part. If you find that the shot is so weak. You’re having to stand there and wait for the ball to bounce come back go up in to the air and then come back down again into your strike zone where it’s comfortable to hit. That’s fine. You can either wait for it and be patient let it come back down or you could also take the ball and the right as well and make contact as the balls coming off to the court. That’s a great way to attack by still hitting the ball on your strike zone by doing so earlier which means you’re not going to have to wait around for it to drop back down to your strike zone again first of all and second of all you actually take time away from your opponent which is a great thing.

So considered taking the ball on the right and making contact with it as it comes up off to the court surface as oppose to letting it go all the way up and then come all the way down again to make contact at your strike zone where it’s comfortable. So that’s the good positioning part of it. The second, skill that you need to be able to hit this consistently and aggressively is good technique. And more than likely this is where you’re failing and this is where your most average players fail when they try to attack on a short ball and I’m going to talk. I want to say briefly, but it might not to be briefly. I’m going to try to talk briefly about what good technique means exactly for this shot.

And there’s 2 main elements that have to be kept under control and 2 main elements that have to be done correctly if you’re going to make this shot George. First of all, we need an upward swing instead of the so much to the forward one. And George you ask in your question if you should be slowing down and you feel like you’re hitting the ball too hard and you say, ‘like I do on the base line. ‘ You should be making a ground stroke swing at this shot. What you don’t want to do and get tight and tentative and scared to hit this shot. And just start pushing it over.

Now again as I’ve mentioned a couple of minutes ago this would probably be, well, it would be better than missing all of then for sure. I don’t want you to give away points and give away matches, because you missed this shot every time. So I’m not advocating that you just go for it no matter what and continue to miss the shot. However, when it comes time to practice this shot make sure that you’re making a good upward swing. The reason for that is we need some top spin on this shot. We’ve got to have it and the reason for this is we’re closer to the net and as you say we don’t have as much room to work with The court is shorter.

We’re working with he short court, because we’re well inside the base line to hit this shot. So we can’t hit it like we do from the base line and as far as the trajectory and the height and the speed goes we’re not able to hit it just like on the base line, because we don’t have as much room to work with. However, we do want to make a full ground strokes swing like we do from the base line. We’re just kind of change the trajectory of our shot and add some more top spin that keep it and play. So as far as the length of our sway it’s going to remain the same, but the differences are first of all, the path of the racket and again we need to make more of an upwards swing as oppose to a forward swing. It’s not impossible to hit the ball from this position hard and flat and straight and put it and play, but it’s very difficult.

Again, because we don’t have a lot of court to work. When you attack on this shot and hit it flat and straight. There’s a very, very narrow window to hit through to actually make the the ball stay and play. If you hit it just a little bit high and a little bit above that window then it ends up going to far and if you hit just a little bit low then yo end up hitting the net. And that’s what sounds like happening here for you. You describe missing it both long and into the net over and over again. And the reason is you’re hitting the ball too flat.

You’re trying to hit the ball right at your target and that’s not impossible to do, but it’s very difficult, because there’s a very narrow margin for error. So we need to swing upward instead of forward and put top spin on the ball so that we get a curve and it’s way with the ball to keep the ball and play. This is very, very important. Now a lot of you are probably saying, ‘Well, Ian I’ve constantly missed these shots along so if I swing upward more it’s just going to go farther. I’m going to missed by even more, aren’t I?’ Yes, that’s true unless you make one more adjustment and that’s the second part of the good technic]que that I’m talking about here.

The first part is swaying upwards. That’s step #1 to hitting the shot correctly. Step #2 is having a flat racket face at contact. And depending on how close you are to the net. You may even want have to the racket face close, close would mean that surface of the strings your racket face is actually facing down towards the court a little bit. In reality, it’s usually going to be right around perpendicular or flat.

So your racket strings most of the time should be facing perpendicular to the court surface. Now again, if you’re really attacking on the shot and it’s really a short shot and you don’t have a lot of court to work with, you may have to close it even more than that to get the racket face facing a little bit towards the courts surface, but it’s not much. It’s not a like a 45 degree angle or anything like that. In reality probably like around 5 degrees at the most. And the combination of your upward swing and the close racket face is going to the 2 things. It’s going to make top spin to curve the ball and spin it down into the court and secondly, it’s gonna keep the trajectory from being so high that it makes the ball flow on every time.

So we’ve got the curve and the ball and the trajectory that’s appropriate to keep it and play and between those 2 p arts of your swing. We’re going to be able to keep the ball and play regardless of where you’re standing on the court. It doesn’t matter if you’re on the base line or in no man’s land or on the service line or even in front of their service line.

We should be able to make a full ground strokes swing, upward swing, top spin swing at the ball and still keep it and play by adjusting the angle of the racket face. And that’s pretty much it. It’s those 2 elements that are going to keep the ball and play George. So if you missed short into the net either your racket face was too close or you swing the racket to straight to forward. You didn’t lift the ball over the net. The ball still needs to be lifted over the net. Unless you’re really close in the ball is quite high and if you miss along I can pretty much guarantee you that your racket face was too open as either that which will cause about a float and go too far or your racket face was correct and you swing too straight and we didn’t spin the ball enough. It was too flat and so the trajectory was fine, but there was no curve in the ball to bring it backdown into the court. So it’s going to come down to those 2 elements of your technique and again the good positioning. Well, so there you go. And I’m proud of myself for ever get in through that whole thing with one take without having the staff and recollect my thoughts, but that’s pretty much it George to be able to attack on these weak shots. It’s all about the positioning and the good technique. If you have any follow up questions to this or anybody else listening. If you have any comments or further questions about how you do this. Please let me know, because this is a very important and you need to become comfortable doing this with the short weak shots in order to consistently put the ball away when you have your opportunities. And you’re never going to be a 4.0 or a 4. 5 or definitely not a 5. 0 player unless you learn how to do that with the weak short shot. [music] [music] [music] [music]

Alright, let’s go getting get started with our 2nd question. It come to us from Masa in Bloomington Indiana. He is a 3. 5 player and wrote to me and said, ‘Hi, I’m a college student who just started to play tennis a year ago. I love playing tennis singles with my friends since about 2 months ago. I started to get the basic field for the serve. I listen to podcast here and also watch and ATP pros video and learn about wrist pronation during the serve when I’ve applied it to my serve I had slicing it and was never able to hit a flat serve properly. I used the continental grip. I’ve tried to resolve this problem by serving with an Eastern forehand grip, but filled miserably by losing control completely.

I also couldn’t hit the proper kick serve or slice serve with much spin. Changing to an Easthern back hand grip helps me hit more spin, but it was with the last power. Please help me resolve this problem about pronation. The flat serve attempts to go end. However, lock speed to cover the first serve. The second serves do not go in and missed the service box by going along.

‘ Well, Masa that’s a good question and this is probably one of the most misunderstood and again probably the biggest technical part of the game that is done incorrectly by amateur players and I’m going into detail here talking about how to pronate correctly and also talk about what is not. So this is a very complicated set questions and I’m going to do my best to explain here in about 10 or 12 minutes.

First of all, pronation is rotation of the shoulder in forearm. It’s not the wrist and pronation is the rotation of your palm from inside to outside, not up and down. Here’s what I mean by that. If you’re sitting in front of you and you put your hands right in front of you so that they are perpendicular to the ground and your palms are facing each other right in front of you as you’re sitting. If you take your right hand or actually both palms and turn them so that they are facing down towards the ground. That’s pronation. If you turn them in inwards again to face each other to be parallel again or face each other your palms face each other that’s call supination.

If you turn them down into the outside. That is pronation and you should be able to make a full 180 degree turn from your palms facing each other to your palms facing away from each other and having a backs of your palms facing each other. And that would be full pronation of both hands if you ratate both your palms from facing each other to facing 180 degrees away from each other. So that the backs of your palms are facing each other. That is pronation.

And if you watch yourself do that Masa and anybody else out there who’s doing it you’ll know your wrists did not move. You’re are a hence that moves your hands up and down, but not in a circular rotation from the inside to outside. Pronation is done by using your shoulder in your forearm to rotate your arm as a whole. It is not done by using your wrist. This is a really huge misconception out there in tennis community. Pronation is not done through use of the wrist if pronation was the wrist its not.

Just by definition it’s not the wrist, but if you try to use your wrist to achieve the racket hit speed necessary to hit a hundred mile an hour serve you would have terrible, terrible wrist problems and to be honest with you a lot of injuries are occuring that way, but players trying to use the wrist too much to actually accelerate the racket. This is a very small part of your body and not nearly strong as your shoulder or your forearm and so that’s it. That’s the first things first there. Pronation is not using the wrist and you said that in your question.

I just had to clear that up. Now using a continental grip is great and it’s good that you’re starting to experiment with it and hopefully you haven’t put that away completely, but when you use a continental grip and angles the racket phase so if you’re right handed and you’re on the base line and you just reach your palm and the racket up towards your point of contact. The strings of the racket will face to the left as the racket moves up towards the ball and this is how it should be, because of this if you take a continental grip and just swing directly at the ball you will impart slice and when people try a continental grip for the first time, this is what always happens.

They’ve miss to the left or maybe they make the serve, but there’s a big curve from right to left and they spin the ball and if that happens Masa or anybody else listening when you try a continental grip first the first time and the ball spins in curves to the left if you’re right handed. Then your doing it correctly and that’s what should happen the first time that you try a continental grip. The ball should curve to the left. If you’re a left handed then it’s the opposite the ball will curve off to the right. Now in order to hit a flat serve you have to pronate your forearm and shoulder in order to straighten the strings. So that they become flash or square behind the ball.

Again with the continental grip if you just naturally swing the racket towards the ball your string will be angle to the left. And that’s will puts that spin in the curve on the ball if you want to hit a flat serve and you want to hit the ball with no spin and you want to hit it straight at your target then the strings need to be turned and facing forward as you make contact and that’s for the pronation comes in to play. Pronation rotates the racket. The angle of the racket strings so that when you make contact the strings are flash to the ball.

They are square and they’re facing towards your target. And so this pronation again it’s how you hit a flat shot. If you swing with the continental grip and the ball spins were curves you either didn’t pronate early enough to square the strings or you didn’t pronate enough in general in order to get the racket face or the strings square to the ball. So Masa when you’re attempting to to do this and you swing with the continental grip and it continuous to spin you’re not pronating properly. Now there’s 2 drills that can help you kind of get to fill for this 2 drill that I used in my teaching definitely every week and depending on who I’m working with at that time.

It could be everyday. And there’s 2 main ways that you can kind of exaggerates or practice pronating to get the fill for actually rotating your shoulder and forearm to the outside in order to get these strings square to the ball in order to actually hit the hard flat serve. The first one is to pick a target that’s way to the right. And if you’re right handed I would suggest go in to the add side of the court make sure that you have a continental grip and then I want you to take a ball go to your service motion as normal, but pick a traget that’s way to the right of what you would normally hit and I typically where I teach we have water coolers in between each court.

And so I’ll go to the add side of the court assuming I’m a right handed player. And say, ‘Hey, you see that water cooler between our court and the court to our right? I want you to take a continental grip and put up a toss as you normally would. I want you to hit that water cooler and so it’s to the right [Ian Westermann] of the net post on the right and my student then has to really pronate to get these strings angled not only straight, but past that and actually angled strings to the right to get the ball to angle of to the right side of the court.

Now again, naturally the ball is kind of want to go the left. The first time of player uses the continental grip. So I’m really forcing them to really pronate well and go past even with the flat serve would be and this is an exaggerated motion. This is not how you actually want to hit the ball to hit a serve, but the purpose of this is to try to get my student to feel what is like to really pronate and turn that palm or turn the racket face to face out to the right. And this should be done at like half speed at the most. Don’t try to do this fast and you probably going to hurt yourself and again this is an exaggerated motion.

So do slowly just go one at a time and take your time and try to get the feel for angling your palm out to the right. Once you get the feel for this it’s in order to hit a flat serve it’s a less exaggerated than this put it’s the same kind of feel of turning and twisting the racket face out to the right instead of hitting the ball with our racket strings facing right. We want them to be facing flat and so it’s not going to be quite exaggerated of emotion, but it’s the same kind of feel.

The second way that you can practice pronating correctly is by practicing bouncing the ball with an over head. An easy short overhead and I have my students do this by tossing to themselves now have them go all the way up to the net with me And then will toss sevice toss to ourselves and then bounce the ball on the other side of the net and try to bounce it over the back fence or the back curtain on our court. And you’ll see pros to thin on TV when I can get an easy overhead bounce it over their opponents and into the stands. The only way to do this is by pronating correctly. If you slice the ball and you hit the right side of the ball and you don’t pronate correctly.

You will never bounce it over the back fence. So this is a way to practice doing it correctly and of the ball doesn’t even get close to going over the back fence. You were not pronating very well and at contact the racket strings should be parallel to the court surface facing downwards. I think that back not quite parallel, but they shouldn’t be angled to the right or to the left. They should be flat facing straight down towards the court and you want a little bit angled on your strings facing back towards the opposing service line. So that the ball goes forwards, but not much.

We mostly want to hit the ball right down into the court surface to bounce it up in over the back fence. So this are 2 drills you can do by yourself. So practice getting the feel of pronating. Again, make you sure that you have the correct continental grip as were gonna force you to really have to use your shoulder and forearm to rotate and get the strings flash to the ball. It’s the only way to do both of the drills I just described. Now in trying to wrap up this topic and I could really go for long time on this, but here’s the 3 things that really make pronating difficult to learn using correct technique with the continental grip.

First of all, just the pronating motion in general. If you didn’t grow up playing an overhand throw sport such as baseball or American football. We’ll you have to make an overhand throw. Pronating in general is often foreign to many players, because if never play the sport with the head to do it correct overhand motion. Every baseball player, every football quarterback pronates when they throw and that’s just the good atlethic way to do it. So that’s the first thing that makes this tough a lot of people. Secondly, it’s the timing of the pronation. If you’re trying to had flat serve the racket face needs to be flashed and facing towards the target right they contact.

If you’re a little bit late and the racket didn’t quite it flashed you end up in the slice and the ball will curve off to the left. That’s the most common mistake that people make. It’s they’re too late with the pronation. They never get the racket face flashed and they end up spinning the ball up to the left. It’s also possible to be early but this is isn’t happen very often, but once in a while.

Once in a while players are little early with the pronation and actually hit of to the right. Again I’m talking about a righty player. Then actually hit the left side of the ball and kind of hit a left slice and hit the wrong side of the ball and I’ve seen that happen within couple of instances but usually it’s the first way and players don’t pronate. The timing of their pronation is much too late and they’re hitting the right side of the ball instead of hitting the back of the ball. And the 3rd reason why this is difficult to learn is the amount of rotation in the pronation and most players don’t [Ian Westermann] Have a lot of pronation on their swing or they don’t have any at all. And the racket just keeps facing their and they just push the ball and play.

This is the very weak way to hit the serve. And this is why pronation is so important. That range of motion gives you a time of racket speed gives you the potential for a lots of power and lots of spin and so it’s very important to learn this correctly with the continental grip if you really want to hit as good of a serve as it’s physically possible for you. Now last thing I’m going to say before we wrap up and I could use a lot of these things as individual topic for podcast to explain, but last thing I really want you to understand Masa is that kick serves and slice serves use pronation too. It’s not just a flat serve that you pronate on.

It’s just that the timing is different to achieve different angles with the strings that contact. It’s not so much that pronation is only used to hit flat. It’s a general technique that you should be using on every serve to achieve racket hit speed to make spin and to make power. It’s the angle of the strings and the direction of the racket path that determine exactly what type of spin or how much spin is being hit and the pronation should be used on every sinlge serve. It’s not just for a flat service for every serve. It’s the timing of your pronation and the actual angle of contact that would determine what type of serve you’re hitting. It’s really important that all of you guys understand that and this is something that universal and a good serve it’s not just for a flat serve.

And lastly now say is to get a good visual thing to get a good visual example of this go to essentialtennis. Com click on videos and on the right side you’ll see different categories. Click on serve technique and there’s a video there. These are all free to view. There’s a video there called Sampras serve comparison. And it’s a great back view of Pete Sampras and also of Steve who is sa member of the Essential Tennis forums. And I compare side by side.

See Steve’s served with that of Sampras and the pronation is a big thing that I talked about in the videos. So if you want to actually see what good pronation looks like in a high level serve. Go look at that video. Again I think it’s called Sampras serve comparison video and that’s in the video section of essentialtennis.com. So Masa hopefully that’s make sense to you and I couldn’t longer on this but I won’t bore you guys, but a lot of details and lot of technical talking, but hopefuly I’d broken it down so that it makes sense if any of you have any have further questions or comments having to do with pronation on the serve.

Feel free to let me know. My e-mail address is ian@essentialtennis.com. [music] [music] [music] [music] Alright, that does it for episode #98 of the Essential Tennis Podcast.

Thank you very much for joining me today and quick shoutout before we close the show and that shoutout is going to Fight fan in California who posted on the forum at essentialtennis. Com. Fight fan was kind enough to send me a holiday greeting card and a gift as well which I just recieved in the mail. So I want to extend a warm thank you to him. And a warm holiday greeting and best wishes to all of my listeners as well. As were closing up the holiday season here and were winding down 2009.

I hope it’s been a successful one for all of you and happy New Year and best wishes to all of my listeners for a 2010 as well. I hope that it’s succesful for all of us in our tennis endeavors. So that does it for today’s show. Take care everybody and good luck with your tennis [music] [music]

Essential Tennis Podcast #97

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Narrator : Welcome to the Essential Tennis Podcast. If you love tennis and wants to improve your game, this podcast is for you.

Whether it’s technique, strategy, equipment or the mental game tennis professional lan Westermann is here to make you a better player. And now here’s Ian.

Ian Westerman : Hi and welcome to the Essential Tennis Podcast. Your place for free expert tennis instruction that can truly help you improve your game. Today’s episode of the Essential Tennis Podcast is brought to you by somersetsportsperformance.com.

Well, the end of another year is coming up quickly and this is going to be the one of the last podcast shows for this year. We’ve just got one more and this podcast is going to be released a little bit early as I always do when I’m going out of town.

My wife and I are going up to Wisconsin where both us are from to visit our families for Christmas and the Holidays. So this podcast is coming out a little bit early on the 18th of December. I hope you guys enjoy it.

It’s going to be a continuation of podcast #96 which is my conversation with Mental Tennis expert David Groemping. Let’s go ahead and get right into it. Sit back, relax and get ready for some great tennis intruction. [music] [music] [music] [music] [music]

Let’s move to Afinity who is in Saudi Arabia. He wrote and asks, ‘How about mental tennis for doubles? Since points and errors for both me and my partner could go around so fast. How do we cope up with everything going on and still focus on the game? How do we deal with our partner if he’s insert a negtive attitude here?’

[David Groemping] Right.

[Ian Westermann] If your doubles partner has a negative attitude and then he’s talking about maybe dealing with errors and maybe specially if you feel like you’re letting your partner’s down that sort of thing. And then he just add 1 more cents. I’m generally nervous when I’m paired up with somebody specially when my valleys are not connecting. ‘ So it sounds like really the biggest thing that Afinity that is asking us to talk about is that kind of natural feeling of accountability that you feel towards your partner where you really feel like you have to come up big and not let them down etc which can be kind of a tough mental exercise.

[David Groemping] Right.

[Ian Westermann] What are your thoughts on that David?

[David Groemping] They’re actually, they’re double do tough is actually it’s a really good topic, because for some reason it’s very tricky for us. I don’t know why exactly. There are a lot of things that we can get stock in and it’s actually this is like a this will be 2 partner.

[Ian Westermann] OK.

[David Groemping] When you’re if you’re partner is in a funk and then if you’re [inaudible] partner down here’s [inaudible] actually. So if you’re partner is making mistakes doing a funk. Doubles one doing is also tricky is there’s something on your team and they’re right there and you can blame them for if not going well. And you know like a perfect target and we love to blame and keep hold stuff and not going well.

So the first thing your partner is there they can get a funk and they can make a mistakes. They’re going to do that. They can stop is easily, right? Blame to Essential Tennis. So but they don’t, right? What you really need to avoid blaming them thinking about how this suck. How they need to play better. All of that, what you really need to do is have your focus on encouraging them and letting them know if all good kind of I know what would coping them up, but you just can’t have them be wrong or bad or like they did very wrong or bad in your thinking. Is that make sense?

[Ian Westerman] Yes and that reminds me of something that you talked about, I think it was an answer to the last question about playing to a friend or some of these who’s injured. You made the statement that just in being humans in general. We kind of all have an innate desire that want to be light and admired and, because of that it can be kind of difficult to deal with somebody who’s kind of in a bad mood. All the way it makes kind of interesting. That it can be a kind of blame them and get an.. . The mood of yourself if they’re missing.

[David Groemping] Yes exactly. If they’re missing and they are in a bad and they’re being but not middle in top. The last thing you could afford to do is get on mentally tough and it’s really easy to follow them to their wherever they are mentally. The thing is….

[Ian Westermann] The too negative attitude is pretty tough to overcome on the tennis court.

[David Groemping] Right it doesn’t make a positive unfortunately, right?

[Ian Westermann] Crop it’s too bad.

[David Groemping] That’s right. You’re right. [laughter] We think that if we had or not allow if we break them. I think they told them they suck. I think they are suck or doing bad or whatever. There’s actually going to change them. It’s actually to get them like to do something different, right? It’s definitely not going to. It will actually that get worse for them. What exactly is the thing if you follow them into a negative mental faith, but also it’s really easy for them to follow you into a positive mental faith. The thing is the truth going to insist more.

[Ian Westerman] Yes.

[David Groemping] But what your job is to stay I guess I don’t like to listen, but what is positive and stay mentally tough you are they struggling, because it alleviate the pressure on them and it makes to be easier for them, because it’s somehow I don’t know why exactly works it natural to follow the other person in terms of mental faith.

[Ian Westermann] Instead of positive, how about staying up beat?

[David Groemping] Yes stay up beat. Stay mentally tough. Yes. Rather either one of it, but in terms of the mental toughness if you’re really tough or not. It’s easy to follow the other person especially if they are negative, but what’s easy is to do the top. Do not get down on them.

[Ian Westermann] Sure.

[Davdi Groemping] Because they can if you’re down on them they are going to stay to all of them even they are saying anything, but if you’re not down on them it let’s them get knock down on them or let’s them get no one top too.

[Ian Westermann] Yes and listeners we’ve all seen that doubles partner who afters they’re partner makes a bad error. They might not say anything and say, ‘Oh, you’re dummy’ or ‘Man you’re terrible today. You’re just playing like crop. ‘ They might not say that.

[David Groemping] [inaudible] .

[Ian Westermann] Right. They might not say that verbally, but you can tell easily from their body language. They some to shoulders and drop the head or maybe do the shrug like the all crop. Maybe look up towards this guy and lift the arms kind of deal.

[David Groemping] Yes.

[Ian Westerman] The doesn’t help. It’s not good.

[David Groemping] It really doesn’t help your teammate and once that happens you’re in a big trap, because you decide to pump each other up, but that on top you just the other person knows whether you say a lot or not that you think and they sucked. They can’t tell. [laughter] We think and it’s not saying allowed and I’m going to be able to tell. No way. They can tell. You can tell when your doubles partner is mad at you. You know it’s easy. Well, they said you think or not? [inaudible]

[Ian Westermann] Well, I will encourage. Sorry go ahead David.

[David Groemping] I would like to do is what you really need to do is really be a leader and allow them you need to lead they way and mental toughness and allow them to follow regardless what the point you want them. And not blame them. the treat with all of these is just stop blaming your double partner.

[Ian Westermann] Yes. I would encourage our listeners to if you guys don’t already watch, seek out and find some good doubles Tennis doubles on TV out of professional level and the Bryan Brothers are a great example of this what David is talking about after one of them double fault the other person will immediately half up and jog back to the baseline and give them a high 5 and it’s not that they’re encouraging the double fault. They are trying to emotionally pick their partner up and be like, ‘OK. Let’s go. That’s fine. Forget about it and now we’re going to move to the next play. ‘ What we want to do here. And that helps your partner so much by just giving them unconditional support and it really helps mentally for them to break out of maybe a bad day or a strict of bad shots or negative attitude.

[David Groemping] Yes exactly and one piece all that’s a great thing to do, but one piece all is you don’t want to jump run over and give them a high 5. Thinking you have messed out up and you’re sucked. [laughter]

[David Groemping] It will have the [inaudible] then you’ll just be weird and all that stop [inaudible]. You know what I’m saying? But you want to really have t hat on your mind also to really being encouraging them and to really stay nearly tough one to do that, because if you’re taking through they suck and they did not stop and you may get lost and go high 5 and still going to happen the same factors if you did not follow them.

[Ian Westermann] So we can’t fake it?

[David Groemping] No, it doesn’t work unfortunately. [laughter]

[Ian Westermann] It doesn’t work? OK. [laughter] You have to actually be nice unfortunately guys, sorry.

[David Groemping] Yes be nice to double partner, but not to makes people get excited and that you’re playing with your friends. [laughter]

[Ian Westermann] Well, let’s stay for that. That’s a tough balance. It’s tough.

[David Groemping] Tricky. It will beat me anyway to death. [laughter]

[Ian Westermann] No. Anything else David before we go to our last question?

[David Groemping] Yes. if you are that person messing up then have your double partner listen to this podcast. I mean partially the job that partially true, but if you are the person messing up channge and you’re worried about letting your partner down. The thing is worried about letting your partner down or hoping you’re not bring the team down or any of that. That’s all again part of that drives to be admired in like by your doble partner.

[Ian Westermann] Sure.

[David Groemping] That’s going to help, because they don’t it’s not going to help if you’re nearly going to be tough again worrying about if you’re being admired like and they don’t really care. They just wants you play well. Is that make sense? Our desire here is you might admired or may or may not messing up and all of that, because on the head isn’t something that they’re actually really interested. They just want you to play well. And have fun and all of that stuff.

[Ian Westermann] Yes that’s a god point. If you are open and talk to your partner about it. They would probably 98% of your time they will probably say, ‘Don’t worry about it, man. Just go out there and play tough and do your best and yes, you don’t have to be perfect. ‘ They don’t want you to feel pressure, because clearly that’s not concussive your performing well.

[David Groemping] Right. Yes and see how don’t know if they haven’t straight, because another person you work with was kind of usually individual.

[Ian Westermann] Yes it’s tough. It’s very much like a good relationship.

[David Groemping] Yup.

[Ian Westermann] Which is not easy either. [laughter]

[David Groemping] No. [laughter]

[Ian Westermann] Alright, David. Well, let’s go on to our last question here probably one of the more interesting one for my self. And this can be a little a couple of minutes here for me to read and this comes from Gary on the forums who lives in Havertown, Pennsylvania and he starts of his question here with a quote from the new Andre Agassi Autobiography and I’m going to read through that and then read his question which is pretty quick, but bare with me for a couple of seconds here while I’ll read this exert from the book which I think I really interesting and this is from the book which says, ‘A tennis is the loneliest of sports and golf you play the course plus you have a caddie and the game ends at 18 holes.

In boxing, you have a corner man and a set number of rounds. In tennis, you’re on an island, with no clock. You can’t sit on a lead. You have to win the last point to win a match. But I will say this – I can confidently say that tennis is the loneliest sport that exists. You’re out there, you can’t talk to anybody,’ and talking about singles here obviously.

[David Groemping] Not in doubles yes.

[Ian Westermann] Right. ‘You can’t pass the ball, there are no time-outs. There’s no coaching, you don’t have to be good, you have to be better than one person and that one person is on the other side of the net. It’s like you’re on an island. It’s not like boxing where we’re leaning on each other and you can feel each other. If you look at a tennis player it’s like solitary confinement out there, and what happens in solitary confinement? It always leads to self-talk. You have those Lincoln-Douglas debates with yourself. You talk to yourself and you answer yourself and you tell me if you’ve ever seen another sport where an athlete talks to themselves as much as they do in tennis. ‘ Well, that definitely true. And you’ll, in watching competitive tennis you guys we’ll see all kinds of behavior that would normally be classified as crazy. And could have been insane and as it’s completely normal on out of the tennis court, because of Agassi is describing here.

You’re all alone and having to tried the problem solve. You’ve got nobody to help you out and you kind of start little crazy and kind of answer your own questions etc. So here’s Gary’s question. ‘How do you deal with the loneliness of the sport and specifically the eternal self talk? some of the mental issues probably arise simple, because we talked to ourselves too much and think too much about

[Ian Westermann] The score about losing etc? How do we defeat the toughest opponent of all ourselves? Beat.

[David Groemping] So that’s the self talk is this thing is will always going to be thinking. Our mind is always going to be going with…

[Ian Westermann] Unfortunately.

[David Groemping] Unfortunately, we cannot turn it off, because the trick, the method. There’s no mental smarter to do it. That your mind will always chatter. Otherwise, you’ll get board. So there’s always a chatter going on and whether we are aware that were doing it aware that we’re hearing it or for saying out loud or saying it to ourselves you know a lot in a self talk, but I’m going to address the one that our mind, because we’re alone.

[Ian Westermann] Sure.

[David Groemping] That’s a chatter or if you’re in a traffic or before you fall asleep at night there’s that somebody’s cheers you up. It goes on and on and you can’t shut it up. Now that’s one type of what we call thinking, but that thinking has nothing to do with no toughness at all. That actually the type of thinking that it’s ran. It just come to us we don’t have control over it. We can’t stop it thinking. That is actually very contrary to our mental toughness, because that kind of thinking has nothing to do with it. It doesn’t care if we’re aware of them.

[Ian Westerman] That’s interesting.

[David Groemping] And there are all these thoughts that double up and the thing is we they think everything was true. Now are that plenty of thoughts there are not true. [laughter]

[David Groemping] And but I think the trap is we actually like they are true. They don’t actually thoughts in your. There are actually tiring randomly and they show the thoughts, right? They craddle as thoughts. We open up someone’s head that were not be thoughts. There’s do. And the problem is we actually think it’s true. Now anybody has a trick. We have these thoughts and we want to get good when you’re on the court. Let’s begin to hear these thoughts, because you want to hear them. You want to be able to not do them or not listen to a lot of them or a lot of the are not useful like you’re suck, you’re not doing good, all of that stuff. We say it to ourselves and we think it’s actually true.

[Ian Westermann] Alright and that’s an interesting statement to me that you just made. So trying to actually ignore them or pretend they are not there is not going to work.

[David Groemping] Well, what we usually do is actually resist them which makes them more real. You can only resist them if it’s real. So actually when we push against them and makes them more real. If you just kind of let them past by and gone then it’s gone. Let it done. And there’s actually proof that you cannot listen to your thoughts. And proof is I don’t know to tell you whether they would been in a store and all of a sudden they thought and they will steal it or if you’re sitting at a red light and just like really early in the morning or late at night or something.

[Ian Westermann] Yes.

[David Groemping] And the thought go and both times you didn’t do it hopefully most of the time. At least for once for this example.

[Ian Westermann] So let me, I’m just trying to understand something here. So is this in letting these thought past by should this be a conscious thing that were picking those out and say no. No I don’t want to listen on that or should this be something that we don’t or not conscious out it. We’re just kind of let and slide by without really paying attention.

[David Groemping] Oh no, this is middle toughness most of the big time. You definitely [inaudible]

[Ian Westermann] OK. Alright.

[David Groemping] Because just if you just try to cruising and toasting on autopilot. We could do listen to them definitely. It’s something you wanted good at this thing which you got. That’s so tought. That’s going to not help middle tough a bit. And pay a lot of have thought like it was really an interesting thought like I said. And I could choose to buy into it or not, but really it takes not buying in to that tough of double. And there’s another type of thinking that really helps which I call intellectual effort. And that’s the type of thinking that we don’t like to do, because it effort.

[Ian Westermann ] And you nailed me there.

[David Groemping] And the [David Groemping] If the type of thinking that if you really done very complex not all mental planning or real hard thinking. And some people they’re planning to may or never there’s no time, but it’s something that you teach yourself if you wanted mentally tough, but if you it’s like you’re thinking and you’re really do feel the burn. It’s like look you wait, but we playing.

[Ian Wesatrman] Yes.

[David Groemping] That’s the kind of intellectual effort thinking that I’m talking about that takes you need to do my own toughness.

[Ian Westerman] So let me ask you this David. The self talk like the actual verbal talking cannot ever be a good thing or a helpful thing to our mental toughness or our mental muscle or is it always self defeating?

[David Groemping] That’s a good question. See most of the time that thought to double up do not have any interest in our [inaudible] and the middle tough. Most of the time. A lot of time we trying to think positive and I thinking and we trying tell ourselves really I’m off, I’m off and I’m I can do this, I can, but that’s fighting against the thought that what I’m suck I’m going to lose which makes I suck I’m going to lose that much more real. You know you don’t it’s like getting in a fight with real was nobody there. It’s like fighting from you wouldn’t partially in conscience in empty room, because we don’t excite.

[Ian Westermann] Good analogy.

[David Groemping] It’s like swing punches at the court with negative self talk. I’m off like I do if I’m the man. You don’t get your self talk if you’re serious in the morning. There’s no doubt you’ll bet get see in the morning and you’re mind. You also I think I could beat this year. I am the valor this year. You don’t think that, because you’re fault is not like…

[Ian Westermann] Or maybe you don’t as I did.

[David Groemping] The general consent is like I’m going to crash your eggs. I can totally finish this [inaudible] eggs to legs I can do this. You know most will, because your thoughts now this egg is kind of tricky and I don’t know if I can do this. Almost pretty bad either. It’s the same thing.

[Ian Westermann] So is this why inevitably it’s seems like not always, but it’s seems like inevitably whoever happens to be on the top of the tennis world professionally kind of seems to be boring type some first advert who else has been bored. This seemingly kind of boring personality that never have any reaction on the court and they just eve kill the entire. That’s not really a mistake is it?

[David Groemping] I would say.

[Ian Westermann] What is it?

[David Groemping] Well, then after a dramatic players and I would say that the drama that like to add in tennis really doesn’t help. And as you know specially Agassi is all the impression to be who wanted watching him that it could just help focus he watch the whole match and how if it tells. He was putting a lot fo effort. It’s managing the [inaudible] that was on his head. You could tell all to the guy. That he was really focusing concentrating so hard during change over, during between points and I would lead your event while he was, I don’t know they can’t even tell me, but he’s on [inaudible] , but I waited he was really focused on and he was losing intelectual effort to manage what was going on with his head. That’s really real takes me real tough.

[Ian Westermann] Interesting.

[David Groemping] And so it’s so boring and kill that means they don’t let until you’re dramatic on the court.

[Ian Westermann] Right.

[David Groemping] They are probably safely focus on very well which is how they recommend that?

[Ian Westermann] Well, it’s interesting to me that other players have been successful well, but seemingly listening to the voices in their head completely. And talking back. Yes its happen Jimmy Connors, John McEnroe, guys like that who are really dramatic to say the word that you did. How come that they are able to be successful even though they are fully gain on conversations with themselves?

[David Groemping] That’s a good question. You know I was actually really thinking about this a little early today and honestly I don’t know enough about Jimmy Connors and McEnroe. I haven’t seen them playing after [inaudible] mark on it, but with Sutton he’s not exactly.. .

[David Groemping] He’s ranking and his up and he is almost very consistent player.

[Ian Westermann] Yes that’s a good point.

[David Groemping] And if it’s meant and I think when you’ve gone get successful if you ask them how he was getting successful. The time when he was really on top of the game. He will have no idea probably. And I think he’s so [inaudible]. This is my guest. I hope he’s not out there and I think he’s very good, but right now there’s really something else, but…

[Ian Westermann] You could take him.

[David Groemping] Yes. So if on, but when I was get there that he gets successful and wents off play himself. If he’s just that talented and.

[Ian Westermann] Yes I would tend to agree with that statement.

[David Groemping] And I know that there are lot of job that sharing out there, but I think he’s gone to what he is despite of mental game as well. I [inaudible]

[Ian Westermann] Joke of it like twinkies.

[David Groemping] In whatever game. [inaudible] loves joking and all of that. I don’t know how it’s like how far in the world beside focus to tennis.

[Ian Westermann] Of course and what I mean by that is which I’m sure you got, but he’s kind of a winer like he likes to picks something that kind of complain about. And he get a little bit that you say or suck in about.

[David Groemping] Totally. Her’s really into. I wouldn’t emulate his novel game. We’re definite not that in our own game, but if you when you look a play like Agassi he’s really, really focus on managing what’s going on in tennis. We’re really a strong in tend to take butt and win. He realizes that he’s on the court and the game that he’s playing is winning a tennis not the drama game. Not the whatever game that people end of do playing on the court with not have much to do tennis not a blame game. Not any of that.

[Ian Westermann] Right. Well, let’s wrap this topic up and in doing so David can you please just summarize your answer to Gary’s question which was how do we defeat the toughest opponent of all ourselves that the self talk?

[David Groemping] Use intellectual effort and hard thinking to manage and when I say manage is not buy into the random going up fast that are come into your head, because they are not actually true. You made them up.

[David Greomping] Would be there in not sure answer.

[Ian Westermann] Alright, well, David it’s been a pleasure always and also as always this hour has really gone fast quickly and thank you very much for beng here. And real briefly I want to thank the people who asked the questions that David has answered today. John in real life, Gary, Afinity, Bryan Mark, Chrales O. , and Nam on the forums. All of you guys. Thank you so much for the thought and the time that you put to ask this questions and the rest of you listening who are not members of the forums at essentialtennis. Com you guys are really missing up, because we got a lot of contents and and questions to answer on the podcast here and if you want expert personalize and answers like we’ve done today.

Definitely go sign up and David post on the forums as well. I wish you came a lot more often David, because people really like to have you there, but I know you’re busy with your own site as well.

[David Groemping] Yes and I wish I could make it by too a little more and also one last thing is what do you think we talked about today. In the next couple of weeks I planned on writing article about a lot of this topics.

[Ian Westermann] OK.

[David Groemping] And I’ll for sure post in on my own blog and I’ll probably post a good number of them with the Essential Tennis blog. It’s not all of them come by my website, stopby at Essential Tennis make sure that it read them go over it and some people like your read things offer.

[Ian Westerman] Yes.

[David Groemping] Then join the Essential Tennis Facebook group and my own Facebook group and specially mine, because it is what you go. I like that one probably that.

[Ian Westerman] Well, at least you’re honest.

[David Groemping] Yes, I know. Well, so I also post a lot of articles up there and I get out to notice to people to the fans. They want the new article and check out.

[Ian Westerman] Awesome, alright? Good stuff. And before we sign off David please give us the web address to your website as well.

[David Groemping] Yes it’s sports. Gem execoach. Com or sports.

[David Groemping] geminiexecutivecoaching.com. [Ian Westermann] Alright. Well, David Groemping thanks very much for spending your time with us and another 2 podcast series here. Thanks very much. I know that my listeners really appreciate your time and the members at the forums do as well your insights have been interesting and very informative. [music] as always though.

Thank you very much. [David Groemping] Yes thank you. [music] [music] [music] [music]

[Ian Westermann] Alright that does it for episode #97 of the Essential Tennis Podcast. Thank you very much for joining me today. And I hope that you enjoyed the show and my talked with David Groemping. Mental is always an interesting topic to my self and I hope that you found it as an interesting as I did. So until next time.

Take care everybody and good luck with your tennis. [music] [music] [music] [music] [music] [music] [music]

Essential Tennis Podcast #96

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Ian : Welcome to the Essential Tennis Podcast.

If you love tennis and wants to improve your game, this Podcast is for you. Whether is technique, strategy, equipment or the mental game. Tennis Professional Ian Westerman is here to make you a better player.

And now here’s Ian.

Ian Westerman: Hi and welcome to the Essential Tennis Podcast. Your place for free expert tennis instruction that can truly help you improve your game. Today’s episode of the Essential Tennis Podcast is brought to you by somersetsportsperformance.com. Before we get to today’s instructional part of the show. I want to just quickly remind you guys about the different ways that you guys can connect with Essential Tennis and find out about new contect as it comes out. Not only do yo have the forums at essentialtennis.com which is a huge way to connect with my self and other members and another tennis enthusiast and people who are really passionate about the game, but you can also go to facebook.com/essentialtennis and also twitter.com/essentialtennis and youtube. Com/essentialtennis where there are all the recent video analysis content that I’m putting up talking about technique and strategy etc.

So definitely check all those things out. Now getting on with today’s show I’m going to be doing part 1 of 2 in a talk with Mental expert David Groemping. So today’s show #96 will be part 1. And #97 will continue the conversation and we answer a lot of great questions. So let’s get down to it. Sit back, relax, and get ready for some great tennis instruction. [music] [music] [music] [music] [music] [music]

My guest today on the podcast is mental coach and mental expert David Groemping who works for Gemini Executive Coaching which is at [inaudible]. Com. David welcome back to the podcast.

David Groemping: Thanks, Ian. It’s good to be back.

Ian Westerman: Well, you’re definitely one of the I guess I could say the most popular guest I’ve had on the podcast. Mental tennis is definitely one of the topics that is the most zone after and the most requested when it comes to people asking for specific topics on the podcast and you’ve been back a number of times to talk about different mental tennis and mental toughness issues and so it’s really good to have you back on to talk about even more topics that we have not covered before. So welcome back to the show and it’s really good to have you.

David Groemping: Oh, it can be regular.

Ian Westerman: Yes, man. Well, before we get started go ahead and tell people I gave the link briefly there to your website. Please tell people where they can find you and what they can find on your website.

David Groemping: Yes, sure. It’s so all sites against sports.gemexecoach. Com or sports.geminiexecutivecoaching. Com that work good and so what I I think the all the pages and that’s were the first page I actually just stuck at the link and you can join my Facebook page. You can be a fun on me on Facebook or you can just add mental topic on Facebook it was pretty cool. You can follow me on Twitter and these all for my links just describing my blogs. I got a blogs which was really cool. I also I told some of the older podcast very few Essential tennis that we’ve done appearance. It was you can kind of learn and all of that stuff which is all for pretty much for free.

Ian Westerman: Cool. Good stuff. Well definitely listeners go check out that webpage and David also comes around to the forums at essentialtennis. Com and asks people for ideas or topics and that’s where we’re getting all of our content for today’s show and we’re going to be answering a whole bunch of questions today and we’re actually going to be making these a 2 parts series. We’re going to be answering a couple of questions today. This is podcast I think this is going to be #96 and in podcast #97 we will complete our conversation.

So David and I are getting ready to do a long recurrent session here. It should be good. I’m looking forward to it. Hopefully I hold out OK David. I have a cold over the weekend and I’ve just gotten over today so if my voice sounds a little weak, that’s why.

Dasivd Groemping: Alright.

Ian Westerman: So hopefully I can go an hour without any trouble here. Now let’s go ahead and get started. And our first question today is going to come from on the forums at essentialtennis. Com and like I said a second ago all of our questions come from the forums and I want to thank everybody before we even started who did submit questions, because are always a big help in finding a good topics to talk about and Nem would simply like to know how to deal with the cheater while you’re playing a tennis matches. This is something that those of you who go out and you do compete and you play in USTA leagues or maybe high school or college or club team tennis etc you going to have to deal with this at some point. So definitely a very important topic. David what are your thoughts on playing against somebody who makes let’s say questionable calls?

David Groemping: That’s a question actually I guess I had to [inaudible] a lot and a cheater really is a challenge to your mental toughness. I mean for a lot of reason I mean it can have you get conservative with your shot or you’re be able to get strategy to deal with you get conservative shot which is sounds for me actually necessarily you want to do actually or ou can just get pissed off and blow the game the whole matches. [laughter]

Ian Westerman: Yes.

David Groemping: I’ve seen a lot of have done by myself too.

Ian Westerman: Yes, me too.

David Groemping: How to deal with that? The first thing is I get tennis edit at 101 well you want to do was are you sure obviously, right? But on the mental part of the game. The first thing you have to do is you can’t let yourself, yo can’t start talking to yourself and get all cheated about how they are wrong in their call. They call that how they call it. That’s the fact. And what you is you got it is going to ask them, ‘Are you sure?’ and the degree to which you blame them get mad at them, think they are wrong, or think they are terrible people for whatever call this game? Is the degree to which your mental game going to suffer, because that’s were your focus is going to be on instead of playing a new game. So it really fake shifting your focus from how wrong they are how much they are jerk there, how much that discourage you all that stuff, because shifting your focus from that and you know they open that once saying exactly what’s on your head about him.

Today you want children, right? I keeps shifting your focus from them if you’re ready to go to going on to focus for the next point, because look in reality they just, well, I have suspicious much here. We get challenge, but in reality they just call that questionably and because that you asked one point you got to think that you stay upset and focus on the stuff I mentioned before. Chances are it’s going to have you either lot more than 1 point.

Ian Westerman: Yes, good point.

David Groemping: You people forget about that we get all that out of shift of a cheater and how they are jerk type of person that’s all fun blah, blah. We need to get focus on that. We actually going to keep losing points in the reality with 1 point will lost and It seems like it really takes a lot of discipline doesn’t it, because we feel like when we’re on the court and that’s happens speaking for myself and I would guest most people I mean we feel justified and sitting there be in self righteous and saying, ‘Wow, this is a horrible person and I shouldn’t have to put up with this and they’re basically just saying they are such a bad person.

David Groemping: Yes.

Ian Westerman: It’s easy to focus on that isn’t it?

David Groemping: Yes, and being just fight about yourself and self righteous and thinking up a bad person. That’s actually the I remember the podcast a long time ago and we talked about eating junk foods on the court as an analogy or [inaudible] . I’m not sure it was one.

Ian Westerman: I think it was twinky if I remember correctly.

David Groemping: Perfect twinky yes. Twinky is taste good, but in the end makes you fat. In this case it really taste good to get justified and righteous and think of the evil and bad.

Ian Westerman: Yes, sure.

David Groemping: In the end set the you blow, becasue you are focus on that. That’s to getting backward It’s the same principle here. And lastly people may or may not agree with me about this, but specially to a junior players. I have a suspicion that cheers in the end and may or may not agree, but this is a view plan I take it really help me shift my focus from there if you’re going to cheater to watch me looking on looking focus in the wind, but that I think that cheaters special junior not actually really bad people on that you’ve won trying actually to cheat. We just think of cheating. I didn’t cheat on the bad equal on the line. Just that t o the juniors, because you know I’ve set the time to the court. I see kids in junior day and I call all the time [inaudible].

Ian Westerman: Yes. I think there’s, no, I think it goes both ways personally.

David Groemping: And I’ve seen you’re right. I’ve definitely seen kids and adults who I totally agree who are just bad and calling the lines and maybe their origins were not great or their perception or whatever. I’ve definitely seen that, but I can honestly say that I’ve seen several I all see many. I’ve seen many cheaters too.

David Groemping: Oh, yes they are definitely out there for sure, but whether there are really kind of cheater. I don’t know if this is true, but they tell me to really help to focus on or to shift my focus in there and have a person and give up my just my righteousness just in case they going to see this. Let them too.

Ian Westerman: Right.

David Greomping: And hey I wanted to add I’ve seen players call a ball that it is way out. I shouldn’t call in. It’s such [inaudible] and they call it in and I did argue with them like, ‘No, that was out.’ And therefore the ball is in.

Ian Westerman: Yes, sure.

David Groemping: And then so I’d see them call the ball and really stick to their call that it’s beneficial for them too. Ian Westerman: So maybe it would be smart then just for our own benefit to just kind of give them the benefit of the doubt certainly at first just to that maybe we can keep our focus a little bit better?

David Groemping: Yes that’s one really help and it’s when my call or my perception in my view is better more valid and their view that’s when really in trouble.

Ian Westerman: Yes, sure.

David Groemping: Because that’s when you’re eating like [inaudible] and then you start to worry another piece will play a cheater. First to give up that one. The [inaudible] were already discussed, but another part of it it’s really important is we know we think strategies to start getting conservative. We just getting afraid to hit anywhere nearer line and that’s all sounds something. That’s a home of aspect of it that it’s either I don’t if we were if we have another podcast over going to later from one other question, but that’s all is the domain all planes and not really used.

Ian Westerman: Right, yes. That’s the topic we’ve definitely covered before in past years and I agree with you. I can definitely lead towards that kind of tentative or careful plan that can kind of knock you so over again.

David Groemping: Right its another thing that we can let a cheater have that effect on us also which is definitely our lay is not lost. I hope I don’t missed that stuff all planning plan is not goin to losing if it’s kind of [inaudible]

Ian Westerman: Sure. Well, let’s move on to our next topic. Unless you have anything else. Any other points to make on that David?

David Groemping: No, that’s all set with that I think.

Ian Westerman: OK. Well, let’s move on to our next question which comes to us from Charles O. In Sta. Cruz, California. Charles says, ‘ Hi, David. How do you deal with losing? Sometimes I get so frustrated when I lost specially in matches that I feel like “I should have won”. ‘ He puts that in quotation. ‘That I almost like feel quitting tennis all together and while we can use other advice from proving our mental toughness and chances of winning. Let’s face it we are all going to lost sometime. In fact 50% of whole participants in matches will be losers. ‘ Very stood observation now Charles.

So I’d be curious to see what yo have to say about this and I’m curious to hear what you’ll have to say about this as well David, because I’m going to go ahead and speak for all the perfectionist out there. It can be really hard for me to lose any match even against the player were. If I sitdown and I’m really honest with myself. I know that this player was a lot better than me in the past from myself personally. If I don’t play like past my own potential I just fee like I had the crappy day and it was a bad match and I got wacky and all the stuff and I personally kind of struggle with what Charles is talking about. So what are your thoughts on this?

David Groempling: Yes, the first thing is any given Sunday we can either win or lost a match. We can be the player who ‘Should be’ or ‘Should not be’ or they grab in the air and we can also lost that you someone we should or should not be and the result they are going to have David Groemping: And that how they were happen and, but the same to really do is it’s easy to sit down after the match and start do rating yourself and so start ticking yourself and the wolf trade I should have [inaudible] match is that’s something that’s really, that’s actually something we use to braid ourselves and think ourselves. And it’s something to really is not right yourself and though it’s actually it’s a little bit how we break the cheer.

Ian Westerman: Yes.

David Groemping: If distance should have won I saw it, I cant believe it. I need to do so much better. All of that is part of you’ll be a twinkie again. If that is just made you unhappy in the end.

Ian Westerman: Kind of having little pitty part in ourselves.

David Groemping: Yes, exactly or the pitty flash technic or so party really won’t. We think we have like punish ourselves. We did for I thought the bad or wrong by losing the match or something. We actually don’t have to just like we don’t to get nervouse for the match. We don’t have to have a pitty party. We don’t have to get mad at ourselves from a match. I mean we add all of these interpretation and story and drama and head about the lost, but that’s also that we add. So actually we don’t have that the little humpkin were it said.

Ian Westerman: Yes,can you explain that in different way? I think I know what you’re saying, but I would you mind replacing that?

David Groemping: I mean we get to set up for a much base on not can we actually lost, but we get upset with ourselves, because the conversation we have with ourselves after the match. That’s the same is after the [inaudible].

Ian Westerman: So it’s kind of a self induce negative mindset kind of thing?

David Groemping: Yes totally and the conversation that we have with ourselves is aspirating ourselves whatever flavor that you may do is that’s all self inducing comes from us. We have conversation with ourselves. So really the way we can have that to or we kind of like that. We have put this. We have to like that something does make sense, but the conversation that is so upsetting is not one that we actually have to have with ourselves. We just choose it.

Ian Westerman: That’s quite the concept for myself. And thinking, go ahead.

David Groemping: And we have a lot of practice and be near ourselves about you’re having a little free party and having a pretty force conversation with ourselves, but the fact is that you lost the match. And what there is to do is the waste of times really and all of the energy and all of that to realy get down on yourself. In fact if you lost the match it could be you how much they want and that’s not going try to rebuild around. In case again like you talk I got muscles phase and they had muscles to intervene or what’s wrong is going to happen? So if you want.

Ian Westerman: Just to one thing that you said really kind of struck my a [inaudible] me when you said you don’t have to have that internal dialogue or maybe even external depending on how

David Groemping: Depending on their power.

Ian Westerman: right exactly. My self personally I went through some really hard to me times in college where I expected too much out of my self and looking back at it. If I had just given myself a break and really been objective about it and said, ‘You know what? Listen, working really hard at your game. You’re really giving a 100% effort out there in the court. What you really have to be disappointed about with yourself. You should be happy that you get to be out there, you get to play tennis. You get to play at a high enough level that’s really fun and challenging I think I would have had more than that kind of attitude that way I was going to, I was. And Charles thought and the rest of you out there who are perfectionist. I really encourage you guys to take a step back and do is I as David id talking about. And realize that you don’t have to have those negative thought to that negative converation before anfter a while since you really can take a lot of positive things out of really of just about any match where its a lost or winner or otherwise.

David Groemping. Yes, I totally that you kno one thing I think. There’s a lot of reasons that we bring outsleves into match and take ourselves, but one of this like if we think that your little way to learn from the match. That’s why the hardest thing in the match. And that they told from here and just like what you said is you wanna give your….

David Groemping: Tell us things are for the National you want or lost and you know any match [inaudible] and if you want to look at what really work to have you win. You can do it again.

Ian Westerman: Yes. That’s were the point.

David Groemping: Yes and if you lost then you actually have more [inaudible] . If you lost then look take an honest look at what was it that without the source of you’re losing. Yes it could be there way better. So you also know [inaudible] you know you get upset or its not really to get upset if you’re really a good player. If you’re a better destroyed I would be so upset you know?

Ian Westerman: Right. [laughter]

David Groemping: But if someone he’s not on sail [inaudible] , but if something is like I think it’s worth even if it’s a little bit for a bit then you will be want to work at with your sensible game. What was it that they made to attack and that was weak. And we want to make an objection at first so you can [inaudible] . Abnd what was it in your mental game that may have broken down that may have had you lost. That you need to work on that. Maybe that’s higher than get more fit. And that’s pretty much in and make sure that, that thing doesn’t have you ever lost again.

Ian Westerman: Well, I think something that you said that so important is that you should be learning something from every match whether there’s a win or lost and really I like what you said that you should learn from a lot. You should be more there for you to learn from, because obviously you didn’t do something well enough to take the victory, but I think that a lot of us tends to take a win for granted and say, ‘Well I’m so awesome that was it rematch. ‘ A totally dominated that guy and just [inaudible] happy.

David Groemping: I mean of here [inaudible].

Ian Westerman: Right, exactly and not taking anything from it. And then we go and lost and we go all pissed off and feel sorry about ourselves and we don’t learn anything out while you’re there. It’s kind of a shame.

David Groemping: Right, exactly, exactly.

Ian Westerman: Now well, Anything else on that before we move on David?

David Groemping: Well, that really al I got. Just be nice to yourself everybody if you would. Be mean if something that got you.

Ian Westerman: Give yourself a hug.

David Groemping: Kisses.

Ian Westerman: That’s my advice Charles give yourself a hug. Alright, be back on.

David Groemping: But I better to look at you for a better idea take from the series of significant out of the losing. If you’re one of those and if you find of getting upset. You give yourself a hug. It would be whole sorry of looking, but I can’t imagine to think you are giving yourself a hug which will be funny to ask you being pissed off yourself as soon as suspicious was [inaudible] or keep looking to sanswers.

Ian Westerman: Or for $100 David G. Will come out and give you a hug for you.

David Groemping: Yes. Ian Westerman: A good service you can start. Kinf os hugs. Alright, if its seriously. Let’s move on to our next question which is from Bryan Mark and 3 months Nebraska and here’s a questions about injuries which is an interesting one. He wrote and said, “How do stay in focus after an injury on either and of the court? Obviously an injury on my side takes the physical tool, but it seems hard to focus after someone else gets injured on the other end of the court as well. I find my self watching what he’s doing instead of playing my own game. ‘ And he says, ‘Just some issue I realized I was playing this week not that anyone got anymore injured than already were, but I was thinking about it. ‘ And so that’ an interesting question and I think that typical our responses tennis players is to kind of hold back a little bit. Maybe feel sorry for them and that’s kind of a trap isn’t it David?

David Groemping: Yes, I would say holding back is doing fine for other person is always a trap if you probably heard it or not, but in specifically if somebody fall from the middle of the a match and I think we’re talked of playing fund later. So maybe we should talk about it at the same time, because that had to do the same thing.

Ian Westerman: OK. Do you want to say a bit for that?

David Groemping: I talk about all of them now. Is that works?

Ian Westerman: Yes, sure. Yes, go ahead. Do you want me to read the French question or just go ahead and start with this one?

David Groemping: Yes, different question I also just trying to see that I’m going to make sure that’s to do on the same answer.

Ian Westerman: OK. Alright and this question comes from John in real life who is in California and he wrote and said, ‘David I’d like to hear a few tips on playing French. I find my focus and assertiveness on the court are far better when I’m playing somebody I don’t know. When I play friends I

Ian Westerman: Frequently very casual about it. I keep telling myself I’ll be better focus by always slip into my old over relax jovial play. I know I can be more focus, because I do it again strangers. I just don’t bring it out on to the court and matches that I don’t have any real barring. So it’s kind of talking about practice matches here, but those are important too. It there’s going to be a time if you guys play lot of tennis competitively in your region that you’re going to play your friends at some point in real match anyway. So let’s go ahead and talk about that David.

David Groemping: Right yes, it’s well, if somebody fall a little upset or they are playing a friend it’s actually to the middle top and they are really the same thing and it takes giving up a couple of notions where be a couple notions I guess would be the good way for that.

Ian Westerman: OK.

David Groemping: And the first one somebody fall there was your friend and we wanted always people have the underneath desire to be admired. And a lot of times we think that being nice or likable is going to get us there. And it may in some situation, but on the tennis court it will not. It would be nice on the court there’s really no space for it. We think being nice by going easy to the guys who is fell or letting our friends be in the match something like that, but in doing that is actually a the service of them, beacuse think about it. Do you really want time playing right on you? Not really I don’t personally.

Ian Westerman: Yes it’s kind of almost more of a right exactly its kind of more of just to have somebody light up on you and kind of feel sorry for you than it is to just have them crash you.

David Groemping: Yes, Exactly. If something you ligths up on. If you’re lighting up on someone you’re actually diminishing them. ‘Oh, poor guy he fell and he’s hurt, poor guy. ‘ Dimishing, he cn handle and he’s fine. He fall on the court. They know record your [inaudible] or it’s like you we usually react that if we beats someone that gets really upset and stop talking to us something. People are not that small. People can be able getting upset and

Ian Westerman: I think it is important point out David that even if they have fallen and maybe they’ve twisted an ankle or something. They’ve made the decision and they’ve choosen for themselves to get back up and get to the court and they’ve said, ‘Yes I’m fine. ‘ And maybe they are not fine, but they’ve made their decision to continue to compete and they going to go ahead and assume that you are going to try to beat them, because that’s kind of the point on what’s going on.

David Groemping: Yes and they’re going to try and beat you and it’s kind of weird to get on the tennis court where the game you’re playing the tennis where there’s a score and you’re suppost to be trying to win. That’s the game you’re playing. It’s weird to get on the court with someone and play a different game like being nice to someone’s game or trying to be lighten my or game. That’s weird. It doesn’t make sense it’s like [inaudible] I mean it’s like get a different score, but I mean it’s like getting in the court and playing soccer it’s just you’re doing different thing.

Ian Westerman: I think some might be one exception to that and that would be in clearly there are times where it’s a social environment and you’re playing just to catch up with friend or get some exercise or whatever, but that’s different on what we’re talking about which will be a competitive environment.

David Groemping: Yes I can totally agree with that, but if you get out on the court to play a match with a friend. There’s really no environment to be nice if you’re not supposed to be and it’s great you’re really friendly you’re really nice to play with friends you are playing, but when you actually getting to the match stop and then you can sorry again. It’s really fun it would be really nice with them again.

Ian Westernman: Yes.

David Groemping: And that keep people of handle lossing. I’m they had lost before.

Ian Westerman: So what if you’re playing against your friend and you’re friend had gets injured?

David Groemping: [inaudible] should probably stop playing. I don’t know [laughter]. If he’s just right work out for their best interest that they really want to keep going and then kick their butt and maybe I mean, yes.

Ian Westerman: I think some of listener’s might say to you David, ‘Man you’re something kind of too cutthroat to me and maybe this is sound kind of mean.

Ian Westerman: And you need to not take this so seriously it was just a game. That’s sort of thing. What would your response be those kind of statement?

David Groemping: Well, I mean this is true. I’m talking more about it in a you’re playing some more in a competitive match type of environment, but I mean you really do have to, I am taking for the such approach on it, but you really want to engage if it’s friendly and its social. If you’re playing someone you have serious and you want to act towards to it. This thing is a lot of time having competition, but both really competing with someone a lot of fun too. And all you going to have is social and relax. If time up to you engage the situation and I don’t know if, I don’t know was the question address more towards to the play if I’m in the tournament or if you’re playing more of this inside and out and as far as I want to make sure.

Ian Westerman: Sure.

David Groemping: But you know it’s really up to you. It’s so difficult to answer how pathetical situation like this, right? It’s up to you to guage how friendly associate it going to be, but if you’re playing a tennis match then play a tennis match, because I found honestly that if playing someone and I’d be honest and then I’m much fun for either of us. I’ll read from me and I really respect when someone beats me really bad. Then they little upset about it, because we just talk about [inaudible].

Ian Westerman: Sure. Well, anything else on that to add before we move on to our next question? [music] [music]

David Groemping: I think that’s about it with that. [music] [music] [music] [music]

Ian Westerman: That does it for today’s episode of the Essential Tennis Podcast episode #96 and to listen to the rest of our conversation make sure to tune in next time for podcast #97 and this is only half of the conversation myself have we talked it about several other really interesting topics. Several which we’ve never talks about before on the show.

So definitely make sure to check it out. And the best way to continue to get the Essential Tennis Podcast is definitely on iTunes, iTunes is a MP3 player software from Apple you guys can download for free and in their music store you can subscribe to the podcast again for free and receive the show each week as it comes out right as I release it and kind of organize and keep some together for yo. So I highly recommend that you use iTunes to manage to the show and download it automatically each week. So check that out if you’re not already using it.

Alright, that does it for this week. Take care everybody and good luck with your tennis. [music] [music]