Essential Tennis Podcast #110

Download: Word Doc | PDF | Kindle | Text

Announcer : Welcome to the Essential Tennis Podcast. If you love tennis and want to improve your game, this Podcast is for you. Whether it’s technique, strategy, equipment or the mental game. Tennis professional Ian Westermann is here to make you a better player.

And now, here’s Ian.

Ian : 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 ProTranscript.com which is a provider of Interactive Transcripts, and tennistours.com.

Thank you very much for joining me today and I want to let you guys know about a free way that you guys can get some tactical and strategical instruction from myself and Royce, another certified tennis professional who posts at the forums at essentialtennis.com. Next Sat and–actually I’m sorry this coming Sat.– March 27th at 09:30pm EST we’re going to be doing a live video web conference and during that conference I’m going to be playing some singles video from a member of the forums at essentialtennis.com.

And, Royce and myself will be going point by point and giving them strategic feedback and instruction. You can watch this for free and get all of the tactical information and advice and instruction that we give. Just send me an email at ian@esentialtennis. Com and I will tell you where you need to go in order to watch this and take part in the strategy session. Again, that’s this coming Sat. The 27th. So, shoot me an email and I will tell you what to do to take part in that.

Lastly before we get on with the show I want to tell you guys about the winner of the flip cam. That is Gabrielle in Venezuela. He’s 8 years old and entered the contest to win that flip cam and his name came up on top of the list. So congratulations to him. I’ve been emailing back and forth with his father Carlos and I look forward to getting them that camera so they can start using it to improve both of their tennis games. So, congratulations guys.

Alright. Let’s get going with today’s show. Sit back , relax and get ready for some great tennis instruction.

[music] [music] [music] [music]

Ian : My guest today on the Essential Tennis Podcast is mental toughness expert David Grumping. David welcome back to the podcast.

David : Thanks Ian. Thanks for having me. It’s good to be back.

Ian : Yes. I’m glad to have you. I can definitely say without a doubt that some of the most popular shows that I’ve done on the podcasts so far have had you as a guess. People really enjoy talking about mental toughness topics and how to be better out there on the court and be tougher , not choke, not be anxious, not be nervous, and maybe dealing with a partner, a double partner who is difficult to deal with. These types of topics. Why do you think mental topics are so popular amongst tennis players?

Ian : I think one of the reasons is because there’s not a lot of access to mental tennis information and training out there. It’s really easy to go to the club and get a lesson on your backhand or your footwork. But, it’s a little more of a scarcity a short supply of mental tennis stuff. So, and it’s also so many people really struggle with it. So, I think it is something that is easily popular because there’s not much out there. But, there is a lot of demand.

David : Well, I’m really glad I have you back on it. And, those of you listening, David and I have done many shows previously. I think 5 , maybe even 5 or 6 with you guys sign up for the archives at the podcast page at essentialtennis.com. You can find all the previous shows that we’ve done together and lots of really good topics that we’ve talked about.

And, today the first thing that I want to go over with David is I want to do a little overview of what David is going to be doing in terms of the next Essential Tennis Clinic which is going to be held in Baltimore Maryland on May 28th, 29th and 30th. David is going to be on the court with me helping me teach during that clinic and we’re going to be doing an off courts training session as well that’s going to feature David doing a mental toughness workshop.

So, David why don’t you tell us a little bit and give us kind of a little taste of what exactly your going to be talking about to those people who happen to attend the clinic in May?

David : Sure. So, the first thing is , what we’re going to cover is the foundation for mental toughness. Just like when they start to build the building they put the gurgles in first, and the structure of the building inside the bone. So, that’s the first thing we’re going to cover.

And, just having that, Ive shown just that to people and they’ve gotten huge amounts of value for their tennis just in terms of even having an idea within a framework for mental toughness. That’s the first rule I’m going to lay out for everybody. It’s very simple, very easy to understand. I do it with 8 year olds with the framework and they get it easily. So, that’s the first aspects. Then, in a lot of the podcasts previously I’ve talked about nasty benefits like eating a Twinky, junk food that gets us stuck in no mental toughness. Right?

Ian : Yes.

David : And, so the next piece that I’m going to cover is going over exactly what these nasty benefits are and how they relate to tennis. And, we’re going to give a comprehensive outline of them. There are not many of them. And, having that and their tennis for having that in their tool belts to refer to is a huge asset in terms of looking back here and it’s wrong, something’s not working, looking at these makes a huge difference towards getting yourself unstuck.

And, using the Twinkie example again, getting non fat. So from then with the framework and then the nasty benefits what we’re going to do. We’re actually going to do a not literally but quote unqoute on the court exercise for an area of your tennis where you want to improve an aspect of your mental game. And it, we’re going to work with dealing with the nasty benefits and specifically people are going to get a chance to pick an area where they have a complaint in their tennis. And, this can be a complaint regarding a surface. I don’t like cheaters. My forehands’ bad. I’m in a slump. My second surf’s no good. I get distracted when this happens. I don’t like the sun. The wind annoys me. Any complaint a tennis player can have.

So, we’re going to do an exercise to cause a huge gain in this area. Because, when someone has a complaint in an area of their tennis it’s next to impossible , it’s not impossible to actually cause progress in that area with the complaint still there. So it’s an exercise that takes the complaint apart. And, it’s very useful and in the end I guarantee , I promise that you’ll come out with a whole new game plan that’s going to blow you away out of the exercise.

Ian : Awesome.

David : That’s what we’re going to cover in the workshop and that’s my promise for the people who are there. It’s going to be good. I promise , promise, promise.

Ian : It better be good David.

David : Yes. I know.

Ian : Well I”m really excited about the format that I have set up in the morning that Sat the 29th we’re going to be doing several hours of on court instruction and we’ll going to have lunch together. We’re going to get back on the court, do several more hours of on court instruction. Then you’re going to do your mental toughness workshop and following that we’re going to have a singles and doubles tournament which I did at my first clinic as well which is a lot of fun. Everybody gets to compete and David and I are going to be kind of walking around, doing kind of coaching on the courts.

So, I think that having back to back your mental toughness workshop and then going right into some competition and point play is going to be really cool for people to get this focus and information and learn how to be tougher out there and then go right out and practice it with you and I on the courts, there to kind of help them out and guide them through it. So I think it’s going to be a huge value for people.

David : Yes that’s perfect. It’s a great opportunity for them to practice what we just went over in the mental toughness workshop. That’s great.

Ian : Yes. Well, let’s get going with some questions from people on the forums. By the way I can’t wait for that clinic David I think it’s going to be great. By the way there are I think there’s 5 spots left at this point. So if you guys are interested in signing up for that clinic and spending time on the courts and off the courts with David and myself, shoot me an email at ian@essentialtennis. Com. Or, just go to essentialtennis.com and click on clinics and there’s information on how to sign up right there.

Now, we’ve got 2 questions here from people on the forums for you David, and there are, David told me before the show started that they are closely related. So, I’m going to go ahead and read both of them. The first one is from BB in North Carolina and she wanted David to talk about how to keep intensity and focus up when you’re in a slump, when you’re in kind of a down section of time in your game.

Also, Mark in San Diego said that he would like recommendations for what to do and what to think about during change overs. He said this is probably different for singles versus doubles but, he wants to know what to do during change overs. Now, I am not quite sure how those are related, but David I’m looking forward to seeing how they’re connected.

David : Sure. So with our mental tennis, It really depends a lot on what we’re focused on. It’s pretty much what the crux of when you get deep down to it, your mental game is good if you focus on something really useful and powerful. And, it’s not going to be that great on something that’s not.

So, there’s always a choice that you have to make minute by minute of what you’re going to be focusing on.

A lot of times we get on the court and we kind of go on to auto pilot with our minds and our focus and that’s actually the opposite of what you want to do. It takes a huge amount of mental effort to really stay in this zone and stay mentally tough throughout a match. And, part of that is constantly choosing to be mentally tough or not be mentally tough. And, you deal with that choice every minute. It’s very broad and general choosing to be mentally tough or not mentally tough and there are all kinds of new answers and specifics to go along with that.

But, in the end you have, there’s a choice to have an intention to win which is what I would call be mentally tough. Or, a choice to be in a trap. And, one of the traps could be complaining to yourself. A lot of times players will complain to themselves during a match, which is what we’ll cover in the clinic.

But, it also causes slumping and it’s something that you may be, may be really useful during a changeover. That’s the broader part this. So, getting down to the specifics to keep up the intensity and focus in a slump it first takes getting out of the slump. And, this relates over changeover. If you’re in a slump or if your at a changeover and it’s going badly there’s a really useful tool that I recommend and it’s really asking yourself what are the facts here. It’s going over the facts , I’ll get into what I mean by that in a second. It’s a really useful way to get yourself up out of the muck of no mental toughness. You know what I’m talking about here, right?

Ian : I’m very familiar with muck yes.

David : Me too. So, it’s asking a simple question, getting simple answers to yourself here. What are the facts here? It’s a great way to get up out of the muck. The facts could be what the score is. I’m not hitting my forehand how I want to. My first serve is going in well. It’s sunny out. I’m playing on clay. Those can all be examples of facts. In doing this you really want to be aware and promise me you’re not keeping interpretation in here with asking what the facts are.

So, an example of having an interpretation in there would be my forehand’s really bad today. Or, my player’s really, the other guy’s really annoying. Those are not facts. Those are things mixed with interpretation. That actually will not have you, that will have you get deeper into the muck.

Ian : Those are opinions basically.

David : Right. Yes. You want to keep your opinion out of it with this. And, you want to get very black and white. What are the facts? It’s something that a dog doesn’t have opinions would be able to see. Right? If I had a dog and stuff. Anyway, Something to do over changeovers and to use when you’re in a slump is to figure out what are the facts here. It’s very sobering once you really get to it. That’s the first step.

Then what’s really useful, and I talked about a second ago is you’re always choosing. You always have a choice. An intention to win and mental toughness or complaining or being in a slump. Whatever your focus is that’s keeping you in a slump. Once you really get to the facts, it’s a choice of what’s my game plan. I’m going to stuck back with my game plan.

Or I’m really focused on being aggressive today. I’m going to go focus on that again. The chances are if you’re in a slump or if you are at change or it’s not going well your focus got derailed somewhere. This is a really useful and simple tool set to get you back on track and be mentally tough. You just have to use it.

Ian : So it’s kind of just a matter of taking a step back, I guess, and looking at the big picture, and saying this is true. This is true. This is true. And, then looking at those things as a whole and kind of picking the most worthwhile one ?

David :I mean you don’t even have to pick one of the worthwhile ones. One of the worthwhile facts, you could come up with I’m playing on clay. The score is 5 – 2. And, it’s sunny today. And just really focusing on that will give you the opportunity to regain and then chose again what you’re actually going to focus on. Like I remember today I was actually going to focus on breaking the person’s back hand out.

Ian : So the main thing here is to get our minds off of our own, I guess, opinions or subjective thoughts?

David : Exactly. Or, pull yourself out of the muck of the complaint that you have or your opinion about your opponent or even your double’s partner. It’s a quick and simple and easy technique to have you do that.

Ian : I’ve got a question about something that you said when you were kind of setting this up. You made the statement that good mental toughness, or I guess mental play, why you’re playing tennis is not something you can do on autopilot. It takes mental effort.

Now, is this something that we can practice kind of like a good forehand stroke technique? Is this something we can practice enough times that maybe eventually it could be on autopilot? Or, is this just something that’s always going to take, I guess, conscious effort?

David : Yes. So, that’s a really good question. In a lot of podcasts that I referred to is the mental toughness muscle. Right? And, it’s just like you have endurance for our fitness in a tennis match. Your body gets tired or your body stays energetic. It’s the same thing with your mental toughness muscle. And, practicing it in matches and in competitions and competent settings is an opportunity to grow that muscle and grow your mental toughness endurance.

So, the stronger you can get that muscle the easier it is to be mentally tough quicker , be mentally tough for longer periods of time. So it’s something that takes building.

But, once you’re stronger at it, it gets easier and easier. But, it always will take focus and intention to be mentally tough. Unfortunately it doesn’t ever get super easy. If it was super easy then everybody would do it.

Ian : Yes. I think that’s really important to point out. It’s not going to, can we kind of look at this in the same way as good stroke technique where it’s kind of a one in a million shot that you’re just going to walk out on to the court and just do it right the first time?

David : Absolutely.

Ian : I don’t mean to discourage anybody out there. I mean let’s be honest–the technique part of it is tough and if you don’t have somebody guiding you along the correct path then just figuring it out and just doing it the most efficient way is something that takes a lot of natural talent and ability. Do people have that chance of having natural ability of being mental tough as well? Is it kind of the same thing as physical talent?

David : I mean, Yes everybody has their own natural and self developed aptitudes and skill and mental toughness as is. And, it’s an area that can always be developed. You can look at it like I think a really good analogy would be really good athleticism. If you’re naturally athletic, then you may be able to pick up tennis a little easier.

Some people have a natural aptitude towards mental toughness. You may be able to pick it up a little easier. However, I don’t want anybody to get discouraged. Maybe you don’t think you have a natural aptitude for anything. With mental toughness you can, you just have to work at it and I guarantee, I’ve seen people who have turned around from awful in terms of a mental game. They just put in the effort and work that it took , and if we think about it, how much time do we spend working on our stroke production? How much guidance do we get on that? 100′s right?

Ian : Yes.

David : And then mostly how much effort and attention do we put on our mental game? Not that much. Right?

Ian : Yes.

David : And the way I break down the areas and other people have different break downs, that’s fine. But, the way I break it down is simple for developing your overall ability to win. It’s a circle that’s divided into 3 slices like a pizza. So in one sector there’s your skills, your stroke production, how well you move your feet. Things like that, your skill.

Then you’ve got your fitness in another. And, at last your mental toughness. A lot of people work on all of them a lot except the mental toughness aspect. So in working with the mental toughness and growing that muscle and practicing it and doing the exercises that we’ve laid out a lot, here in the podcast it’s an opportunity to grow your overall ability to win and practice and area that very few people do grow .

Ian : Good stuff. Let’s get back to how that relates to keeping intensity when you’re in a slump and you said first of all you have to have the intention to win. We want to find out what are the facts. Be objective in our thinking. Then, remind yourself of what you wanted to work on that day or I guess what your focus is tactically. Was there any other steps after that?

David : Yes. So, there are no more really steps to take but I want to tie it all together a little bit more. And, the ability to which you can maintain your intensity and your ability to which you can get yourself out of a slump is directly proportional to how strong your mental toughness muscle is and how practiced it is. So, to keep up the intensity and something to do when you’re at a changeover and it’s going well, is it’s a little bit different.

So, when you’re at a changeover and you want to keep up the intensity, or you’re not even at a changeover, the first thing, a huge factor, is to pat yourself on the back. Look how good I”m doing. Give yourself a little bit of a break from exercising the muscle and really focusing on it and putting intention on your mental toughness. That’s always a trap. It happens quite a bit. That is one thing to avoid first.

Ian : Yes. It’s tempting isn’t it? I mean you may be at a break or at 3-0 in the first seven and you’re like, ‘Man, I’m doing awesome. ‘

David : Right. Yes. You’re great. It’s going to be like nothing. It’s going to be easy. This all goes back, I remember we had a podcast a long time ago to how to avoid choking. It’s all the same thing really. And, it’s the same thing with thinking you’re doing well on the court really.

So, what you want to do is to occupy your mind and not give yourself a break when it’s going well over a changeover and to keep up the intensity. You want to, one thing that’s really useful is to talk with yourself about what’s working in an objective manner. Well, what’s working? I’m moving my feet well and I’m really focusing on tumbling the guys back hand and I’m focused on being aggressive with my serve. Great. That way you know what to keep up.

I talk to a lot of players who their on a changeover and man I’m doing awesome this is great, I’m in the zone , and I’m like that’s great what are you focusing on to have that happen? They’re like I have no idea. Then they don’t have as much access as they could to keeping in the zone.

And, getting it back once their out. Because they don’t know what to actually focus on. That gets back to you have to choose what to focus on. If you don’t know what to choose, you can’t choose. Your mind will choose for you and that’s actually a very dangerous practice.

Ian : I want to get more into that but, first I want to remind listeners of my sponsor of the podcast which is tennistours. Com . They sell ticket packages and along with accommodation to all of the grand slams and all of the other ATP Masters 1000 events.

The next one coming up actually is in Miami, the Sony Ericson Open. If you guys go to tennistours.com you can check out all the different packages they have. Everything from, basically every possible price point they have from luxury boxes to just regular ground passes and when you guys use the promotional code Essential with a capital E, that’s Essential with a capital E , you guys will get a $25 discount off of any purchase that you make at tennistours.com.

So, definitely go check that out and thank them for their support of the Essential Tennis Podcast by purchasing your tickets through them whenever you guys go to professional events which are definitely awesome for you guys to go check out as you continue to improve your game. Now, let’s keep talking about being in the zone. I find it really interesting because that was kind of a really big buzz word or phrase a couple of years ago.

And, I am sure it still is, is how can I get in the zone? I find that interesting that so many times when players are interviewed after an obviously incredible match for them and they get asked about that, they don’t really seem to have any meat to whatever they’re talking about.

It’s just like you were saying, it’s the player you were talking about that they were in the zone and then you say why and it’s like,’I have no idea but it’s awesome. It’s fun’. Then before you know it they kind of come crashing down in the next couple of games or maybe the next match after being in the zone.

How likely is it that we can actually find a certain thing or maybe a grouping of things that when we focus on it, it gets us more likely to be really focused like that?

David : One of the cool things I should mental toughness is that it gives you an opportunity to choose if you’re going to be in the zone or not and get better and better at getting yourself in the zone when you want to. In the likelihood on your own of doing that is slim.
But, just like if you practice a really great inside out forehand. You practice and you practice and you practice and the more you do it, the more likely that it is that you’re going to be able to nail it more consistently in a match.

So, the more you practice your mental toughness and really practice the tools that we’ve been going over in podcasts and even Ian the more amount of training you can get, especially at getting deeper in the mental toughness training like we’re going to, I don’t mean to selfishly plug here but in the workshop. The more you can get tools like that and use those tools, the more you’re going to be able to get yourself in the zone when you want to and need to. Does that answer the question there?

Ian : Yes. Definitely. I think that should be really encouraging to people listening that you guys have a chance if you focus on the right things and in the right ways to be in the zone or be really focused and play in your best mode, more and more often. I think that should really make you guys excited out there that with the right information, how fun would that be to be able to go out there and figure out how to play to your peak? Even just a little bit more often than now and if you can double it that would be incredible. This is such good information.

Now, I want you to tie this together and you’ve kind of made some small connections here and there about talking during changeovers. And, I’m starting to see how this fits in now. But, can you tie what you’re talking into what Mark in San Diego asked about what to talk about during changeovers?

David : Yes. So with singles, if you feel like it’s not going well, with singles you want to do , you want to go over what the facts are and then remind yourself what the strategy is. I talked about it pretty extensively about a minute ago. Shall I elaborate on that? There’s not a whole lot more to cover with that one.

Ian : No. Yes. I think you got that.

David : If it’s going well, again, there’s that trap of this is awesome. I’m doing really well. This is in the bag. This guy’s got nothing. It’s going to be easy. So, you want to avoid that trap over. The thing about changeover is it’s good and it’s bad. It’s good because you can rest. You can regroup. You can talk to yourself.

But, it’s also bad because you can talk to yourself. And a lot of times when we’re just sitting there on our own our thoughts starts to run rampant a little bit and it’s actually very easy to get caught in the mental toughness trap.

One thing to really, I think have the gain is to occupy your mind so it doesn’t mess you over. So, we can all think of a time when all of a sudden a thought hit us and we get really nervous before a match. All of a sudden a though hit us and then the match goes to pack.

So, part of it is occupying your mind so those don’t happen. Right? You want to really go over it’s going well. Thank yourself. What’s working now? What am I doing well? What am I focused on? Then you really want to remind yourself and make sure that you’re still focused on what it’s been that’s had you do so well up to now.

Ian : So be specific it sounds like is a key thing here?

David : Yes. So, if I’m in a changeover and it’s going well I can think well I’m making the guy run around a lot and I’m playing really aggressively off the ground. So that’s what’s working. Great. What am I going to keep focusing on? I’m going to take it to the next level on being aggressive. So, that would be one thing you do over a changeover. This is something and it’s really the only difference between singles and doubles here, is you can with doubles you can do it out loud.

Ian : I suppose you could in singles there. [laughter]

David : And you want to, this is something back from the doubles podcast that we did in December, that the good thing about having a doubles partner is that you have someone to work with and talk with about this stuff.

And, someone to remind you that what are you focusing on right now. It’s really useful. I mean there are also plenty of pit falls too. But, with doubles on a changeover talk with your partner. What’s working right now. What are we doing poor? What am I doing poor? What are you doing? Alright we’re going to keep focusing on it.

You can talk each other up. Then there are all kinds of, I don’t know how much I want to get into it if one player is playing well and one player is playing badly. I know that was one of the questions on the forums but, I think we covered a lot of that in the last [inaudible] podcast. So it’s kind of redundant.

Ian : Yes we did. Well, let’s go ahead and just wrap everything up. We’ve just got a couple of minutes left. But yes, listeners please go check out our previous shows if you haven’t already. We’ve gone over so many different topics. And, it’s just really good information. So just check out the podcast archives at essentialtennis.com.

Let’s go ahead and just kind of put a bow around all of this and kind of bring it all together if you will David.

David : Yes. Absolutely. So, in the workshop we’re going to be doing a really powerful and useful exercise on handling complaints, which is one of the main aspects and things that have you get in a slump and playing badly. You’re not only going to get to handle a complaint right there live and it cause your mental toughness to go to a new level, but you’re going to get the tools to do it for future complaints. Alright?

In terms of what we talked about today, something that causes slumps or being stuck in complaints or some other stuff too , complaints are a huge player in that. So, what we’re going to be doing in the workshop is going to be huge for not only giving you tools to get out of a slump, but also I keep saying at the end think about what you’re going to focus on. You’re going to come up with a killer game plan that’s going to really blow you away, in the workshop in Baltimore.

And, that’s something that you can use from then on to focus on that’s really going to have you be in the zone and be mentally tough. And all of that supports having and focusing on an intention to win which really is what mental toughness is in the long run.

Ian : Awesome. Alright. Well, David thank you very much for your time. Thank you for doing another episode with me. We put a lot of stuff out there and I think it’s really cool how we continue to have new questions and we kind of rehash certain topics and things that we’ve gone over in other shows. But, it’s kind of fun seeing how it pertains to different circumstances and singles and doubles and kind of our tennis games in general. So, thanks so much for coming back on the show. Before you leave please tell us where we can find you online.

David : Yes, absolutely. It’s www.Sports.Gemexecoach.com

Ian : One more time.

David : Yes. www.sports.Gemexecoach.com

Ian : Great. Well, I look forward to doing the clinic with you in May. Those of you listening who are interested in spending a weekend with David and myself please shoot me an email or check out the clinic’s page at essentialtennis.com.

David thank you again. It’s been great talking to you. I look forward to spending some more time with you on the show again in the near future.

David : Yes it’s going to be great. I really look forward to the clinic too. People who already signed up and people who are looking to sign up it will change your game I promise, I hope we see you people out there. In huge numbers.

[music] [music] [music]

Ian : Alright our message for this episode of the Essential Tennis Podcast episode 110. Thank you very much for joining me today and hopefully my conversation with David has been helpful to you. I want to do some shout outs now to a couple of really important people this past week that donated to Essential Tennis and to the podcast to help support everything that I do on the website.

First of all, Cheng in Massachusetts $15. Chris in Texas $20. John in California $10 donation. Gary in Florida $50 donation. Calvin in California $5. And, Kimberley in Texas began a $5 per month subscription donation. So, thank you to all of you guys very much.

And you know what? I really appreciate all of these people a lot. I’ve decided that every week I’m going to give a free Essential Tennis shirt to the person who donates the highest amount. The highest single amount. That means that this week my first week, Gary in Florida you’re going to receive a free Essential Tennis shirt. I want to show my appreciation to you guys for your support.

That goes for next week and every week here on out. If you donate the most that given week for the podcast then I will send you guys a free shirt. Thank you guys so much for your support.

If you’re listening and the podcast has helped improve your game please consider sending a donation to Essential Tennis. It does not have to be very much to help. Just go to essentialtennis.com and on the front page on the bottom right there’s a box that says donate. So, thank you very much.

Alright. That does it for this week. Thanks again for joining me. Take care. And, good luck with your tennis.

[music] [music]

Essential Tennis Podcast #109

Download: Word Doc | PDF | Kindle | Text

Welcome to the Essential Tennis Podcast. If you love tennis and want to improve your game, this Podcast is for you. Whether it’s technique, strategy, equipment or the mental game, tennis professional Ian Westermann is here to make you a better player. And now, here’s Ian!

Ian Westermann : 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 ProTranscript.com and also TennisTours.com — more on that new sponsor later in today’s show.

I want to kick things off today by saying thank you to everybody who participated in the contest I ran last week. 158 entered into the drawing for a new flip Ultra-HD camera and I’ve got my winners all selected here and those of you who won, will get an email from me shortly.

But thank you to everybody, especially those of you who listened to the Podcast for the first time– great to have you guys on board.

I also want to announce a new clinic, the next Essential Tennis Clinic will be held in Baltimore, Maryland and will be on May 28th, 29th and 30th.

Features of this clinic will include 9 hours on the court with tennis instruction from myself and other tennis professionals. Also, a mental tennis workshop from David Grumping, a mental tennis expert whose been on the Podcast many times. And a video analysis session and everybody is going to get one of their strokes analyzed by myself with high speed video.

So lots and lots of value in this clinic. If you’re interested, send me an email or go to essentialtennis.com and click on clinics. There is only 4 spots left, so definitely let me know right away if you would like to attend.

Alright, let’s get down to business– sit down, relax, and get ready for some great tennis instruction. [music] [music]

Alright let’s get started with today’s topic on the Essential Tennis Podcast, and it comes to us from Carl E on the forums on Essentialtennis.com and Carl wrote and said ‘ can we revisit footwork in the Podcast? One thing I’d like to hear about is using the cross-over step to recover into the court. And how about use of a cross-over step while moving around the baseline. When should it be used? What’s the choreography like? How can we practice this so that is becomes second nature?’

And in the forums, Gaskeys Backhand also commented as well ‘could you please also pickup the footwork from the very beginning because I’m guessing there is a lot of people like me who’ve just begun to take tennis seriously and have never been taught anything about footwork– Thanks, it would really help. ‘

Alright, we are going to go over footwork on today’s show, and it’s going to be the only topic we cover. And I’m really going to go into depth about the different types of footwork, the different types of steps that you guys can use on the tennis court. What they are good for, what they are not good for and I’m also going to go over the most common shots in tennis and how you should use those different steps during those common shots so you guys can move effectively. And Footwork is incredibly important in tennis and I’m really happy that I’m doing an all-footwork show because you can only hit as good of a shot as your footwork is.

Now professional players, high level players, are able to hit incredible shots even when they are off balance and in an uncomfortable position but for the rest of us that aren’t incredibly gifted athletically, it’s very important that we learn how to move around the court as efficiently as possible so that when you do get to the correct spot on the court, you are able to hit as good a shot as you possibly can because your body is there in balance, you’re in the correct position, the ball is in the right spot in relationship to you and you’re able to hit the best shot possible.

And then the second part of that, is after you’ve hit your shot, it’s very important to get back to a good spot on the court immediately following whatever shot you just happened to him.

So, the first thing we’re going to do is talk about types of steps or different ways you guys can move your feet around the court. I’m going to give a quick definition for each of them so that you guys understand what I’m talking about when we start to talk about individual strokes and how you guys should move your feet during those different types of shots.

So we’re going to go over 6 different ways you can move your feet on the court. The first one is a side shuffle and Carl was pointing this out and wanted some explanation on the side-shuffle specifically. The side-shuffle is lateral to the baseline or it can also be perpendicular to the baseline and kind of anything in between. Basically the side-shuffle is a way to move your body laterally. And this is commonly referred to when talking about recovering from a ground stroke and wanting to move back to the middle of the baseline and we’re going to get to that later. But the correct way to use the side-shuffle is to have your toes pointed forwards and making a balanced move from right or to the left. Your knees should be balanced, your feet should be shoulder-width apart and your feet should not cross.

That’s what differentiates this from different types of footwork. During a side shuffle, your feet do not cross-over. And so it’s a balanced way to move around the court. It’s not the fastest way you can move around the court but it keeps your body in very good balance. This is basically a way that you can move in a ready position and your body is kind of all set to go. As you shuffle from the right or to the the left, or up and back, we are going to talk about how to use both.

So that’s number one. Number two– cross-over step. And again, you can use this lateral to the base-line or perpendicular to the baseline and we’ll talk about how to use both of those later in the show. But the difference between a side-shuffle and a cross-over step is that your feet are crossing over– they are crossing each other.

And a variance of this is also the karaoke step or the grape vine which is sometimes referred to as a series of cross-over steps… We are just going to keep it at cross-over step just for simplicity sake.

So that’s number two. Number three, the back-peddle. And the back-peddle is basically moving heels first. So the back of your body is facing the direction you are trying to move. Believe it or not, but these steps should be used sometimes and we’re going to talk later about when they should be used.

That’s number three. Number four is forward stride or sprint. Basically you guys are facing dead on forwards. Your toes are pointing forwards towards where you are trying to go. And you’re either in a sprint or another kind of forward motion.

Next up number five are adjustment steps. And these are different from a forward stride or a sprint in terms of their size. An adjustment step usually is a series of quick little steps to kind of fine tune your position on the court and to be able to really put yourself in just the right place.

And number six, the last in our six different types of steps is the split-step. And the split-step is a way to get your body in balance and we’re not going to spend a lot of time talking about the split-step today because I’ve talked about it in previous shows in a lot of detail and if you guys want to learn about when to use the split-step and literally how to do it physically and how to move your body to split-step correctly, check-out Podcast #101, #90 and Podcast #13. And all there of those previous Podcasts, I’ve talked about the split-step and it’s a very important part of your footwork and we’re not going to go over it in detail today but go into the Podcast archives if you would like to hear more about the split-step.

So a quick review before we go to the next section– six different types of steps: The side shuffle. The cross-over step. The back-peddle. The forward stride or sprint. Adjustment steps and the split-step.

So, next up, we’re going to be talking about how to put all of those together effectively within different strokes and how to move your feet correctly within different strokes. Before we do that, I’m really excited to tell you guys about the newest sponsor of the Essential Tennis Podcast and that is TennisTours.com.

TennisTours.com is the place to go if you guys are planning on going to an ATP or WTA professional tennis event. They do tickets and they do travel packages to go to all your favorite tournaments including the Grand Slams. It can be really tough to get reliable tickets for the Grand Slam events, Australian & French Open, the US Open and Wimbledon and that’s their specialty– the Grand Slam events. And you guys can purchase individual tickets from them or even complete ticket packages including hotel and accommodations. You guys can purchase ground passes, luxury suites and everything in between. They offer wide ranges of different types of tickets for every event that they do have for professional events.

So if you’re going to go to a professional event which an incredible way to learn about tennis and to experience tennis by watching the best players in the world, go to TennisTours.com and definitely check and see if they do carry tickets for the professional event that you’re going to be traveling to. And especially if it’s out of town and you need accommodations and hotels– these guys do everything together and do it all for you so you don’t have to worry about it.

Now, when you check out TennisTours.com, make sure to use the promotional code essential and you’ll receive a discount off your purchase. That’s ‘essential’ in the promotional code field as you’re checking out.

Show them that you appreciate their sponsorship of the Essential Tennis Podcast by supporting TennisTours.com. I appreciate them very much for their support of the Podcast. Thank you guys.

OK, now let’s get into some specific situations around the tennis court and how you guys should be moving your feet most effectively. Now, as you guys move to anywhere on the court and hit any type of shot, there should be a sequence of different moves or different things that you need to accomplish in order to move effectively. And that sequence is, preparation, movement to the ball, recovery and then preparation again– there is kind of a cycle that you guys should be repeating in between and during and after every shot so that you guys can be in the best possible position with your body.

Now, let’s talk about some specific shots and how you guys should be using those specific types of steps within those different phases of your movement around the court.

First of all, let’s talk about ground-strokes and moving side to side, either to the right or the left for a forehand or backhand. Now preparation, the preparation phase, is basically your split-step. That’s how you best prepare your body to be able to move towards any possible shot. It puts you in a nice ready position, in a balanced position. You’re not moving anywhere– you’re just ready.

Now if you want to use some stutter-steps and some shuffle-steps instead of an actual split-step, that’s fine as long as your body is balanced. And again, check out those previous Podcasts for a detailed discussion on that.

Now, after your split-step on a ground-stroke you want to transition the forward steps and if it’s a forehand and you’re right-handed, you would turn yourself to the side and make forward steps out to the right to get to that shot. And these steps should be quick and you want to get there fast so that you can be in balance once the ball gets to you and you’re in a good, comfortable position.

Now, the next phase is adjustments steps. You want to next use adjustment steps to kind of fine-tune your position between yourself and the ball. These should be different from your forward steps because we don’t want to continue making long strides when the ball comes close to us because that’s often times how players make mistakes and if you mis-judge just a little bit how the ball is going to bounce or where exactly it’s going, and you’re in the middle of a full stride towards the ball and it ends up bouncing a little funny or maybe the wind catches it or it has some spin on it you weren’t expecting, you’re done– you’re screwed.

So you have to be in the habit of making small, little steps as the ball gets close to you to be able to really make last second adjustments and you might think you know exactly where it’s going but don’t make that mistake.

So, again preparation, the split-step and movement to the ball starts off with forward steps, then adjustment steps, then you make your swing– your forehand or your backhand swing.

Now, after you’ve made your swing, it’s time for recovery. And this can be done when you’re moving to the right or the left in one of two ways– you can use either shuffle-steps or cross-over steps or a combination of both which I recommend that you guys do. And it kind of depends on your position on the court. If you’re not very far away from the middle of the baseline, you really only need to use side-shuffle shuffle-steps and you would do that by pointing your toes forward towards the net, not crossing your feet over, and just making two or three shuffles back to the center of the court.

Now this is something that rec players and students of mine, for whatever reason, don’t like to do. I guess they feel silly doing it. It’s not something they’ve done before ever playing tennis because they’ve never done it correctly.

If you guys watch tennis on TV and [inaudible] Wells is on right now as I’m speaking, you will see tennis pros using side-shuffle steps to move along the baseline after they’ve made contact. The reason why it’s so important is because we need to be in a balanced position, in a ready position, while moving back to the middle of the baseline. That’s important because we don’t know where the next shot is going.

After you’ve hit your forehand or backhand ground-stroke and the ball is traveling towards you opponent, you do not know where they are going to hit next, and so if you take the quicker route and let’s say you move out to your right, hit a forehand ground-stroke and then you simply turn your body to face the middle of the court and run back, that would be a lot faster than using a side-shuffle or a cross-over step, however, if your opponent hits back to your forehand side again, and you have not yet returned back to the center of the court, you’re moving in the exact opposite direction and your body is facing the exact opposite direction and it’s going to be very difficult to gather yourself, stop your momentum and turn back to the right where the next shot is coming– please don’t do this.

You need to get yourself lateral to the baseline and move back sideways while facing the net so that you can see what is going on and so that your balanced in case they cross you up and they hit to a direction that you’re not anticipating.

So using that side-shuffle step is very important. Now Carl, talked about using a combination of steps and having a good rhythm and I suggest that when you guys really get pulled off to the side, you use a combination of cross-over steps and side shuffle steps and you guys will very commonly see the pros doing this.

They’ll move out to the right or to their left, make their adjustment steps, make their swing and very typically make one cross-over step and then several shuffles to get back to the baseline.

Or maybe if they’re really far out, maybe they’ll make two cross-over steps and several shuffles to get back to the middle of the baseline but very often you’ll see them at least one cross-over step and then transition into a shuffle.

Now both the cross over and the shuffle step keep you sideways facing forwards towards the net so they keep you in balance. The cross-over step is a little bit faster and it kind of gets you moving immediately after your swing and the shuffle step is kind of more fine-tuned and a little more unbalanced and it keeps your feet underneath you, they are not crossing over… It’s more difficult for you to get caught off balance when you are shuffling.

So, in review and I realize I may have repeated some things here but this stuff is really important and that you guys follow this specific pattern. Split-step, turn and make forward steps towards the ball. Make adjustment steps, quick little steps as you get close to where you’re going to make contact. Then make a cross-over step then finish it up with side-shuffles back to the middle of the base-line. And at that point, you should repeat the preparation phase and use a split-step and a side-shuffle is very similar to a split-step but whenever your opponent makes contact, even if you’re not back to the middle of the baseline yet, you should be making another split-step to repeat this pattern. The preparation, the movement of the ball, the recovery back to the middle of the baseline, and then prepare again.

And when you guys do this correctly, there is definitely a rhythm to it and this is why the pros, especially the players with really good foot-work, look like it’s so effortless because they use all of these steps together and they do it very seamlessly and it’s all coordinated together and it is almost like a dance going back and forth, back and forth. And this is something you guys should practice, and I’m going to talk about how to practice it later.

Now, let’s talk about one of the tougher shots in singles and that is moving back for a ground-stroke and you guys should move back when your opponent has hit a high, deep shot to your half of the court and it’s not going to be at waist height– it’s going to be bouncing up over your strike zone, you’ve got to back up and let the ball come back down again. In order to move back effectively, for a ground-stroke, you guys should be turning to the side and side shuffling back.

Do not use a back-peddle movement or foot-work to move back for these shots. So if it’s a forehand and you’re right handed, your right foot should pivot back to put you in a square stance and then you should side-shuffle, or if you want to use a cross-over step and then side-shuffle back, that’s perfectly fine. But get back there and turn to the side already so that you’re in balance and also so that you are ready to swing. You’ve already turned your body to the side and you are ready to go. It doesn’t mean that you have to hit in a closed or a square stance, you can still hit from an open stance but as you are moving back, make sure that you get yourself turned perpendicular to the baseline so that you can move back in balance.

This is a common mistake for rec players to move back with a back-peddle type step and that kind of makes them off-balance and not only that, but when the ball gets there, they are not turned to the side yet and can make for some trouble, some complications.

Now, after you make your swing, after moving back to that shot, simply turn forwards towards the net and use a forward step or a spring to get back to the middle of the baseline and then split step to make sure that you prepare again– so that’s for moving back.

Now ground-stroke moving forwards– on a low shot or a shot that is not traveling very far into your half of the court, you might have to move forwards. In order to do this, if it’s straight forwards, you guys should simply be moving forwards with your body facing the net. As you get close to the ball, you should be turning your upper body to the side and or changing your stance, whichever type of stance you’d like to use to hit this shot. And this is the one time where you guys should be back-peddling is after you’ve hit a short ground-stroke or a ground-stroke you’ve had to move forwards into the court for, straight-forwards and after you’ve made contact, you want to get back to the middle of the baseline again. Don’t stay up in no-man’s land. This is where it’s open to use a back-peddle type step, is when you’ve moved straight forwards from the middle of the baseline, you’ve made your swing, and you want to get back to the middle of the baseline again.

The alternative would be to turn around and face your back to your opponent and hustle back to the middle of the baseline but don’t do that. We need to be facing forwards and ready and watching and seeing what’s going on– so use a back-peddle step to get back to the middle of the baseline.

Now, so we’ve talked about moving to the right or the left, moving back and moving forwards for a ground-stroke. There is combination’s as well and this is where things get a little tricky but it all makes sense. If you are moving up into the right, you should turn and face towards the direction you want to move yourself– make a forward step or a sprint. Make your swing and this is where you want to use a kind of diagonal shuffle. So if it’s forwards and to the right, and you are moving up for a forehand, make your swing then pivot, get your back foot kind of back so your right and left foot, draw a line between where you are in the middle of the baseline and use a side shuffle in a diagonal direction back to the middle of the baseline.

If you are moving back and to the left, if it’s a deep back-hand, then you would want to again pivot your left foot back, use a kind of diagonal side shuffle to move yourself back behind the baseline. Make your swing, then go ahead and face towards the middle of the baseline and use a forward step and move back forwards towards the middle of the baseline.

What’s important here guys is your balance and we want to be prepared for every shot and each subsequent shot. You want to be prepared for the next one. So whenever you are moving back towards the middle of the baseline, we want to be facing forwards, whenever you’re moving towards whatever shot you are trying to get to, usually you want to be facing that way.

When that wouldn’t be the case is when you are moving backwards and you are kind of moving with a side-shuffle type position. So those are all the different possibilities for ground strokes. Let’s talk about overheads and I just wrote an article about this– how to move back for overheads and it’s something that rec players usually do very poorly.

What you guys don’t want to do is use a back-peddle type step to move back for overheads. After you’re prepared and you are in your ready position, and your opponent lobs you, it’s incredibly important that you use either a side-shuffle or a cross-over step to move back for your overheads.

This is a very common mistake and something you guys should absolutely be working on. So if you are right-handed and that lob goes up, get your right foot pivoted back– that’s the first thing that should happen. Get yourself in a square stance and from there either cross over with your left foot going across over in front of your right, and continuing a cross-over like a quarterback going back for a three step drop which is what I wrote about in my article. Or you can just stay lateral– you don’t have to cross your feet over and you can just use a side-shuffle. Just make sure your feet get perpendicular to the net and you are shuffling back and not back-peddling. Back-peddling is pretty much the slowest way you can possibly move across the court and not only that, but I have personally witnessed several times, in fact many times, player’s falling backwards over themselves because they are in poor balance as they try to make back for an overhead. Please do not do that.

So it’s really important that you get into a position where you can either side-shuffle or cross-over to hit that overhead.

And lastly, let’s talk about volleys and on a volley, you want to cross-over whenever possible which means for a forehand volley, you guys should be stepping across with your left foot to reach for a forehand volley and across with your right foot to reach for a backhand volley. If you have to move multiple steps, then make sure that you turn your body to the side towards the direction that you are trying to cut off that volley– move there quickly, then just like on a ground stroke, use a combination of either a cross-over step and several shuffle steps, or you can just use shuffle steps if you don’t have very far to travel. But make sure that you get back to the center where you are supposed to be for the next shot by moving laterally across the court.

Lastly, let’s talk about how to practice everything that I’ve talked about today. Now, some of this may have been review for some of you listening. If you are a 4 or 5 player listening to this Podcast, you probably already know about all the different types of steps I’ve been talking about and you probably already know about when to use them correctly as well.

If you are 2.5 or a 3.0 player, a lot of what I just said is probably new to you and you’ve got a lot of work to do to catch up in the footwork department. Now I recommend a three step program or a way of practicing in order for you guys to make this a part of your game and if you have to work on all of this, you’ve got a lot of work to do.

If only one or two things sounded new to you that I just talked about, then it should be pretty quick for you to make this part of your game. But the first thing I recommend is shadowing. Basically meaning practicing this without a ball and this can be on a tennis court of not. It doesn’t even have to be out on a tennis court. You can do this in your back yard or on your drive way or in the middle of a park as long as you aren’t too embarrassed to do it. But I recommend you guys do this and follow the patterns I was talking about on your own.

And just kind of get a feel for what the rhythm is like moving between these different types of steps and moving in all these directions that I discussed. And I would take some time, especially from the base-line as this is really where it is important… It’s important all over the court but I think where the most different types of steps get used is moving to the right to the left, forwards and backwards as you move along the baseline to hit your ground-strokes, especially in single’s play.

So I recommend that you practice moving in each of the four main directions– forwards, backwards, right and left and using the different combination’s of different types of steps that I described. Once you really feel like you’ve got it down and you’re using all the different steps correctly without a ball, have a friend of yours feed some shots to you or just toss shots to you. And there is kind of a famous tennis drill called the Spanish Drill that I use when one of my students really needs to work on their footwork and basically I stand on their half of the court, just a couple of feet away from the middle of the baseline with a basket of balls, and I simply toss tennis balls– I might toss straight out to their right, I might toss straight out to their left, I might toss short to the right, short to the left or I could toss deep behind the baseline to the right or deep behind the baseline to the left.

Whichever direction I toss, my student has to use the correct footwork to move to that shot, make their swing, then use their correct footwork to get back to the middle of the baseline again.

So this is a controlled environment, I am right in front of my student, I can see what they are doing right and what they are doing wrong. It’s not terribly realistic because obviously I’m just tossing the balls underhand and the ball is not flying towards them from the other half of the court. So the way the ball is coming to them is not match-realistic– it’s just a way to really focus on the footwork and nothing else.

So that’s a great way for you guys to practice with a partner on a tennis court and you are going to need a basket of balls or at least 10 or 12 balls because the idea here is to get them moving and this can be a good way to work on your conditioning and your fitness as well. As well as using all the different types of steps correctly.

And the last way to work on this is in a live rally, and I’ve followed these three steps myself when I teach. I have my students demonstrate to me without a ball at all how to do it correctly, then I’ll feed them various types of shots to make sure that they can do it with the ball coming towards them. And then the final way to show me that you really understand what you’re doing is to be able to do this in a live rally back and forth in a controlled rally where me and my student are maybe hitting forehands cross-court to each other. And I will mix up my shots– give them high ones, low ones, and varying degrees of right and left and make them show me that they know how to move their feet correctly.

So I would follow those three different ways of working on this footwork to make sure that it is really integrated into your game and that your body is starting to learn it and once you feel like you are doing it automatically, you can go ahead and start using it in match play. Not that you can’t go out and play a match right now and hopefully use some of this and have it improve your game, but expect that you’re going have to work at this if you aren’t already using most of these different footwork already.

So that brings the footwork Podcast to an end. Hopefully that wasn’t too monotonous for all of you guys– I went into some detail there and I’m sure I repeated myself a couple of times on some of these different techniques and ways to move your feet, but this stuff is really important and I’m a little surprised that I hadn’t done a whole Podcast on footwork before. But this is a good primer for you guys who are just starting off in tennis and really need to know what to do with your feet. And those of you who are experienced already, hopefully there is just a couple of things in there, or different ways of moving your feet in different positions that you hadn’t really considered before and you can go ahead and take those one, two, or three different footwork elements and go ahead and put them into your game.

But no matter what, as always, I hope this helps you guys improve and that’s always my goal with everything I put out on the Podcast. So Carl and [inaudible] backhand on the forums, thank you guys for a great topic and hopefully this helps you guys get better at your game. [music] [music] [music]

Alright, that does it for episode #109 of the Essential Tennis Podcast. Thank you very much for joining me on today’s show and I hope that it was enjoyable and helpful to you in your game. As always, let me know if you have any questions that you’d like to be answered on the Podcast. My email address is ian@essentialtennis.com.

Now in wrapping up today’s show, I want to say thank you to several people who have made donations to the Podcast in the last two weeks and I really really appreciate the support of all of you who have made donations– either one time donations or subscription donations to the website and to the Podcast. You guys are really helping me out a great deal both financially in helping to pay for what I do here at Essential Tennis and also emotionally. It really feels good to know that people out there are appreciating the show enough to make a financial donation. Even a $5 donation shows me that you appreciate it and in return I appreciate that very much.

So, let’s say thank you to a couple of people here– First of all Guidare in Texas, I hope I’m pronouncing your name correctly, $20 donation thank you. Ian in Colorado, $60. Gary in Pennsylvania donated $25. Bruce in Florida is a new monthly subscription donor at $5 per month. Kelly in Alabama also a new monthly donor at $5 per month. And then we had three people make their regular monthly donation in the last two weeks– Steve in North Carolina, $5, Bill in Missouri, $10, and Carlotta in New Jersey, $5.

So thank you to all of you guys so much for your donations and if the Essential Tennis Podcast has helped you improve your game, please consider making a donation of any size to the Podcast and I would appreciate that very much. Just go to essentialtennis.com and on the front page in the lower right, there is a button that says ‘donate’.

Alright, that does it for this week. Thanks very much for joining me. Take care and good luck with your tennis. [music]

Essential Tennis Podcast #108

Download: Word Doc | PDF | Kindle | Text

Welcome to the Essential Tennis Podcast. If you love tennis and you want to improve your game, this Podcast is for you.

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

Ian : 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 ProTranscript.com.

Thank you very much for joining me on today’s show and especially if this is the first time that you have listened to the Essential Tennis Podcast– welcome and I appreciate you downloading this episode.

I am going to be giving away a free flip Ultra-HD video camera later this week. Today is Monday, the 8th of March and on the 15th– a week from today– I’m going to be announcing the winner. Stay tuned, I’m going to tell you guys how to enter that contest sometime during today’s show but until then just please enjoy the interview that I have.

Today’s show is excellent– we are going to be discussing power versus control, so listen to this tennis instruction and the conversation I have with my guest. Hopefully it’s going to be instructional and informative to you and give you something to work on that can really help make your tennis game better. And sometime during the show, I’m going to tell you also how you can enter to win that free flip video camera.

So until then, let’s go ahead and get started with the show. Sit back, relax and get ready for some great tennis instruction. [music] [music] [music]

My guest today on the Essential Tennis Podcast is Dave the ‘Koz’ Kozlowski– Dave, welcome to the show.

Dave : Hey Ian, great to be here with you. This is exciting– I know that you are into your third year and you’ve had over 100 of these Podcasts. You are on the cutting edge and you know that. So thanks for having me on and what do you want to talk about tonight?

Ian : Well, let’s kick things off by telling my listeners a little bit about you. I want to make sure that anyone that is not familiar with you or your background, know exactly where you are coming from and how much expertise you have in the game of tennis.

So please tell my listeners a little bit about your background in journalism and broadcast and instruction.

Dave : I’m a humble guy and I’m smiling as you ask me to do this but anything that sounds impressive is only because I’ve hung around the industry long enough and a lot of people have felt sorry for me and have been good to move which has given me a chance to move up through the ranks.

But I’ve been teaching for, I don’t want to say how many decades, but it’s approaching 4 decades. I was lucky enough to get into the industry and to be one of the first 17 master pro’s in the world and that came about because I was up there early for nominations and I got it before it was a lot tougher to get these days.

I was very fortunate to have enough friends in the industry to vote me into USPTA national pro of the year and that was really was a credit to everyone that has helped me along the way more than it was just for me. And as I addressed the group about this award, and certainly, I was very honored and I vividly remember getting this letter– I thought it was just a form letter from the USPTA– but I did open it and I started reading it and all of a sudden it was hard to not finish reading it but I was so emotionally distracted that I had to start from the beginning again. I remember sharing the joy with family members and my wife and it was a very proud, joyous moment.

But then a half hour later I’m on the tennis court and I’m teaching and I get that same high, that same emotional input to that so that this is as good as it gets. So as good as it was getting that award, you get it every day when you are in the teaching industry, when you are relating to somebody.

You quickly find out that you’re not teaching tennis to people but you’re teaching people through tennis and I immediately knew that that’s the award. But as I told so many 1000s of people– this is a numbers game. And there are 1000s of guys like you but one is chosen per year so there are so many guys in the field that will have the ability and the background and the accomplishments to get it. But it’s a numbers game and they may not.

So when I received that award, dedicated to all the guys that were better than I am, that are not going to get this reward just because it’s a numbers game.

But as I have mentioned, people have been good to me and the USPTA in the year 2000 honored me as USPTA broadcaster of the year– and I had no right getting that because I had no formal training and everything I do is hands-on, learning on the spot, trial and error. But it was a passion that came out and I thoroughly enjoyed that opportunity going to all ends of this country and also that I would never have that opportunity in meeting people.

And it’s a funny thing when you have a mic in your hand, all of a sudden people will talk to you. So it’s been a great experience.

Ian : You are a man after my own heart. You not only really enjoy the game of tennis, but you are a person who is passionate about media as well and communicating your enthusiasm to others. – And so I’m really happy to have you on the show and thanks for being here.

Dave : It’s my honor. It’s great to be here.

Ian : So, let’s go ahead and get to our topic today which I think this is going to be an outstanding show and it is kind of a debate or a topic for the ages as it pertains to tennis and especially to those who listen to my show who are recreational-level players, they are club level players, people who are looking for any way that they can possibly improve their tennis game.

And so often the question gets asked, what’s more important? Being able to hit the ball with power or with control and it’s kind of a trick question a little bit. Obviously anybody would say that they would like to have both, but often times when players are just beginning and they have to pick and choose what they are working on, I think a lot of times amateur players get faced with the question– what should I work on first? And control versus power, I think, is kind of a conundrum. So why don’t you kind of kick us off here with some initial thoughts on that question? What is your first reaction to that question?

Dave : Well, my first reaction is that I first all thoroughly enjoy your audience so if they are recreation club players, I know the passion they have for the game, and they are all hungry to improve and to find ways to enjoy it more.

So this is a great topic and it’s an ongoing question– power or control, what comes first. First of all to be successful, you need both.

Let me share a thought here– to be successful in any venue in life– business, education– you need to have a respect for the tradition before. In tennis, you need to have a tradition and a respect for the tradition of the game. But you also need to have a healthy welcome for changes in the game and in technology.

However, I think that most players, in the audience that you are dealing, good recreational players, athletes, but maybe folks that are not going to make the top 1% of the professional ranks. They are better to get a foundation and to get the fundamentals first.

And it’s so important that they establish a base and that base consists of rhythm and it also consists of learning proper footwork and movement. In today’s game where all the emphasis is on speed and power, often times, players find themselves not being able to handle routine situations. They aren’t bad and the extraordinary because they are taught to turn and run and to scamper to the ball. But many times, it’s just a routine shot down the middle and you need to have some motor-memory so that you produce the same shot 1000s of times– but this doesn’t happen at the club level because time doesn’t allow and they are competitive and they’d rather hit 5 minutes of warm-ups and get right into match play so they never really get the shot motor-memorized.

But it’s so important that they try to get a shot that is repeatable and by repeatable, I mean, being able to produce a strong resemblance to the previous shot several times in a row so that it’s a motor-memory type thing. And if you watch other sports like basketball and someone is working on his foul shots, he is going to stand in the same spot and not move more than 2 or 3 inches and just release 50 shots in a row.

Some of the greatest golfers in the game, like Gary Claire will go out there and hit the same repeatable shot 150 times for 50 yards, just trying to get the motor-memory. Paul Azinger on the Rider Cup as a player and a coach, and I’ve seen him do this– both Gary Claire and Paul Azinger were at the club where I was the tennis director and they would come in for golf exhibitions and seminars. He would take 20 balls and put them around a 2 foot area from the cup– he would not do another thing in golf that day until he was able to sink 22 footers.

Well that sounds like a piece of cake doesn’t it? But they do miss, so it’s the importance of getting a repeatable shot. And I think that players really need to have an idea of where the racket is finishing. I remember sitting with some legendary coaches in the game– Ian Crikerton who was from New Zealand, a really fine college coach– and Bill Tims, one of the legends in the game– they really stress the importance of knowing where the racket is finishing with a repeatable-type of excursion.

And we’ve gotten a bit away from that.. It’s very tough for today’s players to watch the pro’s on TV because they are seeing extreme moves and it’s almost as if it’s extreme sports. But they are not playing extreme sports when they go out to play, they are playing routine so they need to get more familiar with routine moves.

And if you watch the great players of the game, Justine Ena, who is as pure as they come on the female side and Roger Federer who is as pure as they come on the male side, they have a rhythmatic side-shuffle step. It’s so important for players to know there is a [inaudible] . And a lot of times, we are taught to get there quickly, to get their early and they get there too soon and all of a sudden they have to stop the move and there is dead time and it’s hard to adjust.

But if you watch the great players, it’s almost as if they are playing a basketball side-shuffle step guarding a man. They are taking two or three rhythmatic steps side-shuffle facing the net then turn and hit on both sides, the forehand and backhand. And I really believe if the average player can learn that rhythm, that everything starts to fall in place. And sometimes if nothing improves except just that rhythmatic footwork, the game is going to improve for them. Their shots are going to get better, their rhythm is going to get better and their arrival time is going to more accurate. They are going to find themselves being in a better strike zone to contact the ball and they are establishing a rhythm.

Ian : Great stuff. One thing that really jumped out to me was you were talking about how often times amateur players can come up with an incredible shot at one point in time and miss a shot later that is completely routine and as both a teacher and a player, when I go out to play, I don’t think there is anything more frustrating to me than for me myself, or one of my students to miss the easy shots, to miss the routine shots that should be repeatable or we should have a rhythm to those shots.

So let’s talk about how can my listeners better obtain that rhythm and you talked about basketball players practicing the free throw and you talked about golfers practicing two foot puts– so what is the equivalent for that and especially keeping in mind the people who are listening to this show are often times not members of clubs where they are able to go and hire a professional instructor to actually run them through drills and have that expertise in person. Some of them do, but for my listeners who maybe don’t have that luxury, how can they go out there and train themselves to have this repeatable follow through and this rhythm that you’re talking about?

Dave : I think that is a great question and it’s all about motor-memory so that when the ball comes– the big downfall in any sport– it happens in golf, it happens in tennis when the ball is lying there in a golf swing, or the ball is coming in a tennis bounce– when you try to do something to the ball. When you try to hit it, that’s when various body parts get involved with the swing and too many body parts are being involved or the wrong body parts are too active.

So the idea is to literally– and the pros do this because they have sparring partners– they are hitting 1000s of balls every day in a non-competitive situation so that it just becomes instinctive and it becomes motor-memorized.

The best thing is to try to set a pattern and it’s a proven study that a new habit will be formed after 1800 reps. So if you break that down to any month, 30 days, if you do this habit 60 times a day for 30 days, that’s 1800 times, then it becomes instinctive. So when that ball is arriving on your right hand side of your forehand, you’re not trying to do something to do it. You’re not trying to think of what you want to do to it, it’s just motor-memory. And simple motor-memory activities can be– and I’m a strong believer that on the forehand, you really want to have more upper dominance out of the shoulder than you want to out of the hands.

The hands are needed to locate the ball, to find the ball. But once you find the ball, the lower arm from the elbow to the wrist stays still and there is more movement out of the shoulder, the bigger muscle.

So simply what you want to try to do and if you buy into this concept, anatomically when we stand still, there is a gap between the shoulder and the chin. The gap between the shoulder and the chin is about 6-8 inches. So on a daily basis, if you just merely take the hitting shoulder– let’s say you’re right-handed– take the right shoulder and touch the chin 60 times a day so it’s automatic — with a rack in your hand or without — and any of these motor-memory exercises can be done in the office, on the road in a hotel, then can be done in your house where it’s not needed to have a racket but you are actually getting the motor-memory of the motion taking place. 60 times a day, 30 days, your right shoulder travels and touches your chin — that’s one. The right shoulder travels and touches the chin, that’s two.

Another good exercise is to actually swing and as you swing, catch the racket in the left hand so that you are giving yourself a reference on extending the arm. And we’re so involved with power and you’ll see some of the great players finish in a bent elbow position on the forehand but before they’ve got there Ian, you and I know that there is a period of extension so they are extending but it’s happening so quickly that the average viewer see’s the quick snap of the elbow and the wrist and they feel that this is the way they hit the ball.

Eventually that’s the way to finish at the extraordinary and high level but leading up to that, you can’t go wrong and you’ll see the William’s sisters go back to the roots and actually catch the racket on some of their forehand finishes. Are they doing it to correct something from their previous shots? I don’t know.

Are they doing it to extend out to form a good habit? I don’t know that either. Whatever they are doing, they are actually practicing extension. So our listeners can 60 times let the right shoulder touch their chin at the same time they’re doing that, catch the racket in the left hand. All of a sudden they are getting motor-memory on what the excursion should be taking place on the forehand.

So the next time the ball comes, they are not trying to do something to it. It’s automatic, motor-memory response.

Ian : There is something I’d like to hit on that you talked about that really hit a cord with me… A couple minutes ago you mentioned that when amateur players see the ball coming towards them, often times they make the mistake of actually trying to do something to it. And I’d like to go back to that for a second. I first heard this concept on a golf Podcast– I’m actually a golfer as well.

Dave : I did not steal this from a golfer but I use that concept because if you try to do something to the golf ball, you are in trouble baby.

Ian : Absolutely.

Dave : And the average player, if you try to do something to it, you are in trouble again. Our biggest fear in tennis at the most entry level is being afraid of missing the ball when he or she swings.

So the attempt is ‘I’m going to make sure I don’t miss that ball baby. ‘ Then all of a sudden, they have to make lots of adjustments and compromises to just find where the ball is because they are so inhibited about missing the ball that all of a sudden things don’t flow.. They don’t become a motor-memorized activity.

So, just like the golfer, you really cannot try to do something to the ball and that’s when things are going to break down. But I interrupted you, so finish your good thought.

Ian : The instructor that I had heard talking about this and it really struck me when I heard him say it, the person who was interviewing him had asked him if you had to choose one thing that amateur golfers do poorly, what would it be that you think they should improve? And he said ‘amateur golfers so often try to hit the ball instead of learning a good stroke and a good technique and simply allowing the ball to get in the way of that swing. ‘

And that just struck me as being so profound that amateur players often times, for instructors like you and me it’s easy to pick out a lower level player because they are often times so tense and so tight. I’m curious what your thoughts are on how having a repeatable swing and having that muscle memory and having that grooved into play, goes hand in hand with being relaxed and loose and more efficient physically.

Dave : Well, first of all my primary goal with anybody on the tennis court is to make sure that he or she has a good time. I never want to turn them off with too much technique, too much instruction. That’s the most fun for me because for us, it’s a science and I often times will ask teaching pros ‘how many of you teaching pros are teaching for selfish reasons?’ And everybody is a bit uncomfortable and won’t raise their hand and I raise my hand and say ‘well it’s obvious, but we have to do it for a living. Wouldn’t the world be great if we could teach everybody who wanted to play and not have to charge. But that’s not the real world.

How many of you are actually selfish that you actually want to learn more than your student is learning? And a few more raised their hand and I raised my hand because my goal when I go out to teach someone is to walk off that court learning as much if not more than he or she has learned so that I’m learning from them and can then pass that on to future students where I’m planning new innovative ways of doing it. – I need to get back to your question that you asked me which was what again Ian?

Ian : I was curious…

Dave : I had a better answer then I had a response for the question.. Ask it again if you don’t mind.

Ian : I was curious what your thoughts were on the relationship between amateur players trying to do something to the ball or trying to hit it too much as opposed to just having a repeatable swing– I was curious what your thoughts were on the connection between that and being loose and relaxed and being able to be consistent. We’ve all seen Federer play and how easy he makes it look. It looks like his body– he looks like some kind of dancer out there.

Dave : Very smooth. Very rhythmic and there is a real cadence that he brings to tennis and he is a great model to watch and he is so effortless in all of his moves.

I will answer the question that you did ask me and I think one of the key things is for them to try to minimize the body movement. And it’s amazing with your golf background, you know this for a fact that some people cannot swing a golf club and retain their balance. The golf club takes the body all over the place and this happens certainly in tennis where people swing and all of sudden they lose some balance and in the process of losing their balance, they have to make adjustments or compromises with other body parts to try to get the body back in balance.

Well this happens to the great players but they can control the balance and regain balance much better. One of the goals needs to be how well can you swing and actually hold your balance in place?

One of the greatest all time– and I’m not saying just tennis coaches, because this guy was touted by Sports Illustrated as being the best coach in sports. Not just tennis, in sports and his name is Welby Van Horn– he is still alive and he’s out in Palm Springs. He was the mentor of several outstanding world class players and one of them that he taught in Peurto Rico, one of them was Charlie Pasarel. And if you’ve ever watched him 30 years ago on three days in a row he had wins against Ash, over Laver and Emerson– bang, bang, bang.

And one of the key things with Van Horne was to try to hold the balance in place with some deliberate extension for 3 seconds. And of course I’ve used it for decades after hearing him say hold balance and to hold the racket in place for three seconds.

One thing that I try to do with students when they are hitting to one another– so Ian, if you and I are going out to rally and you hit the ball and it bounces and I still get it back to you and you are at the baseline and I’m at the baseline, in my mind try to hold that balance until my ball lands on your side of the court then I’ll come back to a neutral position. If you get players to do this, and they can do this by themselves, and I learned my tennis on the recreation courts and we had to find ways where there is a wall so maybe there is a way.

So anybody can do this with another practice partner but that’s a little tough and that’s another episode in itself that so many players practice for themselves but they don’t practice for their sparring partner, their practice partner. If they would realize that the more they hit to this player, the more balls they get coming back and it becomes beneficial for both.

But getting back to the comment is to actually hold your balance in place. One thing that I do on the forehand and most times if somebody is taking private training, I will spend two minutes working on lead-ups, ie a two handed forehand. And one of the things that I really try to emphasize is a continuous motion in two areas– a continuous motion in the foot work and a continuous motion in the back swing.

So the feet are moving and the racket is moving and we are referring to a loop right now, so they learn the rhythm about when to take it back and the speed at which to take it back, so I’ll have everybody that really wants to try to improve, buy into this and spend a few minutes working on the side shuffle-step delivery and a two handed lead-up. And what it does, is it gets them closer to the ball. They’ve got to bring the strike zone in move and anatomically they’ve got to bend the knees. They’ve got to get lower. They find themselves coiling the shoulders then uncoiling the shoulders. And all this stuff is a pleasant lead-up to a one-handed forehand.

So I’ll have them do that for 2 or 3 minutes but then, I’ll have them go to one hand and you’ll have to listen to this closely because it sounds inane, it sounds stupid but they will hold the racket in the right hand, swing, contact the ball but the moment they contact it, let go of the right hand, catch it in the left, pull it as far out as they can with the left so they do not try to direct or guide the racket and that their shoulder doesn’t get locked in– they don’t get muscular in their shoulder.

Some of the best forehands they hit that day are these shots where they literally hit the ball with their right hand, grab, catch in the left hand so they are letting go of the racket. And I see this tremendously helping players in learning how to relax the arm. And it sounds silly but what they are doing is allowing their racket head to become more dominant and the racket head starts doing some work. So after they do this for a couple of minutes, then they do the same grab and catch but they retain the right hand on and all of a sudden. They have that motor-memory swing where it is the same swing repeated each time.

Ian : Well guys, I want to get to at least one more question here before we run out of time.

Dave : Didn’t you ever hear that there were no clocks in heaven, nor are there any clocks on the tennis court. I’ve never looked at a clock when talking tennis.

Ian : Well unfortunately, I have to watch it. I wish I didn’t because I have kind of a tradition on the Podcast especially when guests are on the show, time just flies. That’s how I know I’ve got a good guest on the show– it’s gone by incredibly fast.

I’ve got one more question I’d love to get your thoughts on. Earlier in the show when you and I were talking, you mentioned that both control and power do have their place in tennis. And all of our time so far has been spent talking about getting a rhythm, having a repeatable swing. Getting repeatable results.

So I’m curious what your thoughts are on when is it appropriate– let’s say we have an amateur, club level player, who is really starting to become a student of the game and they are working hard on their tennis. They are hitting with the wall, with practice partners. They are working hard on being consistent. When is it appropriate for this player to them start working on developing weapons and being able to hit with more power?

Dave : That’s a very good question and the answer that I may have to give is that it has to come quickly because they see all the speed in the game. They want to reproduce that speed. They want to certainly emulate that type of game. So that’s got to be exposed quickly and I have a friend that we would discuss a lot of tennis with and he’s been in the industry as long as I have and a former great coach. But he would spend a lot of time on this ball control where they would have to hit 5 or 6 balls behind the service line and that sounds like a piece of cake until some players try to do it.

You’ve got to be able to keep the ball at will behind the service line 5 or 6 times in a row. And they would spend a lot of time working on control and trying to reproduce the same swing, the same shot. Then he would tell them at the second half of working on the forehand, and he might do this on the forehand or backhand, it doesn’t matter.

Now I want you with the same swing, and trying to keep the same body control, and almost the same finish, now to allow the racket head to speed up. Now, let me see how hard you can hit it.

And one of the key things is that players and we have all levels of club player, some players never really develop the confidence to allow the racket head to speed up and sometimes you can ask a very simple question. Should the racket speed up or slow down as it approaches the ball? Well everyone knows that the racket should speed up but some players may not know that or appreciate that. You absolutely need to feel that as the racket gets closer to the ball, you want the racket to be speeding up. So it’s a slow start, a medium pace, middle there when the racket is gaining some speed but at the end, the racket is speeding up.

So I think it’s important that when they warm up, they spend time on consistency and that they are also allowed to get back to the baseline and try to hit hard offensive shots. Now one thing that seems to help as well as anything is that and this sounds extraordinary and its certainly an overload principle– you want them to not hit the ball out of bounds obviously. But you want them to get it as deep to the baseline as you can because depth allows anybody to play with better players and they can’t take advantage of you as you are on neutral terms.

But if one puts a towel or a target 6 feet behind the baseline, and now I tell John, ‘John let’s rally the ball but I want you to try to hit that ball so it lands near the towel. ‘ Yes, it’s 6 feet out– I know that and you know that. But that’s where I want you to think where you are aiming and all of the sudden starts to speed up the racket and starts to instinctively to get the ball deeper and he hits it harder but he also aims it higher so without really programming it, now you’re working on a lot of power. He’s keeping the control but he’s allowing the racket head to speed up and 90% of the balls do not go outside of the baseline. They fall half way between the service line and the base line and maybe a third of the way behind the mid-court that they are botched 6 feet into the baseline.

So it’s important to do both and the same coach that I refer to Jim Fredrica, an old friend, he would have a practice one day a week for his Michigan State team, a Big 10 school, and how many balls do you think he’d give every twosome to go out and practice that one. One ball between Ian and me. So that day, you obviously worked on some ball control. So he mixed it nicely and a lot of our players probably need to go out with 6 balls max to keep the ball in play and then they can start to speed it up and get some confidence to hit up. But they need both, no doubt about it.

Although, if I had a chose between a high school kid who had power but not accuracy or consistency and a kid who kept more balls in play, if I wanted a winning record that year I’d opt to play him compared to the guy who misses more but has the power. And that’s not going to motivate any of our listeners, I know that, but it tells the story.

Ian : Thank you so much for spending this time with me and you’re a perfect fit for this show. Your enthusiasm for the game and instruction of the game is very obvious and evident and I know my listeners are going to enjoy listening to this conversation a great deal.

So thank you so much for being on the show with me.

Dave : Hey I like your listeners. Let me tell your listeners something– remember in tennis scoring love means nothing, but love of the game means everything. You keep alive your love of the game as you do and you have your tennis listeners keep their love of their game and I love you all. Thanks for having me on.

Ian : People, please check out indietennis.com as that is where can catch Koz’s material and he’s got some audio content there you can check out and Koz, I hope that I can have you back on the show in the future.

Dave : It would be my pleasure and I look forward to it. [music] [music]

Ian : Alright, that does it for this week’s episode of the Essential Tennis Podcast, episode #108.

Thank you very much for joining me today and let’s go ahead and get to the flip cam giveaway. In order to enter yourself into the draw for a free flip cam, and there is lots of other prizes to be given away as well. If you haven’t checked that out yet, go to essentialtennis.com/contest and there is a list of all the prizes I’m going to be giving away including that flip cam.

In order to enter, all you guys need to do is go to essentialtennis.com/flip. And you’ll be taken to just a little form to fill out– just three things, your name, your email address and whether or not you’ve heard the Podcast before– that’s it. And you’ll be entered automatically into the drawing and a week from today, on episode #109, I will be announcing all of the winners in that contest.

So good luck to you and thank you very much for listening today and for your entry. I’m looking forward to giving away all those prizes.

And if this was your first time listening, I release this show every Monday– every single Monday I put out a new episode all about improving your tennis game and tennis instruction.

Check it out on iTunes, it’s the number one rated tennis instruction Podcast on iTunes and you can subscribe to it there. That’s definitely the easiest way to get the show every week.

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

Essential Tennis Podcast #107

Download: Word Doc | PDF | Kindle | Text

Welcome to the Essential Tennis Podcast. If you love tennis and want to improve your game, this podcast is for you. Whether it’s technique, strategy, equipment, or the mental game, tennis professional Ian Westermann is here to make you a better player. And now, here’s Ian!

Ian : 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 ProTranscript.com.

Thank you very much for joining me today, and before we get to our two questions that I’m going to be answering from listeners, I want to tell you guys about a contest that’s going to be running all during next week. I just want to give you guys a heads up on this– I’m going to be giving away a free Flip Ultra HD digital video camera.

And for those of you who are on the Internet looking for tennis instruction, which if you’re listening to this Podcast, I’m going to go ahead and assume you are. And you know that video is a huge part of what’s going on now as far as learning more about tennis and technique etc.

And when you have the ability to record yourself and look at your strokes and look at what you’re doing– it’s such a huge tool. So I want to give a lucky person out there the ability to do that with HD video and the flip cam is awesome for this– I’ve been using this myself.

So I’m giving one away, and all you’re going to have to do is listen to podcast #108 which is going to be out a week from today and during that show, I’m going to give you guys the details one exactly how you can enter into that contest to win the flip-cam and a lot of other stuff as well.

So make sure you tune in next week– you’re going to want to hear the podcast as soon as possible so that you can get entered right away into that contest.

Alright, let’s get down to business. Sit back, relax and get ready for some great tennis instruction. [music] [music]

Alright, let’s go ahead and get going and our first question today comes from Fred in Washington State and he wants to have a little discussion about open versus closed stance in your tennis game. He wrote to me and said ‘you recently talked about open and closed stances but you didn’t seem to mention how closed and over-closed stances are typically used when running around back-hands and or working around jam shots. As working around being jammed, what is the best way to handle being jammed up on a serve– like being served at the left foot for a right hander– is the correct move to step back hard with the right foot and hit a closed or over-closed forward return rather than some awkward and wimpy shot? At 3. 5 and perhaps higher, I find a lot of the more successful servers tend to use jam serves instead of going wide for aces because correctly working around jam returns, is generally a weakness for a lot of players. On wide servers, returners get a racket on a wide shot, can frequently get a return using the power of the serve, plus unlike a wide serve, a jam serve has a lot of court space to miss and will still be a good serve.

He means that you are basically aiming for the middle of the box so you’ve got a good margin for error there.

Alright Fred, thank you for the great question, and yeah, the jam serve is definitely one that is underused– Fred says he sees it being used quite often at a 3. 5 level and that is really good tactically. That’s a great play for the people you are seeing doing this.

Now, before we get going with exactly how to move your feet, to get around this shot, I want to do everybody a favor here and give the three main types of stances and give a quick definition of those so you guys know exactly what I’m referring to here. And there is basically three main types of stances that you can have at any point in time– open, square, or closed. A square stance is sometimes referred to as a neutral stance as well. We’ll start off with a square stance, or a neutral stance. A square stance is one where your body is lined up 90 degrees to the baseline and your feet are making a line that is perpendicular to the baseline.

So if you are right-handed, and you have a forehand coming your way, your left foot would be pointing straight to the right– if you are looking at the net– and that is forwards to the right would be the direction that both your right and left feet are pointing and if you drew a line between the toes on your right foot, and the toes on your left foot, they would make a perpendicular particular line across the baseline. So your 90 degrees turn with your stance to the baseline. That’s really the main way to visualize it, is if you drew a line between your feet– between the tip of your right foot and the tip of your left foot– if you drew a line and continued it, it would bisect the baseline at 90 degrees.

OK, so that’s a square stance or it’s also called a neutral stance. Now a closed stance is one where your left foot is farther across your body then square. So you’re not 90 degree anymore, rather than that line being 90 degrees to the baseline– it’s now closed, which means that if you are a right handed player getting ready to hit a forehand, your left foot would be more to the right. So that would be creating a more closed stance– your back would be more facing towards the net, and your chest would be more facing towards the back of the court. This is a closed stance.

Fred used the term over closed which I’m pretty sure he meant closed. I’ve never heard the phrase over close before but closed is typically what is being used to refer to a stance that is more than 90 degrees. And again, your back is facing more towards the net and your chest facing more towards the back fence. That would be a closed stance.

An open stance is the opposite, your left foot is more to the left. If you are a right hander and getting ready for a forehand, that opens you up more if you just stay straight and you are twisting or turning your upper body at all, now your chest is more facing towards the net and a wide open stance would actually have you facing straight forwards and the tips of toes pointing straight forwards and if we drew a line between the tips of your feet, the line would be parallel to the baseline.

That’s a wide open stance. And there is all kinds of different stances in between. The ones I just mentioned, open is parallel to the baseline. Square or neutral is perpendicular to the baseline and closed is past perpendicular to the baseline. I guess you could say a full closed stance would be parallel to the baseline the other way where your back is completely facing towards the net. That would be completely closed as opposed to completely open where your chest is facing towards the net instead of your back.

Alright, now that we have that out of the way, let’s go ahead and continue talking about the different ways we can move our feet to get around shots that are jamming. And the most common are return-of-serve, which Fred mentioned, and volleys as well.

Players very often get jammed up by volleys when they are at the net. Now the worst thing you can do when you start getting jammed up by a shot, is nothing. Do not stand there and let the ball jam you.

The closer the ball gets to your body, the more inhibited you are in terms of different techniques that you can use to hit the ball. Everything gets jammed up– your arm or racket gets close to you and it’s very difficult to hit an effective shot.

So you’ve got to do something and it’s a good idea to practice moving your feet to get around a jamming shot. You’ve just got to make an attempt to get in a comfortable position.

So, what should you do? And I’m going to talk about two different circumstances here, one where the ball is coming right at you, and the other that Fred was talking about, when the ball is kind of on one side or the other a little bit, but it’s coming into your body, it’s not going to be a comfortably positioned shot if you just stand there and do nothing.

Let’s talk first about a shot that comes directly at you. First of all, I want you guys to pick the stronger side– when the ball is coming directly at you, you’ve got your choice. You can pick either a forehand or a backhand and you should be picking the one that you are most confident and comfortable with. Don’t feel like you have to hit a forehand or you have to hit a forehand. You should practice moving towards your more confident side so that you can hit the best shot possible. And for myself, it’s my forehand and whenever I possibly have the choice between a backhand and a forehand, I always hit a forehand because my forehand is better so tactically it just makes sense to make as many forehands as possible.

So how do you do this? Well you want to pivot around your opposite foot, around back in a circle– let me explain this: For those of you that are right handed, I just want you guys to visualize this– let’s pretend that you are getting ready to return serve and your opponent hits a hard flat serve, that is coming right at your body and again, you’re right-handed and what I said was pivot around your foot. So if you are right-handed, I’m going to say your opposite is your left foot and what you want to do is pivot around that foot and turn your body back. And so your right foot should pivot back around your left to get yourself turned to the side. And once you get yourself in a square stance, where your right foot has pivoted back around behind your left and you are in a square stance, at that point you would want to take several small quick steps on the balls of your feet to move yourself back. And that would end up moving yourself to the left, to move yourself out of the way of the oncoming ball, and that’s going to move your body out of the way of the ball and allow you to hit at the right side of your body.

Let me repeat that one more time– so you are in a ready position facing forwards, you identify the ball is coming right at you, you are going to want to take your right foot, pivot around your left foot which is going to stay planted to allow you to turn your body back. Turn yourself back so you are in a square stance, take several small steps back which is going to end up being to the left side of the court, and take several small quick little steps to move yourself out of the way of the oncoming ball.

That’s the best footwork that you can possibly use to get yourself out of the way. If you are a lefty, it would be the opposite– you would take your left foot and pivot it around your right foot and then move yourself back quickly towards the right.. assuming you are trying to hit a forehand.

If you are trying to hit a backhand, it would be the opposite. But this pivoting and turning and taking quick little steps on the balls of your feet, is the most important part. That’s what’s going to actually move yourself out of the way. That’s the best footwork to use.

Now what if the ball is coming to one hip or another or as Fred described it, he said a righty with the ball coming towards his left foot. And I can tell you guys that in College tennis when I was playing doubles, we would commonly aim for hips. So if I was playing a righty, I would aim for their left hip and try to jam them up on their backhand side. That would be a common way for me to communicate that to my partner. If the ball is coming towards one side or the other, but it is not comfortable– if it’s not giving you enough space that you are able to hit a comfortable, confident swing and it’s going to be jamming you up, then it depends on how difficult exactly the shot is.

If you have enough time, pick your stronger side and still move in that direction. So, Fred was mentioning a serve that comes at his left foot– well Fred, if you’ve got the time to get around it and you can hit a forehand, then do it if your forehand is better. Don’t settle for a backhand if you don’t have to. If you have time to get around it, do use your forehand swing– you just better make sure that you’ve got enough time to get around that ball and you would use the same footwork that I’ve described for when the ball comes directly at you.

If you don’t have enough time and the ball is really getting on top of you quickly and you don’t have a chance to get around and hit your more confident shot, then you are going to have to unfortunately settle for your backhand side or whatever side the ball happens to be coming towards.

And at that point, you would do the same footwork but you would just pivot around the other way. So for you, a backhand, you would take that left foot, pivot it back around your right, and take those quick steps to the right to move your body out of the way. And this is something you guys need to practice– and you can practice it without even being on a tennis court– just practice the footwork, and practice doing it quickly. And pivoting, moving back, probably two or three quick little steps to get to the side, then make your swing. Go back to a ready position, and do it again.

It’s important to practice this stuff so in the middle of a match, you guys can do it without thinking about it. And obviously, doing this on a practice court, would be very valuable as well.

Now let me talk briefly about volleys. I’ve mentioned that volleys are the other shot that people tend to get jammed during. And the reason for this, is you are close to the net. And so you don’t always have a lot of time to react to the ball. It’s not like getting a groundstroke where the ball is bouncing and you’ve got time to set yourself up. The ball is coming right at you, and there is very little time to react to the shot.

Now, to avoid it, I’ve got a couple things for you guys to keep in mind and to do. First of all, you must learn how to use a split step– this is very important. If you are not split stepping already, you’ve got to start doing it and this goes for the return of serve too, but especially for the volleys because of your lack of time. You’ve got to get yourself in a wide, ready position on the balls of your feet. You’ve got to get your feet moving before the ball starts coming to you so that you’re activated and your body is ready to move and your kind of up on your toes, and ready to go. You’ve got to have that physical readyness to be able to move out of the way of these shots. You cannot be flat-footed and effectively move out of the way of the ball when it comes right at you.

So that’s number 1– the split-step. Number 2– go ahead and have a mentality and assume that you are going to have to move somewhere. Do not be complacent either mentally or physically when you are at the net. You don’t have the time to be lazy. And the split-step is the physical part of it and mentally, you just need to be alert and aware and just assume you are going to have to move somewhere. And I think a lot of times where club players make a mistake and really get jammed is they are just waiting for the ball. And they are just like ‘alright, ball, come get to me. And whenever the ball gets to me, I’m going to hit my volley’, and that’s not good enough.

You need to have an assumption or a readyness in your head when this ball gets hit by my opponent, I’m going to move somewhere– it might be to my right, it might be to my left, or the ball might come right at me and I’m going to have to move somewhere.

Don’t ever think that it’s just going to come right to your racket because it’s just not going to happen very often. Now, the last thing I’m going to mention here as far as the volleys go– keep in mind everbody, that a backhand volley is going to be easier to hit when you are being jammed and a lot of club players prefer their forehand volley which is a shame because they go through this big movement with their feet to try to get out of the way with their forehand, when a backhand is a lot easier to hit when you do get jammed up.

And the reason for this is, your elbow and your arm can slide out of the way and move out to your dominant side. So if you are right handed, your right elbow would drag out to your right from a ready position, and your racket face can go ahead and slide it right in front of your body. And so you can hit with the backhand side of your racket literally, right in front of your body, if it’s an extreme emergency and you cannot get out of the way of the ball. You can slide your arm to your right and get the racket right in front of you and you can play a defensive volley that way. Try to do that with a forehand, it’s very difficult– it’s virtually impossible to hit the same shot that is coming directly at your stomach with a forehand volley– so keep that in mind, that a backhand is probably going to be your best friend when you really get into a pickle and that is a tough situation at the net.

Alright, I’m going to add one more thing– when you do get jammed and you have time to get out of the way at the net, it’s the same footwork as on the groundstrokes. You want to pivot around your opposite foot, get out of the way, and get your body to the side so that you can make contact at the side of your body when you are up there at the net. And I’m going to close with that on this topic. Fred, thanks very much for your question. I really appreciate the great topic for me to talk about and if you have any further questions about this stuff, let me know.

Thanks very much for being a listener. [music] [music] [music] [music]

OK, next up I’d like to recognize a couple of very important people who sent in donations over the last two weeks. First of all, James in the UK, donated $10. John in California donated $100 to the podcast. Thank you very much John.

Also, Gerrard in Germany donated $50 and I apologize if I’m not pronouncing your name correctly. Dan in Washington State donated $50 to the show– thank you Dan. And I had two regular subscription donors– one from Shelley in New Mexico with a $10 subscription payment this month and John M in Texas with a $5 subscription donation. Thank you guys very much.

So to you six, thank you guys for your donations– I really appreciate it. It really helps me out as the normal expenses I have from week to week and month to month as I continue to run the website and the Podcast, and continue to try to improve them. And if the Podcast has helped you and has helped you improve your game, I would really appreciate your support, if you could do a monthly donation or a one-time donation either way, I always appreciate it so much.

So thank you to you six and if you would like to donate to the show, simply go to essentialtennis. Com and there is a link on the lower right that says donate. [music] [music] [music] Alright, let’s get back to the and we’ve got one here from Gorren and I don’t have a location on Gorren, but he is a 3. 5 player and he wrote to me and said ‘How do I effectively play in windy conditions? Could you address serving strategies and ground strokes? I understand a lot on proper footwork but is there anything else? I have a good attacking top spin forehand but every time during a windy match, my forehands seem to be sailing out a lot or into the net and it really hurts to see my forte go away like that.

Sure Gorrad, I’d be happy to talk about that and I’ve got an outline here that is going to discuss several things that you really need to pay close attention too in the wind. And this is something that all of us have to deal with at some point or another and I’m actually a little surprised that I’ve yet to talk about this. This is going to be the first time that I’ve talked about playing in windy conditions, but it’s such an important thing to understand and to practice.

A lot of times, where I work, where we have both indoor and outdoor courts, when conditions get really windy people like to go inside where it’s easier– don’t do that. If you guys have the option, don’t run away from elements like that, whether it be sun or wind or outside distractions… Put yourself in the middle of these situations to make yourself a tougher player so that you learn how to deal with stuff like this. First of all, Gorran talks about foot work. Foot work is key and this is the first thing that you need to be aware of– and I’ve got four different things that you guys can use to help yourselves out in the wind.

The first one is foot work– I’m not going to spend a lot of time on this as it kind of goes without saying, you cannot stop moving your feet at any time, ever, when you are playing in really windy conditions. The ball will continue to move, it will float from side to side or maybe bounce higher or lower than you are used to and it will catch you off guard. That’s just a given when you are playing in really windy conditions and so you have to anticipate that and expect it and you’ve got to continue to move your feet. A lot of little steps, quick little steps and continuing to improve your position, even when you think you are in the right spot, just keep moving your feet so that you are kind of already going and you are ready to move if the way the ball bounces or travels in the air catches you off guard. So that’s number one of four. You’ve got to keep your feet moving.

Number two– mentally prepare yourself to play safer. You cannot play usually, well I’m going to go ahead and say never, you should never play as aggressively as you normally do in really windy conditions. And adjustments you should make are aiming farther inside the lines– so if you get an easy forehand and it’s a shot that you would normally aim three feet from the line in trying to pressure your opponent. Give yourself five feet or four feet. Give yourself extra room– you cannot afford to hit your same normal aggressive shots whenever you would normally hit aggressive. You can’t hit as aggressively as the wind is going to make changes to your shot that you are probably not always going to be aware of.

So when it’s really windy, make it a little safer as far as your target is concerned. So be a little bit less aggressive. Also, more height over the net– using more top spin is very important. You cannot afford to be inpatient and annoyed also. — Actually let me go back to the second to last one– the more height with top spin, make sure that it is with top spin and your not just floating the ball up into the air where the wind can grab it and carry it too far. If you are not able to hit with a lot of top spin on your ground strokes, then be careful with this and it depends on which direction the wind is blowing exactly. But be aware of the direction of the wind, and if you are not able to hit with top spin to pull the ball back down into the court again, then just be careful. You just can’t be as aggressive.

If you are able to hit with heavy topspin, that would be the best because you can aim higher over the net and the top spin will help pull the ball back down into the court again. That’s really ideal to be able to hit with heavy top spin and give yourself some good clearance over the net to make it a safer shot. – And as far as mentally preparing yourself to play safer, be patient. Don’t get easily annoyed. You are going to make mistakes that you probably normally don’t and you can’t afford to be inpatient and get angry and start hitting aggressively and trying to finish the points quickly– at least not most of the time unless you are just having a really good day which in the wind, normally doesn’t happy, but let’s be honest, normally we don’t have good days in the wind.

So, you’ve got to be patient and be safe and take your time out there. You don’t want to rush yourself because you’ll probably rush into more and more errors. And that tends to snowball for a lot of people and they’ll kind of get annoyed and frustrated and as a reaction to that, they’ll hit even mor agressively and make even more mistakes and that’s just something that you cannot afford to do.

So that was number 2– mentally prepare yourself.

Number 3, you must be able to adjust your targets based on the wind. Here is what I mean by that, it depends on the direction of the wind. If you’ve got a wind that’s blowing from side to side, so from right ot left or vice versa, the ball is going to drift into that direction. And as this becomes a pattern, you have to account for it based on which side you are on and that means if the wind is blowing strongly from your right to your left, and you’re hitting a cross court forehand and you are right handed, you’ve got to give yourself more margin for error and hopefully you’ve already got a lot of experience practicing aiming. I’ve talked a lot in other podcasts about practicing your groundstrokes and having a target.

Hopefully you’ve done a lot of that and you’ve aimed for targets, specifically, so that when you get out in the wind, and you are playing in tough conditions, you can literally adjust that target closer inside the lines or closer to the lines. Maybe you are hitting into the wind and let’s say the wind is blowing from your left to your right and you’re trying to hit a cross court forehand on your right side– so you are hitting into the wind. Well now you’ve got to adjust your target to be more to the left than you normally would. So you’ve got to be able to make these adjustments and to do this, you’ve got to have some practice hitting for a physically target on the court so you can that you can make these adjustments.

Now if the wind is back to front, if it’s blowing either at your face or at your back, then your shots are either going to sail much farther or they aren’t going to travel anywhere at all. And Gorren, it sounds like this is where you have a hard time because you talked about your forehand always going out or always going into the net when you are playing in the wind. So it sounds like this is where you really have the most trouble and this is difficult on ground strokes. And examples of this would be if the wind is blowing really strongly at your back, you cannot hit the same ground stroke that you normally would. The wind can really carry an aggressively hit ground stroke. So when it is really blowing hard at your back, you’ve got to aim a little lower and you need to put more top spin on the ball. Again, for those of you who don’t know how to hit top spin, god help you. You are really just going to have to aim lower to keep the ball from going farther and you’ll probably end up having to pull back on your strokes as well and not hit quite as aggressively.

If you do know how to hit with top spin, you should hit with more top spin, less drive. You should not be trying to hit the ball quite as hard but really make it loop and make it come back down into the court– you cannot afford to just hit the ball up in the air and have the wind carry it. You’ve got to put some good top spin on it to have it come back down.

Now if the wind is blowing at your face really hard, then it’s the opposite. You’ve got to get the ball up into the air because we’ve got to make it carry. We need to make it go farther otherwise it’s going to miss into the net or even if you don’t hit the net, everything is going to land short and weak because of the wind that is blowing into your face.

So when this is happening, you’ve got to hit more of an aggressive shot. You’ve got to get more height so that the ball travels farther and you’re not hitting everything into the net or short.

Those are some specific examples of things and adjustments you are going to have to make when it is really windy out. So that was number three– you’ve got to be able to make target adjustments based on the wind.

Number 4, use the wind to your advantage. And you guys can actually take windy conditions and use them to work for you if you are smart and if you really look for your opportunities. I’m just going to mention two specific examples here to give you some ideas but you can find other ways to use wind as well.

One specific situation might be to match up your strength that you already have with the wind. For example, if you are right handed and you have a good slice serve on the deuce side and you are right handed, and you are good at serving out wide, if the wind is blowing from your right to your left, that is perfect. And go out there and really try to kick that slice serve out wide and you are going to have to aim a little more to the right than you normally do because the wind is going to carry the ball farther to the left. So you can’t aim for the line, you are going to have to aim inside the line, probably a couple more feet than you normally do. It depends on how strong the wind is exactly. But when the wind is blowing hard from your right to your left, use that good slice serve and really put a tonne of spin on it and the ball is going to travel way out to the left and travel from right to left more than it normally would and that’s a way that you can actually use the wind.

And another example I have is to come to the net when the wind is at your back. When the wind is blowing into your opponents face really hard and it’s making it difficult for them to hit shots that are very penetrating and very pressuring to you because the wind is kind of holding their shots back. Come up to the net, it’s going to make passing shots and lobs very difficult for them– so pressure them. And do it on purpose– if the wind is really blowing at your back, just kind of put the ball up into the air and have the wind carry it deep into their side of the court, run into the net and put yourself there and challenge them. Say, ‘alright, let’s see if you can hit a passing shot into the wind past me. ‘ Or hit a lob that doesn’t sit up really easy for me because the wind is blowing in your face.

So if you really think critically and think about what is going on around you, you can use the wind to your advantage. It doesn’t always have to be something that is terrible although I understand it can be very difficult.

So Gorren, there is my advice to you and the four tips again were– use tonnes of footwork, you’ve got to use your feet a lot.

Mentally prepare yourself to play safer. You have to be able to adjust your targets based on the wind.

And finally, use the wind to your advantage when you have the chance.

So thanks very much for your question Gorren, hopefully this is helpful to you and let me know if you have anything further. [music] [music] [music]

That does it for this week’s episode of the Essential Tennis Podcast– episode number #107. Remember to definitely tune in next week, and episode #108 will be coming out on March 8th 2010.

Usually I release them late morning or early afternoon EST. Not always, but usually around that time on Monday– so a week from today on Monday the 8th, definitely get that podcast as soon as you can so that you can submit your entry to be able to win that free flip cam, the Ultra HD flip cam. Definitely get your name into the hat there and maybe you’ll have a chance of winning. And I’ve got a lot of other prizes up for grabs as well so it’s not just that and all of them are free. So definitely check that out next week.

Until then, thank you guys very much for turning in. I appreciate your support of the show by downloading the podcast and listening to it and I will talk to you guys next week.

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

Essential Tennis Podcast #106

Download: Word Doc | PDF | Kindle | Text

[music] Welcome to the Essential Tennis Podcast. If you love tennis and want to improve your game, this podcast is for you. Whether it’s technique, strategy, equipment or the mental game, tennis professional Ian Westermann is here to make you a better player. And now, here’s Ian!

Ian Westermann : 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 ProTranscript.com.

Well today’s episode of the Podcast is going to be a re-run. I’m going to chose one of the most popular podcast episodes that I’ve done, and that is my first interview with Andy Zodan and this was originally aired as Podcast #88.

The reason why I’m doing this is my wife went into labour two days ago on the 20th, at about 8pm or 9pm and she gave birth to our first child on Sunday the 21st around 5am EST.

So needless to say, I’m a little busy.

And my wife and daughter are still at the hospital– she needed me to come home to grab a couple extra things for her. They are both doing great and I’m really proud of my wife and I’ll be heading back to the hospital in a couple or minutes.

But I haven’t missed a Monday in two years so I’m happy she needed me to come home to get some stuff so I could re-release episode #88 of the Essential Tennis Podcast.

So, with that, we’ll go ahead and get to the show. Thank you guys for your understanding in me re-releasing this show, but it’s really a great conversation. Several of you guys I’m sure probably haven’t heard it before. You definitely need to check out the archives at essentialtennis.com/podcasts– there is so much good content there.

Alright, let’s go ahead and get down to business. Sit back, relax and get ready for some great tennis instruction. [music] [music] [music] [music]

My guest today on the Essential Tennis Podcast is Andy Zodan– Andy, welcome to the show.

Andy : Great to be here, Ian. Thanks for having me.

Ian : You bet. It’s great to have you here. Andy is the host of In the Tennis Zone, which is a local tennis radio show in Colorado. Andy also takes the audio from that show and puts it on iTunes as a podcast. I definitely recommend that all of you listening go check out the podcast on iTunes, even if you’re not in the Colorado area. Andy has lots of excellent guests that he gets on his show. Some of the names that he’s had recently are: Rod Laver, Brad Gilbert, Billy Jean Keen, Justin Gimmelstob–just to name a few. He’s got a lot of podcast archives with interviews with tennis greats such as those.

A really enjoyable show you put on, Andy. Why don’t you tell us a little about what you’re doing in tennis while that show is running. Tell us about your teaching background. Tell us a little bit about what you’re doing in tennis.

Andy : I am basically the director of tennis at a country club here in Denver. I do coach high school tennis as well. Work with a lot of high performance juniors. I grew up–my tennis career started in Texas in the early ’70s taking lessons in Dallas.

My first doubles partner was a guy named Craig Carden, who actually became a serious tour coach himself in the likes of Martina Navapalova, and Lindsay Davenport. Was coaching players that went to the semi-finals or better at Wilmbledon a number of times. I was just lucky to be in a group of kids that all grew up to take tennis seriously.

I played at the University of Texas, and began my coaching career in the early ’80s in TX. Then moved to CO in 2001. So I’ve been coaching here ever since. I started doing the radio show here a couple of years ago, and had kind of spun that off of– having been a journalist; I did a lot of tennis writing. I’ve been a coach, I’ve obviously continued playing as well.

Now I’ve enjoyed doing radio, and as you say, I’ve been fortunate to be able to –through some great contacts in the sort–get some really high profile guests on the Tennis Zone. It’s been a terrific experience.

Ian : That’s really cool. You’re the perfect guest for the Essential Tennis podcast, because the listeners of this show are–I typically describe them as ‘crazy.’ [laughter]

Andy : That’s perfect!

Ian : Yeah. [laughter] They just have a passion for the game, and it’s easy to hear by listening to you talking, and talking about your experiences in tennis, that you’re obviously a ‘lifer.’ This is something you’ve been doing for your entire life. You love it. As you keep going, you kind of take on more and more and get more into the sport. And into teaching and coaching. It’s great to have you on the show. You’re a perfect fit
for us.

Andy : Well, I appreciate it. And I think like yourself, Ian–I think we all realize that as local tennis pros, and guys that aren’t out on the tour and big names on TV, that it’s important on a local level for us to continue to generate excitement and enthusiasm for the sport.

We went through a period of time where the sport kind of flattened out and was a little bit stagnant with respect to growth. I think if people like yourself, and some of the things that I’m doing –and obviously we’re not the only two. There are a lot of guys around the country that are helping with this effort. But if we don’t get in the trenches and try to make sure we keep tennis in the forefront of people’s minds, then we are certainly competing with a lot of other sports, a lot of other interests, and we’re going to maintain a good growth level, these are the things we’re going to have to do.

So thanks to you for what you’re doing as well. Obviously taking the time that you’re taking to put on this show is a fantastic effort on your part.

Ian : Thank you. Yeah, I’m doing my best, and I agree. With many of us working at grassroots type efforts like this to build enthusiasm for the sport, I think it can continue to grow.

You’re right. There’s so much competition out there with other sports. Especially for young kids these days. It’s tough to get them to stick with tennis, but I think stuff like this can help.

Andy : Absolutely.

Ian : Speaking of the modern game and how it’s grown recently and really advanced at the professional level–and I guess at the amateur level as well– as far as how people are perceiving the style of play. The style of play certainly has changed over the last 20 yrs. or so.

What Andy and I are going to be talking about today –and I’m curious to pick Andy’s brain about 4 specific topics having to do with the modern game. He and I are going to talk about a couple of specific elements that are usually associated with the modern game, and how it’s played over the last 10-15 years. And we’re going to talk about whether or not these things are necessarily good for the average recreational type player to copy.

When we watch the pros on TV, the game is so fast these days. So powerful. So strong. We’re going to talk about a couple of those elements and whether or not we feel it’s good for you guys to be copying this. Both of us have a lot of teaching experience, and I’m curious to see how we line up as far as our opinions on these topics, Andy.

But let’s kick things off with the extreme grips. Specifically on the forehand side, the full Western grip, and maybe even semi-Western. I’m curious what your thoughts are on–

And let’s keep things around maybe 3, 4, 5 level. You’re avg. level club player. Do you feel like copying the pros, and what grips they’re using in the modern game, is a good thing for this level player?

Andy : Well, I think it can be, but I don’t think it needs to be forced.

I’m definitely considered by people that know me, to be a very conservative old school guy. With that said, I certainly won’t prevent a young player from being able to ascend to the higher levels of the game. I’ve coached a lot of kids that are playing Division 1 college tennis, and some that have gone into professional ranks and done pretty well. I’m not averse to that, but I think what you have to be careful with is forcing extreme grips and extreme swings on any player.

Here’s my philosophy. When I started playing tennis, back in the early ’70s, you could teach the average to slightly above average athlete to emulate the games being played by the top players in the world. You could teach an 11-year old like me how to slice the ball on a back-hand side like Ken Roswall. You could teach kids how to go through the ball with a long finish, and a long time spent in the hitting zone with the racket head lining up to the target like Jimmy Connors on his backhand. Because there was a lot of margin for error in those swings. If your timing wasn’t impeccable, you could still come up with a decent shot.

I think nowadays , if you try to teach a young kid to take a swing at the forehand like a Raphael Nadal, or you try to teach a little girl how to do what Serena or Venus Williams are doing, I think you’re asking people to bite off a little more than they might be able to chew. I think there’s nothing wrong, especially when you consider the technology that we have now. To teach players to swing at the ball similarly to the way Chris Howard did. Similarly to the way Rod Laver did and some of the guys in the old days. You couple of that type of the fundamental some of these with today’s technology and you’re still able to play a very strong, very reliable game that probably had the tendency to keep you little more injury free than what I’m seeing kids try to do this days.

I see a lot of pros that are taking kids from the age of 6, 7, 8 years old and teaching them that real severe over the shoulder finish with that extreme forehand grip and I think it’s kind of an all or nothing proposition.

I think you got kids and adults that have problems dealing with low balls. I think you have a problem converting over to the ability to play the net with those extreme forehand grips. I think you obviously have you move the grip over very short lead to learn how hit a proper serve and I just think that there’s a lot to be done exactly right to be able to master using that grip.

And so if the kid comes out and he holds that racket in semi- Western or Western grip and he’s hitting the ball clean and his hitting the hit consistently able to hit targets. Nothing hurts at the end of the session. Now might say maybe this kid is a natural for using this grip, but to go out into absolutely taking a grip of take a group of tennis club kids in a campus and, “Okay, we’re going to hit extreme Western forehand grips.” I think that’s were some mistakes are being and I think it’s being taken too for granted which is just, because the top players of the world are doing this right now, but that means it’s design for everybody to play that way. Think there needs to be a little bit more of the separation they still act like a good girl to has to whether or no to teach that person to play game it’s eventually design to be played on a tour versus a goddess designed to be a good 455 of player for the rest of his life.

Ian : Lot’s of good stuff in there Andy and I agree. I definitely see pros who take both extremes. I’ve seen pros who you use the term ‘old school. ‘ I’ve seen pros who are very old school and kind of are still grasping on to their thoughts of how the game used to be played in very classic, and that can be good for some students.

But I agree with you that I think where pros really gets themselves in trouble and get their students in the trouble is when they take one style of play or one way to swing the racket and they make everyone of their students do at the same way. Whether it happens to be really old school or really modern or something in between there or whatever. I think you’re right. Different people have different bodies. They have different athletic abilities and so–just like we see on tour. Different types of games. Different types of swings. There’s certainly similarities, but even among the recreation of players it’s not cut and dry. Everybody’s got different amounts of talents, and their body works in different ways from other players.

So I’m curious. Have you ever actually instructed a student to go to a full Western. Something that’s extremes as an actual full Western?

Andy: I would say probably not. What I would say I have probably done is I have allowed them to keep it. If it was something that was already working for them, then I would say–

For instance, it was a kid that I’m working with now who’s just about to turn 15. He’s 14 years old and top hundred player in the country in the 14s. A very good high school player now. When he was 8 or 9 years old and he had that full Western grip, I didn’t bother missing with it, because so many of the balls that he was hitting were like my height or higher.

So he really almost had the grip to the racket that way and people said to me, ‘Well eventually he’s going to have to do this that the other,’ and I said, ‘Well eventually we will.’ When he grows.

But what I was more concerned with at the time was that he was learning how to win. And to me that’s a skill that–when it can be grasped, you let the kid grasp it. Once they’ve learned how to win. One they have programmed their mind on what to do in a certain situation. To me that’s like internal problem solving. That’s a skill beyond the tennis court.

So that’s a lot of kids doing well in the 10 and unders, and the 12 and unders land earning how to win, game changes can then readily be made based on the fact that it is 8, 9, 10 year old kid. This kid has established a lot of confidence in himself to be able to get the job done however need be.

Now he turns 11, 12, 13 years old. We starts sending him off to [unknown] Academy for the weekend and doing some high performance training at certain USTA national campus where they can really spend the amount of time necessary . For me to see the kid an hour or two or three a week doesn’t allow for me to make a grip change like it does for him to go to voluntaries and spend 6 -8 hours a day on the tennis court for a week straight.

And then he comes home a week later with a slightly different forehand, one that I’ve would have converting him over to anyway. And now his forehand is going to be able to take him to whatever level his game is able to take him. I mean I certainly expect for this kid barring any unforeseen health situations or what have you injuries, could be able to be a scholarship Division 1 level player. And we change that to the game incrementally. I allowed that what that extreme Western grip, but I also knew that the kid had phenomenal hands and was going to be a terrific volleyer, and I didn’t want anything to happen to prevent that.

So I was hoping that we would move that grip over a little bit to be able to do a little bit more with it. A little bit variety. And that was exactly how was involved.

It takes a lot of different sources to be able to build a player’s game these days. I don’t put it all upon myself and I don’t think any pro should. I think if you got all the resources that to have all sort of contributes to the development of a player. I think that’s all part of the modern game as well, is realizing that one pro doesn’t necessarily have all the answers and I would certainly be the first to admit that I don’t.

Ian : Alright, good stuff Andy. Let’s go ahead and move on to our second topic, which has to do with different forehand follow throughs. The 2 most popular recently have been the windshield wiper follow through and the reverse follow through. Reverse follow through being the one that Nadal has kind of really made popular finishing on the same side of his body, and windshield wiper finishing on the opposite side of the body, but low down by the hip. Just to give our listeners some guidance there in case you are not exactly sure what I am talking about.

But what is your opinion on those 2 techniques and how they relate to the recreational player?

Andy: I think it’s something hat you have to be real careful with, because one of the things that those 2 swings do not promote is an extended follow through towards the target. And again, as we discussed a little bit earlier, I think that margin for error in your game is something that you need to have if you’re not an exceptionally supremely gifted player.

And when I say exceptionally extremely gifted, player. I mean, if you’re not maybe the better sectional ranked player, but normally they are nationally might as well. You want to give your self good margin for error. If you’re not out on the tennis 4 or 5 hours a day every day, you want to make sure that you are coming through that hitting zone and giving yourself an extended finish towards your target.

So to me–let’s start with the windshield wiper finish coming across the body. I think if that happens too prematurely, and if a player that comes off that ball a little bit too early. You’re going to have a lot of shank and frame balls as opposed to allowing your racket head to go through the hitting zone and letting that swing evolve into something that eventually finishes back around to the other side through racket head speed that’s generated to through the confidence of getting better and better and more and more experience.

I think a lot of times crossing nowadays seem do want to put the cart before the horse a little bit and they immediately want people to cover your finish over the shoulder. A little bit that the opposite hit like you were describing, and I don’t think that it promotes the racket spending enough time in the hitting zone to give yourself that margin for error to follow through towards your target.

If you’re giving yourself the extra length going forward through the swing, I feel like if you just a little slightly off with your timing you can still have a good result, because the racket is traveling in the proper direction that it needs to go to create another proper direction with that shot.

If you’re not absolutely perfect with the timing of the strike point when you’re coming up over the shoulder or over the head or with a reverse follow through like Nadal, then you’re going to just have a lot of missed hits. And it’s really tough to develop any sense of confidence, because you just don’t have a lot of consistency and reliability.

To me, the essence of this sport the way in the way it was originally designed to be played was it learn how to maintain a rally. You don’t have to keep the ball until you don’t know how to hit all back and forth with somebody consistently, and then once you master that skill, then you go to adding the bells and whistles. Adding the weapons.

I think nowadays with the modern game we go right to the weapons and skip to the whole step of the ability to just hit a nice clean ball back and forth. Maintain a rally 10, 12, 14, 16, 20 times. And I think that’s where we’re missing a lot in the development about players. That’s why I think in this country to a large extent, people scratching our heads as to why are the Americans falling behind with respect to the development of our players. I think we’re going for too much too early with such an immediate gratification type of society, and I think that shows up in our game styles with our tennis players.

Ian : Yes, it’s a very interesting to actually make a social connection there between how people are so infatuated with the power of game being able to hit the ball fast and hard and with the lot of top spin, and actually making that connection with kind of with our society i s like here in America. You’re talking about immediate gratification etc. And all of us grow up playing on fast hard courts, whereas, over in Europe there’s a lot of clay court play and people have to learn how to develop points and actually get into a rally and be patient.

And such a lack of patience here and I feel like–especially the players who are out there out there… I deal, because of my website, I deal with a lot of players who don’t have the money for instruction, and they’re looking for guidance in how to hit the ball and how to improve their game. And so much with the instruction out there on the internet is: Learn how Roger Federer hits his forehand or How Andy Roddick hits the serve and it’s all of this extremely advanced theory and technique. And we’re talking about 3.0 beginner level of players who are reading and buying this and trying to implement it.

And buying the cart before the horse. I think that’s a good way of describing it.

You used that phrase earlier, Andy. I think so many recreational players and beginner players, they are seeing what’s happening on TV, and so many people without a lot of experience figure. ‘Well look at that. They’re not making to look that difficult, it can’t be that tough. And they go out and try to actually copy what they are seeing–and at that it can be really frustrating for the player and really frustrating for the pros as well when they come in and try to change those misperceptions that that is how there are supposed to be swinging.

Andy: Well, that’s it. There’s an old saying ‘Sex sells.’ And Roger Federer’s forehand is sexy. So is Andy Roddick serve, right?

So when you look at it from that stand point, if you want to sell something, whether what they need or what they want or what’s realistic for them, a lot of times people don’t care. I mean they just say, ‘Hey, listen, People are going to see a picture of Andy Roddick serving.’ That’s going to gravitate toward it. They are going to see one of best backhands in the world. Or they’re going to see Serena Williams take this ball out of the air from three quarters to even a court with this swing and volley thing. This is what people need to try to emulate.

The fact of the matter is probably I would say 75% of all the people that are playing tennis in this country will never in their wildest dreams hit a tennis ball like that.

Ian : Right.

Andy: Now with that said, I think there are certain things that I think can be taken from some of the best players of all time that I think are universally applicable to the average club player or even sharply better.

Watch Andre Agassi line at the hit of forehand and the way he uses his left are and he extends that almost at any–let’s say 45 degree angle across his body. That’s something that you can teach any player to do no matter how they grip the racket on their forehand side and it’s going to have give them a better forehand. And that’s something that you can look at and study in the pro game.

You can say, ‘What is it that makes it such a different for Agassi to do that?’ Well, you’re creating a distance between your body and the ball that is going to give you a consistent contact point #1. You are going to give yourself better balance just like getting that left arm. If you watch somebody on a surfboard that kind of looks the way Agassi did when he lined up to hit his forehand, and you’re going to have just great alignment.

One of the subjects that I know we’re going to talk about was the open stance. If you’re going to have an open stance, that doesn’t mean that your stance was open to the waist up. It’s open from the waist down. But you have still got to turn your upper body to align yourself properly.

So if you wanted to look at Raphael Nadal’s finish on his forehand, that may not be necessarily something that you want to copy unless you’re supremely talented. But I don’t care if you’re a 2.5 player or 5.0 player. You’re going to do what Agassi did in lining up a forehand, because I think that’s one of those fundamentals that is truly a fundamental, and not just a press release and trying to emulate one of the top players of all time.

Ian : So I’ve got a question for you then. I like for you describing the difference between something that every pro does and every good solid upper level player has done for decades and decades–such as good rotation with the upper body as you’re describing with Agassi– as opposed to some of the more modern things that only extremely, extremely talented athletes are doing.

How do we tell and how do our listeners know the difference between something that is–and this is why I called my website Essential Tennis, because this is kind of my teaching style, is I find what’s fundamental and what has to be done in order to be a solid player, and I start with that. As opposed to the more flashy upper level type stuff that see on TV.

But how can listeners know what to work on that’s solid? What fundamental? What’s essential? And what is beyond their grasp? If not for the future, at least definitely starting off. How can our listeners tell the difference between those two things?

Andy: Well, I think it’s definitely a very fine line. And a guy that lives here Denver by the name of John Vincent, who was a phenomenal tennis coach and tennis player in his own right, used to say, ‘There’s a very fine line between fundamentals and preferences.’ And a lot of tennis pros try to take their preferences and impose those as fundamentals, when they’re not necessarily the case.

I think when it comes down to it, you want to consult a pro locally. And you want to sort of throw a couple of different options on the table and see what they have to say.

I think as far as some of the basic fundamentals that you would be able to get your listeners to really be able to gravitate toward and be able to really trust and believe in, obviously working on your balance. On your feet. A lot of times you got people who you’ll see them swing in the air and somehow or other, all their weight is on their back foot. They’ve lifted their left leg to hit that forehand.

One of best tips to that I ever got in my golf game and that I’ve been able to teach my tennis players it that: Even and equal weight distribution between my two feet. When of course I had time to get that. And I think when you’re talking about 3.0 and 3. 5 players, a lot of times the pace to the ball that they hit allows people to take the time and use the proper footwork to get their feet and to get their balance proper. I think that has a lot to do with hitting the ball well.

A lot of times a guy will come to me and say, ‘I can’t hit the backhand.’ And I look at his footwork and I can see nothing happening a lot of times. Well, I’ll see improper steps. Stepping with the wrong foot. Finishing with the wrong foot. And if they just get their footwork cleaned up and then sink with their swing releases–all of the sudden it’s not that they had a bad swing. It’s just that the footwork that went into lining up that ball was improper.

Let’s say they are a right-handed player and they are moving to their left to hit the backhand and the final step which they take to that backhand is a left footed step to the ball, and they end up opening up their stance drastically. Obviously that’s not going to necessarily be something that’s going to give them proper balance and allot them with the court. If we can just say, ‘Okay we’ll need to just make sure that with that last step taken to the ball is a right footstep. Bring it to the ball and hold still.’ You’ll clean up your alignment and probably a lot more accurate and still be able to generate plenty of power–certainly with the technology of the rackets these days. That’s what they are designed to do.

I think obviously making sure that you are quick on your feet and that you’re making lots of short little steps. I don’t like little dance steps as opposed to these big Frankenstein long steps to the ball. That’s going to be something that’s going to help any player out there.

As far as the serve is concerned, make sure that you’re standing up real nice and straight, and after you release your toss you continue it to let your toss are extend. I call it a toss and stretch. Your know, you see the sort of people who toss the ball up and then their arm just immediately drops. Their body sort of jack knifes forward. They bend at the waist for a little bit. Wonder why every serve was going into the net. There’s a reason for that. There’s no proper posture, so

There are certain things that when I think about all the different lessons that I gave to all the different levels of players, that no matter who I’m with, they’re just certain things that I think that I said before are sort of universally applicable: footwork, balance, posture.

Those kinds of things. Making sure that you’re stepping into the ball with the proper foot. I’m still an old school guy that–I’m anti- open stance, but I think if you’ve got time to close your stance and step to the ball with the foot furthest from the ball, you are always going to be able to bring a little bit more body power and strength to the shot ,and you also going to have better alignment in hitting the shot.

If you don’t have time you’ve going to go open stance and you do it properly. Obviously with the pace of the ball make hit these days there’s no way around that. But I don’t think you want to necessarily always have an open stance shot even when you have time to close that stance.

Ian : Well, Andy, in typical Essential Tennis Podcast fashion , we’ve only got to half of the topics that we were hoping to,

Andy: Sorry to be a long-winded. I apologize.

Ian : No. This happens virtually every show. When I outline a show for myself, or when I have a guest, almost to always we don’t get to as much as we hoped to.

But what we did get to, I think will be extremely helpful, and in closing just for the two topics that we did go over. The full Western or the semi Western grips. The different forehand follow-throughs. I’m going to ask you at one at a time if you feel they are preference or fundamental,. Just to wrap up. So full Western grip. Is that preference or is that fundamental?

Andy: Absolutely a preference.

Ian : And windshield wiper follow through or reverse. Follow through on the forehand side. Is that a preference or fundamental?

Andy: That’s definitely a preference as well. The others are old school. I think when you start talking about, ‘I intend to play professional tennis,’ then your fundamentals are going to become a little bit more extreme as weapons become more important. But as far as the development of the game that’s reliable; that will have a tendency to keep you injury free; I think that the fundamentals are a nice long hitting zone coming through the clean contact point–which doesn’t necessarily include the reverse follow through or the windshield wiper follow through, or the open stance. Again, I’m not anti to these things, but if you’re able to do it and they feel good, then go with it. But as far as if being something that you absolutely have to do to become a good tennis player, I definitely don’t believe that.

Ian : Well, Andy I want to thank you very much of your time. It’s been great talking to you. I’ve enjoyed it very much.

Before we wrap things up, I’ve already told people to go the iTunes to check out your podcast there. Where can people find you on the web? What’s your website address?

Andy: Website is TennisZone1510. All one word; no spaces. TennisZone1510.com, and that’s the website which is basically the best of the TennisZone.

As you mentioned, we have a Rod Laver on there. In the last month of the show we had a Rod Laver. We had Brett Staley, Toni Trabert, Brad Gilbert a couple of times. We had Darren Cahill, Justin Gimelstob. We were very fortunate, Owen Davidson is a dear friend of mine, and he was on several times. And they are just really phenomenal.

And it’s funny, because I talk to them about a lot of these various subjects. Having been around as long as they have, and seeing the evolution. I’m 48 years old. These guys make me look like I’ve been playing tennis 2 weeks which was especially [inaudible] they’ve got. And so we’ve talked about some of the various subjects and to hear some of the stories on some on the matches that were played back in their days is really fascinating.

So I appreciate you letting your listeners know about that website and about my show, and I look forward to having you come on the Tenniszone when we start season #3 in February.

Ian : I would enjoy that very much and I look forward to that.

Yes, definitely check it out everybody. I’ve listened to several of your most recent episodes, and you do a great job of doing the interviews. And you can’t help– as being a tennis fan like myself and everybody listening–you really can’t help to be interested in and really keyed in on guys like the people that you have on the show. So it’s an excellent show.

Andy: A lot of fun.

Ian : Yes. Well, Andy thanks very much. It’s been great having you on.

Andy: Thank you Ian.

Ian : And I look forward to talking to you again. Maybe we can have you back and talk about the other two topics that we had on the table.

Andy: Anytime you need me. I would enjoy doing it and I appreciate you in all that you doing as well, I enjoyed it very much.

[music] [music] [music]

Ian : Alright, that brings the Essential Tennis Podcast Episode #88 to a close.

Thank you very much for joining me today, and I hope you enjoyed my conversation with Andy Zodan as much as I did.

Real quick as we wrap up today, I just have 2 quick shout outs and they are going to go to 2 new people that I’ve been in contact with recently this past week. The first one is Roger in California. And the second is Kevin in Korea. I’ve send a couple of e-mails back and forth with both of them having to do with their tennis game, and we probably have a couple of topics in there that we’re going to use in the Podcast coming from each of them. So great to hear from both of you guys. And it’s great to have you both as listeners.

And real quickly before I sign off, I just want to again remind you guys about the cleaning in Palm Springs. Definitely let me know if you’re interested in that, that’s January 2nd and 3rd. And send me an e-mail if you’d like more information. ian@essentialtennis.com.

Alright, thanks very much everybody. Take care and good luck with your tennis.