Essential Tennis Podcast #118

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[music]

Welcome to the Essential Tennis Podcast. If you love tennis and want to improve your game, this podcast is for you. Whether it is technique, strategy or the mental game, tennis professional Ian Westermann is here to make you a better player. And now, here is 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 tennistours.com, where you can receive a discount off your next purchase of professional tennis event tickets and travel packages by using the promotional code Essential.

Before we get to today’s topic on the podcast, I want to remind you guys about the video section of essentialtennis.com. Some of you guys may not know that I do instructional videos as well. And there are many of them up there for free on the website. Just go to essentialtennis.com and click on video in the menu on the upper left-hand corner. Alright, [music] let us go ahead and get down to business. Sit back, relax and get ready for some great tennis instruction. [music] [music] [music]

Alright, let us get started, and today’s topic is going to be focused towards you doubles players, and specifically covering the lob, which is very often a difficult shot for recreational players to cover. And our question today comes to us from Michelle in Massachusettes who is a 3.5 level player. She wrote to me and said, ‘how do I deal with ladies who lob in a double’s match. I had a match the other day with 2 women who would constantly lob us. We tried different formations only for them to hit nicely down the line or lob back keeping us off the net. We did try to stay 2 back when they served or even a foot or 2 inside the service box to try to react to the lob. Eventually, it got to us, me in particular. I started to play their game instead of mine. I like to play aggressively and attack the net, but that was just not happening. They got almost everything back that we gave them with a lob. At times we would get a point or 2 when we hit at the net person, but it was just not enough . It was not enjoyable to play, and couldn’t believe that we could play for another hour like this. I walked away from that match incredibly mad at myself for allowing those women to make me feel so inadequate in my abilities, and left me with little respect for them in their game of tennis.’

Well Michelle, it sounds like a really frustrating match, and I definitely feel for you, and this is a pattern that I see repeated all the time at the club where I teach and other clubs where I have talked recreational doubles’ players very often…well, there are 2 things here… First of all, recreational doubles’ players very often struggle with covering the lob, and with overheads in general, and secondly, on the flipside of the coin, recreational double’s players are very often frequent lobers, and you know, for good reason. If you are playing a team that is not great at covering it, then it is a good strategy. And I am getting a little bit ahead of myself, so let me go to my outline here, and we are going to be spending all of today’s show on this, because I think it is a very important topic, and I have got a large outline here having to do with how to cover this and play more effectively at the net Michelle, for you and for everyone else listening.

First of all, I want to congratulate you on your good doubles’ tactics in general. It sounds like you are comfortable moving into the net, and that is awesome. Congratulations on that. I work extremely hard with my doubles’ students to improve their transition game and their net game to get them comfortable moving up to the net. Very often, beginning players are not comfortable up there, and so at a 3.5 level, to have that be kind of your main game style in your doubles’ play I think is great. So, nice job working on that. However, there needs to be a balance in your abilities. The more that you move in, the better you need to be able to back up. You cannot just have one or the other. You cannot be one-sided. It is kind of like a car. I am kind of a car person… The faster the car that you have, the better the brakes have to be. [laughter] When you are modifying a car, you cannot spend all of your time and money on the engine and not also upgrade the brakes, because the faster you get going, and the faster you are able to get going fast, the faster you also need to be able to slow down. Otherwise, it is just not safe. And I look at that the same way in doubles. The faster you move in towards the net, the faster you also need to be able to retreat to be able to cover behind you. If you are only good at one or the other, you are going to leave large spaces of court open.

Now, I want to talk about one other thing here, Michelle. Before we actually get started talking on what to change and how to improve this part of your game, I am going to lecture you a little bit. [laughter] I was going to apologize for that, but you know what, I am not going to apologize for it. You said that…now, where is that section… ‘it is not enjoyable to play. I couldn’t believe that we had to play like that for another hour. I walked away from this match incredibly mad at myself for allowing those women to make me feel so inadequate.’ You should have stopped that sentence there. I wished that you had not finished your email to me by saying that you left with little respect for them and their game of tennis. I think that is a mistake. I think that is a big mistake.

Do not disrespect them and their tennis skills. The reality is that they beat you fair and square. They did not cheat you out of the match. You missed more shots than they did, so they deserve to win the match. That is how tennis is played. If you and your partner were not able to keep enough shots in play and if you were not able to use those shots to challenge your opponents very effectively, then quite honestly you did not deserve to win the match. So, to be frustrated with yourself for losing to that style of tennis, I completely understand. I am on the same page with you. I would have been incredibly frustrated as well to lose to that type of player, but to have little respect for their game, I understand where you are coming from. You feel like for them to stay back and lob everything maybe does not feel as legitimate as a strategy. It is not a high level-type strategy, and probably not a strategy that is going to be them very far in doubles in terms of long-term thinking.

You know, they are not going to become 4 or 5 players sitting back there and just hitting lobs all day. However, you do need to give them some respect. You do need to shake their hand and say good match, and you need to in a way thank them. Thank them for pointing out an area of your game that you need to work on. [laughter] You should be happy about that. They have shown you a part of your game that does need to be improved. If it did not need to be improved, then you would not have lost this match. So, do not worry about it, and certainly do not diminish them, and I think that is something that a lot of players do. Pretty common after playing a pusher, as well. Somebody who plays a defensive baseline game. After losing to that style of player, very often recreational players badmouth them, and say well, you know, play the game, you have to hit strong shots, and anyway, in my opinion, it is just not a legitimate complaint.

So, my lecture is over. [laughter] Let us move on to more of the instructional part of my outline here. I am going to be going over 4 main elements of effectively covering the lob and being a well-rounded player up at the net. The first section, the first out of the 4 areas is going to be about court positioning. And you talked about this a little bit in your message, saying that you guys tried to mix it up and play 2 back a little bit and also just come in just a little bit in front of the service line. It is good that you guys tried to make some changes, but I am going to talk about this and make sure that everybody is on the same page, and has a good understanding of how they should be positioning themselves during a doubles match. You do not want to oversell your position when you come forwards to the net.

Coming to the net is an excellent tactic. It pressures your opponents. It forces them to have to try to hit a good shot, and it puts you in an offensive position to be able to try to put the ball away. So, coming in is excellent, but you do not want to overdo it. You want to pressure your opponents without leaving large spaces of court open, and that includes behind you. Now, where exactly on the court you shoujld position yourselves depends on your opponents, and this is the really really important part of this. How often your opponents lob, and how well they lob is going to determine exactly where on the court you put yourself from point to point. And you have to pay close attention to your opponents to be able to figure this out. And I wrote ‘PAY ATTENTION’ in all capitals on my outline. I wrote a couple of things in all capitals during this outline and this is one of them. You have to pay close attention to what your opponents like to do during your doubles’ match, and And Michelle, obviously, I do not think this was a problem for you. You guys obviously figured out early that your opponents like to lob, and you guys did try changing up your positions on the court.

So I do not think this is where your problem was. I just want to make sure that everybody understands that this is very very important. You do not want to position yourself the same way for every opponent. That would just be poor tactics. And some examples of that would be like what Michelle said. She and her partner figured out that their opponents liked to lob, and so they started playing different positions on the court, and the 2 examples she gave were playing 2 back and also being a little bit farther back than she typically would be. It sounds like when she normally plays the net she likes to get close and put the ball away, but during this particular match she and her partner were coming up to the net just inside the service line. So these are 2 good examples of ways that you guys can vary your positions on the court in order to more closely cover that lob against a team that likes to lob.

You also want to try experimenting with a staggered position at the net with your partner, meaning that 1 of you is a little bit closer than the other. When you guys watch professional doubles on TV, you will usually see this. When you are watching a team that serves and volleys and returns and volleys, watch just one-half of the court. Watch 1 team and see how they position themselves. Rarely will you see both players even with each other when they are both at the net. One will be a little bit farther back and 1 will be a little bit closer. Now, again, this depends on your opponents’ lobbing tendencies. As with everything tactically, when you guys are playing doubles, if they never lob at all, then you can stay pretty much together, and go ahead and close into the net and get really close and really pressure your opponents.

If they lob a lot, then you want to leave several feet between you and your partner in terms of your depth. Meaning, 1 of you should be several feet closer to the net, and the other 1 several feet closer to the baseline. This puts 1 of you in a slightly more aggressive position, and the other person, your partner, in a slightly more defensive position. This is good because you guys can kind of have your cake and eat it too a little bit. And exactly how much space to leave between yourselves, and exactly how close both of you are again is going to depend on how much your opponents like to lob and how good they are at it. But, in case you have not tried that before, Michelle, try doing more of a staggered position. That will leave your partner close to the net to try to put the ball away, or you close to the net, and the other player a little bit farther away so that she is ready to go back and cover behind that close person in case a good lob goes over her head. So that wraps up my first section on court positioning. Just a couple of really important things to understand.

Next up I want to talk about anticipation and preparedness when you are up at the net. You need to be read, and I am going to start off this section by saying again you need to notice your opponent’s tendencies closely. Pay close attention to what your opponents like to do, and this is of the utmost importance. You need to know. You need to pay attention to this. And so many doubles’ teams just do not. And they just continue playing the way they always play their doubles. They do not make any adjustments. And it is because they are not paying attention to what is going on. Once you have been inside the service line for several shots during a point, you need to start looking for the lob. You need to anticipate it.

Do not close in inside the service line to try to put the ball away, and assume that everything is going to be just fine, and you have nothing to worry about and you are about to close out the point. Once you have made it in front of the service line, and you have hit 1 or 2 volleys and you have not finished the point yet, start looking for the lob on purpose, especially if the ball is traveling towards somebody who is on the baseline. If your opponents are still on a 1-up, 1-back position, and you and your partner are at the net, and especially if 1 or both of you are well inside the service line, just go ahead and expect that a lob is going to come.

Assuming you are not putting the ball away. Now if both of your opponents are also at the net hitting a good lob volley or a half volley lob or any lob really from at the net over another net player is a really tough shot, but if they are playing 1-up, 1-back and you or your partner hit to the back person and you or your partner or both of you are both inside the service line, pretty much expect that they are going to lob. And Michelle and everybody else who plays at a 3.0 or 3.5-level, this is going to happen a lot and you guys know it. Those of you who are playing at a 5 level or below, you know that your opponents very often like to lob so do not be surprised by it. Look for it. You need to start anticipating it and paying closer attention.

Next up under anticipation and preparedness, read your opponents. Read their position on the court. So, again, going back to being 1-up, 1-back. If the ball is going towards the back player, look for that lob. Swing technique and racket face. Look at how they are preparing their racket and look at the angle of the strings. If they turn themselves to the side, and they take their racket up at shoulder height, and the racket face is closed, look for a drive. They are about to hit a strong drive to try to pass you or your partner or both of you, obviously. If they are facing the net and the racket just gets taken back low and the racket face is open, it is facing up towards the sky, they are about to lob. And you need to watch these little details. The closer you start to watch your opponents, the more of these types of cues you will start to pick up on, and they are very important, because they will help you anticipate what is coming next so that you can be ready mentally and physically to be able to cover whatever shot they try to hit.

Lastly, under anticipation and preparedness I would like to talk about the use of the split step and also your initial reaction to the lob when it does go up into the air. The split step is incredibly important in all aspects of tennis whether you are a single’s player, a double’s player, whether you are at the net or at the baseline, it is of the utmost importance that you guys do use the split step to support yourself, to balance yourself and to be ready to move for anything. I very often see doubles’ players close into the net, and as their opponent hits the next shot, they are still in mid-stride and still moving forward. They are still actively moving forward and taking steps towards the net as the ball goes up into the air. And that is a huge mistake. Your balance is leaning forwards towards the net and your feet are actively moving in the wrong direction. That cannot happen if you want to be able to cover the entire court effectively. So, what you need to do is make your split step right as they are making contact with their shot no matter what it happens to be so that you are ready to move in any direction. If it is a lob, you are balanced, if it is a drive, you are balanced. If it is to your right or to you left, you are prepared. Please do not make the mistake of not split stepping, and just running into the net without being ready to move. So, that is the split step.

Secondly, after you have made your split step, your opponent has made contact with the ball, and it is going up into the air as a lob, move immediately. This is another thing that I have in my ouline that is in all capitals, and, you know, this seems incredibly obvious. [laughter] I mean, yeah, sure, I need to move right away. But recreational players, there is kind of a disconnect [laughter] in reality in my experience between how hard club players think that they are playing and how quickly they are reacting and what is actually happening. I so often see a lob go up into the air when both players are at the net in a doubles’ point and I watch the net players watch the ball go into the air, see the lob get to about, its apex–its highest point in its path, and then kind of go, oh crap! And then turn around and start to run.

And it absolutely too late. The split step should prepare your feet to move, and as soon as you see that racket face open up and as soon as the ball comes off the strings and it goes up into the air, both players need to move immediately. It is extremely important. And once they start to move back towards the ball or wherever it happens to be going, both players need to start to communicate and talk. This is another very important part of covering the lob is communication, and I could definitely do a whole other section just on the communication part of it. But suffice it to say for right now that both players need to move and then start to talk and work out as early as possible who is going to cover which shot. It is extremely, extremely important.

So that brings us halfway through. We have talked about court positioning, and we have talked about anticipation and preparedness. Two more points to go. Before I get to those last 2 points I want to tell you guys about my sponsor of the show today on the Essential Tennis Podcast, and that is Championship Tennis Tours. They can be found at tennistours.com. Since 1987 they have been putting together individual ticket sales to professional tennis events, as well as complete travel packages to go watch professional tennis players play, which is an amazing experience. If you appreciate the Essential Tennis Podcast. If you have learned from it, please go check them out, and show them that you appreciate their support of the podcast.

They help finance my time here. They are a paid sponsor of the podcast, and if we can keep them happy [laughter] and keep them as an advertiser, that will absolutely help me to continue to do more of what I am doing here at Essential Tennis, and to continue moving me towards doing this full time. So go check them out. And what I have been talking about recently that they are offering is their U.S. Open packages, and you can choose between 2 different hotels: a 4 and 5-star hotel, you can choose what ticket you would like, courtside or promenade, and they also throw in a Broadway performance, tickets to a Mets or a Yankees game, which is pretty cool, or a city tour.

And you get a limousine shuttle to the U.S. Open and back to your hotel, which is pretty sweet. So, go check them out. Check out their packages to the U.S. Open. If you are going to the U.S. Open anyway, you have no excuse. Go check them out right now. You can buy either individual tickets or 1 of these incredible packages, and as an extra bonus, if you use the promotional bonus Essential, they will give you a special invitation to an Essential Tennis Podcast, and Championship Tennis cocktail party in Times Square during the U.S. Open. I will have more information on that in the near future, but I thank them very much for their support of the podcast. Please go check them out and thank them by making your next purchase through tennistours.com.

Alright, let us finish up by talking about the last 2 elements of moving back and covering a lob effectively in doubles. We have already talked about court positioning and anticipation. Next up we are going to talk about foot work. And the way that you actually physically move back to cover a lob when you are at the net. And this is going to apply for you single’s players, as well. It is extremely important. You need to move back sideways to the net, meaning that, let us say that you have made a split step, and that means that you are facing forward, and your shoulders are parallel to the net. You are facing forward towards your opponent.

Once they put that lob up and you realize you are going to have to move back, or even (actually, I take that back), no matter where you need to move you need to turn yourself 90 degrees to the side and get yourself sideways to the net. Now, if you are a right-handed player, you are going to do that by taking your right foot and pivoting it around, sliding your right foot around back behind you and getting your stance closed so that your body is sideways. So if you are a right-handed player, your right foot will go back so that your left shoulder is pointing forward towards your opponents. If you are a left-handed player, it is the opposite. Your left foot will slide around and pivot around your right foot and go back behind you to get yourself turned to the side. This is extremely important for a few reasons, and this is a huge recreational player mistake when trying to move back. A lot of recreational players move back towards the baseline to recover a lob with their heals first meaning they will stay facing towards the net and they will back peddle with their heals first back towards the baseline, and try to move back to try to cover a lob that way to try to hit an overhead, assuming that they are not actually turning around and running back towards the baseline. This is a big mistake. First of all, it is slow. It is not an athletic position to move in. There are times when back peddling is an appropriate way to move around a tennis court, but not in this circumstance. It is much slower than the alternative, which I will talk about in a second.

Secondly, it is dangerous. I have seen multiple people move back in this way with their heels first and get tripped up, because it is very difficult to balance when you are back peddling quickly. We are just not designed to move that way guys. I mean, we do not have toes back there to keep our balance. When you are on your heels and moving quickly backwards, it is very easy to trip up and fall back, and I have seen people whack the back of their head behind them after tripping and falling. I have also seen people break their hand that way, tripping and trying to brace themselves with their hand. So, honestly it is dangerous trying to move back that way.

Nevermind that it is slow. And thirdly, when you move back that way, it does not turn your body to the side and that is a problem, because it does not allow you to hit as strong an overhead. Think about your serve. Hopefully, you do not face forwards and hit your serve while facing towards the net. You turn sideways first, so that you can rotate your body forwards toward your target and create power by using the rotation of your core. We want to do that on every overhead possible. So by taking your dominant foot. Well, the foot of your dominant side. A right-handed player, your right hand. Left- handed player, your left foot, and by moving it back and getting sideways, you avoid all of those things, and obviously that is a good thing. Now, the way that you should move back is with either a side shuffle or by crossing over. And actually usually a cross-over step. Either 1 if fine. They are both faster, and they are both safer. They both get you turned to the side. Cross-over step take a little bit more athleticism, but it is faster. I see some players use a combination. Maybe they will cross-over their first 2 or 3 steps and then go to a shuffle to kind of fine-tune their positioning on the court. But no matter what, make sure you get to the side and then use whatever footwork is comfortable for you there. But if you can work out a side shuffle, or a side-step, a cross-over step, you are going to be in much better shape than moving back heels first. Alright, so that is footwork.

And the last element here of being able to cover that lob effectively is your actual overhead, and Michelle, I want you to work on your overhead so that it becomes more of a weapon. If you want to continue advancing as a doubles’ player, and if the rest of you listening want to continue to improve your doubles’ game or just your net game in general, you need to make your overhead a priority during your practice time. Spend time practicing your overhead. And all too often when I am running team practices during the week where I teach, when it comes time to work on the overhead, everybody is like oh, no, not the overhead. I do not want to work on this, because players are not comfortable or confident with their overhead. Well, how do you think you are going to get comfortable and confident with it. You have got to start hitting it a lot. You have got to practice it. Take a few lessons. If you have got time and money go to your local club and get a couple of lessons from a professional about your overhead technique. You can improve your overhand throwing motion to get more power and to get better placement, and have a more effective overhead.

So, take some lessons if you can. Also, I want to point out that the goal of the overhead should be to finish a point. When you get an overhead in the middle of a doubles’ point, you should be looking to close the point out. It should be aggressive shot whenever possible. It is not always the case. When a lob is hit really well and you are having a hard time just to get to it, sometimes it is not practical or even possible to try to hit an aggressive overhead, but you guys should be working towards a goal of having your overhead be a weapon so that you enjoy getting lobbed. [laughter] I tell students this all the time when they complain, when they come back and have a story much like Michelle’s, when I introduce this topic and my students tell me, wow, I had a doubles’ match, it did not go very well. I was coming up to the net just like you always tell me to, Ian, and they lobbed every time. And all of their lobs hit right on the back of the line on the baseline, and it was incredible, and I do not buy it. First of all, average level players are not great lobbers.

It is a tough shot to hit a really good lob deep in the court. Now, it will happen. Do not get me wrong. But most of the time when we are talking about recreational players and a team that lobs a lot, a team that gets beat by a lobbing team, usually it is due more to poor foot work, poor communication skills with partner, poor positioning and just the missing of overheads in general that is the ultimate reason for losing the match, not a slew of perfectly hit lobs. It can happen, but very rarely. And so you guys need to continue working on your overhead. Develop it so that eventually in the future you enjoy getting lobbed, you know, not if it is on the baseline–that will happen sometimes–but you should enjoy getting a lob over you that you can hit an overhead on, because it should become a weapon to be able to put the ball away. So, Michelle, hopefully I have answered your question, and Michelle, by the the way is coming to the Baltimore Essential Tennis Clinic, coming up in just a couple of weeks. And Michelle I look forward to working with you in person on this.

We will be covering these types of topics at the clinic in Baltimore, so I will get to see you in person and work with you on all of these different aspects. Again, we had 4 main aspects of covering the lob well, and those were court positioning, anticipation, and being prepared, correct footwork, and improving your overhead and having a more solid overhead. If you guys can work on all 4 of those areas, you will get beat by the lob much less, I promise you. So, Michelle, that is it. Hopefully, it was helpful to you. Feel free to send me an email with any followup questions, and thanks very much for being a listener. Thank you for your excellent questions that I could talk about today. [music] [music] [music] [music]

Alright. That does it for Episode 118 of the Essential Tennis Podcast. Thank you very much for joining me today for downloading the file and for giving it a listen. Hopefully, it was helpful to you. If you ever have any questions of your own, you can feel free to send me an email at Ian@essentialtennis.com, or if you go to essentialtennis.com and click on contact there is a form that you can fill out that also goes directly to me, and I have a running list of podcast topics that I am going to be getting to in the future. And I answer those in the order that they were received. So sometimes it takes a little while for me to get to people’s questions, but I do always talk about whatever topics people send me messages about which I enjoy doing. If you enjoyed today’s show do me a favor and go to Itunes and rate and submit a comment about the Essential Tennis Podcast.

That helps my ratings over there at Apple, the Itunes music store, which is the biggest source of downloads for the podcast, so if the show has been helpful to you, do me a favor and spend a couple of minutes an rate the show, and also leave a comment, and I would appreciate that. Alright, that does it for this week. Take care everybody, and good luck with your tennis. [music] [music]

Essential Tennis Podcast #117

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 strategy, 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 Tennis tours.com where you can receive a $25 gift discount off your next purchase of professional tennis events tickets and travel packages. Before we get started with today’s show, I’m wondering if any of you out there are experienced in writing iPhone or iPad applications. I am I’d really like to get an Essentials Tennis iPhone application going and one for android [inaudible] the android platform as well, and if that’s something that you think would be fun to work on and you like to give me a hand on getting an application out there like that. Please shoot me an email, I’d appreciate it very much. My email address is ian@essentialtennis.com
Thanks very much, now let’s go ahead and get started with today’s show. Sit back, relax and get ready for some great tennis instruction. [music] [music] [music]
Alright let’s get started with today’s topic, which I think is really interesting and one that you guys are going to enjoy. Our question today comes from [inaudible] in Brazil, he wrote to me and said, “As my technique improves more and more I realize, that to win in tennis, you need more than just sharp technique. So I start to study the strategy, tactics and mental parts of the game. I’m just a beginner in those topics, but so far one thing is clear to me, to know yourself is just as important as knowing your opponents weaknesses and weapons.” [inaudible] that’s a really good observation. I’ll continue with his question here, “Knowing that it would help me and probably a lot of people, if you analyze the most important types of players you have in tennis. Counter, puncher, all-court player, etc. How I identify my style of game and how I work to improve it. I’m reading quite a lot about it and one thing in particular is problematic for me the game style, is the game style something natural, or chosen? Do I start as a counter-puncher by only having ground strokes and a base-line game, work through the middle court to be an aggressive player, and then get a grip on net play to serve and volley and after mastering all the court, turn into an all-court player and only then make an informed decision about my game? Well I think that this would be, I think this is just the beginning of my doubts as i go deeper on this new ground. Any insights would be helpful.”
Well [inaudible] really good observations and good question as well. And to be honest with you this is something that I hadn’t really considered before. Obviously, I’m very aware of different styles and generalities of tennis players and the different kind of ways that we enjoy being on the courts and maybe different parts of our game that are stronger than others. Every body has different parts and sections of their game that they prefer over others. There’s not a whole lot of people that are just good at everything and we’re going to get to that, in detail, a little bit later. But I had never really thought about the connection between making a conscience choice of wanting to be a certain style of player as apposed to just being a natural type of player. So, I had a good time thinking about this, I enjoyed thinking about it, and in creating the outline for today’s show, and I’m going to go into some pretty good detail. Kind of like last week’s show where I really focused on the topic of watching the ball. We’re probably going to spend all of today’s show on this topic and I’m going to be outlining four main types of tennis players styles, that i think there are. We’re also going to talk about professional for each style that i think probably represents that style the best. And I’m going to tell you guys how to improve each of these styles and i want you guys while I’m talking about these different types of players, I want you guys to be thinking about your own game and trying to figure out which of these styles fit you best.
So that when i get to the part about improving, you’ll know, in general, what to work on next to continue advancing your game. So, lets go ahead and start talking about the different types of players. And I’d like to start off saying that these are definitely generalities, alright, I mean everybody’s a little the difference. Everybody has a little bit different skill set, and has different strengths and weaknesses, and there can be some overlap between these 4 really main types of players. With that being said, more than likely, all of you guys listening are probably going to most cleanly fit into 1 of the 4 of these categories. So, listen closely, and see which one you are. The first one I want to talk about is the counterpuncher-pusher-defensive baseline-type player.
And this is a type of player that we are all very familiar with. It is very common style of tennis, and it depends on who you are, but it is probably the easiest way to start off, by not hitting anything fancy, not being very aggressive, just keeping the ball in play. And probably the hallmarks of this type of player are being very comfortable on the baseline, usually does not like to dictate point play, simply meaning that this type of player does not really feel comfortable being assertive, is not very comfortable being aggressive, and is much more comfortable allowing his or her opponent to dictate play, and simply absorbing their pace and putting the ball back in play.
Also, usually this player makes very few unforced errors and simply waits for his opponents to make mistakes. And it could be easily argued that this is a very kind of pure and fundamental style of tennis. After all, you can only win a point if you keep the ball in play, and so this type of player is really at the core of it really playing solid tennis. They are really focusing on not making mistakes, just keeping the ball in play, usually not a whole lot of power, or aggressiveness behind their shots, and this type of player is usually very frustrating for recreational-type tennis players to play. And often times, recreational players want to try to hit those big shots. They want to try to hit winners and be aggressive, and when they come up against a pusher or counter-puncher, or whatever you want to call it, it can be frustrating to make mistakes, and feel like the other person did not really beat you, but you beat yourself because of the errors you make. So, this can be a very frustrating type of player to play. Usually this player does not like the net very much. They will stay away from the net and just keep the ball in play.

Now an example of a professional player–the first person that came to mind for me was Layton Huett. Layton Huett is definitely a counter-puncher type player. He does not have big weapons from behind the baseline. Do not get me wrong, he has got great groundstroke’s. He has some skills at the net, but definitely not terribly comfortable up there, he would rather stay away from the net and keep the ball in play back from the baseline. And he waits for the most part for errors from his opponents. Now if this is you, if you are this type of player who is kind of passive, does not mind running down a ton of shots, just keeping it in play, that is about it, to improve you want to work on hitting short and weak shots aggressively. You want to develop some weapons, and it is very possible that you are successful at your own level of play, but if you want to move up a whole other level, and start beating players who are a level above you right now, it is important that eventually you start to develop some weapons and some aggressive shots. So, work specifically on short, weak shots. Hit towards you. Work on hitting those aggressively. You are going to need to learn to hit some topspin to keep those safe. Also, work on your net game. Get a little bit more comfortable up there so that when you do get that weak shot, and you attack on it, you can following it forward, and work on putting the ball away at the net. Also, work on creating pace and topspin from back at the baseline. Work on being a little bit more pressuring from back behind the baseline where you are usually playing your points. So that is the counter-puncher, pusher, defensive-type players. By the way, I did a whole podcast on how to beat this type of player sometime ago. I want to say it was Episode 30 or maybe Episode 40. Go to the archives and download that show. It is only about how to beat this type of player.

Now, the text style of player is the aggressive baseline player, and this type of person is again very comfortable on the baseline, just like the counterpuncher. However, this person loves hitting the ball hard and dictating play. This person is most comfortable and is having the most amount of fun when they are really unloading on the ball and going for big shots. This person typically has very little patience. They will take the very first opportunity that they get, and just go for a winner, and very often this person has either a really good day or a really bad day on the courts, and not a whole lot in between. And it kind of depends on whether this player is on or not. In other words, when this person is really comfortable, and really timing his or her swings well that day, and really hitting the ball well, this person is really tough to beat by somebody at their own level, because they are just hitting everything big, and making it.
However, when this type of player is having a little bit of an off day, it can be a disaster, because he or she will just make a ton of on-course errors due to their aggressive game play. If you are a little bit off and play really aggressively, you are going to make a lot of mistakes. So that is kind of the downfall of the aggressive baseline player. An example of this player in the professional ranks would be James Blake. And [laughter] not that I am saying that James Blake is not a smart player, but I have seen him play in person. I have watched him play on TV many times. He loves to hit the ball hard. He definitely hits the ball a little bit flatter than most of his peers, and he just likes to go for big shots. And kind of like what I describe a second ago, he is either really on or he is making a lot of mistakes that day, and it kind of a big swing back and forth. And a lot of times there is not a whole lot of in between for James Blake. Now, to improve, if you are this type of player.
If you are an aggressive baseline player, you want to work on developing rhythm from the baseline. Rather than developing pace and power you want to be able to keep a certain pace of shot in play over and over and over again. And that will probably mean that you take a little bit of pace off your shorts on average in general, but you want to find a pace, a speed, to hit the ball at that is consistent, but still confident without being overly aggressive, and making a lot of errors. This is something that I will give a shout out to Brian Mark of the Forums. He has been working on this. He would definitely be in this category of an aggressive baseline player. He loves to hit the ball hard. He likes the net too, so he is not 100% a baseline player. But recently he has really made some big strides in his game by working on his rhythm by being able to hit back and forth, back and forth, still at a confident pace, but at a consistent speed and at a speed that he can manage.

Lastly, this type of player typically needs to work on their net game as well. Not always. Like I said a second ago, Brian is definitely an aggressive baseline player, but also likes to be at the net. He plays quite a bit of doubles. But in general, usually aggressive baseline players would much rather let the ball bounce and do not like the net a whole lot, so working on their net game is usually a good thing.

Alright, style #3 is the net rusher. This person would much rather be at the net taking the ball out of the air than letting it bounce. Usually they do not like to rally from the baseline. They are not as comfortable hitting ground strokes, and this type of player usually moves in on just about everything. As soon as they get their first opportunity, even if it is not a good one, they immediately move into the net, because that is just where they are comfortable. They feel like a fish out of water when they are back behind the baseline, and having to hit a couple of ground strokes in a row. A professional example of this would be Taylor Dent. Taylor Dent will serve and volley on every serve the entire match, and on a fast court will also hit return of serves and move right in after return of serves. And he will come in off of just about everything. It is rare to see him play an entire point from the baseline.
He will usually come in at some point, and by the way, I love watching Taylor Dent. It is an exciting style of tennis to watch, there is always a lot of action, and he had an awesome match last year at the U.S. Open. I am forgetting who he was playing. I think it was a Spanish player. But an amazing match at the U.S. Open. It was a night match. Now, if you are this type of player. If you are a net rusher, and by the way this style of player is, I do not want to say the way of the dinosaur, but definitely more and more rare these days to have somebody who is more comfortable at the net then at the baseline. If you are this type of player, you need to work on your technique, and confidence on the baseline kind of goes without saying. You need to work on identifying the correct times to move into the net as well.
Oftentimes, these types of players will move in off of absolutely just everything, and an aggressive net rusher will really benefit themselves a lot by working on being patient and coming into the net when it makes the most amount of sense, and that means being able to hit a couple of groundstroke’s and and waiting for your opportunity before you do move in. Do not just move in off of everything. Be patient, rally some groundstroke’s, wait until you have the upper hand in a point, and then use that opportunity to attack. Otherwise, you kind of…I mean it can be very effective against some players to always pressure off of everything, and always move in, but against somebody with confident groundstroke’s, you will find yourself getting past a lot and player it is really good to be able to take your time and wait, and pick and choose your opportunities. So that is #3, the net rusher.

And now we come to #4, the last kind of main style of play, and that is the all court player, the fabled all court player, somebody who is just as comfortable at the net as at the baseline. This person has no obvious big holes in their game, and they are just pretty solid at everything. And this is a tough player to play, obviously, and you guys will honesty rarely play somebody like this. Now you might play a half a level or level above you that seems like they do absolutely everything well and everything perfectly and they do not make any mistakes, but the reality is that most players (definitely, at least 90% of tennis players) have some stroke in their game that they are just not very comfortable with, and it is your job to figure out what that is, but an all court player is in general pretty good at everything…pretty solid. A professional example of this, and this is the really obvious one, Roger Federer does not really have a stroke that is a big weakness. Sometimes he will have days where his backhand is not that solid, but for the most part, he is comfortable from the baseline. He is also comfortable at the net. He is definitely competent up their. He has played some doubles, and he can hit an amazing shot from anywhere on the court and that is a really rare quality. There are not a whole lot of players like this. In my opinion, among recreational players, the 2 main styles that you guys are going to see are either the counterpuncher or pusher, defensive-type baseline player or an aggressive baseline player. Those are by far the 2 most common styles you are going to see.
Or maybe something in between. Somebody who you really would not say is a counterpuncher, but does not just blast everything from the baseline, as well. Those are the 2 most common things. If you are an all court player, be honest with yourself, [laughter] if you are an all-court player, and every part of your game is pretty solid, you just want to continue to work on everything together. Make sure that you do not just focus on on one part of your game. Make sure that everything continues to improve, both your net game and your baseline game, your tactics, your serves, your return. Try to work on everything at once. And that can be tough. Most of us have some kind of weakness that we know that we should really spend some time on that. I guess [laughter] the downfall of an all court player is they have to really even everything out and spend equal time on everything. So, there are the 4 main types of tennis styles in my opinion. Those are the 4 most common ones that I see. Some of them are more common than others, but I think all you listening should be able to put yourselves into one of those 4 categories. Again, it was counterpuncher or pusher, aggressive baseline player, net rusher or all court player.

Before we get to the next section of my outline on this topic, I want to remind you guys about the sponsor of the Essential Tennis Podcast, and that is Championship Tennis Tours. You can find them at tennistours.com. They have been putting together travel packages and tennis tickets to professional events since 1987, and I am going to tell you guys again about the incredible packages that they have available for the U.S. Open this year. It all starts with picking your choice of tickets and you can choose between court-side, lodge or promenade tickets. Next up you get to choose between 2 different hotels: a 4-star and 5-star hotel, the W Hotel in Times Square or the Essex House Hotel, both in New York City, obviously. Next up, you get to choose between either a Broadway performance of your choice, a ticket to a Mets game, a Yankee’s game, or you get to have a city tour around New York City.
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Alright, let us keep moving ahead with today’s topic, and the next section I would like to talk about is whether or not style is a natural thing or it is chosen by the player, and decides that this is going to be my style of play. In my experience, it is definitely a combination of both. And I would like to use myself as an example here. And we are going to talk about physical skills and abilities first, and what naturally makes somebody a certain style or type of player. Natural, physical things or abilities I have are, I have pretty good anticipation. I have good hands and touch, I am relatively quick, and I also have a lefty serve. I am a left-handed player. Most returners do not returning leftie’s serves, so the combination of all those things together would make me either a counterpuncher back at the baseline or a good net player. And I love being at the net for all of those reasons that I just listed: Anticipation, quickness, leftie serve. On the flip-side, physically, I am not a very big person [laughter] .
I am 6 feet tall and right around 160 pounds. Back when I was playing in college, I was only like 145, 150 on a good day, and also by backhand is a big weakness of mine. It is my biggest weakness. So when you put together my lack of size and relative strength, and my weak backhand back at the baseline, I would show you guys that it would probably not be smart for me to be a big baseline player. Either a counter- puncher or an aggressive baseline player. More than likely, my skill set would make me a better net player, and that is the case. I am better at doubles than I am at singles most of the time. I love to be at the net, and against somebody who is even with me or a level above me, I am usually not very good back at the baseline. I kind of get picked apart very often at the baseline because, again, the combination of not being very big and strong and have my backhand groundstroke being a definitely weakness. So, against somebody who is half a level better than me, I usually like to try to get to the net as often as possible to make the use of my skills. So there are some examples of kind of a natural skillset, and how it can steer you or should steer you towards a certain style of play.

Also, personality is a natural thing that all of us are born with. I mean I not a psychology, but I think most of us are pretty born with certain personality traits. I am sure they are also developed as we grow up and become adults, but personality can also definitely be a factor in picking out a game style. Often times laid back people are counterpunchers or baseline players that just like to keep the ball in play. Outgoing and extraverted people very often are aggressive baseline players or net rushers. They like to make things happen. They like to really initiate. Now, this is certainly not always the case. Sometimes it is exactly the opposite, but it can also… I just wanted to throw that out there as another kind of natural way that game styles become developed for tennis players. I think it is a combination of personality traits and physical skills and abilities. Now, on the flipside of the coin, you can definitely choose a game style that you want to develop, as well. I mean, you guys can choose. You can go purely based off your physical skills and your personality and the way you like to play out there and the way your strokes kind of fall into place. You can also simply choose what you want to develop, and what you want to spend the most amount of time on when you practice. And that can shape you as a tennis player, no doubt. Figure out what appears to you most on the court, and the type of play that seems most attractive and fun to you when you do go out and play tennis, and work on that. Just because I have a weak backhand does not mean that I cannot go out there and just drill the heck out of my backhand for about 2 months, and just really work on and focus on that. Leave the rest of my game alone for a while. Continue to practice it, and certainly maintain it, but really spend the most amount of time on my backhand so that I can become more of a baseline player. I could definitely do that. Now, if at the end of those 2 months my backhand is the same [laughter], I am going to be very frustrated, first of all. But, second of all, that would be a strong indicated that being an aggressive baseline player is probably not for me, and I probably do not want to play all of my points from the baseline. I want to use what is kind of naturally given to me, and I want to continue coming up to the net because of my different skill sets.
But this is a choice all of you guys can make, and there is no wrong answer to this. Just choose whatever you think is going to be most fun to you, what you really want to work on, what you admire the most in other players, and go after that. I think you might be overthinking this a little too much. You want to develop all different parts of your game, but as far as what style you want to play during competitive points, that is something that you can definitely pick and choose and try different stuff out and see what works best for you.

Just 2 more things I want to hit on before we wrap up today’s show. First of all, Remulo talked about a progression through different styles, and I think this was a really good observation by him. He talked about how very often beginning tennis players start off as essentially a counterpuncher. They work on their groundstrokes first, then once they become good at that, they will maybe start working on their net game, and then try to put everything together. And I think that is a really good observation, Remulo, and I think that is very often the way it goes, and it is actually very similar to how I teach people. When a fresh total beginner comes in and starts taking lessons with me, I always start off with groundstroke’s first, because I feel like [laughter], you know, how can you possibly be a tennis player without being able to maintain a groundstroke rally back and forth. You have to be able to hit a return serve and play, and I think it is probably most satisfying for a player beginning to play tennis when they can just hit a ball back and forth from the baseline, and that is just a good, fundamental place to start in my opinion. After my student has become pretty competent with both forehands and backhands, I typically add netplay to that. Now, there is no set formula.
If you are just starting to play tennis and you love playing at the net, and you want to develop that first, I do not think there is anything wrong with that. Now I would encourage you to try to develop both parts of your game at the same time, if possible, but to be honest not everyone has the same amount of time and ability to do that. We are not all blessed with the same athletic ability, and very often people need to pick one thing at a time to develop, and then move on to the next thing. So, from that perspective, Remulo, yes, I think that is how it works. You want to move from one element of the game to the next. I do not think most people have the luxury of being able to take everything and say, alright, this weak I am going to work on my serve, my forehand, my backhand, my approach shot, my forehanded and backhanded volley, my overhead and my return of serve, and I am going to improve all of those things this weak. [laughter]
That is not really practical. Most of us should be picking 1 or maybe 2 of those things, really focusing on those and trying to bring them up to level, and then once you are satisfied, go and pick out 1 or 2 other things. And that is how most of you guys should be working through the progression of your tennis games. And you can shape and mold your playing style as you go, depending on which of those elements you like the most, or which ones you pick up most quickly.

Now, if you do have the ability to work on everything at once, then God bless you, but that is not going to be most of you guys, and there is going to be kind of a natural progression through different strokes. And you guys can pick how you would like that progression to go. I would encourage you guys to kind of map it out and decide what you want to work on first, and have fun with it. Enjoy going through and kind of checking off 1 thing at a time as you work your way toward being comfortable with all parts of the game.

The last thing I want to talk about is tactics as it relates to all of these different styles, and hopefully you guys are paying close attention when I described the 4 different types of players. And I just want to throw out a really simple tactical thought to you guys before I wrap up today’s show. Very simply, when you guys go out and play tennis, watch for the different styles, and you want to try to put your opponent, not into a box. We do not want to say that, OK, this person is always a counterpuncher and they do not have any weapons, and so I do not have to worry about that. Everybody is going to be a little bit different as I talked about earlier in the show, but try to notice their generalities. Notice what they really like to do.
More importantly, notice what they really do not like, and then basically you want to take whatever they do not like to do and make them do it again, and again and again. If you are playing a net rusher, somebody who comes in after everything, you want to try to keep the ball deep, keep them defensive, and keep them away from the net. Or you want to work on your defensive shots and try to lob over them off the net. But one way or the other you want to keep them away from the net. If you are playing an aggressive baseline player, somebody who hits the ball hard, you want to be steady, consistent, do not try to out hit them if it is not your game, and if you can, try to draw them into the net. If you have a good touch, good hands, try to bring them forward without giving them too easy of a shot that they can just put away consistently. And make them volley, make them hit overheads. It is probably not something that they are comfortable with if they are an aggressive baseline player and they are comfortable at the net, as well, you are going to have a tough time that day. You are going to have to pick out something that you can attack and make them uncomfortable with. But my point is, pay close attention. Remulo pointed this out earlier when I read his question he talked about looking for these tendencies in his opponents, as well as himself, and being able to match up your strength hopefully versus their weakness, and that is really the fundamental truth and tactics. That is really what you guys want to look for first. And try to exploit whatever natural things that your opponent is not good at. Remulo, I want to thank you very much for your question. Thank you for writing me from Brazil, and I hope my discussion of your question has been helpful today. Please let me know if you have any follow-up questions, but I appreciate you being a listener. [music] [music] [music]
Alright. That does it for Episode 117 of the Essential Tennis Podcast. Thank you very much for downloading today’s show and giving it a listen. I hope that it was helpful to you. And please tune in every Monday as I release a new podcast. Usually Monday afternoon here on the east coast of the U.S. Before we wrap things up I definitely want to thank a couple of people who have donated in the last couple of weeks. I appreciate you guys very very much, and those people are Sandro in Italy, Bill in Missouri, Ben in Utah, Max in New York, Charles in Maryland, Steve in North Carolina, Kelly in Alabama, and John in Texas. Thank you to all of you who have donated some funds to the Essential Tennis Podcast. They really help me to continue to do what I am doing at the website and at the podcast, and if the Essential Tennis Podcast has helped your game, and you appreciate the show, I would really appreciate a donation of any kind that you can set up a subscription donation or just make a one-time donation to the show, as well. Just go to essentialtennis.com, and in the bottom right-hand corner that says ‘donate.’ Thank you guys very much for your support. I appreciate it very much. [music] OK. Thank you guys very much. Take care, and good luck with your tennis. [music] [music] [music]

Essential Tennis Podcast #116

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Speaker: 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 TennisTours.com, where you can use the promotional code Essential to receive a $25 discount off your next purchase of professional tennis event tickets and travel packages.

Before we get to today’s topics, I’m going to answer a cuople of listener questions on today’s show. Before then, I just wanted to simply thank all of you who have been regular listeners of the podcast. I appreciate all of you very much. Without you, the show would not be possible. I want to thank you for downloading the show, esp those of you who download on a regular basic and listen to this show weekly. Those of you who have rated the show and commented on iTunes, thank you very much.

And I want to esp thank those of you who have sent in questions for me to answer. That’s really what makes this show tick. And really makes it unique, I think. That’s what makes the internet and podcasting in general so much fun, I think, is the communication back and forth between a host or producer and his or her listeners.

So thank you all very much. I appreciate it, and I hope to continue making the show even better fr all of you listening.

Now let’s go ahead and get started with today’s questions. Sit back, relax, and get ready for some great tennis instruction.

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Alright. Let’s get started with our first question. It comes to us from Sandro in Italy. Pretty sure it’s the first podcast question coming to us from Italy, so Sandro, thank you very much for your question. I appreciate it. And I’m sure that you’ve been enjoying watching the recent ATP events there in Italy: the Rome tournament. [inaudible] tournament just wrapped up yesterday. Good match between Rafael Nadal and Ferer.

Anyway, let’s go ahead and get to his question, which is: I have been playing tennis for 4 years at a local club. I’ve also played some tournaments. When I play, I have a lot of problems looking at the ball. My eyes go to where I want to send the ball, and of course I lose it and hit a poor shot. I can keep concentration on the ball for 4-5 minutes, but after that my eyes go to the point where I want to put the shot.

As you can understand, I’ve lost many matches against players a lot lower than my level because of this. I hit a lot of unforced errors, giving away the match. Do you have some tips or exercises to keep my eyes on the ball, and not where I want to put the ball? Thank you, Sandro.

Sandro, that’s a really good question. I’m going to be spending some time on this today. I’m going to go into some detail, because I think this is a topic that is misunderstood very often. I think it falls into 2 categories.

First of all, I think it’s misunderstood. That’s #1. Though there’s people that know it’s important, but have misunderstandings about how exactly it works. There’s another group of people I think, who don’t even feel like it’s a very important or worthwhile thing to focus on. I disagree with it. I’m going to talk to you guys why.

Just to give you a heads up, [laughter] I’m probably really going to be going into detail on this today. It’s a topic that I feel strongly about. I think that it’s smthg that is the difference between levels of play. In other words, it’s smthg that higher level tennis players just do automatically. It’s not smthg they have to think about. Whereas as more beginners or intermediate level recreational players are not even aware of it often. It could be a real different maker. So I’m going to spend a lot of time on it today, because I feel that it’s very important.

Let’s begin first with: why is it important? Well, in my experience as a teacher, I’ve spent a lot of time on the court as a teacher teaching recreational players and avg. level club players. Those are the people that make up by far the biggest chunk of my audience here on the Essential Tennis Podcast. So I’m speaking to you guys: the weekend warriors, or just the recreational players who go out there on a regular undefined and 4.0 player.

Now, if you’re a 4.5 level player, this can pertain to you as well, but probably not quite as much..

Anyway, in my experience watching recreational players, there are errors due to making poor contact with the ball way more times than they think there are. Most recreational players in my experience are just not aware of how often the ball does not hit the middle of the racket. When I say ‘poor contact,’ I’m talking about the ball hitting somewhere on the racket other than where it’s supposed to.

Now of course we have some margin for error. The ball doesn’t have to hit an area on the strings the size of a tennis ball in order to be a good shot. There’s probably 1, 2, maybe 3 inches of margin for error, all around the actual center or the actual sweet spot of the racket.

But once the ball starts making contact with the racket out towards the edge–even if it doesn’t physically touch the frame of your racket–it really detracts from the quality of your shot a great deal. More than people think! The reason why it’s so important for us to focus on watching the ball closely is because most players just aren’t very aware of when this happens, and how often it happens. When I’m watching players play, I very often watch and see in front of me a player mishit a shot badly.

An example of this might be, let’s say in a doubles point somebody I’m watching on an instructional court that I’m teaching during, a lot of times I’ll watch a player mis hit a volley. And see a low volley–a shot that they’re trying to play with a little more touch of finesse; they can’t really attack on it–and the ball will just purely hit off their frame. I’m not even talking about a shot that’s a little off center. It completely hits off their frame, and hits the bottom of the net. It doesn’t even get close to making it over. I’ll very often ask the people on my court when I’m teaching: ‘Alright, everybody stop. Hang on a second. I need to talk to the person who just missed the shot.’ And I’ll look them in the eyes and say: ‘Why did you miss that shot?’

And I am absolutely shocked by the wide range of answers that I get back to that question! Time after time when I ask that question, people give me answers other than: ‘The ball hit my frame.’ They’ll say smthg like: ‘I hit it too softly. I was trying to go for a tough shot; it was too soft.’ Or maybe they’ll say: ‘I didn’t get down low enough with my knees. Low volley. I stayed too upright.’ Or they’ll say: ‘I didn’t open up my racket face enough. My technique was poor.’ Whatever. They’ll say smthg besides: ‘The ball hit my frame.’

Then I’ll tell them: ‘No, you’re incorrect. Your technique looked great. You were in the right spot. Everything looked good, except that the ball hit your frame.’ And then everybody laughed and did, ‘Oh, ha! Well obviously, yeah. I hit my frame. I knew that!’ Well, think about it. What could be more important than the ball hitting your strings? You go through all this time and effort of working on your technique and trying to make it better and better. Then the ball comes your way and doesn’t hit your strings. How can you possibly even think about anything else besides: ‘Well crap! The ball did not hit the middle of my racket, so of course it wasn’t a good shot!’ [laughter] Now, out of people who I haven’t asked that question of before, honestly I would say 10-20% answer correctly.

Now, if I’m talking to a person who knows me well and has worked with me over several hours, they probably know what I’m getting at and immediately know what I’m asking. They’ll give me the correct answer.

But out of people who don’t know how I teach and what I really emphasize on the court–which is mostly basic things and big chunks of important parts of tennis that need to be done well in order to improve your game–they very often miss this question, which is always baffling to me.

So let’s move on and talk about a debate that many people on the internet have when it comes to talking about actually watching the ball. There’s 2 main arguments that I see. I’ve seen a lot of discussions about the merits or demerits of watching the ball. There’s 2 main detractions that I’ve noticed the most.

The first one is when somebody will say on a tennis message board or blog post: ‘Hey, you guys really need to be watching the ball,’ very often people will reply and say: ‘Well, you can’t even see the ball hit your strings! So why could it be important to watch it closely? I can’t watch it, because I can’t actually see it. So what’s the point of that? It seems like this is a waste of time to try to watch the ball hit my racket or hit my strings, because I’m not going to see the ball anyway.’ And that’s true.

That’s important for you to understand, that the ball comes and leaves your racket much too quickly for you to actually see; meaning see, meaning have a snapshot in your head of the ball making contact with the racket. So that is true. But that’s not the point! [laughter]

When I ask people to watch the ball closely, I’m not asking them because I want them to tell me what number’s on the ball or I want them to draw a picture for me of what it looked like. Because I know that they can’t physically see the ball hit the strings. But that’s not really the whole purpose of watching anyway.

Now, in terms of the ball coming and leaving quickly, just to give you some information here. I heard this just recently in an instructional DVD that I watch. The amount of time that it takes for the ball to come and touch your strings, and then leave the strings again, is typically between 2-5 1000s of a second. Think about that. So if we’re talking like 3 1000ths of a second is the amount of the time that the ball actually stays on the strings of your racket. So obviously, if you think you can see that occur, you’re incorrect. [laughter] It happens much too quickly.

But again, it’s not the point to physically see it. The point of watching the ball is to focus on the most important part of the moment, and that is the ball. The whole purpose behind watching the ball closely is to ensure the best possible concentration on what’s happening. That the most important point of time during a tennis really back and forth is when the ball is hitting your strings.

Because if it doesn’t hit your strings, it doesn’t matter how good your technique is. If you’re technique is perfect but the ball hits off your frame, the result will be a poor shot and your good technique was wasted. So we need the best possible contact and therefore we need the best possible concentration on the ball to make sure that happens. Otherwise, we’re just really paying ourselves a disservice.

Now the second main argument that I see online, when people argue against watching the ball closely, is they say: ‘Well, the pros don’t always watch the ball.’ Then they’ll paste in a link to an image of some professional player making contact with the ball. It will be a snapshot with the ball right on the strings and their eyes are not looking at the point of contact. Their eyes typically are just a little bit in front of the racket. The ball is on their strings, and their eyes are not looking at the strings.

Well, it’s also not the point of my talk here–it’s not the point of watching the ball to actually have your eyes perfectly in the right place at perfectly the right time over and over again. Once again, it goes back to concentration and focus on what’s important in general. It doesn’t have to be perfect in order to benefit you. Your eyes don’t have to literally be on the point of contact when yo make contact. You also don’t literally need to watch the ball hit your strings. That’s not the point. And anybody who argues either of those 2 arguments is missing the whole point of the exercise of focusing on the ball.

Now, my second comment on that is that the pros very rarely hit their frame. [laughter] You will see a pro shank a ball every now and then, but for the most part, they’re making very clean contact. They’re amazing athletes. Most people don’t understand how good of athletes they’re watching when they watch professional tennis. And to be perfectly honest, they don’t need to be perfect and have their eyes literally on the point of contact.

That being said, some pros do most of the time. When you look at photos of Roger Federer making contact with the shot, usually his eyes are right in contact. Other pros their eyes are just a little off and not quite looking at the strings when they make contact, and that’s fine.

Bottom line here guys is the point is to hit the strings as often as possible. Period.

So, let’s move on and talk about exactly how to do that. I’m going to go through a pattern, or a sequence of events that you should be following in order to best focus on the ball, and give yourself the best concentration possible on what’s important.

This is smthg I’m probably going to write in a whole e-book about in the future. And really lay it out in great detail. I’m getting into detail here today for sure. But there’s a lot of points that I could make that I’m not going to. I’m just going to lay out a simple sequence of events that you guys should be following when you’re in the middle of a rally or a point back and forth. So this is the pattern you should follow.

First of all, once the ball comes off your opponent’s racket, you need to keep your focus on the ball all the way up until it gets to your racket. And your focus can’t waver during this period of time. The period of time that it takes for the ball to leave your opponent’s strings and get to your strings, your focus needs to be on the ball and nothing else. This is difficult. This is exactly what Sandro was talking about. There’s so many other things that could take your concentration. You could be watching your opponent and trying to figure out what they’re doing on the other side of the court.

As Sandro pointed out, you could be looking at your target and anticipating where you want the the ball to go. Maybe you have a sharp angle volley you’re trying to hit. It’s a forehand volley and so contact is happening on the right hand side of your body. Your target is way over on the left of the court. It’s very tempting to look away and want to check out your shot.

Well, you know what? The ball is going to go where it’s going to go regardless of if you watch or not. So whether or not you look at your target has nothing to do with if the ball goes there or not. However, you’d better believe that where the ball hits on your racket is going to make a big impact on where the ball goes. So you guys need to focus on the important part of what’s happening here, and that is: where the ball’s hitting on your racket. That’s where your focus should be, and it all starts watching the ball come off your opponent’s racket. From there you should be following it all the way into our own racket.

An interesting peace of trivia as far as how the human eyes work, as humans we have just about 180 degrees of total field of vision, and it’s split into 2 parts. You have your peripheral vision, which is the vision that’s out to the side of your eyes. And this vision is blurry. We can see objects in our peripheral vision, but you can’t focus on them. Meaning fine focused vision. In other words, when you have some text or an image off to your right or to your left, you can’t actually read that text or focus clearly on that image unless you move your eyes and put the focus part of your vision on whatever you’re trying to focus on.

That part of your vision–the part that’s actually sharply focused–is only 3-5 degrees out of the 180 degrees of your vision. A very small percentage. Most people don’t realize how little of their vision is actually focused. The rest is blurry. Once the ball leaves your opponent’s racket, you need to keep that 5 degrees of focused vision on the ball all the way until it gets to your racket. No exceptions. If those 5 degrees of vision leave the ball and look at your opponent or your target a split second before you make contact, you’re decreasing the chances that you’re going to make good contact. You’re doing yourself a disservice there.

Once you’ve made contact with the ball, you want to shift your eyes from the point of contact, hopefully just a little after you make contact, and you want to shift them to your opponent. You want to start looking at what your opponent is doing. This is going to tell you when the ball is coming next. And also, it’s probably going to give you some really good information as far as what type of shot is coming from your opponent as well. These are topics I could do a whole show about individually.

But by watching your opponent, you’ll see when their swing begins. You’ll see what type of swing they’re going to make. That’s going to tell you when you need to be ready for the next shot, and also what type of shot is coming to you next. That’s going to help you prepare yourself and be ready for the next oncoming shot.

When the ball gets to your opponent’s racket in the middle of their next swing you want to shift your eyes from you opponent and then back to the ball again, and you’ll repeat that sequence.

So the sequence is this. Watch the ball come off your opponent’s racket and follow it all the way into your racket. Once you’ve made contact, shift your focus back to your opponent’s again. See what they do; see where they go on the court; see what type of swing they make. Once they make their swing and they make contact with the ball, shift their focus back to the ball again, and then repeat.

So there should be this shifting from the ball to your opponent; to the ball to your opponent; and back and forth again. It’s not that you want to watch the ball the entire time, because you’ll miss out on a lot cues from your opponent in between shots. Once you’ve made contact with your shot, you want to watch your opponent’s again until it’s time for them to make contact, and then you shift your focus back to the ball again.

So this sequence of events and the way that you control your eyes is very important. For many of you, this is going to be a conscious thing. You’re going to have to really mentally focus on it in order to make this work. But trust me, it’s worth it! I really encourage you guys to practice it. In the long run, your concentration will become better, and your contact will become better. You’ll hit the middle of your racket more and more often.

Before I wrap up this topic, I want to tell you guys about today’s sponsor of the Essential Tennis Podcast. That is TennisTours.com. I’ve got a really awesome package to tell you about. The U.S. Open is going to be coming up at the end of the tennis season in Aug. Always an awesome event. And championship tennis tours at TennisTours.com has put together just an incredible package to be able to go check out the U.S. Open.

As part of their packages, you can choose between either a 4 or a 5 star hotel in NYC. You can choose the type of seating level that you’d like for your tickets between court side, lodge, or promenade. You also choose between attending a Broadway performance of your choice; a ticket to the Mets or Yankees game; or a city tour. That’s pretty awesome. And you get free limousine shuttle back and forth to the U.S. Open and your hotel.

Talk about an awesome experience! I mean, you get to go check out NYC; go to a baseball game or Broadway performance; get the limousine shuttle. You get to choose what type of tickets you’d like when you go and watch the U.S. Open. Plus–and this is my persona favorite–they’re going to be sending you an invitation to a championship tennis tours and Essential Tennis Podcast cocktail party at the W Hotel in Times Square. I’m going to try to make arrangements to be there personally. I’d really love to go there to see the Open this year and meet some of you guys who support both my show and championship tennis tours.

Please do support them. Thank them for being a sponsor of the Essential Tennis Podcast. Go check out their U.S. Open ticket and accommodation packages. As you can tell, they put together a first class ticket package with so many different options and different types of amenities. I guarantee you will have an amazing time in NYC.

So go check them out: TennisTours.com. Make sure to fill in the promotional code Essential with a capital E, and you’ll get your invitation to the championship tennis tours and Essential Tennis Podcast cocktail party in Times Square during the U.S. Open.

Just 2 other things that I wanted to point out before I wrap up this topic. First of all, I think it’s good information to point out how you can tell when you do hit off center. When you don’t hit the right place on your racket. When the ball makes contact with your racket. There’s 3 main ways you can tell. First of all, the sound. It will sound different. After awhile, once you start paying attention to this, you’ll be able to tell without seeing your opponent hit.

Or let’s say there’s a point going on behind you; you’re not even playing. You’ll start to be able to pick out clean hits and shots that are off center. After awhile that becomes very helpful, because when you make a swing and it’s a bit off center, it’s good to get that audio feedback and be able to tell: Alright, I need to do a little bit better job watching the ball. I need to make better contact on my next shot.

Secondly, feel. It’s going to feel completely different. The racket will twist and turn in your hand. Or it will vibrate. It just doesn’t feel like a clean, crisp shot. Very often I see people blame their grip slipping n a bad grip, when in fact they’ve just hit off their frame. And that kind of twirks the racket in your hand. It destabilizes the racket in your hand and makes it want to twist and turn to the side. When the racket twists in your hand, please don’t tell yourself that you’re gripping too lightly, or that your grip is wearing out and getting slippery. Maybe it is. But the grip will not slip in your hand unless you hit off center. And that’s what’s going to twist the racket around in your hand.

And thirdly, the result. This is the one that should seem obvious, but I pointed out earlier in my explanation of this topic that very often players don’t even think that it could have been possible that they hit their frame. When the ball just doesn’t go anywhere close to where you were aiming or trying to hit it, try to think back and see if any other of those other 2 things were there. Did it feel right? Did it sound right? If it didn’t go where it was supposed to either, it’s a very high likelihood that you hit off center.

And lastly, when you do hit an off center shot, and you do it on a regular basis on a certain shot. Let’s say a backhand ground stroke. You tend to hit off center really regularly. Look and feel for a pattern. Very often in my experience teaching, when players have problems off center, it becomes a pattern where the ball hits the same place over and over again.

So let’s say you have a 2 handed back hand and the ball consistently hits the top edge of your racket. That’s going to kind of twist the racket back and open the face up. It’s not going to feel right or sound right. A lot of times when players have problems, they fall into hitting a pattern in the same place again and again. So pay attention to that.

Once you recognize the pattern based on where you see it hit and also how it feels, you can start to make changes.

If it continues to hit the top edge of your racket on your back hand, you know that you need to lift the racket a little higher so that you hit the middle of the racket instead of the top frame. So you can start making specific adjustments like that. So pay close attention.

Lastly, I just want to say: Stick with it guys! This is smthg that seems like it’s very simple, but it’s not. When I start with students, very often they have no idea when they hit frame. And people that I’ve been working with for a long period of time; that I’ve give a lot of lessons to; after awhile they start to tell me first–I don’t even have to point it out to them anymore! They’ll hit a shot off center, and it’s not a good shot as a result, and they’ll immediately look at me and tell me it was off center.

Or they can even tell me where it hit. They’ll feel it. They’ll see the result. They’ll recognize the direction the racket twisted in their hand. And they’ll tell me, ‘That was off center. It hit right here.’ Then the next time they get that same shot, they can make an adjustment with where they put the racket by using their hand and adjusting where the racket is in relationship to the oncoming ball. They can make the correct adjustment and the correct change. And that’s the whole point, is to do a better job of making good contact.

So, that brings that explanation to an end. Sandro, it might not have been exactly what you were looking for. You were asking for exercises or drills. I really just wanted to get through that and explain to you guys in detail why it’s important and how you do it. I want you to go out there and practice doing it. Practice the steps that I explained. And I promise you you’re going to get better at it as you become more aware of it, and as you start to narrow it down and focus better, and start to make changes where you see patterns of making a mistake and not making good contact.

Again, this is a topic that seems very simple, but it’s incredibly important. So I encourage you guys to focus on it and do a better job with it. This is one of those things that can really improve your tennis.

I’d be curious to hear what you guys think about my explanation here. And also I’d be curious to hear feedback about you trying this for the first time. That’d be cool.

So send me an e-mail: ian@essentialtennis.com. Hopefully this was helpful to you.

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Alright. One more thing I’d like to talk about before we wrap up today’s episode. It has to do with the learning process in tennis. I know that if you’re listening to my voice right now you’re really passionate about the sport of tennis. [laughter] Especially if you just listened to me go over the detailed outline of watching the ball. I know that you’re really taking seriously your tennis improvement. That’s great. You’re exactly the type of person I’ve been looking for while doing the podcast.

And I talked to somebody just like that yesterday. His name was Andrew. He called me. And by the way, for those of you who don’t know, Essential Tennis has it’s own website phone number. I use Google Voice with that. It actually comes through right to my cell phone. I can’t always answer the phone, obviously. A lot of times I’m on court teaching. But if you’d like to leave me a message, I can get back to you. Or sometimes I may even be able to pick up and talk. But if you guys go to Essential Tennis and click on Contact, there’s a phone number.

So anyway, Andrew had called me and he wanted my opinion on a couple different things. First of all, he gave me a pretty long list of different websites, different products that he had purchased and tried online. I think Andrew’s pretty typical as far as listeners of my show in that he’s trying to find as much information as possible. Obviously, Essential Tennis is not the only place online to get tennis instruction. There’s lots of different places and a lot of good information out there.

He asked my opinion about a couple of specific websites and teachers and coaches online who put out instructional information. He just wanted to get my take on a couple of different places and what I thought about their content. What this came down to was eventually he was asking me for suggestions of other ways to get instruction that is going to help him improve his game.

Basically he said, ‘Listen. Please tell me a DVD or smthg I can buy that’s going to take my game to the next level.’ I asked him about his game. He’s been playing for 3 years. He’s just looking for that next way to improve. In talking to him I can tell he’s really pumped up about this, and really is looking for that next change. The thing that’s really going to push him over towards that next level of that play.

I gave him a couple of misses of advice. I want to pass that along to you guys, because I think it was a good conversation and I hope that he came away from it with a little bit more understanding of what it takes to really continue to improve your game. You guys need to be patient and keep working hard. Tennis looks easy when you watch it on TV or when you watch high-level players in person.

But it takes a long time to continue developing your game. It’s not smthg where you get that 1 piece of information, or that 1 product, or that 1 DVD and you watch it and it just makes sense. And it’s like, ‘Oh, this is great!’ And you go there and just play incredible. And all of a sudden, ‘Wow, I’m a good player because I got that piece of information that I was missing before!’ Unfortunately, it doesn’t work that way.

Now granted–don’t get me wrong–you need as much good information as possible, and that’s why I’m here, and that’s why there’s other instructional websites as well. But just understand that even after you’ve learned that information, it takes time. It takes practice. It takes repetition. It takes perseverance and character to be able to continue working on those things. Even once you have the information, it takes sometimes long periods of time before that information actually makes its way into your game, and you have to stick with it.

Andrew had been playing for 3 years. I told him, ‘Let me guess. When you first started playing, you were really into it. You improved really quickly for probably that 1st year. Then you probably hit a plateau.’ Andrew was like, ‘Yeah. Definitely.’

Don’t be surprised by that, guys. You’re going to have seasons in your game as you continue down towards the path of improvement where all of a sudden some things might click. And especially at first; when you first start working really hard at your game, you’re going to improve very quickly. Because you just started. You’re going to see big changes really fast.

Eventually, that’s going to slow down, and those big changes will come with more and more work. It takes more effort, more concentration, more repetition, and the better you get at tennis, the more work it takes to make that next improvement.

So to Andrew and everybody else out there, stick with it. It’s worth it! Make sure that you appreciate the journey. That’s such a cliche thing to say, but enjoy the process. Enjoy finding that next piece of information and then going through the process of learning it on the court, and making it part of your game. Just don’t expect it to become automatic right away. It’s going to take time. You’ve got to stick with it.

So those of you out there listening to me, don’t look for that magic solution. Don’t look for the silver bullet, or the magic pill, or that magical DVD where you’re going to watch it and sit there on the couch and go, ‘Oh! That’s it!’ Then go out there and move from a 3.5 to a 4.0 like the next week. Unfortunately, it doesn’t work that way.

But if we continue to work together, and I continue giving you guys pieces of information here and there and you can put them into your game one at a time; piece by piece; you can continue to improve. Just please have kind of a long-term outlook on it, and don’t get impatient. Don’t go buy everything [laughter] and subscribe to every single website thinking that the more information you throw at your head, and the more you try to memorize, the better you’ll get. Because that’s not the case. You’ve got to work on one thing at a time, and move on to the next thing.

So Andrew, be patient. And everybody else, be patient. Hopefully what I’ve said here has made sense and is a little encouraging and inspiring to you guys. Keep up the good fight, and I’ll always be here to help you continue to improve.

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Alright. That does it for Episode #116 of the Essential Tennis Podcast. Thank you for joining me for today’s show. Thank you for downloading the file and for taking the time to listen. Hopefully it’s been helpful to you. If it has, do me a favor and spread the word. Please tell your friends, your teammates, your co-workers who play tennis, your family members who play tennis–whoever. If you know other people who are really crazy and passionate about tennis as you are, please do me a favor and tell them about this show. Tell them where to download it either on EssentialTennis.com or on iTunes. I want to continue to grow this show as much as possible, and I can’t do that without the help of you. So thank you very much.

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

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Essential Tennis Podcast #115

Download: Word Doc | PDF | Kindle | Text

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Speaker: 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 TennisTours.com, where you guys can get $25 off your next purchase of ATP or WTA Professional Tennis Event tickets by using the promotional code Essential.

Before we get started with today’s show, I’ve got a couple of guests Tennis that are going to talk with me about tennis improvement on the show. I just want to remind you about the various social networks that you can find Essential Tennis on. Get connected with the website, and find more out about exactly what’s going on during the week.

First off is Facebook. You guys can connect with Essential Tennis@Facebook.com/ EssentialTennis. Also on Twitter at twitter.com/EssentialTennis. And on YouTube I put all my instructional videos up there. You guys can follow the videos there and become friends with me at Essential Tennis at YouTube. The URL for that is YouTube.com-Essential Tennis. So go check out the website on all those different places. For right now, let’s go ahead and get started with the show.

Sit back, relax, and get ready for some great tennis instruction.

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Today on the Essential Tennis Podcast I have 2 guests with me. Both of them are frequent visitors to the forums at Essential Tennis.com. They are very active there in the Essential Tennis community. Both really passionate players about improving their tennis games, which is exactly why they’re on the show with me today.

You guys may remember–those of you who have been listening to the show for awhile–I had Sally, definitely another big fan of the website and forums. I had her on the show awhile back. That was in Episode #53. I kind of interviewed Sally. I asked her, ‘As a recreational tennis player, how are you improving? What’s working? What’s not working?’ And I want to have another one of those conversations.

I oftentimes have guests on the Podcast that are experts in tennis or in a certain aspect of tennis. Today I want to talk and have an open conversation some recreational players, and kind of come at things from another angle. And get the perspective from a couple of people who are out there on the battlefield trying to improve their own games. Because I think it’s really important to get thoughts and words of wisdom from those of you out there who are just working hard on your game day in and day out.

With that, I’m going to introduce my 2 guests. I have first of all John, who goes by John in real life on the forums. He’s located in California. John, welcome to the show.

John: Thanks, Ian. I’m glad to be here.

Ian: Thanks very much for spending the time with me and being on the show. I really appreciate it.

Secondly we have Steve, who goes by Steve-O on the forums. He is in North Carolina. Steve welcome to you as well.

Steve : Hey Ian. Thanks for having me.

Ian: You bet.

So let’s start things off with just a little bit of introduction from each of you. I’m curious–well I want my listeners to know exactly how long you guys have been playing; when did you start; those kind of things. So tell everybody listening a little about your game; how long you’ve been playing; and those kind of things. Let’s start off with John. How about you?

John: Well Ian, I came to tennis late. I actually got started or dragged into tennis kicking and screaming. I didn’t really want to play, but all of my friends were doing it.

So I started at the age of 42. I’ve been playing about 6 years now. Taking time out for break meals and potty breaks.

Ian: [laughter] Yeah, in the last 6 years, how many hours a week would you say that you’ve been playing and working on your game on average?

John: I’m not sure I want to answer that in case my wife is listening to this podcast!

I’d say it’s fluctuated over the years. I play more now than I used to. I get about 3-5 days a week for a couple of hours of sun.

Ian: Great. And Steve, how about you? How long have you been playing, and how much time do you typically spend on your game during the week?

Steve: I played in high school and in my early 20s. I’m 37 now. I took a long hiatus from the game, and started back about 6 years ago. Over the past 3 years, I’d say I’ve been playing at least 2-4 times a week. Maybe sometimes 5 on an avg. of maybe 8-12 hours a week. 12 on a good week when I can get it in.

Ian: OK. Good stuff.

Now my first question having to do with how you guys have improved. That’s going to be our focus today, to pick your brains and see what has worked; what hasn’t worked; what have been the big challenges for you as you start working hard at your games in trying to improve them. Because obviously the whole point of the podcast is to help get people better. I’m hoping that by hearing the stories from both of you, people are going to get some ideas and at least a good sense of what it’s going to take for them to move up in level, because of both of you have. And that’s the first question I want to ask is: Both of you started–or Steve, you re-started–6 years ago.

John, you started for the first time 6 years ago. I’m curious how many–and we can go by NTRP, which here in the U.S. is a rating scale that goes from 1-7. About 3 or 3.5 is around avg. 4.5 or 5.0 would be an advanced player. And a very beginner would be a 2.0 or a 2.5.

How would you rate yourselves when you first started? Over the last 6 years, how much exactly have you improved? John, I know that you play competitively. Steve, not as much. I don’t think in NTRP or USTA type of league play or competitive play.

But Steve, let’s start with you. Exactly how much of those 6 years have you improved?

Steve: The bulk of my improvement has been over the last year. When I started playing, I rated as a 3.0 player. I could get the ball over the net a couple of times. I’m very athletic, so that always helped out. I think now I’m playing at about a 4.0 level, I rate myself.

Ian: OK. And John, how about you?

John: When I started, I played the same 18 year-old kid that was in lessons with me for about a year and a half, and I didn’t play anybody else, just because I didn’t know anybody and I was a little too chicken to get involved! Then I got into USTA, and I guess I started at a 3.0 level. In about 4.5 years I’ve gone from there to 4.0.

But even more important than the rating level is just the stuff you learn, how you mature in the game. I definitely became far smarter on the tennis court in the last 2 years, and I have improved technically.

Ian: Yeah, well I agree. That’s extremely important to be able to improve tennis IQ and not only be able to recreate physical skills and strokes, but actually have a broader knowledge of tactics, and maybe even history, and general tennis knowledge can definitely help your enjoyment. To help spark your improvement even more I think and increase your passion for the game.

Steve, I’m curious about your thoughts on that. Would you agree that your general tennis IQ has increased a lot over the last couple of years?

Steve: Absolutely. I’ve learned in matches for sure to be a smarter player. I think that’s an important distinction to make for me. Because I played about an even number of–well probably a greater number of recreational play vs. actual match play when I count. And I can hit with guys that are a lot higher level than me for practicing and knocking balls around, but when it comes to playing matches and winning games, I’m still very much on the upward curve of learning how to win. I think when we’re talking about NPRP level, we’re talking about rating based performance. I would rate myself a weak 4.0 on that scale, but if we’re just hitting around, I’m a lot better player. I may actually look like a lot better player than I am in the match play! So I think that’s important to think, and that a lot of people don’t make when they try to paint a number on you.

Ian: Yeah. That’s a very common thing. I’m sure a lot of people listening are definitely relating to what you’re talking about. Don’t feel badly about that! The vast majority of us are much better at practice than we are in competitive play. In fact, I would say that’s very rare that it’s the other way around, where somebody is poor in practice and really rises to the occasion on competitive courts. I’d say there are a couple of players out there like that, but they’re definitely the exception.

So let’s talk about some specifics here. I’m going to ask a very general question of you. Feel free to talk about whatever part of your game that you’d like. Basically I’d like to know: What has been the most important thing for you to improve in your game over the last couple years? What’s been–in your opinion–the most important aspect of your game that you have improved? [laughter] It’s a very broad and general question!

But I’m curious if you would maybe want to rank your 1, 2, and 3, or just give me your top 1. Whether it has to do with tactics, technique, or mental toughness. John, let’s go to your first. What do you think has been the most important improvement for you?

John: Taming my raging inner 5.0.

Ian: [laughter] Wow. Sounds tough!

John: [laughter] I know that sounds funny, but if I can look back over the past 6 years, the one curved corner that I turned that helped me the most was realizing who I was. That came after reading Inner Tennis. That’s a book that came out in the ’70s. It’s a little bit zen for some people. But it taught me that… You know, like Steve, I played other sports. I was a baseball player and then a volley ball player. I did well at those things. Then I get introduced to tennis at a later age. I just had this expectation that ‘I should be good at it!’

Ian: Right.

John: But that doesn’t come for free! And I think that once I learned to stop putting pressure on myself and just enjoy the process of learning, it got so much easier. When you try too hard, everything’s hard. Put in hard work, but you don’t berate yourself on every stroke. It starts to click, I think.

Ian: Yes, and there’s several steps to what you’re describing here. The first one I think is the acceptance that tennis is a lot tougher than people give it credit for. It’s really hard to jump up the way that you guys have. 3.0-4.0 both of you kind of described your progression over the past couple of years is not a small jump. It’s very large. So both of you have done a great job, and I hope you both continue to improve.

Those of you that are listening to this show right now need to understand that that is a big jump, and I guess don’t head out there. Even if you have played previous sports like John described, don’t assume that you’re just going to pick it up. Maybe listen to a podcast; watch videos on YouTube; watch some slow-motion video of pros; and just go: ‘Oh, I’m just going to do that and be a great player!’ It’s a lot more difficult than that.

So it’s great that you pointed that out, John, that the first step for you was identifying that it’s going to be a longer road, and not take it too far ahead of yourself.

Steve, what would be 1 or 2 things that you would say has been probably the most important thing to understand or learn as far as your improvement has come over the last couple of years?

Steve: I don’t there’s any particular stroke that you can…Obviously, increasing your technical attitude and learning the proper fundamentals on strokes is definitely important. Especially if you’re going to get past the 4 level, you’re going to have to have some technique behind it.

But I think John touched on it. I was very athletic. I played lots of basketball, lots of baseball, lots of sports. Those kinds of sports–especially basketball–they’re rewarding when you let all out and were very physical. When I try to take my athletic ability over to the tennis court, I found out that running around and smacking the ball as hard as you could was not the best things to do. I found that out quickly! I was stubborn–and I am stubborn–and it took me awhile to make myself back down.

I think over the last year that’s what I’ve learned to do, is just make myself apply the proper amount of exertion on a shot based on situations where I am on the court. If I’m stretched out wide and running for a ball, I know that I might be able to make a shot, but the spectacular 2 out of 10 times; 1 out of 10 times. I think just in learning to play the percentages and saying, ‘Hey, at this point, just hit a defensive ball and stay in the point.’ and definitely when you’re talking about competitive tennis, I think that’s what we all want to get better at, is winning more games and winning more sets and more matches.

It starts with that kind of court wisdom and recognition of where you are, what the ball’s doing, what my opponent’s doing, and the dynamics of how all that fits together in leading you to play a particular shot at a particular time. I’m very much still at the beginning of the learning curve on that! But I think that it’s finally starting to click. For me, that’s been not a particular technique, change, or improvement, but it’s just that mindset of: ‘Hey, slow down! You know you can chase down a ball, but slow down and play the right shot at the right time.’ That’s been the thing that’s helped me improve a lot.

Ian: Good stuff. Let’s actually bounce off that a bit, Steve what you’re describing, and talk about how you guys have split up your time on the court. And I’m curious from each you what you find is the best combination of drilling or stroke practice, technique practice type work on the courts where maybe it’s you and a partner doing some focus hitting, cooperative hitting back and forth. Or maybe with a ball machine. John, I know that you hit with a ball machine quite a bit. Or maybe hitting serves by yourself.

How do you guys split up your time between that type of cooperative or structured practice and actual competitive play? Whether it be organized USTA matches or practice sets with a competitive partner, that type of thing. I’m curious for each of you, and I expect you guys to be at least a little different, how do you guys split that up so that it’s optimal in your opinions? John, let’s go to you first.

John: Sure. I’d just like to make one comment on what Steve said before we go on.

Ian: Yeah, sure.

John: There’s a subtle distinction between what Steve and I talked about. This should be important to your listeners. Steve was talking about playing smart. You know: don’t swing hard when you don’t have to, when the shot doesn’t call for it. What I was talking about was playing content. You miss a shot–everybody’s going to miss a shot–that’s OK. You just tell yourself, ‘I’m not looking forward to cleaning that shot up or making it better next time’ as opposed to carousing about it.

And I know you’ve talked about mental tennis a number of times on the Podcast, but just to be clear, that was what really helped me. Just getting in a better mental frame of mind. To answer your question about practicing, there’s so many variables that go into that. I try to get a little bit of practice and a little bit of play each week. There’s always people around on the weekends; the courts are full; so I know that’s going to be competition. USTA matches are off an on weekends.

I try to sneak out at lunch on the weekdays to get a little ball machine practice. If I can; if nobody’s available. But I definitely in a little each week.

One thing that I do that I don’t see a lot of people doing and it mystifies me: if I have a lesson, I schedule practice time either immediately after that lesson or the following day, so that whatever the pro taught me I immediately put that into practice. Instead of just assuming that 30-60 min. with the pro has fixed the problem! You have to do your homework.

Ian: I agree. Obviously, I’ve spent a lot of time on the court myself around recreational players. In my experience as well, it’s very rare. And trust me, I consistently suggest to people to practice whatever we happened to be working on. We have several great ball machines at my club. We have a hidden wall. Obviously serves are easy to work on by yourself, but I rarely see people go out and actually put the sweat time on their own, and spend time working on whatever we happen to be practicing during lessons. So good stuff.

All of those things you suggest are valuable. If you’re hitting against the machine, the wall, a live person taking a lesson, you can learn from all that as long as you’re deliberate. Actually that’s something I learned from you and Jason. Going back to talk about hitting ground strokes. You just have to have something in mind, because if you’re not practicing towards a goal, you’re just exercising.

Ian: [laughter] So John, give me a percentage. I know the club where you play is very active. There’s a lot of players; a lot of courts. What percentage of the recreational time spent out there has some kind of focus? It doesn’t even have to be a very specific cooperative drill where there’s targets, objectives, and that sort of thing.

John: Of the entire membership?

Ian: [laughter] Yeah.

John: I’d say maybe at the high end 5%. I mean everybody goes out to play mostly.

Ian: Sure.

John: And you know the 5% that practice, maybe outside of somebody like me who just practices a lot and is of moderate ability, the good guys get out and practice. You see them all the time doing cooperative drilling.

Ian: Isn’t that funny? [laughter]

John: Yeah, it’s amazing.

Ian: I think rec players, lower level rec players a lot of time assume that it’s kind of the opposite, where ‘Oh man! I’m just starting to get going. I’ve got to hit as many balls as possible. Play a whole lot of sits.’ And they don’t really stop, slow down, and think about anything that’s important to their game.

Whereas you go watch 2 4.5 players drill. They’re going to just hit balls for an hour without keeping track of score at all. Yeah, it’s Just one quick example before you go to Steve. There’s one guy that I see: he’s the most diligent practicer I’ve seen. He’ll go to practice his serve. He will throw up a toss, and if that toss is not worth hitting, he will not bother. He will sometimes throw that toss up 5 times until it’s in just the right place to swing.

Ian: It takes a lot of focus.

John: Yes. Patience.

Ian: Yeah.

So Steve, going back to the original question, how do you split up your time on the court between cooperative hitting and maybe stroke work and competitive play? How’s your ratio look?

Steve: It’s probably 60-70% drilling and hitting. 30% match play. I’ve been fortunate over the last 3 years to have a really good hitting partner. We’ll go out and hit balls for 2 hours at a time without even playing a point. Over the past year, I’ve really been more disciplined about using that time constructively and trying to hone down my technique, especially on my forehand. 1. I have a powerful forehand, and 1. I have that as my go-to shot. My game-winner shot, so to speak.

The couple years prior when I was really working on solidifying my game and getting better, I would go and practice my serve 3 times a week for 1-1.5 hours. That’s really helped me out over the last couple of years in making that a better and a go-to shot, and I now have a good powerful serve that I can use.

Then over the last 6-8 months or so, I’ve been playing a lot of doubles at the courts that I go to. There’s the challenge court. I’ll be consistent in going out there. It’s hard to practice I think doubles play. There’s obviously some things you can work on: volleys and maybe your approach game with yourself or somebody else. But actually practicing doubles. I’ve got to play doubles [laughter] to actually….That’s really what’s improved my level in doubles play a lot. Concurrently, I think that’s helped to expand and help out my singles game as well. I play an all court game and what’s the tax in that?

The most important thing for me has been some things that I learned at the last [inaudible] was just being deliberate and disciplined about hitting the same shot 4 or 5 or 6 times in a row. Being able to hit the same spot on the court. Being able to work on my footwork, and get it to where I know exactly where my feet have to be and where my weight has to be to go into the shot to hit the kind of shot that I want to. To produce the kind of shot that I want to.

Like I said, that’s probably–I don’t know how that ranks with the avg. but 60-70% practice time and the other small percentage of the remainder of that playing matches.

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Let’s switch gears a little bit. There’s at least 2 other questions that I’d like to get to. The first one is a little different from what we talked about before. I asked you guys a few minutes ago to talk about what in your opinions, were the most important things that you have improved over the years. Now let’s talk about the most difficult thing for each of you.

For myself, I would choose either my one-handed back-hand top spin has always been a weakness for me myself on my backhand side. So that would be one example. Or you can pick something having to do with tactic or mental toughness, whatever.

Steve, let’s start with you. What has been the most difficult thing for you to improve over the last couple of years?

Steve: Definitely not backhand. I hit a one-handed backhand, and up until about a year or 6-8 months ago, it was a hit or miss shot. It was a spectacular winner or it would go in the fence, over the net, or in the next court. [laughter] [inaudible] It was extremely inconsistent. It has improved over the last couple of months. It’s gotten to where it’s not such a liability. But that’s definitely been the hardest thing for me. Everybody wants that–everybody that hits a one-handed backhand anyway–wants that pretty [inaudible] Feder-esque rolling top-spinner. It is a hard shot to master.

Ian: Is there anything specifically recently that has helped it get a little better? Or has it just been repetition and practice time for you?

Steve: Definitely repetition and practice, but I’ve played with a–I’ve worked with a guy who’s a 5.0 player. We go out and hitting a couple of times a week. He moved away. He made me focus on my point of contact: moving my feet. I’m real good at moving my feet and getting in the position on my forehand side and knowing what to do, but I’m not as comfortable going on my backhand, recognizing that it is a backhand and going and getting my feet set.

And also recognizing like I said, where the contact point needs to be and moving not laterally side to side, but backward and forward to adjust and make that contact point as optimal as possible. So that [inaudible] has been huge in helping me out.

Ian: Good stuff. Those are types of things that I think a lot of rec players take for granted. It’s like, ‘Well, yeah. I’m supposed to move my feet. And I’m supposed to make contact around waist height.’ And yet it’s something that is done incorrectly so often. So it’s great that you’re focusing on that.

John, how about you? Give us an example of one thing that has been particularly difficult for you over the last couple years.

John: Searching for my inner singles player. [laughter]

Ian: Ah. You’re more of a doubles expert?

John: Well you know, I think it was just a product of joining the club and you’ll find in most places at my age almost everybody plays doubles. And there was a challenge court which was the social venue. I would show up there, and I kind of learned to play tennis on that court.

The downside of that is I learned to play doubles. And I kind of geared my attitude around doubles. Which is ‘Go get the ball!’ I sometimes tell people, like if I’m playing with a lower player, in doubles my view is either the ball is coming to me or I am going to get it. You have to have that mentality.

So when I get out on that big open singles court, there’s too much hurry and panic, and that manifests itself in ways that I’m still dealing with now. I get too close to the ball. I’m just not comfortable letting that ball get far enough away from me. So I’m constantly fighting balls off from both the forehand and the backhand side, because I don’t give myself room to breathe in singles.

Steve: John, that’s funny. I’m almost the exact opposite! [laughter]

John: Yeah, we’ve talked about that, haven’t we?

Steve: Yeah.

John: If we could find some way to clone the good half of Steve and the good half of me, you might have a decent all-around tennis player. [laughter]

Ian: I’ll try and work on that product.

Alright, speaking of which, one question I really want to get to before we wrap things up is I’m curious how the internet and technology in general has aided you guys? And you can talk about specific websites; parts of specific websites. Maybe it’s a piece of technological gear that you use to help yourselves out when it comes to improving your game. I’m curious. Obviously, technology keeps getting more and more prevalent in smaller parts of our lives. For me personally, teaching has definitely been affected.

So I’m curious as students of the game, what are maybe 2 or 3 areas that technology has really helped you improve? John, let’s start off with you.

John: I can answer that a couple of ways. Technically it’s obvious. There are sites like yours with the podcasts, and sites like FuzzyYellowBalls that have the video content. And even the talk tennis message boards that have an infinite array of people. I think you can get something out of all that. I’ve become a big video nut. I’ve learned that because of video, I can’t stop lying to myself on the [inaudible] [laughter] When I think I’m doing something–and literally, when I go out on the ball machine and think: ‘Hey, I’m doing this right. This is perfect. That’s what the pro was talking about!’ I’ll go back and look on the video and say, ‘No. I’m not even close to what I’m supposed to be doing. So that’s immensely helpful.

But from the more mental or psychological thing, I’ve just got to say that all of these resources on the internet and the 3 sites I have named, I’ve used all of them pretty regularly, but I really enjoyed the shared experience. So you know how tennis is. You can have good days and some days it’s just going to spike you in the chest with a volley. [laughter] Because nothing’s working!

And in either case, if I have a good day, I can go on the message boards and chat about a great USTA win I had. Everybody comes back [laughter] with some hi-fives. Great going!

Or I can have a really crappy day and go talk about my experiences, and somebody will come back with: ‘You think that’s bad, let me tell you about my experiences!’ [laughter]

So it’s a nice motivating resource. If you feel good, it makes you want to go out and play again. If you feel bad, it makes you feel: Hey, you’re just like everybody else! Tomorrow is another day.

Ian: Alright.

John: That’s what I’ve gotten out of it.

Ian: OK. The community feel that’s available online, no matter what you happen to be into, is definitely a huge plus. Just to be able to interact with different people from all different backgrounds, and different specialties. They have different strengths and weaknesses. It’s definitely an awesome part of the internet. Obviously, we’re seeing stuff like Twitter and Facebook take off in little niche areas like tennis or…Well yeah, we’re talking about tennis. It’s a great way to use technology to be able to be like you were talking about, get picked up when you need it or hi-five when you need it. Good stuff.

Steve, how about you? Technology and your improvement. What has been most helpful?

Steve: Yeah, I spent a lot of time probably like John and like a lot of folks that frequent ET forums and XYB and all that stuff. Watching a lot of video and looking for the magic formula to what Roger Federer is doing and how I can look that. That has not helped me out as much as…I think just solid –I don’t want to say mental instruction–but just the kind of thing that the podcasts do. Just exploring what’s going through your brain when you’re on the tennis court.

Like I said, I’m a natural athlete and I don’t have problems getting the ball or hitting a shot. Whether I can hit that beautiful down the line forehand winner once or twice, or how many out of 10 times, I know that I hit once I can do it. You know? It’s possible. But not relying on that, but just the mental aspect, and learning about just taking information with the podcasts, and I guess the more mental aspect of the game. Making myself actually think on the tennis court is to react. Learning how to do that and the kind of thing that you teach, and that Will teaches, and things like that have been more helpful, I would say, than trying to look at top level players and emulate what they’re doing.

Ian: OK. Good stuff.

Well we’re a little bit overtime, so I’m going to wrap things up. But I want to thank you guys very much for giving me part of your time tonight to record the show. I know that everybody listening appreciates it very much as well. John, thank you for your time and Steve, you as well. I look forward to spending more time with both of you back on the forums and helping you guys improve. So John, thank you.

John: Thank you, Ian. I really enjoyed the chance to share these experiences, because that’s why we get involved anyway.

And Steve, it was nice to finally be your doubles partner, even if for just 30 min.

Steve: [laughter] I think maybe 2 on 1 we could take Ian. What do you think?

John: As long as he’s got the frying pan, we’ve got it!

Ian: Ooh. We might have to do that some day. That’d be fun. [laughter]

Alright. Steve, thank you for your time as well.

Steve: Thanks for having me. Like I said, I say a lot if my mistakes can serve as a warning to others, then something’s worked out. I appreciate the opportunity. Thank you very much.

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Ian: That does it for Episode #115 of the Essential Tennis Podcast. Thank you for your support of the show by downloading it and giving it a listen this week. I hope it was enjoyable and informational to you.

For those of you who don’t already listen to the Podcast and download it through iTunes, I really suggest Tennis that you do that. It’s just the easiest way to listen to the show. You can subscribe to the show and automatically have it download each week instead of having to go to the website and manually download the file, and then drag it into whatever music player you happen to use. Definitely check it out on iTunes.

Just download iTunes. It’s a free application. Click on…It says Music Store on the left. Then just do the search for ‘tennis’ or ‘tennis podcast’ and the Essential Tennis Podcast will come up on top their hopefully. And you can subscribe there, so definitely check that out. I want to thank a couple of people who donated this past week. Just 3 donators, and all subscription donations, which help a lot.

The first person here is Kim in Texas. A $5 monthly subscription. Thank you, Kim. Shelly in New Mexico with a $10 subscription donation. And John in Texas $5 subscription donations.

Thank you to you 3 very much. I appreciate your support a great deal. If the Essential Tennis Podcast has helped you improve and you would like to show your appreciation, you can donate. Either a monthly subscription donation as Kim, Shelly, and John did this last week, or a 1 time amount as well. Just go to Essential Tennis.com and on the front page in the lower right, you’ll see a box that says Donate.

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

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