4 WAYS TO AVOID INJURY

Injuries can have a devastating effect on a player's career. A player may work hard to gain a high ranking, only to become injured and see their ranking plummet. Her are 4 ways to avoid this scenario.


# 1  Stretching during training and competition is important, but make sure you stretch correctly. I recommend dynamic stretching before practice/matches, and static stretching afterwards. focus on tennis specific stretches.

# 2  A regime of strengthening exercises helps the body maintain its integrity during tough movements during matches. Don't just work on strengthening your legs, also focus on your core strength and shoulders.

# 3  Good technique goes a long way to preventing injury. As a coach, I have seen many injuries that are caused by incorrect technique

# 4  Correct Recovery means post match/practice stretching and can also include massage (popular with the pros), ice baths and a decent warm down. 

All these tips will certainly help you avoid injury in the long term and insure that your progress up the rankings is without hiccups. 

4 SHOTS YOU MUST OWN

The top players have few weaknesses, however to reach the top in tennis there are 4 essentials I have always put a premium on when developing players. Here are my 4 Must Own shots for players wanting to compete on the professional tour.

# 1  A great serve is a huge asset in tennis. If you can hold serve or even put your opponent on the defensive at the start of each point you will win a large percentage of your service games.

# 2  During a rally the most effective ball is a cross-court (Forehand or Backhand). Dominate the crosscourt exchange and you dominate the rally because you are constantly forcing your opponent to change out of the crosscourt exchange and hit down-the-line.  


# 3  A consistent return of serve puts a lot of pressure on your opponent to come up with something extra, either with their serve or during the rally. 

# 4  Owning a big forehand allows you to finish the point whenever your opponent hits a short or high ball. Players today are involved in longer rallies and the player with a weapon to finish the rally has a big advantage.

5 TIPS TO HELP BREAK YOUR OPPONENTS SERVE

You can't win the set unless you break your opponent's serve. Here are 5 tips to help you. 

# 1 The First Game: The best opportunity can sometimes occur in your very first return game. Try to get all your returns back and hopefully, with a little bit of pressure, you can take advantage of your opponents "rustiness" 

# 2 The Keys Games: There are certain times during the set that traditionally see more breaks of serve. They are at 3 all (7th game) and 4 all (9th game). Now that you are aware of this you can apply more pressure during these games.

# 3 Loss of Focus: Your opponent can be playing great tennis and holding serve easily when suddenly a few unforced errors creep into their service game. Again, this is the time to apply more pressure.

# 4 Inside Returns: You can apply pressure by taking the return earlier. Try to take the ball inside the baseline. You don't need to hit the ball harder, simply taking it earlier will turn the pressure up enough.

# 5 Consistency: If you can consistently get lots of returns back into play your opponent may feel the need to take more risks on both the serve and during the groundstroke rally. 

3 WAYS THE PROS ARE DIFFERENT

WHAT MAKES THE GREAT PLAYERS DIFFERENT FROM THE REST OF US? 

HERE ARE 3 REASONS THE PROS ARE DIFFERENT!

# 1  Structure: They live highly structured lives both on and off the court. They have schedules and rituals built around their tennis and that structure is fiercely protected and consumes their day

# 2  Focus: They are totally focused on tennis and it shows in everything they do. For the best players,tennis comes before everything else. Very often when a top player develops interests outside of tennis their results suffer immediately

# 3   Discipline: The glue that drives the structure and focus over years of training and competing is their discipline. Without discipline players seldom stay at the top for long 

THE CONTACT FOOT

Timing and power come from the ground, but more specifically from your interaction with the ground through your feet. The foot you use for this interaction is called your Contact Foot. 

Your Contact Foot can be either your left or right foot and it's important to develop the ability to use both well. As your ability to create a Contact Foot for each shot develops you will also begin hitting open stance and defending deep balls off the back much easier.

3 WAYS TO ADD POWER TO YOUR GROUNDSTROKES

Increasing power on your ground strokes is not as difficult as it sounds. Try these 3 techniques and see immediate results.

# 1  By squeezing the grip at the moment of contact with the ball you are creating a more solid racquet-face for the ball to re-bound off. That "solid surface" will immediately add extra power to your stroke.

# 2  Increase the size of your back swing so that the racquet-head has more space to gather momentum. The more distance the racquet travels before contact, the more racquet-head speed can be generated.

# 3  Keep your hand loose during the back swing so that the racquet-head is allowed to gather speed. Being too tight or stiff during the back swing will result in slower racquet-head speed and therefore slower ball speed.

LEARN FROM LAVER

MY FAVOURITE PLAYER  GROWING UP WAS ROD LAVER. 

What I admired most about "Rocket" was that he was just a normal guy, humble, down to earth and hard working.

During his career Laver was known for his ability to play his best tennis when it mattered most. He hardly ever lost a five set match.

Here are 2 ways for you to learn from Rod "Rocket" Laver:

#  1  Stay focused in the present. Allowing your mind to get too far ahead or beating yourself before you get on the court can be disastrous. Avoid the internal mind games by sticking to tactics and don't allow yourself to lose focus on executing them throughout the match.

Laver built up a reputation during his career of coming up with something special when a match got tight. Begin building your legacy in tight situations!

#  2  Simulate match pressure during practice sessions:  Train in a similar way to what you will experience during competition. 

Laver and many of his peers trained under the legendary Australian coach Harry Hopman. In his day Harry Hopman revolutionized  the way tennis was trained. He insisted on each one of his players being extremely fit, far beyond the norm during that era.

In matches Hopman was also famous for telling his players to "Relax and hit for the lines". 

This is how Laver trained under Hopman both as a youngster and while he was on top. By adopting a similar attitude and work ethic in your training also, you will be able to better handle yourself under difficult conditions in real matches.    

BEING DYNAMIC

Players today have become much more dynamic during points. 3 things will help you become more dynamic on-court: 

#1  Modern equipment allows for faster racquet-head speed = you can hit with more power 

#2  Techniques today emphasize full rotation and lifting off the ground = you can hit with more power

#3  Fitness levels are much higher than before, allowing players to move faster, cover greater distances during points and maintain all this over a longer period of time.

While everyone has access to modern equipment, you need to focus your training more on your technique and fitness levels to compete with the best.

WHAT MADE JIMMY CONNORS GREAT?

Jimmy Connors was one of the most ferocious competitors in sport, any sport.  

Connors was phenomenally competitive in 3 important ways:

#1  He knew the strong and the weak areas of his game. With his strengths he would try for more, take chances and sometimes make mistakes, but never on his weaknesses. This makes for a difficult opponent because you're getting no free points, while he goes for big shots when he gets a ball on his stronger side.

#2  He played against an opponent better than anyone else in tennis. Because Jimmy read his opponents so well, he was able to control the momentum of a match by changing the the speed of play to suit the situation. He would also repeatedly go to successful patterns that were working for him during the match.

#3  Jimmy didn't play tennis to make friends. He got in your face and made it clear that if the match got ugly you were entering his world. He could be very intimidating.

ADD RESOLVE TO YOUR TENNIS

AS A TENNIS PLAYER your life is full of difficulties. Whether it's your daily routines involving your practice, fitness or matches, things can occur daily that chip away at your confidence in your ability to reach your goals and expectations

To different degrees those challenges can affect your ability to continue practicing and playing at your optimal level. They can be demotivating. 

You need high levels of RESOLVE to be a successful tennis player. You need the ability to keep striving towards your goals despite those difficulties. 

So how do you develop or strengthen resolve? How do you continue going forward despite the difficulties and challenges? 

The 3 most important factors for you are …

 (1) REMOVE YOURSELF FROM NEGATIVITY

Remove yourself from a negative environment. Nothing you try to do to build strong resolve will work within a negative environment.

The negativity could be coming from the people around you or your surroundings. Remove yourself to a better environment!

(2) HAVE GOALS. 

Know where you want to be in the future and create short term plans based on how to get there.

Have a PLAN and a METHOD

If the plan is to rise up the rankings identify what areas will give you the boost you need (technical, tactical, fitness or mental), then create the means to improve on that area(s) 

This is empowering and will strengthen your resolve when facing difficulties or challenges

(3) MOTIVATION.

If you have REMOVED YOURSELF FROM NEGATIVITY and have established GOALS and know how you want to work on your goals daily you will feel empowered and motivated!

Motivation comes from being in a positive environment and having a plan.