FAQ's about tennis

I get asked questions from parents often, and find that other coaches get the same questions. So, here are some frequently asked questions and some frequently responded answers. More to come next week! :)

1. When should my child start playing tennis?

Honestly, the earlier, the better. It really depends on what your goal is. If your child is around six and you're thinking of getting them into the sport, six is actually a good age to start working on introducing the game to the youngster, in short periods of time a few times a week. If your child is fourteen, it also isn't too late. Any age, whether you are six or forty-five, can start the game of tennis and get some healthy fun out of it. However, if you wish your child to be competitive in the game, the sooner the better. The sooner the child gets on the court, the more we as coaches can expose them to correct technique. At Seminole High Performance, we personalize the exposure the child receives to the game of tennis depending on a.) expected performance level and b.) the child themselves. Every child is different, and different times, length of exposure to the game, and technique instruction is necessary for proper accommodations.

2. Should my junior tennis player be playing nationals or ITFs?

First off, nationals are tournaments that give you a USTA ranking, and ITF's, of International Tennis Federation tournaments, give you a ranking on a different system, so they are not equivalent. National tournaments have a great advantage: they are all in the United States. ITF's, however, can be hosted in numerous countries around the world, and sometimes can get expensive to travel to. Both are extremely competitive, and both provide ample competition. If your goal is to go pro, ITF's are what you want to focus on. If your goal is to go to college, USTA tournaments give more exposure to potential collegiate athletes to the college coaches that can easily travel to these tournaments. This isn't to say ITF's are not good for college exposure. When I played, I played primarily ITF tennis tournaments, and I was still recruited heavily by colleges. What you don't want to do is expose your child to both equally. While playing both is not bad at all, playing one primarily will give you the necessary tournament count compared to other players that allow you to climb the rankings in either one or the other. Someone who plays every ITF that is in the US and in the vicinity (Caribbean, South America) and gets to the quarters and semi's each tournament will be higher ranked than a player that plays a few tournaments and wins them.

3. How often should I play in groups versus privates?

This answer really depends on who you are asking about. If you are asking about a younger player who is just beginning tennis, it is best to get a few days a week of group clinics and equal, if not more, privates in. Privates allow a coach to work personally with a player to set their grips, techniques, footwork, and form correctly. While we do this in group clinics as well, the individual attention a private lesson gets you is far superior to that of a group lesson, which cleans technique but does not often set it. Playing in groups gets the player exposed to hitting with others and experimenting with their shots with more live ball drills, incorporating footwork, form, and technique into many of the drills. Without proper technique, footwork, and form, the player will miss more and become more frustrated.

For students who have already been playing for a few years and have some experience with tennis, a few more group clinics a week than privates works just fine, but this also depends on whether the player's technique is set correctly or not. If not, then a little less than equivalent exposure to groups and privates may be necessary. For example, if the player plays three times a week in groups, two private lessons a week may work best. For those who have the correct technique set, one or two privates a week works best so that the coach can always allow individual attention to keeping the technique correct and continuing work on bettering the games of these learning players.

For advanced players, it seems like less privates and more groups would make sense, but this is where private lessons become as essential as group clinics. Competitive players around the world often have exposure to private coaches that work with them on a daily basis on top of match play and group instruction. This becomes essential for competitive players as they move up in their tournament play and as they get older. Privates become more about advancing the players and strategy work as well as keeping the player in tip-top shape rather than technique work, which happens but more seldom than, say, a beginner would have. I can tell you the importance of privates from my own experience. I played in group clinics everyday in New York when I lived there, and played with my dad, who is my coach, a few times a week when we could get it in, or about an hour a day if it was possible. Moving to Florida allowed me to take school online and focus on tennis, which then turned from about an hour a day of play to five hours of practice, with three in the morning and two in the afternoon, often times with individual attention all morning. This training really made my the player I was in junior tennis and later on in college.

More to come next week!  

New Year Resolution

As we start the new year and are fresh off of our holiday cheer, it’s time to get back into the habit of working and head back onto the tennis court. In celebration of the new year, let’s set some resolutions for your tennis game. Whenever the new year would come around, I would always resolve to be at a certain point with my tennis, but oftentimes this goal was a numerical goal, like to get to the top ten in Florida, or top hundred internationally. While great goals, these goals don’t explain HOW you’ll get to them, and the journey is the most important aspect of setting a goal. So take out a pencil and a piece of paper, and let’s set some physical and mental goals for you that helps you achieve the ranking or tennis skill you want for 2013!

Physical goals. Anything that concerns your body is what you place under these goals. Want to run the mile under six minutes? Add track training to your goals. Want to trim a few pounds to get lighter? Add intense workout and diet schedule to your goals. Pick a goal that is doable and keeps you motivated. I recently asked a junior player what his goal was, and he told me he wants to be top ten in the nation. I asked him how he’d get there. He promptly replied with a shrug. Regardless of where you are ranked, focus on what you will do to change your ranking, not the numerical status of your goal. While a valiant resolution, it’s talk that isn’t backed up by any real goal, like setting a specific regiment of waking up and going to sleep on time, or focusing more on footwork on the court.

Additionally, don’t overwhelm yourself! It’s great that you get excited and add a plethora of physical goals to your resolutions, but try and focus on two or less particular goals that you can achieve in the short term. Want to fix your technique on your forehand? Aim for setting two private lessons a week rather than one or none. Want to be able to move your feet like Nadal? Set yourself up with a coach who can show you a good routine and set a schedule for you that is realistic. Once, I had an odd obsession with getting my abs super flat. I resolved to do twenty minutes of an abdominal routine everyday. Not too hard, right? It did wonders for both my resolution AND my tennis! Had I set my goal to be ranked in the top ten, I would have been frustrated with every loss or set back that I had, which is part of the tennis life. I knew that the ab routine was something I could control, whether I played bad that day or not.

Now for the mental goals. These go hand in hand with physical goals, as you need a strong head on your shoulders to not give up on your resolutions. Mental goals are also tough to set, because a lot of times people set goals that they do not know how to achieve, like “not to go cray-cray on the court when my opponent cheats or is not very nice.” A noble goal, but what is going to stop you from acting like a rapid dog when your opponent does cheat? Set yourself a routine, or a method, of helping your mentality. Whether this is to slow yourself down on the court between points by counting to ten or twenty, or focusing on a specific routine on the court that can help you when you get the match-point jitters, setting a mental goal always involves some kind of physical action. I know that I would get super nervous when I had match-points, and would get tight and tense when my opponent would fend off a match-point, so I decided, my senior year of college, to serve and volley, or chip and charge, for match point. I knew that the jitters I couldn’t control, but I could control what I would do about it. It worked. It worked so well, that eventually I got rid of the jitters, and didn’t have to focus on my nervousness during match-point!    

So after you jot down your ideas, share them! Blog about it, post it on Facebook, or even respond to this blog post and share some ideas with me. Go get ‘em!

What not to do part dos

What not to do over Thanksgiving: eat three plates of turkey. As I am slowly getting back to normal functioning after Thanksgiving, I am thinking of what kiddies on the court shouldn’t do on their serves. Here’s what I came up with:

1. The butt out serve- as if the ball and your butt are polar opposite magnets, one must never toss the ball and then promptly stick out one’s butt. This causes pancake serves, which is when the arm goes at an angle parallel to one’s shoulder and the resulting racquet head looks like said pancake. 

2. The pancake serve- see above. One must always reeeaccch for the ball up, not forwards.

3. The swinger- As if, momentarily, all bodily functions stop as the serve is hit and the person is no longer in control of their body, the swinger serve does not quite stop. Instead, the swinger server contacts the ball, and then swings their racquet past their legs and then again up to their heads. You think I am making this up? Alas, I am not.  

4. I don’t know what to call this one, other than for what it is; a foot fault. One must never cross the line with one’s feet before the contact of the ball is made. This happens more often with the right foot that comes towards the left foot when stepping in, but then awkwardly passes this point, thus stepping over the line. Step towards your foot, not past it. 

5. The dreaded toss. Tossing is hard. You’ll be surprised at how seldom you’ll toss the ball exactly where you want it. For a kick serve, it should be slightly to the left of your head. A flat, right above your head about three inches in front of you. A slice, to the right of your head about a foot in front of you.  

What NOT to do: Volleys

Teenagers sometimes work better with negatives. Instead of telling you, then, how you should play tennis, let’s get to the basics of what you don’t want to do when you play tennis. These are basics that you want to avoid with volleys. Cue the tiny violin music.

The volley:

• ·      Ah, the beautiful butt-out volley. What not to do number one. As many players tend to be terrified of getting hit by the ball, their instinct is to pull every inch of their body as far away from the ball as possible, as if the ball was carrying a disease of some sort.
• ·      What not to do number two: the ballerina shot. The ugly cousin of the butt out volley, the ballerina shot includes the gracious movement of one’s outside leg moving backwards instead of forwards.
• ·      What not to do number three: forget that you are, indeed, about a foot away from the net, so a forehand or backhand is probably not necessary. Hence, you should not make like a lumberjack and swing your racquet (or hatchet, I suppose).
• ·      What not to do number four: break your wrist. You should not, I would imagine, want to inflict bodily harm upon yourself. For those of you reading into this literally, I do not mean to actually break your wrist; breaking your wrist on the volley involves not holding the racquet head upright on the volley using your teenie weenie forearm muscles. The forearm muscles control your wrist movements, and thus your wrist breaks, or moves down. Add that with a hard shot, and you’ve got a recipe for actually breaking your wrist.
• ·      What not to do number five: stand straight up. I laugh, as I remember my exasperated parents trying to teach me to bend my legs at the net, and finally come to a conclusion that I may, in fact, listen if the opposite was said. Not only do you look mighty un-athletic standing straight up, but it also, like, helps you balance and stuff. That’s a good thing.
• Stay tuned for more what not to do!!   

Doubles Strategies

Lately at Seminole High Performance we've been working on a lot of doubles skills, and it amazing many of us coaches how simple the game of doubles is when you're off the court. If I knew that doubles was so easy when I was actually playing, I would be undefeated! But seriously, there are things that may seem very easy for coaches to note that isn't so easy to accomplish when you're actually playing.

Take, for example, the poach. Poaching is a.) when you boil an cracked egg in water and b.) when move across the court as a volley to hit a shot on the other side of the court. You may remember me saying this in a previous blog, but the word poaching also can mean stalking your prey. This translates nicely to poaching in doubles; the idea is to be stealthy and unseen by your, if you will, "prey" (or opponent). Poaching requires a few things, one of which is guts. It's scary, I admit it. But, if you wait to the moment when your opponent is contacting the ball, and you notice that this said ball is traveling up and not straight, take advantage of this moment and commit to the poach, 100%. I found when I was playing that if I told my partner that I would poach it made me feel obligated and thus more likely to actually move. It also helps to practice poaching. The most important thing to remember is to cut the ball off moving forward, not sideways. You'll want to aim either short to the side where the opponent is on the baseline or straight through the middle. If you hit it at the volleyer, and they are ready for it, you should be expected an equally hard shot back at you, so be ready.

Now let's talk serve. There's a rumor going around the tennis world that we need to stop. You DO NOT need a huge serve to win a doubles match. While it would be great if you were above 6 feet tall and had a bomb serve, it's not necessary to win. At times, if you're serving against a good returner, you might even want to avoid a hard flat serve. By serving hard and flat, especially to a returner who knows how to counter-punch, the return can be equally as hard. If you kick your serve in, you have the chance to both a.) get a more defensive shot back as a kick serve is not easy to be aggressive off of (granted, if you know how to kick a serve in) and b.) get to the net. Speaking of which...

Doubles, the majority of the time, is a game of aggression. This is in the sense that whoever is most aggressive will win. This aggression is in the sense of getting your butts to the net. The people at the net more often are putting themselves in a more aggressive position, thus being more likely to win. Very simple. Just act as if you are semi-permanately glued to your partner, so if they shuttle to the net, you better be going with them. :)

More strategy stuff to come!!

The open stance versus closed stance forehand

No more yoga, no more pilates, let's get back to the tennis stuff! Not that yoga, pilates, and other sports are not good cross training, but you come to this blog for all things tennis, right? This week let's talk about a debated subject: the open stance versus the closed stance forehand. I've seen both, and honestly, I don't think it is wise to choose one or the other; both should be used, and used correctly. Ah, you are shaking your head now, thinking that you know how to hit these shots correctly, and that reading on is not worth it. NOT! A lot of juniors don't understand the mechanics behind the "simple" open stance/closed stance, and it messes up both your swing, and potentially can hurt you.

Additionally to this point, you're rarely hit a "pure" open or close stance. It's not like this is the first thing you think about when hitting, and your legs usually do the automatic go-to that you have trained without making you think "oh, I should hit an open stance shot here." That being said, it's important to train these stances the right way, because it will give your forehand more power if you do it right.

So, what are these stances, you ask? Open stance refers to the stance where your left and right leg are parallel to the baseline. Your legs are often referred to as outer leg versus inner leg so as to not confuse lefties. For a righty, your inner leg is your left leg, and your outer leg is your right. Hence why your right leg, or outer leg, is the leg that is stepping out to the shot. If you check out Andy Roddick and ignore the guy talking about open stances/closed stances, you'll the easy way to visualize the inner and outer leg. Inside or outside leg is also a label used. Fun fact: Andy Roddick is not a lefty. I hope you noticed that he was flipped to show how for a lefty the inner leg would be the right leg, and the outer leg the right. :)
The good side: open stance allows for more hip rotation, and thus more power through your torso into your shot. It also is a shot that is focused on side to side movement to get you in and out of the shot, relying on your legs to propel you to step into the shot and then push you back to the middle of the court. This conservation of steps may be both a good and bad thing-- it'll get you back to the middle faster, but does not allow you to adjust to the ball as much as the closed stance does. For windy conditions and approach shots, you do need more adjustment. The bad side (and there always is a bad side): this shot puts pressure on your shoulder if you do not contact the ball at the right contact point.


Closed stance: this, essentially, is when your inner leg crosses over your outer leg to hit the shot. While "full" closed stance is not the greatest shot, crossing over your inner leg over your outer leg is essential for shots that require more adjustment as well as a more specific contact point, such as approach shots or slower balls. Closed stance propels you into the shot by the use of your outer leg swinging you forward to then return to where your legs are parallel. So, opposite of the open stance, which propels you towards and away from the ball with side to side movement versus front to back movement. This stance does keep your hop rotation at minimum, so the second step out of the ball is essential for the forehand to go over the net at a speed higher than two miles per hour. :) To the left, a visual.

There is a third stance. How shocking! Yes, this stance is called the neutral stance, because your inner and outer leg are perpendicular to the baseline. If you draw a line through your shoes, this line will create right angles when it crosses the baseline (for those of you who did a math refresher). Federer is completing a sort-of neutral stance in the picture to the right. You'll use this shot when the ball is coming at your body, for approach shots, and for returns often. Is it better than any other stance? Not really, but you'll use it. It's kind of a hybrid of the closed stance, because it allows for more hip rotation but still relies on a forward/backward movement.

Which is the best? There is no "best" stance, in my opinion. It is something that you adjust to, and also is based on preference. Your coach will be able to see which stance is better for you, but keep in mind you'll use all three stances for different shots in tennis, and it is up to the correct execution of these shots whether you get the ball into the court, and well!





 

Part 3 out of 3

Pilates, part three! Say that three times fast. Now do these exercises.

Pilates with the machines is the best pilates you will take, period. But unfortunately, you need both a facility and a trainer to use pilates on the machine, and that can be both costly and time consuming. Using pilates with additional materials, such as a yoga ball, can be equally as beneficial.

These exercises are shown in pictures, but additional exercises are described in words, because there are so many variations that are possible! The first exercise is also the most challenging. Let's call it the stork. The stork involved core, shoulder, back, and leg strength. Keep the yoga ball balanced as you put both knees onto the ball, and once you feel that you are sufficiently balanced, lift your leg up to the ceiling, points your toes towards the ceiling. Use your butt and abs to lift your leg, and keep yourself balanced by using your abs and shoulders to keep the ball from moving. Try to keep still with your leg raised for ten seconds. If moving fluidly from point to bent knee is easier for you, you can do that instead. This still is a very difficult exercise, no matter which variation you try!

The next yoga ball pilates exercise is an easier one. This is a variation of a saw, which typically you sit on a mat for, with a straight back and straight arms, and reach your opposite arm to your opposite leg. In this next exercise, you are doing the same thing but on top of a yoga ball, which requires more flexibility, more core rotation, and balance on the ball. Try and complete as many as you can. Make sure you are pulsing at the end of the reach, with your hand beyond your foot, as the ladies are doing in the picture.

This is a good exercise for both back strength and flexibility. A flexible back is also a back that is less prone to injury, and for those of you who have had back injuries, you can attest to the fact that it's no fun.

The final exercise involves multiple variations on top of what the picture involves. In the picture with the woman in black, she rests her straight legs on the ball, lifting her body about two inches off the floor. An addition to this exercise would be to complete a full hip bridge, which is where you lift your hips to become parallel with the rest of your body, so you go from a v-shape to a straight line. Once you are able to do this easily, you can try to continue the hip bridges with one leg hovering over the ball. Keep one leg lifted and one leg on the yoga ball at all times, and keep the balance in your hips, making sure the ball doesn't run away from you as well. :)

This ends the pilates blog. I hope now that you consider adding pilates to your regime as cross training to help your body get toned, more flexible, and strong for the tennis court. Please comment and leave any suggestions for next week's blog, and any blogs in the future that you would like to know about. See you next Friday!