Overheads!

Everyone is eagerly awaiting the new post this Friday; or at least that is the way I imagine it in my mind. Week's been good. We finished the last and final Seminole High Performance on a great note and sent kids home tired but ready to dominate on the tennis court. Something that I noticed during team competition was that a lot of kids set up the point really well but then miss an easy volley or overhead. Thus, today's blog is about overheads! Ahem...

As you creep up ninja-like to the net, alas the ball sails over your head. Of course. Now you have to hit an overhead. The most important thing about overheads, and really tennis in general, is your footwork. Gluing yourself like a statue to the court will probably not work out for you. 

Two important things to remember on the overhead are

Numbero uno: Standing sideways, trophy stance, not belly facing the net

Numbero dos: Reaching up to the ball rather than waiting for it to smack you upside the head

Honestly, I could finish writing right now. Those are the two major things that you’ll need for your overhead. But some players insist on spiking the ball as hard as they can into the court, and other mini players wish to do the same but don’t know how. Spiking your overhead into the court hard enough will ensure that the player on the other side does not touch the ball at all. The spike overhead necessitates a lot of wrist action in addition to the numbero uno and numbero dos rules. You can practice by standing on the service line and trying to hit the ball into the box in front of you, making sure that the ball spikes into the court and then continues moving over the net. Keep in mind thought that the spike overhead is allowed only when the ball is a pathetic attempt at an overhead and is very close to the net as well as high enough for you to snap your wrist on. All other overheads require more extension (aka getting it over the net with follow through). Deep lobs (not so pathetic attempt at lobs) are the hardest overheads to hit because oftentimes the initial contact with the ball will be not above your head but slightly behind it. This requires extensive follow through for it to go over the net, and also equilibrium of balance between strength and depth. Hit these balls with all your might and your chance of getting it in the court is 10%. Of course that’s a scientific statistic! I’m in grad school after all!

It’s hard as well to keep your body sideways on the deeper lobs. Scissor kick overheads, where you propel yourself with your legs to not only finish with your body forward instead of stumbling backwards but adding follow through by using your whole body, are an option for more advanced players.

The most frustrating overhead mistake for both players and coaches is the butt-out-I-don’t-know-if-it’s-really-an-overhead-or-a-volley overhead. This is the ball that sails haphazardly over the net just high enough to be an overhead and still low enough to be a volley. Most players hit this as an overhead, eventually sticking their butt out and hitting the ball at such an angle you could slightly imagine them being a part of the dance routine “Stop, in the name of love!”

So, what do you do? In that split second of panic, do what’s good for you and either let the ball bounce and do whatever you please with it or hit a volley. For the love of anything fine in this world, please do not hit an overhead. Just as a reminder, for it to be called an overhead, it has to be, like, over your head.

Reasons why

Good morning world!

I am ready to take the day on carpe diem style. This past week has been pretty quiet; some good tennis through clinics a couple of hours a day but otherwise its the definitely the prep for the last week of Seminole High Performance camps starting this Sunday. It's going to be our best week yet this summer!

So, that being said...

I love lists (I know, a little random). I make lists all day. I have post it notes of lists everywhere- literally. I’m totally serious too- right now I have five post-it notes on my computer, each a different color because I like my computer to be a smorgasbord of color, each harnessing a list of stuff to do, or things that I’d like to do, or things that I want.

This is a list that’s important for you. It’s a list of reasons why.

You ask, reasons of why you should do what? Reasons why you should join the Seminole High Performance family. Don’t we sound so kum-ba-ya? On a serious note, Seminole High Performance is the premiere tennis training camp in Tallahassee. Here’s a start to the reasons why.

Reason 1.

 The staff at Seminole High Performance makes the camp what it is. With a sense of camaraderie and teamwork, we approach each day with the players with the same goal of making them better. The players constantly work with each coach, and each coach knows each player on a very individualistic level, catering to that player and that player alone when working with them. Each coach has not only been a player before, but coming from a very high performance level. All have played for a college team, and head coaches Nick and Dwayne continue to work at a very high professional level as coaches of the FSU’s men’s tennis team. The organizational skill of all coaches makes the camp run smoothly.  With the perfect balance of fun and serious hard work, the coaches set the level high for players.

Reason numero dos

                  The facilities of the camp are incredible. We have twelve hard courts at our disposable throughout the day for camps, clinics, and privates. When it rains, for all of Florida’s tennis players it’s a day off. For us, it’s time to go indoors and keep working hard. This is a significant advantage, as Florida has a very peculiar habit of surprising us with sudden thunderstorms on a continuous basis. Our brand new FSU indoor courts harness six hard courts with an advanced heating system. Our facilities also include the materials we need to make camp successful, from a plentiful amount of new tennis balls to ladders to fitness warm-ups. Students are expected to bring their own racquets, but if they happen to break a string, coach Andy strings racquets for our Seminole High Performance team. With such great facilities, all we ask of players is to bring their positive attitudes and hard-working mentality to the courts every day. Because the Florida sun can be quite brutal, we continually remind players to keep hydrating and applying sunscreen, and recommend they bring a towel to tennis. Must we remind you that sweat is weakness leaving the body (and/or your fat crying)? 

Tune in tomorrow for reasons four and five. Get excited!   

How to: become pro

Hey y'all (my fellow New Yorkers cringe as I write with my now southern dialect)!

I promised a blog each Friday. While we didn't get much feedback (or, more specifically, no feedback) on what name to call this blog, I'll keep that post open for a while so that if you work up the courage to comment, you can do so at any time you desire.

Just finished the third official Seminole High Performance Summer camp week. It's been fun, but I must say I'm excited to be back in my own bed! Was the coach for Russia in the Davis Cup competition, and although we didn't win, the highlight of the competition was beating the first seed, Guatemala, 46 to 45! It was awesome to see some great competition. A lot of the players here truly want to compete, and I know a lot of you out there have dreams of becoming a professional tennis player. I know once I couldn't dream of anything greater than holding up that US Open trophy. But professional tennis can be a little weird with the point system, so I've taken it upon myself to ensure you know what you're getting yourself into. So here it is, the second official blog post of Spearhead Tennis, and it's a "How to" blog. How to become pro!

So you want to be a professional tennis player. Awesome. You put in countless hours on the tennis court, you follow a specific diet to maintain your best physical shape possible, and you train mentally throughout the day, whether during practice or during tournaments. Junior competitive tennis players often have the goal of going pro. But how, exactly, does pro tennis work? You’ll need to know a few acronyms to figure out pro tennis first.

ATP, or Association of Tennis Professionals, is a governing body that comprises professional tennis tournaments. The ATP world tour is a collection of different stages of tournaments, including everything from grand slams to ITF futures tennis tournaments. We’ll get to those in a little bit. ITF, or International Tennis Federation, is another governing body that works with the ATP in governing both grand slams and futures. Now let’s get to the point system.

To start out playing pro, unfortunately you can’t just qualify for grand slams and become a US Open champion as soon as you start. There is a point system in professional tennis where in each round you win there are points to be accumulated. Sort of like Super Mario, but without the cool music and without a chance to save a princess or jump up on a stone to collect a start. But I digress. The entry level tournaments are called futures. Futures have the least amount of points per round but any player can get into them. Once you accumulate a certain amount of points, you will be able to play higher level tournaments, which thus have more points per round, and more prize money to be earned. Futures are usually 10,000 or 15,000 dollars worth in prize money. You may be jumping for joy, getting excited about how much money you’ll make, but remember that this 10,000 dollars is divided up into pieces, a certain amount for each round. So the winner will not earn $10,000; it’ll be more like a thousand or two. As of now, there are 534 futures tournaments in a year. That means if you wanted to, you could easily travel the world and play a tournament every week of the entire year. It would probably take this amount of time (and a substantial amount of investment money) to gain access to challengers, the next totem pole in professional tennis. There are less of these throughout the year (178, to be exact), but these tournaments also come with more points and more prize money, ranging from 35,000 dollars to 150,000 (the higher the prize money, the harder to get into the tournament with few ATP points). After challengers, there are ATP World Tour Series, ranging from World Team Cup to Masters tournaments where the prize money is upwards of a million dollars. Then, finally, come the grand slams, four of them if you didn’t know, and these are the most prestigious, most awarding, and most handsomely paid tournaments reserved for the best players in the world. Very few players that are out of the top 100 in the world qualify for these grand slams. For you to get an idea of the point system more clearly, here is an example. Novak Djokovic, the current number one in the men’s ATP rankings, has 12,280 ATP points. Rafael Nadal, current number two, has 10,060 points. A future tennis tournament (the entry level tournament) awards 33 ATP points at most.

You might ask how Federer, after his many years of domination in the tennis world, can be surpassed in just a few years by both Nadal and Djokovic in ATP points. Remember that every year the points that are accumulated must be re-earned. So, if Federer won Wimbledon one year and then gets to the final in the next year, he loses points instead of gaining because his showing was worse than before. In order to keep the points that one has accumulated, one must show equal or better results the following year. As a starting professional tennis player, the idea is to accumulate enough points to be able to play higher-level tournaments, where more points are awarded for each round. So, if, say, John Miller, my very unique and completely original faux name for my example here, wins two futures in his first year of playing, by getting to the quarterfinals of a challenger in the following year will match his points earned in those futures and so will keep his points and thus his ranking.

A word to the wise- professional tennis is a lengthy time commitment and often a money-draining endeavor (at least for the first few years, when playing futures) that will make prospects of attaining a tennis college scholarship nearly impossible if you earn money on the tour. The NCAA is very strict in letting professional tennis players that have accepted prize money into college tennis- oftentimes this leads to decreased years of eligibility and fines to pay back the money earned, and then some. You’ll come to a fork in the road close to college time where you’ll have to decide which road you want to take- the professional tennis career or a college education and college tennis career. You can always play professional tennis after college, but once you choose the path of a professional tennis player, you lose the chance of getting your education paid for, at least in part. Choose wisely!

Now that you know how ATP points work and the logistics of professional tennis rankings, let’s go play Super Mario with the cool music and accumulate some points! :)   

The sparkly, shiny, brand new Seminole High Performance Blog welcomes you to its new space. On Friday the 13th, and I hope I don't jinx myself, my computer did not randomly freeze or die on me while working on this blog, and so I am optimistic of its grand opening, so to speak. About five and a half hours later, I've updated the information that is necessary for you to know everything and anything about Seminole High Performance Tennis. I'll be posting blogs weekly; you can expect them every Friday. On special occasions, aka this week, I'll be posting more blogs. Why? Because I want to (and because Seminole High Performance Camps are coming up, and I wrote a blog of why you should join the camps)! :)

HOWEVER, after all was said (typed?) and done, I ran into the dilemma of what to name this blog. I've put up Spearhead Tennis Blog up on the title, but it doesn't rub/spear me the right way, and so I relay this question to you, all of you out there thrilled to bits about the re-opening of this tennis blog.

We have a few options, and we want to stick with the spear theme, since we are Seminoles after all, but I'm also open to suggestions. If someone can come up with a jazzy way of mixing tennis and the spear, I'll love you forever. Or I'll just give you a hug or a lollipop or something. Here's what we've (coaches) brainstormed so far...

• The Spearhead
• Spearhead
• The Spear
• Spear It

It's a start, but we need help! Scroll down and use the comment box to vote, or to add your ideas. Adieu to you, and happy contemplating!