And I hear you say - drivel Kevin, I have been trying to improve my volleys for years and am still scared to be at the net.

Every day with the lessons I take, my challenge as a coach is to allow my lessons to enjoy the net because it is highly satisfying to be able to finish off a point.

Tactically there are some pointers you should know. Never volley cross court in singles unless you can win the point, why? If you volley cross court and can't make a winner, you cannot cover the far side line on your opponent's next pass. So hit down the line to keep him in front of you. You then have a much better chance to cover his next shot.

Approach use a high arcing, high bouncing topspin to the backhand. A slice is fine but not the only option. A ball that kicks up high to your opponent's backhand gives him no chance to make an aggressive passing shot.

I have talked about this quite often but it hit me again when one of my coaching groups said their team was on the court for almost four hours because they could not finish the points off. There is a fine line between patience when waiting for the right ball to "have a go" and making sure you keep every ball in the court. Playing matches and trying "not to lose" rather then going out to "try and win" are two very different mindsets.

Have you almost cried when thinking "how the heck do I get it over the net". So many thoughts, (possibly). Get the racquet back, turn your shoulders, change the grip, move your feet, set your feet, when should I swing, how hard, what spin, get control, get direction, add more spin, control the power. See what I mean? Call me and I'll give you the whole list - for free. It's enough to make you cry! And to think the best players do it all without thinking - we all know how easy it looks.

Perhaps you need to change the way you think. I did some work with a friend of mine a couple of years ago and it was really interesting experimenting between learning by instruction and programming by image and feel. Craig Eliott introduced to me a different approach and it works!

No commands are used. The body is asked to perform in the desired way to achieve the desired results. Body is shown visual image and feeling of any action and element of stroke desired. If you wish the ball to go to the crosscourt corner, you simple imagine the necessary path of the ball to the target, and feed it into the computer as a problem to be solved.

Let it happen! Having requested your body to perform a certain action, give it the freedom to do it. The body is trusted without the conscious control of mind. The serve seems to serve itself. Effort is seemingly initiated by the body, without conscious trying. Letting it happen doesn't mean going limp; it means letting your unconscious use only the muscles necessary for the job. Nothing is forced; you flow surely and powerfully.

A good example I often use is the direction where you are hitting too. If for example you want to hit a particular part of the court, your brain tells your hand what to do. You don't really need to see where the ball has gone because your racquet will automatically go in the general direction - like I said, your brain has told your hand where to direct the racquet.

If there is one thing which will improve your game - it is to visualise the contact point close to your body. If you work on this, your footwork will improve automatically - without thinking about your feet.

I just love looking at good footwork. Again from my old film files. This film is Jimmy Arias playing Boris Becker down the other end of the court. Jimmy Arias was credited as the start of the new breed of forehand in about 1978 as a fourteen year-old. Coached by Nick Bollettieri at the time but unfortunately for Arias illness intervened and he never really showed his full potential.



The forehand he hit then is comonplace now but can also be credited to the new racquet designs over recent and not so recent years. Strings and balls have gone a long way too. Have you noticed the comments from the French Open about the new balls? The balls are more lively in the first couple of games but then apparently hold the clay particles, dust and moisture in the ball which makes them fluff up. This slows the flight and the players are having difficulty in deciding the string tensions in their racquets.

The new Beast XP string is the world's first thermo-poly string, featuring a secret alloy additive, that delivers improved trajectory control and feel for extreme precision. A new level of ferocity has arrived on the tennis court, direct from the only company that can deliver it.

EXTREME PRECISION Watch a video of a tennis ball hit a racquet at 5,000 frames per second, and you get an idea of what it takes to make a precision string. Click here for film

TRAJECTORY CONTROL Our thermo-poly string technology balances velocity and spin to control the ball, without compromising your swing, regardless of string tension, pattern or racquet type. Now you can really unload with a heavy shot knowing that you'll get a powerful spin and controlled ball trajectory without worrying about hitting a flyer.

SPIN Prince's Beast XP strings feature optimized dynamics and friction, displacing and returning within two milliseconds, delivering at least 9% more spin to your game than other strings. The Beast XP's performance has been tested, analysed and approved by our best engineers and players.

TENSION MAINTENANCE Monofilament polyester strings are known for rapid tension loss. Prince's Beast XP retains its tension longer due to a special manufacturing process of sequential heating and stretching, aligning the polymer chains to ensure the consistency of string tension is maintained across a wide variety of conditions and racquets.

POWER Beast XP delivers extreme control so you can give the ball hell without having to sacrifice precision. With Beast XP, you can finally unlock your full potential on the court.

FEEL Before Beast XP strings were released to the public, thousands of sets of strings were evaluated around the world by competitive tennis players on all levels. The feedback has been overwhelmingly positive. Beast XP simply outperforms all other polyester strings with the best possible combination of control, power, durability, spin and tension.

The Beast is in store now. Call me when your racquet needs a restring. $10.00 off The Beast for all of June.

Tennis Tip for the month, try and relax your hand on the racquet, don't hold onto the grip too tight and you will get more feel with your hand and might even save your arm from an injury.

Last month I spoke of the opportunity you have to improve your skills during the winter. Also showed some old film from the 1987 French Open. (Chris Evert was the player in the film - congratulations to Audrey who won a copy of Anthony Wilding).

As a follow-up from last month with troubleshooting groundstrokes and your summer interclub almost complete, you now have the opportunity to make a concerted effort on improving your swings and movement.  Movement has to be improved in conjunction with your strokes.

Tennis can be a complicated game and there is of course a fix-it for any weakness.   If you don't have any weaknesses you would be in a different grade to the one you are currently playing.  Therefore it is worth taking one weakness at a time and turning it into a strength.

Hello Tennis Parents, Wayne Goldsmith from Sports Coaching Brain asks these questions.

1. Do you believe your child will be a successful, well paid professional tennis player?
2. Do you tell other parents that your child is "a high achiever"?
3. Do you talk about tennis at least once a day with your child over meals or away from the court?
4. Are you prepared to sacrifice your child's education so they have a great chance of becoming a professional player?
5.Do you regularly ask the coach to work your child harder or to change something about their game?
6. Do you get emotionally involved in your child's successes and failures on the training court?
7. Do you allow your child to show a bad attitude, poor sportsmanship and / or a poor temperament (e.g. racket abuse)?
8. Have you ever argued or fought with parents of other kids about the results of a game?
9. Do you refer to your child as "my son or my daughter the tennis player"?
10. Have you spent more than $500.00 on a single tennis racket for your child?

Well, here's the bad news. If you answered "YES" to two or more of the above, the chances of your child becoming a successful professional tennis player are -------NIL or very close to it.    And what's worse - you may be the major cause of their failure. .

To read the full article click here...

The better the control and balance when you play tennis, the better your game will be.

To quote Science of Coaching Tennis, 'Without good balance, a tennis player is doomed to mediocrity. Balance is controlled by the position of the centre of gravity, the central point slightly above centre of the pelvic region about which the body mass is distributed'.

The balance points and centre of gravity continually change when swinging the racquet, running, lunging or changing direction etc. Just adding the racquet into your hand changes your centre of gravity.

When you are playing well have you asked yourself why? Balance, timing, quick decision making, good awareness coupled with relaxed swing patterns and a self confidence in your ability are the pretty good reasons.

You often hear tennis commentators talking about 'soft hands'. How 'soft' are your hands? Drop shots and delicate lobs need good control, an understanding of technique and 'soft hands' to go with them.

Here are two exercises for you to improve your racquet balance and be able to feel the ball on the strings, and at the same time making you aware of the racquet angles. All good for balance and control. View videos

Good Tennis

Kevin Woolcott

Besides the rules of tennis there are also some important unwritten laws which come under the title of tennis etiquette. Tennis is a social game, a game involving simple politeness and consideration. Everyone will enjoy the game so much more if those standards are maintained.

Here are some of the rules which are most important:

A close relation to the slice or lob the drop shot has many advantages. 
The shot can be high risk but  think if you pick the right time to execute it, you can win a lot of points. Put the shoe on the other foot also, how do you like having to sprint forward when you are normally attached to the baseline!
Technically it is an interesting skill to learn. You need to understand backspin and how to impart the spin on the ball, and of course the effect the spin has on your opponent.
I'll bet you when you have a practice with your interclub team, you will probably rally and perhaps practice ground strokes and volleys and even a few overheads before you start a practice set.  I'll also bet you don't specifically practice drop shots.   If you don't practice them, why try a drop shot in a match!
Your positioning on the court needs to be "sensible" eg, common sense I hope tells you not to hit a drop shot if you are standing at the back fence.  The risks are too high for your own accuracy and the fact you will give your opponent a pretty good chance of running down your shot.   Another point is this shot is more difficult to hit if the ball is dropping off the first bounce.   You give away too many signals.  So, hit the ball on the rise which will give your opponent less time to react. By the way-that helps with adding more spin to the ball.
Have a look at the video clip.
You can play this shot cross court or down the line. The general rule of thumb is to play this shot the greatest distance from the opponent. Sometimes drop shots are outright winners. Sometimes they are so difficult the opponent can barely control their reply. And sometimes the drop shot is not really that good which gives the opponent many more options.  That's why you can put the shot into a high risk category and your own shot selection and court position comes into the equation.
As you experiment with the drop shot, and like I said, its relative the lob, remember tennis is a game of errors. And many times the drop shot is not an outright winner but equally as effective when it produces an error.  Rather than keeping your opponent on the base line, play one deep and the next one short. And after a series of drop shots, you have inflicted both physical and psychological damage, for truly this shot hurts your opponent.
Good Tennis
Kevin Woolcott

When I do a lesson, my pupil will continually (not too much I hope) hear me going on about moving economically on the court.   Considering a large proportion of my lessons is directed at doubles play and the formation is one-up, one-back I am emphasizing this tip at the player who is on the baseline.

Changing technique on serve and two-handed backhand.

There are numerous ways to teach technique and if you have had a lesson from me you may recognize some of these coaching aids I use. One of my favourite books "Coaching Tennis" is written by my friend Chuck Kriese and he also uses many of these instructional tools.

A question from Serena was, “how can her ball toss be more consistent”.

These days with the modern game being faster and the ball being hit harder, it is easy to forget the basics for consistency in your game. If there is one thing that stood out for me at the Australian Open it was the consistency under intense pressure from the opponent.

There is one most important lesson all tennis players must learn first. GET INTO POSITION WITH YOUR FOOTWORK.

In terms of making the swing simpler, you should turn those hips and shoulders. Moving the racquet itself from the ready position isn't necessary. What is necessary is to coil the upper body immediately.

The other important part of the swing is to keep the elbow and racquet a little closer to the body on the forward swing to the ball contact point. If the racquet is too far away from your side, the long lever makes the swing less controlled.

This implies that the player is playing a tactic which will often result in a win. Unforced errors are the bane of the tennis player. Making your opponent hit one more ball in a rally no matter how long the rally is will no doubt give you a better win/loss ratio.

Wind, showers of rain, uneven and slippery courts, are as much tennis-playing conditions as a nice calm day or overcast sky, and a good condition court.

Temperature can harm your strings and racquet. Extreme hot and cold are two of the greatest enemies for your racquet and strings. Heat extremes, such as in the boot or back seat of your car can do irreversible damage to the frame and string tension. You should store your racquet at room temperature, and never leave the racquet in your car on a hot day. Have you seen a racquet that is the result of "meltdown"? Not a pretty sight!

Racquets come with limited warranties. The warranty covers circumstances in which a racquet develops defects due to a flaw in the material or manufacturing process. (Not meltdown). Warranty doesn't cover damage caused by racquets encountering adversaries such as net posts, fences, the ground or used as weapon in any way.

Replace worn grips. A tattered grip increases the risk of the racquet slipping out of your hand, a common cause of breakage. We highly recommend replacing your grip just as often as your restring or to use over-grips - replacing these frequently.

The conventional rule of thumb is to restring as often as you play per week, but a minimum once a summer. ie if you play three times a week, have your racquet strung three times a year. Because a racquet warranty is void if incorrectly restrung we advise you to have your racquet restrung by a racquet specialist stringer.

For further information on your racquet, you can contact me at Tennislife, Forrest Hill Tennis Centre. Telephone 4108804. Courier your racquet to us and we will have it back to you next day.

Good Tennis

Kevin Woolcott

Writing the weekly tennis tip is very interesting for me because as a coach I research material for my own coaching and at the same time can include it in a tennis tip.

Jim McLennan is a TennisOne editor who wrote this article about learning..

Learning is defined as a "relatively permanent change in performance" and in this case it is the change thing that is so difficult. In order to change, one must have a high degree of awareness. Awareness both in how you presently hit the forehand, and awareness of how the "new forehand" feels. Further it takes patience, for if it were easy to change we would all be club champions. Finally, changes may come easier if one can actually come to enjoy this changing process, rather than feel miserable while learning - hoping some day to be pleased when and if the learning is actually accomplished.

Span of Control: Consider the following scenario that occurs when your opponent strokes the ball and you move to return it. Known as a motor action plan, you can really see how complicated tennis is when you compare a novice reaction with an experienced player, and again when you compare the experienced reaction with that of a playing or even teaching professional.
Somehow this complicated task is actually made to look easy. Move your feet, sequence the hips with the racquet, time the speed of the backswing, monitor your finger tension, posture, track the ball, decide where to aim, eyes in the contact zone, relaxed follow through, on time for the recovery split step. And this is just a short list of things to do each and every time you attempt to stroke the ball.

As pertains to your "work in progress" the advice here is to only select one thing at a time to work on. If you choose to work on your eyes in the contact zone, a la Roger Federer, then practice that and only that for a specific period of time.

Federer forehand - the beautiful stroke! Have a look at this! . Please note it will take time to download.

You will be practicing for the upcoming interclub competitions - hopefully!

When you are in a competition, the mind often does funny things and may tell your body to be extra careful. Rather than playing a shot as you would have in a non-pressure situation you suddenly play a defensive lob even when returning serve.

Reduce your lobs. Go for your shots rather than playing defensively, attack at every opportunity, get to as many volleys as possible and make the net player feel uncomfortable by hitting at them rather than over them.

Generally make life difficult with good tactics.

1. Keep the ball in play when you are defending. Go cross-court when defending (and high).
2. Attack down the line in singles to cut down the angles for your opponent.
3. Imagine where you are going to hit your serve (before you hit it).
4. Keep a check on the grip and vary the direction and speed of your serve.
5. Watch for your opponent to be off balance so you can take advantage by moving forward.
6. Focus on what you are doing keep your mind on your game.
7. Between each point breath deeply relax and refocus for the next point.
8. Drink at each change of end even if you don't feel you need to.

This is a great time of the year with you being able to watch the pros at the US Open. Maybe a different level that you play but the tactics are no different.

"Rally speed" is the speed of the ball you can consistently keep in play with sound technique. "Rhythm" is the flow of the rally and the great feeling of your movement from one shot to the next when you have established your rally speed. If a player controls the speed of the rallies, he controls the rhythm. If he controls the rhythm he controls the points. Footwork and rally speed are key to keep the ball consistently in the court.
Consistency and placement depend on the ability of a player to establish rhythm and rally speed against a variety of opponents. To achieve rally speed, you have to have the accompanying footwork and if you want to win more matches, your goal should be to develop rhythm and rally speed consistent with your own ability level. Footwork goes hand in hand with rally speed.

Selecting a tennis racquet can sometimes end up a real task. The only real way you will know if a racquet is right for you is to play with it, and certainly more than once. Some racquets you demo will immediately feel wrong. Some will leave doubt and some will feel good.

Here are a few suggestions on what racquets to demo given your age gender and playing style:  Generally, you can talk about racquet head sizes these days rather than the length of the racquet which are normally 27 to 27.5in  A few years ago, racquets for adults went from 27 inches to 29 inches. 

Having fun in junior tennis is an all important factor if a young player is going to continue tennis competitively for the long term. Learning to deal with stress with umpteen different scenarios that could happen in a match is a learning curve which must be learnt also. Dodgy umpiring decisions, peer pressures and getting rid of the hundred or so excuses blamed for a poor performance are all part of the learning curve.

There are some scenarios that as a parent, you can short circuit. One of them in my view is to let your child play by themselves. I mean this in a nice way - in a tournament, when you get the opportunity, let them be by themselves so they can learn to be independent, after all tennis is an individual sport. Let them win or lose by themselves, let them get their own drinks for the matches to be played and their own food for lunch (they will only go hungry once). Educate them to pack their own tennis bag at home and let them carry it. Pick them up at the gate when they have finished for the day.

Playing in the juniors is stressful for parents when they watch their children trying to control their emotions on the court. Those emotions are also felt on the sideline. Parents watching their children will often transfer feelings to the player on the court which no doubt - puts even more stress on the player.

Reading a recent ''TENNIS'' magazine there is an article about Pete Sampras. I quote:

''When I was a junior, I played up in the age divisions. At age 12, I'd be playing these 16-year olds. Often, right in the middle of some tough match, I'd look up at my dad. So what does he do? He waves goodbye and goes for a walk! And then I feel there alone. I'm convinced that those experiences shaped who I am today. They made me tough and independent. That's why you rarely see me looking at the player's box during a match."

Another stress factor is Top Dog. Forget playing for the points - play for the sake of the game. I have seen too many instances of juniors worried about losing points in a first round after looking at the draw and then defaulting to protect their current points. This is absolutely ridiculous.

Junior tennis is important for skills learning. Those skills need to be developed to get to the next level. Don't make it harder than it already is.

Have FUN

Improvement comes from small beginnings - by setting small goals.   The most important goal is to keep the ball in play - in this order - control and direction. Add the spin, add the speed. 

It is very important for a beginner player to learn the fundamentals of the tennis strokes with good structure or as I often say, "good form". Serving for instance is the start of the game and if correct grips and basic swing patterns are grooved early, good form will be attained. Repetition with good form will produce improved technique.

I found this quote from Allen Fox (Think to Win). "Is proper stroke technique simply a matter of individual preference or are some techniques better for everyone in all cases"?

He answered by saying there are in fact easier as well as more difficult ways of hitting a ball, yet it is always better to perform a physical task the easiest possible way.

Add to that the good structure and you will have a technique which will stand you in good stead for years to come.

As soon as possible, the continental grip must be learnt. This will at least give you a good chance of hitting the four different service actions ie flat, slice, topspin and American twist.

The eastern forehand grip is preferred by beginner players, and coaches in general have a hard time in getting pupils to change to continental because of the wrist and forearm action that is required leading up to the contact point. There is no doubt though, persevere and you will establish a better serve and the bonus will be more fun with the different spins.

Images
Figure 1 - Check Continental Grip
Figure 2 - Showing how the grip will allow the structure of the wrist alignment with the racquet.
Figure 3 - Continental grip will allow the elbow and butt of the racquet to lead up to the ball from the racquet which was dropped down the back.
Figure 4 - Last but not least I won't let any of my pupils continue until they can prove good balance AFTER the contact point as shown in the last photo.

Court positioning is an area where you can win points by just being in the right position � at the right time.  Effective positioning, reactions, movement, and poaching make up the art of doubles and all four players on the court do have a different responsibility.  That responsibility relates to the job you need to do, not just for yourself, but to your team as a whole.

We often get so caught up with modern styles in the so called modern game, we forget that tennis is meant to be a simple game.

 

Hit the ball where the other person isn’t is a bit too simplistic however that is the message I give to my starter children and to any one who is keen to learn basic tactics.   Giving your opponent practice by the hitting the ball to them in a rally doesn’t make sense!

 

Stroke production is another area where we get all complicated.  Take a forehand for instance. This week I had huge success in doing something I haven’t done for years – maybe old fashioned but it worked.

 

On the follow through of your forehand try extending the follow through as far as you can in the direction of the ball – so far that you can catch the racquet out in front with your free hand.

 

Keep your balance on the front foot – don’t fall over – use a neutral stance which makes you pivot from your back foot and step down to the ball. You may need to take a couple of little side step shuffles to get in a better position.   Hold the hitting balance for a couple of seconds before recovering to the ready position.

 

I’ll bet you anything you will hit the ball with better length and at the same time have a more solid grounding with your feet. 

 

Here are four photos to show what I mean.

   

 

 

Back to basics – good stroke structure will improve your forehand.

This shot is a must for your repertoire. The slice backhand can be such a versatile shot and for club players is safer than top spin.  Ninety-nine percent of two-hander backhands hit a slice with one hand because trying to hit a two-handed slice is quite restrictive.