Variety is the key for your success

By Alex Correia

You’ve played the same player many times. At first you won most of the matches, but now your opponent has pulled even and has started to gain the advantage. Although neither of your games has changed significantly, there’s been a shift in the balance of power and you’re not sure why.

Most likely, your opponent has figured your game out and you haven’t adjusted. When you suspect that this is true, it’s important to:

• Recognize your own pattern

Once you recognize your patterns, make a point of changing them up early in your next match. For example, instead of hitting your usual attacking forehand down the line, try a short-angle put away or a drop shot (particularly if you’re ahead in the game). And rather than aim every volley crosscourt, hit behind your opponent a few times to frustrate his anticipation.

In Tennis the variation and the surprise factor are vital for your success. Build up your game with as much dissimilarity of shoots as possible.

Set a Goal

By John F. Murray

Imagine you wanted to construct a house. Would you succeed if you began driving nails into stacks of two-by-fours without a blueprint? Not likely. But that’s how many of us go about our tennis. We want to build better strokes, but when we get on the court we hit balls with little or no purpose. Then we wonder why our games stay the same year after year.

Just as a builder must have a plan before undertaking a construction project, you need one to take your tennis game to the next level. The surest way, as many of the best players know, is to use the power of goal-setting. Goal setting helps you break big goals into smaller, easier-to-reach targets while keeping the larger aim in focus. It’s an effective tool for improving, and I’ve employed it successfully with players of all levels. Here’s how, in four easy steps, you can use goal setting to jump-start your game this year.

1. LAY THE GROUNDWORK

Before we get into the nuts and bolts of goal-setting, let’s talk about the mind-set that I think makes achievement more likely. First, ask yourself two questions:

Do you play tennis primarily to achieve success or to avoid failure?
If you play mainly to avoid losing, you’ll be more anxious and less confident in your practices and matches, which will interfere with even your best-laid plans. It’s more helpful to take a positive view of achievement and pursue success by focusing on what you want to accomplish, while de-emphasizing thoughts of failure.

Do you play tennis to show superiority over your opponent or to improve your skills and get to the next level?
If you take the second approach, you’re “task-involved.” Task-involved athletes are motivated by internal reasons such as fun or pride rather than by external rewards such as recognition. They tend to be more persistent than others in performance situations. They set goals to master skills.

Those who adopt the first approach are “ego-involved.” These players define their performance in comparison with others. This appears to work best only when you’re completely confi dent of your abilities and not threatened by the possibility of losing. Unfortunately, many ego-involved athletes also avoid challenging situations that might otherwise take them to a higher level. Try to adopt a positive approach toward achievement that allows you to pursue success without thinking about failure, and a task-based rather than ego-based mind-set that emphasizes skill improvement.

2. ADOPT SOME BASIC PRINCIPLES

Place performance above winning.
Everybody wants to win, but, ironically, thinking about winning during a match makes it less likely to happen. Winning or losing is only decided after the final point, so concentrating on this in advance distracts you from what you want—performance in the present. Another problem with outcome-based thinking is that it raises anxiety, either when things don’t go well or when you’re close to victory and hoping not to let your lead slip. It’s wiser to keep your focus on the raw ingredients of performance that lead to long-term success and improvement, such as good footwork, relaxed play, strong ground strokes, and first-serve accuracy.

Choose excellence over perfection.
High achievers often fall into the trap of thinking they must be perfect. This is counterproductive. Those rigidly committed to perfection almost always find themselves disappointed and discouraged. While perfection is impossible, excellence is attainable.

Embrace competition.
I admired Jimmy Connors in my youth as perhaps the best example of positive fighting spirit. Learn to look forward to the joy and thrill of competition, and learn to love the chance to play in front of others. Find opponents who are near your ability level or slightly better and never walk away from a challenge.

3. PLAN IT OUT

Now it’s time to start making your tennis goals for 2007. So get out a notepad and a pen or fi re up your computer and open your word-processing program. The first thing you want to do is take a look at your game and analyze how well you play, mentally as well as physically. (You might ask your local pro, or someone who knows your game well, for an objective viewpoint.)

As you do this, consider the different kinds of goals you can set for yourself:

Process goals are specific things you’d like to do during matches or training, such as hitting against a backboard three times a week.

Performance goals have some measurable standard associated with them, like reducing your number of unforced errors by 10 each match.

Outcome goals focus on a competitive result such as winning a match or a tournament.

Place most of your emphasis on process and performance goals, and only a small portion of your focus on outcome goals. Once you’ve created an inventory, list your top fi ve goals for the next 12 months. Evaluate the fi ve you’ve listed. Are they realistic? Aiming for a spot on the pro tour is probably not the wisest choice. But going from 3.0 to 3.5 on the NTRP scale or improving your league record are very possible. From this list, select one or two that can be achieved over the next 12 months. These are your long-term goals.

Next, list fi ve supporting goals that will help you accomplish each long-term goal. For example, to jump up to the 3.5 level two of your supporting goals might be to reduce your unforced errors and beef up your backhand. Next, break the year into three-month periods and decide what needs to be done in each period to reach each of your supporting goals; record these steps on goal-setting sheets. For example, you might try to reduce your unforced errors by five per match, with the target of lowering your unforced errors by 20 per match over the year. And to shore up your backhand, a quarterly goal might be to commit to taking six lessons for your backhand and do backhand-specific drills in practice 12 times. Having a specific goal and striving to attain it will help you focus on your bigger objectives. Break things down further by laying out monthly goals that will get you to your quarterly goals. For example, your monthly performance goal might be to strive for one or two fewer unforced errors each match. With that in mind, your monthly process goal might be to arrange for two lessons and set up four practice sessions. If you want, you can keep going and make weekly and daily goals so you’ve broken everything down into small steps.

Once you’ve gone through the entire process you’ll have a blueprint for success for your year and all you’ll have to do is concentrate on the little things and watch them add up.

But it’s important to review your goals frequently and be flexible with them. Many people get discouraged and quit striving for their goals after the fi rst setback. Reevaluate your goals every two weeks and adjust them as needed to maintain the challenge. If you reach all of your goals too early, you’ll need to set higher ones.

But if you’re constantly disappointed in your attempts, you need to set more realistic goals. There’s no shame in decreasing the difficulty level of your objectives.

4. FORM A TEAM

The most common reason that people fail to reach their tennis goals is that they get discouraged early on and quit. This happens to everybody, and it’s especially true if you try to do it all by yourself. Build a support team that will help you stick with it. Tell your local teaching pro and your practice partners what you want to achieve and enlist their help and encouragement.

Extract from Tennis.com

Practice on the Wall

By Alex Correia

Sometimes we look the Wall on a Practice court and you don’t realize how much you can do it right there.

Since ever the practice wall was the Tennis Player best friend. When I started my Tennis life and most of the players who played at a certain level, the wall was our best friend and where we use to spend hours per day.

There is no gain without pain, and in Tennis is no different. Unfortunately many people don’t think that way and they just go into the tennis court to play with friends or to have a tennis lesson and then? They come next week and it’s the same. Means there is no practice on your own which is vital in any sport.

It is time for you to start changing your routines.

What can I do on the wall?

You can put into practice everything without exception. If you are not very comfortable with the Practice Wall you should start from the beginning and make the things as simple as possible.

Forehand and Backhand

Control the ball just with the Forehand for example. You can set goals. First see if you can maintain the ball under control for 10 times in the row, after you succeed you try to make it 20 and so on. Do it the same with the Backhand.

After this first stage you can try to do a little bit more difficult. You can do try to alternate hitting one forehand and one backhand and put a goal again like on the previous exercise.

Volley

You can practice your volley. There is no better place to practice the volley. When you Practice on the wall the in no chance to swing when you volley (this is a very common error). You just keep yourself two meters away from the wall and try to maintain the ball under control. First Forehand then Backhand and then you can do it both. It’s a really good exercise.

Practice the Serve

It is very easy to serve against the wall. You just need to put it some targets on, over the net level of course and try to put the ball there as many times as you can. See it is easy and you don’t have anyone to disturb you.

Practice your consistency

After you are comfortable with the basic exercises you can go and make it tougher. Serve and keep the rally going as long as you can. Try this several times until you have a good score.

You can also carry out the slice, drop-shoots, smash, etc. Its just a question of imagination.

Positive aspects to retain

When you play on the wall you do it by yourself, you don’t need any partner and the wall is always there waiting for you whenever is more convenient for you.

Most of the time its easy to get a Wall to play. Most the times it is free.

You improve all your game by your own.

There are no excuses to don’t get started right away.

Follow this Tip for several weeks, make yourself and expert on this exercise and you will see a big improvement in your game. Especially the consistency. It is also prefect to try to correct some technical mistakes

Good luck..

Practice makes Perfect

This is a really good article of Jon Levey. Which focus a very important point, though some club players specially forget it. The practice in tennis is as important as in any other sport. This is something I will explore on my next article. The importance of the practice in tennis and how you can carry out by yourself, create your how training routines.

.............

Everyone likes to play matches. It’s how you measure yourself against the competition. But it doesn’t necessarily improve your tennis ability. The best way to accomplish that is to pinpoint deficiencies in your game and practice them until they become reliable.

Playing matches puts the emphasis on winning, not improving. By removing the pressure of winning, you allow yourself the freedom of making mistakes and exploring parts of your game you’re not comfortable with. Here are some things to remember when practicing:

—You can still make a game out of it: Some players complain that practicing is boring. You can play points out, just don’t keep traditional score. Play a tiebreaker or to 21 and start points without serving. The less you make it feel like a real match, the more you will experiment and try different shots.

—Expose yourself: Whatever part of your game you’re not happy with is what you should be practicing. When playing a match, you want to win so you try to play to your strengths and conceal your weaknesses. You’ll never be a complete player that way. If it’s volleys – get to net. If it’s a slice backhand – start chipping. And there has to be something you can work on, because even the pros practice.

—Remember, you do it in other sports: Tennis is one of the few sports that don’t emphasize practice. Golfers hit the range to work on their drives. Baseball players get in the batting cage to improve their swing. Practicing your weaknesses just makes sense. If you don’t have anyone to practice with, don’t be embarrassed to take a bucket of balls and just serve.

Skip the match and hit the practice courts. It’s the only way you’ll really improve.

By Jon Levey

Extract from Tennis.com

How to choose the ideal Tennis Racquet for you

This is a subject very interesting for us Tennis Professionals who deal with this question from our clients every day. For the Players this is always a serious task, “Buy a new racquet”

The media and the advertising and specially our favorite players normally will have a major part of the influence in you final decision, but don’t follow your just because Roger Federer uses or Nadal. You need to be more accrued than that, because you are not Roger Federer not even Rafael Nadal. Those racquets normally are for professional or semi-professional players who play every day and “have arm” for those racquets. That’s it arm something you need to have to play 320g in your hand.

Be very careful when choosing your Tennis apparel. The most important is not how you look like but how you perform, that’s it performance it’s what you are looking for that’s why your choice must be in order with your level and limitations. Be well advice for a it. Ask to you Tennis Coach always before or look for someone who can help you.

For those whom don’t know very well what to choose, the better choice is always the middle. You can decide for an intermediate racquet which will not give you many problems. My personal recommendation will be:

Prince O3 SpeedPort Black.

Wilson KSixOne Team 95 KFactor

Babolat Pure Drive Roddick Tennis Racquet – 1323

With any of this choices you will be well equipped to improve your tennis without committing an inaccuracy.

Good luck and I hope this tip can help you.

Sharapova's Forehand

When Maria Sharapova stunned tennis fans by winning Wimbledon in 2004, her serve and backhand were her biggest assets. But in the last year, she has molded her forehand into a weapon as well. She’s more aggressive off that wing than ever before, and it’s the shot she relies on most to open up the court and construct points.

1. Sharapova uses her left hand to help take her racquet back and assist in her shoulder turn. See how her left shoulder comes up to her chin? I like that, because it indicates a full turn. Her balance is very good. She’s ready to move forward and take this shot just inside the baseline—clearly Sharapova is looking to attack. Her grip is almost a full Western.

2. Sharapova continues with her excellent shoulder turn. As she takes her racquet back, she’s making small adjustment steps that help put her in an ideal position. Sharapova’s racquet is back a little higher than I was taught to take mine—my backswing was more compact—but it helps her produce greater racquet-head speed, which means more power.

3. Sharapova’s left hand is starting to move out in front of her to track the ball. Doing this helps ensure that her point of contact is out in front of her body. Her head is down and her eyes are right on the ball. At this point, it appears she might be preparing to hit an open-stance forehand, but she’s not; she’s putting her left foot directly in front of her right as she moves to the ball.

4. This photo screams balance and power. Sharapova is getting ready to unleash into the shot. Her head has barely moved since the fi rst frame, and her racquet is looping down out of her high backswing. The only criticism I have at this point is that her right elbow is too far away from her body. I prefer it to be in closer, which gives you more control. It appears she’s decided to take a backswing that’s bigger than usual so she can really attack the ball.

5. Sharapova has pulled her elbow closer to her body. She’s dropped her racquet almost to its lowest point and she’ll bring it forward and up, hitting the ball from below and swinging up and through it. The racquet face is a bit closed, so she’ll generate some topspin. Sharapova’s upper body is already uncoiling, helping to move the racquet toward the contact point. Her weight is now on her front foot.

6. The point of contact is just where it should be—in front of the body. Sharapova has taken the ball early, hitting low to high, and her balance is excellent. Her eyes are locked on the ball and her weight is moving forward to the point where she’s come up on her right toe. It appears from her stance and the position of her shoulders that she’s going down the line with this attacking forehand.

7. I like that Sharapova is hitting through the ball and fi nishing by taking her racquet across her body. She could have extended the frame even more through the path of the ball, but I think the fact that she didn’t is probably because she’s added topspin to this shot. Her forward and upward momentum have brought both of her feet off the ground. Notice how her head remains down. Even though she’s hit the ball, she’s not yet looking to see where it’s going.

8. his is a wraparound follow-through. Sharapova has a tendency to follow through on her forehand over her right shoulder instead of her left, particularly when she’s hitting off her back foot. But on this one she’s done it in the traditional way. She didn’t pop up too fast, so she’s balanced and ready to get back to the middle for the next shot.

By Mary Joe Fernandez

Taken from Tennis.com