Bailey’s Blog

I am always asked “What is the best age to start footwork training?”

My answer - “The younger the better!” 6 years old is great! I believe tennis should be taught from the ground up. Kids need to know where their feet are in space as early as possible, and how to achieve great balance.

But, just as importantly I believe this quote says it all… “A blank canvas is much better to work with than the one that has already been painted.”

When you first learn to play the piano you are taught where to place you hands while also being taught the names of the notes on the music sheet and their corresponding keys on the piano.

With The Bailey Method I have done the same thing in tennis. You read an approaching ball and try and position your body and your feet and hit the ball just as you would respond to having read the notes on the sheet of music and played the appropriate note on the piano. I have called these contact moves. My research has found there to be 15 distinctives ways we hit a tennis ball. 

There are uniformed notes and keys in music …Why? Because a universal language can be spoken….And, of course this makes so much sense!! …so why is there so much opposition to doing the same thing in tennis? ….Wouldn’t it make the teaching and more importantly the learning of tennis so much easier if we all spoke the same language?

Please if you read this blog and agree…e-mail me at david@thebaileymethod.com and lets gets some ideas going on how we can get the language introduced.

• Shadow tennis is designed not to be observed but experienced
• It is ‘creatively responding’ to various rhythms and footwork patterns
• Acquiring information is passive, practice is active
• The human nervous system cannot tell the difference between an actual experience and an experience imagined vividly and in detail
• Shadow tennis will not only get you fitter and change your physical appearance, but will also give you a “spiritual lift” because just by doing it will change your attitude and thoughts. It show commitment to your craft.
• Imagination rules the world. Shadow tennis is really imagination training. I believe the “more specific” the training the easier it is to imagine. Create a “mental motion picture”
• Shadow tennis needs to be associated with POSITIVE THINKING, associated with positive images. The mental picture of yourself is the strongest force within you
• Great tennis starts with a picture, held in your imagination, of how you would like to play on the court. Imagine yourself playing calmly and deliberately, acting with confidence and courage.
• With shadow tennis you “shadow box” you practice without pressure..and this is crucial. It is kind of like a fire drill - fire drills teach crisis conduct in non crisis situations. With shadow tennis you practice self expression with no inhibiting factors. It relies on muscle memory to perform the contact moves correctly.
• Learn the moves that work for you. Form a “mental map” which is retained in your memory. A broad, general flexible map. There is a “carry on” in your muscles, nerves and brain from practice to the actual situation. Moreover because your learning has been relaxed and pressure free, you feel free to rise to the occasion, improvise and act spontaneously. Build a mental image of yourself -acting correctly and successfully
• Winning feelings, evoke winning actions
• Success comes from passion and gradualness. It is not about prestige symbols but creative accomplishments     

” You where not put on this earth to stuff around,

You where put on this earth to make a difference!”

You know I have been in the tennis fitness/footwork industry for over 25 years and have loved every minute of it.

One of the reasons I have loved it so much is the variety of training…the sport has been designed in such a way that every fitness component is included and I think the athletic challenges are terrifically dynamic!

You  need speed  to reach a drop shot, power  to leap for that scissor kick smash, aerobic capacity to last and recover from those long matches, muscular endurance to serve for 5 sets, muscular strength to prevent repetitive strains, flexibility to stretch for wide balls, agility to stop and start and change directions and an a great anaerobic capacity as tennis is a game of short sharps bursts time and time again.

There are so many skills athletically. You need to spin and pivot the hips, shift and transfer the weight, slide to and fro, hop in multiple directions and lunge + jump to reach wide balls. You must master movement on a variety of different surfaces and be forever confronted by ever-changing weather conditions, game styles and personality types.

And….think of all the following fun ways you can get fit for tennis, all which can be easily justified at certain stages of a fitness program…

You know what! …..it should never be boring!…..you can swim, ride a bike, stop and start in sand, reactively catch balls, weave in and out of cones, touch lines and shadow tennis. You can throw medicine balls, use resistance equipment like vipers, parachutes, athletic belts…you can sprint, run stairs and hills, do track work,  jog bush tracks, do jump and slide training, lift weights, do Yoga, Pilate’s, boxing training  and react to funny bouncing dog toys. You can play squash, soccer, badminton, touch football, basketball and mini soccer…you can even go skiing on water or snow….it’s all good…more variety means less injuries…and that is what I love about tennis you can really do anything and justify it connection to tennis….my God! …imagine being a marathon runner or swimmer where all you do is move in a straight line….lets give tennis its due…it is a fantastically athletically challenging sport….Go you good thing!!!!   

Tennis is a game of hands, eyes, head and feet and combining these 4 crucial elements into a beautiful synchronized whole.

What d0 I mean by this?

In relation to hands you need to be able to impart various spins on the ball and get the racket into position early. It is the hands and wrists that help you feel the ball and put the ball where you want it to go. It is the hands and wrists that will create great swing mechanics.

In relation to eyes, you need to watch the ball, your opponent and anticipate where the next shot is going by reading the clues and cues you are presented with. It is the eyes that help with great contact points and hitting at the right height. (strike zone)

In relation to feet, hips  and legs, if you can’t reach the ball you can’t hit it and it is your feet,hips and legs that set up the stance, give you balance + power, an explosive first step and help you recover for the next shot

In relation to the head, well this is where the strategy comes from, where the emotions and self belief evolve and most importantly the love of the game and a never die attitude.

Can you ever say which is more important? I don’t think you can!! All you can say is that someone that has has a great eye, sound swing technique, is mentally tough and a fantastic athlete will normally  be a great player.

I always like to look at these 4 elements when and error is made i.e.

1.) was it a swing error?

2.) footwork/balance/stance error?

3.) contact point/reading/reaction error? or

4.) focus/attitude/emotional error?  

I was watching the latest “Fame” movie and loved one of the quotes from one the teachers to his students and thought it really applied to tennis. “Fame” is a movie about a bunch of students studying their chosen profession be it acting, singing or a music at a New York performing arts school.

The teacher was talking to his students who are busy practicing a set piece of music but one student is off on his own tangent and not focused on the task at hand. The teacher says-

“Study, drilling and technique do not stifle talent they free it!”

So in other words if you are a student of the game, if you train properly and professionally with great attention to detail (good progressive teaching with no short cuts) then you create an ability to be instinctively creative on the court.

You become ”Federer free” (Roger Federer’s’ greatest strength is he is so spontaneous,reactive yet relaxed when playing). But you know what!!….this strength is never free it is a earn’t through very hard yet smart studying, drilling and technical work.

The next three blogs are taken from 2 great tennis autobiographies and relate to fitness and footwork. The books are “Pete Sampras- A champions mind” and “Open” by Andre Aggasi. Both are great reads!

This first blog was a simple but interesting  method that was used to develop Sampras as a junior (at this stage he was eight years old)-

Robert Landsdorp was his forehand and ground-stroke guy

Pete Fisher was his serve coach and overseer of Pete’s development

Del little was a local coach but was the footwork and balance specialist

Larry Easley was the volley coach

He would play matches 3 times a week and play tournaments on the weekend

What I found interesting about this is that tennis is notorious for not having specialist coaches. They do in so many other sports why not tennis?   

“A terrible thing in tennis is when you start losing your legs. If your legs get heavy and you lose the spring in them than your game inevitably declines. You no longer get up as high on your serve, and you don’t get that explosive step to the ball. you don’t move corner to corner effectively, or change direction that well. And when your opponent sees that, he uses it as emotional fuel, even if he’s also tired”

When Andre Aggasi first meets Gil Reyes (his fitness trainer and mentor for over ten years) there is something that Gil says that makes lots of sense to Andre. The conversation was about his fitness training-

Gil: How much do you run each day?

Andre: Five miles.

Gil: Why

Andre: I don’t know

Gil: Have you ever run five miles in a match?

Andre: No

Gil: How often in a match do you run more than five steps in one direction before stopping?

Andre: Not very.

Gil: I don’t know anything about tennis, but it seems to me that, by the third step, you’d better be thinking about stopping. Otherwise your’e going to hit the ball and keep running, which means you’ll be out of position for your next shot. The trick is to throttle down, then hit, then slam on the brakes, then hustle back. The way I see it, your sport isn’t about running, its about starting and stopping. you need to focus on building the muscles necessary for starting and stopping!

Andre laughs and tells Gil that “that might be the smartest thing I’ve ever heard anyone say about tennis”