Bailey’s Blog

Freeze your finish by being fully ‘conscious’ of your follow-through and balance. Poise like a photo and you will hold your weight DOWN and stay on balance. It also helps you keep more feeling attention on your point of contact. To really get the feeling of this - when doing fed ball, hit the ball and then let the ball hit the back fence before making your brake step (leg that swings around and helps you recover). Once the ball hits the fence, push back towards the center of the court. 

This is a great way to simply label the 15 contact moves. 1 star footwork is offensive or aggressive footwork where you attack the ball with your feet and move forward off the baseline. It tends to be on short and floating balls. 2 star footwork is rally footwork where you keep your position on the baseline and let the ball come to you.It tends to be on fast deep balls. 1 star footwork is defensive footwork where you are are pushed out towards the sidelines or backwards from the baseline. This tends to wide and deep floating balls.

Sorry guys that I missed a few days with the Bailey Blog…..but really exciting news for the Bailey Method as I have been shooting a new video for the last 3 weeks at the Bollittieri Tennis Academy. To have Nick Bollittieris’ input and support is a real honor, and, a real testimony to the method itself. It has also been great working with the Strategy Zone staff, Lance and Margie. What we work on a lot is to clean players footwork and I really like this thought process. It is really important to tell your coach where you feel you have lost confidence, then go and CLEAN up the problem…so when you walk away from the lesson you feel the problem is fixed and there is no mental block when you use that footwork again.

Some tennis players are better grounded while some are more elevated when they play.

Some players are very fundamentally sound with classic styles while others have unorthodox styles

Some players are flowing players while others are precision players

Some players are one dimensional and play well that way, others are fancy and unpredictable….you never know waht’s coming at you!

When I was at the IMG Bollitteri tennis academy this week, a close friend of mine Jose Lambert (head coach at the academy) said “Great tennis players play with COMPETITIVE GRACE”. I really like this, but really think it relates to life as much as it does to tennis. Competitive Grace means giving your life, family, lover, sport and work your best effort, but at the same time make it look easy with humour, integrity, passion, modesty and class. I have always felt that players like Roger Federer, Pat Rafter, Arthur  Ashe and Stefan Edberg always played with “Competitive Grace” on and off the court.

When ever you move to a ball, set your feet into a hitting stance, make contact with a ball and a cross-over step after striking the ball i.e. recovery step….. it is essential to keep good strong positive angles with your legs. This means the legs stay in a strong flexed position and are not straightened out, because the result of straight legs is a loss of power, balance and speed!

I teach all who will listen, I teach whoever WANTS to learn, I teach he who approaches with an EMPTY MIND. I teach he who LOVES THE PROCESS, loves the journey, gives their all….their heart good and positive. I teach he who is open to the experience. I teach to educate and entertain, I teach you to create your own style, your OWN WAY! David Bailey 12.10.03    

Quote from Sydney Morning Herald May 7, 2006. ” A few years ago I asked him if he would like a career like mine,” the one- time grand slam winner Moya said. “He looked at me with the sincerity that you usually find in small children and said, quite seriously, that he aspired to more. And I knew that he would be a better player than I was.” What Moya is saying about Nadal is what I call COMPETITIVE GREATNESS……an aspect of the spirit rather than the mind……a strength of will and a strength of mind, a sense of inner confidence and belief. This is champion thinking!

The bottom line for successful tennis is HONESTY. You need to be completely honest with yourself, to be aware what you can do, why you suceed and why you fail. You need to honestly assess your work habits, your weaknesses and your reaction to pressure and nerves and then find ways to address these issues. The worst thing you can ever say to a coach when he asks a question like “What do you want to work on today?” is “I don’t know!” …..always always be asking question to yourself on how you can improve.

A picture in a tennis magazine shows mechanical things - the guts of tennis are ABCTR!

1.) Anticipation

2.) Balance

3.) Concentration

4.) Timing

5.) Reaction

Try and include all these in your training……these esential elements appear UNSEEN but are absolutely crucial to world class play and movement!