Research shows that you have 40,000 thoughts a day. 90% of this is with yourself of which 70% is negative.
I bet you the great tennis players don’t fall into this 70% category because I really believe what you say is how you play!
When ever you stretch or work out lifting weights it is important to put your ‘Feeling Attention’ on the muscle group you want to target i.e. isolate the area you wish to work on and concentrate on working with good form and technique.
It is the same when learning to move your feet. With the Bailey Method I like my clients to come to the lesson and know that their feeling attention is on their balance, agility, movement and footwork and that the lesson is all about developing the tennis athlete and specifically targeting tennis fitness. Yes…..I certainly will work on tactics and contact points and swing lines but thinking about too many things leads to paralysis by analysis and confused muscle memory. Thus I insist that the feeling attention be mainly on the feet, contact moves and how to positioning yourself on the court! It is important that at least a couple times a week that you spend from 20 minutes to 1 hour just focusing on your movement!
The statitistics below are just rough guidelines…. but it is important for you to realise that you can’t play, perform or feel great all the time. It is impossible!! Sometimes your opponent will just be too good ! This is more just a assesssment of match play …..and IN MY OPINION it is important to have a realistic perspective!
10 % of the time you will be in the zone (enjoy that feeling) !
15% of the you time you will play great and be really happy about your form!
50% of the time you will play OK, battle and grind, not everything will work……you will walk away with things to work on!
25% of the time you will play badly and nothing works.
Even in general everyday life …you will have good and bad days…one day you could write a materpiece another day you blank out. What is important is you attitude and how you carry yourself……how you think, how you interact, how you feel in general and compete. So in tennis and life in general …Learn from your loses and mistakes….. but LET GO of bad performances, enjoy the good ones and never lose the sense of fun of play!
One of my most influencial mentors is a very famous legendary Basketball coach called John Wooden he would say to his players -
” When you hurry, you tend to make mistakes. On the other hand, if you can’t execute quickly, you may be too late to accomplish your tasks. It’s a delicate but crucial balance”
I see this all the time on the tennis court, especially with easy put away balls. So get into position quickly but don’t rush you shot i.e. get you balance, let the ball drop into your hitting zone, then execute with confidence and good racket head speed.
Don’t be move slowly just because the ball is moving slowly. In a sense it is a paradox. Be quick but don’t hurry!
My definition of Up Tight is being angry with yourself and this not only effects your movement but also you strategy, racket head speed and concentration levels. It is just that….. Being Up and Being Tight.
You need to be ‘ Down and Relaxed’.
If you are UP…. then you jump and use no lower body to generate power. You also tend to miss hit shots because the head is moving, thus timing is effected. When you are Tight…… you also loose rackethead speed and end up pushing the ball…… Let alone the fact that to play well you need to put 90% of your attention on what you opponent is doing down his/her end…. not 100% focus on YOU. This is what happens when you get angry. You virtually loss the plot….and ……..another name for plot is game plan.
Thus….loosing you temper WILL really hurt you game …epecially if you are angry with yourself (a massive problem in junior tennis). Roger Federer as a teenager used to break racets in frustration until one day HE and I say that again HE realised that when ever he got angry he played worse and would go on to lose matches that he should have won!!!!!…..Guess what? Roger stoppped getting angry and the rest is history!!
Lose a match because your opponent is too good not because you beat yourself!!!
This one of my favourite sayings. So what does it mean?
In swimming races of more than 1 lap, when approaching the pool wall you must finish the tumbleturn (tuck the body up into a ball and turn in the water so you face the other direction and load the legs up to the chest ) before you push off the wall and head back down the pool…… If you try and push off the wall to early then you will not get maximum force off the wall as your legs are up in the air or too the side.
It is the same in tennis….finish the stroke by extending through the swing so 1.) you don’t fall off balance and 2.) you don’t dump the ball into the net by being too obsessed with recovery and fall off your shot! Just like in swimming you need to have good body control so you can also get a strong and explosive push towards the new direction of movement!
I was reading the sports pages today and saw a great 7 progressive sequence photo shoot of a Australian surfer named Julian Wilson performing a WORLD FIRST - his move was called a ’sushi roll’ and it was inspired by studying Motor -X motorbike stunt riding. On the waves Wilson combines a ’superman manoeuvre with a twisting backhand loop’!
I really believe that every year, in every sport, athletes and coaches are forever experimenting and finding new and exciting was to push the boundaries and do things that havn’t been done before. It is so important to have this attitude in life……don’t be caught up in the fact there is only one way to do things…be brave, be free and having fun doing your own thing….because it is this attitude that makes a sport grow and makes you grow as a person.
Life needs to be exciting, full of experimentation, self expression, taking risks and ‘Letting Go’ of established ways of thinking. We should never stifle creativity ………we should forever EMBRACE IT!
Remember these simple tips when moving in your comfort zone and controlling the rally i.e. moving only 1 to 3 steps to the side/ forward or backwards with the heel striking first at a power walking controlled rhythmical speed:
Keep weight on the heels
Keep a straight back with the rib cage lifted but the upper body SINKING into the legs
Keep feet apart, no more than shoulder width with the weight BACK (65% of the weight should be anchored on the back foot)
Please, understand that when the weight is back then the front foot can float i.e. you can slide your front foot in the intended direction of shot (you should have time if you have reacted quickly)
Remember……you control speed and length of shot with your back foot as this is where you keep your balance, claw the ground and hence springboard your transfer of weight!
Dominating a rally in tennis is when-
1.) You take the initiative
2.) Influence the reaction of an opponent
Your actions need to be carried out purposely and without hesitation. This requires confidence and no one - repeat, no one - can be a really heavy hitter of the tennis ball with perfect timing unless he has COMPLETE faith in his own ability.
It is the teachers job to plant knowledge like a seed, tend to it with encouragement, and watch it sprout and grow. The best teachers provide a consistent sunny attitude and just the right amount of food for thought - delivering with a STRONG and SOOTHING voice. They learn about their students, care about them, relate to them as individuals, and learn from them.
It is on the shoulders of todays teachers that tomorrows generation will rise; and it is in their hands that the clay of youth is shaped.
In teaching it is THE METHOD and not the content that is the message……the drawing out, not the pumping in. Ashley Montagu (b 1905)
But you always remember the teacher who said -
“Bill you are a unique moment in history. you are a unique human being. But……what are you going to do to deserve that uniqueness?” Vartan Gregorian
Our teachers, the best ones, did they not love what they did?………Was it not there love that made us feel we wanted more? Their love made LEARNING come alive!!!!