TENNIS NEWSLETTER

TENNIS AT THE NET

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                                                                                                                                                                   NEWS

                                                        DECMBER NEWSLETTER

Welcome to all new members and existing members to the new format - I hope you like it.

This will be a single page newsletter and there will be links to other items featured
on the website Tennisatthenet.com . All links will be hi-lighted as you have just seen,
and if you click on the above links it will take you directly to the website.



Please introduce your tennis mates (Coaches - players - students - club members ) to this newsletter, they can subscribe for FREE at: Tennisatthenet.com .

You can, at any time access all previous newsletters by going to the archives, you can also
download a PDF files of the 'Play better doubles'

                                                     A R C H I V E S

                                            This Months Comments.

The summer has finished and now we have to contend with dark evenings and changing weather.

But all is not gloom – many of us have to continue playing outdoors, as we do not have the luxury of covered courts.

You should use the winter months to strengthen your mental skills. Whenever you go on court and it is raining or a fairly strong wind is blowing, firstly remember it is also affecting your opponent. You can put this to good use by convincing yourself that it does not really affect you, the mind over matter aspect is very powerful and you will certainly benefit from this concept. Tell yourself that whatever happens, it is NOT GOING TO AFFECT YOU!

You should also use this time to find out what works and what doesn’t in these conditions.

As an example – If you are serving or hitting into the wind, you can afford to hit the ball a lot harder, whereas if you are serving with the wind – why not try standing back 2 – 3 feet behind the baseline, there is no rule that says you have to be just behind the line. Experiment and learn.

I have just returned from Bisham Abbey where the BTCA annual conference was held, with coaches from every corner of the British Isles.

A friend of mine – Joe Dinoffer – came over from the states as keynote speaker – there were some excellent presentations.

I spoke to a number of coaches who were looking to set up their own coaching facility and as a result I have put together some information in this regard.

The link is shown below:

Enjoy your winter tennis.

Like a good real surfing site: 'Space-Surf.net'

New this month

As mentioned in my comments above, the following link will take you to
the website about setting up 'Your Own Tennis Facility'

Great Value shoes.

TS 300 grip tennis shoes - ideal for using in any situation - casual wear -
walking etc., Ladies and Mens.

Only Ł6.95 plus postage

Until next time

Coach John.

In This Month Issue:

Item 1.         Tip of the month plus an extra tip

Item 2.         Drill of the month - For squads            )
                     Drill of the month -   For individuals    )     These are all extracted
                                                                                         )     from my drill book
Item 3.          Fun Game of the month                         )     on sale at the website.

Item 4.         Play Better Doubles

Bonus Drills:

As a bonus for subscribing to our newsletter, you can download 100 drills.
These cover every aspect of improving your tennis; some are for more than
two players but can be adapted to suit your needs.

Where a 'pro' is mentioned, substitute 'your partner'.

100 DRILL BONUS DOWNLOAD

New! - New! - New!

Tip of the Month.

                                  December Tip of the month.

*****************************************

MONTHLY TIP - Different surface, different game!

Lets imagine the following scenario (based on a true situation)

You are having a practice match with a player who is on the European satellite circuit. In the morning you played on a hard court, and won 6-2, 6-3. After the match he suggested you have some lunch and then play again on a clay court. You thought to yourself, "No problem, let's do it!"

After lunch you went over to the clay courts, warmed up our strokes, adjusted to the different surface and off you went. You thought the match would be a little tougher but would still take him in straight sets. You had just finished beating him pretty handily hours earlier, so the match should be no problem. You were right! You finished in straight sets 6-0, 6-1. The only problem . . . he was the winner!

What went wrong? You had adjusted your timing and rhythm for the slower clay courts but forgot to adjust your strategy! You continued to attempt to hit winners just as you did on the faster hard court earlier. This time it did NOT work. The ball just kept coming back and kept coming back and kept coming back and kept coming back. Do you get the idea? :) Your mind was still trying to beat him the way you did on the hard surface, the result being many unforced errors. You should have known better, but you were still young and learning.

Now, many of you may not have the opportunity to change court surfaces from morning to afternoon. But often you may play on different hard court surfaces than you are accustomed to. Did you know that all hard courts do not play at the same speed? Some hard courts grab the ball and slow it down while other courts may be a little slicker and produce a faster pace bounce. Be aware of this as you begin warming up. Make sure you adjust to that court surface. If it's a slower court then remember to adjust your strategy accordingly. Do not make the mistake I made in going for too much too soon on a slower court. This does not mean you cannot hit winners. But the slower the court, the more patient you must become while you wait for that golden opportunity to strut your stuff!

MORAL OF THE STORY

On a different court surface you should not only adjust your timing and rhythm but also your strategy!

Another tip for this month.

Club Players – Overcome your weaknesses!

Backhand

Often inconsistent – get plenty of practice, we all tend to shy clear of practicing a stroke we are not good at, whereas you need to practice more.
You lack placement – Do a lot of your practices with targets
Lack spin & control – these often go together, don’t be afraid of experimenting when you have the opportunity.

Forehand

Probably your best shot – and often hit too hard – take the pace off until you have grooved your stroke, then gradually increase the power
Lacks placement – practice with targets – get a colleague to feed you difficult balls to put you under pressure, and then work on your placement.
Lack spin and control – as under backhand, you need to work a lot on this area.

Serve

First serve hit too hard – Don’t fall into the trap of trying to go for everything in your first serve, at least not until you have honed your serve at the beginning of the game – and then crank up the power gradually.
Too inconsistent – A great way to improve your consistency is to imagine there are windows above the net, practice serving through these windows – note where they are in relation to the areas of the service box and then use this in the game situation.
Poor second serve – the only real solution is to learn and play a top spin serve. It gives you a greater margin for error, will invariably land in the box and kicks up making it difficult for your opponent.

Volley

Hit too hard and inconsistently – this is the easiest of strokes – don’t do too much, to start with take it easy and just put your racquet in front of the ball – let the pace from your opponent, do all the work, you will be surprised.

Return of Serve

Why is it that everyone ignores practicing the return of serve. The average number of strokes in all levels of tennis is 3 hits, Serve/return/put away

The serve and return between them make up 78% of the strokes, the other 22% is all of the third shots and these might be volley, overhead, forehand. Backhand etc etc.

So practice the return as much as the serve, it is not ‘just a groundstroke’

Drill of the month - for squads

Serious Drill: GAME SITUATION

Depth – accuracy – change direction.

Players divided into two at both ends of
the court.

Coach feeds to first player who does a
running forehand crosscourt to target.

Player other end runs across and hits
down the line to target.

Players change ends.

Drill of the month - for individuals

Serious Drill - APPROACH & VOLLEY

Base line player feeds deep ball
and follows it to the net, does a
split spring, plays an approach shot
and goes in for a volley then plays
out the point.

Then the other player does the same.
First to 5 - 7 - 9 points wins..

Alternative.
Feed the ball from different positions,
i.e. crosscourt, or so that you get either
a forehand or backhand approach shot.
Get your partner to feed the ball with
different spins - make them more difficult etc.

Fun Game of the month

Fun Game - WIPEOUT

Two equal teams coach places them
in the best positions. Coach feeds
the ball and players rally as in normal
tennis, ball can only bounce once.

The player who makes a mistake must
leave the court and stand at the side,
then if the other team makes a mistake,
that player comes off and the other team
get one of their off players back on in the
order they left.

When there is only one player left on one
side, the team must beat them to win the
game.

Playing Successful Doubles.

POACHING IN DOUBLES.

This month we look further at the 'I' & Australian formations.

The ‘I’ formation.

The ‘I’ formation gets it’s name from the positioning of the server and their partner, they align themselves in a virtually straight line down the middle of the court (as we have seen from the previous paragraphs).

In doing so, the players can choose to move either way depending on their pre-arranged decision. They would probably decide to re access their strategy, should the first serve be a fault and if they have already shown their hand to the opponents.

However, when the serve is struck, a good players first move would be straight down the court, prior to their movement across the court, either way.

In the I formation the net player can decide to go down on one knee fairly close to the net, or to crouch down a little further back. Both position are O.K. and will depend on the players own choice.

The I formation will create doubt in the mind of the opponents, they know the net player will move, but do not know which way they will go.

Where they actually move to, will depend on the position of the serve, and this can be ascertained from the previous diagrams and instruction on poaching generally. Where many players go wrong is that they tend to move too far.

Scenario one – the net player moves to their normal side.

In this situation the server covers the crosscourt returns and volleys on their side.

The server’s partner, moves to their usual position at the net, on the sound of the serve, remembering to go slightly to the left for a wide serve and right for a T serve.

Scenario two – the net player moves to the poaching side.

The server changes sides and takes care of the return down the line.

The server’s partner will initially stay in the middle on the middle line for the wide serve but moves slightly to the right for the T serve.

It is a good idea to practice the positioning of the server’s partner in the various situations of the wide and T serve, so that they become familiar as to where they initially move. Always practise moving forward initially to disguise the intended movement as there is no need to rush.

There are three main reasons for adopting the ‘I’ formation:

1/. To put pressure on the opponents, they do not know where the net player will be going.

2/. To force the opponent to return down the line, when they are in difficulty from the opponent’s good crosscourt returns.

3/. To stop the pressure on the server’s first volley because of the movement of the receiver’s partner moving to the net.

By getting the receiver to hit down the line, the serve has less problem on their next hit as it is away from the opponent’s net player.

See the diagram that shows the server’s partners position going to the net. The solid line indicates the movement from the I position, when not poaching.(To P1 & P2). The broken line is when the player is poaching(To P3 & P4).

In using the I formation, the net player should poach about 70% of the time, this is enough to make the opponent uncertain as to their moves.

The Australian formation.

In the Australian formation, the server and their partner start on the same side of the court and is more usually used on the advantage side.

There are three main reasons for using the Australian formation.

1/. When one of the opponents is left handed and has a good forehand drive crosscourt, this enables the server’s partner to easily cut off this return, and also disrupts the opponent as they try to return down the line.

2/. To reduce the opponents effectiveness in the crosscourt backhand return.

3/. It can also be used to effect when the server prefers to hit a forehand from the baseline.

The Australian formation is not used so much now by the professionals as the I formation is more effective and allows greater variety. However, at club level the

Australian formation can still be very effective, as they do not have to disguise their poaching,

One important point to make – Whilst we have only basically dealt with the server and server’s partner, on the question of poaching, the same rules apply to the receiver and their partner. When the ball is at the other end of the court, the players should be moving to achieve the best possible position, in order to take control of the game.

The time to be moving to achieve a better position is when the ball is in the air travelling to one end or the other. If your partner has done a split spring to get to the ball, you should have done a split spring and moved to the best position.

A poaching questionnaire is given separately in the archives and this would help your poaching ability.

This article completes the Successful Doubles booklet, and this can be downloaded complete from the archives in pdf form. We will look at some drills to help improve your doubles in future newsletters.

Featured at our 'Tennis At The Net Website:

Advanced Tennis - A must for all budding tennis stars Become A Better Player
Wardlaw Directionals - Learn when it is the best time to change direction.
DynaBand fitness training
Flexibility Stretching - The latest facts
Fitness Facts - including ladder drills
Fancy a great tennis holiday - Any time of the year!
WindMillHill Place their number is 08700 339997
The unwritten rules of tennis plus an explanation of many rules of which the player
is often not certain.

                                               BOOKS
You can now buy all of your tennis books, plus books on other:
              Sports - Activities - Coaching - Etc.
You will purchase at exactly the same prices as if you went direct.

Just follow the links below:

Click here to go to website & and on click on books.

Books published by the newsletter author:

Teach Yourself Tennis - All you need to know to start playing tennis.

Drill Book - Over 250 Drills & Games for Senior & Junior Squads.

Rotations - Features all of the permutations for tournaments -
                    Singles
                    Mens and Ladies Doubles - with same partner or changing partners.
                    Mixed Doubles - with same or changing partners.

Buy your tennis requirements -
                    Tennis Racquets
                    Tennis Balls (transtition & regular) competitive prices.
                    Tennis Shoes
                    Mini Tennis Nets - Ł25.00 Also great for beach or garden.
                    DynaBands - Fitness training bands - as used by L.T.A. students.

Links to other tennis sites.

ADVICE TO HELP YOU IMPROVE YOUR TENNIS CLUB.
Click for Lots of Ideas

Well that's all for this month - Enjoy your tennis - Think & Act positively to play
your best tennis. ''Practice does not make perfect - practise makes permanent''.

Coach John