tossing arm

scott — Wed, 10 Mar 2010 04:03:57 +0000

all 5 elements
1. ours — elbow inside
2. borg’s — watch band inside
3. pete’s thumb inside your hand
4. ours- make a inclined 4 with your hand
5. ours– bicep to check line

tossing arm

scott — Mon, 08 Mar 2010 13:31:09 +0000

when the tossing arm comes down it is critical that it softly collapses onto the body -creating a hug effect– this keeps you in a thin line so your whole body can rotate in one motion– if the tossing arm pulls away it pulls your rotation though in segments and greatly effects your body balance

toes together

scott — Sun, 07 Mar 2010 22:47:13 +0000

one of the ways we teach knee bending is to bring your feet and toes together before you bend– it is critical that the toes are together making a thin body line– if the back foot rotates ahead of the front foot you will lose much power– in many cases this is caused by chasing your toss– the body is to create a target for the toss– not have the body chase the toss– Venus has this problem– her back foot is all over the place

Land Running 2

dean — Sat, 06 Mar 2010 18:08:41 +0000

[See post to watch QuickTime movie]

We see a lot of players trying to serve & volley as they play more and more doubles. Usually the mistakes produced on serve fall into two categories : 1 - they start running into the court before their service motion is fully completed, or 2 - they serve and watch where their serve lands, and then start running in to net.

No 1 will mess up your serve, and No 2 will have you scooping low returns off the court because you didn’t get near the service line.

The solution is to serve like you are going to stay back UNTIL you land - you must land running.

PS. Also see the healthy distance between Ram’s front foot and the baseline. I doubt if he ever foot faults. At the club level, the players who make a big deal about getting their front foot right up close to the line tend to foot fault under pressure.

front foot

scott — Sat, 06 Mar 2010 15:52:09 +0000

the key to rotation is to open the front hip to allow the back hip to come through– the key to the front hip is to get the lead foot out of the way on a closed stanced– the key to this is to point the front foot more toward the net

high hand high head

scott — Sat, 06 Mar 2010 02:06:55 +0000

on the backhand volley we want your hand and racquet up– if you must go down for a low shot you must bring your hand and racquet head up to over the net– bonus–watch the non hitting hand hold the racquet up during preparation

go up to the serve

scott — Fri, 05 Mar 2010 04:23:17 +0000

on the serve we want you as big as possible– the key is that the toss must to high enough to give you a reason to go up to the ball– watch Pete extend

if you don’t think tennis is critical

scott — Thu, 04 Mar 2010 05:47:46 +0000

from a new book on elliot spitzer former governor of n.y.
Mr. Constantine offers one diagnosis for Mr. Spitzer’s tempestuous behavior that perhaps only a wealthy Manhattanite could suggest: acute lack of tennis. Mr. Spitzer dropped his weekly game with Mr. Constantine in 2006, worried that a tender hamstring would cause him to hobble on the campaign trail. That “deprived Eliot of an important physical release,” Mr. Constantine writes.

land running

scott — Thu, 04 Mar 2010 00:37:51 +0000

if you are going to try and serve and volley you must land running– watch Pete– he was the best at this

Netplayer Response Time

scott — Wed, 03 Mar 2010 04:04:43 +0000

[See post to watch QuickTime movie]

When the returner rips a shot at the netperson, they have very little time to judge if the ball is going to be in or out. As seen in the video, one big element is judging the ball is whether it is climbing or dropping. When the ball passes Becker at the net, it is still rising - a good indication of an out ball.