Emotional Farewell to Melanie McClure

2009-05-28T18:44:00.000-07:00

My wife recently received one of the nicest tributes I've seen.

She is currently a Principal at an Elementary School, however, she's been activated and will be going to Iraq. Friday is her last day.

I love her, will miss her and I'm very proud of her.

Full Text Edition 1- 10/05/05

2008-05-21T05:55:00.000-07:00

Footwork Patterns
Baseline Recovery Step

This week we’re going to talk about the baseline recovery step. While developing our games as junior players we all did a lot of push-ups for using the cross-over step when recovering from a wide ball. Ancient wisdom said that we were doing it wrong. Feel vindicated or don’t. It’s too late now, but all those push-ups were for nothing, because in the “modern” game the players are taught to make a strong cross over recovery step when forced wide. They just have to make sure that they are squared up, more or less facing their opponent by the time the opponent strikes the ball. Even better, players today are trying to avoid the cross -over step all together. By using the open stance and turning into the ball the feet will shift from their original positions facing toward the right to both feet “flipping” and facing the direction of recovery for an instant push-off toward the center of the court.
Next week, Shuffle/Step/Adjustment Step

Play Patterns
Cross Court

We’ll start with the most basic play pattern: hitting cross-court. I find that many of my students still don’t know why they have been told to hit cross-court.

So let’s review the main 3 reasons:

The net is up to 6” lower in the center that on the sides (depending upon whether singles sticks are in place).

It is a significantly longer distance from corner to corner on the angle than it is up the line. Remember a2 + b2 = c2 ? Well, the “c” is the long side of the triangle and it is represented by the cross-court direction on the court. Now, number 1 & 2 represent high percentage choices. You simply have a better chance of making your shot cross-court because the net is lower and the court longer.

And in my opinion, the most important reason has to do with court position. After you hit the ball cross-court, you body is positioned much closer to correct court position. Since you will need to return to the center of the opponents angles (not the center of the court), a cross-court shot will allow you to run a shorter distance to that correct court position. Hitting down-the-line mandates that you travel all the way to the other side of the center hash mark, hopefully by the time your opponent strikes the ball.

You better have a good reason for going down-the-line! Go cross-court until there is an obvious opportunity or a positioning error by your opponent. Work your opponent out of position before attempting the down-the-line.

Next week, More Detail on Baseline Positioning

Mental Patterns
Goal Setting – Outcome vs. Performance

Outcome goals versus performance goals.
I’d like to cover this subject not because it is revolutionary, but because I think it is so very important, especially for our junior players.

The “choking” factor is affected by many mental patterns. However, one way to establish the importance of the long term development of the player is by establishing productive goals.

An outcome goal is establishing an expectation such as winning the match, getting ranked in the top 5 in my section or not loosing a match this season on my school team. Outcome goals distract players and put undue pressure on the player during the match. Outcome goals are generally considered to be useful to establish some long-term dreams and aspirations, but not to rule the moment. When we break down the long-term goal to shorter-term goals and finally to immediate goals we’ll shift strongly toward performance goals.

Performance goals are established to give the player a focus on the immediate match and objectives set up by the player and his coach. For instance, if Johnny and I know that he needs to be more patient in his matches, we might set a performance goal to not hit consciously go for a winner for the first three hits during the point. Perhaps he is working on attacking the net from approach shots. We might set a performance goal of attacking the net at least twice every game.

Performance goals allow the player to concentrate on their objectives and not have the obligation and fear associated with outcome goals over which the player may have no control.

Tennis Industry News/Discussion
Players

Donald Young. Name on the cover of Tennis Magazine again. Can we not leave Donald to develop his game without all of the early pressures associated with this much press? Roger Federer took what, 4 years after winning the Junior Opens to become what he is today. Let’s keep our eye on Donald without pressuring him to be the next great hope. There may be other players developing later and just starting to come into their own.

String Tension Dilemma
Tighter Strings - More Power?

At the club, we get the request to
“string the racquet tighter than last time because I want more power.”
It’s almost a downer to have to explain that when we string the racquet tighter there will actually be less power from the strings. When the racquet strings are tight, they will not have as much give and hence will have less rebound or trampoline effect on the ball. The racquet will feel more solid and the ball will make a real “pop” when you hit it, but it won’t go as far.

Top players string their racquets tighter because they need the control.
After all, the ball is being hit at them at high velocity. Since they have great contact with the ball and often highly accelerated racquet heads, they can generate the power without loose strings.

So without going into all of the aspects of how to balance the type of racquet and the type and tension of the strings with the style of the player, let’s agree that tighter strings won’t give you more power.

Wrap-up
Thanks for listening!

That’s it for this edition of The Tennis Podcast. I look forward to bringing you more great tips and news next time. If you’d like to see the text and images associated with this podcast, please go to http://www.thetennispodcast.com/. I’ll also post additional information there that I may not use in the podcast. If you prefer to read the articles and have the associated images, you may also subscribe to my free email newsletter as well.

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2008-04-11T12:06:00.000-07:00

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The Tennis Podcast: Instruction

Emotional Farewell to Melanie McClure

Full Text Edition 1- 10/05/05

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