It ain't yer lousy backhand!

To finish with the theme I began earlier this week ...

If you are a keen observer of human group dynamics, you have noticed that people deal with problems by cheating = laying the blame on some scapegoat, the usual suspect. Individually, we tend to do the same thing. So, when a tennis player comes off the court unhappy, he blames it on his backhand.

These are unpleasant emotions, so many try to distance themselves from them, pretending they don't have them. Because it's a sin to want to win, you know.

So, just laugh and say that you just play for fun and go get another lesson to fix your lousy backhand.

Or buy a gadget to fix it. Or view films. Or buy a book. Whatever, but three decades later, you're still blaming everything on your lousy backhand.

Now of course the backhand is just the usual suspect. It could be a player's forehand instead, or serve, or overhead, or volley. But always it's some stroke or aspect of form.

"Poor form" is viewed almost as some sort of sin we are punished for in tennis. That's why it makes the perfect scapegoat.

Yet often that weak stroke we scapegoat for everything isn't half as bad as we think it is.

Often, the main problem is just that we don't practice it enough. For example, many players don't hit overheads and volleys every time they play. Hey, if they hit as few forehands as they do overheads, they'd have lousy forehands too.

Worse, when you scapegoat a stroke for everything, you warp your judgment: you think it's terrible when it isn't. Hence, when the ball comes to your backhand you choke. In other words, your warped judgment becomes a self-fulfilling prophesy.

So, let's take a step back to where this downward spiral started – where you walk off the court unhappy.

Instead of denying and distancing yourself from your feelings, examine them. Find out exactly how you feel and what is making you feel that way. Doing so will point you in the right direction to find a solution to your problem.

Finding a scapegoat to blame for a problem is never finding a solution to it.

You may discover that the main problem has nothing to do with your strokes or footwork. It may be a little gamesmanship, psychological warfare going on. If you play doubles, you may realize that there is some inappropriate competition going on = competition between you and your partner. To identify such problems is to take the first step in solving them.

Often, you won't be able to put your finger on why you are playing badly and losing matches you feel you should win. The next logical step is to collect information by keeping track of things, like what percentage of first serves you miss, how many volleys you blow, how frequently you hit down-the-line, and so forth.

Doing this almost always solves some of your problems automatically, because if you are paying closer attention to these things during a match, you are more aware of what's going on. As Tim Gallwey says in his Inner Tennis books, awareness, awareness, awareness is everything.

So, be brave: look at your errors. Don't avert your eyes: see how far out that ball was. Don't try to forget that double-fault happened.

What?!?!

Yes. It won't hurt you. So long as you don't view your errors as sins. They are simple matters of fact. Treat them as such and you won't be afraid to face and correct for them.

When you habitually dump all the blame for everything on your lousy backhand, you blind yourself to your real problems. Your main problem could be stupid approach shots. In doubles, it could be that your opponents are playing the Switch Trick on you. It could be that this particular opponent knows just how to spin every third shot so as to suck an error out of you. But you are oblivious to what's really going on, because you have it all always blamed on your lousy backhand.

The game? What game? You aren't into the game. You are stuck on form. You think tennis is about how you swing the racket. To you a match is nothing but an exercise in executing forehands and backhands. You aren't really PLAYING the GAME.

And so what if your backhand is partly to blame? Okay, it's a weakness in your game. A vulnerability. A chink in your armor. What can you do about it?

Just go get another lesson?

Oh, I see. Pay me $60 an hour to make your lousy backhand my problem.

That won't work.

You must attack this problem from two sides. Do first what brings the quickest results.

First find strategic and tactical solutions. You know, like run around your dang backhand! But that's oversimplifying, because there are many things you can do to cover for a weakness in your game. Often you'll find that it's attacked primarily in a certain play situation, one you can avoid if you are paying attention to when and how your backhand is getting attacked.

These strategic and tactical solutions bring immediate results. They can make you win tomorrow the same match you lost today.

Then you can start attacking the problem with the long-term solution of improving your backhand. But you don't do that by just throwing money at it for a gadget or a lesson. You can't make it a pro's problem. A good pro can help you, but she can't practice for you.

Aye, there's the rub. You have to practice what you learn in lessons.

So, don't obsess over form. Play the whole game. Get the most from the game you have with cunning strategy and tactics. That's the fun part, anyway. And be patient with yourself when you're trying to improve a stroke: it takes weeks of practice.

Technorati Tags: tennis tennis instruction

Tennis Instruction: The Volley

Here is a tennis lesson on how to volley that includes three instructional videos to help you learn visually. Learn what grip to use, where to position, and what guidelines your stroke's form should fall within. Get tips that will help you avoid common problems with the volley.

Technorati Tags: tennis tennis instruction

Wimbledom Day 5: Laura Granville Upsets Martina Hingis

Surprise! Via On the Baseline:

With all the focus on Venus and Serena, fans in the United States might have missed another American player sneaking through the draw at Wimbledon.

That is until she took out Martina Hingis today in straight sets.

Hingis, who won the title at the Championships in 1997, went down in two sets 6-4, 6-2 to Laura Granville in the third round.

Off all the Americans residing toward the bottom of the top 100, Laura Granville was one of the last ones anyone expected to make waves at Wimbledon.

Read the rest.

Technorati Tags: tennis

Federer - Safin Preview

While you're waiting for the outcome of the Federer Safin match, you can read this preview, Like a Kid in a Candy Store, at Craig Hickman's Tennis Blog.

I'm a Safin fan, ever since the moment I first saw him play. Besides, who else could do this to ya?

You know the story of the hippo? The hippo comes to the monkey and said, "Listen, I'm not a hippo." So, he paint himself like a zebra. He said but he's still a hippo. He said, "But look at you. You're painted like a zebra, but you are a hippo." So then he goes, you know, like "I want be a little parrot." So, he put the colours on him and he comes to the monkey and said, "But, sorry, you are a hippo." So, in the end, you know, he comes and said, "I'm happy to be a hippo. This is who I am. So, I have to be who I am," and he's happy being a hippo.

Only the one and only Marat Safin. (Sigh.)

Check out the great photos from Day 4, too.

Technorati Tags: tennis

Wimbledon Day 5 Live

Janko Tipsarevic, Tommy Haas, and Paul-Marie Mathieu all won their third round matches at Wimbledon today.

James Blake just lost to Juan Ferrero 6-3, 3-6, 3-6, 6-7. And Roger Federer has just taken Centre Court with Marat Safin.

Serena Williams just won her third round match roundly 6-1, 6-0. Justine Henin, Jelena Jankovic, Michaella Krajicek, Patty Schnyder, and Marion Bartoli also won their third round matches.

Martina Hingis is still out there against Laura Granville, losing 4-6, 2-3, deuce.

The women's doubles got underway yesterday, and the first round of the men's doubles and the mixed doubles got underway today.

Technorati Tags: tennis

Golf has the Same Disease as Tennis

Chuck Evans writes in WorldGolf.com:

Currently there is a lot of publicity about a "new" golf swing of the future. This swing is being touted as the "fix-all" for every golfer.

Golfers will buy into anything that they think may improve their game no matter how ludicris it may be. We are all looking to play better golf, hit more consistent shots, make more putts, and the search for this elusive "Holy Grail" will never end.

As a survivor of a terminal case of technique obsession, I can say that there is more to this trivial pursuit of perfect form than those infected with this disease will admit.

It isn't born of a desire to make more shots. It's born of a desire to make more impressive shots. It's about looking good out there.

Admit it: you want people to say, "Oooh, look what a pretty forehand she has!"

Because, in this world where appearances/perceptions are all that count, form has become an end in itself, rather than but a means to an end.

Which is why players obsessed with form hate pushers. Pushers are a dose of Reality Therapy. They don't play the Vanity Game. They play THE game, the game of tennis, and they play it straight - to the score. Players obsessed with form think that's unfair.

Well, it is, but that ain't the pusher's fault. The player obsessed with form is the one putting himself at a disadvantage.

This is why shot selection is often lousy. Hey, if a dink is what's called for, just dink. But those obsessed with form compulsively choose a better looking shot instead and often pay the price for folly.

I was amused to read that Evans approached IBM and MIT with an idea to create a human robot-making machine. It would send electrical stimuli through electrodes targeting each muscle so that a software program could take over your body and MAKE it swing the right way.

Can you imagine that? Just going along for the ride while a machine moves your body through the motions of a perfect Roger Federer forehand? Rather like a controlled epileptic seizure moving the parts of your body around. Cool, eh?

What fun, right?

The experts at IBM and MIT assured him that computer science is nowhere near the technology it would take to execute the human body in a golf swing.

Why? Because there are more than 600 muscles in the body, which would each have to get their own special set of timed and coordinated signals at a rate of hundreds or thousands per second. This means that there are many thousands of commands sent to each muscle (e.g., the triceps) and its opposer (in this case the biceps) adjusting its degree of contraction or relaxation constantly throughout the swing. And these commands must all be in sync with all the other myriad commands going to the other muscles.

I'm sorry, but it will be a long time before we have computers that even come close the unconscious coordinating center of the human brain (the cerebellum) at issuing the myriad timed and coordinated muscle commands that move us.

Yes, we have robots, but that's why robots move like robots.

Hey, but wouldn't it be cool to teach toddlers how to walk this way? Why stop there? Why not have our human robot-making machine control their mouth muscles to teach them how to talk this way?

I hope that was a bridge too far for you.

The very idea that we could someday learn any physical action this way, let alone one as complex as a tennis or golf stroke, exposes a fundamental flaw in the underlying principles of tennis and golf instruction. We DON'T learn how to do physical things that way.

The first time you pick up a tennis racket and go to hit a forehand, you form the intent to hit your forehand by imagining yourself hitting one. (You have watched others hit forehands, and you want to imitate what they do.) The IMAGE in that split-second of imagining throws the unconscious coordinating centers of your brain into action. You have never hit a forehand before, so it throws together all it has learned so far about how to turn, how to step, and how to swing at something...and throws together the rough draft of a PROGRAM for executing a forehand.

Then it notes the results and goes into debug mode. The more forehands you see and hit, the more information it gathers about hitting a forehand and the more your forehand program gets debugged and polished.

This process explains why children start out so uncoordinated that they can hardly hit their mouth with a glass but a few years later are running and jumping on a playground with excellent coordination.

These unconscious centers of the brain that learn physical things don't understand verbal instructions. So, you can't teach children to walk by telling them to remember to pronate when they take a step.

In fact, when you consciously try to force your movement into a certain pattern by thinking of verbal instructions while you hit, you just interfere and bollix up the natural process. You are also concentrating on what you're thinking instead of on what you're seeing, hearing, and feeling. So you actually slow down the learning process.

Everyone has had this happen. For example, let's say you consciously try to move your point of contact out farther in front of you. The harder you try to do that, the more impossible it becomes. The next thing you know, your whole swing has gone south on you and your point of contact is farther back than it was before!

So, quit it already. Shut your mind up. It's a distraction that destroys your feel. By trying to force your form to fit a preconceived mold, you are fouling up the brain's program of commands. For every good habit you may be forming, you are forming three bad habits at the same time. It will take you weeks or months to learn what you could have learned in a day or two by experimenting and discovering by FEEL.

Our ability to learn by thinking on verbal instructions is very limited and usually works best when the instruction is just a tip. For example, to teach a beginner to follow-through on a forehand groundstroke, you ask him to catch the racket in his left hand over his left shoulder. You give him just that one thing to think about for a few minutes, so his brain discovers that following-through is a good idea. Then you get him back to not thinking about form.

Unfortunately, most tennis players have a habit of thinking about form constantly. No wonder there's no room in their thoughts for smart strategy and tactics.

And the unconscious coordinating centers of the brain won't learn from any human robot-making machine either.

Why? Because that motherboard in your skull is programmed by software that learns. The learning is in the memory. And no, memory isn't in your muscles: it's in your brain. The memory is in the synapses between brain cells. The connections must actually change and ramify. You know, gray matter. The chemical transmitters stored at these connections must change and increase to the proper level for transmission to occur at the low threshold that allows spontaneity.

The human robot-making machine would not cause any such changes in the brain. In other words, it doesn't program the brain. It just comes between the brain and the body to execute the muscles for the brain.

That doesn't teach you a thing. Unhook all the electrodes and that "perfect swing" is gone.

At best, you might gain the perception of how a proper stroke should feel, but even that isn't guaranteed. I don't think anyone knows for sure how your kinesthetic perceptions would be affected by remote control of your body.

Consider how similarly we all walk. No one gave us any verbal instructions. No one gives a whit about his or her walking form. We all just discovered the best way to do it on our own. No two of us have the same walk, but everyone's walk falls within the parameters for guidelines of efficient and balanced walking.

I guarantee that if people were taught how to walk the way they're taught how to play tennis and golf, we'd have people stumbling clumsily all over creation.

Besides, the quest for the Holy Grail of "perfect form" is a wild goose chase. It makes form an end in itself, instead of a means to an end. It's an obsession with the pure mechanics of tennis, oblivious to the art of playing GAME of tennis. Which is where the fun is.

Technorati Tags: tennis tennis instruction

The Tennis Game

Where do tennis players get the idea that the key to tennis happiness is perfecting their strokes? What makes them obsessed with form to the point that they miss out on the game itself?

A large part of the reason is the tennis industry. It makes the lion's share of its profits on your strokes. They all have something to sell you to "fix" them.

Even private lessons are geared more toward improving your strokes than teaching you how to win the game. Bits and pieces of advice on the latter are usually just footnotes to instruction.

There is nothing wrong with this, but the consumer must consider the source of advertising and goods and services and see beyond them.

Tennis isn't about swinging a racket: it's about playing the game. In fact, that's where the fun is.

You can win with pretty strokes or ugly ones. Because the final score is what counts.

Read more....

Technorati Tags: tennis tennis instruction

Why do tennis players let their opponent into a match?

In her second round match today against Vera Dushevina, Justine Henin rolled to 6-0, 3-1 ... and then let Dushevina into the match!

That isn't like Henin.

So, what does this mean? What can we learn from it?

The first thing to learn is that anyone can have a letdown. It's a HUMAN thing, not some moral failing in "weak" and "loser-type" people.

This is why letdowns happen.

First, notice WHEN they happen. They happen when pressure has been relieved. Most commonly letdowns happen at the beginning of a new set. The pressure of the final game of the previous set has been relieved.

This happens because pressure cranks up our nervous system into a state of hyperactivity and hypervigilance. A myriad of changes throughout the body occur. They include changes in our emotional state as well as our physical state. For example, digestion stops, and muscles get extra blood supply diverted from the gut. Adrenaline flows. Remarkable changes like this occur throughout the body.

In effect, the body and mind are operating in Emergency Mode now. Altogether the phenomenon is often called the "fight or flight" response. It is Nature's way of making an animal fit to deal with a life-threatening emergency.

Great. But if Emergency Mode persists as a permanent state, it does great damage to the body. Then you get stress related illnesses.

To prevent this, the nervous system has built in reflexes to dampen the fight or flight response the moment psychological pressure is relieved.

We can't help this. It's a reflex. It's automatic. It's for our own good. But it is a problem in a tennis match. You need to keep that intensity, that state of arousal, going till the match is over. That is very hard to do.

Especially when you are winning so easily as Justine. She has been sailing through her matches like a breeze and was doing so again today, against an opponent choking on top of it all. Who wouldn't have a letdown at 6-0, 3-1 under those conditions?

This doesn't mean you need to suffer the ill effects of letdowns on your play. There are things you can do to minimize them.

First, know when they are going to happen. At the beginning of every new game and every new set. Especially if you're ahead or have won the last one. They will happen when your opponent is beating herself for you, when everything you try works.

Learn to know when you are going to experience a letdown, and do things to combat it.

Often, your opponent will be having one at the same time, such as at the beginning of a new game or set. Capitalize on that. Points are cheap during letdowns. That's the time to get ahead.

If you have a letdown at the beginning of a game, before you know it, you have squandered two cheap points and are down 0-30. Now you have very little chance of winning that game. So start every new game firing yourself up, telling yourself not to go down 0-30, but to get up 30-0, while the points are cheap, before your opponent is really serious about the game.

You can't get too fired up about a set that's just beginning, so set a short term goal of getting up 2 games to none in the new set. Really fight to accomplish that goal.

Don't change your strategy for a second, but do tweak your tactics. Use percentage tactics to reduce your likelihood of error during a letdown. Because you WILL make more unforced errors during a letdown.

What happened today is that the crowd felt sorry for Vera and tried to encourage her by applauding her winners.

Well, eventually she strung together a few in a row, won a couple games, and started to become confident, playing much better.

Justine Henin wasn't right there to bar the door and close out the match. She let Vera into it.

Like I said, that isn't typical of Justine Henin. So, it goes to show that anyone can have a letdown and let an opponent into the match.

Henin still handled the situation better than many players, however. She didn't panic when she saw her opponent breathing down her neck.

The last few games were closely contested, but Justine still won the match and in straight sets. Didn't even need a tiebreaker. 6-4.

That's another lesson: no need to panic if your opponent comes roaring back. Don't get mad at yourself. Give THEM credit for rising to the occasion and making you have to beat them to win. Then, just do.


P.S.
Not that Henin shows the same common sense and wisdom in every department. She just can't keep her mouth shut about some things she thinks she should show off.

I’m not a great fan of England but everyone’s really nice here. In Paris, the public tens to warm to me a lot more and it’s like being at home.The US is the toughest. People seem to turn up to do anything except watch the actual tennis…

Woahhh! Poor England. Justine is not a great fan of England. My dear English friends, you have my deepest sympathy for failing to please Justine.

What's wrong with England? (Besides the lousy weather!) Oh, so Parisians are good just because they like French speaking Belgians? No matter how rude and even downright mean they are to players of other nationalities, right?

Clue: Cut the snooty Continental "we're-better-than-you" airs with their anti-Anglo/American geopolitics, and you might be liked more by the tennis fans in the countries you look down on.

You are not the fans' judge. They do not have to conform to your specifications. (New Yorkers get on our nerves too, you know.) What you think about England is irrelevant. Nobody cares to hear it.

You are the fans' servant. A perfomer they're paying to perform for them. Remember that.

And guess what, if you just stick to tennis, people won't be morally obliged to answer you in defense against your slur on their kind. Things are so much more pleasant that way.

Technorati Tags: tennis

Wimbledon Day 4: Ah! Summer in Merry Old England!

At lunchtime, rain delayed play for 40 minutes. Then at 4:45 PM, the rains began lightly falling and stopping, but never for long enough to let play resume, though the covers did come off the courts a couple of times. In addition to the dampness, the evening also brought a chill. Then, at 7:45 came a deluge.

Less than half the day's matches were completed.


Kate Battersby writes:

For domestic fans, the rain could not have arrived at a crueller moment. Just six minutes before the late afternoon showers began, home hero Tim Henman began his second round encounter against the Spaniard Feliciano Lopez on the Centre Court. Excitement was feverish after the Briton’s epic win over Carlos Moya in the preceding round, and today’s encounter had offered extra promise as Lopez is that rarest of things – a Spaniard who loves to play on grass. They got to one game all, 15-all, before the heavens opened. Exasperating for all concerned. The match will resume on Thursday.

Nonetheless, a few matches were completed. Serena Williams, Andy Roddick, Justin Henin, Jelena Jankovic, Richard Gasquet, Martina Hingis and Ana Ivanovic all managed to record victories before the rain stopped play.

Technorati Tags: tennis

Is Tennis Instruction Killing Your Game?

Tennis players think that their errors are the fault of their form. Every time they make an error, they think it was because of their swing or footwork or whatever. In other words, they think they did something wrong.

Wrong. Errors are caused by slight miscalculations by the brain in judging the ball's flight and timing and coordinating your stroke. Errors happen because, in playing tennis, we challenge the limits of what the human brain and body are capable of.

So, errors happen. Errors are part of the game. If there was such a thing as perfect form, and if you hit every shot with perfect form every time, you'd still make errors.

Because errors are not caused by your form.

They happen because the brain has to do a little estimating and guessing in its calculations, and sometimes it is going to be off far enough to result in an error.

So, if you are a perfectionist, try a different sport.

You can hit a great shot with atrocious form, and you can hit a lousy shot with beautiful form.

The sensible attitude is to aim only to minimize your frequency of error.

Now there some aspects of form can help. They can make the timing and coordination easier, thereby reducing the risk of miscalculation. They can reduce the effect of miscalculation, so that slight miscalculations don't adversely affect your shot enough to make it go out. They can eliminate things (like extraneous motion) that could go wrong.

But strategy and tactics can do at least as much in reducing your frequency of error.

Yet, what most tennis players know about strategy and tactics could be written on the back of a post card. Why? Because they are obsessed with FORM.

They think tennis is about how they swing the racket and move their feet. Wrong. Tennis is about the score.

But they are so stuck on form that even in the middle of a point they're thinking about their form.

Tennis ceases to be a game at that point. It becomes an exercise in hitting forehands and backhands the "right" way. Dull.

I know. When I was young, I used to be a perfectionist about form. After reading The Inner Game of Tennis I quit it. Guess what? I suddenly started to learn things I hadn't been able to learn before.

Like how to hit spin serves. It didn't take long at all - just a few weeks and I had all the spin serves. With no pro standing over me. I have an excellent forehand down-the-line approach shot, and I learned it in a single day. Same with the inside-out forehand.

How? By just learning these things the natural way. That is, instead of consciously trying to move my body a certain way, I just put the service toss where it should be and experimented, paying close attention to how each serve felt and how the ball reacted. I knew when I had it right. I could tell. Thus, me and my body DISCOVERED how to do it.

That's how we learn how to walk and talk, too.

Do you know anyone who is dissatisfied with the way he or she walks and wants to improve this skill? I hope not!

But how far would you have to go to find a tennis player satisfied with his or play? Tennis becomes a lifelong exercise in self improvement. An exercise in futility, trying to reach some nonexistent level of perfection. Anything less - well...just requires more self improvement.

The flip-side of that coin is that it's a lifelong state of dissatisfaction with yourself, a feeling that you SHOULD be doing better. Failure.

The glass is half empty, you see.

But it's half full. If today you get the idea that you can do something better, great. But the desire to improve should not be imposed on you by a sense of failure.

Tennis is a difficult sport. Every tennis shot that goes in is somewhat of a bloody miracle. Whoever you are, it's safe to say that you do very well for the time you've put in.

What's more, you should not be thinking about your form while you are trying to hit the ball. That kind of thinking is a distraction. It keeps you from being fully aware of what you're seeing, hearing, and feeling.

In practice, when you are trying to correct one specific thing about your form, you have to think about it while hitting. But don't make a habit of thinking about your form while hitting.

This means that you can think about one aspect of your form for a few minutes now and then but that the lion's share of your practice time and all of your match play time should be spent with your mind as quiet as possible while the ball's in play.

The only thinking you should be doing then is in the realm of strategy and tactics. And even that thinking won't be the conscious kind of thinking we do in words. It will be the instinctive, intuitive kind of thinking we use for the things we do "without thinking."

For example, let's say you come up to a child gate and want something sitting on a chair beyond it. In the blink of an eye, you formulate a picture in your mind of yourself bending and reaching over the gate to pick it up without losing your balance. Then you just do it.

Simple: picture yourself doing it and then just do it.

You don't consciously think of how much to bend your knees or which arm to reach with and what to do with other arm. If you did, you probably would lose your balance and fall over that gate.

We do many things this intuitive way. For example, most of what you do after you get into an automobile and turn the key is done intuitively. If another driver runs a stop sign on you, you don't think what to do. You just see what to do - whether to stomp on the gas or the brakes as you swerve - and then just do it, even before you're consciously aware of what's happening.

This kind of thinking happens in a different part of the brain than conscious thinking in words does. Thinking in words requires the processing of language, and that is very complex. And slow. And requires much brainpower that could better be used in judging the approaching tennis ball and coordinating your swing at it.

This is why you can't be thinking of verbal instructions while you're trying to play. If you do, you will make a lot of errors. A lot.

It doesn't matter if those instructions are no-brainers stated in easy-to-recall catch phrases. While the ball's coming, you have neither the time nor the spare brainpower to recall and process the language of verbal instructions. Trying to just hurts your judgement, coordination, and timing.

So, during match play. Don't think about your form. Get into the GAME. That's where the fun is. Thinking strategy and tactics between points is true positive thinking. As for while the ball's in play, so long as you don't think about your form and don't try to play by rote (by recalling verbal instructions), you'll do just fine.

Technorati Tags: tennis tennis instruction

Wimbledon Day 2: The Women

First round winners in the women's singles at Wimbledon today were: Amelie Mauresmo, Svetlana Kuznetsova, Maria Sharapova, Jelena Jankovic, Venus Williams, Katarina Srebotnik, Yvonne Meusburger, Bethanie Mattek, Eleni Daniilidou, Samantha Stosur, Sania Mirza, Agnes Szavay, Olga Govortsova, Tatiana Poutchek, Daniela Hantuchova, Alize Cornet, Michaella Krajicek, Anna Chakvetadze, Jarmila Gajdosova, Nadia Petrova, Elena Vesnina, Elena Likhovtseva, Milagros Sequera, Hana Sromova, Emilie Loit, Nika Ozegovic, Katie O'Brien, Ai Sugiyama, and Alona Bondarenko.

The defending Champion, Amelie Muresmo of France, said afterwards that she feels better playing here - as the defending champion on grass at Wimbledon - than she did in France.

I think it's more than the surface and the confidence that comes of winning the championship before. I think there's much less pressure on her when she's not carrying the dreams of the French fans for a French woman to win the French Open.

By the way, there are other French players, like Nicolas Mahut, who actually prefer the grass and like the serve-and-volley game.

Go figure: the red clay of Roland Garros is legendary, but it doesn't help the French players. It's made to order for the Spaniards though ;-)

Technorati Tags: tennis

Wimbledon Day 2: The Men

Mostly matches in the bottom half of the draw, and the matches delayed by yesterday's rain, are being held today at Wimbledon. Poor Mardy Fish drew Rafael Nadal in the first round.

The other victors: Chris Guccione, Kristof Vliegen, David Nalbandian, Frank Dancevic, Lleyton Hewitt, Simone Bolelli, Max Mirnyi, Guillermo Canas, Nicolas Kiefer, Fabrice Santoro, Amer Delic, Nova Djokovic, Tomas Berdych, Michael Llodra, Hyung-Taik Lee, Augustin Calleri, Jonas Bjorkman, Yeu-Tzoo Wang, Wayne Arthurs, Tommy Robredo, Michail Youzhny, Jarkko Nieminen, Robin Soderling, Sebastien Grosjean, and Werner Escauer.

A few matches are still out there: Top seed Nikolay Davydenko has his hands full with Evgeny Korolev, and Gael Monfils looks to be closing out his match with Thomas Johansson.

Oh, yes! And Tim Henman won! He did! He really did defeat Carlos Moya. Rain delay and all. Okay, so it was on grass, but get a load of the score: 6-3 1-6 5-7 6-2 13-11. After blowing match points.


Maybe there's some fight in the guy after all.

Technorati Tags: tennis

Wimbledon Day 1

They got more matches in today at Wimbledon. Since the last report Tomas Zib, Michael Berrer, Janko Tipsarevicz, Danai Udomchoke, David Ferrer, Paul-Henri Mathieu, Serena Williams, Alicia Molik, Patty Schnyder, Marion Bartoli, and Vera Dushevina have also advanced to the second round of the singles.

Richard Williams got attention by announcing that Serena has a pulled hamstring. Asked about it in the presser after her match, Serena said it was just a little tight but getting better.

Throw the dogs a bone!

But the press hounds weren't satisfied with it. So she had to reiterate that another 16 times in answer to the 17 times they questioned her about it.

Boy, when they reject an answer, they reject an answer. You'd better give them the kind they want, or they'll never stop.

How many things that we really would like to have learned, did they pay no attention to and NOT ask about in order to squabble over that bone instead? Trying 16 times to extort a different answer from her. One more exciting than the plain old truth?

Technorati Tags: tennis

Tennis for Baby Boomers

Are you a Baby Boomer who played tennis back in the Tennis Boom? Flirting with the idea of coming back to the sport?

Check out Learning Tennis for Baby Boomers at gallagher.com.

Share experience of a 52 year old guy (Mark Gallagher) as he learns the game, attempts to become a competitive 4.0 club player, have fun, and get some good exercise. I started playing tennis in 2003 at the age of 49.

Technorati Tags: tennis

Wimbledon Day 1: Live - Sort Of

Roger Federer, Tommy Haas, Andy Roddick, Florent Serra, Fernando Gonzalez, Allejandro Falla, Martina Hingis, Kaia Kanepi, Roberta Vinci, Aiko Nakamura, Laura Granville, Sybille Bammer, Shahar Peer, Lucie Safarova all won their first round singles matches today before play was suspended due to rain.


The suspended matches may get back on court yet this evening, but the delay will spill over into tomorrow's schedule.

OK, OK, Tim Henman is up 5-3 against Carlos Moya. But don't blame me then.

Technorati Tags: tennis

Wimbledon Day 1: Watering the Lawn

First round play begins at Wimbledon at noon today GMT (the crack o' dawn here). Many big names have matches scheduled.

Roger Federer will be going for his fifth consecutive title. Justine Henin will be going for a career Grand Slam (winning all four major titles at least once over the course of the career).

The Brit-o-meter is in the doldrums, because Andy Murray has had to withdraw from the tournament due to a a wrist injury that hasn't cleared up in time.

The Draws (in PDF format) - Right-click and choose "Save target as..." in the popup menu.

• Men's Singles
• Women's Singles
• Men's Doubles
• Women's Doubles

The mixed doubles draw will be done later.

And here now is the weather forecast for southern England. As if I need to tell you ;-)

"Often cloudy, rain or showers, some heavy."

But here's my favorite part:

Heavy rain at times in the north and west. Any bright or sunny intervals elsewhere will lead to scattered heavy showers developing, some with thunder and torrential downpours. Showers merging to longer spells of rain later, some heavy.

Do you think that got the point across?

Passing over the tone (which makes Tim Henman sound like an optimist), did you notice the second sentence? According to it bright skies and sunshine "lead to" rain.

One can see how one could come to think like that from living in a climate like that. But don't worry, I assure you that sunny skies do not cause rain. (Psst, it's all them clouds.)

Technorati Tags: tennis

You should be able to turn your back on your partner, no?

Here's a Japanese television ad that makes the point.

Now that we've had a good laugh, whose fault were these accidents?

Both times the net player is in the way. The first time it isn't so bad, but watch the video again. He is blocking off part of the service court to his partner's serve. If the net player stationed one step to his left and then moved right at the sound of the serve being hit, no serve that would land in could hit him.

The second error is far worse. First the net player tries to poach a shot he can't reach (as I descibe myself doing here), and then, instead of just ducking down to let his partner hit over him, he turns around and looks at his partner!

Never do that! That's why he got it in the face.

Technorati Tags: tennis tennis instruction

Snapshot of Richard Williams

It's been long since I did a player profile. Frankly, no idea for one has grabbed me ... till I got the idea to do one on Richard Williams.

But, as I went back through all that stuff, I quickly lost interest. That isn't what I see as the most significant thing about him. In fact, all the noise about him is a distraction from the most significant thing about him.

Here is a man from a slum area who learned all he could from library books and other publications about tennis and coached his two kids to the top of the game!

Oooooh! So much for needing experts at $40 to $65 an hour.

I bet no one ever overheard Venus and Serena's parents going around saying that "That is a $50,0000 backhand."

Another cherished myth bites the dust.

Technorati Tags: tennis

How Tennis Myths Get Formed

Get someone who has never played tennis. Put him or her on the center mark. Hand them a racket. Then go to the other side of the net and hit them the ball.

What will they do?

They will instinctively move to a point directly inline with the approaching ball, as if to catch it.

Woops. They aren't supposed to catch it; they're supposed to hit it. But they are in the way of their swing. In fact, they can't really swing at a ball coming straight at them. They can't hit it forehand. About all they can do is block it back with a one-handed backhand.

Now, at this point, what does the instructor do?

He corrects them. In fact, the instructor overcorrects to make sure the student understands that they must swing off to the side of the body, not directly in front of it. "Turn sideways." The next thing you know, he is demonstrating, "See?" and he takes a completely closed stance. "Look, my toes are pointing toward the sidelines."

Ah, now the student sees what he means.

A million tennis instructors do this to a billion students so that the "Turn-sideways" mantra echos round and round the world a trillion times. No one dares blow against that wind. Therefore, soon it's conventional wisdom that the "right" way to hit the ball is from a closed stance. Nobody tested this theory. Nobody even analyzed it.

It became "true" the way most things do (including many false ones) - just by being repeated ten zillion times.

The original instructor hears this and thinks, "Jeez, ain't I smart. That's exactly what I've been telling my students to do." So, what he originally intended as only a bit of overcorrection to fix a problem now become Gospel in his eyes.

But note that all that was needed is for the student to swing off to the side of the body, which means positioning at a point alongside the ball's flight path (as opposed to right on it). This can be done from an open stance too, especially on the forehand side.

But it's so much easier to just tell the student to turn to the side.

That's how it happens. That's how bad conventional wisdom gets going. And this is what creates the myth that there is some precisely "right" way to swing.

But there isn't, not any more than there is some precisely "right" way to walk. Left to our own devices we all learn to do it in a very similar way, but no two people have exactly the same walk. And nobody obsesses about how to do it "right."

Part of the problem is being too quick with instructions. I've taught both in the classroom and on the court. I've taught swimming as well as tennis. Believe it or not, it was in biology labs that I learned to hold back and let students discover as much as possible on their own. The benefits of that are too numerous to mention, but I will mention the big one: SELF CONFIDENCE.

So, here's how that lesson should have gone.

When the student makes that mistake on the first ball you feed, what should the instructor do?

Answer: shut up. Just hit them another ball.

Bingo, you just taught them to do it right.

Through Natural Learning. Because that student isn't brain dead. He or she is well aware of the problem, and the brain is programmed to fix problems like that all by itself. That's how we learned to walk and talk - through trial and error, not by following verbal instructions. Natural Learning is mostly half-conscious and subconscious learning, but it's learning and it works.

By setting up students to learn things naturally, you greatly reduce the number of verbal instructions you have to give; you greatly accelerate learning; and you greatly reduce the chances of giving any questionable advice.

Technorati Tags: tennis tennis instruction

The Search for Nadia Petrova's Missing Motivation and Drive

Is it just me? Because I don't get stuff like this.

Nadia Petrova lacks enthusiasm and is pondering a career change. Okay, but what's this?

Even a week of unorthodox training on a grass court maintained by a Swedish farmer may not be enough to inspire depressed Russian Nadia Petrova to start enjoying her tennis.

I'm sorry, but enjoying a thing is something that happens to you. You don't MAKE yourself enjoy anything. You can't be "inspired" to enjoy anything. No amount of effort in the world will make you enjoy something you don't enjoy.

I think this foggy thinking comes from too much acting in life - pretending you feel a certain way or enjoy a certain thing when you don't. You lose touch with your real feelings and get stuck behind the Looking Glass in the Land of Pretend. And when some pretense becomes too hard to maintain, then you say nonsense like this.

Why should a week on the only grass court in Sweden inspire anyone to anything? Yes, variety is the spice of life, but if you have no hunger, spice won't make you eat. If you enjoy eating, spice can make you enjoy it more, but that's all.

Petrova, daughter of a pair of former world-class Russian athletes who grew up in Egypt, said she is desperate to re-discover her drive.

"I'm searching for motivation," said the woman who claimed her last trophy in February indoors in Paris.

(Translation: Presumably the author meant that Nadia grew up in Egypt, not her parents.)

She "can't find" her drive, motivation"? If she can't find it, she doesn't have it.

Hint: motivation is in the reward. If playing tennis is less than rewarding overall, she won't be motivated to play.

The Russian said that she might need to find other interests, which could spark a renewal of her game — or she could consider just handing in her career.

How could other interests spark a renewal of her game?

I'm not certain how much I like tennis right now.

How can she not know that?

I still haven't achieved all of my goals and dreams.

Newsflash: maybe you never will. Most people don't. It ain't all up to you, you know.

Maybe there's some oppressive entity in her life responsible for this depression and all she needs to do is chuck it. But if not, why not just quit? Most people wouldn't like playing tennis for a living.

Technorati Tags: tennis

Test Your Mental Tennis Prowess

Are you a wizard of tennis doubles? How much do you know about it? Here is quick little quiz to gauge your mental prowess.

Technorati Tags: tennis tennis instruction tennis doubles

Tips for Hitting a Two-Handed Backhand

Are you thinking of switching to a two-handed backhand? Or could you use some tips on how to hit one? Check out the tennis lesson entitled How to Hit a Two-Handed Backhand at the main site.

First you learn the two most important things to know about the two-handed backhand, and then you get an instructional video.

Technorati Tags: tennis tennis instruction

Up-and-Back Doubles: 1-up 1-back doubles

Ironically, the most basic tennis doubles formation is also the hardest to play. There is much more to playing 1-up/1-back than there is to playing both-up or both-back. By that I mean that you need to know more to play up-and-back.

This is because the weakness of the Up-and-Back Formation is an angular gap in it that makes it targetable only by an opponent in a certain position. It's also because two up-and-back teams can face each other in different ways.

This introductory lesson on doubles strategy will help familiarize you with the differences so that when they arise during play, you see the risks and opportunities in them.

Technorati Tags: tennis tennis instruction tennis doubles

Stella Artois Championships at the Queen's Club

Yesterday, at the Artois Championships at the Queen's Club in London, second-seed Andy Roddick defeated seventh-seed Dmitry Tursunov in straight sets 6-4 7-5 to reach today's final. In the other semifinal Nicolas Mahut beat fellow Frenchman Arnaud Clement 6-3, 7-6.

The finals are just finished, and Roddick has beaten Mahut 4-6, 7-6, 7-6 to win the championship for the third straight year.

Look at the fight Mahut put up though. I have a feeling that Nicolas is no flash in the pan.

The doubles title went to Mark Knowles and Daniel Nestor, who defeated Bob and Mike Bryan 7-6(4), 7-5 in the final. Both teams now have 39 titles to their credit.

If you wonder what players mean when they talk about the "scheduling nightmares" involving doubles, this could help you understand:

Because of rain delays, Knowles and Nestor had to play their second and third round matches after 7 PM on Saturday night. Then this morning they played the semifinal before playing the final.

Nicolas Mahut (a singles finalist) was in the doubles till his team lost to Knowles and Nestor last night, so he played how many tennis matches since Friday?

Technorati Tags: tennis tennis doubles

Woops

Awhile back, in February and March, when I was having trouble with websites in South Korea hijacking my server to serve images and videos they scraped with my content, I at first did what most webmasters who find their images hotlinked to some chatty forum with a billion hits per day. I replaced the image with another work of art.

I really wanted Homer showing his you-know-what to kiss, but I didn't want to cause an international incident, so I just replaced the image with a low-bandwidth, nasty message about stealing my bandwidth.

Then I discovered a much better solution. My server no longer fulfills requests for images from anywhere I don't specifically give it permission to.

So, I went back to the old file names for the replaced images, because they were much easier to remember. Unfortuantely, it never dawned on me that the copies on the server had more recent creation dates and wouldn't automatically get replaced.

Woops. Imagine my surprise when I found one of those messages appearing on Operation Doubles!

So, if you saw one, that's what happened. That was for my fans in Korea, so they'd know the website showing them this stuff was hijacking my server to do it.

As for the images: You can tell which ones are mine – mostly the court diagrams. If you are unsure, just ask. To reproduce my artwork, you need my permission, just as you need it to reproduce or translate any text on this site. But there is also a lot of clipart and some stuff in the public domain. Even if I have edited it to improve it, I don't care if you use it. But if I have improved it you should credit me with a link-back.

Don't even try to hotlink (hijack) any image from here though. I have fixed it so no one can. To put the brakes on skyrocketing bandwidth that wasn't due to legitimate traffic, I also started blocking a growing list of bots that seem to do nothing but eat bandwidth, steal content, and collect email addresses to spam. Plus a range of IP addresses from which fraudulent orders were coming.

Which brings me to a word for the wise. When lawbreaking and property-rights violations are winked at in a region so that it becomes commonplace there, it eventually has a bad effect on everyone living there. For example, there are online resellers who won't accept a credit-card payment from anyone in certain countries anymore, simply because the fraud rate is high there and the government does nothing about its citizens stealing from foreigners, in effect protecting them from prosecution for theft and fraud, so long as they steal only from foreigners. There seems to be a culture that believes it's OK to steal from "rich" Westerners.

But think twice: Businesses stay away from regions like that, adversely affecting the region's economy. Even a tiny one like me. Do I need the Bulgarian market? There are regions where every new website immediately gets put in the search engine sandbox, because 95% of the websites from that region are nothing but MFA spam. There are websites who have blocked access to whole nations, just because content, trademark and bandwidth theft from those areas is so rampant and done with impunity. That lawlessness hurts everyone living in that region. No one from there can access those websites or purchase anything but a knock-off; no one from there can use a credit card online; no one from there can get their business listed high in the search engine results. "Rule of law." Not just words.

Novak Djokovic Impressions of ...

Some folks just ask for it, don't they? Enjoy.

Technorati Tags: tennis

Pressure on Andy Murray

Here a bit more on the theme of nationalism among tennis fans and how it affects the players: Off the Baseline comments on the pressure being put on Andy Murray of Scotland, who has a wrist injury and may not be able to to play at Wimbledon.

Notice how the Leftward lean is accomplished by capitalizing on this nationalism in the act of criticizing (making fun of) it. Notice also that it's a pulled punch, a softball: it should be worded thusly: "We Brits Are Great ...And We'll Prove It."

Wrong. Andy Murray must prove that they are great all by himself.

American players are fortunate that they don't have to put up with this.

See also:
Nationalism in Sports
An Echo from Across the Pond

Technorati Tags: tennis

Rafa Has Feet of Clay

At the Queen's Club grasscourt tournament in Great Britain (a precursor to Wimbledon), Rafael Nadal (top seed), Fernando Gonzalez (3rd seed), Novak Djokovic (4th seed), and Ivan Ljubicic (5th seed) all lost in the quarterfinals.

France doesn't dominate on either type of surface (slow clay or faster hardcourts and grass). Nor does it have players at the top of the game. But when you look down the list, you find a stunning number of French players. In other words, for its size, France has an awful lot of very good tennis players. Therefore, it's only a matter of time....

We got a little preview of that Friday at Queen's Club. In the morning, Nicolas Mahut of France (ranked 106 in the world) defeated Ivan Ljubicic in a rain-delayed match of the third round, then came back in the afternoon to defeat Rafael Nadal 7-5, 7-6.

It's the best day in my tennis life. I beat Ljubicic this morning and Rafa now. To beat two top-10 players in the same day is amazing.

I'll say.

Another interesting Frenchman, Arnaud Clement, first defeated Djokovic, then returned four hours later to win another round.

In other action, second seeded Andy Roddick advanced to the semifinals. He will face Dmitry Tursunov, who rallied to upset Fernando Gonzalez 6-3, 6-7 (5), 6-4. The two Frenchmen, Clement and Mahut will face each other in the other semifinal.

Technorati Tags: tennis rafael nadal andy roddick

An Echo from Across the Pond

Do you hear an echo? It's coming from the far side of the Pond. The British are unhappy with the underachievement of their tennis players, too. There's something to that, of course. It HAS been a long dry spell for the nation that invented the game as we know it.

But my Irony Detector goes wild when I hear Britons calling for doing it like "those Americans" do.

Say what?

Just for that I'm going to spell color with a "u."

But seriously there's something to that too. What no one in those articles has mentioned though is the effect of the system on the players. They complain that British players aren't mentally strong enough.

Well, couldn't the weight the system puts on them be too heavy then? For example, notice that, in the first article (in The Guardian), Jon Henderson writes of the "concerns" and "dissent" because some feel that British players (Andy Muarry in particular in this case) aren't 'giving back enough in return for the generous backing.'

Oh, so you have to pay them back with Wimbledon trophies. Think of the weight this puts on British players' shoulders!

They are being so Mother-Henned that they are made to feel like they owe their success to the LTA. And it has become such a matter of national pride that it is no wonder that no British player has won Wimbledom in a long time.

Henderson cites examples of talented players who go get their own financial backing:

Great players tend to come through regardless of the intervention of national associations. It is difficult to think of any whose child-to-champion progress has been watched over every step of the way by a body such as the LTA.

Right, in other countries (like here in the US), outstanding players pursue a bussinesslike investment relationship with a sponsor of their choosing. The arrangement enables them to own their own success, beholding to no one for it. Good for the confidence.

We see another hint at a key to succes in Naomi Cavaday's win on the grass in Birmingham. It shocked everyone. Her explanation? Well, she has been here at Nick Bolletierri's, where she has practiced with world-ranked players.

Indeed, that's how you become a world-class player - by playing with world-class players:

I have had great opportunities at Bollettieri's," she said. "Practising with players like [Nicole] Vaidisova and [Tatiana] Golovin and knowing it's not that scary, I think makes it easier when you come somewhere like this and you have to play someone who is 60 in the world."

Exactly. Young British players will have to leave the UK periodically to get that kind of competition. It can make all the difference in the world.

Technorati Tags: tennis

Fixing Your Overhead Smash

Many, many tennis players have trouble with the overhead smash - even some who don't like to admit it.

There are several reasons for the problem.

One is simply the fact that players put off learning the overhead. By the time they do need the shot and start trying it, they are already much better at other shots, primarily groundstrokes, which they have been hitting billions and billions of.

So, of course they're going to prefer to stay away from the net and thus not have to use this new, weaker shot, at which they're still a beginner. That's natural, but it's also a vicious cycle

The other problem is related: the P-word. Practice. If players hit half as many overheads as they do forehands in a month of practice, they'd have killer overhead smashes. Some don't even take any overheads in warm-up, to hide how weak their overhead shot is.

Way to condemn yourself to a life sentence of having a lousy overhead.

But another VERY common problem is the fruit of a Tennis Commandment that is just plain wrong: that, as soon as you see a lob go up, you should raise both arms, dropping your racket behind your back and pointing up at the ball with your free arm - maintaining that awkward pose, while you move back under the lob to hit your overhead.

Wrong. Moving backward while looking up and and maintaining such an awkward pose gets you into a fight with your backwards-balancing reflexes. Which is why trying to do it this way is so awkward. That instruction destroys your dynamic balance.

If you are trying to follow it when you hit overheads, you are about to discover that you aren't as slow and clumsy as you think. See How to Move Back to Hit an Overhead Smash.

You don't have to take my word for it. You get an explanation that makes it clear why the conventional advice on this has been wrong. In addition, some of the feedback at Operation Doubles swears by this tip. But the proof is in the test: All you have to do is try this more natural and balanced method, and you'll know it's right.

Then watch the pros and advanced players with good overhead smashes: they don't already have their arms up in the air while they're moving back under the ball. Nobody with a good overhead smash obeys that Tennis Commandment.

It's just a cliche that has been repeated so often people believe it no matter what.

Once you have that tip down pat, then check out the other Overhead Smash Tips: How to Hit an Overhead Smash and Overhead Smash Tips. They include several videos of pros hitting overheads and an instructional video on the basics of hitting an overhead.

Then just practice. You will soon have a reliable overhead shot that you have confidence in. And the longer you practice it, the more it will become a shot you can honestly call an "overhead smash."

Technorati Tags: tennis tennis instruction

No more playing in the dirt!

Lawn tennis is back on the lawns, with two weeks of grass court tournaments leading up to the Big W.

Roddick likes it. Henman likes it. Just about everyone in the Anglosphere likes it. Ha-HAH! mes amis!

As for yesterday, I thought this an interesting take on it at TennisBalls.

Being older, I suppose the personalities of the players don't influence my opinion so much, because as we grow older we tend to idolize stars less. Certain things about both of them do turn me off, but I pretty much blow that off because I love their tennis.

I think we have an extreme personality clash between Federer and Nadal. I bet Sam is right and that they they don't like each other personally. Like fire and water. Like Hamlet and Laertes (except there you had a definite good guy and a definite bad guy). I think that in each other's presence, their antagonistic personal qualities stand out more, as though each tries to compensate for the other so that they serve as foils for each other. You know what I mean: like when in the presence of a jabberbox, you get quieter than is normal even for quiet you.

You can just about tell what Nadal doesn't like about Federer and what Federer doesn't like about Nadal. But here's to both of them for being professional enough to keep their mouths shut about it.

Now, for a totally different angle on yesterday's match, see Five Things You Can Learn from Federer and Nadal at TennisThoughts.com.

Technorati Tags: tennis

Tennis Strokes & Shots Roundup

Here is a roundup of the instruction on tennis strokes and shots at Operation Doubles. Many of these lessons are video lessons.

Some of the videos are videos of pro tennis players' strokes, but some are real instruction videos. Each type has its advantages and you get the benefit of seeing both types.

A word about those instruction videos from VideoJug. They are excellent. They include everything necessary and nothing unnecessary.

The second part is very important: that's the effective way to teach. I commend Francis Rebiero and the others who put these videos together. They are far more interested in you learning than in showing off how much they know.

Watch these instructional videos and the videos of pros several times. Then come back and watch them again tomorrow. You are learning much visually when you do so, things you're hardly aware of learning at the time.

The written explanations in these Operation Doubles Tennis lessons are written so as to to stimulate your imagination to picture things and imagine how the stroke feels. They also help you understand what's happening. But don't try to formulate instructions out of them that you then try to recall and think of during play.

Learning a stroke is a process of discovery.

Technorati Tags: tennis tennis instruction

Rafa Wins The French Open

Rafel Nadal is 21-0 at Roland Garros, having won his third straight French Open title by defeating Roger Federer today, 6-3, 4-6, 6-3, 6-4.

Nadal is the first player since the great Bjorn Borg to win the title three times in a row.

Certain things have gradually emerged from Nadal's claycourt play.

The most important thing I think is that Rafa relishes pressure like the great major league pitcher Nolan Ryan, who said, "The greater the pressure, the more I like it." In fact, Matthew Cronin writes that Nadal "appeared to be revelling in the opportunity to participate in the high-risk moments."

Remind me if I ever need a champion to play a match my life depends on, I want Rafa to play it for me.

Another thing about his game that emerges is his serving. It isn't all that great, but his first serve percentage is consistently remarkably high. Plus, you don't know what kind of serve you're going to get from him - again like a major league pitcher. And he does what it takes to get that first serve in, saving himself much trouble with the returns of second serves. Today his first serve percentage was a whopping 77%. A lesson on how to take care of a vulnerable serve.

Rafa's winning percentage on first serve was also very high, at 70%, though he served only 2 aces.

His winning percentage on second serve was respectable too, the same as Roger Federer's at 55%.

That serve of Rafa's is no weapon, but he keeps it from being a liability by smart strategy and tactics.

Another aspect of his game that was in evidence today is how carefully he positions himself depthwise. Whenever the ball lands a little short in his court, he moves up to play shallower, constantly adjusting to the depth of the shots in the rally. He doesn't hesitate to back way off when the ball lands deep. In other words, he "goes with the flow" of depth rather than dig in on the baseline and play from there no matter what.

When you think about it, that makes sense. We position laterally according to the Angle of Return (angle of possibilities). Why should we think we needn't take the ball into consideration in positioning longitudinally as well?

As I mentioned in an earlier post, refusing to be driven deep is a virtue on fast surfaces, but I'm beginning to think that it a bad practice on clay. The surface is too slow for playing shallow to help you much, so mostly all you accomplish is making it harder to control your shots.

Other Winners:
Women's singles: Justine Henin
Men's doubles: Mark Knowles and Daniel Nestor
Women's doubles: Alicia Molik and Mara Santangelo
Mixed doubles: Nathalie Dechy and Andy Ram







Congratulations to them all!


Technorati Tags: tennis french open

Justine Henin is simply da best.

By now, it's certainly no news to anyone: Justine Henin of Belgium won the French Open today, defeating Ana Ivanovic of Serbia 6-2, 6-1 at Roland Garros stadium in Paris.

That's three straight French Open singles titles and 35 consecutive sets. No doubt about it: she's the best.

As for all the rest of that stuff about her estrangements, I really don't know what to make of it, whether her husband came between her and her family or whether the same thing that came between her and her husband came between her and her family. But, frankly, I don't care. Justine is the best and has a beautiful tennis game.

I'm picking Rafa tommorrow. Not that I'd be surprised to find that Roger Federer has the way to win figured out. But I'm picking Rafa because he seems almost unbeatable on clay.

Technorati Tags: tennis french open

Anti-Net-Play Tennis Tactics

This new lesson at Operation Doubles Tennis is instruction for both singles and doubles players. It's a survey of the tactics you can use from the baseline against net players.

In doubles, you avoid hitting to a net player whenever possible, so these tactics are for use in the Both-Back Formation against the Both-Up Formation.

Some are hard-hit shots, but some finesse errors out of net players.

In any case, the plan is to use these anti-net-play tactics to win the point outright OR earn a chance to hit a forcing shot yourself...thus working your way off the defensive and back onto a level playing field or one that is tipped in your favor.

Check out this list of tennis tips for use against net players, and make sure you are aware of all your options. From the baseline against good net players, you need them.

Technorati Tags: tennis tennis instruction tennis doubles

French Open Day 12 Live

Yesterday, the mixed doubles title went to the #8 seeds Andy Ram of Israel and Nathalie Dechy of France, who upset the reigning champions Nenad Zimonjic of Serbia and Katerina Srebotnik of Slovenia 7-5, 6-3. Ram was originally to be partnered with Dechy's doubles partner, Vera Zvonareva, so Ram and Dechy hadn't been playing together long.

In current play, Roger Federer has just won the second set tiebreaker to go ahead of Nicolay Davydenko 7-5, 7-6 in the men's singles semifinal.

Technorati Tags: tennis french open

Nationalism in Sports

Three Serbian players made it to the semifinals of the French Open. Now, Serbia is a very small country, and its recent history hasn't been conducive to producing world-class tennis players. Therefore, this is a remarkable event.

It has set off an explosion of national pride in Serbia. Being a second-generation American of Eastern European descent, I'm not at all surprised to hear the crowing from there. Bohemians would be doing the same thing, especially under similar conditions of recent national shame.

But the tremendous accomplishment of Jelena Jankovic, Ana Ivanovic, and Novak Djokovic is the tremendous accomplishment of Jelena Jankovic, Ana Ivanovic, and Novak Djokovic. Hands off it, people!

In most nations of the world, when one of their people does a great thing, the people of their country all try to grab a piece of the glory. They prance around like THEY did it. Well, they didn't do it. The doer of the deed did it.

Yet the entire populace thinks it proves something to the world about how grand their kind is. This is the root of nationalism. Let it die. It can manifest on the flip-side of that coin as negative nationalism, such as in denigrating some other kind of people.

Which amounts to the same thing - (in so many words) claiming your kind is better.

This negative nationalism we see when we see people rejoicing in the defeat of a player just because he or she is, say, an American. It's supposed to prove something, like say that those Americans ain't so hot = your kind is better.

George Orwell explained it well in his essay Notes on Nationalism. Nationalists view everything that happens through the prism of an almost religious belief that their kind is inherently superior and therefore is on the upgrade to triumph. On the other side of that coin, they view everything that happens in the almost religious belief that some other kind, a hated rival, is inherently inferior and therefore on the downgrade to ruin.

It's as simple as that: everything that happens is somehow viewed as proof of this irrational belief. Which is why sporting events make such good excuses for gross displays of nationalism.

Which, as Orwell explains, has almost nothing in common with patriotism.

This pollution among the fans affects many tennis players. For example, the pressure put on a British player who gets through the first two rounds at Wimbledon is tremendous. The pressure put on French players in the French Open is perhaps even worse. They feel the weight of their nation's pride on their shoulders.

The British I think mitigate it a lot by having an impeccable sense of humor about it. But it's hard to say who did worse at the French Open this year, the Americans or the French.

Victory has nothing to do with nationality. These three Serbs are a joy to watch. They overcame much adversity to get where they are. The praise goes to them alone and to those who helped them.

But apparently it's necessary to state the obvious: They did it because of what kind of human beings they are, not because of their nationality.

Technorati Tags: tennis french open

How to "Throw" a Serve or Overhead Smash

Many players are confused about what is supposed to happen when the racket drops down behind your back in the serve or an overhead smash. This new lesson at the main site gives you a good understanding and a picture of what happens, how, and why.

One thing's for sure, you'll know what it means when we say that you "throw" a serve or overhead, rather than "push" it.

Technorati Tags: tennis tennis instruction

French Open Day 12

Justine Henin defeated Jelena Jankovic today 6-2, 6-2. Ana Ivanovic defeated Maria Sharapova 6-2, 6-1.

Henin and Ivanovic will compete for the French Open title on Saturday. The Sharapova story was - no, not unforced errors - FORCED errors, plus a very clean match by the Forcer (only 11 unforced errors), her Serbian opponent.


You sure can tell how Henin uses the off-arm in hitting a one-handed backhand, can't you?

Technorati Tags: tennis french open

French Open Day 11

The bottom half of the men's singles draw finished the quarterfinal round today, with the #2 seed Rafael Nadal of Spain defeating his countryman Carlos Moya 6-4, 6-3, 6-0 and the #6 seed Novak Djokovic of Serbia defeating Igor Andreev of Russia 6-3, 6-3, 6-3.

There were two upsets in the men's doubles quarterfinals, where Lukas Dlouhy and Pavel Vizner of the Czech Republic beat the #1 seeds, Bob and Mike Bryan of the USA, and Mahesh Bhupathi of India and Radek Stepanek of Czech Republic beat the #2 seeds Jonas Bjorkman of Sweden and Max Mirnyi of Belarus 3-6, 6-1, 7-6.

Similarly, both women's doubles semifinal matches were upsets. Katarina Srebotnik of Slovakia and Ai Sugiama of Japan defeated the #1 seeds, Lisa Raymond of the USA and Samantha Stosur of Australia 1-6, 6-4, 6-3. Alicia Molik of Australia and Maria Santangelo of Italy upset the #2 seeds Cara Black of Zimbabwe and Liezel Huber of South Africa.

In other news, this oughta be interesting.... Shut up, Kathy, shut up.

Technorati Tags: tennis french open

Serena Williams on her Loss at the French Open

Quite a few years ago, I took advantage of a moment to talk to the last kid out of my classroom, to mention that he was going to need better test scores in short order if he wanted a decent grade.

I was completely bowled over by his reply. He looked down at his foot and moved it around like a baseball pitcher rearranging some dirt on the mound while the manager talks to him, and said, "Yeah, Biology isn't working."

"BIOLOGY isn't working?" I asked. "Do you mean that YOU aren't doing well in Biology?"

Well, yeah, sort of.

He was 15; Serena Williams is 26.

Below are some of her remarks in an interview after her loss to Justine Henin today. Note that they are taken out of context to illustrate something that has nothing to do with the context. For the context, read the transcript here.

Yeah, nothing worked today. Some days you just have days like that.

...I just think it was -- I don't know what it was. I don't know. There's really no explanation for it.

... I don't know. Just everything was going wrong. Usually, I don't hit in the net, like I think I hit so many errors today. I hit in the net a lot. And it was very frustrating. ...And I was just making all the errors and just playing like a maniac.

... My routine was off. I'm very superstitious, and things weren't right, so...

Superstitious? I'll say. Why not quit being superstitious? Try reason and realism instead of all that positive delusional thinking that leaves you high and dry on a day like today?

Newsflash: believing a thing doesn't make it so.

But, you know, nothing really went right for me this morning, and it just continued on through the match.

Do you mean that YOU didn't do anything right during the match?

No, it sure sounds like she means that we shouldn't bother to watch her play a match: that we should just check her horoscope for that day.

It gets to the point that she even starts distancing herself from her performance by referring to herself in the third person:

Serena kept hitting balls in the net and Serena kept making errors. And it wasn't that. It was just that I couldn't hit my shots the way, you know, I was hitting them earlier or whatever.

Evidently then, Serena has no control over how she hits her shots. She does not even know how she hits her shots, because she cannot even tell us whether she was hitting too early or too late.

In fact, she was so somewhere else (presumably because her play is the doing of the Fates) that she didn't even know how many errors she was making...

No, at that point I hadn't even realized how many errors I was making. At that point -- I mean, I was still fighting. I mean, I was fighting until the end.

Good thing you slipped that little correction in there so fast. People might not like hearing that you just gave up.

But I just, I don't think I've ever played so bad in the quarterfinals of a Grand Slam. And it's not, you know, here I am always saying I want to peak at the right times, but I didn't have any peaks today.

You just didn't HAVE any peaks today? Do you mean that YOU didn't peak today?

And I just -- I don't -- I've never played so hideous and horrendous, and all those other words I can use to describe my play today.

Well, I guess that's OK, because by now you've made it clear that you are not the one responsible for that.

I never play like that.

Well, then who the hail impersonated you today and did?

At this point the reporter pointedly asks, "Is it like you can't believe it, sort of?"

Sometimes, yeah.

Sometimes? Yeah, when you play badly, but not when you play well, right?

Not even your opponent has anything to do with it...

I think all she had to do was show up.

Would it kill you to give credit to her? What? Are Justine Henin's shots so insignificant that they couldn't possibly have anything to do with your play? Kinda like if I play tennis with God and he loses, it's all because of his play, not because I'm capable of pressing The Great Him?

Would it cost you anything to pay credit where credit is due? In tennis, you are to RETURN your opponent's shots. You failed to return, or to return well, Justine Henin's shots today. Justine Henin's shots won the match.

Not the tennis gods.

You are nothing special. At your level everyone has great talent. You are only as good as your hard work and effort make you.

Serena isn't the only pro tennis player showing the ill-effects of what is called "positive thinking." It's just the antithesis of the negative thinking that can delude us during play. But delusion is delusion, whether it's positive or negative. And delusions must be constantly maintained.

Unfortunately, reality won't cooperate and do that. Sooner or later reality assaults our delusions. And when reality assaults your delusions, and your psych job rests on it like a house of cards, look out.

Technorati Tags: tennis

The Importance of Rankings

Today's results at the French Open illustrate the importance of seeding.

Chances are that no one but Justine Henin or Maria Sharapova could have defeated Serena Williams in this tournament. She had to be considered one of the favorites.

But Serena's seeding of #8 put her into a match with the No. 1 seed in the quarterfinal round. If Serena had been seeded in the top four, that wouldn't have happened.

Seeds are placed in the draw so that the #1 and the #2 or #3 seeds cannot meet until the final.

Considering Serena's world ranking of #8 (on the way back up from the depths in the 80's recently), you can't fault the seeding. But this shows why rankings, and playing enough tournaments to maintain your highest possible ranking, matters: it often determines what round you reach in a tournament.

That said, to her credit, Serena isn't happy with anything less than winning the tournament, of course. So, if you're going to have to beat Justine Henin or Maria Sharapova to win it, it doesn't matter what round you defeat them in.

Technorati Tags: tennis french open

French Open Roundup Day 10

The day began with eight men in the quarterfinals:

• Roger Federer, Switzerland, #1 seed
• Tommy Robredo, Spain, #9 seed
• Nicolay Davydenko, Russia, #4 seed
• Guillermo Canas, Argentina #19 seed
• Novak Djokovic, Serbia, #6 seed
• Igor Andreev, Russia, unseeded
• Carlos Moya, Spain #23 seed
• Rafael Nadal, Spain, #2 seed

Federer defeated Robredo 7-5, 1-6, 6-1, 6-2
Davydenko defeated Canas 7-5, 6-4, 6-4

The bottom half of the draw will play their quarterfinal matches tommorrow.

On the women's side, the day began with eight women in the quarterfinals:

• Justine Henin, Belgium, #1 seed
• Serena Williams, USA, #8 seed
• Jelena Jankovic, Serbia, #4 seed
• Nicole Vaidisova, Czech Repulic, #6 seed
• Ana Ivanovic, Serbia, #7 seed
• Svetlana Kuznetsova, Russia, #3 seed
• Anna Chakvetadze, Russia, #9 seed
• Maria Sharapova, Russia, #2 seed

Henin defeated Williams 6-4, 6-3
Jankovic defeated Vaidisova 6-3, 7-5
Ivanovic defeated Kuznetsova 6-0, 3-6, 6-1
Sharapova defeated Chakvetadze 6-3, 6-4

Henin will face Jankovic, and Sharapova will face Ivanovic in the semifinals.

Details on some of these matches later.

Technorati Tags: tennis french open

French Open Live

Rafa knows how to start the second set after winning the first. He ran over Lleyton Hewitt 6-1 in the second, in the time it took me to write the earlier post about him winning the first.

In the third set the two traded blows, slugging out long points, till Nadal broke Hewitt at 5-all, then served for the match. But don't touch that channel - Hewitt refuses to die, breaking back to level the set at 6-all.

Never heave a sigh of relief after getting a break. It's nothing till you consolodate it by then holding your own serve.

Done. Rafa wind 6-3, 6-1, 7-6. He doesn't lose matches in paris. he hardly ever loses a set there.

Meanwhile, Marcos Baghdatis crashed and burned after winning the first set over Igor Andreev, 6-2, 1-6, 3-6, 4-6.

Zi Yan and Mark Knowles defeated Tathiana Garbin and Panul Hanley in the second round of the mixed doubles.

Technorati Tags: tennis french open

Clay Court Tennis: Playing Depth

Did you ever notice how deep Rafael Nadal and other good clay-courters often play? It's reminiscent of Bjorn Borg on clay.

On hardcourts and other fast courts, you can force the issue of how shallow you'll play. In fact, it's good strategy on these surfaces to simply refuse to be forced to play deep behind the baseline.

You cut down on the shot angle that way. So, you don't chase angle shots as far and are hard to pass. You also deny your opponent something in short supply to begin with = time.

But on clay, you often see good clay courters constantly adjusting the depth at which they play. One moment you'll see Nadal way behind the baseline. Then look again, and he's right up on the baseline.

I'm no expert on clay-court singles, but it seems to me that there's something to this. I think you have to be more realistic about your depth on clay.

Besides, there are advantages in positioning deep. It's a trade-off, like anything in tennis, and on clay sometimes that trade-off is worth it.

For example, playing deep not only gives you additional time to take a big swing at the ball, it also enables you to hit the ball on the descent of its bounce. It's much easier to impart topspin then. Which is why heavy topspin artists love to hit the ball on the descent of its bounce. It's spinning slower then, so it takes less counterspin to get it to roll over for you, and the ball is falling into your rising racket face. That's ideal for topspin. In short, you'll get less topspin from hitting a rising ball than from hitting a falling one.

This heavy topspin can be hard to overtop. result? Your opponent's shot comes off his racket flat or with underspin, instead of with topspin. Out. Long.

Technorati Tags: tennis

Nadal Beating Hewitt at the French Open

Lleyton Hewitt of Australia has just lost the first set 3-6 in his fourth round match against Rafael Nadal of Spain. As usual, Nadal, who doesn't have a great serve, nonetheless has an excellent first-serve percentage at 71%.

Technorati Tags: tennis french open

How to Hit a Twist (Kick) Serve

The twist serve (also called the American twist serve) is a special kind of topspin-slice serve that "ends with a twist," you might say, because it bounces the wrong way. Instead of continuing to curve leftward after the bounce, it breaks rightward. Why is explained in Spindoctoring Your Serve.

For illustrated instructions on how to hit a twist serve visit How to Hit a Twist (Kick) Serve at the Main Website.

Technorati Tags: tennis tennis instruction

Sharapova defeats Kudryavtseva at the French Open

Second seeded Maria Sharapova advanced to the round of sixteen at the French Open today with a 6-1, 6-4 defeat of Alla Kudryavtseva in a little more than an hour.


After the match Sharapova summed it up pretty well, I thought, in an interview with NBC. She characterized her performance as partly good and partly bad. She said the bad part was that she "had a big letdown" after the first set, during which she made many unforced errors.

I note that she didn't beat herself up about it, as if having a letdown is some sort of sin. The problem was that this was a big letdown, one that let Alla into the match and could easily have cost Maria the match.

I recommend her attitude to everyone. Letdowns happen. We can't avoid them. They are genetically programmed into the brain's hard wiring. You WILL have a letdown after any pressure-packed moment. That's Nature's way of restoring the nervous system to normal after a pressure-packed, tense moment.

This reflex causes problems in tennis matches though. Typically, after you win the first set, you have a letdown at the beginning of the second. There are other times when letdowns naturally occur during tennis matches as well.

The key to success is in knowing this and recognizing a letdown when you're having one. Then you can do something about it. There are ways to minimize a letdown, to minimize the bad effects of one, and to get out of one by stoking the fires of your intensity through focus on some short-term goal. I give some tips on how to combat letdowns in yourself and exploit them in your opponents in this tennis match play lesson on Letdowns.

Sharapova's letdown was so bad that her second serve was way off, sometimes to the wrong service box. And once she let a ball in play hit her before landing out!

Alla went up 4-1 in the second set. But then Maria won the next five games.

Yet there was no turning point in this match. Somewhere between 1-3 and 3-3 you noticed that something had changed. No more unforced errors, which had been associated with late contact.

Psychologically I think there was a turning point for Sharapova. I sensed it when she started double-faulting. It got to the point when the commentators and I thought, "Oh-oh, here comes another Dementieva style double-fault attack. It was clearly getting psychological and not just due to a shoulder problem.

But I got the impression that, at this point, Sharapova just refused to choke, that she simply disdained to let herself think, "Oh no! I'm gonna start double-faulting like crazy!"

Right, that's stupid. Your brain thinks stupid stuff at a moment like that, so tell it it's stupid and don't listen to it.

She seemed to get a little ticked off at herself for thinking rot. Whatever, the double-faulting stopped. The unforced errors stopped. And, though she didn't play exceptionally well from then on, she played good tennis, well enough to run the next five games and win.

Good for her. Nicely done. It isn't easy to push an opponent back out the door after you've let them so far into a match.

Technorati Tags: tennis french open maria sharapova

14 Double Faults???

Elena Dementieva served 14 double faults in her 6-2, 6-4 loss to Marion Bartoli today.

That's 14 double faults in only 9 service games!

A PROFESSIONAL does that?

It's a good thing singles isn't a team sport. They'd never let anyone on a team who has a head case like that.

Technorati Tags: tennis french open

Tennis Doubles Strategy Roundup

For a quick, illustrated overview of how to play winning tennis doubles - one that hits the high points of doubles strategy - check out Winning Tennis Doubles Strategy. Learn about the offensive and defensive modes of the Up-and-Back Formation, the Switched Position, the Doubles Angle of Return (angle of possibilities), and more. This tennis lesson includes a video animation and court diagrams.

Technorati Tags: tennis tennis instruction tennis doubles

French Open Day 5

At least one prominent male member of the English-speaking world still loves to contest long five-setters again the elite clay-courters. In another sign that he is planning to be heard from the majors this year, Australian Lleyton Hewitt knocked out 2004 champion Gaston Gaudio 4-6, 3-6, 6-2, 6-4, 6-2 in the second round on Thursday.

Serena Williams, Maria Sharapova, Ana Ivanovic, Patty Schnyder, Sybille Bammer, Jelena Jankovic (defeated Venus Williams), Marion Bartoli (defeated Elena Dementieva), Tathiana Garbin, Nicole Vaidisova all advanced into the 4th round.

Technorati Tags: tennis french open lleyton hewitt

Burning the Midnight Oil

You may have encountered problems with the Main Website the last few days. Yesterday for awhile, Internet Explorer hung while trying to load any page but the Start Page. That was due to a coding error on my part that is fixed now. You may also have noticed that a bunch of links went dead the last few days. That was due to an error in planning for a site-wide update. I should have known that would happen and fixed them in the update. (Sigh.) But all those links work now.