Tips for the over 60 crowd by the over 60 crowd!
Let’s try to help change the tennis culture. When you see someone who just played a match (tournament or friendly), don’t ask them “Did you win?” or “How’d you do?” Instead, ask them “How did you play today?”
Which is more difficult: playing a highly seeded opponent and still going for your shots with aggression; or playing someone “you should beat” and maintaining your focus and shot-making throughout the match?
Most people set their tennis goals in terms of their RESULTS… winning a match against a lesser opponent, “not getting bageled” against one of the top guys, or winning x number of games against some of the other top guys. But today vs. #1 seed Don Long, I followed the advice of tennis psychologist Jeff [...]
Now that it is time to begin the January USTA Super Senior Tournaments, it is a good time to re-ask the question: In that rare case when your opponent is making bad calls (and has a reputation of regularly doing that), what do you do?
You think crossing on a second serve against a strong returner is suicide? Think again.
The short tennis “off season” is over and the top pros are now returning to play, with an exhibition this weekend, Hopman Cup starting Monday, and a tournament next week.
If you want to improve your game, you MUST practice. Playing matches and even playing tournaments will help; but if you want to change or improve a stroke, you just cannot do it when the score counts.
Last Saturday, we had some great doubles! With all the holiday travels going on, I put together four of us who were about equal; but had never played together. And the results were very surprising.
Warming up for a singles match at the Longboat Key USTA tournament, I stopped over at Sarasota’s Payne Park to hit on their wall before my first match; and was pleasantly surprised.
Today was the start of the 2011-12 USTA south Florida “tournament season” and I am signed up for singles and doubles (with Tom McCune). So, how do you get mentally set to play your first tournament match – especially against an unknown opponent? Here are three tips …
You are losing a tennis match. It makes no difference what the situation is … your opponent in singles or the other team in doubles is better than you … you are missing shots … or “something” is just not working. There are two critical questions you need to ask yourself.
You get hooked on a bad line call at a critical point in the match and you get angry. Then what happens … does it fester in your mind and make you lose focus (and the match)? It doesn’t have to; because you can use your anger to your benefit.
A friend asked, “now that you are not working full-time, how do you spend your spare time?” Well the answer can be capsulized into this simple statement: Filling and then emptying both the body and the mind.
Well, this is the last day of competition. And three months of conditioning (+ a double dose of Aleve every morning and night!) seems to have really helped; because I am not tired and nothing hurts. The morning’s clinic was given by John Newcombe and Woody…
A sunny and nice Texas day for our second round of team play against the Davo/Case Musclemen; while yesterday’s other winning team, Newk’s (Willy Hoffmann) Kangaroos played the Stockton/Woodforde Dunnies. The morning clinic (which I have on video) was an excellent one of Mark Woodforde and Ross Case on doubles positioning and movement: