The Geometry of Tennis

This article is dedicated to Bill M. Besides my father, his is THE best tennis coach I ever had. This man could play tennis left handed and right handed, I must add VERY proficiently! . He was also a Vietnam Veteran 11b. Anyway back in 1981 he introduced the concept of tennis and geometry to me. He drew it out on the hard tru courts and it was easy to understand. I will give you a synopsis and a personal example;
The closer to the net, the more angles you have.
The further away the less angles.
Sometimes you have to run parallel or back a little from the ball
optimally you should run towards the ball and cut off the angle
HIT THE BALL ON THE RISE!
Flexible triangle, chin forward .

Days 28 thru 30

I've been hitting and hitting, things are getting better, things are getting worse LOL! I met my Dad's spirit yesterday in this senior Boriqua yesterday in the name of Andreas(sp), he had me running all over the court like my Dad used to run me! Dinks, slices, cuts, topspin and the occasional flat hard shot as well as high shots. He's a cool guy, I am going to hit with him so I get to lose weight LIKE HE TOLD ME I NEED TO! God bless this brother, he said I had Puerto Rico written all over my face ;).
I added lead tape to my racquet, this stuff works very well! Within reason of course. I was pretty arm weary and kind of flat today, I should have taken a recovery day. I did hit some nice serves and good ground strokes. More good news is that I am able to jog again with good form and endurance. What baffles me is that I can cycle for 46 miles @ approx 20mph average speed on a non windy day and feel great. Make me jog a half a mile and I felt like I was going to have a heart attack! My heart rate was 185 per minute and still I felt like I was going to die! I haven't played good competitive handball in about 2.5 years but I remember jogging 7 miles to Walmart to buy a new bicycle on Long Island when I was playing handball. To make a long story short I introduced jump rope to my workouts. I jogged a total of 1.5 miles with my dogs, in good form. That translates to me incorporating more footwork drill into my training, as well as "road fun" (instead of "road work") nothing is better than knowing that you can carry your own weight!

Racquet Science Article

This is an excellentreference for racquets ........click me

Selecting A Winning Tennis Racquet

This is an excellent article!

The Importance of Warming Up

Yesterday I had the opportunity to watch Earl M warm up with his partner. It was a basic warm up drill for players that I forgot. It went i this sequence basically:
volley to volley, half volley (little game), mid-court to baseline to baseline. I used to drill like this all of the time! The "little game" can be LOTS of fun if you try for points or the most rallies without a mistake. Then move it to mid-court and you are working on your mid-court game.

Days 26 and 27!

On day 26 I had an excellent day doing the drill I saw on the tapes. I also served a good bunch of balls with my new Prince tennis racquet. I like the smaller size of the Prince but it's too damn light! I met another tennis pro named Wayne, he's my age and has a similar mindset as myself regarding the game of tennis. I got into a nice groove yesterday and it paid off today on day 27.
Today I scrounged up loose change and turned it in and it came out to $34.00! The ball machine rental only costs $18.00 per hour! Why did I turn in change? So I wouldn't get into too much trouble with the ole lady ;) I met this other pro at Owl Creek Tennis also named Wayne, he had drill sessions on Tuesdays and Thursdays at night time for only $15.00 , after another session on the ball machine, I am going to do this. Even though I had this light Prince racquet(which I am contemplating returning for the Wilson one for now) I was hitting some good shots and generally making some nice strokes. The ball machine is a VERY valuable tool, if you want a workout that almost kills you it will give it to you! If you want an easy groove workout it will give that to you as well. Needless to say, I had to play with the new toy and I am cramping up as I type! I turned the machine from 55 to 70 mph, I hit better on the 70mph, because it doesn't give me too much time to think and I just execute the technique instinctively. I have to say that it was the best $18.00 that I have ever spent. I am going to cut down , now I am going to quit eating any fast food and stop getting my wonderful Guiness Extra Stout sold by the pint and put that into renting that ball machine. My main goal is to buy one, that is battery operated, so I can take it to the free public courts and use it and give lessons.
Wayne, the pro I met in Chesapeake gave me a good education on the newer racquets, I appreciate it.
I also discussed doing drills with Mike P today. After I did an hour and fifteen minutes on the ball machine, I hit with Mike at Red Wing, my footwork and consistency SUCKED! The wind was the main factor for this, but you have to adapt to the weather conditions! Anyway I hope this drill idea works out and I think it will.

Days 24 & 25

Day 24 was a nice day. I worked on technique and power yesterday. After an hour and 1/2 on the handball wall, I was lucky enough to hit with a real player. I'll call him Mike P. I saw him hit against the wall and I thought he was a teaching pro, he has nice hand eye coordination and strokes. We had a good time hitting the ball, my racquet was warped and busted from Monday's serve session at Indian River high school but I still hit and had good results. My main nemesis was my footwork and that I need to move forward into the ball. Mike was hitting some good balls, his main problem is putting pressure on himself to hit the shot in the court. This is my problem as well. Many tennis players get to be too polite and want to hit the perfect shot, thus putting pressure on themselves in a regular practice session or a real match. My dad always stressed meeting the ball and just swinging and worry about the shots being in later. The next time Mike and get together to hit, I will make sure to set a precedent or one rule, NO SORRIES! We both know that we each want to hit the shot in the court, so we should drop the sorries and figure the correct way to hit the shot and move on.
After work etc, I watched a good video where the pro demonstrated a drill to hit ground strokes from all over the court, this was my rest and flexibility day so I decided to work on that drill and practice my serves and aiming at my targets(ball cans and plastic water bottles. Everything went well, my serving motion was relaxed yet power full at the right moment and I started grooving on my ground strokes. I am ready for the ball machine but I need to create some drill to work on for myself.

Day 22 & 23

Well I am still on a roll and am really starting to have my groove back. I am definitely ready for the ball machine and then ready to hit with the real good players. My main reason for not wanting to hit with a real person yet, is my consistency. On Sunday (day 22) Everything went well, I was hitting hard and accurate. I hit right handed forehands so I could get my two handed backhand back as part of my arsenal. With a onehanded backhand you need to have a lot of stamina in your wrist. With a two handed backhand you have two hands supporting the racquet, thus giving you an advantage on a return of serve etc. Now the one handed backhand is NO slouch and I was loving the power I got out of it on Sunday. I was actually "jumping" or uncoiling into the ball and a nice hard topsin backhand was really developing.

Day 20 and 21!

This was a very rewarding day! I finished my day job and had some time to kill, so I went to the Chesapeake City tennis courts and started to work on some serves on this very windy(15 to 20 mph) and cold(38 degrees F) day. The Chesapeake City courts are VERY nice and FREE! I went to Greenbrier Park. They even have a hitting wall that is very narrow but it will help you with shot placement and consistency, as long as the wind is not blowing from the West.
Well I got in a few good spin serves and a car drove up and the man asked if I wanted to hit while he waited for his student to arrive. He is a Tennis Instructor, who with his I permission I will mention later, so that people who are interested in taking lessons from him may contact him. He is from Hampton but obviously will come down to the South side to teach. Yes I digress. I told him that if he didn't mind that many of my shots will be wild until I warm up, and that I would greatly appreciate hitting with him. Well true to form because of this being the second person I have hit with so far and mix adrenaline etc, I was accurate in my reply to him. The balls were wild, but not as bad as I pictured it. He made some observations about my game that helped me drastically. Now I must say that you can be a coach or a pro and you can diagnose your own game, but it sure helps to hear someone else say it! He said I have smooth and nice strokes and I do, I am a stroker.... all the sports I have played since tennis have been stroking sports in one way or another this included handball mostly, then paddle ball and racquetball and some ping pong. Most of my motor muscle memory for stroking comes from handball and my timing comes from these sports as well. The timing in all of the other stroke sports that I mentioned, are faster than tennis, due to:

A: Shorter court in all of those sports, so the ball comes back VERY quickly.
B: In racquet ball and paddle ball, the racquets and paddle add a LOT of energy to that blue ball.
C: In good competitive handball, the timing is quicker than tennis as well! I can hit a handball faster than most people can hit a tennis ball. (I am by far NOT the only handball player that can do that!)

So when you are used to such quick ball return times, you look a little skittish on a tennis court, at least speaking for myself. With that in mind, much of my problem was a timing issue.
Let's get back to the instructor, he told me that my timing was the issue and he was 100% correct. He told me to come under the ball more he was 100% correct again, see much of the other stroke sports that I mentioned previously you tend to hit over the ball for rollers etc. Those same shots are NET shots in Tennis! I am going to call that instructor on Monday and thank him. I took yesterday off from hitting but I watched tennis on the Tennis Channel and watched some Tennis videos, went to a fun but "dry" party, came back home and practiced about 200 strokes or so and watched this video Easy Tennis you may be able to see my review, I gave it four stars because it immediately help me realize the other part of my game that was missing. This is the "hitting zone" or "striking zone" and it takes "timing" (and of course footwork etc) to be able to hit the ball in the "zone". I went out in 38 degree weather today and practiced against the wall for an hour and a half today and had fun. I applied the principles I learned from the Instructor I hit with, and from the aforementioned video. I felt at about 75% percent of my old self today, I could hit high balls and apply different spins etc when I "met" the ball in my "zone". I ended off hitting a high ball (which just the other day gave me trouble) hard with topspin cross court. I also included hitting with my right hand forehand. I am doing this for two reasons; one main reason is so I can develop a good two handed backhand. I was watching the Davis Cup yesterday and it was a repeat of Russia vs Argentina, look at the two handed backhands of those guys, many times it seems that the right hand is just along for the ride while they do a forehand with their left hand chocked up a little on the racquet. The second reason it for "body balancing, I like to teach the other side the same skill, I feel it helps with the development of your dominant side as well. For instance when I played handball and went to a strange court or played strangers, I would serve with my right hand (I'm left handed) then they would hit to my left dominant hand and I'd put it away in many cases. I golf(hack) righty and when I would bat in baseball or street hockey I was righty as well. I know I can use this as an advantage in tennis as well. I know I said two but another reason is that if I want to teach people, most people are, righty's so I like to look at things from a righty's perspective.
Key things I have learned and applied today:
TIMING is an important part of tennis, I need to slow my head down a little and actually relax.

THE STRIKING/HITTING ZONE!: I know everyone is told to "hit the ball out in front of you", my problem was that at times I was hitting too out in front of me and at a part of the stroke that was not conducive of making a good and consistent shot.
I need to:
WATCH the ball more.
Remember timing and hitting zone
Develop my footwork
I will develop my footwork through drills and "shadow tennis" and drive my wife crazy.

Build A Kick Serve

This is a pretty nice set of articles.


"If you want a big kick serve, you have to develop it OFF THE COURT. Why? Because a kick serve requires, above all, proper body stretch and positioning and getting the racket and arm in the right position before launching UPWARD. You must stretch the proper muscles out off the court and get into the final racket position over and over again, getting the feel for this fully stretched position.

The mistake that almost everyone makes is they think it's all about racket head speed. All their focus is on the racket. That is COMPLETELY incorrect. You can swing your racket as fast as you want, but if your racket and body don't get into the proper launch position, NOTHING else you do will matter. You must get into the launching position first. That has to precede everything else you do. Rest of Article"

Some Forehands Of Note

Day19

Man O Man! One day you have and one day you don't! It's frustrating to me to have my mind know what to do and it's frustrating to be able to do such nice strokes during "air tennis", only to have a brain fart as soon as I step on the court! I had a slow start but a great finish today. It's all about having fun and being patient to find your "groove" for your strokes. I have a definite goal and I set a deadline so I am putting a little pressure on myself, but that's ok, I need that and work better under pressure.
Key points from today's workout:
swing from the shoulder!
keep the wrist cocked in that good position!
bend your knees
simplify the backswing and use economy of motion!
BALANCE
FOOTWORK DRILLS

Day 18!

Today I went out for just an hour, I started off with serves. To preface this there are 2 new developments: I subscribed to get the Tennis Channel and my beloved got to get the Soap Channel! All for only $6.95 per month more! Well there was only 1 hour of tennis to 3 hours of Soap channel, well until she fell asleep at night! This was a good move in reality. I also watched 3 tennis videos covering the serve. I am going to post links to these and actually make articles regarding the aforementioned tapes. Everyone needs a refresher course and things change but they also stay the same, one guy on a tape says "you really don't want to try to scratch your back like they used to say" but then when he does the motion he "scratched his back" with the racquet! He probably meant how some people took it to the extreme but in my opinion "scratch your back" is still there. On instructor said it was like throwing a ball and the other said it was like hammering a nail. I agree with a combination of the two. I would recommend watching the three tapes and trying it out and coming up with your own conclusion. One guy demonstrated serving from the service box and progressing to the baseline....I like this drill and I tried it and it helped considerably, I will warm up this way all of the time now. I am going to find those little cones soon, so I can make targets.
When I was younger I was very GUNG HO when I tried to learn something, I used to do what I called saturation training......repetition and new techniques and strategies. Now as an older person, I have been a little more patient, but still a little gung ho. When I was younger i would have just banged out a bunch of serves at 100% till I got tired and got my groove. When I first started serving this years I started out the same way, but now I am going to ease into my strokes and groove into my strokes. It took me half the time to groove on the wall today as well! I watched a video on Agassi's forehand and Federer's backhand on tennis.com which you will also see a link to later. Even though I was having a few beers yesterday and took it off I was still practicing the strokes in the air, man Cindy is one patient and supportive woman! One thing I have noticed is that just like playing air guitar, air tennis is easy! But grab a real guitar or hit a real ball and it's a whole different animal in some ways. High balls give me trouble for now (when I was younger and playing it, I attacked these balls or hit these type of balls on the rise) but as I was air stroking I gave myself auditory cues with each swing like: high ball, medium ball, low ball, with each corresponding stroke. This worked very well. When I served I said "one smooth motion" and "throw the ball", this worked as well. Another thing I did was to slow myself down and serve at about 65% and sometimes 75% and 100% when I lose discipline for now. End result was more consistency and more spin and I felt good mentally and physically.
Things I will work on tomorrow:
1: Stretching and flexibility (I will stretch tonight as well)
2: Stroke production: follow through, different spins, WRIST AND BODY POSITIONING, swing with shoulder.
3: FOOTWORK I need to be on my toes more, ironically I hit on the run pretty well. But I feel like I have lead feet.
4: Cut out the things that make me gain weight, this will be a weaning process, but i don't work out well that way, it needs to be all or nothing with me.
5: Spin serves again: My serve workout was good today but I need to work on the TOSS, BODY AND FOOT POSITION, AND WATCHING THE RACQUET HIT THE BALL.

Day 17

Saturday was a fun 3 hour training session! My strokes and shots were working sooner. My serve was more consistent and hard, what could be better? When I first arrived I was pretty peeved to see Redwing Park crowded with a soccer tournament, I think it was the "Old Dominion Soccer Tournament". It seemed like it featured mostly junior HS players. I was peeved because I thought I was not going to be able to park nor play. As luck would have it there was a parking spot open right in front of the tennis courts....reserved for me! There was one well four or more hitches; kids playing soccer and generally going wild on the other side of the wall, their ball kept coming over and I started feeling a little grouchy about it until I asked myself ; "what were you like when you were that age???", then I smiled and laughed to myself and just relaxed and welcome the distractions. As a rule most tennis players I used to run into , hate outside noises. Years of handball helped me adjust to it, so I took that into consideration and got into a good groove hitting the ball and dodging the occasional soccer ball flying over the wall and almost nailing me! But I got my revenge because I am still not that consistent and they almost got nailed with a couple of tennis balls whizzing by them at approx 70mph! Well , they were polite and energetic young men and I was glad to see there are still some active children in this new generation. Many other kids are planted in front of the tv playing video games and are generally inactive. Anyway , these kids saw that I was just an "older kid" and they asked if they could play dodge ball with me hitting tennis balls at them! I thought about it for a second , and thoughts like; "is some kid's father going to come over here and try to deck me for taking his kid out with a tennis ball?", but I was already there for about 2 hours and people saw and heard how I was hitting the ball when there were no kids there. So I said ok, they thought I was hitting the ball at them(3 kids then 4 kids then they rotated in a group of about 8 of them) but I felt more like a knife thrower at a carnival, I was hitting the ball at about40 to 50% and hitting it to the side of them and above their heads etc. Sometimes I slipped and sometimes they slipped but it was fun for them and fun and an EXCELLENT learning experience for me. Then they realized that I was not trying to hit them and I admitted to it, so then they were trying to swat the balls I hit against the wall and I had to avoid that, and I would hit it at about 60% and a little flat to make them dodge it a little bit. That little experience helped me become more consistent, deal with distractions, and get into a relaxed groove with my ground strokes. Then it evolved into them wanting to try to hit with my racquet against the wall, I gladly let them do it as I was done with my workout and started to "bonk" a little because I didn't eat. I gave them pointers and they started catching on pretty well then I get a call to come home and I told the kids I had to go, I felt bad because they were getting into it and I gave them an old racquet and some balls to use and keep and I went home. I really appreciated that learning experience I wish them and their families health, happiness, and success.

My 16th Day

Yesterday the day of wind and rain, I was out there against the handball wall. It was a lot of fun I am becoming more and more consistent, just my warm ups are crap. It takes me about 10 minutes now the get a good bead on the ball and my strokes flowing....when I first started it was a 1/2 hour before that happened so there is progress. Mainly it just reprogramming my motor memory and skills. Tennis is a game that relies heavily on rhythm and timing. So little things help out like the "bounce" if you watch people playing tennis and warming up you see them bounce on their toes and hit the shot and bounce again. This is a timing and mobility tool. Whenever I am messing up I make sure to bounce and not be on the heels of my feet, where most of the mistakes happen. Another basic I keep reminding myself of is Welby Van Horn's 3 H's Hips, Heal, and Head. Turn your hips into the shot then your rear heal to support the rotation of your hips and then your head AFTER you hit the shot. These 3 keys are your basics and nucleus of the stroke. We had a nice warm streak now it's back to somewhat cold weather training, now I am off to the courts for a 3 hour workout, if I can last that long.My immediate goals are:
1: ball machine practice (I need to earn that by having good consistency on the wall)
2: partners to play with (I have a few already, but I just wanted to be more consistent for them as well)
3: CamCorder (so I can video tape myself and eventually use it as a tool to give tennis lessons)

My Seventh Day

I am hitting a little bit more consistently and with good power. People are amazed when I tell them i haven't played tennis in about 13 years. I know originally I said 20 years but I was a little bit off because I remembered playing tennis with my dad after I got out of the Army for about a year or so before emphysema got the best of my father and he couldn't play. So that would be close to about 18 or 19 years since I played seriously. I know I have picked up the racquet sporadically as recently as 1993, but by then tennis was not in the picture, it was all handball and martial arts(which I have also studied since I was 8 or so).
Back to the tennis, I got to play on the court with an actual person and boy it felt great! We were having excellent rallies and hitting some hard shots, he was surprised when I told him about my time off of playing tennis, he said it looked like I have been playing for a long time. It was great to see my instincts take over, this is the way any sport should be played, when you have good basics and lot's of repetition.

My First Day

My first day back was a mixture of happiness and frustration. The happiness I had was that I wasn't doing so bad, the frustration came from making amateur mistakes that I know are wrong mentally, but couldn't do consistentantly on the physical level at the time.I have always had a power/finesse punch court game similiar to Andre' Agassi (on his worse day and a broken arm), this translated to my handball play as well and actually handball has bought it out more. I love angles and down the line shots, my approach shots tend to be winners, as i am not a "serve and volleyer". Also part of my arsenal would be passing shots and offensive lobs. In sports like handball, paddleball, squash and racquet ball many or most of your "winners" and clutch shots tend to be rollers and down on the wall, in tennis that equals the net! This is the major adjustment I have to make. One note I must make is, as of this writing I am on day 12 of hitting against the handball wall.

Hello

This blog is going to be my journal about regaining skills that I almost squandered away with time. It has been a good 20 years since I played tennis seriously. My Father was the real tennis great in our family. He could have and should have been a professional tennis player. Since I was 5 I had a racquet in my hand. We didn't have "junior racquets" back then , so my dad just sawed off the shaft a little bit on an old racquet and then grip taped it and "voila!" I had a junior racquet.
To make a long story short, I was rebellious, hard headed, not focused, and in some respects, let my Father down with regard to tennis. He had aspirations of greatness for me. I was sent to tennis camps(Welby Van Horn's in Connecticut) and clinics and pros, high school,the Army, and college. I have a wealth of tennis knowledge which I am going to and want to share with people. Welcome to my blog and personal journey to redeem myself in this sport. Thank God I am only 40 and in fairly good shape. I have not been that far away from tennis, I always watched it and I have been playing other ball sports like Handball, racquetball, paddle ball, squash and some tennis. I have always been a dominant force in NYC in regard to handball. Ironically what led me astray from Tennis was handball because most of my friend's back home played Handball. Now what bought me back to Tennis is that I can beat all 11 handball player's here in Va Beach, and more people play Tennis down here and not handball! I've been down here for over four years and have done thousands of mile of cycling, now I am looking forward to my old love..........Tennis.