Contrasting/Similar Game Styles

I turned on the Aussie Open to find Maria Kirilenko down a set and a break to Zheng Jie, both players are counter punchers, that's how they both got to the Quarterfinals, being backboards and mixing up spins and speeds to throw off their opponents.  Something happens when you play someone with a similar game style, you either love it or you really hate it.  This was an example of a match where one player hated playing against the same game style, Kirilenko wasn't comfortable playing a counter punching Jie, so she tried to play a different game style, one she wasn't comfortable with, one that hadn't gotten her to where she was, she tried to overpower Jie.  Kirilenko forced the issue and it got her a nice butt-kicking, because Jie was very content playing her game, getting her 80mph serve in and just being solid from the baseline, and Kirilenko wanted no part of the patience game.  She went away quickly 6-1, 6-3 and probably is still wondering how she got destroyed by the smaller Jie, and the answer is easy, once you go outside of your game, and try to do more, you instantly put more pressure on your strokes, and it's not a strategy that you've been practicing everyday, such a drastic change is really uncalled for, because it's not who you are.  Players that stick with their game, and make subtle changes that actually are within their skill level are the players that will be more successful, as they will have much more confidence in what they're doing because they don't need to change their mindset.

Adversely the Roddick vs. Cilic match pits two very different players together, you have the American Machine in Andy Roddick that blasts serves in and tries to put holes through your racket with his forehand, and then you have the European artist, Marin Cilc that has a much more complete, much smoother game that can combine power and finesse.  In the beginning Roddick was trying to play high percentage tennis, work the point, pick his spots, find his way into the net, while Cilic just stayed calm and played his game, he had a couple loose forehands, but he stayed with his game, and BOOM, he takes a two set to none lead without even wasting half the energy Roddick had.  Roddick's attempt at finesse was unsuccessful, and it was predicated on his inability to get a first serve in and setup the point correctly.  After the shoulder injury timeout, he realized that his shoulder wasn't going to get better, and he wasn't going to last on the court if he kept trying to construct long drawn out points, so he raised his first serve percentage, by moving his serve around the service box, and started playing his game.  Roddick started pounding his groundstrokes to the corners, instead of trying to roll the ball with heavy spin, that game style plays right into what Cilic likes, he's 6'5'' he likes high loopy balls, it gives Cilic time to move that lanky frame around the court and setup.  But in the 3rd and 4th sets, Roddick started hitting through the ball, being more aggressive on 2nd serve returns and short balls, he even started hitting through his backhand, points got shorter and the match rhythm switched in his favor, now Cilic had to play at his tempo, and Cilic was not prepared for it.  Persistence and confidence in what you do best, is the only way to go, unless there's a glaring weakness on the other side of the net, taking the risk of playing a way you're not comfortable with is unwise.  Roddick snapped out his slump and just started playing his game, but now in the 5th, he's back to playing conservative, and now Cilic is back in rhythm.  We'll see what happens!

"Recovery" by Coach Ped Rouhafza

One of the most important fundamentals in tennis is Recovery. I firmly believe, especially at the junior level that many players tend to forget how important recovery really is. Let's put a junior player in a hypothetical situation to help understand what I am talking about. There they are, about to start their match. Player A and Player B have just taken their warm-up serves and they are ready to begin play. Player A serves the first point and a rally has begun. After exchanging several shots back and forth, Player A is pushed out wide and is able to hit an offensive shot down the line. Rather than recovering back to the middle, Player A hangs out in the alley admiring his or her shot. This is where problems arise and must be corrected. Because Player A is admiring the shot that he or she hit, Player B had a great get and was able to hit a cross-court winner because of the open court left by Player A. It is very important to understand that no matter how amazing of a shot you think you have hit and there is no chance of your opponent being able to return it, you should always assume that the ball you hit is coming back. The reason for this assumption is because you will find yourself being in the point longer rather than watching the balls go by as winners. I know for a fact that players will be able to stay in the point longer if they position themselves back on the court rather than hanging out in a specific spot. Once this concept in tennis is understood and practiced thoroughly to make it a habit, junior players at this level will have a major edge over their opponents. Remember, while you are watching your professional tennis idols play, you will never see any of them hang out in one spot after they hit a shot. They will always recovery to stay in the point because their mindset is simple: "Everything is coming back."

"Sportsmanship" by Coach Josh Hallman

My opponent just beat me 6-0, 6-0.

Should I:

A- Throw my Racket

B- Yell very loud so other courts can hear me.

C- Shake my opponents hand, and work on getting stronger.

The answer is pretty obvious but you would be surprised how often we choose A or B. This part of the game is called SPORTSMANSHIP.

SPORTS (tennis) MAN (the person) SHIP (uhh.. a boat?)

The word breakdown is more confusing than the word itself. Sportsmanship is very often over looked. Anyone can play the greatest match of his or her life but it can very easily be forgotten depending your sportsmanship. It is your character, it’s how you handle yourself, it’s how you treat your opponent, and it’s important after a loss OR a win.

We usually think of being a good sport when we lose. But, how many times have we found ourselves taunting our opponent? Sure, we all joke with friends or people we’re familiar with when we play against them in a sport. However, you can’t do that with an unfamiliar player, especially in tennis. Quite simply it’s not what you want done to you, it can hurt your chances of winning, and also hurt your chances of playing again.

If you are a player who likes to storm off of a court and not compliment a good shot from your opponent, so be it. But remember that we see the same people again and again. You don’t want to get a reputation of being a bad sport because people won’t want to play you again, and not playing does not help you get any better at your game, which is the ultimate goal.

How important is the mental aspect of Tennis? EXTREMELY! This ties in with sportsmanship. The way you handle your attitude on a tennis court reflects how your game is played. If you are completely out of control screaming at the person across from you, usually you are missing shots and getting more and more frustrated. However, if you stay in control, and can be aware of a good shot from your opponent your game will stay in control.

Sportsmanship is important in every sport. It’s who you are, and it’s a challenge for yourself to get better. Let your game speak on it’s own, don’t let your negative actions do the talking. Be a good sport, if someone hits a good shot on you… great good job, let him or her know, but learn from what they did and try to make a better shot.

"Split Step" by Coach Jack Tadevosian

So after reading GC’s blog I wanted to get involved and write about the ready position and split step. The ready position is the foundation for all your footwork. As Coach GC was explaining it at last week’s drop in clinic he said the “ready position is an athletic stance” that allows you to move in any direction of the tennis court quickly. For the ready position you want your knees slightly bent and feet shoulder width apart. You must stay on the balls of your feet with heels of the floor and racquet out in front and facing up. Shoulders relaxed! This should center your weight down and allow you to move explosively in any direction of the court. The feeling of the ready position should be almost like sitting on a tall chair. Your eyes should always remain on your opponent or better yet the ball. The ready position ensures you that you’re ready to play. The split step comes in after your ready position. Basically a split step is a small hop you take after you’re ready position. After you take that small hop your weight needs to come down on both of your legs so you can push of explosively to the direction of the tennis ball. For me the split step is like a reset button that tells my body to get ready for the incoming ball. The best time to split step is when your opponent is about to make contact with the ball. Since we do not have superpowers to mind read our opponents shot selection the split step will insure us that we will move in any direction as explosively as possible.

A Theory

I have a theory on why American tennis struggles so much on an international scene, and I believe that it's related to maturity. If you compare an 18 year old American kid with one of these 18 year old international players, the difference between the two would be remarkable, not just in physical appearance, but also in mental/emotional maturity as well. American culture is geared toward microwaveable development, but often doesn't have the capacity to accommodate such rapid growth. Youth in America grow up expecting to have everything by the time they get out of college, everything in their lives is geared toward monetary goals. They can't wait to turn 16 so that they can drive or have their own car, or start working part time to earn money. They can't wait to turn 18 so that they can make their own decisions. They can't wait to turn 21 so they can enjoy being an adult, and that definition of being an adult more often times than not is being able to drink alcohol, or go to bars or clubs. They can't wait to finish college so that they can start working, and they believe that their education will lead them to big money. Adversely what is the rest of the world's youth concerned with? Public transportation in most other countries or major cities in the world is outstanding, so not many of the youth are concerned with owning a car or driving. The legal age in most other countries is 18, so you figure most are drinking by the time their 16, and by the time they're 18 or 19 they're already over binge drinking, whereas here that realization doesn't happen until kids are right in the middle of the college experience or at the tail end of it where their education means the most. When most kids in the U.K. finish high school they're looking forward to traveling, taking that "gap year" to experience the world, instead of rushing into university or rushing to work a 9-5 job. Is money important to them, of course it is, but American society is so materialistic, and its so engrained in our culture that it's going to be hard to break that mentality. I'm not advocating lowering the drinking age, or anything drastic, but I am pleading with everyone to look to experience life and not be so impatient. There is a misperception that making a ton of money right away is the key to happiness, but everything will happen exactly how you want it to if you just take the time to understand what's going on. Now relating all this back to tennis, what is the major criticism of American tennis? None of the players are patient enough to construct points correctly, and rely heavily on their big weapons or athleticism to win matches. Now American tennis is taking a step to develop players on clay so that they do become more patient and learn how to work the court and have more variety, because they believe that the speed of hard courts has attributed to this fast paced smash and win impatient game that has been pervading junior tennis. Patience is an attribute that mature individuals possess. Now let's look at a top player the USTA is developing Donald Young, I just watched him crumble in a match against Lleyton Hewitt in the Aussie Open 2nd round. Does D. Young have talent? Yes, he does, he's got speed, he's got real good groundies, solid volleys, but he doesn't have a huge game. He's been on the tour for almost 5 years now and hasn't really done too much, is it because his game isn't that big, like Isner's or Querrey's, or is it because he just can't handle the pressure he feels from the things outside of the court. The pressure from the USTA expecting him to do better, the expectations of all the sponsors that have stuck with him. How can he perform when he's not truly playing for himself. Some players take a while to mature on the tour, but it seems that it takes American players too long to mature. The generation that preceded this current one, had greatness in its class. Sampras, Agassi, Courier, and Chang, all grand slam champions in their teens or early 20's, and now this generation of American tennis players has only one grand slam champion, Andy Roddick, the rest of the world is dominating the game, the new crop of top ten players in the world are all almost all under 24, and have been doing it consistently for quite sometime now. Nadal, Federer, Del Potro, Djokovic, Monfils, and Murry, all have one thing in common, at age 18 or 19 they made their presence felt on the tour, and are still around, which American players have maintained besides Roddick? I had alluded to this in an earlier post, American tennis hasn't caught up because we got caught up in the Sampras/Agassi era and expected greatness to just happen with the next generation because they were created with the same mold, the same mindset, create players that had bigger better serves and groundstrokes. The game evolved though, the rest of the world caught up to American tennis, Federer happened, Nadal happened, and now Del Potro is happening. They all hit bigger, move better, play the big points better, and handle pressure like icemen. What I saw from D. Young today, was just that a kid that was too young to handle the pressure of taking out an Aussie favorite. He had opportunities, and he definitely has the game to make some moves, but not the maturity to handle the big stage. Maybe he should set his own expectations instead of the ones placed on him by others? Isn't that what great athletes do? Don't they set their own bars of excellence and forget about everyone else's?

Big Man Tennis

I have a lot of respect for players of similar stature to me that are successful at all levels of tennis, but that does not mean I want the athletes I coach to play that way. From personal experience, playing scrappy sideline to sideline counter puncher, consistent back board tennis is too taxing on the body. Does that mean I would implore players that are in the 5'9'' or shorter to try to overpower every opponent they see on the court? No, I want everyone that steps on the court to play smart controlled aggression tennis, where you dictate points with your strengths, and you have no holes in your footwork or movement. I love players that are looking for short balls and want to transition into the net, most players are very reluctant to move forward, but as everyone is starting to hit bigger and bigger groundstrokes and serves, the court gets very small, so you have to look to capitalize and move in before you get angled or hit off of the court. If you don't have the power, then learn how to use drop shots and angles, learn how to mix your game up to keep your opponent out of rhythm. Variety would be useful for all styles of play, especially the shorter player that lacks that power. Some examples for those tennis savvy readers of players that were successful mixing things up are Fabrice Santoro on the men's side, Martina Hingis and Justine Henin on the women's side, the rest of the smaller players just try to grind out points, looping groundstrokes back side to side. Some more relevant examples are John Isner(6'9") played against a player that was 5'7'', Isner was physically tired from his previous round but used his serve and big forehand to overpower the smaller player. He conserved his energy on returns and waited for that one break because he knew his serve wasn't going to be touched. The smaller guy actually won more points total in the match than Isner, but just couldn't win any of the big points to close out games, it is so frustrating to play against a player who has a huge serve and big strokes because you feel so helpless on the other side. Now Juan Martin Del Potro 6'6'' is playing against James Blake 6', and right now Del Po is in control of the first set using his big groundstrokes and serve to make the court look real small for Blake, who doesn't have much variety. Blake hits really flat and through the court and doesn't really mix it up or transition into the net, so he isn't a real threat to Del Po unless his groundstrokes are absolutely on fire. Earlier in the day, Nadal and Roddick won easily by staying in control of all the points and wearing their opponents down to deep heavy groundies. You never felt like either player was in trouble the whole match, and you felt like their opponents could not keep up the pace mentally or physically. Again notice how the seeded players know how to construct points and conserve energy playing efficient winning tennis, while the unseeded/lower ranked players just come out and try to survive. They hit the ball cleanly, and they move alright, but they don't move the ball around like the top players do. There was no teaching today at the club, so it leaves a lot of time for tennis coaches like myself to analyze Aussie Open play, and of course take a break from the sun. It hasn't rained in a few hours, perhaps we'll get a dry morning tomorrow.

Rain or shine?!?!

After sitting through the start of stormy weather at noon today, I figured it was just going to stay that way until Saturday, but I was wrong, the clouds parted, the sun showed its face, and things started to dry. At around 3pm, the courts were still really wet, and were going to stay that way, but 530pm Competitors was still going to happen. Coach Ped and I tried to dry the courts with the rollers that we had available, we got the court somewhat dry, and had class, two kids showed up. I was happy that they came out, and endured the slick courts and listened to all the instruction that Ped and I were giving, and I was really pleased with the results. Competitor's theme was to learn how to drive the ball cross court through the baseline instead of angling the ball off the court into the singles sideline, an advanced drill, but effective if you can master it. Forehands were great, but backhands were a little shaky, but we only needed to tweak both players' footwork, and what they were doing with their hands on that particular side. Result deep backhand rallies crosscourt. Hip loading and the step down are important in learning how to drive the ball deep. Great class, looking forward to the next dry day, hoping the rain doesn't take over. Now watching the Lakers close out a win against the Magic and Roger Federer struggle at the Aussie??!?!?! Early round jitters? His footwork doesn't seem as clean, and at first glance he looks....older. His strokes require so much precision with his footwork, if he's off one step he'll look off balance the whole day. Much like Sharapova looked yesterday, Fed looks to be struggling, Nadal was able to pull off a bad day first round showing, because he wears his opponents down with those high loopy heavy groundstrokes, and he'll just sit out there all day long until you miss. Federer likes to intimidate his opponents, and doesn't like to give them space on the court, and if those pinpoint angles and forehands aren't there, it equals a long day ahead. Wind a factor? Let's not forget that Andreev is out there as well, so he has to play with the elements as well. Let's see what happens.

Early Rounds Australian Open 2010

In college, lineup issues were always a problem before matches, and our coach had a simple solution "Just Win". The top 3 were pretty much set, but the bottom 3 singles spots were up for grabs, and we had to play challenge matches all week to get into the starting lineup, even though we had a lot of talented players, we didn't have the many that were match tough. When things got sticky, there was no question of the fight in any of us, but it was the ability to control our own emotions, controlling those inner demons, and responding to the pressure of the match, and the pressure of pulling through for not just yourself but your team. I ended up pulling out all my challenge matches that week, even though I knew there 2 guys that were probably better than me, and I got that first start, and our first match was against the number 1 team in our conference. We played doubles first, and my partner and I got killed 8-3, then I played my first singles match at the division 1 level and got absolutely obliterated 6-0, 6-0. I couldn't hold my racquet and nothing was working. I was never very good at controlling those match nerves, that's because I practiced the wrong way. I hit too conservatively and depended too much on speed and consistency to grind out points, and at higher levels, that doesn't work, you need weapons, you need point changing strokes, or something that changes the dynamic of the point. I didn't have that, so I make it my mission as a coach to teach my students to be aggressive and hit the ball through the court. So few players are successful at high levels of tennis being counter punchers and retrievers, but at the same token great strokes don't mean anything if you don't know how to construct a point, so keep watching these early rounds at the Australian Open and you'll see in both the men's and women's game the difference between the seeded players and the unseeded players. The great players move and react much better and construct points effectively, playing high percentage tennis. Already a seed has been taken out, Maria Sharapova got taken out by a player who played much higher percentage of tennis, Sharapova's footwork was a little off and that's the difference between winning and losing. Her strokes are very flat and long, and if her footwork isn't great on that particular day, she'll start to spray balls all over the place, just like she did today. Keep watching, more thoughts to come.

New Session, New Year, Life Goes On

Monday January 11, 2010

Pee Wee Plan

Theme: Ball Skills and groundstrokes

Main Draw Plan

Theme: Footwork-Hitting forehands and backhands on the run

Skill: Directing the ball cross court

Game: Cross court points

Competitors

Point Play, bump up bump down games.

Tuesday January 12, 2010

Pee Wee Plan

Theme: Forehands and backhands from the service line

Main Draw Plan

Theme: Forehands and backhands on the run.