Bigger Better Tennis - Paul Dale

Deep balls that land on or near the baseline demand special skills DESCRIPTION: For some, perhaps one of the most difficult groundstrokes is the deep ball that lands on or near the baseline. Martina Hingis was very good at taking the ball off the bounce, often choosing to stand her ground on deep balls and return the ball with excellent timing.  I asked her once how she learnt to hit this type of ball so well.  She told me that as a youngster her mother would sprinkle objects just behind the baseline, making it almost impossible to step back for deep balls.  This had developed her ability to coordinate this very difficult ball.  THE DRILL If you are having trouble with balls that land deep and that give you little time to move back, try a similar drill to the one that helped Martina Hingis. I’m sure you spend a lot of time hitting from the baseline during practice.  Next time you practice, spend some of your baseline practice by keeping your feet inside t...

Why is Nadal so successful and how can he be beaten? Until last year Nadal was the king of clay, winning the 2010 Monte Carlo Open with the loss of only 13 games during the entire tournament.  Clearly Nadal is doing something very right when he plays on clay. Let’s look and see what Nadal is doing so well on clay and how he can be beaten.  firstly, we must consider the way players have been trying to beat Nadal over the last few years The most comon tactic is for players to try and pressure Nadal.  During the 2008 French Open final Roger Federer tried to shorten the points and attack Nadal by changing out of the crosscourt exchange and hitting down the line as quickly as possible.  He also came to net to volley whenever the opportunity presented itself.  The theory was that Nadal is too strong from the baseline and trying to out rally him is pointless.  Unfortunately for Federer the result was one of the most one sided finals in years, and he eventual...

Back in the 80s, players like Ivan Lendl and Martina Navratilova embarked on nutritional regimes that were considered extreme but would later become the norm. A little later, players began adopting more scientific fitness programs that would take us to where we are today, with players now able to sustain a high work rate in matches for long periods of time. In my opinion, “the next frontier” for coaches and players to conquer in tennis is strategy. I’m not talking about the current levels of strategy seen at the top of our game. I’m talking about a systematic approach to strategy that includes analyzing an opponent’s strengths and weaknesses and designing a systematic strategy to exploit this knowledge in the match. The Analysis: Over the years, I have used a system of spotting strengths and weaknesses that has worked well for me.  I look at an opponent in terms of 8 opposites… 1.      Fast v Slow (Speed of the ball) 2.      High v L...

   " The most important line in tennis is the  imaginary L ine from your head to  your contact foot."   This line creates the smooth effortless power, timing and consistency that the pros possess and that we all envy. Let’s look at the Head & the Contact Foot separately… YOUR HEAD Your Head is a centre point for balance. If the head is inside your two feet, you are balanced. If your head is outside either the left or right foot you are off balance.  Therefore controlling the head position is important, especially in a dynamic sport like tennis where we are faced with a series of complex movements quickly.  At the moment of contact the head is positioned between two feet Disciplining the head leads to consistency of timing THE CONTACT FOOT The Contact Foot is the foot you use to interact with the ground and create inertia. Nature doesn’t care which foot you use, it can be the “back” foot or the “front” foot, nature just want...

In talking about a scientist who was born in 1643 I run the risk of losing my audience very early in this article. However Sir Isaac Newton’s theories are important and help clarify for us the essential laws governing tennis.  The most important of Newton’s theories related to tennis is his 3 Laws of Motion . Here are Newton’s 3 Laws of Motion, explained in a way that both coaches and players can immediately incorporate into practice sessions… 1. The Law of Inertia “ An object at rest will remain at rest unless acted on by an unbalanced force. An object in motion continues in motion with the same speed and in the same direction unless acted upon by an unbalanced force ” . This highlights the fact that in tennis, the ball (object) doesn’t have to be stroked in order to achieve your goals.  Strokes such as the return of serve and the volley can be directed to the target with minimal swing and by merely using the already existing inherent energy present in the ball. The abi...

Paul Dale: BIGGER BETTER TENNIS: MEETING THE NEW ZEALAND PRIME MINISTER: 1986 : The phone went in my hotel room and the receptionist at the Tennis Centre informed me that there was a man wanting to speak with me.

Many coaches are involved in the daily task of developing junior tennis players to reach the top of the game.  A very important question for those involved in junior development is “When we develop junior players for the future, what in essence are we trying to develop”? What is the goal? A simple question with profound implications to the way we approach each on-court session. For years my goal or mission statement when training junior players was to create a player with “Perfect Defense on Wood, and Perfect Offense on Clay”.  Think about that, defense on the fastest surface and offence on the slowest surface. Probably the fastest surface you can play on is a wooden floor indoors. Think of the problems you are faced with on fast wood.  · Returning serve: requires exceptionally fast reflexes and compact strokes · Teaches a player the skills of staying relaxed enough in the hands to adapt quickly, but firm enough on contact to stabilize the racquet ·   Fast ...