Bigger Better Tennis - Paul Dale

Many years ago I was watching a match in Japan between Andres Gomez and Aaron Krickstein. I was sitting close to the court and realized that I was watching something very different from anything I had ever seen before.   I was watching a table tennis rally!   Both Gomez and Krickstein were trying to produce a rally that was dominated by the flight of the ball rather than where the ball was bouncing . They were controlling the ball inside a tight “funnel” of arc through the use of topspin. Today that might seem normal but back then it was the beginning of a new era in tennis. Long before this, Bjorn Borg had changed our perception of topspin in tennis.   Borg hit the ball with much more arc than any other player at that time and years later while watching   that match in Japan I was witnessing the beginning of a post Borg era. The younger players coming through such as Krickstein and Jimmy Arias were hitting tremendous topspin on the ball and in the pr...

  Knowing when to attack or defend is crucial Playing tennis is a little like a car. The engine will drive you forward but without a means to change gears or steer the car, there’s no real way to use the car in a purposeful manner.   Many players, particularly in the women’s game rely solely on how hard they can hit the ball.   The faster the better.   It’s all about the engine! When I watch a tournament, the players that catch my eye are those who can change from offense to defense and understand which shot is the most appropriate for the situation.   This ability to change gears and understand the shot required is a difficult lesson to teach as it has nothing to do with stroke mechanics but instead requires a player to learn instinctiveness under a variety of situations. The best theory I know to teach this instinctiveness and one I have used for many years is The DNO Theory. The DNO Theory helps a player understand the correct shot to hit under vary...