Bigger Better Tennis - Paul Dale

WHAT SEPARATES GOOD PLAYERS FROM GREAT  PLAYERS AND  CAN WE TRAIN IT SPECIFICALLY? DESCRIPTION For many years I have traveled with some exceptional players.  The very best of these players reached top 10 ATP and top 20 WTA rankings.  It was during these trips that I began to notice a certain quality that distinguished exceptional players from merely very good players. I began to notice that regardless of the circumstances, these few exceptional players would come on-court, either in practise or for competitive matches and strike the ball cleanly and without error immediately. It would also continue from the first ball until the last ball. This may not sound that unusual but this would happen regardless of time, place, weather, occasion or equipment issues.   It occurred to me that if I could find a way to develop this ability by a systematic training process I could be training the very essence of what holds back very good players from becoming exceptional players.

CREATING MOVEMENT INTO THE COURT AFTER THE SERVE DEMONSTRATES THAT ENERGY IS FLOWING IN THE CORRECT DIRECTION DESCRIPTION In both men’s and women’s tennis the serve has become an extremely offensive weapon.  In today’s game if you can’t win free points with your serve you will struggle to win matches against the best players.  The most noticeable change has been within the women’s game where the top women players now have extremely offensive serves compared to only 5 years ago. When you attempt to hit bigger serves you need to propel your whole body forward and into the shot through the use of the legs.   I have noticed that when players practice out of a basket they nearly always position the basket behind them at the baseline.  This makes sense if you don’t want to walk far to get the next ball.  However it can also create a bad habit of serving and stopping the forward momentum after hitting the ball. The player will limit the forward movement after serving bec

Deep balls are unavoidable so better to learn how to handle them when they come DESCRIPTION: For some, perhaps one of the most difficult ground-strokes 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 keeping your feet