Bigger Better Tennis - Paul Dale

The best players use rituals to help them perform Everyone responds to events in different ways. Dropping a glass of water can make us angry, shocked, and frustrated or could even become a catalyst for laughter. It all depends on the person and how dropping that glass of water makes them feel.   Like thousands of other events throughout your day, dropping that glass of water is a CUE that creates an action.  In his bestselling book “The Power of Habit” author Charles Duhigg calls the action that follows a Cue  a Routine . He states that while the Cue is the same for everyone, it’s in the routine that you see the differences in people. Watch a game of tennis and you will see all the same cues. You will observe a player who is fatigued, some matches are more important than others, poor line calls occur, a player will go down a break of serve and another will go up a break of serve. These are all cues that evoke a routine. Many of these routines are destructive...

RE-DIRECTING THE BALL DOWN THE LINE IS DIFFICULT BUT CAN HAVE HUGE REWARDS  DESCRIPTION One of the scariest things you do in tennis is to change the direction of the ball and hit down the line off a ball coming from cross-court. You are attempting to re-direct the ball to another angle which requires considerable skill. It’s much easier going back cross-court because you are hitting through the same line. If you can execute the down the line shot well during the rally it’s a big plus to your game because it stops your opponent getting too comfortable with your shot selection, they will now have to worry about the unexpected change of direction – something few players can do that well. Here are the key things to focus on when going down the line (backhand and forehand). 1.       The position of your feet: o   The best way to change direction, either down the line or cross-court, is to change your contact point. Many...