Bigger Better Tennis - Paul Dale

As a coach, I've always believed in allowing my students to develop their own games naturally as much as possible. I often provide the lead but later I like to see my players find solutions to their own problems. I design the lesson plan, create the most appropriate drills for the topic and provide feedback whenever necessary.  However, once all this is successfully taking place on the practice court it's often best for me to literally take a step back and allow players the freedom of self-discovery. The only time I seldom let this happen is when I'm teaching the Volley. I find that most players have a warped idea of how the Volley should work. Perhaps this is because they've watched the pros volley on TV and feel they now understand how it should be performed and can easily imitate what they saw.  If left to their own devices the vast majority of students would flounder around in lessons trying to perfect their volley game over a long period of time.  Because of the ...

WHO EARNS AN A+ ON THE FIRST WEEK? The outstanding male players from the first week were undoubtedly Djokovic and Nadal. They continue to march forward in dominant form and look odds on favorites to be contesting for the Singles title next weekend. They have been focused, recorded comfortable wins, and have been generally extremely consistent in each match; just as you would expect from them. But if our two most experienced players have been predictable up until now, much of the first week at Roland Garros has been anything but predictable.  There have been both good and bad surprises during the first week which have given us plenty to talk about. Qualifiers Sebastian Korda, Hugo Gaston, and 17-year-old Dane Clara Tauson all made it through to the main draw and were able to record solid wins.  Coco Gauff was disappointing this year, as was Wawrinka and Daniil Medvedev. Gauff recorded 19 double faults in her 2nd round loss, an extraordinary number of double faults for a ...