Bigger Better Tennis - Paul Dale

You often hear the phrase "take the ball on the rise" in coaching. It's used to encourage the player to step in and take the ball with some weight transfer, and "taking it on the rise' seems  to help the player time the ball better. But what happens when the player can't achieve "stepping in"?  I coach advanced players and relative beginners. If I told an advanced player to "step in" and take every ball "on the rise", they would see me as crazy. At an advanced level, stepping in and taking the ball on the rise every time is impossible. The speed and depth of the ball mean that often, the ball dictates what you do, not you, so stepping in and taking the ball on the rise is simply impossible.  Likewise, telling a beginner to take every ball on the rise will only lead to frustration. They can only do it on some balls. The problem with trying to teach the "ideal" technique is that  there is no  such thing as the "ideal

So much time is spent by players working on their groundstrokes, yet in my opinion the Return of Serve is a bigger factor in winning matches. If each player is dominating with their service games during a match, it's up to the Return Of Serve to create the break of serve to  win the  match. The Return of Serve is the key to unlocking tight matches.                                       THE GOAL WHEN RETURNING SERVE Your goal when Returning Serve is consistency. You want to get as many balls back to start the rally as possible.  Put yourself in the Server's shoes for a moment. You've been serving really well and landing lots of first serves, but your opponent keeps making their returns and forcing you to engage in the point. What should they do? Do they change something or continue to play the same? Whichever course of action the Server takes, you have managed to get into their head, create doubt and influence their decision-making. When you are returning the Serve...  Aim

Poor footwork will significantly impact your ability to hit your ground stroke targets accurately, and y our ground stroke game will never reach its full potential if left untouched. There are two main components involved in the relationship between your Footwork and your Ground strokes: THE TECHNIQUE To achieve consistency and accuracy in your ground strokes, you must set up the ability to hit each ball with balance, timing, and inertia. Achieving these three elements allows the racquet-head to work through the ball uninhibited and without contamination.  This is all hitting great ground strokes involves, but each element is fundamental to achieving a controlled and powerful stroke. Let's break each element down separately; Any lack of balance creates contamination because if you are falling uncontrollably during the stroke, the path of the racquet is affected (contaminated). A solid platform allows you to execute the stroke smoothly and consistently. Any lack of timing during t

MISTAKES IN TRAINING During matches, all players face repercussions for their errors from the first point. There's no "play it again" or "continue the rally" in real match-play so don't allow for it into your practice session. Players must face repercussions for any mistakes they make in  practice , otherwise, they'll get lazy. I detest when players want to continue playing if the ball goes a little out during practice drills or points. Their reasoning is that continuing the rally or the point makes for a better practice. That's the wrong way to look at it. An important goal of any practice session should also be to create a stronger mentality for upcoming matches. That means adding pressure, decision-making, and unpredictability to your sessions. Look for any way you can to achieve this, it's really important! Reproducing the mentality of real match-play during practice sessions is one of the most important ingredients of my training   I like

All advanced tournament-level players have reached a high degree of technical proficiency, which has played a significant role in getting them to where they are now.  However, as an advanced tournament-level player, it's important for you to constantly look for other ways to refine and improve your game. There will be areas where slight enhancements or adjustments can lead to further improvements in performance. One such area, and my favorite recommendation for most players, is the mental and strategic side of our game. It's there that you will make the most dramatic improvement in your tournament results. Try to stay open-minded. While the Mental and strategic side of the game can seem daunting, confusing, and even scary to some players, this is where the real opportunities for growth exist.  LOOK AT SIMILAR SPORTS I often compare tennis to boxing. The two sports are very similar. Both involve offense and defense. Both are one on one (except in tennis Doubles) encounters that

Although the top male and female players in our game are mostly  baseliners, all of them have developed ways to conclude the point, to finish. If you haven't found ways to take opportunities during the rally and finish points on your terms, you're going to be using a lot of extra physical and mental energy to win points. Here are 4 ways to help you shorten the points and finish sooner. CREATE AN INSIDE FOREHAND An "Inside" ball is a term from Paul Wardlaw's "The Directionals" theory. It describes a ball which comes towards your body, and doesn't pass your outside shoulder. Whenever your opponent hits "Outside" your far shoulder (cross-court) you're under pressure because the ball is always moving away from you.  Inside balls however, give you options to dictate the rally by either hitting cross-court or inside-out to add pressure to your opponent. Whenever your opponent gives you an inside ball take advantage of it and start to apply p

It's not uncommon for players to play extremely well throughout a match but for various reasons fail to win the important points.  The important points in a match are the break points, game points, and set points. If, for whatever reason you are not converting these opportunities it's very tough to win matches. Players often change their mindset for the important points and suddenly do things out of character. While they might have been playing calm, intelligent tennis for most of a set, when they get to the "business end" of the set they suddenly decide to play risky shots that they weren't attempting before.  To see a player suddenly change to risky low percentage shots at the most important times in the match is a coach's worst nightmare Establish Patterns Early: Start analyzing your opponent during the warm-up, and continue observing her throughout the match, just in case adjustments to your strategy are needed. Look for obvious strengths and weaknesses ba

If you're like most players , you've probably been tweaking your ground strokes by focusing on the top half of your body. The grip, the back-swing, the follow-through, and even the angle of your shoulders are probably just a few of the things you've tried to adjust in an effort to improve your groundstroke game. However, greater gains can be made on your ground-strokes by focusing on the lower half of your body. There's a technique you can use whenever you hit your ground strokes that, if done correctly, will give you perfect timing, balance, increased power and improve your consistency.  Here's what to implement during your next practice session. THE LINE Next time you're on the court, imagine a Line running from the top of your head and continuing down through your body to the ground. If you're standing straight upright, that imaginary Line will be positioned equally between both feet, but as you sway your torso to the left or the right, forward or backwar