Bigger Better Tennis - Paul Dale

Is there a resurgence in the use of underspin in tennis today? Having witnessed years of topspin domination (and underspin neglect), are we finally seeing underspin getting the recognition it deserves? I think we are. For too many years, players have relied almost totally on topspin to attack and defend in points.    This new trend from the top male and female players in tennis may be signalling a new and exciting era for the once-maligned underspin. During this year's French Open, players were mixing in underspin groundstrokes during the rally to keep the ball low and using underpin to help defend the point whenever needed. Underspin is also a key element when playing the drop shot, which we see much more now in rallies, particularly by Novak Djokovic.   "...players today must understand how to technically incorporate under-spin into their game, and just as important when to execute under-spin during the point."    As tennis gets increasingly diverse in its skill com

BECOME AN OUTLIER... I'm not a big fan of attending ITF coaches workshops anymore and here's why. Much of what is presented at these Workshops is standard stuff, and listening repeatedly to similar topics and similar points of view will, unfortunately, stifle your creativity.    Here's what I would suggest. Once you have attended several Workshops already, you should take yourself out of the workshop scene and begin to integrate your new ideas and methodologies from the workshops onto the court, with the long-term goal of developing some of your own philosophies for later. It's important to understand that workshops in themselves are a tool, and that to get the full value from them, the ideas you pick-up at workshops need to be implemented and tested on-court over time.  At the beginning of my coaching career, I joined a tennis company that staffed resorts, hotels, and tennis clubs all around the world. After training with that company for a short time I was dispatche

If you're looking for added inspiration on your tennis journey you need to look no further than the Indian players that have gone before you and that have been successful. Each of the successful Indian players here have created tennis careers based on a few simple yet effective traits. Here are their keys to success: LEANDER PAES Although news of Leander's retirement near the end of the global COVID-19 epidemic was no surprise to anyone, it was perhaps disappointing to all of us that he was not able to go out on his own terms. His "One Last Roar", as he began to call his farewell year on the ATP Tour, promised to give us a final glimpse as to why he was such a special player. Ever since his early day's training in Madras at the Britannia  Amritraj Tennis Scheme, Leander stood out as different. He was brash, and he was confident. But more importantly he was already showing us what he intended to be in the future. He wanted to be a professional tennis player, and a

You're spending lots of time on-court,  working hard, and trying to develop  your game so that in the future  your results improve... If you're like most players, you pay a lot of attention to the mistakes you make... whether you're hitting out, in the net, or missing your intended targets. These are all mistakes you're probably keenly monitoring. But it can get quite confusing during matches where exactly the mistakes are coming from and what was to blame? The best time to analyze problems in your game and  find solutions is during practice sessions. It's during practice that problems can be analyzed and dealt with effectively. One method to do this is to put problems into manageable categories. Although the reasons for your errors might seem wide and varied, they're not, and the fact is that most problems can be categorized into one of  three areas. By categorizing mistakes under a few  simple, understandable headings, your mistakes will be much easier