Bigger Better Tennis - Paul Dale

An important coaching tool I use every day is the repetitive use of phrases. T hese common phrases help the student and I stay on the “same page”. They can also be used to set the tone of the lesson in terms of intensity. Here are some common phrases I use and the meaning behind them ' COACH YOURSELF!' Every lesson has a purpose and often that purpose is introducing new techniques or patterns to the player. Once the new technique or pattern has been explained I’ll most likely go straight to live points and challenge the player to reproduce the lesson topic while under pressure. To do this successfully the player needs to recall the key parts of the new technique or pattern and what I tend to do often is gently nudge the player with “Coach Yourself”! I’m asking for self-awareness, self-discipline, and I higher degree of focus from the player when I say this.  'YOU’RE BETTER THAN THAT!' Rather than being a negative statement, I use this phrase to demo

I’m not a fan of using repetition to practice when training players. I use repetition drills very rarely. Repetition drills are when a player has to hit many balls one after the other, either from a basket feed or with someone at the other end giving you the same ball. Repetition drills contain very little that is similar to match-play. I understand it looks good to people watching the lesson from a distance outside the court and on Instagram posts but repetition drills offer very little to players wanting to develop a new technique or pattern for their next match. Often coaches feel that they have done their job by showing the student the new technique and then drilling it many times through repetition. They believe the transfer of information (the new technique being taught) from the practice court to match court should happen automatically and is the players' responsibility. This is false. It’s the coach’s job to introduce the new technique AND to creat

LET'S BE CLEAR from the start, you need both options! Open and closed stances have advantages and disadvantages, and you need to adopt both stances during a match if you want to play tennis at a high level. Here’s when it’s best to hit an open stance ground stroke and why… OPEN STANCE 1.   Better for higher balls because you can generate more power and maintain balance. With a higher ball , generating power on the shot is sometimes difficult. Adopting an Open Stance allows you to achieve back-swing and follow-through by utilising upper-body rotation.  2.   It c an help you disguise your intentions on certain balls, such as a mid-court put-away. You want to keep your opponent guessing on which corner you will target. Adopting an open stance allows you to "look" the same on every set-up, and all you need to do is adjust your contact point ( late or early ), to change direction. 3.  It's e asier to recover from wide balls and return back to the cen

With the US Open starting this week, there is plenty to learn while watching the matches, which we can use to improve our game. One technique you will see often over the next two weeks is ' THE LONG LAST STEP .' The top players use this technique to help with coordination, timing, and balance as they move around the court to hit the ball. To understand The Long Last Step, we need to break the whole topic of movement into 3 parts. All 3 parts relate to each other, and The Long Last Step is an integral element of them. #1 MOMENTUM When you run to hit a ground stroke, momentum is created. As you reach the ball, that momentum has to be disciplined before you attempt to hit the ball; otherwise, you will lose balance during the stroke. Any balance problems during the execution of a stroke will mean a lack of consistency. To control your body's momentum, we create a last step that is longer than the other steps used to reach the ball. By stepping long in this way, we hav

There’s no doubt that we are experiencing a GENERATION WAR IN TENNIS AT THE MOMENT . The old guard of Federer, Nadal, and Djokovic are under threat from the new guard consisting of Thiem, Zverev, Tsitsipas, and Shapovalov.  Recent results in the lead up to the French Open have seen the new guard matching and even beating the old guard in each tournament Most surprising during this time has been the declining form of Rafael Nadal. The former 'King of Clay' has not been able to win any of the tournaments during this early part of the European clay-court season. His chances of winning the French Open this year look bleak. Federer can be excused for not winning any of the lead up tournaments but he has shown us his game is good enough to beat anyone on the day and at this stage of his career he’s probably quietly saving his best effort for the grand slam. Djokovic is the pick of the old guard to go all the way at the French. He’s a proven winner on clay and h

Tennis players need the ability to shift their awareness around as they play. Each shot requires a slightly different focus, a different awareness to take place. No stroke you play is the same. Here are the areas you need to send your awareness during a point. Some of the areas I mention may surprise you. Tennis is not just about awareness of the ball and your opponent… there’s much more to tennis than that! 1.   COURT AWARENESS Because you are playing the ball from different areas within the court you need to be aware of where you are standing. This is even more important when you are in the less familiar areas such as very deep off the baseline or very wide on either side of the court. When you are made to play from these 'special' positions on the court, shift your awareness to where you are standing so that you can factor in things like the height of the net, and the distance to the baseline.  Awareness of your position on the court will also tell you whether you

If you can’t hold serve, you can’t win the match. That’s how important the serve is in tennis. Players with average ground-strokes but great serves have done well in tennis, particularly on the faster surfaces. The serve is not a complicated stroke, but it can be prone to breaking down under pressure in matches. Therefore, it’s important to understand the key elements of the serve so that, under pressure, you can focus on one or two things that will make it work for you. Here are the 2 key elements I recommend you focus on when under pressure in matches. If done correctly, each of the two elements will cover any problems you may be having with your serve. THE FRONT FOOT The front foot is the 'Bridge' for your serve. It’s the transfer point for your forward movement during the serve. Soon, the player's left foot  will begin to dominate the  service action and supply  timing and power to the wrist  If this 'Bridge' is weak or ineffective, your

A coach can only do so much with a player who is experiencing destructive mental issues related to tennis competition. Players who find competition mentally too much to handle and suffer from choking, low levels of self-confidence or an inability to close out important matches are generally the victims of their environment. They reflect the environment they live in daily when they compete in matches. Prolonged and repeated negative mental issues in matches when competing as a junior player also continue to be a problem for the player much later in life, even though the environment that caused the mental issues in the first place might have changed for the better. Considering a majority of competitive junior players suffer from an almost crippling mental war inside their heads, it would be fair to say that this is why  a majority of players never fully reach their true potential. It, therefore, becomes clear that the environment we grow up in when we start our tennis is