Bigger Better Tennis - Paul Dale

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

We all 'like' many things … weekends, ice cream, the latest phone on the market or the new app everybody else is using. If we buy the latest phone and spend hours on it to connect with friends, play games or to become more visible on social media, that new phone you brought is returning the love. It is 'liking' you back! The fact is if we spend time nurturing those things we like, we will benefit from getting 'liked' back. Imagine your favorite ice cream flavor. Whenever you want ice cream you choose that same flavor because you 'like' it so much. Each time you sit down to enjoy that flavor, the flavor repays you by sending all that great flavor and texture back to you. That’s the ice cream returning your 'like.' However, that boy or girl in your class at school that you would like to get to know better behaves in the same way. If you like them, but don’t show them because you’re too shy, how can they return the 'like.' Your re

Strategy is the most neglected part of a player’s development, and yet with the correct strategy any opponent can be beaten   In my opinion, Strategy is the “next Frontier” of tennis. Most of the competitive players I see today are technically very good and are physically in great shape but few are playing their matches with any real understanding of Strategy.  Here are three super-effective ways for you to add some basic strategy to help boost your game almost immediately. 1. HIT CROSSCOURT There is a saying in boxing that “The Jab is everything, everything comes from the Jab”. Every fighter is trained to establish the Jab during the fight because once a fighter can dominate with their Jab, they dominate the fight.  Why? Because the boxing Jab establishes the distance between the two fighters allowing one fighter to dictate whether the fight is conducted at close quarters or further apart. The Jab is also the “stepping stone” for other punches. Fighters throw the Jab

I encounter many players who have all the strokes and can play really well in practice but during matches can’t re-produce the same standard of play. In matches their game is riddled with unforced errors. It’s always difficult to find the solution to help these players because the cause of the problem can be many things. Humans are complicated and no more so than the mental issues that plague a tennis player who has a chronic problem with unforced errors! I recently had success in helping with a young player who was prone to unexplained errors during her matches. I found the remedy to her unforced errors by first deciding that her problem was mental and not technical. Although most of her mistakes were caused by poor technique, I had seen enough of her using good technique that I decided that working more on her technique would not help her that much in the long term. This is an important decision for you to make because you will have to constantly hold yourself bac

AT THE HIGHEST LEVEL, EVERY PLAYER LOOKS GOOD  The top players attack every point aggressively with big full swings on every ball. Their mindset is one of all-out aggression to finish points quickly. Likewise, their defence is, at times, miraculous. When you attack them, these top players can change into defense and hit incredible winners from impossible positions on the court. During your match, you begin to see this same scenario repeating often. Your attacking game is being ripped apart by your opponent’s incredible defence skills! YOU COULD BE PLAYING A “COUNTER-PUNCHER” PRETENDING TO BE AN ATTACKING PLAYER! Sometimes when you review the match later, you realise that your opponent seldom hits winners from offence. You start to realise that the full swings he/she was taking were a type of disguise. While looking and sounding scary, they weren’t your opponent’s primary source of points. Most of their points came from defence, particularly their counter-punchin