Bigger Better Tennis - Paul Dale

DICTATE WHERE THE FIRST 3 STROKES SHOULD BE PLAYED AND HELP THE PLAYER GROOVE THEIR RESPONSES DESCRIPTION: The most important two shots in tennis are the serve and the return of serve. While many “modern players” today are extremely competent hitting ground-strokes, the very best players have also developed their serve and return games to a high level. Unfortunately it’s normal that little more than 10-15% of practice sessions involve these two shots. Serving practice involving a basket of balls is helpful to develop technique but it lacks those elements that would make it realistic. What you really need to help your serve and your return and make practice more realistic is to include the mental pressure, variable outcomes and spontaneous decision making of a real point.     We also need the serve and the return to be repeated many times so that they both become instinctive. The Combination Drill does all these things. The Combination Drill will ...

The right foot supplies timing and energy  for this open stance forehand DESCRIPTION Good timing is essential in every sport. Timing can involve swinging an object at a ball, such as a tennis racquet or golf club, or, in football, you must achieve timing in your leg and foot to kick the ball successfully. Timing is also essential when throwing something. When throwing a basketball, you use a wrist action, and skilled players can throw half the length of the court with ease. For the ball to cover that distance, something else must assist the wrist. Wrists can't function that efficiently without the help of good timing. But what exactly is timing, and how is it achieved? If you are like most tennis players, you know when you have timed the shot well (or not) but are not sure what occurred for you to achieve it. How can you re-create perfect timing without knowing how you achieved good timing? Timing involves the successful synchronisation of Ground energy into...

GETTING THE CORRECT MINDSET IS ESSENTIAL TO PRACTISING AND COMPETING BETTER DESCRIPTION The most important drill you do each day is the “drill” in your head.  The way your mind operates during practice will also be repeated during competition, therefore it’s critical to not only work on technical and physical aspects, but also practice the type of mindset that you need in order to compete at your optimal level.   In many cases the technical problem you see when a player makes an error actually starts from a faulty mental mindset. If you are a player who over-thinks when playing, chances are that you are making many unforced errors.  Over-thinking doesn’t allow you to play on an instinctive level where everything flows and your true potential comes to the fore.  As you make more and more unforced errors your confidence can reach an all time low.  Over the years several players in my country were selected for special training because o...

ANA IVANOVIC HAS SUFFERED WITH CRONIC TOSS PROBLEMS THROUGHOUT HER CAREER DESCRIPTION The ball toss is one of the most common ailments with many players when serving.  Ana Ivanovic is a player who struggles with her ball toss constantly.  For many years I have taught the importance of using an intelligent wrist instead of focusing on the ball toss. However the toss is important because the wrist can only operate effectively if the ball is within a reasonable range.  If you have to reach or in some cases step to reach the ball, as Ivanovic does often, your serve will suffer with inconsistency. The usual cure for a wayward toss is to work on the toss arm so that the ball can be placed in the perfect position for the ball strike.  Ana Ivanovic told me that coaches have been trying to work on her left arm toss for years.  They had tried a variety of drills and gimmicks but the problem still persisted. It was after hearing this that I st...

HERE'S A DRILL TO HELP DEAL WITH STRESS, CREATE BETTER SHOT SELECTION & IMPROVE YOUR FITNESS... ALL AT THE SAME TIME DESCRIPTION Many players suffer from high levels of stress when competing.  Overcoming the stress and performing to your true potential is sometimes the single most difficult task many players face. It is a known fact that avoidance of stress is one of our strongest instincts.  Given enough time stress can kill us. I have noticed on many occassions players willing to endure the continual frustration of missing easy shots to avoid the stress of playing one more ball. They will actually sabotage the point to avoid playing another ball. Do they admit this to themselves, never! This is all going on at a subconscious level and can be extremely frustrating for player's. Here's something that will also surprise you, it happenes at all levels, even at with professional players. One example of stress avoidance would be a player who is...

WHAT SEPARATES GOOD PLAYERS FROM GREAT  PLAYERS AND  CAN WE TRAIN IT SPECIFICALLY? DESCRIPTION For many years I have traveled with some exceptional players.  The very best of these players reached top 10 ATP and top 20 WTA rankings.  It was during these trips that I began to notice a certain quality that distinguished exceptional players from merely very good players. I began to notice that regardless of the circumstances, these few exceptional players would come on-court, either in practise or for competitive matches and strike the ball cleanly and without error immediately. It would also continue from the first ball until the last ball. This may not sound that unusual but this would happen regardless of time, place, weather, occasion or equipment issues.   It occurred to me that if I could find a way to develop this ability by a systematic training process I could be training the very essence of what holds back very good players from be...

CREATING MOVEMENT INTO THE COURT AFTER THE SERVE DEMONSTRATES THAT ENERGY IS FLOWING IN THE CORRECT DIRECTION DESCRIPTION In both men’s and women’s tennis the serve has become an extremely offensive weapon.  In today’s game if you can’t win free points with your serve you will struggle to win matches against the best players.  The most noticeable change has been within the women’s game where the top women players now have extremely offensive serves compared to only 5 years ago. When you attempt to hit bigger serves you need to propel your whole body forward and into the shot through the use of the legs.   I have noticed that when players practice out of a basket they nearly always position the basket behind them at the baseline.  This makes sense if you don’t want to walk far to get the next ball.  However it can also create a bad habit of serving and stopping the forward momentum after hitting the ball. The player will limit the forwa...