Bigger Better Tennis - Paul Dale

Before being escorted onto Wimbledon's famous Centre Court, Baron Gottfried von Cramm was told that he needed to take an urgent phone call. After the call, von Cramm again joined his opponent, Donald Budge of the US, and quietly informed him, "It was Hitler; he wanted to wish me well." Only moments after his phone call with Adolf Hitler,  Gottfried von Cramm (left)  and Donald Budge enter  the Centre Court at Wimbledon for  what was  to be "...the most beautiful match." Cramm started well in the match, leading Budge by 2 sets to love. But Budge managed to work his way back into the game by returning serve well to take the 3rd set and won a tight 4th set that could have gone to either man.  Now it was all tied up at 2 sets all, and they were into a deciding 5th set. The German shrugged off the loss of the previous 2 sets and again started to dominate in the 5th set, breaking Budge's serve and taking a 4-1 lead. Many watching thought the match was virtually o...

If you're looking for added inspiration on your tennis journey, look no further than the successful Indian players who have gone before you. Each of the successful Indian players here has created a tennis career 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  training in Madras at the Britannia Amritraj Tennis Scheme, Leander stood out as different. He was brash and 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 bloody good one!  The biggest takeaway for other ...

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 ea...

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. Figh...