Bigger Better Tennis - Paul Dale

Here are 6 typical tennis problems that I hear from players all the time and ways for you to fix them. 1. I GET NERVOUS      The first thing you need to understand is that it's natural for you to get nervous while you compete. The problem, however is that only some players actually acknowledge that getting scared is part of tennis . Instead, they try to block out the nerves, often by distracting the mind and bringing it to focus on something else. This is a very Western way of dealing with your nervousness.  Timothy Gallwey's best-selling book "The Inner Game of tennis", while an excellent book and really the first tennis book that dealt with the mental side of our game, mainly used distraction as its preferred method of dealing with players who had problems handling their nerves. Using distraction to combat nerves can work under relatively mild stressful situations, but it's unreliable during really stressful situations such as important matches. Timothy Gallwey...

  VITAS GERALAITIS: THE PLAYBOY CHAMPION      When Vitas Geraliatis (pictured: right) passed away at the age of 40,  it left the tennis community in shock. The Grand Slam winner and a perennial  top-ten player had been bigger than  life during his years as a tennis professional  When news on the passing of Vitas Geralaitis reached the news outlets around the world there was a sense of shock throughout the tennis community. It was hard to believe that Geralaitis, a larger than life personality, was no more. Born in Brooklyn, New York on July 26th, 1954, Geralaitis was as flamboyant off-court as he was a superstar on-court. With his long curly blonde hair and athletic game, Geraliatis was tagged with the "playboy" label at a time when there were already several larger than life personalities in tennis. Vitas Geralaitis was a regular fixture on the New York  club scene But it would be unfair to remember Vitas Geralaitis as merely a flamboyant pl...

Before I coach any player for the first time, there are several things I want to know about them.  I'm sure, as a coach also, you have been in this situation many times yourself. For me, when a new player strolls through the gate and onto my court for the first time I immediately begin watching for signs that will help me coach them later.  The important distinction here is that I am not looking at every student as being the same. Far from it. I understand now, after coaching for many years, that every player is different. As coaches, our ability to recognise the differences in each player, and coach them as individuals based on those differences will set us apart.  Here are 6 of the qualities I want to know about a new player: 1. WHAT MOTIVATES THEM? "There is so much time and effort required to be a top player, that if you don't love what you are doing it will be almost impossible to reach the top". There is a long list of things that motivate us to do things. We s...