Bigger Better Tennis - Paul Dale

Although the top male and female players in our game are mostly  baseliners, all of them have developed ways to conclude the point, to finish. If you haven't found ways to take opportunities during the rally and finish points on your terms, you're going to be using a lot of extra physical and mental energy to win points. Here are 4 ways to help you shorten the points and finish sooner. CREATE AN INSIDE FOREHAND An "Inside" ball is a term from Paul Wardlaw's "The Directionals" theory. It describes a ball which comes towards your body, and doesn't pass your outside shoulder. Whenever your opponent hits "Outside" your far shoulder (cross-court) you're under pressure because the ball is always moving away from you.  Inside balls however, give you options to dictate the rally by either hitting cross-court or inside-out to add pressure to your opponent. Whenever your opponent gives you an inside ball take advantage of it and start to apply p...

It's not uncommon for players to play extremely well throughout a match but for various reasons fail to win the important points.  The important points in a match are the break points, game points, and set points. If, for whatever reason you are not converting these opportunities it's very tough to win matches. Players often change their mindset for the important points and suddenly do things out of character. While they might have been playing calm, intelligent tennis for most of a set, when they get to the "business end" of the set they suddenly decide to play risky shots that they weren't attempting before.  To see a player suddenly change to risky low percentage shots at the most important times in the match is a coach's worst nightmare Establish Patterns Early: Start analyzing your opponent during the warm-up, and continue observing her throughout the match, just in case adjustments to your strategy are needed. Look for obvious strengths and weaknesses...

If you're like most players , you've probably been tweaking your ground strokes by focusing on the top half of your body. The grip, the back-swing, the follow-through, and even the angle of your shoulders are probably just a few of the things you've tried to adjust in an effort to improve your groundstroke game. However, greater gains can be made on your ground-strokes by focusing on the lower half of your body. There's a technique you can use whenever you hit your ground strokes that, if done correctly, will give you perfect timing, balance, increased power and improve your consistency.  Here's what to implement during your next practice session. THE LINE Next time you're on the court, imagine a Line running from the top of your head and continuing down through your body to the ground. If you're standing straight upright, that imaginary Line will be positioned equally between both feet, but as you sway your torso to the left or the right, forward or backwar...

       If you've ever been lucky enough to attend a professional tennis tournament and watched the pros playing up close and personal you've probably marveled at how good they are.  You can't help but be impressed with the effortless way they generate power and the degree they throw themselves into every rally is hugely impressive. Like most people you probably left the tournament hugely impressed by what you just witnessed.  I've been around players like those for many years and I can tell you that the pros are different from us, at least in the way they approach their tennis. Here are some of the things I have observed about our top players. 1.    GET YOUR S#@$ TOGETHER  The pros are completely dedicated to performing at their best for every match. That involves everything from the food  they consume to how they schedule their days. Eating the correct diet is an important  ingredient of a players day The days, weeks, and months, o...

The Olympics come around every 4 years. As a young boy, the Olympics always felt special to me. They allow everyone to watch the best in the world perform for two weeks under the spotlight. W e are seeing many of the competitors for the first time and for the athletes themselves, this could be the pinnacle of their careers, they may never get the opportunity to represent their country at the Olympics again. So why can't  I care less  about  watching the Olympics?   The only sports I will watch over the next two weeks in Tokyo will be the traditional Olympic sports such as track and field, swimming, weightlifting, and Judo, etc.  For me, it's a time for traditional Olympic  sports to shine on the world stage, particularly the Marathon and the 100-meters. The IOC has begun to get greedy. They know the popularity of the Olympics is dropping and are now including non-traditional Olympic sports, like tennis, to help boost their ratings. The Olympics are a Market...

A mentor of mine told me years ago "A good big man will always beat a good small man". What he was saying was that all other things being equal, size plays a big part in the result of a tennis match.  Today, I'm not so sure he was correct. There's no doubt that you need to be tall to play in the NBA, and for that matter to qualify for the Olympics in the High Jump. But while being tall may play a significant part in other sports, thankfully in tennis, we don't solely rely on height. We have mobility, strength, endurance, speed, flexibility, mental strength, and strategy as other necessary attributes.  Tennis requires a long list of attributes than many of the other sports. Currently, a lot of the new players making their mark on the game are tall. A quick look at the heights of the new generation of players shows us that many of the top players are well over six feet. Where tall players do have an advantage, is on the faster surfaces such as grass and indoors.  Ba...

Is there a resurgence in the use of underspin in tennis today? Having witnessed years of topspin domination (and underspin neglect), are we finally seeing underspin getting the recognition it deserves? I think we are. For too many years, players have relied almost totally on topspin to attack and defend in points.    This new trend from the top male and female players in tennis may be signalling a new and exciting era for the once-maligned underspin. During this year's French Open, players were mixing in underspin groundstrokes during the rally to keep the ball low and using underpin to help defend the point whenever needed. Underspin is also a key element when playing the drop shot, which we see much more now in rallies, particularly by Novak Djokovic.   "...players today must understand how to technically incorporate under-spin into their game, and just as important when to execute under-spin during the point."    As tennis gets increasingly diverse in its...