Bigger Better Tennis - Paul Dale

I've always taught strategy to players early in their development. For me, strategy is an integral part of a competitive player's toolkit along with stroke technique, fitness, and movement.   When teaching strategy to beginners, you'll need to tailor your instructions to suit the age and level of the player(s), but the teaching of strategy should be done early and not left to later.  I have recently been involved with college tennis in the US and have seen firsthand the lack of any prior introduction players receive on the topic of strategy.   Most of the players I have watched competing at college level have had difficulty implementing even elementary strategy in their matches.  The problem starts when, early in a players career, coaches believe that if a player has perfected their stroke technique, that will naturally transfer into savvy match-play. That certainly is not the case.  The fact is that college coaches are left to deal with this neglecte...

Playing with confidence is crucial for all tennis players. Any lack of confidence can affect not only your ball-striking but also your decision-making. Additionally, facing an opponent who is determined to create difficulties for you on the court can contribute to feelings of fear and self-doubt regarding your strokes. However, there are strategies and mindset shifts that can help players overcome these challenges and regain their confidence. Here are 6 ways to develop a more courageous and confident you. #1 REMOVE THE DOUBT Regaining confidence in your game starts with believing in your ability to hit the ball well. If you start striking the ball better, your confidence will grow.  During practice, remove the doubt in your mind and begin striking the ball confidently; after all, it's only a practice session!  Trust your technique and focus on executing your shots with conviction.   What you are doing is treating Doubt as an inconvenient habit that has been affecting ...

                  Sir Alex Ferguson, the renowned former football manager of Manchester United, had incredible success over a 27-year career with the club.  Since he departed from the club, Manchester United has struggled to match the outstanding results Ferguson could produce during his years in charge.  Many of the Managers who have replaced Ferguson have also had big reputations and have proven track records at other big clubs. So why have these replacements not been able to match the standards set by Ferguson and demanded by the clubs' supporters? Why was Sir Alex Ferguson able to do for Manchester United what no other football manager has been able to do since?  If Manchester United were the same team, why were they unable to continue with the same results? There was a similar story in the world of boxing. When Michael Gerard Tyson, better known to the world as Mike, was 16 years old, he met a boxing trainer named Gus D'A...

Should you be practising with players who are better than you to improve? Well, yes, sometimes. One of the problems many coaches have to deal with when they train large groups of players is this myth amongst players and parents that to get better; you need to practice with players who are better than you. By practising with better players, you are automatically required to move faster on the court, make quicker decisions, and be stronger mentally.  But I've seen significant progress in players who have practiced against players who are not as good. Here's why working with weaker players can be beneficial to your game. Offense & Defense Even a dominant player like Noval Djokovic, during his best years, only won 56% of the points he played. That means he lost 44% of the points he played when he was at his best! Tennis is a game that involves three conditions when you are playing a point; you are either in an Offensive mode, a defensive mode, or you are Neutral (neither Offens...

The number one question I get asked whenever a player needs help with something is how to improve the mental side of their game. Many of us are excellent in practice, but transferring those great strokes into real-life matches can be difficult. So, here are my suggestions on improving your mentality in matches and becoming a mental giant during competition. The "Ego" and the "Task" motivated player As a coach, I used to love the hard worker. I felt that I had the suitable material to mold a future champion if given a young player who worked hard. But often, these hard-working players, I call them Task motivated players, never fulfilled the potential I thought they had. The good results I expected just didn't materialise. Task-motivated players worked harder and longer than anybody else but often lack the ability to clinch close matches and will sometimes  lose to players who don't work as hard or train as well as them. So what's going on? I began to cal...

A no-nonsense look at what it takes to be a professional tennis player After what many would consider a successful career, Jo-Wilford Tsonga recently retired from professional tennis. But I felt he could have done a lot more with his talent. I could observe Tsonga off-court quite a bit, and over the last few years, he had become just a shell of the player he was when he first burst on the scene. He seemed to have accepted the role of a journeyman tennis player, a player who was merely going through the motions at each tournament and wasn't willing to put the extra work in to maintain his position as a top 10 player.  Many players, men, and women, merely show up each week to make up the numbers. Becoming a professional tennis player is not easy, and it's perhaps even more challenging to stay at the top once you get there. If your goal is to turn professional one day, there are 3 essential elements that you might not have thought about much. Watch out for outdated training method...