Bigger Better Tennis - Paul Dale

"What Will You Work On Today?" — Avoiding the Deaf Ear By Paul Dale | The 3AM Tennis Method In many tennis lessons around the world, the routine is familiar: players show up, coaches deliver instructions, and students follow along. However, this top-down approach often creates a dangerous by-product — players who become passive learners. They nod, they drill, they respond politely, but mentally, they’re not invested. They become robots , going through the motions without actual ownership of their development. One powerful phrase can shift that dynamic instantly: "What will you work on today?" It’s a simple question, but one that flips the responsibility back onto the player. It invites reflection, focuses attention, and builds accountability. In this blog, I  aim to explore the  "What will you work on?"  approach and provide you  with  practical ways to integrate it into your coaching sessions. Why This Phrase Matters When players aren’t mentally...

The Blue Elephant: Helping Players Stay Focused When Distraction Strikes By Paul Dale | The 3AM Tennis Method In my years working with competitive junior players, one of the most common — and frustrating — challenges I face is helping talented tennis players translate their practice performance into real match results. These players can strike the ball cleanly, move well, and execute drills as well as anyone. But when tournament day comes, something unravels. Their game becomes shaky, inconsistent, and the confidence we thought we’d built seems to vanish. One recent case brought this issue sharply into focus. Meet Kevin: A Case of Potential vs. Performance Kevin was one of those players coaches love to have. Technically solid, smart on the court, and coachable. After working together for a few months, his confidence rose, and his results reflected it — finals in two consecutive tournaments. It felt like we were finally turning a corner. Then came the setback. In his next event,...

  Coaching Beyond the Obvious By Paul Dale – The 3AM Tennis Method Every coach has been there: watching a player make the same mistake repeatedly, offering correction after correction, trying drills, gimmicks, analogies—only to see the problem stubbornly remain. It’s tempting to think the player just isn’t “getting it.” But what if we’re the ones not seeing it clearly? Years ago, my colleague and mentor, Bernard Gusman, introduced me to a concept that transformed my coaching approach. He called it  “Coaching beyond the obvious.” It’s a phrase that sounds simple, but it holds a profound truth. In tennis coaching, the real issue is often hidden beneath the surface. What we first see as the problem is rarely its root cause. If we settle for addressing only what’s obvious, we risk misdiagnosing the issue entirely and wasting a significant amount of time. A Serve Problem That Wouldn’t Go Away I once worked with a young girl whose serve was falling apart at the most cruci...

  Don't Just Teach the Stroke — Teach the Context Why Every Tennis Lesson Must Link Directly to Match Play When we teach players a new stroke, footwork or tactical pattern, it's easy to fall into the trap of isolating the skill, perfecting the action in a vacuum. The issue? Tennis isn't a closed-skill sport like gymnastics or archery. It's an open-skilled, reactive sport. Success depends not only on how well a player executes a stroke but on when and why they use it. This is where context becomes everything. The Missing Link: Strategic Relevance Too often, players leave a lesson with a technically improved shot but without an  understanding of how or when to use it in a match. They've learned the how , but not the why or the when . We hand them a tool, but without a blueprint for how to use it effectively. The result? Players are left to "bridge the gap" on their own, trying to figure out how the new backhand, serve variation, or rally pattern fi...

When most players first pick up a tennis racquet, what’s the first thing they do? They start swinging Even without a coach, they imitate what they’ve seen on TV or from other players at the club — copying the appearance of a forehand, a serve, or a backhand. This appearance-first learning model has become the default approach across much of the tennis world. The majority of coaches around the world also take their lead from what they see the top players do, appearances, without understanding the fundamentals these top players have honed over years of work. And that’s a problem. The Danger of Appearance-First Learning This imitation approach might seem logical at first — after all, we learn many things by copying what we see. But in tennis, it creates a dangerous foundation. Why? Because tennis is not a closed-skill sport like golf, snooker, or diving, where the environment is predictable, stationary, and repeatable. In those sports, copying a swing or movement pattern can act...

One of the biggest breakthroughs in my coaching career came with my learning the  DNO Theory.   This practical shot selection theory helps players instantly recognise whether they’re in Defence, Neutral, or Offence during a point. Master Professional and long-time mentor, the late Peter Burwash, first introduced the theory to me, and it has been in my coaching "tool bag" ever since. Instead of guessing or reacting emotionally, players begin making smart, structured decisions based on what the DNO Theory is telling them. And the beauty of this system is that it works at every level — from juniors to professionals, in singles and in doubles. The Two Rules of DNO DNO is built on two simple rules that apply to every point you play: 1. Foot Position If your feet are behind the baseline , you’re in Defence . If your feet are on or inside the baseline , you’re in Offence . The further inside the court you go , the more offensive your opportunities b...

  The 7 Target Zones: Where Smart Players Aim In a previous article, we looked at the DNO Theory. This shot selection system  helps players make better decisions by understanding whether they are in Defence, Neutral, or Offence during a point. Now, we take that one step further. Once a player knows what role they're in , the next question becomes: Where should I place the ball? That's where the 7 Target Zones come in — a simple and powerful court-mapping system that tells players exactly where to aim , based on their situation in the rally.         When DNO and the 7 Target Zones are combined, players not only make the right shot selection , but they send the ball to the right part of the court , making their tennis smarter, more effective, and more difficult to beat. What Are the 7 Target Zones? The court is divided into seven distinct zones , each serving a strategic purpose. Learn to use them, and you'll build pressure, force error...