Paul Dale: BIGGER BETTER TENNIS: MEETING THE NEW ZEALAND PRIME MINISTER: 1986

Paul Dale: BIGGER BETTER TENNIS: MEETING THE NEW ZEALAND PRIME MINISTER: 1986: The phone went in my hotel room and the receptionist at the Tennis Centre informed me that there was a man wanting to speak with me.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

KEYS TO THE TWO-HANDED BACKHAND

Image
This article aims to provide you with 5 ingredients to help simplify the  two-hander and give you more control and versatility.       1. THE BOTTOM HAND The bottom hand on the grip controls the length of your contact zone.  The further on top the knuckles of the bottom hand are positioned, the longer your contact zone. The further around to the front of the grip the knuckles of the bottom hand are positioned, the shorter the contact zone will be. The Djokovic bottom hand is positioned almost on  top of the handle.  This would indicate that he intends  to hit down the line.   Positioning the knuckles of your bottom hand on top of the handle makes it a lot easier to hit your down-the-line shots, while placing the bottom hand in the front of the handle makes it easier to hit extreme cross-court angles. Y ou  need to play your backhand in various grip positions on the handle. The important thing is not the position of your hands on the...
Read more

CAN YOU PLAY YOUR BEST TENNIS AT 3AM?

Image
Several years ago, I was on a practice court with Tamarine Tanasugarn. She was part of a team that had travelled with me overseas to compete. It was 7am, and everyone was taking time to adjust to the unfamiliar conditions. Everyone except Tamarine, that is! This was our first practice session after the long flight. Tamarine was striking the ball as cleanly as ever.   Her timing was perfect from the first ball until the last. What created her ability to adapt so well to the conditions and thrive? Later, Paradorn Srichaphan, who reached a career-high ranking of #9 on the ATP, also demonstrated the same adaptability. I began to ask myself what this quality was and whether I could actually teach it to my students on the court. I began to formulate what I called 'The 3am Theory': the ability to play your best tennis at any time, anywhere, on any surface, even at 3am in the morning.   Imagine being woken from a sound sleep at 3 a.m. and asked to play a tie-break aga...
Read more

YOUR BEST GUIDE TO TEACHING UNDER-SPIN FUNDAMENTALS

Image
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...
Read more