Bigger Better Tennis - Paul Dale

 To Snap or Pronate, Which is Best?  There are two theories on how to hit a serve.   There are people who believe that “Snapping” the wrist is the best way and others who believe that “Pronating” is the best method of serving. The difference between the two options is difficult to detect visually. When you Snap the wrist to execute the serve the racquet-head tends to finish with the tip leading and the right and left edges going through contact almost symmetrically. When you Pronate to hit the serve the left edge (in the case of a right-hander) tends to lead the racquet through the ball. For me, both styles do the same thing when executed correctly. Both Snapping and Pronating, when done correctly, promote a wrist that dominates the arm during the serve. Whenever the arm dominates the wrist during the serve the result will be a serve lacking feel for your target and reduced racquet-head speed. A dominant wrist that Snaps or Pronates will give the serve th

I recently had a player, “James”, who was going through a rough period. James was struggling in practice and in competition. He didn’t seem to be enjoying himself on-court, becoming over-stressed and making poor decisions while executing strokes and tactics. It would have been easy to point the blame at his faltering ground-strokes and poor on-court execution, but I felt that spending time working on the details of his game would not have helped.   It seemed to me that the problem was mental and not technical.   Sometimes players lose sight of the real reasons they love to play tennis and compete. Often I ask players “Why do you play tennis”?   The answers are mostly the same.   Players say they “Like to Win” and “It’s fun”. But if that was true we would all play against opponents that we could beat easily.   Obviously playing against opponents that can be beaten easily would not be satisfying at all, therefore “winning” is not what brings us back to competition. Sometim

 Traveling with players to different countries can be challenging and rewarding As coaches we sometimes forget that the essence of our job is to help players win in competition.   We spend a lot of time on   the practice court but a large portion of our job should involve being with our players at tournaments and helping them translate work on the practice court into results at tournaments. It would be nice if that happened automatically but unfortunately it doesn’t always translate on the match court. It’s difficult during practice however to simulate match-play conditions and to teach a player to create and implement a strategy during the heat of battle.   I have always found that the tournament environment   actually enhances the learning   process because the player is much more receptive to advice.   The player is under pressure and will listen to key instructions on technique and strategy.    Here is a check-list of suggestions for coaches traveling with play

I attended a high performance sport seminar once and one of the speakers asked all the participants how important the mind was in their sport.   He asked what percentage the mind played in their sport compared to technique, fitness, nutrition etc. The representatives from all the various sports estimated the importance of the mind and the answers varied, but not by much.   Everyone estimated the percentage to be between 75-90%. They all thought the mind was the most important aspect. The speakers’ next question was even more reveling.   He asked “what percentage of practice time do you devote to training the mental aspects in your sport”? The answers fell between 10-15%! Why is it that as coaches we devote so little of our time to something that we know to be so important to the outcome in our various competitions?   I think the reason is that we understand very little about the way the mind works and therefore it’s difficult to train.   It’s the “hard” subject we try