Bigger Better Tennis - Paul Dale

In 2005 Martina Hingis decided to make a come-back to professional tennis.  Martina had walked away from tennis in 2002 after a career that saw her rise to number 1 in the rankings and stayed there for a total of 206 weeks. She captured 15 Grand Slam titles which included 5 singles, 9 women’s doubles, and 1 mixed doubles title. Martina Hingis burst on the tennis scene in 1993  she became the youngest  player to win a  Grand Slam  ( The French Junior Singles) at only 13 years old Martina’s first match back was going to be the Pattaya Women’s Open, held annually in the seaside resort town of Pattaya, Thailand.  The tournament is owned and run by an old friend of mine Geoffrey Rowe.  Geoffrey has been running women’s events in Thailand for many years and Thai tennis owes him a huge debt of thanks.  It was his wild card into the Pattaya Women’s Open that gave Tamarine Tanasugarn her big opportunity to break into the WTA Tour.  Ironically “Tami” under-performed in Pattaya for ma

It's a thrill for me to coach veteran players. Veteran players are all so open  and receptive to the lesson. Perfect students! Because tennis singles is such a physical game, doubles is the most popular form of tennis for veteran players.  Here are 7 doubles tips for veteran players that will help boost your game immediately. 1.    Serve Wide When you start the point serving wide you are positioning your opponent off-court from the first ball.  The Returner now has 3 options, a more difficult cross-court return, a risky attempt at a down-the-line passing shot or a lob.  All 3 of these options put you the server at an advantage! 2.    Keep the Ball Low This will help in two important ways… it limits your opponents' ability to attack the ball and will also provide you with many more opportunities to attack the resulting high balls (high volleys & overheads) 3.    Get Fitter One of the biggest factors in Veterans Tennis is the physical limitations

It's really important to have a sharp competitive mindset if you want to be successful in matches. In my practice sessions I encourage players to compete strongly in everything they do.  In my sessions, most drills have a "Finish", meaning the players are required to play the point out at the end of every drill. By practicing this way I am attempting to change the mindset of players who are otherwise having trouble competing successfully in tournaments. By practicing within this highly competitive atmosphere everyday the players become comfortable competing. It becomes natural for them. But there is always another ingredient I must insist on during these practice sessions, and it's just as important. I need to tell players to be PLAYERS FIRST, UMPIRES SECOND! You see it often... players who are returning serve more concerned with calling the serve in or out. It's their first priority! They are literally putting their return of serve "On

I would have a very good chance of beating Roger Federer...   if I was given multiple chances to take mistakes back again or replay any shots I didn’t like. Here’s an example. If I was given multiple attempts at all first serves and was able to select the one serve that I liked the most amongst my many attempts, my service game against Roger Federer would probably be good enough to hold my own. Expand that idea to include every shot I play during the point and this "second chance"  concept would allow me to (1) Prepare myself much better for the shot because I already know where the ball is going (2) Make accurate decisions on where and how I want the ball to go, and (3) Technically perform the shot perfectly.  With multiple chances, I have a very good  opportunity to beat Federer. Now I know you are saying “but nobody has the luxury of taking shots again”, and you would be correct. But let’s look at why this “2 nd Chance” scenario is important to unde

If you ask most players why they like to play tennis they will probably tell you "because it's fun". However, there are a large number of players out there, both tournament players and recreational players, who cannot handle the stress of competitive tennis.  Most of their anxiety comes from them attempting to play at a level they know they can play at, but constantly coming up short and letting themselves down by making silly unforced errors. Playing tennis to them is more like a type of mental torture! It's the age-old enemy of most tennis players... STRESS It's stress that causes us to blow a match when we are leading by a set and a break. It's this same stress that makes us miss those easy forehand put-aways with the court wide open. In nearly every situation our response to helping players deal with stress is to try to teach players how to avoid stress. But stress is an inherent part of our game.    Traditionally we have tried to eliminate st

If the mind is such an essential part of tennis, and it most certainly is, then visualization is one of the most effective methods of controlling the mind to think and react in the way we want it to. Visualization can change us from being sad to happy, from feeling cold to warm, and from feeling hungry to satisfied. The ways visualization can be applied to our daily lives is almost endless.  We often use visualization in our without knowing we are doing so. We constantly play mental mind games to help us overcome moments that test us during our day. I have seen these visualization "Mental Mind Games" work wonders to help players overcome their "demons" and to assist players to learn faster. I have used three main visualization techniques that have been very successful for me over the years. These three techniques are: Evocative Role Model Evocative Phrase Evocative Animal Here are actual examples of me using visualization with players. 1. Evocative Role Model Su