#BP

Tennis Strategy #11 Observations From WTA 500 Event

I went to my local WTA event to see the current level of first round play, among seasoned professionals inside the top 100, and also those that play the qualifiers. There were a few things that really stood out in the matches I saw. Intensity Is Strategy The most important part of of the day was the wide variability in effort and intensity by every player I saw. This points to another strategy, and it should go without saying, but being mentally and emotionally ready for each

Tennis Business #106 Honest, Transparent, Reliable

Be Honest Being honest about admitting a mistake, when it comes to double booking, failing to put a lesson on the calendar, and doing something nice to try to make up for the inconvenience, those kinds of responses can actually gain you more loyalty when you prove yourself human. On the other hand, when you are so reliable, that people know they can count on you and not only are you on time, but you are early and prepared, this will set you apart from other pros and you can c

Tennis Strategy #10 Strokes, Strategy And The Limits Of Social Media

"Don't trust everything you see on the internet!" ~ Abraham Lincoln Super Stars Of Social Media Recently, I was interacting with a player on a social media tennis coaching forum, who said he wants to hit an 130 MPH Serve. From the look of him, he seemed to have the athleticism to become a strong 4.5 player or above, but the problem was a lack of wisdom in his approach to the game. I wouldn’t be surprised if he were a fairly common out of control 3.5 player. Compromising Posit

Tennis Strategy #9 Do Your Shots and Tactics Support Your Strategy?

"Therefore you, knowing I am not a fool, would clearly not put the poison in front of yourself." ~ Vezzinni from Princess Bride (Clearly Overthinking) Your Tactics Need To Support Your Strategy Some people run around and hit one more ball back, but in the fantasy world of their minds, they've got this idea that they are playing a strategy. Maybe you know someone like. In 30+ years of coaching, one thing I know is that the default position is that people will wander from their

Tennis Business #105 Be Creative And Flexible

Last year I had a client who came to me with the idea of starting a new tennis clinic with ladies from a particular social group at the club. Admittedly, the club administration was very loose with the controls they had over creation or management of such things. I had the flexibility granted to me contractually to pretty much do as I pleased within reason. Having said all that, we formed the clinic to run at a certain time, and the members of the group included me in a text

Tennis Strategy #8 Creative Ways To Get To The Net

Pressure Time And Space If I were to say that I want to pressure my opponent’s time and space, but all I do is stand 5 feet behind the baseline hitting high loopy shots, then I’m not really achieving the objective, I would essentially by lying to myself about my strategy, because my actions are telling a different story than my stated intention. Yes, sometimes you can give your opponent more time and space, but with that strategy, you want to major in taking away their time a

Tennis Business 104 Be Other-Centered

It’s interesting and disappointing to me how self-centered many coaches can be, but the most successful ones are other centered, or at least fake it well. I am tempted to go on a tangent about ‘fake it until you make it’, but I want to stay on topic, as you should. When we are serving others, it’s important to have the first two traits, empathy and understanding, but being other centered means that our actions will also line up with our mental ascent. You will know that you a

Tennis Business #103 Be Understanding

When you have a client at your club, they might be a regular lesson taker. They might want private lessons, clinics, hitting sessions and the ball machine. This person might simply want to pay their dues and play often, never improving, but simply enjoying the game, and they do not want to be solicited for lessons, EVER. You will have clients who take their lessons elsewhere for whatever reason, and you might know or not know the reason. Tread lightly on trying to know that.

Tennis Strategy 7 How Your Style Effects Your Targets

The way you use targets on court will change slightly based on what kind of style you play. The more powerful a player you are, while you still need targets, the precision you will need is not the same as the player who is playing a movement game. The power player makes up for a lack of perfect accuracy with ball speed. The pressure movement player won’t be as effective when missing a target by just foot two or three. A three foot difference in the placement of a shot can mak

Tennis Strategy 6. Beating The Net Player

Even the best volleyers will have a relative weakness, and I will use an extreme example to start. Daniel had a world class backhand volley, meaning that if you hit to that side, it better be a clean winning pass, because if he got a racquet on it, you were going to be in trouble, and he often immediately hit winners. He also had a great overhead. While his forehand volley was very good, strangely enough high volleys to his forehand volley, he could not finish the point ver

Tennis Strategy 5 Attacking Second Serve

One of the great things about the other player’s second serves, is that it can be the greatest opportunity you will have to break your opponent’s serve. When you are playing someone who is not taking good care to have a high percentage of first serves, then this advantage is accentuated. Wish For Misses Competitors who are making their first serve are going to have a very healthy winning percentage. In contrast, not one single professional player won over 45% of their second

Tennis Business #102 Empathy Is Sticky

Be Empathetic When that student first enters the gate, and maybe for the last few hours up to the beginning the lesson, they often are having a problem with anxiety. They may be going to a place they have never been, to meet a stranger they have never met, to participate in an activity that they have no idea how it’s going to go. Put yourself in their place, and imagine how you like to be greeted under the same type of circumstance. Do you like to take lessons? Maybe even im

Tennis Business #101 Attract And Retain Clients

Today is a quick brain dump trying to get to the bottom of 7 things that will help you to attract and retain clients like no one else. First Words The first words and the tone of voice you use on the phone with a new client are the first step in retaining them. This post will perhaps be one of the most important teachings I can express for how you can be a massively successful coach. They say that you never get another chance to make a first impression and while that has some

Tennis Strategy 4. Defeating The Return Of Serve

The return of serve is the second most important shot in tennis, but that is because it's counterpart is the most important shot. The better you perform with your serve to maintain an advantage in your serve games, the more likely you are to hold serve, and put more pressure on your opponent to hold. Maintaining The Offense Return of serve is the most challenging shot in the game, and the very best players in the world are only winning on average 35% of the return points on f

Tennis Strategy 3 Exploiting Two Handed Backhands

Today is part two in a series on how to exploit the general weaknesses inherent in certain types of shots. This is all in the forthcoming book Tennis Strategy 201. It seems that most players are hitting two handers, and according to my social research approximately only 20% of people are really suited to hitting a one handed backhand. The major strengths of a two hander are the increase shot tolerance against strong shots, because both arms are on the racquet. The other pote

Strategy 2 Finding The Relative Weakness

This is the first in a series of blog posts about how to find and exploit the relative weakness in any style of player that you might face. Advancing Strategies In A Changing Game One of the best things about conventional wisdom over the years is the scouting notes that have been shared, proven and refined over the years. No matter what kind of technique you employ, or what kind of strategy you use, there is a relative weakness to be found in it. Heavy topspin players have a

Video Blog 1 Discuss Teaching Better Tennis

Here is a still valid conversation from October 2017 with Styrling Strother. Styrling and Bill discuss... Bill summarizes his trip to Atlanta, athlete centered coaching. Dealing with a bit of push back. What kind of things do we learn when we step outside of our comfort zone. Define the Objectives on the Practice Court while remaining flexible to change objectives when a breakdown occurs. *** You Want To Know When A New Post Is Available? https://www.brainsports.coach/subscr

Team Coach 24 Advanced Serve/Return Routines

The Foundational Set Up Early in the season with the most advanced players, I like to give them 30 full minutes of practicing serves and returns. At first we do it in the most defensive way. Players strive for over 65% of serves in play, and may use topspin serves almost exclusively to make that happen. Returners return back to the server, because when you don’t attempt to change the direction of the ball, you can make a higher percentage of returns in the court. The challeng

Strategy 1 What Is A Pusher? How Do You Beat Them?

This is an early draft of a chapter from Tennis Strategy 201, because... If you want to move beyond 4.0 to 4.5 and beyond, you absolutely must learn to beat a ‘pusher’ nearly 100% of the time. But what really is a pusher? There are different kinds of so called ‘pushers’. In general, the pusher does not create as much pace as the power player. There is a sliding scale of perception in terms of what player’s regard as someone playing like a pusher. Everyone has their own idea,

Athlete Centered Coach 25 Finding Hidden Treasure In Athletes

A conversation is a dialogue, not a monologue. That’s why there are so few good conversations: due to scarcity, two intelligent talkers seldom meet. ~ Truman Capote Technique Can be Surface Level Many times we as coaches are on court with players who just don’t get it. They have beautiful strokes, they can hit the ball hard and with lots of topspin. But, they just don’t understand how to win a point. Players can be so happy with their technique that they invest almost no ener

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