How do you explain a tennis match to a kid?

Recent, I was teaching a student who is 8 years old and just starting to compete at the game of tennis. She asked me, "what is the purpose of tennis". I pondered about the answer. Obviously if you are playing a match, the purpose is to win the match. And to win a match, you must string together enough points to win two sets. And to win points,mother best way is to hit the ball away from your opponent or force your opponents to make errors.

But then I wondered. Are there other purpose to tennis? What about mastering strokes? What about getting fitter to play it well? And how we decide what the purpose of tennis is and which purposes to prioritize? Readers, I would love your thoughts.

Why start with a two handed forehand

I've been coaching young children tennis for over 15 years and have seen many children begin tennis by using the two handed forehand. Many will eventually switch to a traditional one handed forehand. I believe that starting out with a two handed forehand is beneficial for many reasons. Many students, when they begin tennis, aren't strong enough to use only one hand when executing the forehand and that will inevitably lead to technical errors like opening up the racquet too much, starting too high and hitting the stroke downwards. Adding one's second, non dominant hand, allows one to be fully balanced and properly learn the unit turn while hitting a forehand. Rotation of the hips and the shoulders is essential to producing a powerful forehand. Using two hands allows a player to fully acclimate to the rotation of the body. When hitting with one hand a child will be unbalanced (due to not being strong enough)  and unable to properly implement the rotation needed. In addition, while using two hands for a forehand one can fully develop the proper rotation of their hand. In addition, using two hands takes the pressure and strain off of your arms and your hands. 

Now that we have established the benefits of the the two handed forehand the question is when should one switch over to a one handed forehand. About half of all players will stay with a two handed forehand while others will convert to a one handed forehand. One should attempt the switch when one has developed a reliable two handed forehand where they are able make contact with the ball when it is two feet in front with a closed face. 

Stay tuned for my next post about children starting tennis with an open stance. 

For more Information on my coaching, check out www.elftennis.com or email info@elftennis.com 

Working with young kids

Blog post on flexibility with kids 

Some of you have reading this post may have read through my website and are wondering, " what is it really like to teach 3 year olds and what do you actually do during the lesson? How could children as young as three possibly participate in a tennis lessons?" In this blog post, I will discuss some of the approaches used to help make lessons more amenable for young children. Rather than give you a list of activities, I would like to suggest an embodying philosophy. One of the key factors to success in engaging young children is flexibility. Flexibility means being open to ideas presented by the children in the class and picking up on cues from the children. If children state that they are interested in a specific activity, sometimes it's hitting the ball back and fourth on the ground other times it's having a sword fight with the racquets while in some instances its pretending that the racquets are guitars. While some of these ideas may sound outlandish most ideas can be adapted into workable drills and activities that actually build tennis skills. The key to feeding off of kids is to ascertain what element of the suggested activity that they actually like (for example movement, fantasy, the ability to hit the ball in their own) and then create activities that involve those elements. 

In addition, changing activities mid stream is sometimes essential. If an activity doesn't seem like a big hit, then it's best to try a different activity even if you intended to continue with the activity for a longer period of time. 

Here is an example of how to amend activities to a child's needs. Today, I taught a child who has been difficult in the past. And when I say difficult, I mean difficult. He would throw the racquet after he hit every shot and run away from me. I was feeding him balls from the other side of the net and giving him feedback. First we established that he needed to be on a certain side of the net . Then, he communicated that he liked racing and finally, he told me that he wanted to hit the ball back and fourth on the ground make me run for the ball. While agreeing to him making me run for the ball makes it sound like I was a pushover for a sadistic child the activities really did build skills essential for tennis. The racing builds speed while hitting the ball away from me helps him gain comfort with stroke mechanics and learn targeting. 

I strongly suggest that when offering tennis lessons to kids you work with there suggestions while always being mindful of the skills learned and always offering instructional tips throughout the activity. For more information on how I teach email info@elftennis.com. 

Why you shouldn't avoid playing practice sets

Why you shouldn’t avoid playing sets in your practices.

What do you do for your tennis practices? Some people say that they don’t like to play tennis matches. There are people out there who avoid matches just like some of you avoid taxes and dental visits. And I have to admit-I am one of those people. Or I was one of those people. Until, I realized that the only way I am going to improve my match play skills and combat match anxiety is by actually playing sets.

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This week, I went to hit with my friend. I was having a blast playing singles. I was hitting the crap out of the ball (sorry, I couldn’t find a better word for it) and relishing my brilliant shots. Then my friend said, “lets play a set, I need to practice for playoffs”  And I thought, ok, why not. And boy did I learn a lot from playing the set. I’ve been reading a book on mental toughness by Frank Giampaolo called the Tennis Parents’ Bible and it talks about different messages to tell yourself between points regarding strategy. So, I figured playing this practice set would be a great opportunity to practice implementing these mental patterns. I started out roughly. I wasn’t hitting the ball the way I did in the practice session. My balls were landing short and they were just plain weak. Of course, she started out by hitting sharp shots and moving me around the court. I was down 0-2 and I started going back to my usual patterns of scolding myself for being down to a person I felt I should beat. Then, I told myself about how maybe I’m just not the kind of person who wins matches. And then I realized that I had to replace these thoughts with other thoughts. Like, “how the heck am I going to beat her? What do I need to do? What patterns do I need to execute in order to win?” I need to hit to her backhand to start with, then I need to hit to the other side of the court to get her on the run and then I need to go for  a winner when the opportunity is right. Between every point, I kept asking myself, “where is her backhand” While this sounds rudimentary and I’m sure there are more sophisticated patterns, I felt that a simple message like that could sooth me and stop me from self destructing and either allowing her to continue being aggressive and teeing off of my short balls or over hitting shots to compensate for het winners. So, I kept asking myself “where’s her backhand”. Suddenly, I was able to produce deeper shots and even muster the gumption to attempt aggressive shots when the opportunity presented itself. I eventually, was able to come back and win the set, 6-3, after having been down 2-0. I continually assessed what patterns were pertinent and appropriate for that stage in the game. I would obviously risk more if I was up 40-15 and play more safely and allow her to make the errors if it was deuce. At the end of the set, I felt that I had learned to switch from the scolding/ bashing mode to the thoughtful tennis mode well. In addition, I felt that I exhibited more endurance than my friend. However, I wasn’t the tennis goddess I am making myself out to be. I did fail to approach the net and volley’s are my greatest asset.  What will happen next set? Will I improve at my ability to approach the net? Do you think people should play the same way regardless of the score? Email your thoughts to info@elftennis.com. Stay tuned for more tennis tips in the coming days.

Work as a formidable team at net!

Work as a fearsome twosome at net 

Everyone knows that the game of doubles is all about rushing and crushing the net. Rushing and crushing the net is the only way to finish points quickly.  In a game of doubles, when you are either the returner or the server you want to move in as soon as possible.  In a previous post, I discussed how to move into the net. In this post, I will cover how you and your partner can work as a team to be as ferocious and effective as possible.  When you are moving into net, it is essential that your partner know you are  coming up to the net. It is important for your partner to know you are on the move  as a shot could be hit to your side of the court that you can't reach if you are too far back. If that's the case your partner may want to cross over to cover it for you.  While at the net, you need to assess and utilize each other's strengths when determining who will cover which shots. When both of you are at net and a shot goes down the middle between you, this is often referred to as the husband and wife zone. No one is sure who is going to take balls hit in that area and more often than not those shots end up as winners for your opponents. Always make a plan for who will take it. In general, whosever forehand it is should be the one who poaches and pounds that volley. In addition, once both of you are at the net, you are vulnerable and suspect to lobs. As a team, you need to determine  who is going to cover the lobs. As a rule of thumb, it should be the person who is in the best position to hit either a forehand overhead or a forehand, defensive, on the run  shot. Alternatively, the person who is further back may want to be the one who covers lobs as they don't have as far to run.  A fourth concern when both of you are at the net is what to do when your partner is pulled out wide.  I usually say that you should cover the middle but cheat towards the opposite end of the court that your partner was pulled towards. Essentially, you need to be prepared to cover three quarters of the court ( sorry about that but it is a workout, right) 

Try it these suggestions and let me know how it works out for you. Did you feel you were more effective in winning points at the net when accounting for coverage? Email me at info@elftennis.com with your thoughts. 

Cross training through rollerblading

Cross training through rollerblading

Alas, we can't always play tennis every single day . However, there are other physical activities that can partake in that will help us build up some of the skills essential for tennis.  In this post, I will discuss another sport that can help you build up tennis skills: rollerblading. I love roller blading; it's exhilarating rapid spurts of uncertainty. I love gliding and turning and such. Rollerblading does a number on the quads  When making turns on sharp hare pin curves, rollerblading forces you to really bend your knees and shift your body weight closer to the ground. This skill is transferable to tennis. Often in tennis, we are required to bend our knees and get down low for certain kinds of balls such as sliced shots. In addition, we need to always be shifting our weight lower to the ground instead of pulling up our body weight and thus making the balls sail long.

In addition, roller blading involves the turning and twisting of our bodies when we change directions and turn around sharp corners. In tennis, we utilize a similar motion when we are preparing to hit our shots. Prior to hitting a ball, we must turn our body to be able to see the incoming ball.

Furthermore, rollerblading allows you to work on your balance and weight transfer. These skills are essential  to the development of your tennis game. Balance and weight transfer our essential for the serve ( moving into) and for potent ground strokes.

By doing cross training activities, one can develop the muscle memory needed for certain skills in tennis. We can train our muscles to acclimate to certain tasks.

For more information on my tennis instruction, email info@elftennis.com.

Move more often during the day to improve your fitness

How to be mobile throughout the day 

A NY Times article postulated that one can be labeled as sedentary even if they do 5,000 steps a day  if your movement is limited to only that one hour of exercise. Essentially, if you workout for an hour but then spend the rest of the day lounging on your ass you won't feel the benefits of exercise ( rocking a hot body, getting stronger and being able to last more than half an hour without being short of breath) 

In this blog post, I will discuss different ways you can become more mobile throughout the day even if you work a job that requires you to be sedentary. 

Here are 10 ways all you sluggers you can make yourself more mobile throughout the day. Please don't laugh at my suggestions and feel free to implement your own ideas into the day. 

(1) Walk while you talk on the phone. Hmm for the gibber gabbers of the world is could add a while lot of steps into your daily output, 

(2) If cooking or doing another task while standing up, move your feet up and down and back and fourth. 

(3) While sitting hold in your stomach and your butt for intervals of 10-20 seconds for one full hour . This will help sculpt your muscles and is great for people with jobs that require them to sit for extended periods of times ( kudos t you guys, I don't know how I could manage that). 

(4) Take the stairs instead of the elevator. Should be obvious why! 

(5) Park far away from your destination, don't take the closest space available. This way you get to get some walking into your day. If your in a city with scant parking spaces this should be easy to implement. 

(6) Walk quickly to increase your hear rate and challenge yourself. 

(7) Spread out workouts throughout the day even if you can only fit in short intervals. Have that ten minutes that your waiting for your co workers to arrive at the meeting.- do some sit-ups. 

(8) Wear outfits that are too small to force yourself to suck your stomach in. Just be careful not to rip your pants! Wearing loose clothing allows us to relax our stomach muscles. 

(9) Volunteer for any chores like bringing in the mail, taking out the garbage, or walking the dogs. Extend your walks. 

(10) Don't go to the nearest bathroom and walk to a colleague's office to talk to them instead of texting or emailing them. 

Stay tuned for my next blog post on cross training workouts for tennis.