Articles

Tennis. Life at the extremes

Take a journey through the imagination with me for a second and go back to a time where you had an extreme emotion- maybe it was anger, maybe it was frustration, maybe it was fear when seeing a mouse.…

Building Future Champions

Building future champions require very strong partnership and hard teamwork of player, coach and parents.

I wanted to reach out and share my opinion of how to shape and mold our students into superb …

Values

I hope that I can drag you along through this metaphor that might help to navigate the tretcherous territory between WINNING and DEVELOPING.

Imagine for a moment that you had been stuck in the woods …

Processing a Loss‏

As with all tournaments, there is always only one winner, which means in a Grand Slam 127 disappointments and 1 satisfaction. Dealing with loss and knowing how to keep building through them is a key p…

LEARNED HELPLESSNESS

Summary

In learned helplessness studies, an animal is repeatedly exposed to an adverse stimulus which it cannot escape. Eventually, the animal stops trying to avoid the stimulus and behaves as if it …

Changing Direction

Five laws for changing direction

Five laws for changing direction and going down the line.

It is important to realize that going down the line off a cross court ball is a risky proposition. There are two reasons for this:

Changing…

PHASE PLAY: OFFENSIVE & DEFENSIVE

Tennis can be described very simply in terms of three phases: OFFENSIVE, NEUTRAL, DEFENSIVE

We are going to discuss some simple judgement errors that are common, even amongst the pros, but far more c…

PHASE PLAY‏: NEUTRAL

We are going to discuss some simple judgement errors that are common, even among the pros, but far more common as we go down from 7.0 to 2.5 through the USTA scale.

Tennis can be described very simpl…

4 MAIN AREAS OF DEVELOPMENT TOP LEVEL PLAYER

This article serves to give players and parents an overview to the modern game of tennis, some of the psychological barriers to watch out for and what to look for in finding a coaching relationship th…

OVERVIEW OF MODERN TENNIS

DEVELOPING A TOP LEVEL PLAYER

This article serves to give players and parents an overview to some of the psychological barriers to watch out for and what to look for in finding a coaching relationship that is enduring and successf…

OVERVIEW OF DEVELOPING A TENNIS PLAYER‏

Emotions

Let's use the example of laundry here.

I take my clothes off and throw them in my hamper. When it gets to the top, I now have some processing to do. I wash, then dry, and then fold Em away. As long a…

Leadership

Too many players want to have six superstars at their practice session, and will call and ask who is going to be there and if the right people are not going, they skip practice for the day or they sho…

Perspective on Tournaments

I hear too often these sorts of comments "I want to take it slow for my tournament tomorrow?" "This is a really important tournament." And many more similar phrases. I want to put this into a differen…

How to beat counterpuncher

How to beat a counterpuncher if you are an aggressive baseliner‏

The counterpuncher is one of the more fearer opponents, and I have personally struggled many times against this type of player and see my students go through many of the same struggles that I did.

Th…

High Performance Practice

A quick note about High Performance Practice.

There is no such thing as a perfect practice, and the better you get, the harder it is to find equivalent practice partners.

What to do? One answer is t…

HOW TO BEAT AGGRESSIVE BASELINER

HOW TO BEAT AN AGGRESSIVE BASELINER IF YOU ARE A COUNTERPUNCHER

Playing against an aggressive baseliner is never easy. They cover the court very well, and always look for opportunity to attack. The best way to beat them is hitting ball deep into the court, varying…

Developing Mental Toughness

Mental Toughness is a crucial part of tennis game.

Players without mental toughness can have the natural talent and not make it as far as players with mental toughness and average ability.

The great…

Detailing your practice

I like to think about my practice sessions in categories. Here is a list of some of the important ones, and then we will have a look at how I practice them.

CONSISTENCY

I set aside 30 minutes or mor…

Tennis Mental Toughness

The Biggest and Most Basic Weapon In Tennis - Mental Toughness.

Mental Toughness is the most important part of tennis game. Your techniques, physical condition or strategy are very important too but …

CHIP AND CHARGE

UNDERSTANDING GAME STYLES

We are going to take a tactical journey in an attempt to make some short lists of the most important game styles and what each style relies on to make themselves successful. We will also take the time…

Ask Justin Bower

Do you ever want to ask coach a question but couldn't find the right way of asking?

Do you ever have something you wanted to say to coach but couldn't find the right moment?

Do you ever want to disc…

SERVE AND VOLLEY PLAYER

UNDERSTANDING GAME STYLES

Self-Improvement

A great competitor once told me that competition merely justifies your process. Simple but true, just like any test, if you have prepared well, relentlessly, consistently, covered all the major touch …

Backhand

Building a solid backhand

Here are the five keys to building a solid backhand:

1. Well timed split step.

2. Superb Unit Turn - Watch how Novak's right arm is almost horizontal at the furthest point of his take back.

3. Tip …

COUNTER PUNCHER

UNDERSTANDING GAME STYLES

Excellent Technique

I get asked about the process of building excellent technique quite often, and I wanted to give a couple of thoughts.

Think of your swings like your garden. When will you need to stop mowing it? Or p…

THE ART OF COMPETITION

Being a great competitor is very much like creating a painting or a writing a beautiful song. If we look at some of the greatest artists, Salvador Dali, Leonardo Da Vinci, Escher, they were incredibly…

AGGRESSIVE BASELINER

UNDERSTANDING GAME STYLES

ALL-COURT PLAYER

UNDERSTANDING GAME STYLES

Meet Matthew Biondi

I had the incredible opportunity to pick the brains of Matthew Biondi, 11 time Olympic gold medalist in swimming, and member of the swimming hall of fame. We spoke about competition at that level, and…

Fear

A Great Excerpt About Fear

When you are fearful, no other possibilities exist. You cannot perceive other possibilities or act on them properly, even if you were able to perceive them, because fear is immobilizing.

Physically, …

Tough positions

How to hit the ball from tough positions?

Learning how to hit the ball from tough positions. This is one chapter that I spent a lot of time on, being that my movement was never from the top shelf. I follow a couple of basic rules.

1. Watch y…

A GAME WITHIN A GAME

One of the most important things we all have to come to terms with is that it is going to be very difficult to always practice with someone who is better than ourselves. In fact, we will most definite…

Why do I love tennis?

Why do I love tennis? Or sport in general? This is the best description that I can give.

I believe the following to be true, “Anybody can move a chess piece, but only a select handful can move their …

To all tennis parents

In order to maximize results from private lessons

Make sure that your child takes notes, books a practice court and drop feeds at least once or twice and works on the shots practiced in the lesson by themselves.

Make sure they book a court with the …

Lesson from Roger 2

Another Roger Federer video in slow motion. Watch the Palm down position on the backswing on the serve, watch the non-stop motion (something I believe in more than anything) of his serve. See if you c…

Lesson from Roger

Roger Federer in super slow mo! Get the pen and paper out, so much to learn from Sir Roger in just a few minutes.

To start, lets see if he misses a split step?

Lets see if he uses a small base?

Wat…

BACKHAND TECHNIQUE

For all my students, we are still building the technique for a variety of shots, and I love to use the top pros as role models so that the player can watch and imitate on their own time, in front of t…

Backhand Slice

One of my absolute favorite shots, the backhand slice. I must admit that I prepare a little differently for the lower backhand slice, preferring not to make such a high take back, but its very difficu…

Serve Repair Tips

I have worked with a lot of people recently who are having trouble with their serves. This shot can be as complicated as you want it to be, but here are the Four golden rules that I used to build my s…

Emotionally Tough

What does it mean to be Emotionally Tough?

When reading the posts below, ask yourself if any of the four situations applies to you, and if you find one happening more than others.

Toughness is learned and grooved, just like a forehand. Make s…

DISCIPLINE

What does it mean?

Lets talk for a minute about the word DISCIPLINE. What does it mean?

Training to Ensure Proper Behavior: The practice or methods of teaching and learning proper behavior.

Order and Control: A contro…