Superman Had Kryptonite

I have...

I am playing some new guy the other day and about 3 games into it he yells in exasperation either during or right after a point, "what's your weakness?"

I didn't yell back "my second serve" but instead yelled back something slightly off-color, trying to be funny.

Five years earlier I would have had to respond to him, "well, where do you want me to start?"

I have told players before, and probably already written this in somewhere earlier in this blog but, you are only as good as your weakest stroke. Under pressure, that weak shot becomes your achilles heel and is sure to break down even further.

We all like to hit our favorite shots but to improve, schedule some time with a ball machine, or a tennis lesson, because if you're not getting better, you're getting worse-- because your opponent is improving, so in relation to her/him, standing still is taking a step back.

What is your weakness? fitness, overheads, backhands, pace, no pace, second serve ad court, volleys, half-volleys, keeping score, returns... Think about it and then set a goal to improve and a plan to get there. Aloha.

Foot Faulting Your Way to Success!

Quiz Time... what is the tennis equivalent to the "gimme putt" in golf? I think it would be the foot fault. This broken rule is about as common as forgetting the score, which at my age is about as common as wrinkles.

Being about 5' 10" in my K-Swiss shoes, I discovered the other day that while I am not tall enough to see over the net when my oponent is serving, I can see through the net and under the tape and get a good look at his or her feet while serving.

This is the first time I have seen it while playing. "Ah-- take two, looked like you foot faulted" I said. I said it about a minute later again. I felt like a cretin, but c'mon, it's breaking a rule. And if I had really wanted to, I could have called it about 5-10 more times. It began to bother me so much I stopped looking for it. And we are not talking about stepping on the line, but across it, into the court before contact was made.

That was Monday. When I played the same person Wednesday, a mere 2 days later, he wasn't foot faulting. I watched for it maybe for 5 serves and nope. His motion had changed. After about his 3rd or 4th service game he said to me, "have you noticed my feet on my serve today?"

"Yeah, the front one isn't moving - no foot faults."

"I discovered that if I keep my front foot planted, it gives me better stability and I can also control the direction better."

Did you catch that? With one day of practice, my friend was able to retrain his body and his muscle memory and make a change that not only complied with the rules, but also resulted with a better stroke.

Now if we could just get the other 12 million recreational players who regularly foot fault to do this.

What can this man teach us about TENNIS?

Chuck "The Iceman"

Liddell

Ultimate Fighting

Championship Fighter

No, I don't believe Chuck plays tennis, so what can we learn from him to improve?

Back in February of 2008 he was on a radio program called WAIT,WAIT, DON'T TELL ME, a humorous news based program on NPR. I heard him that day being interviewed by Peter Sagal.

Among other things Peter asked him about was does it help to get "worked up" and angry about the person before you go into the ring with him? Chuck said actually no. Paraphrasing here, Chuck says "I'm not an emotional fighter. Emotion CLOUDS YOUR JUDGEMENT, implying it gets harder to problem solve and execute if you get too emotional (and less rational) when you are in battle. http://www.npr.org/templates/player/mediaPlayer.html?action=1&t=1&islist=false&id=19108930 That conversation is at about the 2:10 mark.

You hear that tennis fans? Settle down a bit and think while you are out there. Losing ones cool may have (or may not have) helped some pretty famous tennis players, like McEnroe and Connors in the 70's, and more recently Nadal, Hewitt and The Poster Boy for Tennis TESTOSTERONE-- Gael Monfils. Every time Monfils jumps around the court shouting in glee after winning a big point, I can't help but think all that adrenaline is going to tire him out later in the match, when it wears off. Coupled with that are the emotions that accompany these large outbursts. They have to affect your judgement. Might doesn't always make right in tennis or otherwise you would have people looking like Chuck Liddell winning Wimbledon every year.

Andre Agassi also was interviewed late in his career and he talked about tennis is problem solving. Isn't that the truth. Let's say you are down 2-6, and have a breakpoint at 3-3. Your last 2 break chances you hit both service returns long trying to break serve with a return winner. I don't know, I'm no Einstein but I think instead of again overhitting the return, you might want to try something safer. However, so many people never seem to make any adjustments, or pay attention to learn from their mistakes. Remember that old definition of insanity: Doing the same thing again and again but expecting different results.

I also wrote another post related to this about your tennis hard drive-- see here http://paul-ihearttennis.blogspot.com/2009/02/is-your-tennis-hard-drive-faulty.html if you are interested in this important but often neglected part of the our game, the mental side of tennis.

Viva Roger!!

You gotta be happy for the guy... he's got the monkey off his back. Is his victory diminished because he did't beat Nadal in the final? Nah, not unless you such a Nadal fan that you are considering naming your firstborn Rafa.

Federer overcame many serious contenders and deficits. He was behind in sets won against 3 different opponents, and went 5 sets twice.

As good as he was he has to rethink the backhand slice service return. Many, many of these balls are just making it 2-3 feet beyond his opponents service box and that is a short ball. It's hard to break serve when you are continually getting winners hit off of your returns or making forced errors over your opponents 2nd shots.

Yet, the men's game generally comes down to a few break chances that decides the match. In the case of the Fed's semi-final against Del Potro, in the first 4 sets the person that won the set was the one that was the first to break the opponents serve. In the 5th set, the pattern only differed slightly - they went break-break-break, with Roger getting broken on his serve in the middle of those three games.

You are only as good as your weakest shot-- whether it be your 2nd serve, your backhand return, your overhead, volley, etc. And under pressure, the weakest shot breaks down even further.

A few years ago I rallied with a boy who was going to be on the tennis team the next year. In the 10 minutes of rallying, he ran around his backhand and hit maybe 8-10 inside-out forehands cross court. He loved it so much he probably would have married it. Sure, practice your favorite strokes, but it's MORE important to practice your weakest ones. That's where improvement occurs, for you, me, Roger and anybody else that plays this great game.

Socrates once said, the unexamined life is not worth living. I say the unexamined tennis game is not worth playing. We can all improve leading to more enjoyment but the first step is identifying an area (or two) to start that improvement.

Still Playing, Still Improving?

Tennis YES, but what else?

Is tennis your number one sport? It's mine followed by hockey and cycling. But what else do you do for exercise? Walk, run, soccer, bike, golf, weights, basketball, swim? I know that many sports are complimentary to each other. For example, some Olympic athletes have gone from cycling to speed skating and vice versa. Both sports reward powerful leg muscles and a good lung capacity.

What about tennis? What else would support and actually compliment tennis? Andre Agassi before he retired was known for his 1/4 mile UPHILL wind sprints in the Vegas desert. He was also said to do bench press reps of 250+ lbs.

When I think about tennis (singles especially), I think about a lot of side to side movement, and a fair amount of forward and backward running as well. I think of basketball. The movement is similiar, as well as using anticipation on your opponents next move. It also takes arm muscles, plus a strong heart and lungs. Of course I can also name a number of people who have had their knees scoped because of basketball being a contact sport, but other than that, playing once a week or 4-5 times a month could be useful.

Weight training. I am not suggesting you need to bench over 200 lbs on a regular basis but lifting free weights especially (to help with balance, recruiting more muscle fibers), you can isloate your triceps (important for throwing-- which is partly the service motion), do lifts for your lats (good for trunk rotation on ground strokes), curls-- good for your writsts-- important for volleys as well as all shots-- and well, I think you get the idea.

Personally I am not as keen on weights for your legs, I am old-skool there, thinking that running, or running hills/stairs is a more natural movement.

Other exercises? Both cycling and swimming are terrific for building cardiovascular stamina - important if you have to run down a lot of balls which I think describes most of us.

That's it. Think about giving up one day a week, or maybe a few times per month and cut the tennis short by augmenting your exercise with something else that will make you a stronger, more well rounded tennis player. It adds variety and may also help with injury prevention, since you will be building and recruiting additional muscles for support.

Try it. It might just be fun and it could make you a better tennis player - how about that?

The Ageless Sport of Tennis

I originally wrote this in March of 2004--

Yesterday I played tennis, doubles, with three other men. One was in his early 60’s, another 74, and the last one 77. I was thinking this wouldn’t be the best tennis to participate in since I was a youngish 43 and probably mistakenly think that I have more in common with Andre Agassi than I do these guys. I was wrong.

Art the youngest of the three called me and told me that he had some “good players” to play some doubles with. He mentioned something about a “guy who’s almost 78 who has a son who is ranked in Southern California in the 45’s [age group], but he can still really play.”

I said “sure” and agreed to meet them at 10 a.m. at the courts down the block from my house. I thought that the ‘father and son’ would probably take on the 60 year old and I and it would be fun.

Even though John (the 77 year old man) might have a 45-year-old son who is a very good player, that son wasn’t there. Instead I got a 74-year-old partner (Skip) and we played against Art and John.

For those of you who know the game of tennis you would think that being the person at the net with your partner serving you could “poach” (cut across the net to intercept the opponents return) a lot. You would think. I mean it makes sense that guys in their 60’s and 70’s who grew up learning to play in the 1940’s and 50’s with wood racquets would not hit with great topspin and power. They grew up during a time where the words “power” and “tennis” went about as well together as “Hummer” and “good gas mileage.”

The first time I served to John (who is about 5’ 6”) my partner didn’t poach and intercept an easy, soft return. When I served to John he sliced the ball back toward me so deftly that it forced me off the court completely and almost into a light pole that is about 6 feet off the court. I couldn’t successfully return his shot and we lost the point.

I found that this would be the rule rather than the exception for our tennis that morning. What the trio of elder players lacked in power, they more than made up for it in consistency, angles, touch and placement.

There was one player though that double faulted the most and missed more volleys than all the other players. No, not the 77 year old as you might think. It was I, the youngster of the group, with the most hair.

I guess that brings me to the moral of this little tennis anecdote. Now I could say something about aging like it’s never too late to accomplish something in life. Like how the guy who started McDonalds was 52 at the time, or how Colonel Sanders got his start at age 65. Or even how Jack LaLanne at age 89 still wakes up at 5 a.m. every day, lift weights and swims for two hours. But nah, for me the lesson is much simpler; do not serve to a 77-year-old players backhand, lest he make you look foolish.
Jack LaLanne, looking like Bono in shades, celebrating his 90th back in October 2004

It's Getting to be That Time of Year Again!

Protect Yourself!

The sun is both our friend and our enemy. It causes us to: miss overheads, age our skin more quickly, it can even cause a mole to become cancerous. But it's our friend too-- the sun helps us produce Vitamin D, makes our commutes to work, school or play safer, and grows our food among other things.

Generally the tannest part of me is my red-neck. That is unless I wear my outback hat, like the one pictured above. Between that and slathering on-- with a latex glove during a match so my hands aren't greasy-- sunscreen 30 or above generally.

And the health educator in me wouldn't be doing his service if I didn't mention the ABCD's of melanoma, a deadly form of skin cancer. Check it out, it's worth a click and keep an eye on those moles--- especially the ones that get a lot of sun exposure. http://www.cdc.gov/nasd/docs/d001201-d001300/d001207/d001207.html

and on the humorous side, as far as tan lines go for tennis players, it could be worse!

Practicing Better

Tennis scientists say rubbing your head with your tennis racquet increases tennis knowledge by 4% on average. Try it today!

Who’s winning? Who won? Don’t you just love that question? It is only eclipsed by the question I heard early in the days of the long distance running movement in the late 70’s or early 80’s. It would come from someone you worked with asked you what you did over the weekend.

I ran a 10k.

Did you win?, they would ask excitedly.

Oh yeah, I beat over 6000 other runners, about 50 of who are supported financially and training for the Olympics. I lapped them, beat them all by 10 minutes, thanks for asking.

The other day I am playing with my friend David and from the next court, the question comes “Who’s winning?”

For me to yell back, we both are would require a lengthy explanation so I just say “he is” but the truth of the matter was I really didn’t know. I hadn’t forgotten the score, we don’t keep track.

The David Formula

Here’s what we do. We play 3 games—keeping score each game, alternating serve after each game, but don’t take a break and switch sides until after the third game. Then we just repeat this format all morning or afternoon.

What format allows us to do is several things:

• Work on specific areas (maybe return of serve, serve and volley, a new grip, rushing the net more, etc.) It allows you to practice without fear of failure because you won’t blow a game based on trying your new technique and think now I’m behind, this sucks.! Also, it’s not a formal thing---- hey, I’m going to try all serve and volleys for this game so please return it right to me. Instead it’s something you decide in your head and work at it in your own way, so it feels less like practice, and more like playing, which of course you actually are.
  
• Get in better condition. Playing 3 games consistently is quite a workout! Often one of those 3 games will have multiple deuces or an extended rally. When this happens it will test your conditioning considerably. Imagine that happening in the first game, you have two more full games before you sit.


• It's fun, with less pressure and allows you check your ego at the door since your performance that day is not tied to winning or losing.

Sure, there are times that I am aware I just won (or lost) 3 games in a row, but generally after 90 minutes or two hours of hitting this way, I really don’t know if I won 14 games and lost 10, or won 11 games and lost 19.

I hit with a boy from the high school team about 2 months ago and told him of this format and asked if he wanted to try it. He said, “sure, but I’ll never be able NOT to keep track of the score, I’m just that way.” About thirty minutes into playing, at a changeover he smiled and said, “you know, I really don’t know what the score is.”

The David Formula. Three games + rest (repeat...) = improvement. It’s worked well for us, and it might work well for you too.

Growing the Game of Tennis!

Wouldn't That Be Nice?

The number of tennis participants (in the US) reached an all-time high in 1973-74 as the colorful characters of Connors, McEnroe and even the quiet genius of Bjorn Borg made for some interesting matchups. -- Click here to see that actual rise and fall of participation since 1960. http://www.tennisindustry.org/PDFs/ParticipationHistory.pdf

As tennis participation has fallen or plateaued since '99, the game of golf has skyrocketed-- and you can blame Tiger Woods for that in part. And it's not just mens golf either. While Tiger may not have motivated that many young girls to get into the game, in Europe the recently retired Annika Sorenstam did that for the Barbie set. South Korea routinely fills up the women's leader board with as many as 12-14 of the top 20 spots thanks to the stellar play 10-15 years ago of Se Ri Pak. And now golfs new Tigeress hails from Mexico-- Lorena Ochoa --so we can only expect many young Latinas south of the border asking for golf clubs now for their next birthday instead of last years Bratz Dolls.

So what does this have to do with GROWING THE GAME of tennis? Yeah, good question. We obviously could use some more exciting personalities that are in the top 5, or maybe top 3 that hail from the land of the currently unemployed. It's not like we aren't trying but at least we have Roddick marrying a bikini model and he often has hilarious post-match interviews. Andy even hosted Saturday Night Live a few years back---okay 2003, just after winning the US Open -- that alone probably got 1000 people out in the following week with their old wooden Jack Kramers. However, other than that, tennis needs some colorful and GREAT players. The Williams sisters, while great, have been standoff-ish and play less tournaments than virtually all others in the top 20 of the WTA.

It wouldn't hurt to maybe get a new PR firm and come up with clever commercials going head to head against golf--- we compare quite favorably I think---- Tennis offers...

• better workout-- you can't use a pullcart or electric cart to get to your next shot in tennis


• faster workout 1.5 to 2 hours versus 4-5+ hours for golf


• tennis has singles or doubles, or mixed doubles for variety


• cheaper-- way cheaper and in this economy this cannot be stressed enough! Most racquets retail for $95-$140 (x2) versus clubs that can cost $250-1000+ and green fees of $25 to $100+ dollars each time you play


• hit 75-125 balls in golf for 18 holes versus the fun of clobbering 200-300 in an hour in tennis

One other fan friendly thing to do, as Billy Jean King has suggested, is that both the mens and women's tours play more combined events. Aside from the 4 majors, there are only 2-3 others that you can see men and women play a court away from each other. This value added benefit is appreciated by most tennis fans and could really also appeal to the next generation of players.

We have the superior product and unless Tiger Woods (or Obama) changes sports to tennis, we have some serious marketing to do to protect and grow this great game of ours.

link to the USTA http://www.usta.com/

link to the Tennis Industry Association http://www.tennisindustry.org/

POWER, POWER, POWER!!!

Speaking of power, I was playing with my friend Rufus yesterday and he had a new racquet. It was a RAMBO XF15 THUNDERBAT which is (surprise!) a stiff, powerful racquet. Rufus from the first point hit hard penetrating baseline shots, a noticeable uptick in power and depth from his normal game.

For the first 3-4 games I was breathing hard, chasing deep shots into both corners. My goose was cooked – tennis wise. Then something interesting happened. On shots that were mid court to him, he came in and hit it long (out) more often than not. What had been a wonderful racquet 5 seconds earlier was now an unwieldy cannon.

Power is only good on a tennis court if you can harness it and direct it. From the baseline he was a monster but for the mid court stuff, the monster lost its bite and the racquet became a one trick pony.

So this is just a reminder that while power might be the most intoxicating of all the tennis weapons, it is also the most overrated. The other tennis P’s... placement, position and pa-variety are all equally or more important armaments in an effective tennis arsenal.