Having A Weapon!

The tennis weapons are generally a forehand, backhand or serve. When my friend recently played in a tournament, winning his first match and losing the second, he told me, "I need a weapon." I don't think he was asking me about guns, knives or a taser, but something he could do on the court to trouble his opponent.

Could great defense be a weapon? Consistancy? Mixing UP a serve that tops out at 75 mph? Yup. All of those can be weapons. I even quipped initially to him that "correct scorekeeping" could be a weapon because when you play people my age (50!) and I say to him while I'm serving, 30 - all? he can reply, "No, LOVE 40!"

QUICKNESS can also be a weapon as can TENACITY. An opponent who seemingly gets to EVERYTHING causes you to overhit or go for too much with that volley or overhead or try and finish a point too early.

We can't all have Roddick's serve, Rafa's quickness or Soderling's (flat) forehand, but can all become better at one thing and maybe even be known for it.

Trying to Hide Your Weakness

It use to be that this man, Fernando Gonzalez, would hardly hit a backhand. If so, it was generally a defensive stroke. You will still see him today sometimes get into that old bad habit of running around his backhand to hit a powerful forehand, but as many of us know, if it doesn't end the point, most of the court is now open for your opponent to reply.

Gonzalez today is an improved player. He has practiced and practiced, and... his topspin backhand and will hit it in pressure situations often with good results.

On the recreational level however, many are not confident with their backhand, or other weakness, and not hit it very often. A few years ago while coaching the boys high school team, there was a player in matches who would only slice his backhand, and often, not very well. In practice however, at my urging, he would hit over it with topspin, often hitting a powerful shot. But in a match he was too afraid to try this. When I would see him hit his ineffective slice, short, he would often lose the point, so I would insist he hit topspin. Then he would try and few and upon missing a shot, he would go back to his old safe pattern. To quote Proverbs, a dog always returns to it's vomit.

Why bring this up, again? As I have said before - http://paul-ihearttennis.blogspot.com/2009/08/superman-had-kryptonite.htmlte.html - and will say again, you have to practice what you are not good at. Your opponent is a problem solver and will quickly discover what you don't do very well. Can you imagine having a weakness driving a car? Uh, yeah I don't brake well and my right turns I always hit the curb and sometimes pedestrians feet if they stand too close. Sounds dumb? It is. And that's not the way to play tennis either, with a glaring weakness or two. Shaq needs to practice freethrows, and you and I need to practice our serve, volleys, overheads, backhands, or anything else that makes us less than we could be on the court.

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.

Searching for the Holy Grail

There are people out there, okay men out there, that are at Frys or Best Buy right now trying to decide between the 48” Plasma 720 HDTV or the 52” LCD1080Q HDTV. It’s a big decision, for them. In either case they are convinced that their quality of life, er… TV life, will be enhanced such that they will reach TV or DVD nirvana. And it will work for them, for about 6 months. Six months from now they will read an article or see an ad for the new DIGITAL FP2000 with a Zerna 12XKF Controller that promises to make all other TV’s obsolete. And now they have to have "the new one".

The Holy Grail. A mythical object that promises eternal life, fresher breath, a flatter stomach, well behaved children and more! Just 4 E-Z payments of $29.99, Visa-Mastercard accepted! Call now, operators are standing by. Sounds ridiculous huh?

If you read a tennis magazine and look at the racquet ads you see phrases like areo modular, woofer, smart grip, aerogel, magnetic speed, flexpoint, metallix, speed port, morph beam, n-code, v-engine, and a whole lot more!

-- for a dizzying array of tennis tech, click on this>

http://www.tennis-warehouse.com/technologies.html

Each promises that the feature will translate into better shots. What they don’t mention is that losing 10 lbs, taking some lessons, and going for more reasonable shots will actually improve your tennis a lot more than all those things combined. However, we don’t want to think about that, we want the quick cure—for our double faults, slice onthe golf course, weight loss, baldness, etc.

Instead of searching for the Holy Grail, be the Holy Grail. Could Tiger Woods win the Master’s with clubs bought at K-Mart? Probably. Could Nadal pick up a used racquet from a Salvation Army and beat most of us 0 and 0? Probably.

I am not saying that certain strings and racquets can’t lead to improvement, but the best gut and racquet will not make up for bad technique or being out of position, etc.

So if you’re looking for that one magic racquet (or string) okay, but remember it’s a slippery slope. One player I know has switched racquets (and brands) more than 5 times in 2 years. Don’t look for the next "big thing" as far as equipment goes, work on your game the old fashioned way; with lessons, improved technique, improved conditioning and better on court decision making.