Archive for the ‘General’ Category
Former Australian tennis star Mark Philippoussis is currently facing financial collapse as he is unable to pay his mortgage on his Williamstown home in bayside Melbourne.
Philippoussis earned more than $8 million dollars on court over the years, but is now being sued for failing to pay the mortgage and not just for a small amount, for about $1.3 million.
“Money came in left, right and centre; you just thought that’s how it was for everyone and that’s how it will always be,” he said.
“It’s the toughest time of my life right now, but it’s also the best time because I’ve woken up to so many things in my life.
“When I get back up from this I’ll appreciate so many things so much more. I’ve fallen down and I’ll get back up. This is how it is. It’s life.”
A found something very interesting for those of you who don’t know it yet. This is for all the coaches out there who want to improve their coaching skills, becoming coaches, players who want to work on themselves, in short for everyone who wants to improve his knowledge about tennis.
I saw on the itftennis.com homepage that they publish a review from time to time called “ITF Coaching and Sport Science Review”. The last issue has been published in December 2008 and is available in three different languages (French, Spanish and English).The articles are on subjects ranging from nutrition, history of tennis, anti-doping, biomechanics of the serve, tennis participation, psychological aspects of tennis, coach-player relationship, dealing with external conditions (heat, wind etc.) and so on…
So for all knowledge hungry tennis fans enjoy yourselves! (Click here for direct link)
With the tight schedule that the professionals, both men and women, have nowadays, injuries become more and more frequent as we could see at every end of the season for the past few years. We had frequently Federer and Nadal missing at the last Masters Series of the year in Paris Bercy, and Nadal even missed last year’s Masters Cup in Shanghai.
It often takes a very longtime to recover from injuries in tennis, since they often involve joints, ankles, neck, shoulders, in short all very sensitive parts of the body. Unfortunately, our common medicine often has no treatment for such injuries besides asking the patient to rest until it goes away. This is one of the reasons why, more and more tennis player started to use alternative medicine, in our case acupuncture. One of the earliest player to use it was all time injured Mary Pierce (FRA) who said after being asked what her biggest problems were:” Probably my back, which kept me out from May 2001 until the start of 2002. Basically it was two discs in my lower spine. One was herniated and the other was bulging. The best thing for this was just to rest, so that’s what I did. This was followed by acupuncture. I am quite a believer in alternative medicine.”
To this list we could add an endless number of names, be it Sania Mirza who when her right wrist fell apart and she was unable to compete after the Olympics last year (thinking her career might be over) visited an acupuncturist during the fall and amazingly recovered and now says she has her full range back. Another one would be Gael Monfils who used it at last year’s US Open to recover after his often exhausting games…
The tennis elbow, one of the most common diseases in tennis is probably also one of the easiest to treat with acupuncture and cupping. It shows a success rate of about 90%. Another name for tennis elbow is epicondylitis. It is due to constant over rotation of the wrist and forearm, which of course is why it is called tennis elbow, since this is one of the basic movements in tennis.Acupuncture tennis elbow treatment works effectively in this condition because it works towards improving the blood flow in the area and also the entire body, in an attempt to provide permanent relief from pain and to decrease effectively inflammation.
So if you too are an all time injured tennis player, it might be worth trying it. I have tried it a couple of times for my shoulders and I have to say it often helped me much more than just some conventional massages, or some expensive laser or ultrasound treatments.
The official Homepage of the Australian Open found the perfect quote to express what might happen sooner or later: “Without wishing to worry Roger Rasheed unduly, he might want to start taking an interest in the “positions vacant” page in the paper.”
In fact the 22 year old French appears to change his coaches as much as some of us change their socks. Some last only a a few days, others managed to work with him for more or less 6 months. His current Australian coach, Roger Rasheed, is one of them. The former coach of Lleyton Hewitt (from June 2003 until January 2007) can be more than proud of his work done so far with the 193cm tall athlete. In fact, the most obvious change is Gael’s physique: he put on 2.5 kg of muscles during the winter break. The rather tall Monfils has always been a good athlete, let’s remember some of his 5 set performances in recent years at the French Open namely, but never was that muscular. This has now changed. Yet, who works on one skill, is likely to neglect another one, which in Gael’s case might be his speed and endurance. This leads us to his Aussie Open 2nd round match against the Austrian Koubek where he seemed “puffing and sweating and looking the worse for wear”, as australianopen.org puts it.
Monfils’s explanation thereafter was that indeed he thinks he lost some speed, but their physical conditioning is still in progress, so he’ll either grow into his new physical shape or lose a pound or two.
Anyways, it looks like their cooperation is going to break the records and is going to last longer then his other coaches, and if Monfils really grows into his new shape and gets some more regularity, he might be very interesting to follow this season!
To finish, just a list of some of Monfils’ previous coaches:
Thierry Champion
Pier Gauthier
Olivier Delaitre
(All pretty famous French coaches and former professionals)
What do we do what we find ourselves in a winning position in a match? Most make two errors. They focus on the outcome of winning the match and they defend their lead. Both of these two things have catastrophic results!
There are many many examples even at an elite level Web players have started thinking about the end of the match. Things like shaking hands, shaking the umpire’s hand, photos with the trophy, people to think in their speech etc.
Thinking about the outcome and defending your lead a common symptoms when winning a match. There are processes and strategies you can execute to ensure you see the match to its completion as the winner.
Read the full article at http://playtennistowin.com/blog
The tennis court can be a very lonely place for a singles player. In between points it is easy for our mind to wander and be distracted. People wandering around the behind court, planes flying over, other matches going on around you, all have the potential to take your focus away from the match.
It is impossible, nor is it recommended that you stay focused during the whole match. You need to have many breaks, in between points. The challenge, is to regain a high level of concentration quickly at the start of each point.
A technique, I am sure that you have seen the professionals do, is to maintain straight strings in your racquet. Keeping your strings straight makes very little physical difference, however is a great concentration technique.
You will see top players continually straightening their strings before each point. While they are straightening their strings their concentration is very focused. It gives them place for their eyes to focus while they think about the next point and how they going to execute their plan.
If you stick to this technique is easy to see when you are not concentrating. If you look down at your racquet, notice that all your strings are not straight, you need to concentrate more and take more time before points.
Try it out and let me know how you go!
Michael
When you are playing it a tournament at a tennis centre for the first time it is very important to make sure you know a few of the finder details about the centre.
Spending a little bit of time gathering all this information will make your time at the tournament much more relaxed. You will know how to prepare, you’ll know what to expect, and most importantly you will feel in control and settled in unfamiliar environment. This will allow you to focus on your match and your opponent and improve your chances of winning.
In the weeks leading up to the event find out the following information:
* How you are going to travel to the tennis Centre?
* What facilities they have at the tennis Centre.
* Do they have toilets and change rooms?
* Do they have restringing service?
* What is the turnaround time for a restring?
* Do they have a pro-shop?
* Do they sell consumables like grips, wristbands?
* Do they sell healthy food and sports drinks?
* Where are the practice courts?
* What time is another practice courts available?
* Do you need to book a practice court?
* What are the opening hours for the pro shop?
* Do they sell clothing? Just in case you run out of fresh clothes.
* Is the tournament being played at more than one tennis Centre? If so does the tournament arrange transport between the tennis centres?
* What is the surface of the courts at the tennis Centre? (and other tennis centres being used?
* If you’re travelling by car where can you park your car? Are there costs associated with parking?
* If you are relying on public transport know the timetables especially the last bus or train. is public transport safe?
* If possible get a map of where the tennis Centre is located.
* If possible also get a layout of the tennis Centre marking on it where the toilets are, food, pressure, tournament office.
It is a great idea to get the tournament a day before it starts if possible. Try and arrange a warmup practice hit at the tennis Centre start to familiarise yourself with the environment. This will help you relieve some anxiety coming into your first match of the tournament.
If you require accommodation, try to stay within walking distance of the tennis Centre. This is especially important if you have a late match followed by an early match the next day.
For most tournaments this tennis centre would become your home for a couple of days or maybe a week. You need to feel comfortable as soon as possible to increase your chances of winning early matches in the tournament. if possible, even try and find some photos of the tennis Centre to further familiarise yourself.
I hope that helps!
Michael
All players should use different shoes for different surfaces. The main 2 differences are hard courts and ’slippery’ courts. (eg clay, dirt and synthetic grass)
On the weekend I watched a young player slip over on Synthetic Grass during the warm up for his match. Synthetic Grass has a layer of sand over it making it slippery. He slipped because of his shoes. He was wearing his 2 month old, hard court shoes. He had left his grass court shoes at home this time. After falling and taking some skin off he forfeited the match in the warm up!
(in an upcoming article I talk about what you SHOULD do if you injure yourself in a match)
Amazing, you can do all this training and practice and something simple like keeping 2 pairs of shoes in your bag can determine how well you play. Simple really! I personally always have both sets of shoes in my bag. Even if I am playing a ‘hard court tournament’ I will bring my grass court shoes just in case. Why? Well I know that if there is a delay sometimes other ‘outside’ courts are used. This may mean different tennis centers are used and potentially they can be a different surface.
Be strict with yourself. Never wear your grass court shoes on a hard surface – not even once. The hard courts just strip the tread off – you want maximum grip when you need it.
So why different shoes?
There are 2 main things to look for when deciding what shoes to wear when. Cushion and grip pattern.
On a hard court surface the pattern does not matter as much as the cushion. Having extra padding, cushioning, gel, air – whatever the technology – is important.
Elite players notice the difference between a good and inferior pair of shoes. Always purchase shoes with padding at the front as well as the heel. This subtle and overlooked difference can be the difference between you feeling light or heavy on your feet.
I remember playing in shoes which were the model down from the top model. It felt like I was playing in thongs. Tennis players spen alot of time on the balls of our feet – jumping for smashes, recovering from a wide ground stroke, going forward on our volleys. You really notice the difference with extra cushioning at the front.
The other reason why cushion matters on hard court is the heat of the court. Playing on a hot court in the middle of the day can be very draining. You need a large buffer between you and the court to keep that heat away from your feet.
Cushioning also – obviously – protects you from injury. By the shoe absorbing the impact – it stops you from taking the impact to your ankles, knees and leg muscles. You also want some ankle support.
Ok, now ’slippery’ surfaces. Clay, synthetic grass, grass etc. Cushioning and durability is less important. It is more about the tread pattern typically you want a shoe with the majority a heringbone pattern. The rubber can actually be softer so the shoe can mould to the surface of the court. The old Dunlop Volleys are a great shoe for these conditions – however – offer very little ankle support or cushioning.
NEVER wear your shoes on the wrong surface. You need your slippery tread to be fresh, not worn from use on a hard court. And Vice Versa.
Keep both pairs in your tennis bag if you are going to an event and there is a chance between playing on either surface. It can be the difference between winning and loosing.
I also recommend playing on both surfaces regularly. Playing on slippery surfaces is a completely different game to hard courts. They are both very enjoyable. We are going to discuss some surface strategies in an upcoming article.
Ok, I heard about this last night and tried it. This is a great little test and skill enhancer. We are not working on improving any stroke in particular however your whole game will improve.
The drill goes like this.
What you need – 2 players. One Serving and the other Receiving. 2 balls – one for the server and one for the receiver.
- The Receiver starts the drill by bouncing a ball on their racquet, not letting it touch the ground.
- The server serves another ball whenever he or she is ready. – Second Serve speed – about 80% serve.
- The receiver must continue to keep bouncing the ball on their racquet, hit the ball the server served and continue bouncing the ball on their racquet.
It sounds difficult however you work it out after a few serves. What I worked out is – tap the ball gently only leaving the racquet about 1 foot. Just after the server makes contact with the ball tap the ball higher (not sure how high I was not watching the ball in the air – I was focussing on the return- maybe 3 meters)
This really trains you to work on your peripheral vision and after a while you are actually become quite relaxed and confident you can make the return and keep bouncing the ball on your racquet.
After you have finished that drill try hitting normal returns… How easy are they now !!!
By overloading your system you work on all your senses. An advanced version of this would be to have people throwing balls at you, random noise next to you, or obstacles you need to step around. When all these distractions are taken away and ‘all’ you have to do is hit a return it much easier !
What do you think? Leave a comment or let us know another drill you like and use 
Michael
Ok, firstly anxiety and nerves are slightly different things.
Anxiety is where you are looking forward to achieving a particular outcome in the future. The frustrating part about anxiety is that you are basically waiting for a ‘time’ to achieve it. For example a match on the weekend, in a few hours etc. Usually anxiety goes away once the match has started and you are able to do something about the outcome.
During a match or just before anxiety is usually replaced by nerves. So, what are these nerves? A definition of nerves is: ‘the gap between what needs to be done and what you believe you can do’.
Nerves are good – it mean that you care about the outcome !
Again, ‘what needs to be done’ – beat this opponent, play strong, volley well, work out how to beat someone.
The next part – ‘what you believe you can do’ – can you beat this opponent, play well etc. The closer your ‘belief’ on your ability to ‘achieve’ what needs to be done the less nerves you should have…. Never thought about it that way? The nerves are proportional to the size of the gap! Examples
If you are confident you can beat someone you might be slightly anxious to do it – but not nervous.
If you think you are going to loose, and are sure you can achieve loosing well you wont be nervous. (being negative – but proving a point)
If you are playing a good player of similar standard however you are feeling a little rusty, well you might feel nervous about how you will perform on the day.
How do you reduce nervousness?? Increase confidence. How do you increase confidence? Be confident in your preparation leading into the match. Your fitness, technique, routines etc.
If you are well prepared, confident with what you have done before the match you should be less nervous.
Preparation is something you can work on to reduce anxiety ! It makes you already in control of the outcome – preparing yourself. Now do you see how they fit together?? Interesting…
There also other tips for confidence like strategy and mental rehersal – that is going to be in another article!!
Have a great day !! Michael
