The club that I play at in Toronto has a lot of top players. There are a lot of players who play competitive seniors tennis and who rank at or near the top in the country. ( There's a 73 year old legend who can play with all but the best younger guys -- he takes everything incredibly early)
Last week in the club doubles championship, I had the pleasure of watching the club's best doubles player. He's also one of the top doubles players in the country.
What did I learn you ask?
An incredible amount and I'll try and pass on some of the lessons I picked up by watching.
1. An incredibly compact return of serve. Essentially, a quick unit turn with almost no independent arm motion. Almost impossible to make an error and able to take the ball early and put it right back at the server's feet.
2. Incredibly compact volleys. Same story -- shoulder turn with very little independent arm action.
3. A fantastic overhead -- able to hit with angle, power , and able to bounce the overhead over the head of the other team. Try hitting a typical overhead that bounces over the heads of your opponents. Not easy! But very valuable.
4. Fantastic balance. Never out of balance when the other team was preparing to hit. Very quiet body.
5. Drilled a lot of volleys at the net man. When he had a volley that he could generate pace on, he drilled it at the net man -- remember this is top level men's doubles.
6. Precision serving. Not big but well placed.
Try watching the best doubles players at your club --especially youngish seniors ( 35's and 40's) and see what you can pick up. Then go out and incorporate those changes into your game.
Until next time,
Glenn Sheiner M.D. - author of Insider Tennis Strategies Great Doubles Tips guaranteed to make you a smarter tennis player and take your tennis to the next level. Also, check out the world's top tennis humor screensaver
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Wow.
That's all I can say about Rafael Nadal's performance last night in the US Open final.
Especially, the third and fourth set. No errors, unbelievable defense, crisp volleying when needed, and accurate,powerful serving.
We are watching one of the great players of all time.
But, are there are any lessons that Bob or Mary, who play at the club, and right now are preparing for their summer club championships, can use?
Because, as great as Rafa is, he plays tennis with the logical abilities of one of those IBM supercomputers. Let's have a look at some of the tactics Rafa used last night to dismantle a very game Novak Djokovic.
RETURN OF SERVE
Forget about taking a swing, even if shortened on the first serve. Rafa was slicing back all first serves on both the forehand and backhand side. And, he was slicing high and with great depth so that when the ball landed almost all advantage for Djokovic was gone.
This is very similar to the way Roger Federer plays Andy Roddick --neutralize the big serve by just blocking it, and then seeing if your opponent has the goods to win the point after the bounce.
Of course, the flaw in the strategy would be a susceptibility to guys who follow in their serves and volley but, since serve and volleyers are a dying breed, Rafa doesn't usually have to worry .
Djokovic did serve and volley a few times, and actually did well, but it's not his game.
HIT SLICE BACKHANDS HIGH AND UP THE LINE
Another Nadal pattern, when in trouble on his backhand, is to hit a slice up the line. Often, he hits it with lots of height so that it gives him plenty of time to recover to good court position.
This one is a little tricky to volley since it's usually over the backhand shoulder.If Nadal makes a mistake and floats the ball over the forehand shoulder --- it's good night.
Learn To Hit Sharply Sliced First Serves
Nadal makes a living hitting his slice serve in the ad court. It goes to the backhand of the righthanders and is a devastating shot. But, notice how much trouble Nadal has when righties slice wide to his backhand in the deuce court.
In general, a good slice serve is pretty rare at the club. It takes a lot of practice to be able to get enough action and movement so that the serve doesn't sit up in the strike zone.
A good slice serve will force your opponent to stand further to the side to cover it, and open up a lot of court for the serve in the other direction.
So, you'll have guys guessing or cheating -- a big advantage.
A lot of the stuff that Rafa does is unteachable so don't even humor yourself and try those insanely whippy forehands, but these three things above can win you a whole bunch of matches.
Until next time,
Glenn Sheiner M.D. - author of Insider Tennis Strategies Win The US Open Like Rafa guaranteed to make you a smarter tennis player and take your tennis to the next level. Also, check out the world's top tennis humor screensaver
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For those of you who are aware of who Robert Lansdorp is ,the excitement of having a private lesson from this famed coach would be intoxicating.
For those of you who aren't aware of Robert Lansdorp, here are a few words of introduction.
Mr. Lansdorp is the legendary Southern California coach who coached Pete Sampras, Tracy Austin, Lindsey Davenport, Elliot Teltsher, and Maria Sharapova.
Philosophically , he is as old school as they come, a tough disciplinarian. From a tennis pooint of view he is a believer in classic grips and penetrating ground strokes rather than loopy topspin shots which he calls academy balls, with more than a touch of disdain.
I go back and forth all the time as to what is the best method for a club player -- the aggressive flat game as espoused by Lansdorp or the modern heavy topspin game.
I've discussed that topic in this blog and, I can say that I am now attempting in my own game to flatten out mid court balls and hit more winners or shots that force errors from my opponents.
Here is a link to a private lesson that Lansdorp is giving to a very talented 8 year old. Watch the whole clip, I picked up a number of technical tips, especially at the 2 minute and 40 second point Lansdorp Private Lesson
Until next time,
Glenn Sheiner M.D. - author of Insider Tennis Strategies Amazing Forehand Tennis Lesson guaranteed to make you a smarter tennis player and take your tennis to the next level. Also, check out the world's top tennis humor screensaver
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Here's a thought for everyone who plays on clay or Har-Tru -- Should all volleys (or at least the great preponderance) be drop volleys? You know those feathered touch shots hit with soft hands that drop just over the net? The type that John McEnroe made famous?
After growing up playing predominantly hard court tennis, I now play on clay. And, since I'm an attack player, coming to net and volleying away my opponents' passing shots is a big part of my game.
The classical approach to volleying is probably to volley deep and into the open court. Of course, sometimes you need to volley behind an opponent but, on hard court, if you volley with some sting to the open court, you can probably hit a winner.
Attacking on clay is a whole different animal.That's why, when you watch the upcoming French Open, you may not see too many points ending with volleys.
On clay, volleys sit up and give quick opponents enough time to hit either good passing shots or devastating lobs. Many quick players on clay play a defensive style of game, they stand quite far behind the baseline and just keep returning the ball until they can for get an error.
So, I've discovered, the hard way I might add, that deep volleys don't work that well on clay. Recently, I've begun hitting a lot of drop volleys and angled volleys,using soft hands, and my appreciation for using all the inches of the tennis court has greatly increased.
If your opponent is deep behind the baseline and you hit a drop volley, it's almost physically impossible for your opponent to run up and get to the ball. The short angled volley works the same way.
The other factor to consider is that most clay courters want nothing to do with approaching the net. Hittng drop volleys draws your opponents in, so that even if they get to the ball, they'll be at the net which is a place they usually don't want to be.
Watch the great clay courter Rafael Nadal play these next few weeks. When he hits a deep penetrating groundstroke which pulls his opponent very deep or wide, Nadal sneaks in and hits a winner drop volley. He's learned that when your opponent is deep and wide, that the play to make is to hit the drop volley.
Until next time,
Glenn Sheiner M.D. - author of Insider Tennis Strategies Tennis Tactics Like Hitting Drop Volleys On Clay guaranteed to make you a smarter tennis player and take your tennis to the next level. Also, check out the world's top tennis humor screensaver
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In today's world, there are a lot of excellent female players at clubs all over the world.
And, if you're club is like mine, there are a lot of men who really don't want to lose to a woman.
The problem for a lot of the guys is that the women might actually be better players technically.
My observation is that women in general have better backhands than guys, and guys tend to rely much more on power, speed, and a big serve and forehand. Very few women seem to have one-handed backhands, they tend to have very solid two-handers, whereas a lot of guys still have slice backhands and rely on running around to hit forehands.
I fall into the latter category although I also have a two-hander. However, I've observed that it's very difficult to win baseline rallies consistently if you're constantly are at a disadvantage with one pattern -- especially backhand to backhand.
So, here a few generic thoughts about how to beat women.
First of all, if you have a good serve, you must capitalize on it. And, this might involve serving and volleying which is something most women aren't familair with playing against.
Secondly, I've observed that getting balls high can bother wome more than pace. So, if you're able to hit a very high, bouncing, topspin stroke this could be very effective.
Third, try to stretch the court wide and make it a speed game . Do this only if you're the faster player, as otherwise it might work against you.
Fourth, hit a lot of short slice and drop shots to turn it into a short ball/ volley game instead of a groundstroker game.
Lastly, get your ego out of the way. If you're playing not to lose, you're probably going to lose.
Of course, there are exceptions to every rule, but I haven't seen too many serve and volleying women at my club.
Until next time,
Glenn Sheiner M.D. - author of Insider Tennis Strategies Tennis Tactics To Help You Beat The Women At Your Club guaranteed to make you a smarter tennis player and take your tennis to the next level. Also, check out the world's top tennis humor screensaver
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First of all, greetings to all and my apologies for having gone AWOL for awhile.
Just general life business. I, of course, did manage to continue studying this exceptional game of tennis which keeps us all enthralled. Frankly, my interests have veered toward the technical, and I'll be sharing some of my thoughts with you on these subjects, as well as my traditional thoughts on competitive play at the club level and on the pro tour.
There are very few serve and volleyers at the club level but, occasionally, you come across one. Sometimes, the serves aren't even particularly good but the players just come charging in so fast that they are on top of the net to volley away winners.
Sometimes, these players seem so tough, regardless of how hard you hit the return, that you wonder how they lose to anyone.
The secret for most of these players is that they don't split step. They just keep charging in full bore to get the net. As long as they don't have to change direction too much, or god forbid, go backwards, they're fine.
Two quick examples of guys I've played.
One is a good senior player in the 50's with a slow kick serve to the backhand, very good foot speed, with average volleying skills. He recently started to serve and volley on his slow serve. He's fast enough and his serve is slow enough that he gets great position for his first volley.
Seems like an unbeatable strategy, right?
Well, if you play guy like this and can't win by using the traditional counters such as returning low or wide, try the lob on the return.
Think about it, the player is charging forward without splitting. Just let him keep charging and then lob over his head. When I tried this, it worked like a charm since he could never get on balance to hit a powerful overhead and actually missed many.
Now, you won't see this on the pro tour because there are very few serve and volleyers, and the ones that there are have great footwork and would destroy a lob return.
The second situation involved a big strong 25 year old with a huge serve. Because of his height and serve, I teased him that he was the Ivo Karlovic of the club.
He hit his huge serve and also came in without splitting, getting incredible net position. And, in this case, a practice match, I resisted trying the lob and kept trying to beat him with great returns.
But his serve was big enough that I couldn't direct the ball as well as I would like so I couldn't break him. Walked of the court after the loss, and thought about the match and playing the guy again.
I vowed that If I had to play him again, I would lob.
Until next time,
Glenn Sheiner M.D. - author of Insider Tennis Strategies Countering The Club Serve And Volleyer guaranteed to make you a smarter tennis player and take your tennis to the next level. Also, check out the world's top tennis humor screensaver
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