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| Welcome to the September/October 2016 update from Tennis Server, http://www.tennisserver.com/
Greetings,
In our September/October edition of Tennis Server, Ron Waite discusses why it is important to Warm-up To Win!!!; and how to Be A Tennis Prognosticator!.
John Mills explains a way to Volley Better with a Mental Check List; and why when you are learning new skills, in match play it is better to just Forget About It!.
And in his columns in this newsletter below, Tennis Warrior Tom Veneziano treats us to "A Ball Machine Lesson with Tom" and he explains why bad habits are not so bad in "The Tennis Bad Habit Revisited!"
Happy Halloween and have fun on the court!
Cliff Kurtzman
Publisher and Editor-in-Chief
Tennis Server
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The Tennis Warrior - Exclusive to Tennis Server INTERACTIVE
Tom Veneziano |
The Tennis Warrior is brought to you by Tom Veneziano (tom@tennisserver.com). Tom is a tennis pro teaching at the Piney Point Racquet Club in Houston, Texas. Tom has taught thousands of players to think like a pro with his Tennis Warrior System.
September 2016 -- A Ball Machine Lesson with Tom
Improving your mental attitude must take priority over developing mechanics in match play or in practice. You should never get hung up on mechanics to the point that your positive mental attitude functions only when mechanics are being performed correctly.
Players who train with mechanics as the priority run into many problems in match play. Since they believe winning depends on executing perfect mechanics, anytime their mechanics go awry their mental attitude turns negative. When a good mental attitude is top priority, a player does not rely on perfect mechanics to win but rather on his or her ability to think, adapt and overcome.
Rafael Nadal revealed his top priority in this statement after defeating Federer at the French Open in 2006: "What is important is that my attitude was always positive. I had a winner's attitude. What is positive is maybe that I was not playing at my best level, but I still maintained an excellent attitude. And if you play with a good mental attitude, even if you are not a hundred percent, you can win because, in fact, you win more with your heart, with your willpower than with anything else."
Would you like to have that mental attitude? Journey with me to one of my ball machine training sessions and discover how this "mental attitude first" concept works in application. You will learn some unique benefits that can send your game into the ozone!
Here we are at the courts. I'm working the ball machine and my student is practicing the forehand and backhand groundstrokes. This particular student does well when he is hitting groundstrokes while stationary, but on the move his strokes begin to fall apart. Of course, to help him improve I must make him practice hitting balls on the move. The object is for him to hit and get back to ready position, hit and get ready, hit and get ready, over and over again. Sounds logical enough. But there is a problem!
The first two shots my student hits on the run are executed well, and he quickly recovers into ready position. The third time, the shot does not work and his recovery is slow. Why? Because he missed and did not like the results. I'm shouting, "Forget it and go on, keep moving!" as I continue to fire balls at him. Frustrated, my student slows down, then stops and wants answers. "What am I doing wrong, Coach?" He could be learning a valuable lesson at this very moment, but instead he is sabotaging the process by thinking about mechanics! No wonder players are so vulnerable mentally.
I explain to him my purpose. I am not making him struggle just for the sake of struggling; I am deliberately bringing him to the point of failure and challenging him to work through that adversity. Why am I doing this? Because failing teaches the value of "mental attitude first." Failing is part of the learning process that culminates in mental toughness.
Here is how it works. By constantly placing the player in this situation over and over again, his mental attitude is challenged to continue staying positive despite the emotions he is feeling inside. Every time he fails and immediately lets go of that failure, he sends positive signals to the mind that he can survive this little challenge. The construction of mental toughness begins. Over time, with repeated practice, a mental toughness structure will be developed in his mind that strengthens his thought process. No poor performance or poor mechanics will deter this type of player. Win, lose or draw, he will fight to the end!
Not to mention, this type of training that mentally challenges a player will subsequently improve his concentration. If he is concentrating on coping with failure during practice, he is learning how to stay focused under all adverse situations. Think about the advantage you would have if you could stay positive and keep concentrating while everything in your match is falling apart!
Finally, as if that is not enough, the player who is practicing and focusing on "mental attitude first" will also improve his physical game. Consistent repetition molds the mechanics as it works to mold the mental attitude. As the process unfolds, these mechanics develop according to the individual player's own style, form and creativity.
So with the Tennis Warrior System of "mental attitude first" you can have a dynamic mental attitude, an unwavering concentration and your own unique mechanics. Does this sound like anything that would interest you?
October 2016 -- The Tennis Bad Habit Revisited!
Players are always worried that training with repetition and little technique will develop the unacceptable, often maligned bad habit. They believe you cannot play tennis well if you have bad habits. Right? Wrong!
All players in the sport of tennis are playing with bad habits. No one is playing correctly. Want proof? Watch your peers play. Do you think every time they make shots they are hitting exactly right? I don't think so! Yet you do not hear a peep out of them until the dreaded and fatal miss. Now suddenly they have a bad habit that needs rehabilitation. Remember to tell the pro about that one in the next lesson! Never mind that they just successfully made the shot five times in a row with the same bad habit. When the ball went in the court there was no bad habit.
But be of good cheer. All the pros have bad habits just like we do! Since their balls go in much of the time, no one is going to call them out on any bad habits. In fact, knowing that I teach with little technique and lots of repetition, people frequently ask me about developing bad habits. My answer is always the same. What bad habits would you like? Nadal's hitting off the back foot? Federer's straight-armed forehand, Roddick's head coming down on his serve or Simon's knees not bending on his groundstrokes? The list is endless!
I have done my best to help players understand that, within common sense and reason, there are no bad habits. If you keep hitting and master that bad habit shot it will no longer be a bad habit. Instead, that shot becomes a unique weapon in your tennis arsenal. If you manage to become a top pro with that same bad habit, no one will even care the bad habit is there! In fact, your bad habit will probably be regarded as the newest shot or technique to master and everyone will want to emulate it. It is amazing how success can make a so-called bad habit right!
Gilles Simon, a top-ranked pro in the world, does not bend his knees much when he hits his groundstrokes. In the early rounds of an ATP tournament, this became a topic of conversation for the tournament's commentators. They made comments like, "He is going to have some problems being so upright when he plays," or "He is just so straight-legged. Was he not taught to bend his knees?" Even the commentators are susceptible to this bad habit misconception!
Match after match, Simon kept winning and winning. The negative comments became less and less. In the finals, Simon was winning rather easily and now the comments became, 'You know it looks like all the players but Simon are tired. Maybe they are spending too much energy bending their knees." I could not believe what I was hearing! Because Simon was winning (and he did win in the finals) whatever he was doing was now right. Just the previous week his play was all wrong! Now the commentators began thinking that bending the knees may not be that good because it could make a player tired. Amazing!
We all tend to think this way on the tennis court. Our bad habits are not bad habits if the ball goes in the court. I'm sure if Gilles Simon would have lost in the first round the commentators would have said that his problem was not bending his knees. If he loses, not bending the knees is a problem. But if he wins, not bending the knees is fantastic!
If you are practicing with repetition and not much technique, you do not have to worry about developing a bad habit. The body has an unbelievable ability to seek efficiency and a stable equilibrium if you are patient and give it a chance.
Take a look at Francoise Durr's backhand. She held a forehand grip to hit all her backhands. You may be thinking, "So what? Players use a forehand grip on two-handed backhands all the time." True, but Francoise Durr had a one-handed backhand! How well did she do with this awkward grip? She reached number three in the world in the 1960's and 70's, was in the top ten for ten straight years and won the French Open. All with... yes, one of the worst bad habits I have ever seen! But the body still adapted.
http://www.tennisforum.com/showthread.php?t=15175
- Scroll down to second set of pictures. Incredible!
Repetition and only repetition can take good shots and bad habit shots and turn them into winning formulas. The power of repetition coupled with the dynamics of the body can take almost any shot you possess and mold it into a great shot. But you first must conquer the bad habit misconception and adopt the correct perspective. The best pros in the world have done this, now it is your turn.
Your Tennis Pro,
Tom Veneziano
Previous columns from Tom Veneziano are archived online in the Tennis Server's Tennis Warrior Archive six months after publication in this newsletter.
   
In Tom Veneziano's book "The Truth about Winning!", tennis players learn in a step-by-step fashion the thinking the pros have mastered to win! Tom takes you Step-by-step from basic mental toughness to advanced mental toughness. All skill levels can learn from this unique book from beginner to professional. No need to change your strokes just your thinking. Also available at a discount as an E-Book.
Audio CDs by Tom Veneziano:
Recent Tennis Server Columns
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Drills and Tips: Turbo Tennis by Ron Waite
Ron Waite |
In his September column, Ron notes that if you "win" the warm-up, your chances of prevailing in the match go up significantly. So how do you do it? See:
In his October column, Ron addresses the process of learning to anticipate an opponent's patterns and shot placements, and he gives some advice on how to prevent yourself from becoming too predictable in your game. See:
Player Tip: "Tennis Anyone?" by USPTA Pro John Mills
John Mills |
In his September column, John describes a mental check-list for improving your volley. See:
In his October column, John talks about why it is important to go with the strokes that you are most comfortable with during match play. See:
Upcoming Tournaments and Exhibitions
November 1 - 6, 2016
BNP Paribas Masters (Men) Paris, France
Huajin Securities WTA Elite Trophy Zhuhai (Women) Zhuhai, China
November 7 - 13, 2016
EA Hua Hin WTA 125 Series presented by Singha (Women) Hua Hin, Thailand
November 12 - 13, 2016
Fed Cup Final: France v Czech Republic (Women) Strasbourg, France
November 13 - 20, 2016
Barclays ATP World Tour Finals (Men) London, England, UK
Tennis Server Ticket Exchange: ATP World Tour Finals Tennis Tickets
Engie Open de Limoges (Women) Limoges, France
OEC Taipei WTA Challenger (Women) Taipei, Chinese Taipei
November 21 - 27, 2016
Hololulu (Women) Honolulu, Hawaii, USA
November 25 - 27, 2016
Davis Cup Finals: Croatia vs Argentina (Men) Zagreb, Croatia
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