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Your Tennis Improvement – The 25-75 Rule

March 30, 2011 By Brent 55 Comments

Wish I could claim that I’m a big part of when you make changes to your game, but you know what, at the most I can contribute about 25% of the overall improvement formula.

The other 75% has to come from you in 3 general chunks of time.

1 – 25% = (Easy ) The education I give you, the instructional information

2 – 25% = (A Little Tougher) You digesting the education, you intellectualizing the information

3 – 25% = (Tough) You tinkering through trial and error, trying to develop and replicate what works

4 – 25% = (Really tough where a lot of players give up) You grinding through those times when you feel zero improvement and are constantly thinking about bagging the whole thing.


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Most players can get through the first 2 phases, but phase 3 is where there is some drop out, and the players who actually improve their tennis have the guts to get through pahse 4.

How about you?  What’s the most frustrating thing for you when you try to make a change to your tennis game?

Right below in the Comments area, let er rip…

Brent

Filed Under: Tennis Coaching, Tennis Mental Skills, Tennis Tip

Tennis Spin & Power – 3 Drills For A Relaxed Grip Tension With Swing Path Intention

March 27, 2011 By Brent 6 Comments

Just received an email from John out of Sacramento, CA, a new All Lessons Package student.

John wrote about his level of fitness which is simply off the charts.

One of the potential risks of being in really great shape is that you might instinctively or even purposely “muscle up” on some or all of your shots.

Remember, the key to producing spin and power comes from how fast you can swing your racket – racket head speed.

If you have too much “squeeze” on the racket handle, if you’re too strong prior to contact, you end up actually slowing down the racket.

A slower racket speed produces less spin.

John mentioned in his email that this tighter grip was a problem at times and that he was making an effort to find that relaxed grip that still had swing path intention.

I wrote back and told John I was flat out stealing that term swing path intention because it is a major part of the relaxed grip formula.

When I recommend to you that you relax your grip tension, I’m not suggesting that the swing then become just a flippy floppy and an out of control slappy swing path.

You still want to make sure your swing path has a definite sense of purpose – swing speed with a very specific swing path direction.

For me, it’s mostly about knowing where I want the swing path to finish.  If I focus on relaxing my grip tension along with how fast do I want this swing to be and and where I want it to finish, good things usually happen.

Here are 3 drills to help you develop that feeling of a relaxed grip tension that has swing path intention.

Let’s take your forehand groundstroke as an example.

  • At home: Without a ball or a stationary ball practice aid, get into your ready position posture (as if you’re on the baseline and you don’t know whether you’re about to get a forehand or a backhand from your opponent).
    • As you’re looking forward, focus on the tension in your hands.
    • Squeeze tightly with both hands for 3 seconds so you know what too tight of a grip tension is.
    • Then relax both hands to where someone could pull the racket head and the racket would get pulled out of your hands.  This is the relaxed grip tension you want in that ready position posture.
    • With this relaxed grip tension, turn your shoulders as if your opponent just hit their shot to your forehand side.  When you complete your shoulder turn, make sure you still have that same relaxed grip tension where someone  could pull your racket out of your hands.
    • Now take a step forward and swing the racket at a medium speed all the way out to your finish position.  Hold that finish position for 3 seconds and feel what grip tension you have.  It should be relaxed.
    • Continue this swing sequence of facing forward, turning the shoulders to get into your pre-swing set up position, and develop 3 different swing speeds with the same relaxed grip tension that have the exact same finish position.  The 3 speeds would be slow, medium, and fast.  When you play your matches, you want to be able to control these 3 different swing speeds.
    • 5 minutes a day and you’ll be on the tour soon…
  • On the court #1: Replicate this same drill as at home with someone underhand feeding you balls.  The underhand feed takes away the issues of timing and spacing so you can really focus on a specific grip tension, swing speed, and finish position.  Don’t concern yourself with shot direction and if the balls are going in or not, for now just tinker with being able to maintain more relaxed grip tension with swing path (and speed) intention.
    • Another 5 minutes a day, and when you do go out on the tour, don’t forget that I get 20% of your prize money…
  • On the court #2: Same drill as On the court #1, but this time have someone (or a ball machine) feed you balls from the other side of the net so that timing and spacing are now part of your setup, and then go through the same tinkering of feeling your grip staying relaxed as you go through a very specific swing path that takes you out to your finish position.
    • As you can see, these drills are a progression from no ball to a very slow ball to a ball that requires timing and spacing.  Make sure you do these 3 drills in this sequence.
    • Another 5 minutes a day for a total of 15 minutes a day, and I’m telling ya, I’ll be happy to carry your bags when we arrive at Wimbledon.
  • One more tip – watch this video and imagine how the grip is relaxed and how there is a very specific intentional swing path…


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So, first things first, get up out of that chair, get a racket, and do drill #1 for 5 minutes right now…

Any comments and/or feedback is always welcome, wanted, and frankly, needed.  Right below in the Comments area, let er rip.

Thanks in advance.

Brent

Brent’s Tennis Lessons – Downloadable & DVDs that come with a focus on a relaxed grip with swing path intention.

Filed Under: Tennis Grips, Tennis Mental Skills, Tennis Tip, Tennis Tip - Practice, Tennis Tip - Ready Position, Tennis Tip - Stroke Fundamentals, Tennis Tip - Swing Tempo

Tennis Confidence Is About Lying To Yourself

March 17, 2011 By Brent 34 Comments

Man, how intangible is this thing we search for called confidence in our tennis game?

How crazy do we get trying to figure out what it is and how to then make it tangible?

Look, I’m no mental giant by any stretch of the imagination.

I’ve read a lot of books about the mental skills required to play well in tennis, but in the end, and alt least for me when I play, confidence for me is simply a sense of not having any fear at that moment.

I’m not talking about being fearless in a risky way, no, it’s simply for me about not considering something negative might or is about to happen on this next shot, this next point, the match, and on and on…

Confidence in tennis is about not perceiving a negative consequence.

And I’ll be the first one to admit that there are times when I have to overcome my natural fears of a negative situation by totally lying to myself.

There have been times when I instinctively want to to think something like this – “OMG, I simply have to win this point because if I don’t there’s no way I’ll ever get another chance.  This guy is better than I am and I’m just damn lucky he’s not playing well.  Come on Brent, don’t blow this.”

Uh, hello, I don’t think that’s really a good set of thoughts that will help me play the next point unencumbered by fear.

Fear is the ultimate killer of quality shot placement decision making and performing your needed fluidity of stroke fundamentals.

The absence of fear gives you the best chance of making the right decision of where you want to play this next shot and allowing you to perform your practiced stroke fundamentals within their ideal timing.

So, let’s get back to this notion of lying to yourself when you recognize you’re pumping a bunch of fearful inner talk.

I wouldn’t really call it pur lying, but I know I do force myself to not recognize the fear by over riding it with specific thoughts, self talk, and even sing a song to myself.

Your brain will allow you to play the game of tennis on a conscious level.

Whatever you’re thinking or telling yourself at that moment is what your brain believes.

And if your brain believes you’re scared, it’ll help you ply scared, but if your brain believes you’re not scared, it’ll help you play the next point without fear.

Without fear translates to you being able to play your best tennis.

But this goes on between every frickin point.  You can fool yourself into being fearless for awhile, but you can also allow yourself to be scared later in the match.

Ever play well for the first set and a half and then just can’t close out the match?

Yeah, well, get in line because you’re not alone.  Most of us allow our fears to take over in the latter stages of a match.  We actually stop lying to ourselves at that point and start believing our self talk.

This takes a ton of practice to be able to discipline yourself to keep lying to yourself throughout the entire match.

I keep saying lying, and I’m not sure that’s what I mean, but I know you know what I’m trying to say.

You must consciously over ride your natural fears with something positive.

What’s helped me over ride my biggest fears when I’m playing against the top guys out there has been my between points 4 part routine.

1 – Go straight to the hook of the song of the day immediately after the point is done;

2 – Take 3-4 deep controlled breaths where I literally do the meditation thing of focusing on each breath so I’m not thinking of anything;

3 – Then consider any specific strategy I want to use to start the next point (not how to win the point but how to start the point);

4 – A little self pump.  Something very positive like “OK baby, I love this, here we go…”

And that’s it.  There’s absolutely nothing in that between points routine that is negative, and if I’m scared out of my mind and want this match so bad I can taste it, I’m putting myself into the same mental place point after point after point.

One of the keys to being a consistent shot maker (at least for me when I play my best tennis) is to be extremely consistent with what we do between points.

I know you’ve heard this a kazillion times, but on average 80% of the match is NOT playing points.

That’s right, only 15-20% of the match actually takes place during a point.

What you do with the 80-85% of your match time, between the points, determines how well you’ll play that day.

So, stop being so darn honest to yourself between points by recognizing any fears, and start lying to yourself like a monster…

Brent

Have you got a between points routine that helps you overcome fears or negative thoughts?  If so, let us know below in the Comments area.  Thanks in advance…

Recommended Lesson by Brent: “The Mental Skills Required For Competitive Tennis Players”

Filed Under: Tennis Mental - Competing, Tennis Mental Skills, Tennis Tip
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