As always, I love to read your feedback and comments.
Let me/us know below. Thanks…
Brent
Passing Shots – Choices, Mindset, & More
April 27, 2010 By Leave a Comment
Here’s the situation in one of your singles matches.
It’s 4 all in the 3rd set, you’re in a baseline rally, and you end up hitting a short groundstroke where your oppnent decides to play an approach shot up their line to your backhand.
Your brain starts to go into panic mode feeling as if this is definitely something you don’t want to have to deal with right now.
This is a big point in the match, and you’ve got to absloutley make this passing shot work or it could get ugly.
You can’t decide whether to take your passing shot cross court, up the line, lob, …
Plus, you think you’re seeing the ball as it arrives, but in reality, you’re peeking up just prior to contact to see where your oppoent is, and then you know the feeling, you just decide to go for it, grip & rip, and your shot finds the bottom of the net.
And now your confidence hits rock bottom…
Hey, those moments right before you have to play a passing shot, especially on a big point, believe me, I know, I have shanked, hit the bottom of the net, hit the back fence, and/or put up such a weak shot that it just got eaten alive by opponent a million and one times.
But you know what? Over the past couple of years, I don’t have that feeling any more when my opponent plays an approach shot or comes in behind their serve and plays a first volley where I now forced to playing a perfect passing shot.
In fact, I know for sure that one of the main reasons I was fortunate enought to win the 60s Hardcourt singles last year was because of my big time improvmenent with being able to consistently play a good passing shot.
I didn’t win each & every one of those passing shot attempts, but I enabled myself to have the best possible chance of playing my shot exactly where I wanted it to go, and I did end up winning a lot more of those points than I ever did before.
And with some focused & regular practice, you can do the same…
What I want you to eventually feel with your passing shots is that you have so much confidence that you can eliminate your opponent from your thoughts.
That’s right, you can mentally remove your opponent from the court and simply hit your passing shot to a specific target.
You can step up to the incoming approach shot early to be able to create more space to hit into; you can take your time to clearly see the ball so you can deliver a specific swing path through the ball; and you can keep your eyes & head down prior to, during, & after contcat so you never ever again pull off that shot prematurely before you naturally finish the swing.
And you can get there, but, as I had to do, you’ve got to go through a practice routine, not a ton of time, but enough dedicated practice time to start to ingrain those good habits into your passing shots.
Here’s what I want you to do.
Pick up your copy of my new court diagram video lesson on passing shots where we work on your 6 fundamental passing shot choices, your mindset during your passing shot attempts, and a 22 minute audio interview Bonus lesson with my coach Michael Wayman where Michael and I discuss the secrets to being consistent with your passing shots.
This is all about slowing everything down, commiting right away to your target, seeing the ball clearly, taking your time to execute your passing shot, and not ever fearing again having to play a passing shot.
Here’s what you’ll get with this lesson on passing shots:
- 16 minute court diagram video
- I show you the fundamental 6 passing shot choices
- We discuss a vital important fundamental of getting onto your opponent’s approach shot early & why it takes the pressure off of you to have to hit a perfect shot
- Passing Shot Mindset: How to mentally eliminate your opponent from your mind as you execute your forehand or backhand passing shot
- Practice Plan: Follow this very simple plan and I guarantee that in a very short time you’ll be able to have all passing shot choices mastered.
- More…
- Practice Plan Log PDF.
- Simple. Follow this simple practice plan, log your sessions, and tangibly start to feel the improvement.
2 Lesson BONUSES…
Pick up this new lesson before this Saturday night, midnight,
May 1, 2010, Pacific time zone,
and I’ll also include:
- BONUS #1: 22 minute audio interview with my coach Michael Wayman
- Hear from a former top world class player about the geometry of the court and how he used it to maximize his passing shots into a consistent stream of winners.
- BONUS #2: A report (PDF) I wrote recently on specifically how the great tennis teaching legend Tom Stow taught me to play my passing shots.
- If you get this part right (Tom’s never ending drill that he put me through for quite awhile), then you won’t believe how simple the stroke mechanics of your passing shots will become.
These time sensitive BONUSES expires this Saturday night,
exactly at midnight, May 1, 2010, Pacific time zone.
exactly at midnight, May 1, 2010, Pacific time zone.
Brent
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2010 USTA 60s Hardcourts – Update #5
April 19, 2010 By 15 Comments
2010 USTA 60s Hardcourts Doubles Final: Brian and I lost 6-4 6-4 to Tommy Connell & Tony Dawson.
Brian and I lost his serve at 4 all in the 1st set and then the opening game of the 2nd set. 
And that was all she wrote. We had a couple of break points in the first and only one in the 2nd set (when Tony was serving for the match at 5-4, and of course he hits a nonreturnable serve to me right on the “T”).
A matter of not winning 3 or 4 points during the entire match and you get routined 4 & 4.
Tommy & Tony played flawless tennis, especially with their volleys once all 4 players started to converge on the net when points would develop past the server’s first volley.
And Tommy Connell was a master out there. Every volley was perfectly bisecting the space between me and Brian right down the middle.
I mean come on, how often have we all heard that really good high percentage doubles is played right on down the middle? Tons of times, and yet, we still think for some reason that we’ve got to go behind a player, try to go up their alley, try a lob volley, all of these shots being considered low percentage shots.
Not with the Tommy Connell and Tony Dawson who trusted that their volleys aimed right into the middle of the court would work.
And not that Brian and I were trying lots of low percentage shots, it’s just that our middle volleys weren’t quite as accurate as our opponents’ volleys were in the finals.
It’s one thing to generally play shots into the middle, but it’s an entirely different thing to actually bisect that space right between your two opponents.
This takes practice and guts to have the faith that the middle is going to be OK.
My hat goes off to both Tommy & Tony for not only handling us in the finals, but also for their big win over the #1 seeds Newman & Turville in the semis.
2010 USTA 60s Hardcourts Singles Final: Larry Turville went through Brian Cheney 6-1 6-2. You read that right, 1 & 2.
I’m not going to spend a lot of time in this post analyzing just exactly what happened, but let’s just say that Larry played in a league of his own all week. He faced one break point on his serve the entire tournament. That’s a little frightening…
I’d never seen Larry play before so I was eager to see what the fuss was all about.
Uh, OK, I get it now, wow…
An all court player who starts the points as a baseliner, Larry doesn’t really serve and volley much at all.
A hard firm backhand slice that he can place anywhere on the court at will, and his forehand is a continental gripped medium topspin that has a lot of net clearance for his rally ball. 
He’s calm and doesn’t ever rush the moment. He simply plays shots that look as if their neutral in terms of not giving him nor his opponent really any obvious advantage.
And then the fun starts…
If you serve and volley against him, Larry has no problem playing a soft slow slice down to your feet so you’re always volleying up.
Always up, never a good contact point to get a clean volley to a corner.
His passing shot attempt looks pretty ordinary, but the problem is he rarely if ever misses. He waits and holds his racket to the very last nano second to execute his shot and if he doesn’t slide it by you on one side or the other, he’s happy to roll it up so if you do get to it you’ve got a really high volley to have to deal with.
Not a lot of what I might call fun.
Look, Larry Turville was at at another level this past week, and I’m still going to be thinking about what he does that the rest of us might try to copy and model.
Mai and I drove home yesterday back here to northern California and Larry’s tennis game was on my mind off and on throughout the drive.
Let me process some more and I’ll get back to you…
We’ve got to start working on that transitional shot in doubles when you’re serving. I got a ton of feedback over the past few weeks in response to my question about what’s your #1 challenge in doubles when you serve and then move on up to net. We always have to play that mid court (no-man’s land) transitional shot which is either volley, a 1/2 volley, an approach shot, etc.
I’ve got a tip for you later this week that I’ll send to you.
In the meantime, my best to you and hope you’re getting lots of tennis court time recently.
Brent
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My Between Points 4 Part Routine For Playing My Best Tennis
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This Tip’s Related Tennis Lessons by Brent
- Mental Skills For Competitive Tennis Players - Click Here
- Doubles: ”Why & When To Be Where On The Court” - Click here
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Upcoming Tips
- The High Backhand Volley
- Doubles: The Server’s Transitional Shot Up To Net
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