2009 April — Brent Abel's WebTennis

Why I Need A Tennis Professional

April 28, 2009 By Brent Leave a Comment

I received a nice email today from one of your fellow WebTennis.net subscribers who complimented me on employing a fellow tennis coach to help me with my own tennis game.

Here’s what I had to say in response to that email…

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Hi Bill and many thanks for your email and kind words.

I really need someone like Michael Wayman to continue to reinforce the fundamentals into my brain.

Michael was a top tour player from England back in the 70s with wins over such players as Gene Mayer when Gene was #3 in the world.

One of the things that has always stuck with me from the coaching I received from Tom Stow a long time ago was to continue to work on the fundamentals so nothing in my strokes or movement is “artificial”.

Tom couldn’t stand any movement (swing shape, footwork, etc.) that appeared to him to be unnecessary.

Unnecessary meaning that it might even distract from being able to apply a stroke or footwork fundamental.

Michael helps keep me in line with the fundamentals, and I’ve always thought that if you continue to work on them, you’ll get better.

So many players out there have this perception that the fundamentals, the basics, are only for beginners, and that there must be some “magic bullet” that only a few really good players understand.

Maybe it’s just an excuse to not have to get into that practice mode where it can seem as if there is no tangible improvement at times if not most of the time.

Lots of us tend to fight the practice – improvement relationship. It’s taken me a long, long time to stop trying so hard to measure how I’m doing with my practice and improvement.

The more I simply “keep working”, don’t look for the improvement, and trust that improvement will eventually show up, the more I actually get tangible results somewhere down the road.

Our culture these days, even with those of us over 60, tends to lead us to a quick fix expectation.

Ain’t going to happen…

The reality is that none of us will ever (at least in this lifetime) completely master each and every fundamental of the game.

That’s not a negative, it’s for me simply an acceptance that there’s nothing else I need to work on other than a specific fundamental today.

Thanks again Bill for your email. Have a great day out there…! Brent

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Filed Under: Tennis Mental Skills, Tennis Tip - Stroke Fundamentals

Tennis Strokes – Living In The Future

April 27, 2009 By Brent 1 Comment

As cliche as it has always sounded to me, “stay in the moment” has finally sunk into my thick skull.

I’ve been working on my own game with Michael Wayman, Men’s Head Coach at St. Mary’s College here in Moraga, CA., off and on for the past year, and Michael has really helped me with several specific areas of my

game, and possibly the most important one has been to tangibly understand “stay in the moment” along with “don’t live in the future”.

I’ve got to give full credit to Michael for helping me win the National 60 Hardcourt Singles title in early April 2009.

Living in the future for me was about what might happen in the next second or two. It was that short of a time frame.

For example, we were working on that situation where in a baseline rally you ’ve played a nice shot that has moved your opponent way out wide, they’ve scrambled out there just to get your shot back, and they’ve now left you with a relativley short ball somehwhere in the middle of your court that is just begging for you to take their shot early, and rob them of their time to get back into the court as you play an approach shot to

their open court.

And time after time, either in a match or on the practice court with Michael, I could find a way to miss this shot. That’s right, not even get it back in play…

And what Michael finally said to me was that just prior to the moment of contact with my approach shot, I was thinking a couple seconds ahead to the “result” of that approach shot.

And you know there are a million and one things that can go through your mind as it applies to what might happen in the next second or two.

It’s crazy…

Thinking ahead to the future was disrupting my ability to maintain good stroke mechanics including staying against the ball and not lifting up a hair too soon.

So we worked on “staying in the moment” with that approach shot, quickly setting up on balance as early as possible, taking as much time as I needed with the shot, and in fact, almost exaggerating staying against the contact point, and not thinking ahead.

And it’s tough to NOT think ahead. I believe it’s a learned skill for most of us.

It requires lots and lots of practice on the court and additional visualization time off of the court.

We’re so concerned about what’s about to happen in the future that we lose focus on taking care of business in that moment.

So for me what’s helped the most with this subject is to exaggerate staying down against the ball, to exaggerate not looking up too soon to see my shot, to have faith and trust that I don’t have to get rid of the ball, and to take enough time so I can “feel” this shot.

The more we think about future events with our shots, the less we apply good stroke mechanics.

And what are we talking here? A matter of nano seconds…

Practice this next time you’re on the court. Stay in the moment with your shot…

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

Tennis Forehand Groundstroke – Recreate The Sound

April 21, 2009 By Brent 1 Comment

One of the great things Tom Stow taught me and others was to be aware of the specific sound the ball makes at contact with your racket.

He labeled the sound he wanted you to produce as the “conk” which was short for concussion.

I was watching a match recently at the National 55 Indoors in Boise where one of my good tennis friends Geoff Cykman was playing the semi-finals in singles.

Being indoors, the different sounds a player makes at contact with the ball is really easy to hear.

One of Geoff’s trademark shots is his forehand groundstroke. It’s a big powerful nasty heavy topsin drive (not an artificial spinny shot that just sits up) hit with almost a modified continental grip (in between an eastern and continental grips).

That’s right, you can generate real topspin that actually penetrates through the bounce without a goofy western or semi-western forehand grip. What a concept…

Geoff eventually got behind 5-1 in the 3rd set, and all of a sudden, he relaxed and loosened up (as most of us do when we get far enough behind that we sort of feel we have nothing to lose), and the sound he was now creating with his forehand was distinctively different than when the match had been close.

And Geoff kept reproducing this sound on his forehand at contact, a deep sort of resonant tone that was loud and was exactly what Mr. Stow loved to call the “conk”, that sound when the racket is delivered against and through the ball with no mental apprehension of the result.

Geoff reeled off the next 4 games, got back to even at 5 all, and just like at 5-1, that sound on his forehand changed.

The swing looked the same, but the sound was different. It lost its deep resonance and Geoff started to miss some forehands that just a few minutes ago he was driving deep to a corner and putting his opponent under all sorts of pressure.

That sound can come and go totally depending on your mindset at the time.

Relax and don’t worry about the consequewnces and you can much more easily create the “conk”.

Tighten up at all because the match is close or your perception is some level of fear and the “conk” can go away and hide.

Unfortunately Geoff lost that match in the 3rd set tiebreaker. Afterwards we sat down and I told him my observations of what I’d heard, when it had been different, and what the results were.

Later that afternoon, I went out to play a doubles match, and in the warmup I focused on creating that sweet sound of the “conk”. I didn’t look at my shot (visual) to get feedback of my shots, I just listened for that sound, and once I heard it, I simply tried to recreate it again and again.

Once the match got going, I was in tune much more with hearing my results as opposed to looking at my results.

It works…

Try going out on the court and “listen” for that ideal contact sound.

Once you find it, can actually hear it, simply try to reproduce that sound again. Don’t look up too early to see your result, keep your eyes down through contact, allow the ball to leave on its own, and just focus on the sound you want.

Brent

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