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Mai – 35 National Indoors in Chicago

May 17, 2009 By Brent Leave a Comment
Greetings from the National Women’s 35, 45, & 55 Indoors in Chicago, IL at the Homewood – Flossmoor Racquet & Fitness Club.

UPDATE:  Monday night, May 18, 2009 – Well, Mai played a great singles finals despite some left knee patellar tendonitis and a nasty blister under her right foot.

Despite losing to one of the great senior players, Julie Cass, 6-1, 6-2, Mai had several game points to win more games, but Julie’s skill and experience prevailed today.

I couldn’t be more proud of my bride and her efforts in bringing home the Silver Ball!


Julie Cass – Austin, TX and Mai Ichikawa-Abel
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UPDATE:  Sunday night, May 17, 2009 – My wife Mai has reached the finals of the 35s singles!  She plays the #1 seed Julie Cass from Austin, TX tomorow morning, Monday, May 18, at 9:30am.

Below are a few of the WebTennis.net faithful who stopped by to say hello.

Emma and Ed from Indiana


Peggy from Delaware


John from Illinois and Joan from Virginia

Our friends from NorCal – Leora & Pam, and my bride Mai
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Serve Spin – How to Practice It

May 14, 2009 By Brent 2 Comments

How to practice getting the feel for generatating spin on your serve.



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Look, let’s forget about some of the funky terms we use for generating spin on the serve such as pronation, release, whatever…

There are a couple of keys to getting better spin on your serve.

A loose continental grip that will help you to naturally swing your racket up the back of the ball will make the ball spin in a specific direction.  Topspin…

Once you get comfortable with the feeling of the loose grip (make it relaxed, if you squeeze too tightly, this will not work for you), then work on that swing path going up and not around the side corner.

Make sure you don’t slow down the racket head just prior to contact, in fact, to get really good spin, you’ll want to speed up the racket just prior to contact.

Good racket speed for now equates to a relaxed grip tension.

The death grip will certainly kill something.  And that’s your ability to impart spin.
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Finally Get Your Mind Off Of Worrying About Another Double Fault!
Stop Giving Away Those FREE Points To Your Opponents

The “3 Magic Moves of the Serve”
Get your copy of Brent’s detailed lesson (Downloadable and DVD) NOW!
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Filed Under: Tennis Tip - Serve, Tennis Tip - Spin

Groundstrokes Swing / Racket Prep

May 11, 2009 By Brent Leave a Comment


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Groundstrokes Swing / Racket Prep

When you’re back on your baseline, how do you react with your racket when you initially recognize either a forehand or backhand?

You know, one of the things I can’t stand with the so called modern stroke techniques is this really high racket prep on every groundstroke, especially on the forehand side.

If your opponent plays a deep shot (it lands close to your baseline) or a short ball where you should play an approach shot, if you’ve got either a high racket prep or too big a “racket back” prep, you’re going to find it really difficult to be consistent with your shot making.

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Blog Talk Radio – Live Interview with Brent

Join me Thursday May 14, 1:00pm Pacific time (4:00 Eastern) for a live interview!  I’m talking with the folks over at USTA NorCal on their weekly BlogTalkRadio show.


Visit that website Thursday May 14, 1:00pm Pacific time (4:00 Eastern) where you can listen live to the radio show and ask questions.

Hope you’ll be there!
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You always want to react out of your ready position (ready position = just prior to your opponent playing their shot, you don’t know yet whether you’ll be getting a shot played to your forehand or backhand) with a shoulder turn and racket prep that allows you to be prepared for the worst case.


Worst case is usually a deep incoming shot with pace.

If you prepare your racket too high or too far back, you’ll have to bring in lots of swing speed just to get your racket behind the ball at contact, and the combination of pace coming in and your racket uneeded racket speed makes it very tough to control your shot.

Try to always prepare for that worst case by turning your shoulders and leavinbg your racket to your side where you could simply “pick up” that deep incoming shot.

If you react and prep the racket for worst case as I just described and your opponent’s shot lands shorter and with less pace, you then you’ll have time to comfortably shape out your swing.

Check out detailed 3 Magic Moves lessons on the groundstrokes over at my tennis lessons page.


Brent
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