My love hate relationship with the internet

I love the internet.

It gave us youtube which in turn gave us the crazy nasty ass honey badger; the opportunity to waste copious amounts of time re-watching the Michael Jordan years Chicago Bulls pre-game introductions; old school tennis matches as well as eztv.it which allows me to download English speaking shows which in turn preserves my sanity and therefore my marriage.

On the downside, the internet has also led to thousands of in our case instructional tennis sites popping up. These sites tend to breed like rabbits and often end up joining forces into some giant evil super rabbit.

If you are stupid enough to give even one site your email address then once they join forces with one of their friends who is hawking some trifle about the 17 step process that will lead you down the yellow brick road to Federer’s forehand, you end up getting bombarded with email after email extolling the virtues of this and that and every other ‘secret’ of the pro’s.

It’s a waterfall of crap.

Now, I don’t happen to pay any attention to 99% of it but wouldn’t you know it, parents of kids I teach certainly do. In fact, the internet has become a minefield for coaches.

I could count on one hand the amount of weeks this year that I haven’t had to deal with some hair brained theory about this and that or the need to dramatically change the direction of said son or daughters training because Mummy/Daddy/Grandma or Grandma subscribes to this site and this week they got three emails about the newest way to do whatever.

I recently went back to my home country of New Zealand for two weeks of surfing, sleeping on the beach and too much partying only to return to a scene straight out of a tennis horror show.

You see, I live in an area of Europe where it seems like I am one of the only people who teachers open stance on both the forehand and two handed backhand. Seriously, I’m not kidding. It’s like living in the middle ages of tennis.

I encourage kids to wait and stalk the ball and would rather eat a bowl of worms then see someone take their racket back early and turn sideways. But, one particular boy I coach has a relative who is also a coach but would rather eat a bowl of worms than see his nephew wait for the ball, hit from an open stance and god forbid, try and hit the ball 3-4 feet over the net.

Every time I go away, coach X takes advantage of my absence – and he’s not the only one.

I battle for 3 months to build good habits only to get them shredded in 2 weeks.

I know this is a bit of a rant but everyone needs to get things off their chest. So this is my turn and you’re just gonna have to deal with it. Europe may produce the world’s best tennis players right now but after having lived and coached at a high level here for over 18 months, it’s more because of luck/access to competition/kids telling their coaches to leave them the eff alone/or something else than tons of good coaching.

Quite frankly, I’m baffled by the whole thing.

The internet is also a massive pain in the proverbial. More information is not better. Better is better and as my Dad used to say when I was about to go and play a game of rugby, keep it simple stupid.

So in conclusion, I know that was not the most coordinated piece of writing I’ve ever done, but I think people need to constantly be reminded that often the best way to progress is to ignore the latest biggest and best piece of information that comes your way.

Find a path, build momentum and stick to it. And if that doesn’t work then there’s always youtube and ‘The Story of Festivus’ to fall back on.

Stay in the Zone

The Zone has been described by many as a state of being in which you see the tennis ball slower than usual and sometimes it’s size magnified.

Many of us experience this when least expected.

Without getting too deeply into explaining it, it is basically getting out of your mind, shutting it off.

How you do that? Well, focusing on the task at hand, completely in present time. For some, it is a common occurrence, for many, a difficult task.

Once in the Zone, how do you stay in it?

Here are some guidelines that you could use:

1. You need alignment of your efforts. If you use poor technique, you’ll be out of the Zone in a minute.
2. You need awareness of this state and respect it, that is not to shuffle your focus around.
3. You needed calmness, serenity. Emotions produce endocrine responses. Anger, for example, causes surge of responses that will throw your concentration off.
4. Things will happen that may look miraculous. You are creating at a higher level. You have to trust yourself.
5. Feel is key, your feedback, knowing what to do. Enhance this perception. Trust it, too.
6. Stay calm. Don’t rush. Be a master of patience, especially with yourself.

It’s very interesting how some players are in furious action, and still remain observers themselves.

There are numerous examples in sports, the likes of Michael Jordan, Kobe Bryant, Jerry Rice, Roger Federer, Lionel Messi, Tiger Woods at his best, and hundreds if not thousands more. Their performance can be astounding and the performer still look at ease.

Asked about it, they simply say “I was in the Zone.”

The Closed Stance, Source of Pain and Injury

Many tennis players have knee pain and injury and they feel it’s a fact of sports life and aging.

But even young pros have the same problem, especially those who lock their front foot while they stroke.

The main culprit is the close-stance position and stepping into the ball. Both aspects twist the landing knee in a stressful manner.

It is not unusual for pain and injury to travel up and manifest itself in the lower back.

Many close-stance professionals counter this problem by rotating the foot upon landing to avoid a stressful twist.

Is the close stance really necessary? Not really. Experiments with the open stance both for forehands and two-handed backhands have shown that facing the net is far more efficient, powerful, gives you better control and is more natural to the body. The new load on the outside foot and explode applies perfectly to both strokes provided you don’t have the habit of stepping forward into the ball with your inside foot which effectively closes your stance.

Modern tennis has shown that open stance and hitting up and across the ball rather than forward increases your spin, control and is also a source of power.

Step into the future and play the natural, most efficient way.

WTA Tournament Reveals Coaching Problems

I have been in La Costa’s WTA tournament for the last 7 days. I noticed that the main difference between the main draw players and those that dropped off early or in the qualifying rounds is that the coaches of those who make it through do not insist in stepping into the ball and hitting forward. It is interesting that even at the pro level misconceptions abound and players are nowhere near their potential despite some incredible physical strength and conditioning.

The Future – Junior Tennis #1

I think about lots of things: how do fax machines and cell phones work; why can’t I do maths, what was Osama Bin Laden’s favourite type of porn, how the hell is Jennifer Anniston not married, how can anyone find ‘Friends’ funnier than ‘Seinfeld’ and ‘Curb Your Enthusiasm’ (I’m especially looking at you Europe and you … women) and where will the next great crop of tennis players come from?