The old good tennis

erience as a tennis coach, the more I learn about players’ own individual styles of playing tennis, the more I question what really are bad habits in tennis. How do you describe a bad habit? Everyone is so worried about developing bad habits that they run from teaching pro to teaching pro and stress themselves out attempting to stave off the dreaded ‘bad habit’! They read books and tennis magazines and study videos seeking answers to the ultimate tennis strokes.

Now do not get me wrong. I’m not telling you that there are no guidelines to follow when learning to play tennis. What I am telling you is these guidelines are far too rigid and in many cases totally incorrect! Do you know how many ‘bad habits’ there are in tennis history of the past that are now not only accepted as correct, but often preferred?

From the 1950’s through the 60’s and on, tennis pros were teaching that holding two hands on the racket for the backhand was a bad habit. They claimed two hands limited the player’s reach and had too many drawbacks. So when pros gave tennis lessons they insisted that players stick with the one-handed backhand. Onto the professional scene came the likes of Chris Evert, Jimmy Connors and Bjiorn Borg. All with the two-handed backhand ‘bad habit.’ Well now maybe it’s not all that bad! So the tennis professionals and amateurs slowly embraced the two-handed backhand to the point where nowadays the majority of players have the two-handed backhand ‘bad habit.’

An interesting historical fact to note is that in the 1937 Australian Open between Vivian McGrath and John Bromwich both played tennis with two-handed backhands. Was it accepted then? Not even close! In fact it was ridiculed. Below is a searing excerpt from the Time Magazine 1937 archives specifically describing the experts’ response to Vivian McGrath and his backhand. See what you think:

Time Magazine, Monday, 10 May 1937: “When Australia’s Vivian McGrath appeared on the international tennis scene four years ago, experts could not have been more astonished had he been a kangaroo. For all backhand shots McGrath held his racket with both hands. For a first-class tennist to do such a thing was so unthinkable that tennis experts, instead of trying to explain it, simply regarded McGrath as an antipodean freak.” Lots of “antipodean freaks” are around today. You may even be one!

And how about the swinging volley that at one time was considered a bad habit. Just another ‘bad habit’ gone right! Don’t forget the big looping forehand of Bjiorn Borg with massive topspin…again another ‘bad habit’ gone right! The so-called experts said he could not win Wimbledon with those big looping tennis strokes. He won five championships in a row at Wimbledon and the experts were nowhere to be found. Now everyone has the ‘bad habit’ of hitting with a looping forehand.

How about the ‘bad habit’ of tossing the ball high on the serve. I remember watching the great Ivan Lendl toss the ball so high on his serve it would go off the television screen. His timing was set for that type of ball toss. I say, leave him alone!

Not too long ago hitting with an open stance on ground strokes was a ‘bad habit.’ Now it is becoming the standard.

Can you see why I do not teach tennis lessons with excessive technical information? First, learning tennis is an individual process. A bad habit for one player is fine for another. Second, the tennis profession is constantly changing the idea of what a ‘bad habit’ is. Third, and this is the key, most players’ ‘bad habits’ are just part of the learning process. An example would be taking the racket back late on ground stokes. This is nothing to worry about. Taking the racket back late is just part of the individual learning process. You do NOT have to force the racket back. Eventually preparing the racket properly will resolve itself. This is a timing issue that will be resolved by hitting thousands of balls…no need to overthink this so-called bad habit.

How about the bad habit of falling off-balance when hitting a tennis stroke. Not a problem. Just keep swinging and in time your balance will improve. Falling off-balance is just a phase of learning that all players MUST go through.

STARTLING CONCLUSION

There is no way you can monitor every little movement each minute you play tennis. Practice some of the simple techniques which you have learned in your tennis lessons, but do not stress yourself out if your stroke is not perfect. A ‘bad habit’ today could be the next great shot of the future. Just like remembering “the next shot is more important then the last mistake,” remember, when it comes to the process of learning keep moving on. The wisdom of the body is smarter than you are! Spontaneous and intuitive playing will come to the rescue after you have spent hours and hours and hours hitting thousands of tennis balls.

Tennis is a very exciting and popular sport. It can help improve your overall fitness, and provide you with hours and hours of enjoyment. You can play the sport alone, with just one opponent, or you can play tennis in doubles. You often see tennis professionals competing on live television telecasts, and they make it look so easy.

The sport looks easy because professionals play full time tennis, and they have the opportunity to practice every single day. However, if you are just picking up the sport, you will quickly realize that it’s not an easy sport at all. If you are not mentally prepared, you may even give up the sport altogether. Here are some tips on how to get you started with tennis fitness training.

Tennis basic rules.

The rules of tennis are simple. You can play the game in sets of three, or sets of five. The player who wins the most sets, will win the match. In each set, there are a total of 6 games. To win a set, the tennis player must win more than 3 games. If both players win the same number of games (e.g. 6-6), this forces a tie breaker. The set will continue until a player has won at least 2 games more than the opponent.

In each game, a sequence of points will be played. For beginners, the scoring system may seem a little confusing. The first point will be recorded as 0-15, the second point as 0-30, and the third point as 0-40 (game point). If the player goes on and scores a forth point, he or she wins the game. Again, if both are tied at 40-40, there will be a deuce. The deuce will continue until one player wins at least 2 points ahead of the competition.

To score a point in the game, a player must use the tennis racket to hit the ball before the ball bounces twice. The goal is to hit the ball back into the opponent’s court. Of course, the tennis ball must land within the boundaries of the court. If it’s a singles game, the inner lines at the side mark the boundaries. If it’s a doubles game, the outer lines at the side mark the boundaries.

You can use a variety of tennis strokes to score in the game. These include the fore hand stroke, the back hand stroke, the overhead stroke. If you hit the ball before it touches the ground, it’s called a volley.

Tennis is a great sport for fitness training because you have to run and move around in the court to play the game. The movements involve exercising your arms and legs. You also get a great cardiovascular workout.

You don’t need a lot of equipment to get started with the sport. Just a basic tennis racket, some tennis clothing and a pair of tennis shoes and you are good to go.

ught tennis players from all competitive levels not to dwell on past failures, but to keep moving forward, to always look ahead and never look back when.

I teach them that bad cycles will occur, so they should stay relaxed, wait for the cycle to change and the tide WILL turn….if they keep the right mental attitude.

I give them phrases like, “the next shot is more important than the last mistake.” Or, “in order to be good I have to make mistakes.”

I prepare them for the inevitable frustrations that will happen when they learn and play tennis. Does it work? Yes, most of the time, but sometimes the overwhelming negatives are just too much for the players’ emotions. As a result, they begin to analyze their foibles incorrectly. They whine, “All my practice and tennis lessons and look at what I have done! I couldn’t even make an easy shot. I’m such a horrible player.” Their focus goes off course; they drown in a flood of negatives. Usually all this drama begins because they are losing, NOT necessarily because they are playing poorly.

Let me tell you what tennis coach Robert Lansdorp saw in Maria Sharapova when he watched her play tennis at 14 years old. Even while she was suffering a devastating loss, throughout the entire match she continued to go for her shots again and again and again. Coach Lansdorp recognized this as the number one quality for a great player. You, too, should remember that if everything falls apart in your tennis game you can grab onto this one principle and ride out the storm!

In an article in Tennis Life Magazine (June 2005), the writer Alix Ramsay states: “By the time [Sharapova] was 14 and losing in her first professional tournament … Lansdorp knew he was onto something good. Mopping up the tearful teenager after she had been roughed up by an older, more experienced girl on the slow clay court, Lansdorp tried to convince Sharapova and Yuri [her father] that everything would work out all right in the end. Sharapova was going to make it.”

Lansdorp said, “I saw right there, the way she played: she played without fear. She wasn’t good enough that day because she would miss a ball, her shots weren’t accurate enough, but she had no fear of hitting it. She would never hold back or be afraid to lose. Every great champion, they have that when they walk on the court: they have no fear. They hate to lose but they are not afraid to lose.”

Did you catch the irony? Sharapova just got destroyed in a tennis match and Coach Lansdorp thinks she is unbelievably fantastic and is going to make it! What is this all about?

Before I go on, let me tell you something about Robert Lansdorp. He coached and was instrumental in the careers of Pete Sampras, Tracy Austin and Lindsay Davenport. I believe he may be someone we just might want to pay attention to! Maria Sharapova was brought to him for tennis lessons at the age of 11 because she had potential. Someone got that one right!

Did you notice that after Sharapova lost the match, Lansdorp did not say, “she is missing too much, that’s the big problem here. I have to straighten all of that out.” To Lansdorp, missing when she played tennis was irrelevant. Instead he keyed in on the fact that she had no fear of hitting the ball and no fear of losing. He totally ignored the loss!

Let me put this into simple terms for you. The most important principle to master when you play tennis is, “No fear of losing!”

Of course Lansdorp will go back to the drawing board with more tennis lessons and improve Sharapova’s consistency and accuracy, but that was NOT his main focus after the devastating loss. His focus was her mental attitude.

In Lansdorp’s mind she was a winner not because she won or lost a match, but because she lost with the correct mental attitude. This is the stuff of champions!

Champions do not win all the time – they just never give up trying! Maria Sharapova never quit in that match; she just kept swinging and swinging and swinging. To this day she is still swinging away when she plays tennis. In fact, she swung her way to a Wimbledon title!

Now wipe the frown off of your face, get back on the courts, play tennis and keep fighting…I don’t care how many times you lose! That is the stuff of champions.