Focus on Connecting Until Success

Mental Toughness for Doubles by Gary Sailes

Much of the information I have learned about mental toughness in tennis was directed at singles play. That’s okay except there is an army of doubles players out there who could benefit from this information if it were presented in a beneficial way to help them play better doubles.

I personally had more success as a doubles player than as a singles player and always enjoyed working with doubles teams, particularly my USTA league teams. My teams have had great success because they employed the tips I am about to share with you. These are mental strategies doubles tandems should learn and use to develop and maintain their toughness as a team to optimize their winning potential.

A few years ago, I was approached by a ladies 3.5 USTA league team. They were a good team but always struggled to advance to regional and national competition. They brought me in and I worked with them for a couple weeks. I did not change any swings nor did I alter the line up in any way. I worked exclusively on tactics, strategy, and mental toughness. To make a long story short, they advanced all the way to nationals that year before losing to a very talented team of women from California.

Another great story is one about a junior player I coached who played varsity high school tennis as a Freshman. He played #1 doubles with a Senior. Early in the season, they had lost two matches they should have won. Their coach, a friend, asked me to work with the team for a week. I worked on communication and tactics and strategy with this doubles team. After I completed my work with them, they went undefeated the remainder of the season all the way to the State title which they won.

I tell these two stories to impress upon you the importance of Mental Toughness in doubles. I will share with you several key tips you should know and start using right away. They will make a difference.

1. MENTAL TOUGHNESS is simply the ability to control your thoughts. By controlling your thoughts, you will focus better, play with more confidence, play well under pressure, recover from mistakes, and generally play better as a team. The task then becomes, what should you think? I am glad you asked. Here is what you should be thinking.

2. A QUIET MIND offers your best performance opportunity. Simply put, the quieter the mind, the better you play. Just focus on the ball and hit to your targets.

Tennis players always play worse when their mind is active. Quiet your mind, focus on your game plan and then execute it. Leave everything else off the court where it belongs. If your doubles partner starts talking to him/herself or if they become self-critical, be encouraging, supportive and remind them to get refocused on your game plan.

3. Your CONFIDENCE is your greatest weapon as a team. The two most empowering words you can say are “WE CAN!” If your partner starts to lose his/her confidence, help them to regain it by saying things like “We can do this! Come on, you can do it. It’s just one error. The match ain’t over yet. We always have a chance as long as the last point has not been lost.” Say something positive to inspire and refocus your partner. Many times, self criticism is a defense mechanism to protect one’s ego or to send a message to a partner to let him/her know I am disappointed about letting you down. Let your partner off the hook by showing continued support, encouragement and confidence.

4. I believe that doubles was meant to be played in ATTACK MODE ! Your mind set should be to attack your opponents at every opportunity. Isolate the weaker player and attack him/her individually.

Strive to control the net. Make your opponents hit up by hitting down into their court making the service line on their side of the court your target. Get off that baseline first opportunity you get. Make this the staple of your offensive strategy. If you have to retreat to recover a lob, make getting back to the net a priority.

5. POACH often. Make the other team think about altering their shots to defend against your poach. Taking them out of their game is a huge advantage. It is no big deal if you get passed a couple times. It is to be expected.

Continue to poach to keep the pressure on. I have seen my teams win many matches on a poach that went well or the opposing team missed a shot because of the pressure brought on by the poaching team. Just do it.

6. COMMUNICATE after every point. High five, touch racquets, come together and talk about what just happened (five seconds) and what you are going to do next (20 seconds). Do this after EVERY POINT!!!! This builds camaraderie, confidence and keeps you focused on your game plan.

7. TEAM means you should dress alike, decide who the attacker is and who the steady player is. You need both. Find commonality in all you say and do as a doubles team and embrace that. Joke about your differences but hold onto those things you have in common. They are the foundation of your team and will get you through the rough times. Doubles is like a marriage. It takes work and focusing on your common playing values serves as a great foundation and will sustain you in the heat of battle.

8. STRIVE TO PLAY WELL and let winning take care of itself. Thinking about the outcome and end result only puts unnecessary pressure on you as a team causing you to play worse. Just focus on your game plan, execute it with confidence and tenacity. Learn to love the tight matches.

9. NO FEAR of any team. Make your opponent see how good you are as a team. Attack them and go after your points. Do not let any team intimidate you, no matter how big, fast, or good they look. Make them deal with your team’s weapons and toughness. See it, feel it, do it.

10. HAVE FUN Doubles is a fun sport. While playing and winning are serious, have fun while doing it. This will cause you to relax and play better. Joke around occasionally to ease the tension of a close match. You will be surprised how much better you will play when a teammate cracks a joke to make you smile or laugh.

Mental toughness is just as important in doubles play as it is in singles play. Be sure to read these tips over and over again. Employ these tactics and watch the sparks fly.

The Lob — When, Where, and Why

It’s all about winning isn’t it?
Jim McLennan

Years ago in a press interview at the SAP (then Sybase) Open, when asked what it felt like to play perfect tennis, Pete Sampras (with considerable modesty) replied, About once a month it does feel that way, but only when my shots and my decisions are perfect. And for us mortals, I would translate as follows, that for each and every shot, Pete was making decisions about placement, speed, and spin. Or put another, on each shot Pete was making decisions about the degree of offense or defense he should attempt.

Coaching many of our USTA teams, I watch our players hone their approach shots, move to the net, and try to finish with a volley. Certainly, on the other side of the net the opponents, who are under attack, should drive the ball low or lob. But the question I ask them, and now you the reader, is, When should the defender drive the ball and when should the defender lob? I believe the answer lies in the depth of the approach shot. Simply put, if the opponent approaches with a deep and difficult ball, then the best reply, at any level of skill, is the lob. If the opponent approaches with something not deep or difficult, then the best reply is the drive. Unfortunately, I do not see this simply strategy adhered to, much less understood, across the recreational league fields of play. And this also dovetails with the previous newsletter on doubles partnering. If I am at the net, my partner is at the baseline, and the opponents approach crosscourt to my partner, I would prefer to know when my partner would be lobbing, for in that scenario I would take a few steps back. And equally, I would prefer to know when my partner would be driving the ball, for in that scenario I would hold my ground ready and waiting to take steps forward if indeed their drive was low.

But the problem is that if the baseliner has no guidelines about when to drive and when to lob, his partner has no reasonable way to position accordingly. This does not mean lob all the time, nor does it mean drive all the time. It means, decide, and base that decision on the quality of the opponents approach.

And just as the serve and volley may have become a lost art, we don’t see all that much lobbing in the professional game, so this shot is not effectively showcased. But think back some 20 years, to the American champion Jimmy Connors. The classic highlight reel shows him retrieving overheads from Paul Harhius, with four consecutive lobs punctuated by a running down the line backhand pass and the double fist pump for the crowd. Lobs work, Jimmy knew it, do you?

So lets envision you on the baseline, playing doubles, in a crosscourt exchange. Your shot is short, they move forward, and drive the ball deep and quite close to the baseline. No time to run back, you are more or less trapped by this ball. Now what?

The answer is finesse. The answer is a short stroke both on the backswing and the follow through. The answer is feel, not power. The answer is a lob. No need for topspin. No need for a well placed ball back to the opponents baseline. Simply put the ball up. After all, UP does in fact mean UP. Difficulties arise when we panic. Somehow the deep approach elicits a rushed backswing, and any speed at the start of this motion results in speed throughout. The secret is to practice a calm slow response in this situation. More or less a half volley with a pronounced UP bump. Let me say it again, for truly this shot does work wonders in emergencies, a half volley with a pronounced up bump.

Many club level players struggle with their timing on the one-handed backhand.

Players need to distinguish between acceleration of your racket on your backhand and body acceleration– this writer refers to body acceleration as pulling a power cord (uncoiling of your body, as the racket stays on the ball as the ball leaves and the racket follows it)) Your racket is a sword being drawn from its sheath. Most people focus too much on the racket acceleration as opposed to the body acceleration.

When we are extended and tense on our backswings, we lose time and we are slow and therefore we feel hurried. This reinforces our belief that we don’t have much time, and then we swing the racquet back even faster the next time, only making matters worse.

Instead, if we simply react in a timely manner and we stay relaxed and don’t extend as much, we can produce power in much less time and a much shorter space, making everything more manageable and effective. By doing this we can actually slow down the game. Tiger Woods, Barry Bonds and Roger Federer all get their upper bodies behind their hands and drive their hips through the ball. Follow their lead.

If you are looking to improve your physical conditioning, consider some private training sessions with Mel Johnson in Hopewell. Some of you may have known Mel from Momentum Fitness. Mel is an enthusiastic motivator and instructor. The fitness facility has been refinished and the equipment is top notch. Escape the conventional and crowded gyms. I can’t wait to start to training there.

From his website (www.m3studios.net)
M3 Studios is a highly personalized fitness training facility; we are not a health club selling personal training.

Our mission is to inspire, inform and empower you to achieve your best personal fitness goals. To accomplish this we have created a highly personalized and stylized experience that fosters long-term health and fitness results.

Twenty years experience in the fitness industry has helped Mel Johnson identify the key factors that help clients achieve their fitness goals. A fitness regimen that utilizes personal training and is specifically designed to match your lifestyle and exercise habits will be developed specially for you. We evaluate goals and objectives together on a regular basis.

We invite you to experience a program that provides the best path to achieving
your health and fitness goals. M3 Studios, 5 Railroad Place, Hopewell NJ 08525 609-333-0096, cell 609-439-7162 mjohnson@m3studios.net, www.m3studios.net

The article below describes the Chip shot well.

July 10, 2006 - Play Your Chips
By Tony Lance, Associate Editor, TENNIS Magazine

If you were watching Wimbledon recently, you may have noticed that Amelie Mauresmo often returned serve by using a short, volley-like stroke instead of her full drives. She was using the chip, a shot not often seen in the pro game anymore, but one which offers a sure-fire way for recreational players to add variety to their games.

As Mauresmo demonstrated, the chip, an abbreviated backhand or forehand ground stroke struck with a compact motion using underspin, is ideal for returns of serve, especially against hard deliveries, because it requires so little preparation; essentially you block the ball back using the force of the serve itself. When you’re having trouble getting the ball in play using your normal returns, the chip is a useful stroke to have to fall back on.

But ease of execution is not the only virtue of the chip. Since it doesn’t require a full backswing to give away your intent, adding the chip to your repertoire is a simple way to add an element of disguise to your game. With the chip minor adjustments at impact can produce a variety of shots: You can punch it deep, caress it short and low, hit a sneaky lob or throw in a devilish drop shot.

======

The drop shot is hit with backspin. Backspin is created by opening the racquet face (up to the sky). Try starting with the racquet face facing forward toward the net. Drop a ball and then hit through the ball, opening the racquet face as you do so.

How soon you turn the hand and therefore the racquet underneath the ball determines what kind of underspin shot you’ve hit. On an underspin drive you would turn the racquet under much later (think hit through and THEN turn the hand under.

For a drop-shot, you would turn the hand under much sooner. Normally a drop shot is hit from at least a couple of strides inside the baseline. A drop shot should have arc, underspin and a minimum of 2 bounces before it reaches the service line on the other side of the court.

If you’re in fairly close to the net and once you’ve practiced this shot a lot, you’ll be able to hit a drop shot so well that you may have a dozen bounces and a roll before the ball reaches the other service line.

You can also just practice underspin by hitting the ball up on your racquet and then (if you’re a righty) on the forehand side, just move your racquet right to left as you hit the ball to get the feel for backspin. Let the ball bounce in between hits at first and then see if you can spin the ball again and again without letting the ball bounce on the ground…then turn the racquet over and do the same on the backhand side by moving the racquet left to right or from your body away. This is just to get the feel for backspin

Its not going to be easy for the next generation of Americans to replicate the winning records of recently retired American players (Agassi, Sampras, Chang, Courier and others) Roddick and Blake are unpredictable…Donald Young has potential. For a comprehensive list of American tennis players, visit http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Category:American_tennis_players

Earlier this month, the USTA made an alliance with the Chris Evert Tennis Academy in Boca Raton Florida to provide year-round housing for aspiring junior tennis players in order to build the next generation of champions. The Academy will build a new facility on its site that will serve as National Headquarters for Player Development. This move will allow promising US Players aged 14-18 access to 14 clay and 9 hard courts along with training rooms, video lounge and a food nutrition program developed by the USTA.

John Evert, Executive Director’s bio: “During my career at IMG, I was responsible for creating coaching systems to ensure that world-class players had the proper resources and guidance to maximize their potential. During this time, I visited all of the major academies. In creating the Evert Academy with Chris and my dad, I have attempted to combine all of the valuable qualities I learned from the other academies. Most notably, ETA offers individualized attention in a family environment. The days of having four to six kids on a court doing nothing but drilling are over. Today’s players need skill specific training. The only way to accomplish this is with small ratios, and with the attitude that each player must be treated individually. If I’ve learned anything, it’s that each player has their own style and is motivated differently.”

http://www.evertacademy.com

====
Author’s sidenote: I spent several summers at the Vitas Gerulaitis and Chris Evert Academy in Boca Raton Florida. The facilities, coaching and weather were always top-notch. Competing with and befriending peers is the way to get better. (Don’t forget that Jim Courier once roomed with Andre Agassi)

For those unfamiliar Vitas Gerulaitis passed away tragically at age 40 from carbon monoxide poisoning from a failed heating system. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vitas_Gerulaitis

Gerulaitis used to practice with Borg on the courts at his training facility. Check out Gerulaitis-Borg’s head to head results: http://www.atptennis.com/3/en/players/headtohead/?player1=Gerulaitis%2C+Vitas&player2=Bjorn+Borg. Gerulaitis lost 16 matches to Borg, 7 finals.

This article struck me;

Arrest Made in Theft of Pele’s Arms
Teen Admits Selling Statue’s Arms to Scrap Yard
AP
Posted: 2007-07-12 21:07:11
Filed Under: Soccer
SAO PAULO, Brazil (July 12) - A 19-year-old homeless man confessed to sawing the arms off a bronze statue of Pele and selling them to a scrap metal yard, police said on Thursday.

Jackson Conceicao, who was arrested on Wednesday in the northeastern city of Salvador, also stole the bronze replica of the World Cup trophy above the statue’s head in mid-June. He’s been charged with theft and faces up to four years in prison.

He fetched 100 reals ($54 dollars) for the arms and the replica which were resold after being melted down, district police chief Omar Andrade Leal said by telephone.

Police are trying to locate another homeless man who helped Conceicao. “They squandered their meager earnings on crack cocaine,” Leal said.

Homeless people near Fonte Nova Stadium, in front of which stands the life-size statue, led police to Conceicao.

The statue will be restored and moved inside the stadium. It was inaugurated in March 1971, shortly after Brazil won its third World Cup in Mexico.

===
Who is next? Rocky Balboa has a 9-foot-tall 1,500-pound bronze statue of himself situated at the Philadelphia Museum of Art. Hopefully security cameras are set up to protect Rocky.

To see available Bronze items for sale at NJAuction.com, visit
http://www.njauction.com/cgi-bin/new/search.pl?sstring=bronze

According to a test done by an engineering firm (http://www.tennisserver.com), there is almost a 10″ difference in bounce height between clay courts (61.1″) and hard courts (52.9″) on heavy topspin balls. It’s a very interesting comparison.

Rebound height is the ball’s maximum vertical height obtained (in inches). Rebound Distance is the horizontal distance it took the ball to reach that height.

Court: Ball: Rebound Height: Rebound Distance:

Green Clay Wilson US Open 61.1 209.0
Green Clay Wilson Clay 65.9 213.0
Red Clay Wilson US Open 49.1 185.7
Red Clay Roland Garros 50.6 176.3
Hard US Open 52.9 204.2
Grass US Open 26.2 143.9
Grass Wimbledon 24.6 148.2

If you ever have the opportunity to play on grass courts, do it! Get ready to bend your knees! The ball bounces only half as high as hard courts!

For highlights of 2007 Wimbledon visit

There have been some great matches. Roddick lost to Frenchman Richard Gasquet in 5 sets (Roddick was up two sets and a break) Roddick commented after the match “… you know, when you put your blood, sweat and tears, everything you have into something, and you can almost taste it, you envision something and it doesn’t work out, it’s not easy. But that’s what makes you addicted to the competition, you know, is the feeling when you do win. That’s what gets you back on the horse.”

Andy was deflated after his loss, but its great to see him talking about the bright side.
===

The US Open starts August 27th. The full schedule can be seen at: http://www.usopen.org/schedules/default.sps

===

The Australian open is January 14-27th. Their 5 day grounds pass for $99 is said to be the best deal in worldwide sports. Visit http://www.australianopen.com for details. The Australian Open courts are being resurfaced on a cushioned acrylic surface – not a hard court – which preserves its point of difference from the other Grand Slam tournaments. According to the Director of the Tournament, “the new cushioned acrylic surface will have a different cushioning system to the Rebound Ace product, including a lower rubber content, and will be firmer under foot”. The courts will still play medium medium fast and will retain less heat (due to less rubber content).

===

The French Open is scheduled for May 27th-June 10th. If your french is good, you can visit their site at “http://www.fft.fr/rolandgarros/” The french open is played on red clay. If you want to see some differences between clay courts and hard courts, see the link below: http://hartru.com/hartru.php. I always wondered why there weren’t more Red clay courts in America. The simple answer is consistency and cost. Red clay is tougher and more expensive to obtain.

NJAUCTION, LLC will soon be offering several Maax jacuzzi bath tub’s, lighting fixtures, steam generators and glass display cabinets. If you are renovating your home or a bath/spa contractor, these units are some of the best on the market. Can you visualize relaxing in one of these? A sample picture can be seen at: http://www.findanauction.com/images/njauction/j00067.jpg. Visit www.njauction.com for auction details.

NJAUCTION has helped individuals and businesses liquidate unwanted items on and off the internet since 1999. NJAUCTION LLC ships products world-wide and is integrated with Amazon, eBay, eBay Motors, Google, GoAntiques and other venues. A multi-channel approach is used to maximize value. NJAUCTION, LLC is always seeking trustworthy partners to help make a difference for their clients. Contact Dan at dsh1972@aol.com for more information.