What is Fault Tolerance, Anyway?
“Fault tolerance” is a term from computing – it refers to a machine’s ability to remain functional even in the face of a fault, a small problem. For example, imagine that one of the...
How the Feet Liberate the Hips
A full hip rotation is impossible if both of your feet are firmly planted on the ground. Trying to rotate your hips while your feet stay planted will put a large amount of torsion...
Foot Striking – The Overlooked Key to Speed
The human foot is a masterfully designed piece of biological machinery. It’s job – to safely absorb and transfer the force generated when our bodies hit, and then press off, the ground. Lucky for...
Foot Striking Warm Up
If we’d all grown up barefoot from birth, we’d probably strike the ground properly without even thinking about it. Alas, since that’s not the case, proper foot striking, like everything else, is a skill...
The Athletic Ready Position
With almost every skill in tennis, there exists a prevailing myth that natural talent is the primary factor driving success. You’ll frequently hear tennis commentators, awestruck after observing the latest feat of athletic brilliance,...
The Serve is a Throw
The serve is a throw. That line is both the title and the first paragraph for a reason – it constitutes the single most important insight that underpins effective serving. If you can throw...
5 Signs of a Great Coach
A great lesson is worth infinitely more than a bad one. And I mean that literally. It isn’t worth double, or triple, or quadruple its less effective counterpart. No, the difference in value is infinite. With...
Mixed Strategy – An Antidote to Guessing
A mixed strategy is a strategy in which we mix our shot selection decisions for a given situation; we won’t hit any shot 100% of the time. Consider an extremely common situation – the...
Balanced Strategy – The Mathy Version
For every probabilistic decision in a non-cooperative game, there exists a balanced (typically mixed) strategy which creates indifference in the opponent – it doesn’t matter how the opponent defends, their equity will be the...
A Common HESBA – The Inside-Out Approach
For many players, the highest equity shot before adjustment when given a short, high ball up the middle is an inside-out forehand approach shot. Most players can hit their inside-out forehand reasonably well, and,...