Vision Will Transform Your Match Play
Vision might be the single most underrated tool in every tennis player’s toolbox. Sure, every coach tells their students to “watch the ball,” but what does that really mean? And why is it that...
All Forehands Are Inside-Out Forehands
I work with a 10-year-old girl named Anna who presents with an interesting issue. When she’s pulled out wide on the forehand, her stroke looks great, but when the ball comes right to her,...
Flat, Spin, and Everything in Between
The primary way you adjust your forehand is by altering the tilt of your torso through contact. As we’ve discussed before, there exists only a small range of optimal movement patterns that allow for...
Great In Practice, Bad in Matches
Why is it that so many players feel like they play great in practice, and yet can’t produce that same level of tennis in matches? In two words: Mental Resources. In a match situation,...
The Queen of Clay
Back in 2005, the 19-year-old Rafael Nadal won his very first French Open title, beating then world #1 Roger Federer in 4 sets along the way. Last year (2020), at the same tournament, something...
What is Proprioception, Anyway?
Proprioception is a sense, like sight or smell. A person’s sense of proprioception is their sense of where their limbs are in space. You might be wondering: isn’t that just a subset of other...
Compact, Efficient, Elite – Aslan Karatsev’s Versatile Forehand
In almost every article, I say something along the lines of “lead with the hips” or “power comes from the hips, not the arm,” but how do you actually put that concept into practice?...
Free the Feet, Free the Hips
Whenever possible, you want to power your forehand using both of the primary engines that accelerate the stroke: positive balance and rotation. Lean into the shot, ending with your weight deeper into the court...
Yelling Isn’t Coaching
Let’s start with a funny story, told by strength coach Matt Reynolds, detailing the absurdity of how Baylor football players are “coached” during their strength and conditioning. Here’s the link to the clip (timestamped...
The Power of Neutral
At Fault Tolerant Tennis, we talk a lot about offensive tennis. That’s for good reasons, two specifically. When your strokes lack fault tolerance, it’s your offensive tennis that starts to break down first Offensive...