Attention is a limited resource. As you play, hundreds of sensations, decisions, and distractions compete for your limited attention. Executive function is your ability to manage that. I’ve actually written about executive function already,...
We cannot access our forehand swings directly – we only have access to the Forehand Function, a neurological process that runs in the brain, which processes our sensory inputs into movement. What physically occurs...
Imagine you’re at the eye doctor, staring at the vision chart. You can see every single line in perfect acuity, even the tiniest line at the very bottom. You have excellent vision, right? Not...
This position is magic on the forehand. I call it “the press slot,” because it’s the moment your stroke’s final powerful muscle group – the chest – becomes the primary driver of your swing,...
Tennis is a series of strikes, and strikes are like snowflakes – no two are exactly the same. No two forehands are exactly the same. No two backhands are exactly the same. What matters...
In tennis, “probing” refers to the act of spacing your body with respect to the ball, and it is one of the most important drivers of consistency while playing. The image above depicts two...
In the 2011 Miami Final, Rafael Nadal hit a winner past Novak Djokovic that looked rather strange on TV (the point). The ball landed quite close to him, at least, close in the scope...
The split-step is an athletic hop done immediately prior to receiving a ball in tennis. The player hops a few inches off the ground and lands with their feet wider than shoulder width apart....
Here’s a simple way to understand the basics of balance in tennis. Shots can be played in: In a perfect world, we’d play every shot in positive balance. Positive balance lets us recruit the...
Many skills in tennis are easily visible – any casual Wimbledon fan will be quick to gawk at Carlos Alcaraz’s incredible forehand or be awed by Roger Federer’s immaculate feel. Movement is equally visible...