Stop Finishing Over Your Shoulder
The image above is Frances Tiafoe’s follow-through after a serve return. Looks terrible right? The shot must have been a shank, or if it did hit the strings, must have produced some sort of...
4 Steps to Stroke Production
All strokes in tennis, and I mean all strokes, share 4 key elements. While the specifics of implementation vary for each stroke, at a fundamental level, high quality ball striking requires four things things....
Why You Miss for No Reason (It’s Vision)
Movement and stroke production can only get you so far. To really excel in tennis, on each shot, you have to know exactly: Without this skill, your miss rate will always be high, no...
4 Fixation Visual System
It isn’t literally possible to “watch the ball” in high level tennis. At least, not all the time. The ball is simply moving too quickly for your eye to track it using smooth pursuit...
Immediately Improve Reaction Time
Many of my lower level students are totally lost when receiving a short ball, even when it’s really not that short. The ball’s second bounce is past the service line, and yet they’re still...
The Saccadic Tracking Loop
“Watch the ball” isn’t as simple as it sounds. When an object’s motion is sufficiently fast, it’s actually impossible for the eye to smoothly track that object throughout its entire flight path. Instead, the...
Secrets of the Eye
“Keep your eye on the ball,” is good advice for a 5-year-old. It is a rough, approximate instruction. When analyzed with a 5-year-old’s level of understanding, it accurately describes the role the eye is...
Don’t Watch The Ball Like Federer
I know, I know. The way Federer watches the ball is beautiful. It’s elegant, it’s graceful, and it looks really, really good in slow motion. But it is not the way every player should...
Triple Flexion Athleticism
There’s a lot that goes into athletic movement, but the basic idea is pretty simple – the more muscle you can recruit to help you move and balance, the more athletic you’re going to...
Coco’s Cannon
You’re 5’ 9’’, 140 lbs (1.79m, 64kg), and female. How hard can you serve? Answer: at least 124 mph (200 km/h), because that’s how fast the rocket Coco Gauff threw down in her third...