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...
Anatomy of a Tennis Mini-Game
Tennis not best understood as a single, uniform skill. Rather, tennis exists as an interconnected set of different, related skills. For any given tennis skill, once a certain level is reached, practicing on a...
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...
“How Can I Miss That?”
You miss a shot, and you get frustrated. “How can I miss that?” “What am I even doing out here?” “Has all my practice been for nothing?” It’s an inner spiral that’s effected many...
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...
Smashing Through Plateaus
There are three critical, broad skill classes you need to master in order to be an elite tennis player. In order, they are: If you’re good at these three things, you’ll be an elite...
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...
Bad Decisions… Or Just Bad?
What do Karue Sell and Scott Adams have in common? Believe it or not, both have addressed a very common, often misunderstood match play decision: When should I take my forehand up the line?...