You Must Win Without Rhythm
“Rhythm” in tennis means different things to different players, but here’s how I’ll define it: You are “in rhythm” when your neurological pattern has calibrated itself in the near-term. As you get “in rhythm”,...
Executive Function – The 4th Skill Class
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,...
Certainty is a Feeling (and Cheat Code)
Certainty as an epistemic state is a lie. A human being can never truly be certain about something, and most people have far higher confidence in their predictions than is warranted. That said, certainty...
Your Brain Will Trick You (Into Missing)
Sometimes, it’s amazing now “lucky” Novak Djokovic gets. He hits line after line without missing, appearing to aim to targets not even 6-inches wide, and yet never hitting the ball out. But what’s really...
Stop Losing Winnable Matches
One of the beautiful things about learning a fundamentally sound, fault tolerant forehand, is that the speed of said forehand can be easily dialed up or down, without fundamentally changing the swing. The grip...
Is “Coach-You” a Terrible Match Coach?
We’ve already discussed how to play better in matches twice before. Here are those two articles, if you’re interested: Vision Will Transform Your Match Play Great In Practice, Bad in Matches Today, we’re going...
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...
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,...