Zen Tennis - Improve Your Game the Easy Way

Tennis Tournament Tips

pdrayton — Thu, 31 Mar 2011 14:15:04 +0000

Remember your first tennis tournament? Were you nervous? Did you perform well? Or have you avoided tennis tournaments because of how you feel when you think about entering them? Fear, nervousness, anger? I remember my first tournament as an adult. I was nervous and played poorly until I got my nerves under control. To paraphrase the Bard “There [...]

First Round US Open Picks – Games to Watch

pdrayton — Mon, 30 Aug 2010 03:16:04 +0000

My picks for the possibly exciting games for the first round: Djokovic / Troiki – Djokovic hasn’t been at his tempestuous best, and Troiki can hit a good ball. I see Djokovic through in 4. Bagdatis / Clement – Clement is no slouch, but Bagdatis has been getting better and better. Watch his cross court backhand [...]

Ego, Mind Control, Goal Types and Tennis Performance

pdrayton — Wed, 18 Aug 2010 13:18:07 +0000

You can’t play good tennis without good mind control. That’s one of the reasons I love tennis so much – it teaches you mind control through instant feedback. If you’re not concentrating on the ball when you prepare for a stroke, you’re not going to hit it well. The first rule of good tennis is to concentrate [...]

Tennis Barometer

pdrayton — Thu, 12 Aug 2010 03:43:41 +0000

One of the reason’s I like tennis is it can tell you what you’re feeling, who you are, and what pressure you’re not immune to. Your tennis game is like a personal barometer. There are the days when your game…..well…..it sucks. For reasons unknown you can’t find the court. You wonder why you ever started playing [...]

Watch the Ball!

pdrayton — Thu, 03 Jun 2010 14:12:44 +0000

Federer is often mentioned as the best watcher of the ball onto the racquet in tennis. But you can’t be a good tennis player without watching the ball well – lots of other players do it well too. Watching the ball is such an essential fundamental, but it is not really practiced. Normally the coach just [...]

Protecting Yourself Against Sun Damage

pdrayton — Wed, 26 May 2010 15:33:01 +0000

As a tennis player, you spend a lot of time out in the sun. So it is a good idea to make sure you’re not doing something that will cause you health problems later in life. There is a lot of information and disinformation about the effects of the sun and skin cancer and vitamin D. [...]

Almost Famous

pdrayton — Thu, 29 Apr 2010 18:29:02 +0000

Check out my 15 milliseconds of fame in the paper…I’m in the top left. Autographed copies available for (Dr Evil voice) one meeelllion dollars…. Tennis String News – I’ve been testing the Unique Big Hitter poly strings. They’ve got rave reviews as being as good as or better than Luxilon, which is the most popular poly with the [...]

How to put away a volley (video)

pdrayton — Sun, 04 Apr 2010 15:13:36 +0000

As I’ve said in my lessons, when you approach the net you do 2 things. 1. Split step as your opponent hits the ball 2. Stamp your front foot and the racket down at the same time as you strike the ball But as they say, a picture is worth a thousand words, so here is a moving [...]

If you play any sport, you’ve got to check this out!

pdrayton — Mon, 15 Feb 2010 00:21:09 +0000

I mentioned it in my article on tennis elbow, but as I get further through this 300 page book, I’m more and more amazed at how good this stuff is. If you have any pains or weakness in muscles or joints, it’s worth your while to check this book out, or at least visit this site. [...]

“Love your opponent, because w…

pdrayton — Sat, 13 Feb 2010 01:07:10 +0000

“Love your opponent, because without your opponent you couldn’t lose.” I’m not just talking about tennis….