Teaching yourself how to change your Serve

Look at as many pictures of the experts as you can like this example of Sam Stosur at contact point on first serve.

Make certain that you are looking at pictures of people whose particular shot you are studying is highly respected. Finally select only one or two at most to concentrate on. If confused or unsure, email us your selection and explain in a few words why you have chosen them. Your selection is important. Consider our 2nd Opinion option If confused in any way. It is not costly. We are here to help you and it is important you have the most suitable model to work with.

Be able to explain EXACTLY what is correct to someone else so that you know you truly understand.

Take a further 5-10 second video of the shot you are working on every week so you can monitor your improvement. Use a smart phone or camcorder. It's easy!

   

Daily visualize your perfect shot (here your 1st Serve) as already attained. Do this in the present tense. You have your serve NOW. It is not just coming soon. Clear your mind. This may take a few minutes so be patient and concentrate until you are calm and can visualize with quality. Involve sincere feelings of joy and gratitude at having changed you Serve - attained your goal. Take this step seriously and give it quality and you will be a very happy person. Best visualization times are before going to bed and first thing in the morning.

Continue to monitor your actual progress with personal short videos. Contact us with any problems or concerns. Remember that mentally you already have what you want but physically it has to be built which takes a little time and depends on how big the goal or desire is. Physically, it has to grow so be patient and very positive - no doubts. 

As you practice and play you will begin to 'feel' when something is wrong or not quite right. This is good progress because you have now reached an important milestone. You can now tell when something is wrong with the particular shot you are working on. Many beginners cannot relate to this and become frustrated which is understandable. You can now move to the next stage where you can begin making the corrections yourself. A major breakthrough!

Tennis Mason has a FREE report, located on the bottom right of our website which clearly explains 5 basic stages to the learning process. This understanding will greatly help you because it explains why and how we learn a technical skill such as a tennis stroke. It will clearly place any learning frustrations in their place - and it is FREE!

You may wish to consider our ONLINE COACHING teaching method with Wayne Mason. 12 months of articles like this costs $20. You may elect to spend another $50 for Wayne to analyse 5 of your tennis shots - the best $70 tennis investment there is. Better still, it is a personal and caring approach to leaning - novice to Tournament player. No silly promises - just sound information and instruction based on a lifetime of tennis.

email Wayne with any questions or ask him to call you to discuss Online Coaching with Tennis Mason. It works. It is inexpensive. It is a personal service and we are committed to your improvement!

A Question: With Forehands, should I use the OPEN or CLOSED stance?

Federer's Open Stance Forehand

Open stance

We received questions (1 from a friend in Italy and more than a few others here in OZ) regarding open or closed stance on the forehand at contact positions. I would guess this is in response to one of our emails regarding the Position at Contact (PAC) which was an example lesson of the type we offer with our CD's. In it I mentioned that I would, in the near future , be doing a video on "how the grip determines the position at contact" and now realize how important this subject is to many of you - as many appear confused as to which grip/s they should use - and whether to be open or closed at contact!

We love questions as it means people are thinking and it helps us understand what we should be working on as we grow our CD lessons.

To clear up the confusion on stance at the PAC:-

!) It depends on whether the ball is coming to you or whether you are going to the ball.

2) Federer is demonstrating the OPEN stance above when the ball is coming to him. He demonstrates the CLOSED stance below when going after the ball.

   Closed stance

As to grips, Federer, like Samprass and most of the current stars, actually uses more than one grip, especially on the forehand.

We will tackle personal forehand grip selection at another time but for the purpose of "stance" which was the basis of the questions asked:-

a) ALL running forehands - unless you have time to run and set yourself 'as if' to receive a ball coming to you (Del Potro gives an example below) are hit sideways (closed stance).

b) Though many of us were once taught to place the left foot across (right handers) and use a closed stance for ALL forehands this is certainly no longer accepted (as is the teaching technique - that of 'scratching your back' as a 'que' when teaching the serve). Reasons why another time, but depending on the circumstance, try to use the open stance as first choice with balls coming to you.

A final thought
Experiment - experiment - experiment! Find out what works best for you realistically BUT be able to give a reason based on fact for your final conclusion. e.g. If you can hit a winner through your legs holding the racquet by the throat with your eyes shut then go for it - I would want to see the stats though (evidenced based)!

Wayne

Tennis Mason Coaching

Tennis Mason Coaching

Why it’s best for parents to be directly involved with their children’s Tennis

I have taught tennis for many years. With regard to very young children I have repeatedly observed that where the parent/s become involved, the development of the child increases dramatically.

By development I mean those of skills and attitude to practice and self-growth or what I refer to as the all important “self- image”. Whether they make it as tennis players is not the issue. For me sport is mostly about building character. The lessons learned in sport and competition teach us life skills. We learn how to succeed, how to dream, how to plan and set goals, that we can do more than what we had ever believed, that we are all of great worth.

Every now and again I have been lucky enough to have found someone who wanted to become a tennis player. Equally, and for me most special, is that child who wants to work at becoming the best they possibly can, regardless of outcome. These are the little bonus gifts I treasure but the real work is in the development of all children to believe in themselves and truly, helping them see their way through the disappointments and failures we must all face at some stage.

What I do NOT enjoy is parental involvement that does not allow the child to make mistakes and to learn “in their own way”, which if you think about it was the way we all learned. There is much wisdom and truth in the adage regarding ‘old heads on young shoulders’. Have you ever recalled finally ‘getting it’ and then being amazed at how you really knew it all along! The difference was that you just had to learn it in your own way – though you understood what was said, YOU (the real innermost you) had to personalize it – and 'make it yours'.

I dread the current celebrity culture, the fans, followers and the worship of others. It seems that more people are spectators in life, living their lives through others. The celebrities live their dream and they do not.

Being a parent has to be one of the toughest jobs there is. Staying the course – allowing the child to experience defeats, setbacks and consequences – and just being there for support and encouragement is one of the most underrated talents I know of.

Life is built on habits. Habits, good or bad, are formed daily. Aristotle said, “We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence then, is not an act, but a habit.”

Tennis Mason believes in supporting parents to become more involved with their children. We teach tennis, just a small thing in the larger picture of life. We believe in giving little positive thoughts to children via their parents to be very effective and it is not important whether TM coaches your child or not.

This then is our philosophy, our contribution, our mission. We give the most important part of teaching tennis to all freely – attitude, basic success tennis concepts and much more. We believe the natural way, the best possible way, is via parents.

If your thinking resonates with ours then please visit us at http://www.tennismason.com.au/