I have written a variety of articles in the past and believe in the importance of playing tennis as the sport of a lifetime. Still, tennis players have to learn the skills of a team environment, not just because you might find yourself on a collegiate team or maybe playing on a USTA tennis team…
Sometimes, as a coach, you can run out of instruction. How many times can you give the same old lesson. Things can get a little boring, both for the tennis teaching pro and the student. When I run out of instruction, I have two back up plans. The first one is to physically demonstrate to…
What does throwing a great pitch, a touchdown pass, hitting a baseball, smacking a perfect drive in golf, scoring a hockey goal with a blazing slap shot or good tennis ground strokes all have in common? The answer for all these is a consistent shoulder rotation. When you have some time, watch some of these…
Most of us have been told countless times to keep our eye on the ball. That’s good advice, but often hard to follow. If you are not a professional athlete with a retinue of specialists in support of your development, you probably do not know that you can improve your visual skills with training. Even a…
BZZZZ, BZZZZZ. It’s usually a weekend in my world. I may have just stepped off a court after an enjoyable morning hitting session, or finished reading the New York Times over eggs and coffee. All is relaxed and status quo. Yet for the athlete on the other end of my buzzing cell phone, his or…
What is the most critical part of hitting a shot and playing a point? Technique? No. In my opinion, the most critical part is reading your opponent and recognizing your opponent’s ball. Other critical components are the movement and adjustment to the ball, the decision-making process (aka shot selection), the technique and finally the recovery….
I had a problem with one of my students that drove me loco. An otherwise quick 12-year-old boy was confusingly slow on the court. One of the fastest sprinters in our program, he was slow and disorganized with in his movements. I was stumped until a friend of mine hinted I should look at his…
For many players in the north, our tennis is just starting to come out of our indoor hibernation to dealing with all of Mother Nature’s elements outside. This is one of the most frustrating aspects of the game. Indoor tennis is easy compared to the chaos of dealing with lobbing with your overhead in the…
New York Tennis Magazine is proud to announce that Nick Bolletieri will now be a regular contributor. Nick has made himself available to answer questions for New York Tennis Magazine and field questions from our readership in future editions. This is your chance to have a coaching legend answer some specific questions about your tennis…
What is development? A buzzword? A marketing tool? The USTA Player Development’s mission is "to develop world-class American players through a clearly-defined training structure and competitive pathway as well as through the implementation of a comprehensive coaching philosophy and structure." In my opinion, development is gradual growth where a student progresses from dependence to independence….