Another Tennis Q & A Session Wednesday, October 17, 2007
Question: What call is made when a tennis ball falls from a skirt from the player who just served? What happens if this occurs a 2nd, 3rd and 4th time?
Answer: "Friend at Court - Rules of Tennis" says: Can a player’s own action be the basis for that player claiming a let or a hindrance? No. Nothing a player does entitles that player to call a let. For example, a player is not entitled to a let because the player breaks a string, the player’s hat falls off, or a ball in the player’s pocket falls out.
Another quote from "Friend at Court - Rules of Tennis": "Can the server’s discarding of a second ball constitute a hindrance? Yes, If the receiver asks the server to stop discarding the ball, then the server shall stop. Any continued discarding of the ball constitutes a deliberate hindrance, and the server loses the point."
Question: I looked on the USTA website and found the rules of scoring a tiebreak. I could not find anything about serving to the deuce or ad side. Does the tiebreak begin with the server serving to the ad side? What happens after that? Is it different for singles and doubles? Did I just miss this section in the rules or is it not in there?
Answer: All tiebreaks begin with the server starting in the deuce court. After the first point, each subsequent server begins in the ad court for the Match and Set Tiebreaks.
In the description of the tiebreak in "Friend at Court - Rules of Tennis" they do not cover where to stand during any portion of the tiebreak. In the portion of the Rules of Tennis called "Serving" we find the following:
"In a tie-break game the service shall be served from behind alternate halves of the court, with the first service from the right half of the court."
If you play the 9-point sudden death tiebreak, the first three servers serve two points each starting in the deuce court and the last server plays three points (if needed) beginning in the deuce court. If you get to 4-4 in the tiebreak game, the receiving team has the choice of who will receive the last serve.
posted by Brandon Schenz @ 11:25 AM,
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New Bolle, Ellesse & Balle de Match at MidwestTennis.net Friday, October 05, 2007
posted by Brandon Schenz @ 10:43 AM,
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The Importance of Tennis Skills When Learning How to Play Tennis Tuesday, October 02, 2007
Improving tennis skills is equally if not even more important than improving your strokes.
So, you've decided to learn how to play tennis and you are one of the few beginners who understands that tennis requires more than learning proper tennis technique and footwork: it also requires certain skills.
Some of these skills you have already developed in other sports or activities. Some of these skills you will improve through playing tennis.
Here are the five most important skills needed for playing tennis:
1. Ball judgment
This is a fundamental sports and tennis skill. Without good ball judgment, learning and playing tennis is frustrating. With good ball judgment tennis is a cool new
sports activity to enjoy with your friends and family.
Ball judgment is best developed in childhood before you turn 16 years old. From then on, this skill improves at a much slower rate.
Yet everyone learns to judge the ball's flight, so you needn't worry that you won't. Those who have played other sports requiring this skill - like volleyball, table tennis, soccer, basketball and similar sports - have a huge advantage over those involved in sports like swimming, running and biking.
2. Dynamic and static balance
We all have excellent balancing ability: just think about how often you have slipped or tripped but caught your balance.
Yet moving with speed, stopping, accelerating and changing direction in a sport like tennis is a different skill. Static balance is balance when not moving, and dynamic balance is moving in a balanced, controlled way.
Like all tennis skills, balance improves automatically when you play tennis. Of course, people with previous experience in similar activities have a head start, moving and balancing better to begin with.
3. Hand-to-eye coordination
While a tennis ball flies toward you, your eyes send snapshots of information about it to the brain, which calculates its distance, speed and many other variables. Then the brain sends command signals to the muscles in your arm, telling it where in time and space to move the racquet in order to meet the ball.
This process sounds complicated, and it is. Again, this tennis skill develops quickly in children and at a much slower rate in adults with no previous experience hitting or catching balls.
Some people are gifted in this area, and tennis coaches usually call them the "talented" players. But tennis talent could be more than just hand-to-eye coordination. Hand-to-eye coordination could be just the most obvious talent players may have; they may have other talents as well, which observers cannot see.
4. Footwork coordination
This skill is often neglected in teaching people how to play tennis.
Although there are common footwork patterns like that of the closed and open hitting stance, there are infinite possibilities in setting your feet for a tennis shot. Your feet can set be at various angles and various distances apart. Moreover, all your footwork must be done within the few seconds you have to strike the ball.
Footwork coordination is often best practiced with games that require many direction changes and quick foot movements, like soccer, basketball, table tennis or squash.
5. Concentration
This skill is the foundation of tennis. Concentration allows us to focus on relevant information, which is needed by the brain to judge the ball, balance the body,
make decisions and many other tasks.
Poor concentration often causes errors in tennis. Coaches and players mistakenly see only the stroke as the cause of the mistake and keep correcting it, while the real cause is mistiming the stroke, which is caused by poor concentration.
These five tennis skills are just few of the many skills needed to master the game of tennis and play it effortlessly. They are also the keys to playing tennis for beginners and are much more important than perfect tennis technique.
That's why the best way to start learning how to play tennis is to work on both the tennis strokes and the key tennis skills. Through doing so you progress faster than you would through working on the strokes alone.
posted by Brandon Schenz @ 3:51 PM,
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Eyesight & Pre-Match Meals
PLEASE NOTE: The medical opinions represented here are responses intended for the average player. Please consult with your primary physician before beginning any new exercise program.
Question: I play adult league tennis and love it! I recently read something about this supplement people take to help improve the eyes capturing the ball faster. I lost the article. I think it was in this month's Tennis Magazine. Can you help me?
Answer: Lutein, an antioxidant stored in eye tissue, was probably what was highlighted as the “new nutrient” for the eye. Lutein has recently been found to decrease macular degeneration – a condition where the retina of the eye begins to break down.
Lutein is found in many foods that also serve as good sources of Vitamin A, another nutrient that plays an important role in vision. Lutein is found in especially high levels in kale, broccoli, oranges and eggs. Many multi-vitamins now contain lutein, although a recommended daily value has not yet been established for this nutrient.
Additionally, deficiencies of Vitamin A can decrease eyesight acuity and general eye health. Vitamin A is found naturally in deep greens and bright orange, red, and yellow vegetables – broccoli, spinach, carrots, red and yellow peppers, tomatoes.
Fortified sources of Vitamin A include fortified milk and butter. Taking a well-balanced multivitamin that does not exceed 100% of the Daily Value for nutrients should help to ensure Vitamin A adequacy.
For more information on macular degeneration and other eye conditions visit the website for the Cleveland Clinic’s Cole Eye Institute - http://www.clevelandclinic.org/eye/patient_info/diseases.asp.
Question: I am a diabetic. I control my blood sugar level through diet and exercise. I avoid foods that have sugar or simple carbohydrates. I typically rely on protein for energy. What recommendations do you have?
Question: I read about having a high carbohydrate diet for maintaining effectiveness on the tennis court. As a diabetic I have been encouraged in having a low carbohydrate diet to maintain my blood sugar level at around 100-120. However I have noticed that during my matches I feel like I am hitting a brick wall and do not have the energy to close out the close points or close matches. Any tips would be appreciated.
Answer: A well-balanced diet, containing adequate fibrous complex carbohydrates such as wheat bread, brown rice, potatoes, and other starchy vegetables like corn, peas, beans, etc., is important for providing a tennis player with the muscle energy needed during play.
Despite popular fad diet approaches suggesting limited carbohydrate intake, a diet adequate in complex carbohydrates is still crucial, even for diabetic athletes. The key is to consume foods that are quickly broken down into simple sugars at the same time you eat other slower absorbing nutrients, such as protein and dietary fat.
It is still advisable to limit simple sugar “snacks” between meals, but consuming naturally occurring sugars, like those found in fruit or dairy products, along with other complex carbohydrates and lean proteins is an appropriate dietary approach for diabetic athletes.
For example, an appropriate diabetic pre-match choice would be eating an apple with yogurt and peanut butter crackers.
Question: How much, what and when should I eat before a big match?
Answer: Pre-match dietary choices should be higher in complex carbohydrates, moderate in protein, and low in dietary fat to allow quick digestion and absorption out of the stomach. The more time you have before a match, the larger the meal that can be tolerated.
For example, if you have 3 – 4 hours before you play, a normal sized sandwich like a turkey sub would be appropriate, even with a fruit and/or dairy side. No matter how much time you have before your match, try to pre-hydrate with several cups of fluids like water, sports drinks, or decaffeinated beverages. If you only have 1 - 2 hours before matches, the volume, protein, and fat content of the meal will need to be limited. An appropriate choice with this timing limitation might be 2 tbsp of peanut butter on a bagel or a PowerBar with a piece of fruit.
Question: Your pre-match routine calls for complex carbohydrates with a little protein, which could be turkey or chicken. I understand an element in turkey tends to put you asleep and I have first experience that turkey slows me down during a match. Chicken is OK but why are you suggesting turkey before a match?
Answer: Tryptophan is the amino acid often deemed to cause the “sleepy” side effect after consuming turkey. However, most turkey sandwiches are made with processed lean turkey products that are lower in tryptophan than the typical “whole turkey” you eat on Thanksgiving Day.
The amount of tryptophan is a standard size turkey sandwich (3 ounce meat portion) should not impair your tennis performance. A well balanced meal that includes a turkey sandwich on whole grain bread, a low-fat dairy product and a piece of fruit should not cause any more drowsiness than a lean ham or chicken sandwich.
posted by Brandon Schenz @ 11:06 AM,
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Increasing Serve Effectiveness
If there ever was a shot in tennis that could define the quality of a player, it is the serve. The serve is often viewed as a player’s weapon, or liability.
While the serve is only one of many shots that make up a player’s overall game, the serve can be compared to the drive in golf as defining a player’s general confidence and potency. In golf, while hitting accurate irons, chipping, and putting are considered the keys to lower golf scores, the drive is often the showpiece of a player’s game. “Drive for show, putt for dough” is the catchy phrase that epitomizes this concept.
In tennis, a player’s ability to hit a potent, aggressive serve can do far more for a player’s confidence than any other shot. In theory at least, a great serve can almost guarantee a player winning at least half of the games of any given set!
The serve is the one shot that should be every player’s weapon. No other shot is within the full control of the player; the server dictates when and where the ball will be struck. It is the one shot within any game that is not determined by an opponent’s previous shot and it is the only shot you get two chances to get right. In addition, the serve is one shot that can be practiced without the need of another player.
However, the serve is often considered one of the more complex strokes in tennis. The overhead motion is not as familiar to many players, especially those who had not played any overhead-throwing sports such as football, baseball, or softball. In addition, the element of holding an implement to hit another object adds to the difficulty of timing and spatial relationships as they apply to hitting a moving object.
Yet, the ability to serve well can be achieved by most anyone!
Great Serve Components
If we break down the serve, there are two components that must be achieved for a serve to be both effective and consistent; “Spin” and “Racquet Head Speed.” While both of these aspects must be accomplished within the framework of a repeatable, reliable swing pattern, these two elements are what separate a good serve from a great serve.
I mentioned spin first because the ability to create the right kind of spin will improve a player’s ability to hit an effective and consistent second serve. It has often been said that a player is only as good as his second serve. Without spin, a player can only rely on gravity, trajectory, and a relative amount of speed to get the serve to drop in. Unless a player stands over eight feet tall, without spin, no matter what trajectory, a ball hit too hard can’t possibly clear the net and land in. Even pros who serve at high speeds generate a great deal of spin.
But, one must understand that it isn’t just spin, it is the right kind of spin that must be applied. And this is where the average club player usually falls short. With the right kind of spin, a serve can be aimed very high above the net and still arc down to land easily into the service box, even with a high velocity.
The second point of a great serve is Racquet Head Speed. It is not uncommon to find players swinging so hard on first serves only to exponentially decelerate their swing speed for second serves.
I always ask my students, “should you swing harder or softer on your second serve for consistency?” This is a trick question, since most recreational players have served softer on second serves for decades. Many answer that swinging softer allows for consistency. After I remind them that the right kind of spin allows a player to aim higher over the net and still get the ball in, I ask them a second question, “Will more of this correct spin allow me to aim even higher over the net?” Of course, they answer. Thus, my final question, “How do we create more of this desired spin: swinging slower or swinging faster?” This is usually when the light bulb goes on.
How Do We Swing Faster?
Obviously, swinging faster decreases both the ability to hit the ball in the sweet-spot and the ability to direct the ball. However, if we employ proper swing techniques and balance, and create a repeatable swing pattern, there is no reason why a person can’t develop an incredible second serve.
Swinging faster within these controlling constraints can be discussed within the realm of physics. The speed of any serve is dictated by a couple mathematical equations: The equation for acceleration is Velocity divided by Time = Acceleration. Thus if we increase the velocity of the racquet or decrease the time in which we move the racquet, we increase acceleration of the racquet.
Too many players shorten their swing in order to feel like they are controlling the shot. While this is true within the simplistic concept of bunting a tennis ball, it severely limits a player’s ability to improve the serve.
We can increase velocity through body rotation as well. The more we coil our body, the further we can uncoil and the more our racquet can accelerate. Combined with the correct racquet swing path, we can gain tremendous acceleration through these aspects.
Another equation is that which describes momentum: Mass X Velocity = Momentum of a moving object. (M = mv) Momentum can best be described by comparing the swinging of a badminton racquet at a tennis ball to that of a regular tennis racquet. A light-weight badminton racquet will not apply much mass when swung at a tennis ball. The result; a tennis ball that does not go very far or very fast. If we increase the mass that is moving towards the tennis ball, we will pass the energy of momentum to the ball. How do we increase the mass? Gain weight? Nah…this will just make you slower on the court!
We increase the mass by moving our body into the serve. Leaning forward at the right time and thrusting our legs up and into the serve can greatly add momentum. Just watch any pro serve and you can see this for yourself.
Adding weight to a racquet can also add mass. However, if additional weight prevents us from generating maximum racquet head speed, then the weight can diminish our overall swing speed. There is one more equation related to momentum and acceleration: Acceleration is equal to the force applied divided by the mass of the object being moved. (A = F/M) Thus, as we add weight to our racquet, we will lose some acceleration according to this equation.
Finally, we can use leverage to create more speed. Most recreational players swing too much with the arm and don’t create or maximize the leverage by using the sequential action of the body, arm, and forearm to gain maximum racquet head speed.
posted by Brandon Schenz @ 8:49 AM,
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