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    Henin busts two myths

    Didn't realize Henin played on the ATP tour! ;)
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    True or false?

    Depends on what you mean by "aggressive", which doesn't have to mean risky. You can be aggressive with pace and spin while being "safe" with shot selection. Working patterns, picking on the opponents weaker side, etc. In the end, tennis is most often about who makes less errors.
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    Is it possible to go from a utr 5 to a utr 10.5 in 4 years

    A kid? Sure, with work. A 30+ adult? No. Having been through the junior development cycle a few times as a coach, progress up to UTR8 or so can happen fairly quickly. Once a player hits UTR9 or so, they have to be committed in training and play high-level tournaments to keep moving up, and that...
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    Tyler Junior College a stepping stone to pros?

    My son played him twice in the Juniors - once in singles and once in doubles and both at National Championship tournaments. He certainly has attitude that lives up the the $ in his name (yes, that's real), but hundreds of other talented, spoiled, entitled teenaged tennis players do on the court...
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    why so many 18s quit tennis before college

    I've been in the music industry my entire adult life and have made a great living. Sure, I've made money composing music for commercial purposes (still get some royalty checks here and there), but the main share of income has come from working in the music products industry - companies that make...
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    why so many 18s quit tennis before college

    Bitter sweet one here. Son started to get recruited summer before junior year (state high school and USTA section champion, top 100 national). A few coaches watched him at Kalamazoo and he was getting lot of contact. Tore his patellar tendon half way through junior year and had to have surgery...
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    I Want A 120 MPH Serve

    I agree. My (admittedly poorly articulated) point was many players get obsessed and spend all of their time working on speed and don't develop the rest, when "the rest" will usually get them better results on the court.
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    Talk about your most discouraging moments in tennis. How did you respond?

    Most discouraging moment: shoulder surgery. Took two-years to feel good again, but I was getting older and never got back to where I was. How did I respond? Got into coaching and learned all I could. Coached my son from the time he was 7 up to a State High School Championship, A USTA Sectional...
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    I Want A 120 MPH Serve

    Don't get hung up on speed, it's just ego. 100mph is plenty. Placement, spin/kick, flat, and using all these with variety is the key. My son is a 6'5" junior who can consistently hit flat serves between 115 and 120 mph (confirmed by national tournament radar and playsight courts). It's nice to...
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    Thumb-Up, Do We Need a Law for Tennis?

    You've been pedaling BS here for years and saying you have come up with something new or a way to reinvent tennis strokes using what you think is science that is applicable. First it was the open stance, pancake grip serve. Hmm, there is a reason every little kid who learned to serve that way...
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    College level players?

    Ratings have nothing to do with "special", it's about winning. With UTR's of 10.77 and 10.42, they are above the men's league 4.0 and 4.5 crowd. I see it everyday with good juniors playing average adults - a 10 UTR wins almost always against NTRP 4.5. As far as good enough for college tennis...
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    Arthroscopic Shoulder Surgery - Labrum Tear

    I had a Labrum tear repaired almost 10 years ago. Labrum was frayed and torn off the bone - they cleaned it up and reattached it using 3 anchors, did a sub-acromial decompression to remove bone spurs on the underside of my acromion that were the likely cause of the labrum damage. First 6 months...
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    PRP for Patellar Tendinitis?

    My son has been battling Patellar Tendonitis for about 6 months and a reputable doctor (orthopedic surgeon for an NBA team) has suggested PRP injection along with 3-4 months of PT. I don't disagree with him, but was wondering if anyone has had experience with PRP and if it helped. He is a 16...
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    Paying for coaches to travel to junior tournaments

    Well, what income is the coach foregoing to travel with your daughter? Are they missing privates or groups with other players, do they manage a program or pro shop, do they have a day job, etc? If so, you should expect to compensate them appropriately if they would agree to travel at all.
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    Am I the only one who hates UTR?

    I know this will come as a shock, but... there is NO perfect rating system! I know, right? No one system can account for every variable in tennis. The best one can do - and coaches do this, is take into account all ratings, rankings, schedule strength, etc. and then watch prospects play. That...
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    DIII Academic/Tennis Balance?

    Yep, I did notice one specific case like this. A coach from one of the top D1 schools in the country visited my son's profile and I later found out that his son played my son at Kalamazoo, so he was just scouting the opponent. The ones that have visited multiple times are DIII, some DII and a...
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    DIII Academic/Tennis Balance?

    A question for those who have been through the process: How interested is a coach if they have visited a TRN profile multiple times and often? There are a few coaches that have visited 8, 9, 10+ times with increasing frequency recently. Logic tells me they are interested. Only contact from one...
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    DIII Academic/Tennis Balance?

    I hear you loud and clear that plans/interests can change. See it all the time. Hard to go wrong with a STEM degree for next to nothing, though.
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    DIII Academic/Tennis Balance?

    He'll apply to MIT as one of the reach schools. He has the grades/stats, but doesn't have a strong "hook" for a super-selective school. But, you never know. We did the estimator for MIT and several other schools and the EPC comes up between $20-$30k. I'm not sure how accurate these are since we...
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    DIII Academic/Tennis Balance?

    Thanks for the info. Are your kids playing tennis at those schools? My son is certainly academically qualified for many top schools - in addition to his stats (4.8/4.0, IB Diploma Candidate, 1540/34) he got his PSAT results and will be a National Merit Finalist as well. I know admissions are...
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    National signing week

    It's really not that odd. Title IX requires that female and male student-athletes receive athletics scholarship dollars proportional to their participation. Women don't have football, which is a high participation sport for men (they need a lot of players on a team). The result is the women get...
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    Dealing with line call challenges

    The lines are closer to you than to him. Remind him of this and of the rule that anything on your side of the net is your call. That's tennis. If he wants to constantly question everything, tell him to join a debate club.
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    College Tennis in a year

    Sorry, it's just not realistic from that number in that short time. Improving your UTR can go fairly quickly - but only up to a certain number. If you are a junior and a 7, you probably have not been playing long and improvement comes fast at the start and gets harder as you progress upwards. As...
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    DIII Academic/Tennis Balance?

    Thanks. He would be a good fit academically for schools like Chicago, but he's not there is terms of tennis. Their 1-6 UTR spread is 12.25 - 11.76. Improving his UTR from a low 10 to mid 11 in a year to be in the recruiting conversation is a big ask with his academic load.
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    DIII Academic/Tennis Balance?

    Good to know. This past summer, playing the big events, my sons stats got a nice bump, but we just don't have much competition locally. We may have to do some longer drives in the next year if he wants to have a shot at a team.
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    DIII Academic/Tennis Balance?

    Thanks for the great info! Do you mind sharing what their tennis stats were during the recruiting process? My son has steadily improved his stats/rankings/ratings each of the last 4 years and I'm wondering where to push this last year - UTR improvement, TRN rating, playing showcases, or ???. The...
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    DIII Academic/Tennis Balance?

    Thanks, ollinger! That's great inside information. U of A is high on our list because of their strong program, research publishing track record and proximity to well-known telescope sites. Plus it's in-state for us and my son would go there nearly free. He already qualifies for their highest...
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    DIII Academic/Tennis Balance?

    That's great. Thanks! How often and how far did your club team travel?
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    DIII Academic/Tennis Balance?

    Thanks for the reply. Can you give me an idea of how that balance is done? Is it a shorter off season? Less hours of practice during season? Rotation of players? I'm aware of the schools that don't offer merit. I'm in the fortunate position in that my son has already qualified for enough outside...
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    DIII Academic/Tennis Balance?

    I've heard academically rigorous DIII schools balance academics and tennis so that students can tackle tough subjects. True in reality? My son is a junior 3-star, 10+ UTR and is trying to decide between trying to make a team at an academic DIII or play club at a big university. He is a serious...
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