Is your tennis pro worth the money?

Essential Tennis

Essential Tennis

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Greetings TW members,

There are lots of excellent tennis professionals who can truly help you improve and move up to the next level in your game. Unfortunately there are also those who can waste your time and money, Essential Tennis Podcast #77 is all about how to identify them.

To listen to the free show click the link below and select #77. You can listen to it right in your browser, right click and save it for your Mp3 player, or click on the iTunes button to access it there.

http://www.essentialtennis.com/podcast/

Cheers!

-Ian
 
Ian is a great coach and a friend of mine. His podcasts are excellent -- I highly recommend them if you're serious about improving your game.
 
Tennis instructors can only take you to 4.0, maybe 4.5.

After that you're on your own if you want to improve imo.
 
haha, I'm not used to stirring up this much controversy ;)

Yes I am promoting my podcast but let me assure you guys my intentions are pure. I have literally nothing instructional for sale on my web site (just shirts). I produce a free instructional podcast every week, and it will always be free.

I also don't see the logic in saying that a tennis professional can only bring a player to X ability level. I've always thought that I'm a better teacher than I am a player (5.0) so if I ever work with somebody that's more talented and athletic I'm quite sure I could bring them well past my own level of competition.

What potential a student has is definitely a combination of their own skill, work ethic, and attitude along with the instructional ability of the pro/teacher.

I appreciate the kind words Will.

-Ian
 
Nadalfan89 said:
Tennis instructors can only take you to 4.0, maybe 4.5.

After that you're on your own if you want to improve imo.
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Baloney.

There are very high level coaches/instructors out there. Admittedly they are hard to find and if they're really good, they're hard to schedule.

Where I'll agree with OP is you can't presume that any instructor is a great instructor, and it is hard to find the truly great ones.

Secondarily - you not only need to want to improve, but must be willing to commit the time and resources to do so. Often it is the player themselves who is limiting their improvement - not necessarily the coach/instructor.

K_I
 
You guys should be grateful that two fine pros like Ian and Will Hamilton are willing to share. Will's site is excellent and very modern and simple in it's approach. I am a 30 year teaching pro writing a book on the Real History of Tennis Instruction in the USA (should be subtitled "how the entire English speaking world was taught something by the USPTA, USTA, and PTR that was mechanical and unnatural and led to the USA, Australia, and England becoming third rate tennis powers). At least these guys are making a difference. Will, I am an Oscar Wegner guy and I study everything you do closely and want to compliment you for being so young and yet so insightful. Of course, it helps that you younger pros had the truth of modern tennis methodology out there by osmosis from players and Oscar's teachings finally becoming mainstream even if he is never given credit by the growing list of copycats. The USPTA new Aug 09 volume is based on a lot of his tenets though load and explode still doesn't have a timing mechanism built in (when do you load?) and "where to and when do you explode" are not quite built into their teaching system where as Oscar's method has all that built in for the average athlete given the best athletes can figure out by just copying in most cases if they aren't given false data.

Nice job with your sites, Will and Ian, and I support your efforts entirely and more people should be appreciative of your fine teaching. At least you keep it simple. You are, whether you know it or not, the legacy of Modern Tennis Methodology.

If you want to read excerpts from the History of Tennis Instruction, go to http://www.moderntenniscoaches.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=20&t=13

You might appreciate these tennis pros a bit more who do a fine job compared to those who came before them.
 
Essential Tennis said:
haha, I'm not used to stirring up this much controversy ;)

Yes I am promoting my podcast but let me assure you guys my intentions are pure. I have literally nothing instructional for sale on my web site (just shirts). I produce a free instructional podcast every week, and it will always be free.

I also don't see the logic in saying that a tennis professional can only bring a player to X ability level. I've always thought that I'm a better teacher than I am a player (5.0) so if I ever work with somebody that's more talented and athletic I'm quite sure I could bring them well past my own level of competition.

What potential a student has is definitely a combination of their own skill, work ethic, and attitude along with the instructional ability of the pro/teacher.

I appreciate the kind words Will.

-Ian
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Just out of curiosity.. Are you the guy who demonstrated the proper way of breaking racquets for FYB??
Also, I think it is good that we have more and more good minds come into the forums. Tennismindcamp just recently joined too.
 
Essential Tennis said:
There are lots of excellent tennis professionals who can truly help you improve and move up to the next level in your game. Unfortunately there are also those who can waste your time and money, Essential Tennis Podcast #77 is all about how to identify them.
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Does this include evaluating a pro for your kids or is that another subject?
 
aptennis91 said:
Just out of curiosity.. Are you the guy who demonstrated the proper way of breaking racquets for FYB??
Also, I think it is good that we have more and more good minds come into the forums. Tennismindcamp just recently joined too.
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Ya that's Ian. Textbook racket-smashing technique.
 
listened to a bit of the podcast... i don't see what's wrong with an instructor going over the same aspect of your game for many consecutive lessons as long as there's progress...

for example i wouldn't want to go from forehand to backhand to volley in 3 consecutive lessons because it takes an untalented person like me more time (practice) and lessons to iron out quirks.
 
This is actually a great topic. A pro is the best way to improve your game. I watch alot of video and read alot of topics but the only time I have ever really gotten any results is with a pro..
 
firstblud said:
listened to a bit of the podcast... i don't see what's wrong with an instructor going over the same aspect of your game for many consecutive lessons as long as there's progress...

for example i wouldn't want to go from forehand to backhand to volley in 3 consecutive lessons because it takes an untalented person like me more time (practice) and lessons to iron out quirks.
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You know what, I completely agree with you. While listening to the recording myself I wasn't happy with how I explained that. What I was trying to get at was pros who have a comfortable routine for them that they pretty much repeat for all students and every lesson, their bread and butter drills which they rarely deviate from because it's easy to just keep filling hour after hour the same way for everybody. The way I ended up explaining it was poor because you're absolutely right, often times it takes a student weeks or even months to nail down a specific skill which Royce was good enough to point out in the show I believe.

Good comments.

-Ian
 
GuyClinch said:
This is actually a great topic. A pro is the best way to improve your game. I watch alot of video and read alot of topics but the only time I have ever really gotten any results is with a pro..
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A good quality pro really is worth the money, at least now and then to get a good benchmark of where you are and what should be next in your progression as you improve as a player. They see hours and hours of technique, tactics, and mental break downs every single day, it's their job to pick out what needs to be improved the most and find the best possible solution. There's lot's of great video instruction out there (like FYB) but it's tough to know which videos are most relevant to your own game when it comes to technical things.
 
mike53 said:
Does this include evaluating a pro for your kids or is that another subject?
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Interesting take on the subject Mike, that's a great topic. No this show didn't specifically talk about picking out a good pro for junior players but I'd be happy to have a show about that in the future. Good suggestion.
 
teachestennis said:
You guys should be grateful that two fine pros like Ian and Will Hamilton are willing to share. Will's site is excellent and very modern and simple in it's approach. I am a 30 year teaching pro writing a book on the Real History of Tennis Instruction in the USA (should be subtitled "how the entire English speaking world was taught something by the USPTA, USTA, and PTR that was mechanical and unnatural and led to the USA, Australia, and England becoming third rate tennis powers). At least these guys are making a difference. Will, I am an Oscar Wegner guy and I study everything you do closely and want to compliment you for being so young and yet so insightful. Of course, it helps that you younger pros had the truth of modern tennis methodology out there by osmosis from players and Oscar's teachings finally becoming mainstream even if he is never given credit by the growing list of copycats. The USPTA new Aug 09 volume is based on a lot of his tenets though load and explode still doesn't have a timing mechanism built in (when do you load?) and "where to and when do you explode" are not quite built into their teaching system where as Oscar's method has all that built in for the average athlete given the best athletes can figure out by just copying in most cases if they aren't given false data.

Nice job with your sites, Will and Ian, and I support your efforts entirely and more people should be appreciative of your fine teaching. At least you keep it simple. You are, whether you know it or not, the legacy of Modern Tennis Methodology.

If you want to read excerpts from the History of Tennis Instruction, go to http://www.moderntenniscoaches.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=20&t=13

You might appreciate these tennis pros a bit more who do a fine job compared to those who came before them.
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Thanks, I very much appreciate the kind words. I think you're right when you say that we have benefited from all the great work that has come before us. One of the things we try to do is really push the video / visual angle because that is a great way to clearly explain the sport. That ability, of course, has only recently been possible on a large scale (thanks internet!).

I look forward to reading your excerpts. When is the book going to be published?
 
Oscar is responsible directly for Vince Spadea and his two sisters, the three of them won 7 Orange Bowl singles titles, Oscar spent eight years coaching Guga Kuerten from age 6 to 14, and he coached Bjorn Borg to playing even with top world ranked players such as Pete Sampras when Borg was 35 and had lost his game losing to juniors even after only playing one match in ten years. When you see players like Morgan Mays who is barely 15 and now playing in Kalamazoo as a top ranked 16 year old, Kristi Ahn, who lost to Safina 3 and 3 in her first Grand Slam at 15 last year, and Strong Kircheimer, #2 ranked 12 year old in 2007, you are seeing just a few of Oscar's legacy given they were raised on his techniques as explained on the famous DVDs. Richard Williams admitted Oscar's techniques made so much sense he had Venus and Serena watch Oscar's techniques daily and their open stance off both sides can be seen as a direct influence of Oscar Wegner and I know for a fact Rick Macci was not teaching open stance off both sides when they went there.

Paradorn Scrichaphan was coached by his father in the tennis hotbed of Thailand using OScar's DVDs. And many more juniors around the world. Go to tennisteacher.com to see the influence. Oscar does not coach pros, he coaches coaches and his influence around the non USA world is unparalleled and explains why the USA is a third rate tennis power given the Russians spend less than 400,000 dollars on their entire yearly junior development and that is the cost of less than ten juniors at the Evert Academy. This is documented in the History of Tennis Part III and the Spartak article on moderntenniscoaches.com/forum in the MTM library.
 
You would be shocked if you knew the pros Oscar had been offered to work with but feels he must train coaches. I once asked him why not coach a top player. He said "I coach one player, I reach one player. Anyone can coach the best players if they know the correct data. But if I coach one coach to teach his students the correct technique, I reach all his players. Coach a thousand coaches, you reach tens of thousands of players. FYI, Oscar did a series of famous tennis TV tips that appeared on ESPN International to the tune of a few BILLION TV impressions during the Super Bowl, NBA playoffs, and World Cup Soccer. Those famous Tennis TVs have never once appeared on USA TV to this day and I wonder how differently the state of tennis in the USA would be if they had.

Oscar was a National Coach in Spain in the 1970s whose sucess forced the Spaniards to adopt his open stance topspin tenets and he trained many coaches and players who later became top Latin coaches producing great players. I've heard former top 100 pro players tell me that they would likely have been top ten in the world if they had Oscar's data about hitting across teh ball and lifting up into the air rather than staying down. If you don't know, tennisone.com wrote about Oscar, "History Proved Him Right."
 
Will, the book will be published in 2010. I am torn how to approach it given USA tennis is so all over the board regarding the USTA, USPTA, and PTR all teaching contradictory data. Some toes are already being stepped on by my publishing the History on the internet given until Oscar published his 1989 book, hardly a single USA coach besides Nick had a clue how modern tennis really worked and what would be the future of tennis (Nick learned it somewhat from the top juniors such as Jimmy Arias who was taught the modern forehand by his engineer father, which is ironic given Oscar used engineering and physics to design the modern tennis swing in his MTM). You at your young age know more than Braden and Bollettieri did at 50, though Bollettieri was smart enough to observe and is a pretty quick learner though you don't hear about all the students who never got better that the so called "masters" coach privately. I put that story about how Oscar left Nick speechless when Oscar was coaching Borg after Borg was doing nothing while at Nick's Academy and after three weeks with Oscar, Borg was playing the best in the world closely before retiring to start the senior tour with Connors. I was careful to put the press reports about Borgs improvement rather than Oscar's viewpoint so no one can accuse me of exaggerating but it's interesting that Borg suddenly got his game back after doing nothing at Bollettieri's, and that explains Borg calling Oscar an "amazing coach" because Borg had tried a lot of coaches without succcess before Bud Collins suggested he try Oscar.

Tennis coaches are known for exaggerating what happened and quick to take credit. I have had a 4 year old who was the first at that young age ever admitted to Macci's but I'm past my prime so I help train coaches now. I don't take credit for Blake Strode winning the State Championship nor does Oscar even after Blake took a couple privates from him; Carl Walker, a very fine local St. Louis coach, was Blake's coach and biggest influence, and Carl was smart enough to observe and let Blake try some of Oscar's unorthodox teachings, which most coaches would not be that open minded to do. We tennis coaches don't realize that what we do is not rocket science sometimes. I was a poor tennis coach for my first 25 years of teaching until I adopted MTM. I do follow Blake's results closely because he was in my clinics one winter and I can't help but wonder if he hadn't been exposed to Oscar's MTM would he be having the success he has had, #4 NCAA Tournament ranking.

Hope you all realize that it's the twentieth anniversary of the book that revolutionized tennis coaching: Tennis in 2 Hours. Tennis Magazine dismissed it. Russia adopted it instantly and now we know why there are 19 Russians as of last month in the top 100 women's rankings. In Russia, all coaches teach one technique. That is why their juniors dominate the rankings. Here, every coach teaches contradictory data when there are only two arms and legs and the most efficient way to generate force by a human being against a tennis ball is to hit up and across it, not through the target line.
 
teachestennis said:
Here, every coach teaches contradictory data when there are only two arms and legs and the most efficient way to generate force by a human being against a tennis ball is to hit up and across it, not through the target line.
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I'm enjoying reading your posts, you obviously have a lot of passion and enthusiasm for what you're talking about, I appreciate that very much.

Just two quick things on what you wrote in your last post, one is a comment and the other a question.

1. I agree completely that a large percentage of certified tennis professionals make things way too complicated. You're right, it's not "rocket science". The vast majority of the concepts that need to be understood to be a good player are extremely simple and commonsensical. It is a shame that when you go from pro to pro you can hear things that are literally directly contradictory to each other, how can that possibly be unless at least one of the people talking have no idea at all what they're talking about? And yet so many of these people make a living doing it every day.

2. The above being said, do you truly believe that having every tennis instructor teach the exact same way and the exact same thing is the best thing for students and the sport as a whole?

I look forward to your response.

-Ian
 
when i saw this thread in the morning i thought it was blatant advertising for a product. after reading through the thread i actually joined and there's a lot of podcasts to choose from...and almost all of them are near an hour long XD!

very interesting stuff. thank you for making this more public.
 
there's a kid that played at the tennis courts in my neighborhood. he had a russian tennis coach who looked like elena dementieva (face, body, the whole package). i don't know if he could appreciate it but to me, she is worth the money and more.... -- i wish i was her student :)
 
Q: The above being said, do you truly believe that having every tennis instructor teach the exact same way and the exact same thing is the best thing for students and the sport as a whole?
I look forward to your response.

Hi Ian, Oscar has thousands of coaches who teach his method and I have worked with dozens of them personally. We only teach the same tenets. We teach tennis by feel and we use MTM as our foundation and are careful not to introduce contradictory data. I was Head Pro at Dwight Davis Tennis Center with 19courts. When I hired coaches, I gave them two rules. 1. Don't teach anything the pros don't do and 2. if I catch you teaching unnatural or patterned footwork such as a closed stance forehand, then you are fired on the spot. Other than that, we taught tennis by "feel" emphasizing "touch" the ball, don't hit, teaching that pros actually "push" the ball more than they "hit" it. We always taught to hit up and across with more feel and more topspin in the beginning stages, especially.

In Russia, if you read the Spartak article, it's all about technique. I teach tennis using "wax on" "wax off" analogies. I once met a well known Master Pro Ajay Pant who was watching me teach my student (a fellow coach) to learn to to teach students to hit walking backwards before you teach them to hit walking forwards (one of Oscar's unorthodox but effective methods). He recognized the technique as Oscar's and approached me. I, not sure if he was a fan of Oscar's or not (Oscar's not liked by a lot of coaches who claim he makes it too simple) asked him what did he think was the most important fundamental in tennis? He replied, "find the ball, or course." MTM teaches coaches the real fundamentals that develop a players athletic potential on court are find the ball (as if you were going to catch it with your hand), feel the ball (by hitting up and across the ball...not through the target line) and finish the swing (associating the butt of the racket in early stages with where the ball goes and eventually the finish is what shapes the best pros swings).

I teach differently than nearly all other MTM pros, but we all use the same simple fundamentals and create on top of those. I will post something on here about how a top coach accidentally taught that Federer was pushing out through the target line and Oscar rebutted him publicly because Oscar knew that this misconconception would hurt tennis instruction and provided detailed explanation that Federer was not pushing his hand out through the target line.

Tennis is filled with contradictory data. It cannot be true that closed stance works when all pros only hit a closed stance by accident. I'll answer this question in detail more but this is a start. www.tennisteacher.com provides a lot of testimonies by many top coaches who all use Oscar's tenets but we all create on top of it but are careful to keep the foundation of find, feel, and finish.
 
Q: The above being said, do you truly believe that having every tennis instructor teach the exact same way and the exact same thing is the best thing for students and the sport as a whole?

Back to this question given I had to leave earlier and rushed my reply. All I know is this, I taught tennis in Riverside CA for four years from 1984 to 1988 and at the end of four years, I noticed 80 to 90 per cent of my students were not coming back. I thought it was me. Then I looked up everyone else's registration records and noticed it was the same loss of students for everyone. Tennis Magazine laughed at Oscar's 1989 book which is the only reason I didn't buy it. In 1993 I was told by some very famous names to be skeptical of his claims and that "we believe new studies we are conducting will prove Oscar's claims have no merit." Braden, Brown, and Groppel all warned me the ball only stayed on the strings for 3/1000ths of a second, and the "impulse" was not registered by the brain until the ball was practically over the net so all claims of "feel" the ball are invalid. Little did it occur to them or I that "feel" is not measured by the brain (the concious mind only calculates 40 thoughts per second whereas the unconcious mind or "spirit" calculates 40 thousand per second at least) but in the higher brainwaves of the person's spirit or being or whatever you want to call it.

When Bud Collins mentioned Oscar as a great coach in 2003 I decided to buy the videos. Since I converted to teaching per the videos I have never lost a student except by default or moving around. If everyone rallies instantly in the first lesson and goes away thinking tennis is a simple game, it creates a demand for lessons. Tennis is the second most popular sport in seven countries and all of them are where Oscar is popular and had great influence. How can tennis being played by millions of people be bad for the sport and for coaches. I walk into twp empty courts in Clearwater Beach in 2006 during a one week vacation, offer to help a couple next to me after my match with my friend, and within 3 days I gave five lessons that people paid me for because I made tennis so fun and simple. Good teaching creates a demand for lessons. Twenty million people who took lessons gave up tennis for good per the USTA own estimates. That is bad teaching. Whatever the USA is doing has not been working regarding what we spend on tennis promotion. Richard didn't even bring up his girls through the USTA. He followed the Russian model and if you don't think so, read this link on how a tennis club with one indoor court produces more top twenty players than the entire USA the last seven years. Guess how they teach tiny tots? Open stance with western grips. I have the pics to prove it. The coaches shout words like "feel" and "finish more thoroughly" something not heard in Quickstart or with beginners. Click on this

http://www.moderntenniscoaches.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=20&t=18
 
Grip it and Rip it!

fruitytennis1 said:
See the ball hit the ball and hit it hard! Even if you go down you go down hard!

Hmm im adding that to my signature.
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You might like this. I asked Oscar to sum up his MTM in one catch phrase. He said a fat golfer had stolen his slogan (John Daly was the golfer) when he came out and said "grip it and rip it." Of course, Oscar teaches to grip the racket very loosely and that a tight grip causes loss of power. With Oscar, you find the ball as slow as possible, and rip across it as hard as you can swing to the finish. The three F's, find it, feel it, and finish it. That's our MTM slogan.

I once asked Oscar why did he move to the USA to take on the USA alphabet soups that resisted him so much when he was practically a legend overseas. He stated the USA needed the most help. I asked what was his real goal in tennis. He said 55 million players in the USA. When I asked why that number he said because 54 million people bowl in the USA and that's an insult to the sport of tennis which should be at least more popular than bowling.

Getting one million new players to play tennis this year is not a relevant statistic. Getting 90 per cent of them to keep playing for a lifetime is. Oscar's theories are spreading into the mainstream and I see little kids rallying open stance which was rare just a few years ago at the lower level junior level. These tenets are starting to stick. Nicky Bollettieri admitted in Sep '08 at USPTA National Convention after 40 years he now believes in teaching beginners an open stance. Welcome to MTM Nick! Sorry I had to use your own words from your own video in my History about how to teach kids. I transcribed every word you stated on video so I could teach exactly like you and yet 90 percent of my kids quit tennis. Now I create diamonds out of fat kids inspired to become great athletes. My personal website is
www.ez-tennis.com though I train coaches through www.moderntenniscoaches.com.

Oscar's next DVD will feature two eleven year old kids you will not believe, one little girl being taught MTM by her mother hitting just like Gabriela Sabatini, all 11 years and one month and 68 pounds of her hitting with a one handed backhand and destroying a top twenty Florida state ranked boy a couple weeks younger than her, then hitting with a 17 year old top junior all out. The other 11 year old is the state champion in the 12 and unders and you won't believe it until you see it on the DVD. These are Oscar's legacies beneath the radar. You will never see OScar covered in mainstream tennis media in the USA. Why is that.
 
ok i just read this whole thread. very interesting stuff. i had assumed it was some site selling stuff.
 
teachestennis said:
Oscar is responsible directly for Vince Spadea and his two sisters, the three of them won 7 Orange Bowl singles titles, Oscar spent eight years coaching Guga Kuerten from age 6 to 14, and he coached Bjorn Borg to playing even with top world ranked players such as Pete Sampras when Borg was 35 and had lost his game losing to juniors even after only playing one match in ten years. When you see players like Morgan Mays who is barely 15 and now playing in Kalamazoo as a top ranked 16 year old, Kristi Ahn, who lost to Safina 3 and 3 in her first Grand Slam at 15 last year, and Strong Kircheimer, #2 ranked 12 year old in 2007, you are seeing just a few of Oscar's legacy given they were raised on his techniques as explained on the famous DVDs. Richard Williams admitted Oscar's techniques made so much sense he had Venus and Serena watch Oscar's techniques daily and their open stance off both sides can be seen as a direct influence of Oscar Wegner and I know for a fact Rick Macci was not teaching open stance off both sides when they went there.

Paradorn Scrichaphan was coached by his father in the tennis hotbed of Thailand using OScar's DVDs. And many more juniors around the world. Go to tennisteacher.com to see the influence. Oscar does not coach pros, he coaches coaches and his influence around the non USA world is unparalleled and explains why the USA is a third rate tennis power given the Russians spend less than 400,000 dollars on their entire yearly junior development and that is the cost of less than ten juniors at the Evert Academy. This is documented in the History of Tennis Part III and the Spartak article on moderntenniscoaches.com/forum in the MTM library.
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Thanks. One question that comes to mind is that when I see Spadea or Kuerten or Paradorn play, they seem to play similar to all other pros. Kuerten had a one hander with extreme grip, like Henin, and there may be individual differences like that. However, looking at the finished product, can anyone really tell who was coached by Oscar's techniques and who by other methods?
 
very interesting... i've had experience getting lessons with two pros... one was from the wegner school of methodology and the other was the more common uspta/ptr area. the former strictly had me learn only the open stance forehand. then when i worked out with the new pro, he's having me shift away from exclusive use of the open stance and using the neutral stance whenever possible (he says open is fine, but not ideal if you can setup properly for a neutral). it just might have been my teacher, but the Wegner disciple didn't seem to be as technical as the current one I have.
 
Funniest Tennis site on the internet

Hey gang,

I subscribe to dozens of tennis newsletters and every tennis subscription site I can find so I can speak at least as if I know what the heck is going on in this crazy sport that when it comes to coaching, rewards mediocrity too often and thus can't seem to appeal to the masses. I recommend fuzzyyellowballs to a lot of people which is why I am intrigued by Will so much given he is so young with so much to offer though I don't know if he's familiar with Oscar's unorthodox but powerful MTM. I am certified with a couple alphabet soups who give me free subscriptions to tennisone.com and such so I don't pay for them all. Speaking of not selling anything and just trying to separate the wheat from the chaff in tennis instruction, I don't mean to digress too much, but I work behind the scenes with a young coach Will's age who not only made the recent finals of the Singapore Open in 2009, but has the funniest tennis site on the internet.

Mark Carruthers was New Zealand's top junior and played the likes of Nalbandian, Hewitt several times chasing his tennis dream around the globe before he realized that Fernando "Gonzo" Gonzalez's killer forehand was better than anything he could ever muster. He has coached in Austria, been Tennis Director of the famous Manitou Inn in Canada, and now teaches in Singapore, attended the Sanchez-Casal Academy in Spain where he was certified as a coach, and is now one of Oscar Wegner's top MTM coaches.

Go to www.tennisterritory.com and enjoy. The current home page rant about Davydenko and the Letter to Rafa (in the archive on left hand side) are classics. This guy is a great writer. He reminds me of that funny old golf writer Dan Jenkins with his caustic but insightful rants. He teaches tennis through humor. All free instruction also.

www.tennisterritory.com
 
Kelly Jones: Top Ten Overrated Teaching Methods

Kelly Jones is a former #1 Doubles player and top 100 singles who coached Alex O'Brien to #35 in the world, Xavier Malisse, and Mardy Fish to number 17 in the world. Kelly runs LMS Tennis Academy in Tampa and is an Oscar guy. I love how you don't think about going through the target line though Kelly now realizes after meeting with Oscar personally that the followthough over the shoulder in MTM up by the ear is only emphasized in beginning stages of learning (though Djokovic still finishes there every time...it's whatever finish works best).

TOP 10 OVERUSED & OVERRATED TEACHING METHODS” by Kelly Jones
Kelly Jones: “I have now spent the last 11 years coaching and teaching junior and professional players. The same overused and overrated methods that challenged me throughout my career are still being taught today. It has become a passion of mine to help players navigate through all this misinformation so that they have a much better understanding of the game. By removing the myths, rules and structure from these popular teaching methods, players will have the ability to develop a much more natural way of playing tennis.”

RULE #1) GET PREPARED EARLY; What does this really mean? Prepare your racket first, prepare your body first, or both? This concept is very confusing. It seems logical when a coach says you are late swinging to the ball, you must prepare earlier. In truth, more times than not, it is actually the early preparation that results in the awkward, rushed feeling that many players associate with being late. Preparing early can disrupt a kind of natural rhythm and flow. Instead it is more important to prepare according to the situation or to the speed, spin, height or angle of the ball.
RULE #2) MOVE FORWARD INTO EVERY SHOT AND DON’T MOVE BACK:
It is amazing to me that this teaching method is still being taught. I would not have made a dime playing professional tennis if I didn’t rid myself of this #1 overused teaching method. All of the great players continually move in all directions, forward, backward, sideways, etc. It is impossible and unnatural to go forward all of the time. Using foreword momentum as a rule will cause all kinds of problems with your swing. You cannot get away with playing all offense like you could years ago. Changing from defense to offense requires great flexibility and few limitations. This method is responsible for players at all levels never reaching their full potential.
RULE #3) GET THERE AND GET SET: This rule implies that you get to that perfect position as quickly as possible in order to set your feet and have your racquet prepared. The flaw with this thinking is that very rarely in tennis are the conditions perfect and allow us to be in the perfect position. It does not allow for flexibility and the ability to adjust to the wind or bad bounces or playing on the clay. Thus, it will be really hard to find any kind of rhythm with this thinking unless the conditions are always perfect . Movement and preparation needs to be more instinctive. Sometimes it will be fast and sometimes slow depending on the situation. Too much structure when it pertains to preparation takes away from instinctive decision-making. It is much better to react naturally instead of being consumed with how you are going to react.
Rule #4) DON’T WAIT FOR THE BALL: Here in America we are taught to never let your opponent back into the court and always take time away from them. Learning to wait for the ball changed my career. Much of this philosophy is a result of playing on faster surfaces. The problem with this method is that players get in a panic mode. They will tend to rush easy put-a-way balls and often miss because of rushing. All the great players today know how to do what is called “hold” the ball. What does holding the ball mean? Well, they have essentially learned to wait for the ball. By waiting or holding the ball the players take the time to hit the right shot or take time to let their opponent make a move and then play the appropriate shot. The concept of “holding the ball” often can leave many of your opponents literally incapable of making a move for your shot. Sometimes you’ll take away your opponents’ time and other times you will deliberately hold the ball until your opponents made a move before you hit the shot.
RULE #5) EXTEND THROUGH CONTACT - FOLLOW THROUGH OVER YOUR SHOULDER: This method was popular years ago and remains a common teaching method. The idea is that after contact you can keep the ball on the strings longer by extending your follow-through towards the target. On film it is easy to see how the better players extend their racquet after impact. The arm does NOT control this. The arm is a passenger along for the ride. As the body unwinds or uncoils, the arm will naturally extend depending on the situation. This is a huge misconception. To physically move your arm forward trying to extend is an arm movement and independent of the body and will eventually cause all kinds of injuries. Finally, it is completely unnatural to have a predetermined follow-through like- over the shoulder by the ear. The follow-though will change depending on the situation.
RULE #6) STAY DOWN: It is commonly heard that you need to stay down though your shot. The fact is that sometimes you stay sown and sometimes you don’t. It is completely unnatural to stay down through impact most the time. If you stay down all the way through the shot you are not allowing the forces of rotation from a forehand or backhand to naturally take affect. It is not the staying down that keeps the ball in the court, but the rotation of the body. The rotation helps create the spin that is needed to keep the ball in the court. It is not that you don’t get down or load for your shots; it’s just that you don’t stay down through the entire shot. With the massive rotation of the body on your groundstrokes your body will have to come out of the down position.
RULE #7) HIT OUT IN FRONT: Today’s game is one of power and athleticism. Because of this fact there cannot be one set contact point like hit the ball out in front. Instead, there should be a strike zone and the actual contact point will happen within this zone depending on the type of shot you’re hitting and where you are in the court. From the center of the court you will likely make contact our in front of you. But, as you move laterally and /or backwards the contact pint will move further back in your strike zone. To have success in today’s game you must be able to play both offensive and defensive shots and that requires you to have flexibility with the contact point.
RULE #8) TAKE SMALL STEPS: Good positioning is obviously an important piece of the game. By consciously focusing on taking small steps takes away from allowing your mind to think and decide what shot you are going play. Small unneeded steps can actually result in poor balance. I believe that good footwork needs to be efficient and according to the situation. Your footwork needs to be smooth and fluid and “happy feet” does not promote this. It is much more effective to quiet your feet and let them react more naturally. Don’t get me wrong, there are times when small adjustment steps are necessary but you are not being efficient if you take 10 little steps to a shot that need 2 regular balanced steps.
RULE #9) TWO-HANDED BACKHAND IS ALL LEFT HAND: For anybody who has struggled with their two-handed backhand I can probably guarantee that you’ve heard someone tell you that it is because you’re not using your left hand enough! Boy, if only it was this simple. Yes, the left hand sometimes feels more active when you are trying to direct a certain shot, use more spin for a topspin lob or cases when you are in a defensive position. But the thing to understand is that this usually happens after contact. A breakdown with your two handed backhand is more likely from our chain link being out of sync from the beginning of the stroke. What this means is that instead of your left hand not helping enough it is in fact your bigger muscles that are not helping enough. Many players with great two-handed backhands, when asked say the shot is driven by the right hand, the same as in golf. (For a right handed player)
RULE#10) YOU MUST HAVE PATTERNS: The idea of patterns in today’s game has changed. The game has gotten so fast that it’s impossible to think that you could hit two crosscourt, one down-the-line every time and it will work. It is way to confining and uncreative. Also, who is to say that your opponent is going to hit just the right shot every time that will allow you to accomplish this pattern. In today’s game patterns are more about the ability to develop a strong foundation of repeatable high-percentage shots. In other words, if you can consistently hit your backhand crosscourt with depth, pace and accuracy this will enable you to create opportunities and take advantage of them. It is about setting up a point around your strength. Conventional thinking is that if you are getting to hit your strength most of the time, you will win most of the time.
Summary: Remember, Tennis teaching methods are based on opinion. My opinion is based on using these methods unsuccessfully in competition with my mortgage at stake. These limiting methods are really band-aids for the real problems that exist in improving technique. In order to reach your potential, your game should consist of these three elements; flexibility, ease of movement or flow, and rhythm. Flexibility in your strokes and having the ability to adapt is essential
 
The Power of Simplicity

firstblud said:
^^ *head explodes*
Click to expand...

Funny! That's why in MTM we keep tennis simple. But coaches love to debate and analyze and justify because if we have truth, it withstands any attack. Wegner coaches usually keep it very simple on court, careful not to get too technical. I don't follow Oscar, I follow his results. Kelly's viewpoint as a coach was interesting because he played the tour a long time and was filled with misinformation that likely held back his singles rankings given he was a great athlete.
 
Interesting topic. And for those you jumped all over Ian...try looking up someone's posts first. I'm looking at you zapvor.

I am a 3.5 woman who, after two really bad years of high school tennis, came back to the game about five years ago. Between lessons and clinics, I have had...wait for it....wait for it...11 different pros.

Some were worth the money, some were not. Here are the reasons I may have left a pro (or, they left me):
*one committed suicide. I'm not kidding.
*one moved to coach down in FL. He was the one that got me started again, after I took a clinic through my city's REC dept. Hope he's doing well.
*three got fired from the club/facility. Of those three, two I still keep in touch with, though I'd only work with one of them again.
*two were booooring. Same drills, same thing, week after week. One of those was also chronically late. Not. Cool.
*another one I liked, but only worked with him while with a certain team. When I left the team (because I got moved up) I no longer went to those clinics.
*another boring one was just 'filling in' after one of the fired ones. Don't miss him a bit.
*another one I left just because I left that club. I really liked him, and would work with him again.
*my current one I met here, at TTW! LOL Again, I kid you not!

The things that I look for in a pro or that I like about some of the pros I've worked with:
*keeps up with current trends/methods/pedagogy. I'm a teacher myself, and it is important to me that my pro continues to learn about the game (the same way I continue to learn about teaching pedagogy).
*Commitment. And what I mean by that is this...I'm committed to working hard and improving my game. And I want my pro to be just as invested in that improvement as I am. I'm poor. So, if they are in it for my money (haha) and just feed me the same stuff week after week, I'm outta there. I'd be better off with myself and learning as much as I can from sites such as Will's and Ian's.
*Punctuality. Dude, I work full time, and if I can get there (wrestling with metro DC traffic) dressed and ready to go on time, so can you.
*Interest. I would like my pro to take an interest in my matches and how they go.
 
Topaz said:
Interesting topic. And for those you jumped all over Ian...try looking up someone's posts first. I'm looking at you zapvor.

I am a 3.5 woman who, after two really bad years of high school tennis, came back to the game about five years ago. Between lessons and clinics, I have had...wait for it....wait for it...11 different pros.

Some were worth the money, some were not. Here are the reasons I may have left a pro (or, they left me):
*one committed suicide. I'm not kidding.
*one moved to coach down in FL. He was the one that got me started again, after I took a clinic through my city's REC dept. Hope he's doing well.
*three got fired from the club/facility. Of those three, two I still keep in touch with, though I'd only work with one of them again.
*two were booooring. Same drills, same thing, week after week. One of those was also chronically late. Not. Cool.
*another one I liked, but only worked with him while with a certain team. When I left the team (because I got moved up) I no longer went to those clinics.
*another boring one was just 'filling in' after one of the fired ones. Don't miss him a bit.
*another one I left just because I left that club. I really liked him, and would work with him again.
*my current one I met here, at TTW! LOL Again, I kid you not!

The things that I look for in a pro or that I like about some of the pros I've worked with:
*keeps up with current trends/methods/pedagogy. I'm a teacher myself, and it is important to me that my pro continues to learn about the game (the same way I continue to learn about teaching pedagogy).
*Commitment. And what I mean by that is this...I'm committed to working hard and improving my game. And I want my pro to be just as invested in that improvement as I am. I'm poor. So, if they are in it for my money (haha) and just feed me the same stuff week after week, I'm outta there. I'd be better off with myself and learning as much as I can from sites such as Will's and Ian's.
*Punctuality. Dude, I work full time, and if I can get there (wrestling with metro DC traffic) dressed and ready to go on time, so can you.
*Interest. I would like my pro to take an interest in my matches and how they go.
Click to expand...

Thx Topaz. Where do you play in the DC area? I used to coach at the Tennis Center at College Park, MD. Where do you teach?
 
Topaz said:
Interesting topic. And for those you jumped all over Ian...try looking up someone's posts first. I'm looking at you zapvor.

I am a 3.5 woman who, after two really bad years of high school tennis, came back to the game about five years ago. Between lessons and clinics, I have had...wait for it....wait for it...11 different pros.

.
Click to expand...

Retrospectoscope:

Just out of curosity, have you been taking lessons for 5 years? If you have, do you feel that with all of the help of the teaching pros you are at the level you should be?

I also pretty much started 5 years ago but only took a handful of lessons in the beginning and pretty much nothing over the last 3-4 years.
 
Moz said:
When is the "When should you say no to a student" podcast coming out?!! :)
Click to expand...

LOL. That's *next* week Moz!

Of the three that were fired...
*one was stealing money
*one did not get along with the new director. That was a crying shame, and she is the one that I would work with still
*in a fine display of irony, the new director that fired her, then got fired himself, for generally being an azzhole.

The one that is no longer with us...was very unhappy and about to be in a lot of trouble with the law. Very sad story actually. I had only been there three months, and didn't know him all that well. (he was the old director at the club where I met you)

wihamilton said:
Thx Topaz. Where do you play in the DC area? I used to coach at the Tennis Center at College Park, MD. Where do you teach?
Click to expand...

I teach in Arlington County. I knew, from watching your videos, that you were at College Park...no longer though?

Gosh, I've had almost as many clubs as pros!

I'm currently mostly at Skyline S&H. I've also been at Crystal City S&H, Annandale S&H, Springfield Country Club, Regency S&H (holy crap...make that 13 pros!!!)...and I think that's it! LOL I'm doing some clinics out in Ashburn right now, over the summer (part of a singles league) but won't be able to continue once school starts.
 
goober said:
Retrospectoscope:

Just out of curosity, have you been taking lessons for 5 years? If you have, do you feel that with all of the help of the teaching pros you are at the level you should be?

I also pretty much started 5 years ago but only took a handful of lessons in the beginning and pretty much nothing over the last 3-4 years.
Click to expand...

No, those pros (up to 13 now!) are a combination of clinic pros and/or private lesson pros. Generally, if I liked the pro enough, I would start taking private lessons. Three of those pros I would (or am) still working with...they had very specific 'game plans' for my improvement. I honestly feel, if I had found them from the get go, I'd be 4.0 by now. I spent a lot of time messing up and now correcting my forehand, and one pro had my hitting one hand backhands.

Edit to add: If I had the money, I'd take lessons every week. But I know that isn't always the smartest thing to do, and I try to remind myself of something that Moz talked about in his blog...take the lesson when you have something specific to work on...and then practice it on your own. That way it can be a more productive use of both time and money.
 
Last edited:
Moz said:
Were her initials C. R.?
Click to expand...

Yup...teammate of one of your former mixed partners. She's still teaching (I got whipped by one of her students during the indoor season)...but only outside. She's keeps trying to get into a club so she can teach year round, but no luck so far. :(
 
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