Djokovic and Agassi with Coach "K" to help your tennis game.

Today Rafael Nadal and Novak Djokovic played the finals of the Australian Open. These two players are at the top of their careers and ready to go. Nadal's blistering forehand topspins, drives, court coverage and  "refuse to lose" attitude verses Djokivic's return of serve, clean ball strikes, and court coverage. The end result was the world's best tennis in 2012. I'll be back for the re-cap later. It's a great day here in New England. Let's get to the courts. Outside is sunny.

How do I train by myself?


First, watch my serving video so you have en idea of what you're doing http://youtu.be/90JontSZMJA .

Second, watch the Djokovic instructional video http://youtu.be/R0dldQUtRbo 

Third, watch the Agassi backboard video http://youtu.be/QHbatpT1Fy0 .

You now have surrounded yourself with the best out there. You are ready for a complete workout with court, or backboard and as little as three tennis balls.


Get your serve ready by going outside (if the weather's nice) and work on the fundamentals of the serve. It's meditative and a great workout. Hit a dozen or less serves if you've only have three balls, run a lap as fast as you can around the court, then hit more, then 100 jump ropes, then hit more, then 12 push-ups, then  more, get the idea...........You can be creative with your training. It makes it more realistic because you're not going to be fresh as a daisy when serving in a match. You have to be in shape and controlled, even if tired. Other possibilities include hitting reps on the backboard after hitting your serve or running forward to the board and hitting reflex volleys. If you don't have a board then just run forward, split and punch a volley out of your hand, then slide back and self toss an overhead. You then can add the cross training component of jump rope, sprints, and agility drills. You have to mix it up so you keep the body guessing and interested. In twenty minutes you could be ready to call it a day if you train hard. It's more about intensity and effort then it is about time.

Serve

The serve is the only shot in the game where you have complete control of the outcome. In a sense you are the pitcher. And as a pitcher you have options. You can throw a straight ball (fastball), a slicing fast ball (slider), a kick serve (curve/ change-up). Those are the basic pitches. Just as in baseball you will develop favorite pitches either by talent or choice. You should be able to locate the ball in the service box with control. Here are the basics:

1) Stance--keep both feet shoulder width apart or narrower and fixed when starting your motion. It is helpful to bounce the ball a few times to maintain your ritual and timing before initiating your motion.

2)  Grip--"Continental"--will allow you to hit the most variety of serves though it is tough for new players to square the ball (hit too much slice and reach too low). Your base knuckle of your index finger should be on the second panel from the top of the racket. Keep your wrist loose and drop the little finger off the grip to create more whipping racquet speed. Exaggerate the base knuckle of the first finger grip more toward the first (top) panel for the kick serve. When you first try this you might say--"There's no way," but that's the grip.

3) Toss--keep your wrist and elbow straight as you toss the ball from low (hand down to your leg) to high (full extension pointing up above your head). You should be able to draw a straight line from your front foot to the top of your fingers, up to the ball. This requires balance (do not move your feet).


4) Back-swing--the hitting arm goes down as the tossing arm goes up (some players lift their racket up sooner then others). I find it better timing for most to lag the hitting arm down a bit to build more kinetic energy. The racquet then loops behind your head and the head of the racquet points down with the butt of the racket pointing up (not to close to the back as you would lose power). As the racket goes down behind the back the knees go down; as the knees come up so does the racquet, then reach up to the ball.

5) Follow-through--for the flat serve and slice finish on the opposite side of your body. For the kick serve finish on the same side, hitting up and away to the side.Your weight will now shift to the front foot as you extend up and into the ball. For now don't leave the ground till you master the toss and hit rhythm

Practice:

Keep your feet down while developing your serve. You can first start with your racket already in the back and down position and then toss the ball to establish a high contact point. After you master this, start with your racket in the overhead position (as many pros do in their first few warm-up balls), keep it loose and whippy (maybe hang your little finger off the end to get the feel). You then can add the full back-swing keeping your feet down yet still using the knees (if you've got the feel for that). To help get the timing of the knee bend lean forward to your right a bit from the waste and then as you toss the ball bring your knees forward and bend. This gives the knees a "jump start." At this point you will be ready to work out your own serve style and add the jump into the court from the knee bend. First follow the process of steps because you need the right foundation. don't worry about the knee bend or kick serves till you get your basic motion and grip working down. You'll be amazed how much "easy power" there is with the serve when you time the arms and shoulders correctly.

Once you've mastered a pitch (flat,slice, kick) then work on locating the ball to target in the service boxes. Power is the last tactical priority so don't worry about that until you've mastered the basic fundamentals.

I found this old Bill Tilden Advanced tennis video (much has changed) but the kick serve  fundamentals has not. Enjoy. Bill change the game of tennis with all the mastery of spins.

.http://youtu.be/EUA3Yb66YSQ


For the modern view of the serve I found this to be interesting: Roger Federer's serve and Poncho Gonzales. Enjoy.

http://youtu.be/8oaZ-49eebo

And finally here is my own take on the serve explained in the King's English.


http://youtu.be/90JontSZMJA

Mixed Doubles is a sport in it's own right. Is it televised? I think I saw it once for ten minutes. It's probably the least televised sport in the world, right next to archery. Lately we've had a resurrection of the sport in Falmouth. Not since the eighties has there been so many mixed doubles combinations hitting the courts. What is mixed doubles? It's when a man and women play doubles against the same combination. It's one of the few sports that place men and women on equal footing at least more equal the average pay scale for men and woman except at the US Open. You won't see a woman share a boxing match, a hockey game, or football game, etc., except at cookouts. Okay there are some exceptions in Alaska.

When I think of women's equality in tennis I think of Billy Jean King. Together we instructed a Domino's Pizza tennis clinic in Dedham and shared a  USTA high performance coaches certification in Chicago. In Domino's team matches players would switch in and out as in a basketball game. Today, on a professional level there is World Team Tennis which has has seen a rebirth from the seventies with teams like the Boston Lobsters and the Philadelphia Freedoms (enter Elton John). A colleague and former US Open Quarter Finalist named Bud Shultz is the coach for the Boston Lobsters. Bud still has a hell of a serve and volley.  The USTA now has mixed leagues where players play in leveled matches. In 1892 the first National Mixed Doubles was played at the Newport Casino in Rhode Island. That predated the first Wimbledon Mixed which was played in 1913. So you could make a case that the United States officially instituted the sport of mixed doubles. Mixed doubles is the classic Friday and Saturday sport of tennis clubs across the country.

I remember watching Eli Nastasi (one of the most talented shot-makers in the history of the game) and Gabriella Sabatina (turned model) play Ferdi Taygen (a Boston and Falmouth resident) and Barbara Potter (Potsy). Nastasi was the worst sport I've ever seen on the court but that's why people loved to watch him play. You'd never knew what he was going to do or say. Taygen, was ranked number in the world in Mixed doubles at the time. When he retired we would share a hit from time to time here at the Sports Center and he would unlock secrets of the game and recant a few tour stories. He never let Nastasi get to him.

Mr. Van Alan who founded the Tennis Hall of Fame in Newport recently passed away designed the "No-ad" or  the Van Alan Scoring System (Vass) scoring and tie-breaker which is used by many high school, college, and recreational players today as a means to keep matches on schedule and stop the non-ending deuce stalemates. We use Mr. Van Alan's no-ad in our our Friday night mixers which sometimes include, heaven forbid, two men against a man and a women or the other way around. In a mixer anything can happen and it usually does. If the match is even it doesn't matter who plays whom. You can't have a good match if it is uneven. Levels of the game are important.

There are certain rules of decorum for mixed doubles at the club level--a man shouldn't never try to take a woman out with a put-away, a woman can blast the guy and that is humorous, the man always serves first (this is to insure the team wins the first game), the woman's serve should be broken (strangely softer serves often present more difficulty for the men), it's okay for the man to to poach madly at the net and steal easy points, the man should claim most of the over-heads, the man must always be supportive to his partner and never yell at her; I suppose the converse is true but I've never really seen that happen, having a sense of humor makes things more fun (don't take it too seriously because that will only hurt your chances; you have to stay relaxed), and give your partner a kiss on the cheek at the end of the match regardless of how lousy either of you played because you must remain chivalrous at all costs. It's not okay for the man to ask the woman to sit down on the bench and let him finish the rest of the game by himself. If the woman is has a knee brace on and has had a hip replacement it's not okay to hit aces by her unless she has aced him several times.You must be more of a lady and more of a gentleman. After-all it's a gentleman's sport. It's okay to win but not win badly.


"What do you do if you're serving and have a match point against your grandmother?" This was a question asked to me by Adelaide Cummings, the phenomenal tennis legend and writer from West Falmouth.

"I don't know," I said. "What?"

"You ace-a," she said.

Here's another one she asked. "How many tennis balls fit in the service box?"

"I don't know."

"Six hundred and fifty, don't you think you could serve just one in?"

That is a great way to lighten the load after a double fault. You'd better read your audience first.

This weekend the Sports Center will be hosting a Mixed Doubles Tournament that begins Friday evening and ends Sunday with the finals. Late Saturday afternoon there will be a social mixer for all players in the tournament. Hopefully no Eli Nastasi's will show up. If they do we'll have to throw them into the penalty box  to the adulation of the locals.