How to stop losing.

[GeoffWilliams]

How to train your return.

Nadal breaks more often than anyone, and stands farther back than anyone, giving himself more time to hit more rpms than anyone on their returns. Joker stands wider, a full shoulder width and a half apart on footwork. When practicing, make sure to take a lot of returns, and decide no matter what serve comes in, where to hit it ahead of time, dtl or cc or right at the servers feet. Show the server he is not going to control your shots. Take the mental advantage away by hitting your shots accurately, which only can occur if you practice it during hitting sessions.!

[GeoffWilliams]

Testosterone supplements

Progene carried by costco, tomkat ali, etc. Juvenon with q10. These seem to have more of an effect on libido than they do on losing weight, or match quickness/stamina. they are not testosterone itself. Just herbs and such. Too many side effects if you take the real stuff. For dopers, hgh has been found to be the most effective for speed of foot and reaction increases. As much as 8% faster, esp. for track athletes.

Wayne Odesnik and Stallone both got caught with it at airports. An Israeli company makes a synthetic hgh. Something like dev topo.

[GeoffWilliams]

How to play better in crunch time

Use an energizing technique: breath related: bellows breathing, or use a speed pump boxing technique: fist pump downwards as fast as you can for several seconds alternating right left punching.

Use the gloat scream: like Kvitova or Serena. Gloat grunting can vampire energy as well.

Decide to play better in practice under crunch time so that it carries over in a match.

Decide to move faster/hit better shots. Visualize hitting them beforehand.

[GeoffWilliams]

Ankle braces help you move / cut faster.

Here is the one Isner uses: they are about $20/pair.

[GeoffWilliams]

How to deal with a losing situation/moment/lost point/set/emotions/ being beaten

If you are winning the match, even if pushing and neutralizing, the emotional baggage is not there. Losing is a different story! After losing a hard fought set, or an important point, or a tactical sequence that displays the other guy as a better player, we have those feelings and emotions that weigh us down with those lost moments, when we have lost before, and felt the weight of it.

Those moments can leave scars, even if we think they are fleeting, they are often not so! They are there in our minds, just like a physical scar on your wrist.... (Fell on a soda bottle and sliced mine open like a gusher!)

Those scars are there to remind us of only one thing, wait for it:::::
"There's only one thing. There is no going back. ONLY going Forward."



That's gods joke on us I guess. EVery moment is lost foreVer.


So it's up to us to steel our own minds to move forward with the weight of those scars. The weight is there no matter what we do in the past. It's there no matter what we do in the future. It's just there, like a fly on the fence who does not care about tennis at all. The scars don't care they are on us.

Neither should we. So we have to become a fly on the wall. Unless you have a time machine. LEt me know, I'd like to go back and replay a few matches. If only I'd hit more high forehands or served wide to that guy's forehand, I would have killed him! (Or, at least won!)

Many match memories are like that. You discover a weakness, and ignore the execution of it. Don't trust it. OR the guy hides it very well. He has one at least, we all do. Find it, and slice it open until he is the one bleeding, not you.

Go back and remember those matches where you found that weakness and did not exploit it enough or well enough to win. Now the next time you are in a match, decide to find that weakness and attack it viciously.

If you remember, the most common weaknesses are those incoming shots out of our strike zones, either high or low, or out of our preferred shot speeds, either rpm/pace/ or shots that are pushed and are too slow. You ought to start with those. Be able to hit high balls, low balls, to each side, at all times, ground strokes and serves, high rpm/pace and low rpm/pace. It can be very surprising which sequence is a weakness. You have to cycle those shots in practice so it's a natural thing to do in a match!

Sometimes a guy with a good fh hates short low slices where he has to transition to net. You hit one or two, and win both points, and don't file it away, due to his generally good fh. Don't do that anymore.

The ultimate weakness of us all is shot tolerance. We can't hit 30 shots in a row each point. That's why the cowardly pushers win. Many of them can.

[jbill]

string jobs

Geoff,

Since you seem to be the string guru on this website, I've got some basic questions for you.

First of all let me tell you that I have an Alpha Revo 4000 machine. (mechanical crank). I'm a 67 year old guy that hits with a lot of top spin. I have had elbow problems in the past and consequently use mulitfilaments generally. Unfortunately, though, multis don't last very long for me, just a few hours. I use Yonex RDX 500 MP 98 sq. in. racquets which I like a lot.

I have mainly been using multifilaments like NXT Tour and Wilson sensation, both 17 gauge. I usually do one piece with them at 51 lbs. NXT Tour I like a lot, but it's very pricey. Lately I have been experimenting with some hybrid string jobs. I put the NXT in the mains and Sensation in the crosses, both at 51 lbs. I didn't like the result at all. The sweet spot felt really small and it was considerably stiffer than if I had just done a 1 piece. Is that what normally happens with 2 piece stringing? 2 piece strung at the same tension as a 1 piece feels boardier? Why is that? It's like the tension goes up with a two piece.

I have also experimented with a co-poly (babolat pro hurricane tour) strung at 40 lbs in the mains and a multifilament (prince premier/softflex) at 45lbs in crosses. I didn't particularly like that either. The sound is horrible; no popping sound at all and the sweet spot is very small.

What kind of hybrid stringing do you think might work for me? I really like to feel the ball pocket on the string bed. That is one reason I like to string at low tensions and have used a quality multi like nxt tour. The only problem is, though, that multifilaments will start to move around a lot when strung at low tension and for me nxt breaks in the crosses after about 5 hours of hitting.

Or is there some other multi I can use as a one piece that will be more durable?

One other thing: I put some Babolot VS team thermogut in my racquet a short while ago, 1 piece strung at 51 lbs and it came out stiff as a board. I don't like it at all. The gut was probably 3 or 4 years old, though, before I strung it. Does natural gut lose its life after a few years if it just sits in its sealed package?

Any suggestions on how I can improve my stringing situation will be much appreciated.

jbill

[GeoffWilliams]

AGed gut will be inconsistent in feel, esp. if stored warm, in light, not cool, not dark! Nxt moves, and frays quickly with a lot of top in a bab. frame. No getting around that. Gut won't feel good unless done well, fresh, that fits your game, and strung with a low friction cross, like alu, ltec 4s, cyclone vokl, etc. I'd recommend this: I use it every time. Also this: http://www.amazon.com/Thera-Band-Fle...=thera+flexbar

Prevention first at all times. Regarding pocketed feel: it's all about feel.

The rdx 500 hd mp hexagonal shaft has a 61 ra frame is not the best one for feel.
See these: pt57 a 1 for the best feel.

String job for you: very low at top three crosses. Normal on down to 10th cross down. Bump up the next two crosses 5 lbs, and then 10 lbs down for the last three down. So that the pocket up higher in the bed, where the shorter higher pitched, higher tensioned strings are located, are lower in tension, than the rest of the frame. For louder sound: bhb7/poly star energy crosses.

Try big hitter blue rough in the mains, and nrg2 or nxt sensation on the crosses. For higher slice: use bhb7 mains. STick to copoly/multi or gut/multi/copoly jobs.

Two piece hybrid jobs feel tighter only to some. They have more knot tension loss, due to the two piece cuts.

[GeoffWilliams]

Are you a pusher or a purist, a pragmatist or a blaster?

Most are either one or the other: safety/pusher either with safe top or safe slice shots, or the purist who loves to think he's going to improve no matter what, no matter how hard it is to blast and win!


Decide which one you are: one who loves the winner and the delusion of greatness, or one who loves the win over all else.


If you're a purist, a blaster with delusions of grandeur, be prepared to lose to a lot of high shot tolerance top/slice pusher defenders. They will gloat as you blast away. And miss too many shots.

EVery blaster should talk to Brad Gilbert. About winning in a cowardly way. Winning pretty is better than winning ugly. Look at Fed vs. Nadal.

[GeoffWilliams]

Take the ball out of their strike zone

Is it any coincidence that Nadal is now #1 again? He's also the best at making the shots bounce l high, and making it bounce/ slicing it low. 36% of his bh are low slices. He also hits a lot of flat bh shots, and sets it all up with that ridiculously high fh. His whole persona is based on psych as well, to take you out of your zone. If you want to win, practice high low sequences, very high topspin off both sides, and very low and or very short low bouncing slices that don't lay up and some higher speed flat shots to open up the court. Most open it by hitting flat or heavy short angle top cc to the opp. fh, and then go at the bh with very high and very low shots.

[jbill]

string jobs

Thanks for all the info, Geoff.

I will look into the Tenex. Hadn't heard of that device. I presently use a Bandit elbow brace which I think generally works quite well.

Flex bars: I have two, the green one and the red one and I try to use them regularly. I also do other weight exercises to try to strengthen my extensor muscles.

My RDX 500 MP's are not HD. They are 16X19 which I feel is the best set up for me. I can't stand 18X20 configurations, nothing but boardy feel for me no matter how low the tension. I once had a Wilson Blade in which I took the tension down into the 30's and I still couldn't hit with it. That dense pattern isn't my thing. It certainly would save string, though.

Actually the 61 ra on the RDX is quite low in my opinion. I don't think nowadays you can find a racquet in the 50's. A lot of players like the RDX because they consider it to have a "buttery feel". I think it has a lot more flex than most other racquets. But I will check out the Head Flexpoint Prestige that you suggested. Do you know what the RA is on that racquet?

So what tension would you suggest for the Big Hitter Blue Rough in the mains and what basic tension in the crosses for the NXT on the hybrid set up you were suggesting for me?

jbill

[GeoffWilliams]

pt57a paint jobs, not the prestige. Center six mains at 57, outer mains dropped a bit to 52lbs. If it feels buttery then it's ok for your arm. Btw, after you string, depending on how high, the ra goes up a few points.

[GeoffWilliams]

The song birds sing

EAch time the song bird cries, it can pass for alarm, or joy, or curiosity, or a call out to find something or someone. We all go through all of that in a match: alarm if losing or playing badly: joy if hitting great and moving great and winning: curiosity and looking for weakness: an unconscious urge to be something or somewhere other than.

Which song do you sing? Our emotions during the match are singing out. You can often project your own beliefs and thoughts onto and outwards towards your opponent under his radar.

The best at this project: "I don't care if I lost the first set, I'm going to win anyway.", and inject this unconscious belief into their opponents like a song bird singing.

Creative visualized belief can change the course of a match.

[GeoffWilliams]

Defiance issues

EVerybody has them. Your father pulled your hair, your mother etc. We all bring them to the table of every match. It's usually things we are not even aware of that trigger them. The way an opponent walks/talks/grunts can set it off.

It can send us in either direction: playing in the zone or way out of it!

Only self aware can turn it around when it happens. Anger is a give away. So it depression. So is extreme emotion. Decide to become an emotional master. Decide to stay even keeled, the fly stuck in the fence.






When the zone is triggered, it's usually due to the desire to show the higher ranked opponent, or the more powerful, or the harder hitting, or the more smug, or the gloating opponent, or the __________ prick that he is not as good as he thinks he is! So we are the ones who move faster, hit harder, with more accuracy and purpose, not him.

It's the underdog effect, that has made Ferrer millions.

[GeoffWilliams]

Are you the aggressor?

It's either grind or attack for most of us. All court grinders, all court attackers, who can do both, including attack any short ball, go dtl or cc at will off both sides, are can attack us with many sequences. You know when you are facing a grinder. He's fast, he's short, he hits a lot of balls from the line and does not come in on too many short balls. You know when you are facing an aggressor. He comes in on every short ball, he attacks off both sides dtl. Which one are you? Decide to be before the match.

[GeoffWilliams]

You will have a better chance if you customize your frame to fit your game, and your

string job to produce a bigger sweet spot.