How to stop losing.

[GeoffWilliams]

Are you the dog with the bone growling?




Those closer to their primal nature protect their property. Water, sticks, food, toys, threaten what's mine and I will take your finger off! BE the dog with a bone growling. Come back to your primal nature and its natural viciousness. We are all killers. EVen pushers! At least they have a game plan, although it's the only one they can implement.

[GeoffWilliams]

Tactical sequence

Keep the ball out of their strike zone. That means high or that means low shots, unless attacking dtl on a flat approach shot. Short slices that don't lay up but stay low and skid. Run around the second serve in the deuce court and attack dtl to their bh. Have a plan and keep to it even if losing some points. No one wins them all.

[GeoffWilliams]

A cure for cramps

Do you want to know the ingredients?

[GeoffWilliams]

Customizing equipment to match your style

Round pallet for heavy top spin hitters, sharper for net players.

FRame weight: silicone in handle, 25G, and lead either polarized or depolarized up to as much total strung wt of 390g. Most pros use about 360g.

String tension must optimize hitting pocket for style: spin hitters use open patterns, looser tension, lighter frames, polarized set ups, smaller grips.

Volleyers use depolarized lead on the sides, mid range weight or heavy for more impact on the serve and heavier approach shots and tighter tension to minimize shots going long.

[GeoffWilliams]

Sampras serve pics/discussion

sampras serve showing leg drive at the last second

sampras serve showing trophy drop

These sideways pics show the truth. Look at how long he stays sideways/coiled in the first pic. Do you see how his left toss shoulder is still coiled/cocked all the way backwards towards the rear fence? This is at the point when his leg drive has just begun upwards, yet, his tossing shoulder is still fully cocked!

That is a very important element of his serve, the delayed toss shoulder cock. No one has a farther forward contact point than Sampras, not even Becker who was at about 2-2.5' in. His frame elbow at full leg drive knee bend is not cramped with it being out from the body.

HIs leg drive is just beginning, yet, his chest is facing the back fence, and the frame is just past vertical.


His contact point is 3' in front of the baseline, which forces his shoulders far forward. He has shoved his left hip as far out over the line as he can before even beginning the led drive straight upwards, yet, ends up 3' out over the line on contacting the ball.

His frame weighed 389g, depolarized. Gut strung at 73lbs vs all season. First started at 59/61lbs and then went up.

Remember how many string jobs he broke during matches? Gut snaps.

He would go through 30 towels at a practice club to see "Which one feels right."

He would reserve all the courts next to him so that he could hear only his shots during practices.

He would have his frames restrung even if he had not hit with them, ten a day at slams, less so at lesser tournaments.

Lendl also could tell which color paint was used on his strings just by feel.

It's all about feel when you are trying to do the impossible, win slams.

Not so obviously, it's all about feel for the recreational player blind to the importance of feel. They just never reach their potential to control shots and improve form.

They have not decided to: be the best that they can be in a given match.

Improve at all costs their form/energy/relaxation/unit turn coil/contact point re: length of their own arms on low shots and higher shots.

Stamina. Match supplement drinks/food.

Pre match scouting of opponents.

Pre match warm up of their own bodies and minds.

Delusional cockiness is often the hall mark of someone who has never given up on themselves, even if others have. (Sampras lost 19 times in a row when changing to a one hander, yet never doubted himself for a second. Could anyone you have ever known have done the same?) I have not. I have shied away from any cockiness shown towards opponents, but maybe that was not such a great idea in hind sight.

No one can become world class without it, yet, it's discouraged and not taught to tennis players. Maybe because no one likes delusionally cocky guys.

How aggressive do you want to be? How many chances can you take and still win? Each point you lose, or game, or set, and it's two you have to win to get back even. So each point is really worth two points. Each game is really worth two games.

That's why the pushers dominate so much in recreational play. They understand the importance of losing any given point, that they have to now win two points to get back to the same position they would be in if they had won the point.

[GeoffWilliams]

get your feet set and still

Watch Joker and all the top players. They set their feet in a still position before hitting their shot, so the shot feels like it's on a T.

They get set and balanced, yet take few risks.

You have to take some to rise.

Footwork is all about that final position, so that it's quiet and calm and set. It doesn't matter how frenetic you were getting there! It matters how quiet and balanced you are just before starting your shot forward.

[bottle]

Yep.

[GeoffWilliams]

The quicker the footwork, the more time you have

More time means more choice, more coil, more shot tolerance. The mistake we make is slowing down on a slow ball incoming. REmember Connors? Never made that mistake! He won 109 tournaments btw. No one close to that nor ever will be. Quick fast small steps so that he was able to T the ball.

The most common mistake we make is slow footwork. Bad unit turns, no sideways coil, little coil at all, esp. under nervous pressure.

Decide to get sideways fast and wait fast. Step into your shots slowly and methodically.

[GeoffWilliams]

Burst to the plant step, then slowly step in

That's what makes joker #2 and Nadal #1, and Murray #3. Put fed in a 100 yd dash with these guys and who finishes last? The guy with the spare tire. Work on this rhythm in practice: burst to plant, slow step into shot, even on the dead run.

Burst to plant, slow step in, burst to plant, slow step in.

[GeoffWilliams]

HOw to combat tension loss

The last few cross strings are the key to this. The 4th and 5th from the bottom crosses, bump them up 5-10lbs higher than normal, and the last three crosses, drop down 5lbs under normal, so you create a bridge of tension, that affects the snap back up higher, that will not come down nearly as fast if you are a hard hitter.

The feel will stay the same far longer so you save on restring costs.

[GeoffWilliams]

Weight training

I've known more than one partner who got knocked out by weight training injuries. Weights for tennis players are only useful if done with very small weights, done for speed/stamina/endurance. Or squats for the legs, but even those are risky. Cardio wt. training, small wts., will slim down, not beef up the body. Adding muscle is adding wt. most of the time. We need to be very relaxed and very fast in our reactions, not heavy and muscular.

[GeoffWilliams]

Thor lo socks

Use two pairs to wick out athletes foot moisture, and get a size larger shoe, with shoe inserts to pad your feet and cushion the blows to your body.

[GeoffWilliams]

The string guru says

For power: vs team mains/alu or ltec 4s or blackcode or poly star energy crosses
Or straight poly star with bhb7

For spin: volkl cyclone or bhb7 or bhbr

For control: vs team/ltec 4s, or ltec os/4s.

Strung for your game:

control: higher tension, proportional stringing technique, slower pulls (10sec.) to pull each string.

Tension maintenance: create a tension bridge at the bottom crosses: 4th-5th cross down, bump the tension up 5-10lbs, then last three down, drop the tension down under normal last three crosses from bottom. Drop the first three crosses down from the top in tension, and then go up to normal until down to 4th-5th from the bottom.

For feel: ping out the mains until the peripheral strings don't ping out so high, and drop them down more than the center 6 for 16 x 19, and center 8 for 18 x 20. Then see above for crosses esp. at the top.
'
'For spin: lower tension at center mains for more snap back, and edged strings, 16 x 19, smaller grip, rounder pallet, polarized set up.

[GeoffWilliams]

Zennis from wiki how

1
"Learn the four mental states of a successful tennis player. Mental fitness is as important as physical fitness in tennis. Focusing on these states and practicing ways to improve your mental focus should form a part of your regular training. The four essential mental states are:[1]
Concentration - staying in the present
Commitment - you must maintain both drive and stamina
Control - not only of the ball and racquet, but also over your emotions and behaviour, including your reaction to bad weather, broken racquets, bad line calls, snapped nets, noisy crowds, etc.
Confidence - your certain belief that you can manage anything on the court.


2
Forget about winning. Winning will come from better aligned focus, and getting the basics right. How can you get the basics right if you spend your time focusing on winning the point instead of focusing on hitting the ball?
Think of your concentration level as a limited bucket. If use up your concentration on trying to win, hitting a winner or the previous point you lost or won, then you have less concentration to spend on hitting that next ball. This leads to more unforced errors.
3
Forget about what has happened in the previous point and focus on your next shot. Tennis is a short game when you think about it, and many players dwell on how they should have won that last point, what they did wrong, or how to win the next point. This takes away from your concentration bucket and causes more unforced errors.

4
Focus on hitting the ball. By enjoying each point, and focusing on the enjoyment each strike brings, you will naturally focus on the ball.
Keep your eye on the ball. This is the key to good tennis, and you will naturally hit better shots.
5
Change your mindset. Instead of trying to win the point, try thinking about how to make the rally longer. After all, you are here to play tennis and the enjoyment it brings should be at the forefront of the game's purpose. By trying to make the point longer, you will distract yourself from focusing on winning the point, and instead point that focus on hitting the ball correctly. After all, to make the point last longer, you need to hit more balls in, which means you need to focus on the ball and hitting it correctly.
6
Don't try to always hit the winner. If the opportunity presents itself then take it, but do not force the winner. By looking for winners, you are taking away from your concentration bucket, leaving less for focusing on the ball.
7
Believe in yourself. When you start losing, don't step back and start playing like a weak player. Know that you have done this before and that you can play at this level. Most of the time you will start to focus on how many points you have lost, and how poorly you are playing. This will take away from your concentration bucket, and leave you with nothing to hit the ball with.
8
Don't think about hitting the ball. Substitute an enjoyment of guiding the ball to its desired location. When you guide the ball, your concentration becomes focused on the ball, rather than on you. Your strokes will become naturally longer with the correct follow through, and power will come when you learn to co-ordinate the ball directly onto the sweet spot. You'll find your stamina is increased as you get less tired hitting the ball, because you are letting the racquet do the work."

[GeoffWilliams]

The most common cause of unforced errors

#1: Bad unit turn, not getting sideways and waiting for the shot so you can slowly step into your own shot.: Too lazy on the foot work or no foot work. Not using burst/slow rhythm on foot work. Not using advanced split stepping.

#2: Not adjusting contact point according to the incoming shots height. Low balls must be allowed to come closer to the center of your own body, as the arc of your own arm extends down to meet the low ball closer to your own body. Not going further out front on higher incoming shots, for the same reason: Many people net low balls and go out long on high balls, while trying to maintain the same contact distance/point out in front regardless of any incoming shots height. It's like a gladiators shield, curved with the curve arcing out front, sloping forwards.

#3: Nerves: Not warming up mentally/physically.

#4: No preparation/match play. If you don't practice playing matches, it won't matter how you think you are playing, reality will show you just how difficult it is to play when it means something.