Ed Weiss FEEDING!

[hockeyscout]

An chance we can get a video of Ed Weiss feeding a player. I told our hitting partner this guy is the best in the world, or close to it. Any chance of getting a video of this phenomenon, and some advice? It'd really help our program.

[EdWeiss]

Thanks for the kind words, although I am 100% confident I am not the world's best feeder. But I have done it for a reasonably long time and would give the following four tips:
1. The feeder should not hit the ball out of the air. Rather, the feeder should toss the ball up, let it bounce and then hit it with proper groundstroke technique. The advantages to this are: the feed is much more realistic and it gives the student time to do a split step and read it off the feeder's racket.
2. The feeder should move his or her position on the court. Many feeders just feed from the middle of the court. This is not realistic. The feeder should hit balls from all different kind of positions.
3. For advanced students, the feeder should vary the speed, spin and depth of the feeds - again, realism. Use different grips. I have an Eastern forehand but I will sometimes use a semi-western or even a western grip to give the student variety.
4. Take pride in the feed and treat it as an opportunity to work on your (the feeder's) stroke as well - if you do it will improve over time.

[GeoffWilliams]

If you slam the ball into the ground on your side of the net, like a ping pong serve, but with top spin, it gives the ball a realistic top spin depth and pace/rpms. Ie, feed to the cc fh, with that feed, from a dtl position, and put out targets for the player to hit cc and dtl.

[hockeyscout]

If you slam the ball into the ground on your side of the net, like a ping pong serve, but with top spin, it gives the ball a realistic top spin depth and pace/rpms. Ie, feed to the cc fh, with that feed, from a dtl position, and put out targets for the player to hit cc and dtl.

Holy shit Geoff. That is how I taught the young one to play tennis! I had no racket skills at the time, however, I could bounce the ball off the ground, over the net (one inch), and to her, and she'd have to take it in the air mid court. I also trained her to read words and letters on the ball, which she can now do on every ball that is hit to her. We really set up a lot of vision techniques at a young age, and it made the hands and feet faster obviously. I understood that real well from hockey goalie training, and brought that over to our program.

You know, its great to see what Ed is saying because that is what we have always done, move the feed around the court. It works wonders and I was stunned to go to Czech and see coaches feeding balls from one or two areas. And, it was the same bad ball over and over again. I thought it was just a Ukraine and Russian deal, and I figured that's why no one is developing good over here (no Ed's). When I went to Czech, same thing! I did find one guy, and he was focused as hell on getting a pro ball back, and that was the guy I hired. He understood how to feed a ball.

You get a hitting partner who can feed a ball like Ed, or Robert Lansdorf, and they are worth their weight in gold!

The tossing the ball on the ground doesn't work for us! We do everything at an insane pace as we want it breaking down. Think ping pong. We also do it an an insane pace, slow it down, speed it up, and do all we can to screw up rhythm with our athlete. We're almost at ping pong type levels, as you can see from the backhand drill set yesterday.

I think changing grips is the ticket as well. I am stupid for not thinking of that one! I love the changing grips part Ed! Superb. We get the hitting partner to purposely play differently all the time, and mix it up. We never hit, hit, hit, rally, rally, rally or do that crap. However, it will sure be a major variation if we get the hitting partner to change grips when they spar, and when we feed. That is brilliant.

And seriously Ed, post video of you feeding. To a man, everyone will say you are as good as it gets. Its a think of beauty that should be shown in the manuals.

The thing that's happening with you Ed is you are in your own reality (getting the player the best ball possible bottom line) and your player is in his reality (trying to respond to getting the greatest ball feed on earth. Its an interesting perfect storm. What usually happens is coach is focused on the player, coach delivers crap ball, coach critiques players technique, and NO ONE GETS better, and I am big on visual and unconscious learning methodology.

I kind of like mindless practice, hitting partner is focused on being the greatest hitting partner, player focused on competing and showing us something that is next and new that blows minds, the drill runs with no interference, I get my athlete to imagine they are looking over themselves from a camera up above in the heavens and we video it, show it to the athlete, tell the athlete to pretend they are watching Anna Kournikova doing it at 9 (no themselves), think how they can be better than what AK is doing (not making it personal is the key), dream big, think about getting it to a level that is as great as the gods, and repeat, repeat and repeat.

Anyways Ed, I see some things you may not see, and I look at talent a bit different than others, and you do have a special gift in feeding balls and I am sure I am not the first guy telling you this here!

Please post video of you feeding! I could watch you do it all day.

PS: Thinking as a I write. The issue I have with bouncing the ball is the instructors hip positioning won't be in the right place, and he will be taking the ball way to late. Us old guys aren't so good in the hip flexors anymore! I am in great shape, and can move well, and the wife is beyond comprehension fast, and 6'3", however, we use a model (Donald, an MMA fighter I teach) who is world class in terms of stances and the number one MMA guy in the country to set the bar for the young one as dad's is old, and has lost a couple of steps. We got a hell of a hitting partner, however, its a problem the type of feed you suggest. What I could do is set a ball machine at 1 second a ball, force him to take it on the rise, at hip, over his head, whatever, it can vary, and I can even stand behind the machine and manipulate it from the stand (we have a big stand, and I can put it in four directions and do crazy things ), and from different positions and stances, and hit to her, she reads and it keeps going on and on. It's good as well, athlete focused on their thing, and hitting partner focused on their thing.

Any other wild ideas Ed I can try, I got no bosses, associations or anybody limiting me here! And we love to play, and experiment.

Thanks again, this was worth my 19.99$ a month by about 100 times!

[klacr]

Thanks for the kind words, although I am 100% confident I am not the world's best feeder. But I have done it for a reasonably long time and would give the following four tips:
1. The feeder should not hit the ball out of the air. Rather, the feeder should toss the ball up, let it bounce and then hit it with proper groundstroke technique. The advantages to this are: the feed is much more realistic and it gives the student time to do a split step and read it off the feeder's racket.
2. The feeder should move his or her position on the court. Many feeders just feed from the middle of the court. This is not realistic. The feeder should hit balls from all different kind of positions.
3. For advanced students, the feeder should vary the speed, spin and depth of the feeds - again, realism. Use different grips. I have an Eastern forehand but I will sometimes use a semi-western or even a western grip to give the student variety.
4. Take pride in the feed and treat it as an opportunity to work on your (the feeder's) stroke as well - if you do it will improve over time.

If you slam the ball into the ground on your side of the net, like a ping pong serve, but with top spin, it gives the ball a realistic top spin depth and pace/rpms. Ie, feed to the cc fh, with that feed, from a dtl position, and put out targets for the player to hit cc and dtl.

Required reading for all young tennis teaching professionals right here. Thanks for sharing Ed and Geoff. Feeding is such an integral part of teaching and the lesson process. Too many pros just "mail it in".

Kyle LaCroix USPTA
Boca Raton

[hockeyscout]

Required reading for all young tennis teaching professionals right here. Thanks for sharing Ed and Geoff. Feeding is such an integral part of teaching and the lesson process. Too many pros just "mail it in".

Kyle LaCroix USPTA
Boca Raton

You two should really team up and do an article, and go into it more in depth.

[GeoffWilliams]

Holy shit Geoff. That is how I taught the young one to play tennis! I had no racket skills at the time, however, I could bounce the ball off the ground, over the net (one inch), and to her, and she'd have to take it in the air mid court. I also trained her to read words and letters on the ball, which she can now do on every ball that is hit to her. We really set up a lot of vision techniques at a young age, and it made the hands and feet faster obviously. I understood that real well from hockey goalie training, and brought that over to our program.

This is one of the smartest things I've seen any tennis parent do.

[hockeyscout]

This is one of the smartest things I've seen any tennis parent do.

I did it because it was easy to do, and I had bad racket skills. I was deadly accurate this way. You know what else I did Geoff. I painted some balls black, and she'd really have to pay attention as they look faster to the eye! Used to play classical music, real loud, Glenn Gould, and the other tennis players would come and comment how she was somehow getting better every 20 balls because she was in such a focused state of mind. They'd love it as well, playing tennis to Canada's Glenn Gould. I'd tell my young one, be a prodigy like Glenn! Feel his passion and talent! I remembered the state of mind I'd be in when I played hockey, and I'd try and recreate that on the court in the early years. Now she listens to loud music that is rap and stuff, GEEZ.