Develop your mental strength and consistency during the practice.

“We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, therefore, is not an act but a habit.” – Aristotle.

Tennis is one of the most mental sports in the world – the mental strength plays a huge part in determining who wins the match.

The success to solid tournament and competition performances is to practice with the same intensity and mental approach that you would use in a match.

It is one of the most difficult things to do, and not very few players seem to do this, and especially when they are practicing elsewhere without the watchful eye of the coach, it often becomes easy to lose the focus and consistency. 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rb1C1UnRndA&feature=pyv&ad=2360057153

The major problem with attitude on the court is that taking it easy in practice creates a completely different focus for practice than the focus they use when playing actual matches - and this creates some big problems.

The players find it difficult to mentally tough out their matches in tournaments, especially matches that go down to the 3rd set, because their minds (and body) are simply ready for it.

The best way to perform strongly in all your matches is to use your practice as a mental training rehearsal for your tournament matches - treating practice as if it was a match. Doing this keeps your mind trained up for performing at the highest level, so that when you play a match, your mind will think that it is no differently and ensure you bring out your best tennis.

Most of the players practice completely differently to the way they actually play, because they under the pressure of a tournament match. They can miss very easy shots that they would not miss during the practice at all.  It's important to keep in mind that you are practicing to win your tournament matches, not to impress your practice partner.

So from now on, begin using practice as a mental training exercise as well as your tennis practice. Practice with a new intensity and purpose, practice your fight backs, practice the shots you will actually use in your tournament matches, and practice getting into the mental zone more often.

You will find that your tournament results will be more successful, as your mind and body will always be primed and ready for every match!

How Become a Professional Tennis Player

Tennis is a fun and engaging sport. Many dream of playing on a professional level, but few achieve that dream.

Being a professional in any sport is challenging to say the least, but tennis is one of the most challenging. Tennis is a solo sport where everything falls to only one player. Playing a solo sport teaches valuable lessons in self-reliance and can be one of the most rewarding sports to play, especially at the professional level.

There are many things such as hard work, passion, patient, talent, wisdom require becoming a successful professional tennis player. But there is one thing that every junior player who made it as a pro had: sincere desire. This characteristic, desire, while not having anything to do with genetics or wealth, certainly is often more elusive and rare than any other attribute.

Desire means that no one and nothing will prevent you from doing what is necessary to reach your goals. Players with sincere desire do not look at making time to practice as a "sacrifice." Anyone can say he "wants to be the best tennis player in the world," but few are willing to pay the price to actually be the best. Those who have become the best in anything didn't get there by wasting time or avoiding the hard work that they knew it would take.

 Ask any champion if they didn't make serious sacrifices in pursuit of perfection. Many might even say they never made any sacrifices because it was always their number one priority to become the best tennis player in the world. Once a player understands the correlation between desire and setting goals, the rest of the "journey" becomes the reward and the level of actual skilled.

I will give some tips from my experience for beginners to become a good tennis player.

Practice! You have to be fairly good in tennis where you are at the level of at least being able to compete locally. Practice is the only way to get better, and I could say this a million times and it would still be the best advice. Practice frequently and well. I can never stress the importance of practicing! It is so important. It is the only way of getting better!

Competitiveness is good, but getting under stress and becoming over-competitive is bad! Chill sometimes when you are losing badly or having a bad season.

Take care of your body. You only have one for your whole life. So please be gentle with yourself. If you are injured, REST.

Get a good coach. They will become very good help and advice givers. This is important. Get a coach. Spend the time to find good coaches. Bad coaches ARE out there, believe it or not (from personal experience). Your time will be paid back when you get superb coaching.

Novak Djokovic by Adidas

Get good equipment. Novak Djokovic does not play with strings that are made out of plastic and racquets that are out of junk. Get fairly good equipment, so you will have less worries and more concentrations on court and trust me it cost a lot of money!

Join the USTA! You can't play in tournaments, leagues, team tennis, or anything really if you don't join the United States Tennis Association. So join! It isn't very expensive.

http://www.usta.com/About-USTA

Start at a young age. You have to accumulate points, and this, believe it or not, is a really good "first step" in competitive tennis. You might have a chance once you're older. You can have fun by participating in leagues and even going to nationals!

Why Tennis College in U.S.A?

It is a dream for a lot of tennis players to play for a college in America!

I have been playing tennis for 10 years and it was a dream for me to be a "pro." I traveled and played a lot of tennis. Tennis was the only topic on my mind. I was waking up and going to sleep consumed by tennis. But it was a time when I had to make a decision for myself: to keep playing tennis or to study, and it is a very hard decision to make for any players. I didn’t want to lose these feelings that were making me happy in my life. I would like to emphasize the importance that college tennis plays in the development of the player. 

             Through the years I have seen how parents are being misguided into pushing their kids towards the professional ranking. The ones that suffer for this misdirection are the kids, they end up losing too many matches in the early rounds of futures and challengers level events and as a result lose confidence and their progress is way too slow. By attending a good Division II or a major University the kid will be exposed to very good competition and excellent coaching and as a result move forward both academically and tennis wise.  So, I and my mom made a decision that I must to get a degree for my future life. We heard about this company, that sends athletes to America to play and study; and we thought it could be a perfect idea for me to keep playing, participate at the tournaments, and study and the same time. 

It is such a great opportunity for international athletes to get almost a free a degree by playing their sport. I will explain you how does this process go. The company that I went though "4rsport", submit your information, resume and video online at their website, where all the coaches from America have an access to see your profile and your video of playing. Coaches  have all the right to contact and start recruiting the player. Coach and player talk about scholarships such as tennis and academic; about housing and tuition. If both side agreed, school send the I 20 form to a player and in a couple months a player is at school. 

   It happened with me and with a lot of my friends who got accepted in college in America. It is a amazing chance for a person to develop yourself in different country.

      

Tennis Strategies for any type of players.

I started playing tennis at a late age.  I wanted to improve fast because I wanted to hit how the professionals do and have a good workout with my partners. I found myself really frustrated because I wanted to hit hard and play competitively against players beyond my level. The main problem was that I lacked experience and knowledge. 

          In tennis, a player uses different strategies that both enhance his own strengths and exploit his opponent's weaknesses in order to gain the advantage and win more points. Players specialize in a certain style of play, focusing on what they do best as a means of beating their opponents. Based on their style, there are three types: baseliners, volleyers and all-court players.

Roder Federer, at his powerful volley shot.

          A baseliner plays from the back of the tennis court, around the baseline, preferring to trade groundstrokes rather than to come up to the net (except in certain situations). A volleyer tries to approach the net and hit volleys, putting pressure on the opponent. All-court players fall somewhere in between. A tennis player usually determines his/her strategies based on his/her weaknesses.

          A serve and volleyer has a great net game, is quick around the net, and has fine touch for volleys. Serve and volleyers come up to the net at every opportunity when serving. They are almost always attackers and can hit many winners with varieties of volleys and drop volleys. The serve-and-volleyers' strategy is to put pressure on the opponent to try to hit difficult passing shots. This strategy is extremely effective against pushers.

Serena Williams, hitting the incredible forehand from the baseline.

          An offensive or aggressive baseliner tries to win the point by hitting winners from the back of the court, attacking with fast penetrating balls that the opponent cannot reach or return effectively to get them back in the point. Being an offensive baseliner player requires a deadly array of shots and shot-types. Offensive baseliners normally have at least one great groundstroke, forehand or backhand. The best offensive baseliners have a huge serve to go with a great groundstroke or can hit huge groundstrokes off both wings.

          A defensive baseliner (pusher) returns every ball and relies on the opponent making mistakes. He has consistent shots, makes few errors of his own while making it difficult for opponents to hit winners. The game of the defensive counter-puncher has more to do with physical endurance and determination to retrieve un-retrievable balls as well as mental stamina.  Speed and agility are keys for the pusher, as well as a willingness to patiently chase down every ball to frustrate opponents.

Tennis Court Dimensions 

          

All-court players have aspects of every tennis style, whether that is offensive baseliner, defensive counter-puncher or serve-and-volleyer. They usually have an attacking game, mixing some groundstrokes and volleys to keep the opponent guessing. However, their game often revolves around "constructing" a point to where they will be able to approach the net and put away an easy volley or pulling their opponent into the net and hitting a passing shot. Counter-punchers often excel on slow courts, such as clay courts. The court gives them extra time to chase down shots and it is harder for opponents to create winners. Counter-punchers are often particularly strong players at low-level play, where opponents cannot make winners with regularity.

Tennis Tips

          I passionately dedicated to bringing you the most informative, up-to-date advice, articles and reviews on a wide range of always interesting - and sometimes controversial - tennis topics that wait just for you. Whether you're a beginner looking for advice on which racquet to buy, a parent seeking guidance on the best competitive pathway for your child, an advanced player looking to improve your forehand volley, or a player looking for tennis tips, there's something here for every level of player...including high quality tennis instruction, coaching advice and helpful tennis tips on all facets of the game.

           If we're talking about very young children,sign them up at a local 'tennis for beginners' class. If they really enjoy the game, I strongly recommend that you supplement your child's tennis by feeding him or her balls at every opportunity. I'm sure any coach will be more than happy to have you do this. 

          But no matter what age you are, it is imperative that you get some expert coaching. Without it, it's guaranteed that you'll develop a poor technical foundation for your strokes, which will not only severely limit your future playing level, but, over time, will also increase the chances of incurring injuries like tennis elbow.

                                                                                     Tennis Tips Video:

 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nDZppN7BfYI

          What is the best age to start playing? The younger the better! Tennis for beginners is much easier when you're very young. 

 Most touring pros started playing before they turned 10, and in many cases, much younger!  For instance, Andre Agassi's father, Mike, first introduced Andre to tennis "before he could walk, before he could talk, before he could even sit." Mike Agassi had "read somewhere that the first muscle a baby develops is the one that allows him to focus his eyes.

And so, even before my new baby boy was released from Sunrise Hospital...I designed a special mobile for his crib that consisted of a tennis ball dangling from a wooden Garcia tennis racquet." (Quoted from The Agassi Story by Mike Agassi). 

                                                                             

My Daily Life As A Tennis Player

People always ask me, “What do you like about tennis?” And honestly, I don’t have an answer to that. It’s just something that I do, that I’ve done for the past ten years, and I will do for the rest of my life. I can’t imagine a life without tennis. 

I lived and breathed tennis seven days a week. A typical day for me is to practice five or six hours with my friends and our coach.  Then I did intense few hours of homework. The next morning I start over.

I know that might seem like a lot, but the nonstop practicing and tournaments kept me motivated. I always want to push myself to do my best. Most of my friends play tennis as much as I do, so my schedule lets me hang out with them. 

If you want to be the best at anything, whether it’s a sport, academics or music, you have to dedicate yourself to it. I just feel that for me to be competitive, I really have to practice a lot to improve my technique. I’ve seen first-hand how this has changed my game.

I have a lot of tennis trophies, but I have two favorites. One is my very first big trophy. I was sixteen and was playing ITF tournament in Kolkata, India. Me and doubles partner won the doubles tournament Grade III. It was a huge accomplishment for me. Every time I feel that my game is a little off, I just look at it to remind myself of how far I’ve come. The other one was a National Singles Tournament in Moscow, Russia, where I took a second place after my doubles partner, I like that it is unique and that it represents my best performance so far in a national competition.

So hopefully one day I’ll play professionally. For now, I have to get back to practice

Live as a Tennis Player

Hey everyone! I hoped you enjoyed my first post :)

          I am trying to talk about how tennis helped a lot of  students and especially international students to get a broad degree. I have playing tennis since I was ten years old. I had a dream to be a professional tennis played till eighteen years old. Tennis was the only topic on my mind. I was waking up and going to sleep consumed by tennis. I was a home-schooled pupil. I had a letter and a permission from the International Tennis Federation to have an excused attendance at school, because of my tennis practices, tournaments, and traveling. So, basically I went to school only when I had to turn in papers, or to take midterm tests or any kind of exams.
         My daily schedule consisted of waking up early at 8:00 a.m., having a quick breakfast, and going to tennis practice, which started at 9:00 a.m. and lasted till 11:00 a.m. Some days could take a little bit longer than others. After finishing morning practice, we would have lunch with my coaches and friends, rest for a few hours at the coach office , and we would be back on the courts from 4:00 p.m. till 6:00 p.m. for the evening practice. Twice per week after evening practice, we had a running and weight lighting exercises at the gym, working with the personal trainer coach. That was my day to day life.