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- Written by: Tom Parham
High school tennis is for everyone…almost!
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- Written by: Tom Parham
Strategy is your “game plan”; tactics are the tools you use to implement your strategy or plan.
“Levels of play” dictate strategy.
- Consistency. Keep it in. Crack your opponent with concentration, hustle, and steadiness. This is by far the most important strategy in tennis.
- Keep it deep. If it’s deep, he can’t get to the net successfully. There is great tennis “virtue” in depth.
- Keep it at a weakness. Most often his backhand; backhand passing shots are the most common tennis weakness.
- Position. Move them from side to side. Some can’t hit when running. Also, this tires your opponent, and tired players lose concentration and make errors.
If you can’t do number four, back up to number three. Can’t do number three, back up to number two. No good even then? Back up to number one!
The object is to use these four tools to force errors. Four of five points are determined by errors not by great shots.
The next best thing to an error is a short ball. Dennis Van Der Meer defines the strategy of tennis as “to attack the short ball.” The short ball is the green light to attack. This varies from player to player (and from opponent to opponent). You transfer yourself from a baseline defensive player to a net offensive player on the short ball.
An approach shot is a specific and different shot, best described as compact or shortened. It is often an underspin shot and should be directed deep and down the line.
Once at the net, overplay to the same side you approach on. Bisect the angle of your opponent’s best two passing shots and then (as Jim Verdieck of Redlands defines strategy) volley away from the source, or passer.
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For additional reading: "ABC's of Tennis Strategy" by Wayne Sabin.
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- Written by: Tom Parham
Good Coaches keep it simple. I asked Coach Leighton what were the most important groundstroke fundamentals? His response, “…You mean next to WATCH THE BALL!
Watch the ball. Many great players have developed themselves with little or no instruction simply by following this suggestion. Trust your own mechanism. Watch the ball a little longer than seems necessary. Tennis starts in your head (specifically your eyes and your brain) and moves to your feet and legs quickly. (J.W.Isenhour) This is concentration in tennis: “Watch the ball; where does it go?"
Establish a target. (“Take Dead Aim “)
Track the ball to the “hit spot.” Balance is the key to good tennis, and footwork is the clue to good balance. (Welby Van Horn) A player will probably deliver a good shot if the playerwinds up with his feet positioned properly at the completion of the shot. If tennis is the “ability to hit a changing target while moving and under stress,” then moving and concentrating are the core of the game.
Adjust to the descending ball. For all but advanced players, getting to the ball properly means to be set up so that when you “step hit” a descending ball will be in the absolutely perfect “hit spot,” whether forehand or backhand. Hitting "on the rise" comes later.
Utilize proper grips. Proper grip is essential from the outset. While no grip will atone for poor position or improper hit spot, an understanding that grip change reinforces wrist strength is essential.
Get your racquet back properly. This must be one of the tennis teacher’s most often repeated phrases.
Firm wrists in the hit zones. I put a lot of emphasis on firm wrists through the hit zone. Bjorn Borg to Nadal to now, has proven that to be questionable. I do believe even the whip shots come through the hit zone firmly.
Proper finish, or follow through. Modern shots allow a variety of acceptable follow throughs.
Return to ready. The first part of quick is ready! The player is dependent on his legs for movement, and he must understand that this is the point at which he must work hardest in tennis.
Recycle the process. The player now must be ready to repeat the above outlined fundamental on either side, for as many times as needed to win the point
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- Written by: Lane Evans
Submitted by Keith Richardson
Former Tour Player, Highly Ranked US Senior Player and Former Club Professional
Writers Note:
There is no substitute for a hitting wall. It doesn’t have to be expensive or pretty. Almost any wall will do from brick to wood to cinderblock. If there is not a wall available at your club, park or school, a building wall with a small parking lot will do nicely. Just get permission to use it first.
A great idea for CTA’s is to gather donations or have a local builder donate a hitting wall. Most builders have enough scrap left over from building a house to do the job. Perhaps a local Scout Troop could use it as a community project. Again, it doesn’t have to be complicated or expensive.
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- Written by: Lane Evans
COACH’S CORNER, Dissecting the Works of Coach Tom Parham
Volume 1-3/4/2024
Foreword
I’ve known Coach Tom Parham since 1976 when I was playing at High Point College. There has always been something very special about our relationship. I randomly took a photograph of Coach at the 1977 NAIA National Championships in Kansas City, where HPC and Atlantic Christion, now Barton College, were playing. I have been carrying that photo around with me since.
Coach Tom Parham has coached a national championship team, been inducted into just about every Hall of fame there is, mentored and given back to the game of tennis like no other.
No, he didn’t pass away. He is very much alive and well. I talk to him as much as he can stand me. Sometimes I think we were related at some point. We’ve learned from some of the same mentors. We see the sport of tennis in eerily similar ways. It’s a little scary at times. He will say thing I am thinking and vice-versa. It’s a neat experience. I cherish every second. All tennis players, coaches and professionals should be so lucky.
Our regular Summits are legendary. I embrace them whenever I can. I learn more in three hours with the ol’ coach, as I affectionally refer to him, than I learned in four years of college. I learn something new from him every time we talk or meet. It always delivers big.
He has asked me to be a part of his team of Shot Doctors to help educate high school coaches in North Carolina and beyond. It’s an honor to be alongside him on this journey. He has written a manifesto of letters, documents and books telling his stories of life, coaching, tennis, friendships, and the art of teaching.
My job, as I see it and he has directed me, is to pan through these hundreds and hundreds of pages and pan for the gold nuggets of tennis information. Once I find them, I translate them into language only mere mortals like me can understand and then distribute them to players, coaches, teaches, parents and anyone else who can benefit from their value and believe me, there is value. Stay with me…
Diving into the Driving Range of Tennis
By Tom Parham