Elliott Pettit’s Tennis Tips – 4/23/10 Don't Fight the Power!

Hello Tennis Fans:

For those of you who hit a two-handed backhand, I'm sure you are familiar with swinging what feels like as hard as you can and sometimes seeing the ball come off the strings with no real pace or spin at all. What has a tendency to happen to everyone aside from Rafael Nadal, is that your dominant arm tries to steer your racquet through the zone while your non-dominant arm also tries to take the lead; the results are disappointing. Instead of using your two arms and having them work harmoniously through the stroke, increasing your power as they team up, what happens is they end up fighting each other and effectively cancelling each other out.

For you to hit your two-handed backhand as sweet and as pure as you possibly can, you must make your dominant arm back off and let the non-dominant arm take over. If you are right handed, this means that your right hand is no longer dictating where the racquet goes through the zone, it is now along for guidance as the left arm powers the racquet up and through the ball. With the right arm now playing more of a supporting role, you are now free to swing faster and more through the ball than you were before.

Please post your thoughts and have a good weekend!

Elliott Pettit

Elliott Pettit is iTUSA's Director of Tennis at the Hyatt Regency Scottsdale at Gainey Ranch. Please visit our website at http://www.itusatennis.com and email me at elliott@itusatennis.com.

For anyone interested improving your tennis game please be sure to visit http://www.tennisswinganalysis.com to view our Free Tennis Swing Video Analysis Program.

  

Elliott Pettit’s Tennis Tips – 4/22/10 Before and After a Match!

Hello Tennis Fans:

I'm sure everyone has had plenty of times where the most preparation they did before a match was unzip their bag and take their racquet out, right? Chances are, you probably started a little slowly and unless you were being physically active before the match, you're lucky you didn't pull a muscle. A lot of injuries end up happening because pre-match preparation is one of the most commonly neglected areas of tennis.

Before you start playing, you should first take about 5 minutes to get your heart rate up and get your blood flowing to your muscles with either a light jog or even walking. Then, instead of doing the traditional static stretches where you just stand in one place try about 5 minutes of dynamic stretching where you move and stretch at the same time. Dynamic stretching is more preferable to static stretching before a match because it warms up the same muscles you will be using on court.

Post-match stretching, also one of the most neglected areas in tennis, is equally important. How well you stretch after a match is going to determine how good your body feels the following day. Static stretching after a match is perfectly fine since you no longer have to worry about warming certain muscle groups up. It is during this period that you should take some extra time to really emphasize the areas that will have a tendency to tighten up after rigorous play; ie, the hamstrings, shoulders, and lower back.

If you want to keep yourself feeling great and playing for longer, follow the advice above and see where it takes you!

Please post your thoughts and see you for Friday's lesson!

Elliott Pettit

Elliott Pettit is iTUSA's Director of Tennis at the Hyatt Regency Scottsdale at Gainey Ranch. Please visit our website at http://www.itusatennis.com and email me at elliott@itusatennis.com.

For anyone interested improving your tennis game please be sure to visit http://www.tennisswinganalysis.com to view our Free Tennis Swing Video Analysis Program.

  

Elliott Pettit’s Tennis Tips – 4/21/10 Forehands, Forehands, Forehands!!!

Hello Tennis Fans:

In order to be proficient in something, you have to practice, right? So in order to be good at a certain stroke in tennis, you must practice it. You must practice it over and over until it is so automatic that you could do it in your sleep. So in order to develop your forehand into a weapon, you must not only practice hitting it on the forehand side, but on the backhand side as well!

The next time you are out playing a practice set, really try to make yourself hit as many forehands as you possibly can. The only balls that should be struck as a backhand are balls that are near the backhand sideline or that are coming to your backhand side with serious pace. By doing this, you are not only training your forehand to be able to attack your opponent from all areas of the court, but you are also training your feet to work harder on every point. Consistently practicing this way over a period of time should yield very positive results in the forehand department as well as benefit you by increasing your mobility!

Please post your thoughts and see you for Thursday's lesson!

Elliott Pettit

Elliott Pettit is iTUSA's Director of Tennis at the Hyatt Regency Scottsdale at Gainey Ranch. Please visit our website at http://www.itusatennis.com and email me at elliott@itusatennis.com.

For anyone interested improving your tennis game please be sure to visit http://www.tennisswinganalysis.com to view our Free Tennis Swing Video Analysis Program.

  

Elliott Pettit’s Tennis Tips – 4/20/10 Serving Up Some Variety!

Hello Tennis Fans:

When you are trying to hold serve, unless you are hitting the lines each time, the worst thing you can do is continue to serve the ball at the same speed with the same spin. Even if you are hitting the ball 115 mph, the more times your opponent sees the exact same thing, the more you become a ball machine for your opponent groove strokes from. Therefore, it becomes quite important to vary the spin, pace, and placement of your serve in order to keep your opponent off balance on your service games.

Take a baseball pitcher for example; generally, the ones winning the Cy Young award each year are not the ones who throw one pitch over and over again. The great pitchers use their good pitches to set up their great pitches; the high fastball that sets up the curveball. In tennis, this translates to using the serve that you are good at- say, a slice out wide, to set up the serve that you are great at- the flat serve up the T.

If you are able to continuously change the looks your opponent gets on your serve, you will have successfully given yourself a much better chance to hold serve each and every time you step to the line.

Please post your thoughts and see you for Wednesday's lesson!

Elliott Pettit

Elliott Pettit is iTUSA's Director of Tennis at the Hyatt Regency Scottsdale at Gainey Ranch. Please visit our website at http://www.itusatennis.com  and email me at elliott@itusatennis.com.

For anyone interested improving your tennis game please be sure to visit http://www.tennisswinganalysis.com to view our Free Tennis Swing Video Analysis Program.

  

Elliott Pettit’s Tennis Tips – 4/19/10 Squeeze and Freeze!

Hello Tennis Fans:

For some people, volleys are the single most frustrating shot in the game. Players who struggle with volleys loathe coming to the net because to them it does not represent an easy way to win the point, but rather a humiliating way to lose it. The most common mistake I see in volleys at the club level is a player trying to do too much; taking the racquet back, chopping the racquet downward and finishing at the ankles is more than likely going to increase your chances of missing the volley than making it.

Instead of all the unnecessary movement, try this; "Squeeze and Freeze." From the moment you make contact with the ball your mind should be on two things only: squeezing the grip and freezing the arm. The squeezing of the grip is going to ensure that your contact is solid and you get depth and power to the shot and the freezing of the arm is going to prevent your racquet head from dropping below the level of the net causing a loss of control on the volley.

Watch any of the best volleyers in the world, the one thing you will notice that's common to all of them is just how little they move their racquet when volleying. It's no surprise or secret, you can have the same great volley just by following the simple rule of "Squeeze and Freeze."

Thanks and see you for Tuesday's lesson!

Elliott Pettit

Elliott Pettit is iTUSA's Director of Tennis at the Hyatt Regency Scottsdale at Gainey Ranch. Please visit our website at http://www.itusatennis.com and email me at elliott@itusatennis.com.

For anyone interested improving your tennis game please be sure to visit http://www.tennisswinganalysis.com/ to view our Free Tennis Swing Video Analysis Program.

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Elliott Pettit’s Tennis Tips – 4/16/10 Backhanded Success!

Hello Tennis Fans:

Having trouble with accuracy on your backhand side? Instead of trying to control the ball's direction with your hands, use your lead shoulder to control where you want the ball to go.

So, if you're right handed, and you want to hit up the line, during your takeback, be sure to align your right shoulder with the deuce side corner and for crosscourt make sure the right shoulder is pointing into the ad-side corner!

Let me know and post your thoughts.

Thanks and see you for Monday's lesson!

Elliott Pettit

Elliott Pettit is iTUSA's Director of Tennis at the Hyatt Regency Scottsdale at Gainey Ranch. Please visit our website at http://www.itusatennis.com and email me at elliott@itusatennis.com.

For anyone interested improving your tennis game please be sure to visit http://www.tennisswinganalysis.com/ to view our Free Tennis Swing Video Analysis Program.

@ iTUSA Twitter:
http://twitter.com/itusatennis

@ iTUSA You Tube:
http://www.youtube.com/itusatennis

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Elliott Pettit’s Tennis Tips – 4/15/10 Mental Tennis: Keeping Your Head!

Hello Tennis Fans:

Letting yourself show frustration to your opponent is the first step along the path of losing your head during a tennis match. Mental Meltdowns begin with a simple frustrated swipe through the air after you miss a ball, then evolves into a tirade of verbal self-flagellation, and finally comes into full bloom with a throwing of the racquet. Now, unless you're John McEnroe, which only one of us is, this type of behavior is not going to do anything positive for your game. It becomes for your oppenent the equivalent to a shark smelling blood in the water, they look across the net and see a wounded fish and begin to circle for the kill.

We spend countless hours on the practice court hitting shot after shot to make ourselves better but hardly any time working on the mental side of tennis. What good is that inside out forehand you've worked so hard at mastering going to do for you when you are too tense and angry hit it? The best advice I can give to you would be this: BREATH. It sounds silly, and also sounds like it should be second nature but you would be surprised how many players lose points, as well as their heads, partly because they are not breathing during a point. Breathing is the best way to keep you loose and relaxed when you are playing, make sure that you get yourself into a pattern of exhaling each time you make contact with the ball to develop a pattern of proper respiration during a point.

Once you have gotten used to breathing while you are playing, consider this; it's easier to win at a game of poker when you know what your opponent holds in their hand, right? Don't give your opponent on the tennis court the same luxury by letting them know what you have in your head! Learn to become nothing but a wall of positive emotion on the court and watch your results improve!

Let me know and post your thoughts.

Thanks and see you for tomorrow’s lesson!

Elliott Pettit

Elliott Pettit is iTUSA's Director of Tennis at the Hyatt Regency Scottsdale at Gainey Ranch. Please visit our website at http://www.itusatennis.com and email me at elliott@itusatennis.com.

For anyone interested improving your tennis game please be sure to visit http://www.tennisswinganalysis.com/ to view our Free Tennis Swing Video Analysis Program.

@ iTUSA Twitter:
http://twitter.com/itusatennis

@ iTUSA You Tube:
http://www.youtube.com/itusatennis

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