December 30, 2025
Was Tim Mayotte on to something? John Williams was the popular head tennis pro at Boulder Country Club in the good old days. He invited me to come up and attend a clinic and exhibition by Tim Mayotte who was ranked as high as #7 in the world while winning an Olympic silver medal and […]
December 26, 2025
I like to give players a little test on the important aspects of tennis. They are asked to put the five dimensions in the correct order of importance. Can you pass the test? Depth Spin Power Consistency Direction
December 26, 2025
Carlos Goffi was a coach of a young left handed player from Douglaston, New York who became the number 1 player in the world. Can you name him? Goffi wrote the book Tournament Tough and is credited with using a stoplight concept to assist players in shot selection and point play. Many coaches have, like […]
December 25, 2025
She’s a little pixie…this 8 year old. Eleanor seems to possess an innate respect for good form on the tennis court. Recently, we tried to expand her skills on the two handed backhand. I showed her how to hold the racquet choked up in her significant other hand (Welby Van Horn) and to toss the […]
December 15, 2025
Sally and I were in New York waiting between shifts to watch some US OPEN tennis. We took a seat on a bench and a friendly fella asked if he could join us. He introduced himself as Don Grensted from California and said he was a tennis teaching professional. In the course of our conversation, […]
December 12, 2025
A player has a well orchestrated backhand unit turn and makes an aggressive swing at the two hander. Occasionally, the ball finds the sweet spot and a beautiful topspin cross court finds its target. More often than not, the ball caroms with a thud from the bottom edge of the racquet and goes fifteen higher […]
December 12, 2025
The year was 1991 and Denver was invaded by millions of the dreaded Miller moths. At the Inverness club, they took a special liking to the indoor courts. Those pesky intruders would camp out on the backdrops behind the courts. When players would enter the courts, hundreds of these agitated assassins would show their displeasure […]
December 10, 2025
Truncated ….shortened in duration or extent. System 5 would identify a Madison Keys forehand preparation as a number 6-7…exceedingly lengthy. Most groundstrokes in the modern era finish over the opposite shoulder at a 4 or 5. What about those groundstrokes that are truncated on the through swing? Pete Sampras at 10 years of age had […]
December 7, 2025
Pistol Pete Maravich played basketball for Louisiana State University and averaged over 44 points for thee years before there was a three point line. If he’d played with a three point line, Pete would have averaged 57 points per game. He was the most dazzling player on the planet rivaled only by Michael J and […]
December 4, 2025
My first tennis job began at The Jewish Community Center in Denver on Leetsdale Boulevard. Abe Polanski was my boss and we got along great and took a number of fly fishing trips together to The Eagle River near Vail. He told great stories and loved to play the harmonica in the car. We had […]
December 4, 2025
Coach Gay West inquired if I might want to coach The JV Girls Tennis at Kent Denver. I accepted believing such a premier program would have pretty dedicated players at all levels. Our first day of practice was held at Arapahoe Tennis Club. I introduced myself and asked the players to share their name and […]
December 4, 2025
I joined Randy Ross for two four year stints coaching Varsity 2 boys tennis at Kent Denver. There were noticeable changes from the 2000-2004 teams to the 2015-2019 squads. I can’t remember players using cell phones in the early years. A dozen years later, I had to confiscate cell phones before players left the bus […]
December 4, 2025
Most people believe that Andy Roddick started this serve and surely he achieved the best results with it. He’s kind of like Dick Fosbury who revolutionized high jumping with The Fosbury Flop. These days you’re seeing more and more of it with player like Caroline Garcia and Belinda Bencic adopting this motion. It’s reported that […]
December 4, 2025
Andre Agassi has been a favorite player since we saw his dazzling play when he was ten years old. i decided to name this drill after him. The coach hand feeds 4 balls and the first ball is … Average speed. The second is… Accelerated and the third and fourth are… Agassi Ask […]
December 4, 2025
Michelle Sie scheduled a lesson in 1988 and said that her second serve was nowhere to be found. As she began hitting a few, it was obvious what the primary cause was. Michelle had an aggressive forehand using a semi western grip and just carried that grip to her serve. It produced a screwball […]
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