September 10, 2022
When 96 year old Queen Elizabeth died earlier this week, a person close to her postulated on what advice she might have given to Prince Charles. ’Keep calm and carry on’. It made me think of US OPEN semi finalist Aryna Sabalenka. In the past year, I had used the words ‘simmering cauldron’ to describe […]
September 10, 2022
It’s a rainy morning in Denver this morning so no tennis for me. I switched on the TV hoping the Tennis Channel might have an exciting match. They were showing a pickle ball men’s doubles match. I watched for ten minutes and, in my mind, tried to compare it to the incredible US OPEN match […]
September 6, 2022
It’s US OPEN time again and the tennis has been cwaaaazzzy great! Former pro and outstanding coach Brad Gilbert has used the word ‘donation’ to describe unforced errors that occur during the hotly contested matches at The Billie Jean King National Tennis Center. His use of the word prompted me to think that club players […]
June 10, 2022
Ok…it’s surely a passing fancy that will have no place in tennis. It is rumored that tennis pros in the Atlanta area are teaching a new and deceptive backhand. The idea is really rather ingenious. Soon after contact, the player lets out a loud shriek and immediately puts her head on her shoulder and pretends […]
March 22, 2022
An older, somewhat wiser man left golf behind six years ago saying…’Enough, I’d rather die of natural causes.’ I read a quote this week attributed to Matt Chandler who’d call temper outbursts like Kyrgios and Djokovic’s as ‘one more lap around the cul-de-sac of stupidity.’ Very creative indeed…wish I’d thought of that.
December 5, 2021
We asked Coach Juan and a junior player to do a mindful tennis demonstration today and it went quite well indeed. We timed the duo and they had a one minute and seven second rally. Thinking back on the rest of practice, that point surely was four to five times the length of any other […]
March 3, 2021
First off…I’m glad that Madison Keys is able to compete again after this difficult year. Kudos to her for a nice two set win over Belinda Bencic this week. But…watching her self destruct today vs. Sakkari was tough to watch. One wonders if she has a coach and if she does can the coach not […]
February 21, 2021
A very young tennis pro taught a junior group today with three four year olds. The twins arrived five minutes early with their dad as I was setting up targets and the junior net. This is when I learned that assumptions are dangerous. How naive of me to think the dad would wait until the […]
February 7, 2021
A tennis student battled hard with her partner today. After starting slowly and losing the first set, they came back from 3-5 in the second to capture the match. Sometimes a gritty win means more than a pretty win. Way to go Lara and Shawn!
February 1, 2021
Chanda Rubin was commentating tonight on the Naomi Osaka match vs. Alize Cornet of France. Osaka was hitting on all cylinders and streaked to a 5-2 lead in the first set. Rubin said that she was really ‘plugged in’ from the start and it was quite a sight to behold. I wonder what being plugged […]
January 14, 2021
Mental Toughness Training with Steffie Hi, I’m Steffie Skarwecki, Sport Psychologist, Tennis Professional and certified Mental Toughness Trainer. In my experience with tennis players of all levels and ages, I have found a common theme: players know very little about the mental side of tennis and even less about how to train for mental toughness. […]
January 3, 2021
The Head football coach for Ohio State made a revealing comment on tv last night. He said, ‘You have to play with emotion…but not let emotion play with you.’ How many tennis players do you encounter who let their emotions play with them?
November 22, 2020
It is a pretty safe bet that 99 percent of us will never be elite level tennis players, golfers, or fly fishermen. Given that, maybe it’s wise to embrace each moment trying to improve a bit each day.
November 18, 2020
Two top male tennis players were early in the match today at The Nitto ATP finals. The commentator mentioned how important it was for one player to play solidly early because he has a history of taking a detour to ‘nega town’. How are you at avoiding that change of direction after losing your serve […]
November 14, 2020
Jannik Sinner has burst onto the men’s tennis tour like a fireworks display on The Fourth of July. He seems to possess every tool in the book…and then some. Today, after racing to net to play an uncanny winner against his incredulous opponent, the announcer proclaimed, ‘he’s something special…makes the difficult look easy like the […]
September 27, 2020
The commentators on the broadcast today between The Buffalo Bills and The LA Rams said that quarterback Josh Allen of The Bills had to step up and prove he’s the guy…the one who can come through in the clutch. They said he must learn to ‘flush the negative plays’ to develop as a player. It […]
January 18, 2020
Lloyd Harris is playing in the singles finals in Adelaide. He’s a new player on the scene from South Africa. The commentators gave him a nice compliment early in his match vs. Rublev of Russia. ”He’s one who hardly ever lets big chunks of a match go by without making a change if things are […]
December 17, 2019
You play tennis 3-4 days a week in the prime league season. Besides that, you drill twice a week in the winter and you expect a lot from yourself. In competition, errors linger in your mind and negatively influence subsequent points and often games. In your time away from the court, you realize that your […]
August 29, 2019
Brad Gilbert was commenting today at The US Open. He referenced a player having a tough patch by saying…’he is in a spot of bother.’ It made me consider the spots of bother that come streaming into my life each day. Do I catastrophize them (all too often) or realize they are inevitable…can I take […]
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