Taylor Townsend: When Players Need To Lose Weight

Based off the article: http://www.si.com/tennis/beyond-baseline/2012/09/07/taylor-townsend-usta-controversy

Article summary: USTA (Patrick McEnroe) decided not to fund Taylor Townsend's travel despite her being the best junior player turning pro.  Because of backlash they retracted it though.  This was way back in 2012.  But I would like to use this instance to illustrate my point.

Let me make one thing clear before finishing this blog.  I am DEFENDING Townsend and players that have weight to lose.

Rant: Skinny people always think that losing weight is the answer to everything.  You can't pay rent...you need to lose weight (even though healthy food costs more and it seems to make you hungry still).  Do you need a new car...lose weight.  It's understandable that people confuse success with being thin.  But, as a coach, I take pride in losing weight to be the LOGICAL conclusion for a player to have.  I don't bring it up because it is not necessary.  NOT NECESSARY.

What happened with all those great looking male players the USTA is fostering?  How come they aren't winning?  They all look great.  Do you think MAYBE, PERHAPS playing tennis is more about winning the matches than it is about looking good when you lose?  When Taylor wins or loses she looks like she can go another 2 sets but that is because she is fat and out of shape?  That is the best coaching you can come up with?  Trying to make it harder for someone to play matches because you think they are overweight is like revoking someone's gym membership because they don't have muscles.  It doesn't even make sense.  "You are the best player we got but you can't roll with us unless you fit better in those dresses."  I'm sure there is more to it than that, but people who seem to think that telling you that you are out of shape helps you as a person is LAME.  FOSTERING the habits that lead to a logical conclusion of weight loss on purpose or as a result is way more tactful.

Why You Should Lose Weight for Tennis

Sigh...alright now to the actual LOGIC.  The only real reason to lose weight is so that you can improve your footwork stamina.  More weight pretty much improves everything above your waist except for flexibility.  More weight, less effort above waist, more effort below waist.  Bigger people naturally hit the ball harder.

If you find yourself unable to move well at the end of 2 sets of play, you should start strengthening your footwork.  You can strengthen your legs faster than you can lose weight.  But it should be a testament to the level of tennis you are playing.  You like to play a certain way, you need you legs to do it.  If your legs are about as strong as they can get for now, lose weight.  Fair enough.

Are You Even Fat?

Also there is a different between being fat and having a muscular core.  It is ridiculous to think that all over the body you workout and your muscles get BIGGER but your abs are the only muscle that gets SMALLER.  The core is responsible for breathing and for general flat power.  Your stomach muscles expand and contract to take in and expel air.  You would think that big strong abs would be important.  If you have tiny weak abs, you have to raise your whole upper body to breathe.  That is easy to do just standing there.  But in the middle of athletic activity it's difficult.  Kind of like when people jog for a while and then they have to stop and walk.  The more muscle you utilize, the more air you need.

A general rule of thumb is if you poke spots on your body and your finger sinks way down, fat.  Hard at the surface, muscle.  No one grows the fat UNDERNEATH the muscle.  If that was the case, every fat person would have a six pack.

The BMI

The Body/Mass index is not nice to people who are THICK.  I weight about 230, 240 lbs depending on who tries to pick me up and I actively play at a 4.5 level.  5'9" tall.  That puts my body mass index at 35 which makes me SUPER FAT.  This is a picture of me.

Now I'm not by any means Dwayne Johnson....but OBESE???  Yet people still tell me "You MIGHT have to start exercising 30 minutes a day ACCORDING TO THIS CHART."  Seriously if I lost enough weight to fit the BMI I would probably die.  

The Bonus of Weight: Center of Gravity

Scientifically speaking, you have a center of gravity that moves around alot.  Your ability to maintain balance is based on your awareness of your center of gravity.  When you swing your racket forward, your center of gravity moves backward to compensate making you lose power and balance a little.  A lot of players stay rooted into the ground when they hit balls because they are trying to cancel this effect.  However, the more mass your body commands, the less this effect happens.

Simply put: In those instances in which a player cannot root into the ground, like when they are stretched out, they lose the ability to generate power.  Heavier players have the power advantage because even in midair their body is more steady and easy to control.

A Warning for Weight Loss

I am just a coach.  But when you decide to lose weight through tennis fitness a few things happen that you should be warned of:

1.  Your muscles will enlarge and tighten which will push fat to the surface.  Muscles grow faster than you lose fat.  Your problem areas will probably look bigger and get more doughy.  THEN people will tell you you are getting fatter when really you are getting in better shape.

2.  After they say that, you will try to eat more healthy, however your body will need certain nutrients and will probably crave a certain type of food.  It's one thing to eat like a bike riding hipster, its another to be an athlete.  You don't want to deprive your muscles to lose weight faster.  You will injure yourself and that will stop your training all together.  Everyone is different.

3.  You might be in great shape and have about 10% body fat.  That doesn't mean you will look like a model.  Hey....Serena Williams will never look like Maria Sharapova and vice versa.  You might STILL have a belly or a little underarm waddle.  It's genetics...if you don't like it, get surgery, or wear clothes that highlight the good stuff.  More importantly, be proud of what you've accomplished.

The idea is that you make the adjustments in tennis as you go along.  It's pretty simple, your opponents beat you up in rallies, upgrade your strokes.  You find yourself breathing hard after every point, jog more.  You are experiencing joint pain, lift weights.  Your legs are getting tired in matches, lose weight.  The life lessons come with the success.  Rarely in tennis is you losing as simple as "you need to lose weight."  If your love of tennis demands that your body be lighter, so be it.

Tennis Game: Hard Work, Talent and Winning

John McEnroe said, in his book "You Cannot Be Serious" that his training mostly consisted of match practice.  He just felt his way through the matches and figured out how to play in real time.

However, once Ivan Lendl became popular so did the popularity of working very hard off the court and beating up your opponent.

Both of them were really great champoins so it is hard to say which training method is better.  As a matter of fact, many rivalries are built between the hard worker and the talent.  Agassi/Sampras, Federer/Nadal, Evert/Navratilova, Serena/Azarenka are a few.  The rivalries prove that there is no one way of being a champion.

One thing is for sure though.  Tennis is a sport where, once you get to a certain level, you need to at least work on the other style to compete.  All the talent in the world is not going to help if the opponent wears you out.  Conversely all the drilling in the world isn't going to help if you don't have a weapon or skill that you rely on.  I doubt McEnroe played all those matches and never got on the exercise bike once.

If tennis is a sport that you chose to be serious with, it is important that you use it to better yourself as a person.  Mind, Body, and Soul = Scrimmage (practice matches), Drills, and Matches.  Even if you only have a limited amount of time to play tennis, do this in equal parts.  If done correctly, win or lose, you will at least know beyond the shadow of a doubt that you are improving as a complete player.  If not then the culmination of you as a player, the match (the soul) will falter.

Seriously, think about it yourself.  If someone is seriously trying to tell you how to be or what to do as a tennis player and they don't play well in matches, how much do you care about their advice?  Doesn't every excuse they come up with after that discount them twice as much?  Do you want to be that person?  ARE you that person?

Playing tennis isn't that hard.  Any idiot can cut highlights out of a practice session and call themselves a great player.  But playing tennis well in matches that you deserve to be in is another beast entirely.  They don't give out bag tags for the most hours on the practice court or the most unbelievable shots

Good luck on the journey :)

Tennis Tactic: Easy Points Off Slice Serve

There is a difference between "tactics" and "strategy."  A tactic is something you do physically to achieve an end.  Like if you use a backhand slice purposefully to stop an opponent from being powerful or a moonball to make a player run back.

A strategy is when you use one or more tactics to force and error or outright win a point.  Like if you know your opponent has a bad backhand off a low ball.  So you used your slice to get a weak reply.  Then when you have a short ball, you hit the ball to the other side and approach the net for a volley.

I will ATTEMPT to explain how to use the slice serve as an effective tactic.  However, you need a powerful flat serve to make this tactic supremely effective.

For those of you that don't know, a slice serve is when you put a sidespin on the ball that causes the ball to curve away from your dominant arm (right arm slice breaks to the left).  A slice serve is usually the first serve I teach because putting sidespin on the ball is actually the easiest serve to do.

A flat serve is just you hitting the serve as hard as you can without missing.  No spin.

The way to do a tactical slice serve is to hit it easy with mostly slice so that the second bounce happens on or before the baseline.  If the opponent is standing on the baseline, they will have to lunge forward to hit it.  However your slice is breaking to the left.  Their brain will register the curve before the shortness of depth.  Thus they will run towards the curve along the baseline and not forward.  Right???

The tricky part is that the ball can't have too much energy.  If so and your opponent is ready for it, you are open for an aggressively angled ball.

 You can get away with a weak dink serve too.  But it would be much better if you have it short and sliding away.

That is the tactic.  To use it really effectively you have to use the powerful flat serve to keep them honest.  This way if your opponent gets smart and moves up to receive your serve, you blast a fast one so they can't react.  Every lefty learns this trick early but it works on everyone.

Counter Tactic: The counter (the reversal move) for this tactic is to fake like you are expecting a flat serve by standing back behind the baseline.  Then making a big jump forward to receive once the server tosses.  Since the server is determining the serve from your positioning, you can control what serve they are using (NICE!).  Take that time to try and distinguish the differences in form between the flat and slic serve.  If you want to really mess with them you can start anywhere.

Hope that works out for you guys :)

Questions and comments at the bottom please.

Tennis On Court Etiquette

The game of tennis is pretty etiquette heavy.  It is an upper middle class type sport.  In america, a lot of courts are accessible, thus allowing anyone to play tennis.  However, what separates the civilized from the beast is how you conduct yourself on the court.  Here are some things that won't get you in trouble, but you might lost some class points.

1.  Talking to Your Opponent - Many people have the type of personality in which they get chatty when they are under stress and they turn to their opponents to hold conversations with.  Professionals never talk to each other.  If they know they are talkative, they will talk to their coaches.  If you are chatty, bring a friend (make sure they know not to talk back), talk to yourself or your racket or your partner.  Keep everything concise.  Absolutely NO conversation with opponents between points or during.

Sidenote: Some people feel that talking to yourself ruins your game.  But that is usually because you are most likely going to talk to yourself when you are losing.  It is like someone who reads out loud when they are trying to comprehend something better.  Just keep it short.  There are PLENTY of champions that talk a lot.

2.  Let it GO - Hey!  Something bad happens.  You feel cheated.  That is what it is, leave it alone.  When the game gets tight, everyone wants balls to go out and they, subconciously, force that into their calls.  There was never a time when you thought something was going out and then you blinked or something and called it out anyway?

3.  No Cellphones - One of the worst things is when someone walks right off the court to answer their cellphone.  If you can watch a movie with your cellphone off, you can play a match.  There will probably never be a time when this is acceptable.  If your calls are so important that you cannot ignore your phone, let everyone know in advance.

4.  Time Wasting - One of the other worst things is when a person takes WAY too much time in between points and changeovers.  Sometimes they play over their body's ability and get over tired.  But tennis is a sport where you need to figure out how to pace yourself.  20-30 seconds in between points, 1.5 minutes - 2 minutes a change over.

5.  Police your support - Make sure your friends that come to see you support you in a proper way.  If they don't, you NEED to talk to them.

The general idea is: at all times, you show proper respect to your opponent no matter how you feel about them.

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What Tennis Partner Should You Pick

Recently I decided to up my level of play as a teaching pro.  I signed up for a few leagues and I want to get in a better playing mode.  The only problem is that all my practice partners are pretty busy this time of year.

So I go online and look for some practice partners and I've found out a few things.

1.  Find a partner that is close.  If you don't, then you two have to be really good at scheduling.  No one wants to travel off the freeway and wind all around your neighborhood to find your courts hidden in a corner.  If you have courts like that then meet up at a local tennis center.  Its one thing if you are using courts for your home court in a league.  But if you are asking someone just to come there to play, your courts should be two turns from a main street.

2.  Get a partner that wants to work on the same thing.  Different players are predisposed to different types of training.  Some players just hit.  

Some players work on match type situations.  

Everyone has their own way of doing things.

3.  Don't practice with beautiful people unless you are beautiful.  Just dont.  Trust me.  Waste of time.  They are usually a whole level worse than they say they are.  

4.  Don't use hitting as your primary form of exercise.  If you like to hit a bunch, that is fine.  Once you get used to hitting it will take really long to wear you out.  Your body will just get more efficient and you wont see the results as fast.  Also you could be succeptable to repetitive injuries like knee problems or tennis elbow when your muscles get fatigued.

5.  Make sure of the type of practice partner you have BEFORE you go to their place.  Narrow down the disappointment.

6.  You get what you pay for.  If you are the type of person that is very anal retentive about time.  You should pay a coach to hit with you.  Besides, if your partner lives close, ten minutes is usually the worst they can be late.  My practice partners throw the time around everywhere.  I understand they have priorities.  The higher level the player, the more they tend to be needed outside of tennis.  

The general idea is just to practice with like minded people.  If you play matches, only practice with people that will play matches with you.  If you have a break from matches, then work on some things through hitting.  Good hitting partners are hard to find.

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