Often when we see our opponents coming up to the net, we tend to get overly excited and want to "teach them a lesson" by passing them. It feels good when that works but many times that lesson is ours to learn… And that's because in our excitement of putting the ball away we often overhit and end up making errors.

It took me ...

Read more...

At recreational level, the serve return is one of the most overlooked tennis strokes.
It is one of the least practiced strokes and most of the time, unfortunately, it is treated like a regular ground-stroke… Far from it - when returning serve, the ball comes from a higher level, it is faster and the spin is most of the time different than the one of a regular ground-stroke.

The following pieces of advice will make you understand how to maximize your chances for a better serve ...

Read more...

Most of the teaching resources tell you to serve with a Continental grip but if you want to add more spin to your serves try moving your hand on the grip slightly to the left (if you are right-handed player)...

This type of grip (also called Eastern Backhand) will allow you to hit better kick serves. Of course you will have trouble with the flat serve and you might lose some pace but you will gain the necessary spin to improve your serve consistency. 

Read more...

I thought about writing this article after a match I recently played against one of my top students.
What happened during that match? Even though my student is much younger than me (he is 17), I found myself overpowered in the matter of strokes and quickness by him. This usually makes me proud to see it in my students but in that particular situation I had to save my pride by trying to not lose to him. :)

Read more...