 I decided to head to Spain in early September for a couple of reasons, one, I’ve never been, and two, I wanted to train on red clay tennis courts and see the tennis culture. At least a sample would offer more perspective on tennis and other racquet sports (more about that in my next post). The idea came from a friend of mine, Paul who suggested I contact Jeff who lives in Spain and see if I could visit him. I had met Jeff 12 years ago at his bachelor party in Casanovia, New York. We had sailed on a large lake there (Gods country). I also met his future wife, Maria, who is from Spain. Little did I know that years later I’d spend three days at their home in Casas de Benítez in Cuenca. Paul assured me that calling Jeff would be okay, though Paul didn’t exactly know where Jeff lived. This is a leap of faith, I thought, so I did it and reached out. Jeff remembered me as the guy who gave Paul a tennis racquet. Yep, that sounded about right. We talked about Spain and I asked if I could rent space from him while visiting and he wouldn’t let me pay him. He would accept tennis lessons which was perfect as I’m coming back from knee issues and some easy hitting would be perfect. My flight first landed in Zurich (great treats on Swiss Air by the way). And from there I flew into Madrid. It took about day and one half to complete my Expedia flight plan (they are the cheapest for sure because the app buys in Hotel, Car, and Flight packages rather than a la carte.). It’s cheaper to fly to Spain, get a hotel, car and breakfast than go to Maine. It’s crazy to think that but it’s true. I flew into Madrid in the morning, secured a rental car, 10.00 per day, and my Capital One Card took care of auto free auto insurance, and headed for Cuenca. I made this sound easy but it was tricky. Navigating a foreign airport with limited Spanish capability is a challenge. I took it slow and steady and if I made a mistake, corrected patiently like a missed passing shot. Once I finally got my rental car after finding the right bus to take to the rental lot, getting checked in (there appeared to be no order in the room of thirty people waiting ahead of me to get their rentals) …well that’s long a story…ha. I hopped intoKia hybrid and headed south. The first thing I experienced in Spain is roundabouts with several lanes, often unmarked, and lights in the middle when exits came up. It’s Spain. Take it slow. I did. I then drove south to Cuenca (a province of Spain) to Casa’s de Benítez. It’s about two hours south of Madrid. Along the way I passed mountains, dried fields, olive farms, cows, grape vineyards, little towns cloistered into mountain sides, country churches, an old wind mill, vast areas of desert proportion, and wind and solar farms. There was no rain on the plain of Spain. There was a drought this summer. After a couple of wrong turns in the middle of no where I found what was called Main Street. It was late at night. My hosts were there to greet me. And my three day journey started in this little desert town. I drank enough water to choke a horse when I arrived and ate fresh bread which was perfect. In the morning there was market where you could buy food and clothes. Nothing was packaged. It was bagged when ordered. The produce seller stood over bins of nuts and fruits while smoking a cigarette and focused on his deliveries. Markets closed at 2 pm for siesta. Early that morning at 9 I had coffee and a fresh bread with what I call Procuitto. In Spain, that’s ham. Also there were fresh grapes in the backyard so I could graze whenever I wanted. At siesta, Maria and Jeff made grilled chicken or lamb, fresh tapas, cheeses, breads, and fruit. It all came in courses. I think there were four. After that, we chatted, rested, went for a swim in the pool and went to play tennis. There’s no work or commerce for most citizens during this time. At 5 pm the work day starts again and finishes around 9 pm and then there is a light dinner or appetizer ending by 10:30 pm. The days lasted well into the nights. I lived long full days and never felt tired despite my long journey. A good sleep the first day fixed that. Jeff took me to a tennis court and we played. There was a Great Wall there where Forecourt is played. It’s a tennis type game played with a front wall and one side wall. It was a tremendous workout. It was hot but dry and I consumed lots of water and ate grapes. After several bike rides and tennis hitting sessions with Jeff on the great wall I decided it was time to leave. I drove East to Valencia, another 2 hour journey. There I stayed at a boutique hotel in the heart of the city that served great food and I ventured out to the Spanish Tennis Association run courts in the city. There I met up with Sergio Sergio Dronov, the head coach and founder of the at Valencia Tennis Academy where he boasts an illustrious career in tennis coaching. He has personally shaped the careers of top players like Ernests Gulbis TOP 10 ATP, Igor Andreev TOP 20 ATP, and Alisa Kleybanova TOP 10 WTA!!!!. I ended up training with him for two days at the Academy red clay tennis courts. He is known for his biomechanics expertise and he helped me greatly with my own game. We spoke about our coaching experiences and his perspective on the kinetic chain which gave me new perspectives on communicating the technical aspects to students. Hitting balls on red clay is spiritual. The crushed red brick provides a cloud-like feel unsurpassed by any surface save grass. The 90 minute training sessions included forehand, backhand and serve development. Sergio being a former satellite player a decade plus younger coached as he struck live balls. We’d stop occasionally to chat about Valencia, his family and the routines of his coaching schedule. I found this as a colleague fascinating. We plan to stay in touch and perhaps work on a business venture together. From Valencia ( the museums, beaches and tennis centers) I drove south to Castell de Xàtiva. and It’s a castle built by by Celtiberians. the It’s quite a history lesson but from what I can gather, these “Celts” (I have to laugh because I think of the Boston Celtics) built for sure the minor part of the castle which is one of two castles at the site. These Iberian tribes fell eventually to the Roman Empire because Rome had to have everything. They were not minimalistic at all. Eventually the Iberian Celtic Tribes battled off the Germanic tribes and the Roman Empire. These battles occurred BC and AD on our calendar. Eventually all the tribes and provinces of what is now Spain came together. The castle possesses magical features of architecture, mountain engineering, vast vistas over huge tracts of Spain. As I looked over the edge of the very top of Castle Mejor, I felt as though a flying dragon would pass beneath my gaze and snort smoke loudly as it circled its winged path looking for something it wanted below in the dense forest and then fly into the open plains with several other dragons joining the sortie. They headed off to another castle perched on a mountain miles away in the distance. I then turn and looked behind me. No one was there at the highest point of the castle Mejor, and I turned my hat backwards as the wind picked up. I didn’t want to lose it over the wall. A gust of wind earlier had blown my sunglasses out of my hands as I was cleaning the dust off and they broke. The sun was now twice as bright and when my vision finally adjusted I saw clearly the light shooting through the castle cannon ports onto to the steps. At that moment it all changed for me and I knew why I was there. From there I headed south for two hours to a town called ARCHENA. This town had the BALNEARIO DE ARCHENA, a town a mineral hot spring nestled in between a mountain range. The bath was a great place to unwind from the tennis I’d played in Valencia. This was my last stop on the tour before driving back to Madrid to catch my flight back to Boston. One final note, I noticed a game called Padel being played at all of Valencia’s tennis clubs. It’s a great combination of tennis type shots with racquetball angles off the back wall. It plays similar to platform tennis but covers more ground. It’s played professionally in Europe. My next post is about Padel. That’s another story!!!       
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This past Wednesday I drove down to Newport from Falmouth to see two matches in the sweet 16 first round of of the main draw. Earlier this week I played a local doubles tournament on Sunday which was one of if not the hottest days of the summer so I knew what the sun was going to do. And it was a scorcher. I had consumed gallons of water and electrolytes over the last week and a lunch could consist of watermelon and bananas with a side of water with lemon. My center baseline seat was in the South Section in the sun front row. It was the best seat ever. I have a new favorite player on the tour. Reilly Olpelka! He is 6-11” , plays right handed, two handed backhand (can slice nasty one hands), serves bombs, was out for two years because of hip surgery’s (poor guy is only 19!!!!), wears Fila clothing, and had on a pink hat! For the most part he was smiling the whole time he was playing. Understand he has long hair and a long thick beard. Heck I’ll sponsor this guy! Congrats to him for making it to the semifinals today and winning a qualifying event to get into the tournament. This former number 17 in the world is going to give a lot of people trouble. His serve that pounded into the boards in front of me sounded like a sledgehammer pounding railroad spikes. Heres a couple of videos I took of him serving. He uses the Wilson Pro Staff racquet (the new brownish bronze color). That frame is lighter than the Federer pro staff (heaviest racquet I know of). The Mediterranean Red Clay Series as I see it begins in France with the Monte Carlos Masters 1000, followed by a Barcelona 500, Madrid Masters 1000, and the Italian Open 1000 Masters in Rome. There are 250 point events scattered throughout Europe that are also played on the famously slow high bouncing crushed red brick. The Cap Stone of the Mediterranean series is finish at the French Open, in Paris in late May, early June. Today I’m sharing observations I noticed while attending my first red clay court ATP event located in Roquebrune-Cap-Martin, France part of Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azu. The two colors that come to mind are red and blue. The sky and ocean are blue crystal and the red clay is a good backdrop for the yellow Dunlop Fort tennis ball. My plane got in around 2 pm and I took an Uber to Beausoleil, which is located in the south of Provence. The steep hillside provided a view of Monte Carlo, a municipality of tiny Monaco. From the view of my penthouse Airbnb, I could see everything in front of me, the casino, the Princes Palace, one cruise ship, and the crystal blue ocean, with a sail boat heading toward, Lord knows where, perhaps Italy. I felt protected by my cliffs that surrounded my 500 square foot paradise location that lorded over a road side bocci club. The night I got in I took this photograph of what appeared to be the Emerald City of Oz. Also you can see the cliffs that fortified my position.  The draw at Monte Carlo  The penthouse view of Monte Carlo. That cruise ship stayed for three days.  The golden hour.  There were five basic doubles positions I noticed. That’s right, only five. Do they apply to you? Absolutely they do. In this post I’m covering the two main positions I noticed. First off: Congrats to the Champions Sander Gille and Joran Vliegen both from Belgium (both ranked 17 & 18 on the ATP in doubles) and Finalist’s Alex Zverev (number 5 in the world in doubles) from Germany and 40 year old Marcelo Melo, from Brazil, a former number one in the world in doubles, who is a career doubles specialist and journeyman with over 8,000,000 in career earnings. Sitting through that three set match was riveting, in the blazing dry sun of Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur, France.🇫🇷 The Belgium Team using the one up one back positioning. The net position of the server’s partner is active and close to the net. Notice the quick movement to his left on the wide serve then the middle position when his partner hits more up the middle This time the server’s partner at the net makes a good cover simply by moving in the box correctly. Being close to the net allows him to angle the ball off into open court. This is the secret to holding serve as a doubles team. You don’t want to get broken. If you do and the other team holds, you’re lost 4-6. The server’s net partner combined with good communication with the server is the secret recipe to holding serve and ultimately winning matches. Fritz and Rune both playing back can win points. I noticed that Rune worked hard to team up with his partner when Fritz got pinned back. Next week I’ll be heading to Rome to video the Italian Open. Players will be coming in from Madrid and other areas to play in this 1000 point Masters event. Over the next few weeks I’ll be sharing some of the clips with you and you can see how world class doubles is being played. Also, I’ll cover some of the singles matches from Monte Carlo and Roma!
Caffe’ tastes better in Provence! Recently, I returned from the games of Rome. No, not gladiators of the Colosseum, rather, the tennis gladiators of the Foro Italico in Rome. The complex is located in the northern part of Rome, located just north of Vatican City. There are three main stadiums at the venue with 18 clay courts, nine of which that are used for the “Italian Open.” Recently, student texted me at 5 am to let me know Sasha Zverev, a Russian, from Germany had just won the final. I happy for Sasha, he’s come back from injury and doing well. To win consistently on the Mediterranean Red Clay Series as I call it (Estoril, Monte Carlo, Barcelona, Madrid, and Rome). Estoril is located on the Portuguese Riviera and Madrid is in the middle of Spain but they get a pass as “close enough” in my book to be included in the Mediterranean Series.   Final Score of this first round match 4-6, 6-3,6-4 Rafael Nadel defeated Zizou Bergs of Belgium These are the highlight videos I filmed. In my opinion Zizou went for some down the line shots on key points that he missed which tipped the match. Otherwise, he played very well. Rafa, was in good form with movement and hit helicopter and buggy whip forehands the whole match which kick quite high with pace. Also his backhand is very consistent and drives well. In addition Rafa plays the net extremely well covering touch shots, volleys and overheads. I hope we see him at the French. It could be his last event of his career. I feel blessed to have seen him play as did the 10,000 tennis fans who sat with me. He is truly loved in Italy. Bergs occasionally raised his arms to cheer for him when he made a great shot which the Italian dominated crowd were happy to oblige.  A Saint with a Coon Hound?
John McEnroe won 155 career ATP titles including 7 major singles! I saw him play Davis Cup at Newport on grass. John could take the net like no one I’ve ever seen. His simple swing take backs, counter punch attack style is amazing. As a lefty he stands about 8 feet to the right of center when serving to the deuce box in singles. He lines his serve up sideways, back to the fence, then hits out wide or down the T and then rushes in to hit an approach volley, if his serve is returned! His forehand volley he could take early in the air behind the receiver or volley cross court. If a rally ensues, he finishes with a drop volley, power volley, or overhead. He protected the net in singles like a hockey goalie. On his return of serve, he takes the ball early off the hop, similar to the saber of Federer. Then he’s at the net! His return placements were low and away from opponents making passing shots challenging. He and his doubles partner, Peter Fleming are one of the greatest doubles teams of all time. Check out this collaborative tennis video from two of the best online tennis coaches—Ian and Jeff. youtu.be/jVkMyQWBh9Y?si=TUKmlK_BcqnmOTE1 We will be using these warm-up and training styles over the next few weeks to add foot speed and quickness to your game!
Tennis Training
Training for tennis is an art form. This program gives you a complete off court training program that will make you extremely fit for tennis. It includes full body strengthening, yoga stretching, and speed work. Also a nutritional guideline is mentioned. Monday Wednesday Friday are your StrengthTraining Days Your total body gets a workout! Its three days per week, quick and efficient. Mondays Full Body Strength by Heather Robinson, 30 minutes Dumbells needed. youtu.be/pbkrx340TBM?si=tOJ5eT_e0Cx3o-q5 10 minute full body stretch after. Tuesdays Flexibility & Recovery Day Yoga from MadFit https://youtu.be/sTANio_2E0Q?si=dEFJFx-RSr-QWf6Z Wednesdays Full Body HIIT (High Intensity Interval strength training) with no weights Caroline Girvan youtu.be/z3h_3UOBAVU?si=aWPJPIhH28OuE8rh 10 minute full body stretch after. Thursdays Flexibility 22 minute Yoga by Breathe and Flow youtu.be/B4kNiCWTl7M?si=KqZW8dbJ6bDrKSjA Foot Speed & Conditioning 20-30 minute session Train for 12 seconds as hard as you can go take 12 to 16 seconds break repeat This simulates the breathing required for tennis point play. Remember if you ran a play clock on a match it’s much shorter than the actual match duration. Change the drills you are doing. You can also shorten the exercise time to even 8 seconds if you are getting tired. Every 3 minutes take a 30 second break. You have to push very hard on these sessions. And they are the most grueling. Side to side hop jumps Rope skipping High Intensity Footwork and Shadow Swings with your racquet Include recovery footwork not just swinging- split hop, hit, recover, repeat Short Sprints Full Body Stretch after 10 minutes Fridays Full Body HIIT 30 minute workout using dumbbells with Caroline Girvan youtu.be/aAt8o5kYnCE?si= 10 minute full body stretch after. Saturdays Foot speed and conditioning 20-30 minute session Train for 12 seconds as hard as you can go take 12 to 16 seconds break repeat This simulates the breathing required for tennis point play. Remember if you ran a play clock on a match it’s much shorter than the actual match duration. Change the drills you are doing Side to side hop jumps Rope skipping High Intensity Footwork and Shadow Swings with your racquet Include recovery footwork not just swinging- split hop, hit, recover, repeat Short Sprints You can also shorten the exercise time to even 8 seconds if you are getting tired. You have to push very hard on these sessions. And they are the most grueling. Full Body Stretch after 10 minutes Big Gym Day’s Read this! You could substitute a one or two full body strengthening days HIIT day gym workouts with Big Gym Day(s) using barbells and dumbbells or do Two Monday workouts listed above, One Monday and the other on Friday. Big Gym Days Only do two days per week maximum with big gym days. A Monday and Friday split is my recommendation to let your body recover! Do three sets of each exercise with proper form of 10 to 15 reps for three sets. You should be do 60 percent of your maximum to push yourself and add more repetitions, intensity, or weight for the next time you exercise so that you are always progressing. Avoid lifting more weight than you can execute only 10 times for three sets. Once you get to three sets of 12–15 then add more weight. You don’t want to injure yourself or be too tight from lifting and limit range of motion due to soreness. Some soreness is good because you’re building muscle. Pain isn’t good. My recommendations If you don’t know these exercises it is best to have a trainer show you or watch a video on You Tube beforehand. These are the main exercises you’ll need for increasing strength. Start with lower weights and then add as you improve. Don’t rush to add lots of extra weight. Tennis players need to have flexibility too. You need strength, flexibility and stamina. Many of these exercises can be done on exercise machines which involves adjusting the machine to fit your height and pounds to lift. This makes training very easy to navigate and very safe. Bench press bicep curls tricep extensions rows Squats Lunges Shoulder Press Skull Crushers Romanian Deadlifts Dead Lifts Rotator Cuff Exercises use a stretch band Ab Workout Nutrition for an Athlete! Lean Protein Veggies Fruit Seeds Nuts Grains Water Tea Supplement with Whey Protein Powder and Creatine in smoothies after strengthening workouts Avoid Cheese only as a treat on pizza Dairy limit Wheat / Gluten in large amounts Processed Foods Junk Foods Sugar Jannik Sinner won the Australian Open with a great win after being down two sets to love to Daniele Medvedev. Take a look at the fundamental forehand and backhand groundstrokes. His forehand appears to be a strong semi western grip with an hearty wrist lag. His palm points to the back fence. His backhand is a right hand continental (serve grip) and left hand a “south” eastern. His stroke is very similar to Novak Djokovic’s backhand on that wing. Review this short video to see how the fundamentals are executed. youtube.com/shorts/DqwJK6XzGvI?si=nAtNCMD4bguDDAQb Aryna Sabalenka was the women’s champion at the Australian with a win over Zheng Qinwen . Watch how to pounce on a shorter ball. youtube.com/shorts/84OQGxo97Hc?si=wGTjhfX1FcSY8rGM Also here are her groundstrokes.youtube.com/shorts/oFVJYwuY7_4?si=Lp0Y79eHDsKGFayB For a contrast check out Pegula’s no nonsense forehand. This style is easier for most players to reproduce and is more in line with how we expose players to forehand ball striking. youtube.com/shorts/vxsf-qStVN0?si=toP8Hogizm-vPe5rhttps://youtube.com/shorts/vxsf-qStVN0?si=c6lkHmFtsefKgyVh Here Jessica talks about the drop shot which is a great shot to own. Here you can see Jessica’s amazing open stance backhand.youtube.com/shorts/ozRGCLnSfvk?si=yWLNx42ROd-rHRNw This is Emma Raducanu’s serve. Watch the lag of the hitting arm and the high tossing arm extension. youtube.com/shorts/xTsVF1nQcnQ?si=vtVLY6Blpjqb7sCR
Simon from top tennis training does a great job explaining the roll of the wrist in your forehand. The followthrough for spin or more pace is clearly described. A great way to train is to practice your swings combined with footwork. Replay the video, pause it and copy the segments of the swing. Over the next session our groups will be working on this weapon system. youtu.be/lVSN-JEXPwM?si=2ei-45UT9flQ_Ck8 Milan from Serbia produces great instructional content on YouTube. He shows the forehand in a five step process. A great way to practice your forehand is to drop feed yourself and practice hitting the ball with footwork too. Milan whose channel is Tenfitmen produces excellent short clip videos as well. This guy will train anywhere in cold or hot weather. youtu.be/gdOYVCsE41k?si=vl-3_KA7B25redbj I endorse you to watch the videos many times with your tennis racquet in hand and work on improving these fundamentals every single day. You don’t need a tennis court to get better. Sure it helps. But when you get on the court you’ll have laser focus. Enjoy getting better every day!
ATP training coach Brian Dabul has produced this easy to follow footwork for the forehand. This player is basically covering the baseline with two steps. He’s being coached a 1-2 timing which is a great way to cover lots of court with the least amount of steps. If you are a smaller player you will need to take more. A wide athletic base with your knees bent and feet beyond your shoulders is required. This is a counter attack forehand. youtube.com/shorts/u0YvuPbd8J4?si=Rz-G1WOEgdM5NvUh In this next video Coach Patrick Mouratoglu breaks down Victoria Azarenka’s Two Handed Backhand. Azarenka has a great semi-open two handed backhand that also gives her great power on balls hit inside the baseline and those taken on higher deep shots outside the baseline. youtu.be/2luiv1xAzY8?si=dfjAZSLMs6SjPfQx This is a neutral stance video of Novak D’Jokovic hitting a forehand. This is using more forward movement into the court with the left foot. youtube.com/shorts/G7ZJNaszMrc?si=b48xhgq4lfmAdBH2
There's a ton of content out there on the proper way to hit the volley. In this brief post I'll go over the main points of how to hit a solid volley. There are two main kinds of volley: the mid court and the "at net". To play the net well you need both.
Here's some main points: keep your hands down and elbows bent slightly away from the body, in an athletic stance, with hands below the racquet, and hop up at contact of the player hitting the ball. The grip is continental for most players, but some players may not be able to hold a solid grip and require more grip changing to secure the racquet. The racquet head preparation is loaded at the height of the ball, keeping technique simple. Keep your elbows out a little. Set the racquet where the ball is going to arrive! This produces flat volleys! Keep your strings facing the target. I found this tip by from Ryan (Two Minute Tennis). I think it's really good. I do however coach more backspin than he does (on the backhand volley) video.youtu.be/rpacFeUeioc?si=XCIzcIJm3MaiAjEe. If you look at Stefan Edberg one of the best volleyers of all time (be patient, you'll have to see a few backhand volleys before getting to the forehand volley) you can see more slices being used on the bakchand wing. youtu.be/H89CnrqAruQ?si=0ivA7uOLxtaeHLBK Take a look at Bob Bryan hitting some volleys. This was back in 2013 with his brother, Mike. Notice that there is little if any slice on the forehand volley. His elbows are not as bent as Ryan's two-minute video, but they are bent. He uses a bit of slice on the backhand volley but not a ton. youtu.be/kWLI14pN_QI?si=FSn8Cf75DVdYHXaV. Also, I like the way Bob is taking volley practice near the center of the court. This is great volley practice for doubles where most of the action is. And finally, this is Leander Paes, the most amazing hands I've ever seen in doubles. His form is similar to Bob Bryan and Mike Bryan. youtu.be/o6qTdftF5LA?si=1Rt8fSzrChNt33SI What about two-handed backhand shots? There's no better in the business than Chris Evert! youtu.be/gfF9noOf1W0?si=2kDh6Sa_YDIgwpMF |