Tennis Lessons – Books, DVDs, And Videos To Improve Your Tennis Games

Nowadays, it is fairly easy to get and find resources to help improve your tennis games. This resources, besides hiring a instructor come in the form of books, dvd’s and even videos. Just type “tennis lessons” on Google or Amazon and you will find large selection of these items. This article will outline some of the more popular resources available today.

The books, dvd’s and videos presented are designed for and will benefit both beginners and advanced tennis players alike. One might call it a collection of resources to help enhance the level/s of your tennis games and for an overall enjoyment and satisfaction for the game.

1. How To play tennis: Instructional Videos For Tennis Beginners. This lesson is best for tennis beginners. It consists of 49 step-by-step tennis instruction videos covering all 6 basic strokes in tennis:

# forehand groundstroke

# backhand groundstroke

# serve

# return

# forehand and backhand volley

# overhead.

The videos cover all the basic strokes listed above and offer playing tips to jump-start your tennis game. Plus a whole lot more.

2. Tennis Stomper: The Ultimate Tennis Training Rolodex. Featuring 57 Tennis Specific Exercises Incuding Over 150 Photos, Step-by-Step Descriptions, Plus A 33 Minute Video

3. Tennis Mind Game Tennis EBooks. About Strategies And Mental Toughness That Will Help You Win Even Against Your Toughest Rivals.

4. Insider Tennis Strategies And Tactics. Improve Your Tennis Game With Insider Strategies Of The Top Players. Improve your tennis game with insider strategies of the top players. With insider tennis strategies you will be understanding tennis so well – you’ll outsmart anybody, anywhere, anytime!

5. Renegade Mindset Techniques For Tennis – Mental Game Mastery. Cutting-Edge tennis psychology Technique. This is a mental game mastery with cutting-edge tennis psychology technique. You’ll find out why most players will never reach their true potential and how you can quickly and easily transform your game, leaving your opponent dazed and confused; they’ll be begging to know your secret!

Again these are just a few of the most popular tennis lessons available online today.

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-By: Ness Dorig

Ness Dorig has written many articles about sports and recreation and is a webmaster of a website offering news and information regarding tennis lesson resources to help improve your tennis games. If you’re interested in learning more about tennis lessons be sure to check it out.

The Top 4 Reasons For Mental Training And How They Help You Win Tennis Matches Before You Hit A Ball

If I was to tell you that there was a sequence of mental events that link together to get you to the match court in the best condition possible would you want to know them?

Of course you would – so here they are!

These factors which you begin to put together in your head way before matches, can easily be the difference between winning and losing without you hitting a ball!

The 4 stages or phases if you like are as follows -

1. Preparation 2. Confidence 3. Game planning

2 Dangers of Tennis Rivalry

As tennis fans you may have witnessed the wonderful ongoing rivalries that have taken place between McEnroe and Connors, Agassi and Sampras, Graf and Seles, Federer and Hewitt and so on.

A rivalry can be a blessing or a curse depending on what it brings out in a person.

For young players today, there is a growing focus on becoming world beaters. More and more children hold the dream of someday playing on the circuit for a living. It is a very realistic and noble goal for many players that are coming through the ranks.

However, we must take a reflective look at how these children are developing. I believe there are potential dangers that can be avoided. Dangers that develop from rivalry’s that can turn sour in a heartbeat as someone makes a difficult line call or attempts to psyche out their opponent with needless babble.

1. Competition

The Latin root word for competition means “to conspire together”. In other words, competition by its very nature is designed to bring the best out of each other by being our best. Too often rivalry’s that turn sour become focused on dragging someone else down so that the other can stay above their opponent. This goes against the true meaning of competition and reduces both players to under-development. Neither player gets to experience the growth that can come from being pushed to their limits.

2. Who will you turn to?

A rivalry that turns ugly may come back to haunt those who dream of playing on the tour. The circuit can be a lonely place. As a junior, whenever I travelled interstate we would always buddy up with the people from our home town. We looked for someone that we could talk to or hit with during the time away. What do you think happens when you travel overseas? The same sort of thing. There is no one around except those that you grew up playing against. People from your own country, those opponents that helped you develop your skills, will become the people you will want to turn to when you are on your own.

Think about it…

Who will you hit with? Who’s going to train with you? Who will be there to push you to do that 50th push-up when you want to sit down and watch TV? Who will be there to support you when you’re on the verge of gathering crucial points and prize money?

Create friendships and conspire together to make it onto the circuit. Watch that you don’t burn your bridges, living the lonely life on the circuit because of some childish rivalry that got out of hand when you were 13 years old.

Work together – bring the best out of each other. If there is a suspicious line call – give it to your opponent and find out how good you really are.

If your goal is to be the best you can be, then you are only ever competing with yourself. Opponents are really there to see how much you have improved. Be fair, be honest and buddy up with someone now who shares the same dream as you and together, you can both live out your dreams. Make your rivalry make you better.

To learn more about 23 Mental Laws of Tennis you can visit http://www.PsychoTennis.com

-By: Scott Groves

Scott is the author of The Power of Subconscious Goal Setting, Psycho Tennis, 23 Mental Laws of Tennis and more. Also a former ITF Pro and has been coaching for 14 years. For more information visit http://www.PsychoTennis.com.

Tennis Tips – How to Win on Grass

I have coached many tennis players and recently I played my first match on grass. Here are a few observations and tips for winning on this surface. These tips should be of interest to players with varying levels of skill and expertise.

1. Take the ball early.

2. Shorten the points.

3. Shorten your backswing to compensate for the speed of the surface.

4. Practice getting down low to get those low shots.

5. Think of grass as being the opposite of playing on clay or on hard turf. The ball will not sit up for you. It will stay down.

6. Develop a good slice to keep the ball low and accommodate the grass surface.

7. A short serve can be a weapon on grass because it can force your opponent to move in and be off balance.

8. A slice serve can be a huge weapon on grass because it can force your opponent to return a wide and low ball.

9. When setting up to serve, find a spot on the grass which will give you a reliable bounce for your pre shot routine.

10. Come in whenever you can.

11. Chip and charge returns of service.

12. A low soft drop shot when used properly can be a killer shot on the green stuff.

13. Wear sneakers that will give you good traction on grass.

14. Practice volleys, swinging volleys and overheads.

15. Take the ball in the air often, so the odd bounces which you get on grass will not hurt your ability to win points and games.

16. Watch the bounce very carefully and read the ball’s direction, spin, height and pace early on.

-By: Jay Granat

Jay P. Granat, Ph.D. is a psychotherapist and the founder of http://www.stayinthezone.com He has written several books and developed several programs to help people perform to their fullest potential at sports, at work and at school. Dr. Granat, a former university professor, has appeared in The New York Times, Good Morning America, AP, ESPN, Golf Digest, The BBC and The CBC. He can be reached at info@stayinthezone.com. His books include Zone Tennis and Get Into The Zone In Just One Minute. He is also the author of How To Get Into The Zone With Sport Psychology And Self-Hypnosis, How To Lower Your Golf Score With Sport Psychology And Self-Hypnosis, 101 Ways To Break Out Of A Hitting Slump and Bed Time Stories For Young Athletes. Golf Digest named Dr. Granat one of America’s Top Ten Mental Gurus. He was recently featured in a documentary film on long distance running. Dr. Granat writes a weekly column for three newspapers. He is also the author of Zone Tennis. This book is available at major book stores.

Choose How to Play Great Tennis

From birth to the age of eight to ten, children live in a state of deductive awareness. They lack the ability to respond to circumstances like we as adults do. Their responses will be based on what they have learned from the environment they are surrounded by.

When it comes to tennis – particularly if you are a tennis playing family – it is important to realise and accept that the behaviour of your child on the tennis court is largely due to what they have learned…from YOU!

For a young player to “Be their best” rather than focusing on “Being the best” can make a significant difference in their emotional upbringing.

A child who focuses is on becoming ‘their’ best develops high self-esteem and greater emotional mastery. A child left to focus on results alone, slowly becomes a product of their results. Tennis can serve (pardon the pun) many great life lessons. Because in tennis, you cannot control 100% of the game. There are certain things that we totally control, semi-control and have zero control over.

Focusing solely on results means you are focusing on something that you influence but do not have total control over. You only influence how another person plays. Time spent dwelling on things outside of your control can cause feelings of diminished self-esteem, helplessness and eventually lead to feelings of unworthiness.

Champions focus heavily on the things they can control (80%). The remainder is spent on the things that they can semi-control (20%) and the things outside of their control receive very little attention. Here is an example from another sport to illustrate how these same principles of success apply regardless of the sport.

Swimmer Ian Thorpe rarely talks about world rankings or gold medals. He only ever talks about fulfilling his unique potential as an athlete and as a person. He knows that there are factors outside of his control when it comes to the outcome of an event. Tennis matches are no different. There will be days when the other player is just too good. Learning to accept this and learn from it is the key to success.

-By: Scott Groves

Scott is the author of The Power of Subconscious Goal Setting, Psycho Tennis, 23 Mental Laws of Tennis and more. Also a former ITF Pro and has been coaching for 14 years. For more information visit http://www.PsychoTennis.com

Improve Your Tennis with 2 Subconscious Questions

What I am about to share with you is the most common and potentially disastrous question any tennis player, coach or parent can ask – and the two questions you should ask instead.

First, here’s a basic understanding of the subconscious mind. The subconscious mind accepts whatever is delivered to it. It has no ability to reject ideas or information. What you think and say becomes the programming from which your subconscious operates from. It runs on the fuel YOU give it.

One challenge though…

Too often the subconscious receives awful instructions. As a result, the tennis you are currently playing is based on the programming contained within your subconscious mind.

Any person knows that you cannot play great tennis with poor instruction from a coach. What happens when the poor instruction comes from your own mind?

The most commonly asked question after a mistake or a loss (from players – and dare I say even some coaches and parents) is “What did you do wrong?” or “What happened?” Have you noticed that nobody ever asks, “What happened?” after you win. The answer to “What did you do wrong” creates a mental picture or re-run of the errors performed to the point where the mind can only see how to make an error or lose a tennis match.

The worst part about searching for what you did wrong is that it becomes a mental habit. Your focus is always looking for the “wrong”. Ultimately your subconscious becomes programmed to repeat your failures – automatically.

How do you change it? Ask the two questions that I encourage every tennis player to consistently ask themselves – “What did I do right?” and “How can I improve…?”

“To play better tennis you must think better thoughts, regardless of circumstances. This is the art of becoming non – judgemental.”

Challenge yourself the next time you make an error to answer the 2 questions that will program your subconscious for “Automatic Success”. It is easy to focus on results and circumstances. You must learn to think hard and look for what you did right.

The very shot you missed is one you have probably made a thousand times. There’s no need for reprimands over one error when you contain the greatest computer the world has ever known between your two ears. Your subconscious will do what you ask it to do. Your job is to program it with the “right” stuff before you infect it with a virus that could shutdown your game.

To learn more about 23 Mental Laws of Tennis you can visit http://www.PsychoTennis.com

-By: Scott Groves

Scott is the author of The Power of Subconscious Goal Setting, Psycho Tennis, 23 Mental Laws of Tennis and more. Also a former ITF Pro and has been coaching for 14 years. For more information visit http://www.PsychoTennis.com

Check Your Head – Tennis Mind Game?

Anyone who knows me knows I love tennis.

Mind Training for Tennis – The Psychology of the Zone

One of the most powerful terms used in world sport for decades is the mental state called “the zone”. This is the mental state which produces super-human performances, amazing shots and winning streaks.

Any tennis player who is in this mental state is virtually unbeatable at their respective level of competition – and at the elite level, you witness some unbelievable shotmaking.

A player who is in the zone experiences an unusual feeling of effortless power, allowing them to feel as if their racquet and body are powered by a turbo-charged engine, and they find their body gliding across the court and hitting with awesome power and minimum effort.

The strange part about this is – this powerful performance does not feel as if it is being controlled by the actual player! In fact, they’ll often report feeling as if they weren’t responsible for some of the amazing shots at all – as if their body was being guided and directed by a more powerful force (and this is exactly what is happening).

Almost every player at some stage in their career has experienced this feeling to some extent, and then wondered afterwards “how did I do that?” This is the mystery that surrounds the zone – why does it appear so fleetingly, and then disappear just as quickly as it came? And most of all – why can’t we access it all the time?

What is the powerful force which is guiding the body when you hit an unbelievable shot? The answer is the sleeping giant that resides inside all human beings – the subconscious mind, the source of all bodily movement which also stores all past tennis memories and experience.

When a player is ‘zoning’, their conscious mind becomes quiet (the normally busy, chattering mind we use all the time), and this allows their more powerful subconscious to run their performance on ‘automatic pilot’, in the way a computer runs software.

This allows their strokes to flow with effortless reflexes and power in a way that could never be matched by conscious thought.

This means that when you are in the zone, you have virtually no thought going through your mind whatsoever, your body is just playing on automatic-pilot, powered directly by your subconscious mind.

This is not to say that your body is playing without instruction, on the contrary, it is simply getting its instructions from a more powerful and reliable source.

So how do we get into the zone? Everyone must find the method that best suits their needs, but one of the main ways is to simply practice (in your daily training) thinking absolutely nothing while you are hitting! This prevents the weaker conscious mind from giving your body incorrect instructions, and allows your powerful subconscious (the sleeping giant within you, and control center of all bodily movement) to run your tennis on auto-pilot, as it is meant to.

Of course, if you are having a lesson, doing this is not possible, as your coach will be asking you to consciously try different things on court. But once you are practicing away from your lesson, allow some time where your mind goes completely quiet and see if your standard or level increases. It almost always will.

A classic example of the Zone is where someone serves a rocket at you at 200 km/hr – and you reflex back an amazing return for a screaming winner down the line. This is the subconscious at work! Yet if someone hits a slow second serve to you, where you have all the time in the world, these are often the returns a player will miss, because they have too much time to think! These are the times when the weaker conscious mind gets involved, and it’s never very pretty when this happens!

The zone is a very powerful state that can help you reach beyond your limitations to achievements you may have never realized were possible. Try it, explore it, master it, and then show the world what you can do!

“The Mind controls the body, and the Mind is Unlimited”

-By: Craig Townsend

Craig Townsend has worked in the area of mental training for sport and personal development over the past decade, and possesses a Diploma in Clinical Hypnotherapy. For 20 years has researched and experimented with various methods of tapping the mind’s potential in many areas, using visualization, hypnosis and other methods (unrelated to psychology, sports psychology or tennis psychology), to create a highly effective mental training program which has brought impressive results. He coached tennis for many years, and reached the highest club playing level. His tennis website can be located at http://www.tennispsychology.com and his self-help website is at http://www.MindTraining.net

3 Psychological Habits of Tennis Pro’s

World’s First Psycho Tennis Coach, Scott Groves shares his unique observations from the Uncle Toby’s Royal Pines Women’s Event 2005 and 3 of the best physiological habits the Pro’s have that you can develop.

These tips separate the winning pro’s from the early losers. The beauty of each is that anybody can learn and apply these same elements to their own game.

1. Intensity. The winning pro’s train and practice with a higher intensity than the losers. The winners engage in both physical and mental intensity that builds their body and mental endurance for their upcoming matches. Up coming juniors can learn volumes from this practice. Physical intensity is one thing, but your concentration muscle must grow with it.

2. Power of Breath. How often do you hear a club player exhale when striking a ball? It is often rare. Yet this simple habit has many wonderful benefits. The first being that strong deep breaths provide much needed oxygen to muscles and the brain during long points. Breathing also short circuits the choking response where players are susceptible to missing easy put away balls at the end of points. Whenever you witness a player who consistently misses the 4th or 5th ball in a rally they are often holding their breath. They fight to gain a breath and their survival mechanism takes over. The point comes to a sudden end with what seemed like an unusual rush of blood. They subconsciously finish points in order to breathe again. This is similar to having your head held under water as you fight to gain a breath. The rush of adrenalin it creates is all too common in common tennis.

Check yourself the next time you miss an easy volley and you may find the source of your error is not technical. You are choking yourself through a lack of breath.

3. Trajectory. Tennis has fewer and fewer loopy shots. The days of Aranxta Sanchez- Vicario style play is gone. Russian girls like Petrova and Safina would crush a ball looped over the net to them. Anybody can improve their depth and consistency by developing a consistent arc or trajectory on their groundstrokes. Once you have it, you can then hit with greater pace and confidence. Certainty is a wonderful thing in a game full of uncertainties.

Gold Coast girl Sam Stosur and her coach Craig Morris (my old doubles partner) should be congratulated on the week Sam had at Royal Pines. Craig’s emphasis on trajectory, intensity of practice and speed of rotation has allowed Sam to step up into the ranks of the top players. We can all take a leaf out of their book and learn from these necessary elements. Incorporate them into your game and watch it go top another level.

-By: Scott Groves

Scott is a Former Pro Tennis Player, Author of 6 Books, Speaker, Trainer and Coach Psycho Tennis, You Can Learn the 23 Mental Laws of Tennis and Gain a Competitive Edge

The Inner Game of Tennis – How to Master Your Mental Game

The inner game of tennis is very important to your success. Timothy Gallwey wrote the “Inner Game of Tennis” many years ago and it was a groundbreaking book at the time. You should read the inner game of tennis if you have not.

Tim says that players must achieve skill mastery first, which means you must learn the fundamentals of your sport. When you play your best tennis, he would say your mind is quiet with no interference caused by self-criticism or over-analysis, such as “keep your eyes on the ball” or “bend your knees.”

The inner game of tennis theory states that two opposing mindsets battle for supremacy. A quite tennis mind allows your performance to flow from creativity. However, when your tennis mind is overactive, you force your game.

Gallwey sums up his theory the inner game of tennis:

Self One: The “teller” tennis mind filled with self-judgments and criticism. This mindset wants to over-control your performance.

Self Two: The “doer” mindset is the best mindset for peak performance in tennis and happens when you are free and react with your game. This mindset allows you to let it happen.

Gallwey’s goal was to help students stop the attack of self one so self two can be free to hit shots freely. He used an example in “The Inner Game of Tennis.” He would have his students repeat cue words, such as “back-hit” to suspend the trying/analytical mind (self 1) so the creative mind (self 2) could do the job without restrictions.

“The key to better tennis–or better anything–lies in improving the relationship between the conscious teller, Self 1, and the unconscious, automatic doer, Self 2.”

~Tim Gallwey

Most tennis players will perform their very best when the mind is quiet (not overactive) and focused. You’ll both excel in this mindset and have the most fun. I apply the Inner Game of Tennis principles with my students. I teach my students about two important mindsets: a learning mindset and a performance mindset.

When in a learning or practice mindset, you are trying to improve your strokes, which is necessary to improve your game. Here is one big problem with this mindset: perfectionistic tennis players get “stuck” in the practice mindset and fall in love with perfecting their technique.

When you are playing with a trusting or performance mindset, you allow your skills to “happen” instinctively based on what you’ve learned in practice. The performance mindset is the quiet mind that Gallwey talks about as self 2, which allows you to perform instinctively. When playing in the trusting mode, your performance is on automatic pilot.

With your inner game of tennis during tournaments, the take away lesson is you have to play in the performance mindset. Don’t get trapped by the practice mindset during tennis matches. You’ll spend more time coaching yourself and analyzing your strokes, which will slow you down on the court. You want to have a good balance between the performance and practice mindsets to set the foundation for a good inner game of tennis!

-By: Dr. Patrick J. Cohn

tennis psychology and mental game expert Dr. Patrick J. Cohn is the founder of Sports Psychology for Tennis by Peak Performance Sports. Dr. Cohn is devoted to helping tennis players and their parents improve confidence, focus, and success in tournaments. Get free sports psychology for tennis articles, podcasts and videos by visiting Dr. Cohn’s tennis psychology website at: http://www.sportspsychologytennis.com

Improve your mental game of tennis quickly by picking up Dr. Cohn’s free report, “Six ‘Unforced’ Mental Game Errors Tennis Players Make Between Points” by visiting http://www.peaksports.com/tennis_confidence.php

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