Month: July 2017

There are many people with ideas about how to promote and increase the amount of people who play tennis. There are programs designed around promoting the fitness aspect of tennis. There are numerous programs aimed at children. There are team tennis programs and tournament formats of all types. Every one of these programs can be great based upon how they are delivered. There are lots of reasons people play tennis and many of them are addressed by the programs that are offered by tennis clubs and tennis associations. It seems to me that one aspect that can bring more players to the game of tennis than anything else is being overlooked…FUN!

I started tennis in a public park and kept with it because it was FUN. There was an interesting group of characters who played in this park and they welcomed a teen age kid who loved to play. Over the years the best tennis environments that I have participated in as a player or teacher have always included a great deal of fun. Tennis can be competitive and frustrating and demanding in many ways. But it can also be great fun. It is a great way to meet people. You can continue to learn and improve your game for your entire life. Tennis can be played against one player (singles) or as part of a doubles team. If you want to get a little bit out of the box give triples a try. It can be a fun, fast paced and interesting way to play tennis.

So what are the obstacles for new players to experiencing the fun of tennis. There seems to be 2 main challenges for new players. Number 1 is that tennis is not an easy sport to learn. The skills can be difficult to master and it is easy to learn strokes and habits that are not fundamentally sound and can limit the success of a player. The second challenge is that it can be difficult to find players of a similar ability level to play with.

Both of these problems can be solved by skilled and caring tennis professionals. A tennis professional should be concerned with getting a player “hooked” on tennis. The best way to do that is to make sure that the new player can play with other people as soon as possible. I spent a year teaching tennis in Kuala Lumpur Malaysia when I was with Peter Burwash International (PBI). The sports club at one of the top hotels in the city had only two tennis courts on the roof of the parking structure but it had a large membership of families from many different countries who were working in Malaysia. One of the largest segments of my lesson business was beginning women players. Many of them were looking for something new to do in a new city. I enjoyed these students a great deal and they were all learning how to play a very decent game. But a few months into my time there I realized that these women would greatly benefit from playing games with other players. So I made a rule that you could not take a lesson unless you played with another player before the lesson. Brilliant idea…not exactly, soon I found that my lesson income had taken a serious dip because my new students were too shy and too inexperienced to set up their own games. So with some pressure on my income I either had to rescind my new rule or come up with another solution. The idea that I came up with was to call and gather all the new women together for a free doubles clinic. At this event I introduced all the players to each other and had them play doubles together with a little bit of instruction. It was a great success. Soon I had my beginners coming back for lessons with a purpose of how they could get better for their games with their new friends. With this one event I solved both of the challenges to new players. They had learned the fundamental skills of hitting the ball in lessons. At our doubles event they learned how to play a game and they also met other players that gave them a chance to start really having fun on the court.

One of the hottest sports in the United States right now is Pickleball. Pickleball is experiencing a boom that reminds me of the tennis boom of the 1970’s. People are playing pickleball in record numbers for a couple of reasons. First of all it is an incredibly easy game to learn. Anyone can learn pickleball in just 30 minutes or less! It is also a great social activity. I know many players who enjoy the sitting and talking (and maybe a little eating or drinking) as much as they do the time on the courts. This game is played on a much smaller court area than tennis so it is less demanding physically. I know many tennis professionals who are playing and promoting pickleball at their clubs.

So why am I writing about pickleball in a blog named The Joy of Tennis? Because I think tennis is a far superior sport and recreational activity but we can learn a lot from our friends with the little paddles. If we want to spur the growth of tennis we have to make it as fun and easy as pickleball. I know there are many tennis professionals and instructors who read this blog. I ask you to look at your teaching and find ways to make it easier for new players to learn to play the game faster. Can you get new players into a game after a few lessons? Once after I did a speaking session at a tennis conference a young professional came to me and told me he really liked my ideas about teaching but he was concerned that if he taught what I was suggesting that his students would improve too fast and he would not have enough lessons!!!! I appreciated his honesty and I explained to him that the exact opposite would happen. That once his students saw how fast they were improving that they would be eager to take more lessons and to improve other parts of their game.

Pickleball is fun, social and easy to learn. I hope those of us who love tennis will take a good look at our programs and find ways to make tennis easier to learn and create social environments where tennis is the center of the event, Tennis is a game for a lifetime and if we can attract players to the Joy of Tennis we will be giving them gift for a lifetime.

Thanks for reading and please head out to the courts to experience

THE JOY OF TENNIS

Life is great! I am staying in a fabulous home on the beach at Cape Cod.  This morning we enjoyed a breakfast at Wimbledon and watched as Roger Federer secured his 8th Wimbledon title and his 19th victory at one of tennis’ major tournaments. For those who didn’t see the match, it wasn’t the greatest final in terms of quality of play. Unfortunately Marin Cilic was not able to produce his best tennis. But it was great theater. I found it especially touching when Roger was quite emotional in his chair after the match was over. While some people may debate whether Roger Federer is the greatest player in the history of tennis (I feel he is), there can be no debate that he is the most beloved player. As Brad Gilbert calls them, the “FED FANS” are everywhere. I have been an avid fan, player, teacher, coach, and observer of tennis for well over 40 years and I cannot remember any tennis player who has had the kind of fan support and admiration that Federer enjoys in every country that he plays in.

My question is why? Is it his beautifully elegant strokes, the amazing graceful movement around the court, his incomparable record of winning matches and titles, or maybe it is the way he treats the public and the media. There has been no top player who is as gracious and cooperative off the court as Roger has been throughout his career. Maybe it is the amount of charity work that he does around the world. Actually it is all of the things we have mentioned plus one more and in my opinion it is by far the most important. Roger truly loves tennis! He plays the game with a passion, purpose and JOY that sets him apart from every other player in the history of the game. When Roger plays a particularly competitive rally or hits a truly amazing shot he celebrates with true joy. His smile, his body language, his enthusiasm all communicate that he loves playing tennis.

This is my first post on my new blog, and I am very pleased that it coincided with RF winning his 8th WImbledon.  The dictionary gives the definition of Joy as “a feeling of great pleasure and happiness” with synonyms such as “jubilation” “triumph” and “exultation”.  Obviously winning Wimbledon would give anyone a feeling of “triumph” but for those of us who play tennis on a more mortal level there are countless opportunities to experience joy on a tennis court. The satisfying “thwock” of connecting with a tennis ball on the sweet spot of the racket is a joyful feeling. Having a long competitive rally with a player of equal skill can be joyful. Learning how to execute a new shot can be a wonderful experience of joy on the tennis court. For me one of the most beautiful things about tennis is that joyful play can be accomplished at any level of skill or any age. In my tennis career I have been lucky to work with players aged 3 – 96. I have taught tennis to players in wheelchairs, players with mental handicaps, deaf players and i was even lucky enough to be on court with a remarkable young woman who was blind. I have also coached 9 professional players, many top juniors and collegiate players, excellent players who won club championships and achieved rankings in their age divisions. I have coached teams of women, men and children.

Over the years I have been asked many times who do you like to teach the most? Most of the time they mean what type of player. Do I prefer professionals to juniors? Do I prefer more advanced players to beginners? I am afraid that i often disappoint the questioner because I do not have a preference of age or skill. I love to teach anyone who loves to learn and improve. To me there is no greater joy than when I see one of my students excitedly accomplish something new. That look of astonishment and the “a ha” moment that accompany the realization that they can do this! That this tennis thing is doable and maybe they CAN get better. Any person that wants to learn tennis this way can be a student of mine.

This blog is an attempt to share some of the knowledge, experiences and ideas that I have learned over these decades in the game of tennis. I hope it will become a dialogue between us. I would love to answer your questions and hear your comments. If you have any ideas for blogs please let me know.

Thanks for reading and please head out to the courts to experience

THE JOY OF TENNIS