The secret to mind speed

Well, it’s been a while since my last post because it's been a VERY busy summer where I have spent considerable time exploring some business opportunities (such as laying the groundwork for a future high-performance tennis academy) as well as coaching some very promising female players.

Anyway, the adventures I’ve had on the tennis side of things has prompted me to consider starting a new blog—as there were so many interesting events and happening both on and off of the court that lie outside the scope of the “mind speed, leg speed and racket speed” focus of this blog that are worth recounting for the learning value that they possess.

So, look out for a blog called “10S Radical” on WordPress in the coming weeks (sorry, Blogger, but I thought it was time to try another blogging platform mainly to find out if the “grass is really greener” on the other side of the blogging fence!). Expect more commentary (and controversy) about the sport at large (especially regarding the non-speed issues surrounding our problems with developing top tennis players) as well as the occasional rant from the “10S Radical”.

On to the subject of today’s post…

It’s been a while since we touched on the mental aspect of the sport, and as a result of the coaching experiences I’ve had so far this summer, it seemed to me like a good time to return to the subject of “mind speed”.

I first broached the subject of “mind speed” in the very first post of this blog…

“Whoa! Mind speed? What does that have to do with being a successful tennis player, you say?

Having a quick, agile, and focused mind is the starting point of being a high-performance competitor...

Your brain is the "master and commander" of your fantastic body machine. Your body does not move on its own! The body moves only under the direction of the mind, so if your mind is too slow to process what's happening when you're playing a competitive tennis point, you're already behind the proverbial "8-ball".

A fast mind is a mind that is clear of any and all distractions and is only focused what's going on right now, in the present. A fast mind pays attention only to what's going to help the player play the(ir) best possible right then and there. A "fast mind" in tennis is the product of mental discipline or "mental toughness" as it is commonly called.

A fast mind pays little or no attention to anything that distracts it from the task at hand (that's the definition of "being focused", right?), because these distractions (winning and losing, girl/boyfriend issues, parent issues, wondering about where to eat later, which bar to visit later, etc.) are what turns a fast mind into a slow one.

A slow, distracted, and undisciplined mind slows down the legs and racket, so it's really a triple whammy! With a slow mind, you can't produce the physical skills and consistency of execution to string together enough points to win a tennis match... It is no wonder players who lack mental discipline perform poorly and don't achieve the results they're really capable of.”

What then is the secret to “mind speed”?

The “secret” is the ability to focus on the task at hand, rather than say, the final outcome of the point or match.

You need to develop the ability to pay as much attention as possible to what you’re trying to do at the moment you do it, and leave everything else behind. Whether you're executing a drill or playing a point in a match, every ounce of concentration you can muster needs to be placed only on what you're doing at that very moment and nowhere else.

When the point or drill is over, that is the moment to “time travel” and allow yourself go back to the (immediate) past to mentally review the point or exercise that just concluded. Then, you need the ability to switch gears and “time travel” into the future where you can plan what to do (remember to keep things simple) on the next point (or drill).

Once the next point starts, you need to develop the discipline to re-focus all your attention only to what’s happening right then and there. Let your thoughts wander anywhere beyond what you need to do right then and there, and you won’t play anywhere near what you’re capable of.

Bottom line is, in order to perform your best, to play to your highest level, you will need to learn how to repeat this “focusing cycle” for each and every point, as well as consciously “dial down” the intensity of your focus at appropriate moments (i.e. during changeovers) by employing one of several relaxation techniques (we’ll get into this subject in more details in future posts).

How do you develop this ability to control your focus?

Well, there are a fantastic number of books and articles devoted to the subject, but for all practical intents and purposes, the first step is to understand and acknowledge that the ability to control your focus—your ability to control your mind—is a crucial step to becoming a successful tennis competitor.

The great majority of tournament players acknowledge that they need to have technically sound, consistent and powerful strokes, but only a few truly accept and understand that they must also train and develop their mental skills to a similar, if not higher level, in order to fulfill their true competitive potential (and isn't it funny how these players who are willing to train their mental skills tend to be the ones with a need for a “trophy room” at home).

Always remember that the mind controls the body, otherwise, you will receive frequent, object lessons about who’s really in charge when it comes to determining your performance level especially once the match starts.

TTFN!

The Power Revolution in Tennis - Part 3 (Behind the scenes of the Federer Forehand)

The last post in this series – The Power Revolution in Tennis – Part 2 (Defining the New Topspin) – I focused on the two main fundamentals of the “New Topspin” that’s employed by the stars of the sport today on the signature shot of power tennis – the power forehand. The first of these “modern fundamentals” is the closure of the racket face during all the phases of the stroke, and the second is the shallower overall swing path that enables today’s players to create a flatter, more penetrating shot trajectory without affecting their ability to generate sufficient topspin to maximize control over their shots.

No one player has leveraged these two crucial elements of the modern topspin forehand more than the 12-time Grand Slam singles champion who goes by the name of Roger Federer.

In this post, let’s take what’s perhaps a bit of a sideways journey into learning more about the story behind the development of what’s essentially the state of the art in tennis forehands these days, the Federer forehand.

The “greatness” of the Roger Federer forehand is nothing particularly novel from a technical standpoint. IMHO, the Federer forehand is not a “novel synthesis” of “classical and modern technical elements” as some want to interpret it (see Tennis Magazine – US, May 2008).

Arguably, every player’s stroke technique is essentially a synthesis of certain specific ideas, philosophies and movements. Did Roger come up with his personal synthesis on his own?

Not really. You’ve got to give credit where credit is due. Roger had help. (To find out who helped him develop his signature forehand, read on!)

Federer’s forehand represents a integration of technical elements from 3 particular former Grand Slam champions (who themselves won a total of 27 Grand Slam singles championships) to create the forehand he’s employed only since mid-2001, around the time he bounced one of his tennis idols, Pete Sampras from Wimbledon in a compelling 5-set clash at Wimbledon.

Before I reveal the “ancestral lineage” of the Federer forehand, it is interesting to note that it took Roger almost 3 years (maybe longer) to develop and employ the forehand the fans have come to revere and his peers have come to fear, envy and revile. If you have ever seen footage of Federer before 2001, you would have seen a very different forehand entirely. Roger’s forehand when he broke through at the Grand Slam level in the juniors (1998) and in his first 3 years as a pro (1998-2000) resembled the old Sampras forehand more than the one that’s driven him to 12 Grand Slam titles in a little over 5 calendar years.

Search for a YouTube video of a 1998 indoor match between Federer and Andre Agassi played in Roger’s hometown Basel Indoors, and you’d see a fast, but much flatter, and unpredictable forehand that Federer would execute by fanning the racket face open in the backswing and then closed as he accelerated to contact (a la Sampras in his early days on tour). When he “timed” the closure of the racket face correctly, the result was devastating. However, the reality was that for every sweet stroke that blasted past Andre, Roger would mistime the closing of the racket face 3 or 4 times and create shanks that handed Andre a ton of free points over the course of a two set defeat.

Basically, credit is due to Peter Lundgren, Roger’s original “sherpa” on the pro tour for helping him learn the skills to transition his classic, “Samprasian” flat forehand into the “SlamMaker” version of the past 5 years. What Lundgren was able to accomplish between 1996 and 2003 was to add the necessary modern refinements to Federer’s original Sampras-Becker-style forehand technique to increase the overall safety and consistency of his stroke.

Once Federer mastered the fundamentals of the modern Swedish topspin forehand, the rest, as they say, is history.

For you technical afficiandos, if you look carefully, and have a very good visual memory – Roger’s forehand today bears more than a close resemblance to the forehand stroke used by Mats Wilander during his salad days where he won 7 Grand Slam singles in a 6.5 year period between 1982 and 1988. Federer makes bigger movements than Wilander did – i.e. Roger makes a much larger rotation of his upper body and has much greater extension of his racket arm through the contact zone than Mats, but the general swing shape and underlying “philosophy” (maximum topspin to maximize safety and consistency) is essentially the same.

Until Federer mastered the principles of the Swedish-flavored, modern heavy topspin forehand: closed face at all points of the swing, combined with the powerful forearm rotation through the contact zone (the so-called “wiper”), his forehand was more of a liability than the “SlamMaker” we know today. Roger has always had the racket speed that few players in any generation possess, what he lacked until say, the end of 2001 to early 2002 was the ability to harness and control his natural racket explosiveness using the only practical means to harness and control that kind of power: the application of massive amounts of topspin… As well as express his natural “creativity” for varying his strokes by being able to more reliably control his ability to generate (top-)spin for every stroke.

From a technical standpoint, the “SlamMaker” has evolved from the techniques he originally adopted from his early tennis idols, Boris Becker (6 Slams) and Pete Sampras (14 Slams), combined with the Swedish refinements (based on the Wilander forehand which helped him win 7 Slams) set into place by Peter Lundgren. Do I have any knowledge of exactly when Lundgren began the work that eventually led to the emergence of the SlamMaker? No, I really don’t…

All I really know is that without the topspin maximization techniques brought by Lundgren, it’s pretty clear that the history and landscape of pro tennis over the past 5 years would be starkly different. Without the emergence of the SlamMaker, Lleyton Hewitt probably would have won close to 10 Slams himself by now and we’d be talking about the Hewitt-Nadal rivalry or era.

The only technical element that might represent a true “innovation” by Roger is his tendency to “break” the so-called “double-bend” or “double-confusion” (as my friend coined it) structure that the US teaching pro establishment has come to espouse as a so-called “modern stroke fundamental”.

The true function of this movement - breaking the “double bend” structure of his upper arm and forearm through the contact zone -is to enable Roger to fully release the stored energy – in the form of higher racket speed – he originally created by arranging his arms the way he does in his backswing.

If Federer were to retain the “double bend” structure through the contact zone, and then execute the “wiper” finish, he wouldn’t be able to use the natural acceleration and energy that results from allowing the forearm to accelerate and extend forward.

Effectively, the Federer forehand is a modified sidearm throwing movement that resembles that movement that’s used by a major league infielder when attempting to throw out a speedy runner on a ground ball. In order to get any kind of velocity on that sidearm throw across the diamond, the infielder must “break” the arm angles he created initially after picking up the grounder, and create the same arm “extension” as he releases the ball from his hand.

That “extension” of the arm at the release point of a throw or through the contact zone of a tennis forehand is critical for maximizing velocity (and spin, if you have the “closed face at all points of the stroke” part already down cold). Did Roger consciously "invent" this movement? I personally kinda doubt that. As far as I can tell, Roger's not the first to employ this type of movement as a part of his forehand. If you look closely at tennis techniques in the history of the sport, there have been other top players who used the same move (i.e. remember Jimmy Arias?).

So, what does that tell you about all those tennis players who are/were trained to maintain or “hold on” to the double-bend structure? What it tells me is that there are a lot of players out there who have the potential to really improve their forehands. What does that say about the coaches and pros who “trained” these players in the revered “double bend” technique?

Hey, draw your own conclusion about that…

TTFN!

Tennis SpeedChain training video clips now on YouTube

Just a brief update…

For those of you out there who haven’t seen how the Tennis SpeedChain is used to increase your racket / stroke speed, take a peek at these two videos we’ve posted on YouTube:

http://youtube.com/watch?v=8CywRDCH3Z4 (serve speed training)

http://youtube.com/watch?v=s8pGAc45lp0 (groundstroke speed training)

And, if you are wondering we’re only now posting these videos, it’s a loooong, sordid story that can be summed up in one word:

“Doh!”

Enjoy the videos!

TTFN!

P.S. One tennis website that I've run into that is worth checking out is this one: www.tenniscruz.com. It covers a wide range of topics on tennis and tennis training from the coach (Sergio Cruz) who led Jim Courier from the juniors to ATP #25 in the late 1980s. Sergio offers you insights into modern tennis from an "insider's" perspective... A very informative and entertaining site.

Informal Stroke Speed Survey of US Tennis - Spring 2008 Update

In my on-going survey of stroke speeds in US tennis, I have some more interesting data from the world of college tennis. In early April, I measured the serve speeds from the singles matches contested between the CU and Texas women. So without further ado, here are the numbers:

CU Buffs

Player Position	Average 1st Serve	Average 2nd Serve
#1	71.1	57.8
#2	66.4	59.0
#3	75.0	56.7
#4	80.5	71.7
#5	78.1	70.0
#6	67.3	58.5

Texas Longhorns

Player Position	Average 1st Serve	Average 2nd Serve
#1	77.8	63.0
#2	76.1	65.0
#3	85.0	77.8
#4	77.9	61.6
#5	85.6	56.6
#6	68.5	56.0

To sum up the info in the two tables above:

The average 1^st serve (12 players) was 76.3 MPH.

The average 2^nd serve was 61.6 MPH.

The fastest serve (in play) was 97 MPH.

The slowest serve (in play) was 50 MPH.

The average fastest serve (in play) for the 12 players was 86.1 MPH.

The average slowest serve (in play) was 57.1 MPH.

What do these numbers mean?

Well, the differences in serve speed between the pro and collegiate women are pretty similar to those I found between male collegiate players and their ATP counterparts… (see my earlier post titled: Memo to American College and Junior Players: Find another 30 MPH ASAP!

I then analyzed the serve statistics from players who competed in the 2007 US Open Women’s Round of 16 to the Finals and found the following:

The average 1^st serve (12 players) was 97.6 MPH (vs 76.3 MPH for the collegians).

The average 2^nd serve was 81.1 MPH (vs. 61.6 MPH)

The fastest serve was 124 MPH (vs. 97 MPH).

The slowest serve was 67 MPH (vs. 50 MPH).

The average fastest 1^st serve was 110.8 MPH (vs.86.1 MPH).

The average slowest 2^nd serve was 71.5 MPH (vs. 57.1 MPH).

The difference between the serve speed performance between the pro and college level for the women is at least 15 to 30 MPH – which is indeed a staggering difference!

It appears that the performance level of the women’s collegiate game is diverging from the pro game – in the wrong direction – just as I’ve observed on the men’s side.

And the record bears this out… Can anyone name who’s the last female player from the collegiate world to crack the WTA Singles Top 50 or 80 in recent memory?

Currently, there are only 2 players with any collegiate tennis experience in the WTA Top 100 Singles: Jill Craybas (WTA #66; Florida,1996) and Lilia Osterloh (WTA #94; Stanford, 1997). And, there are only 3 players in the Top 150 with any collegiate tennis experience… the 3^rd player being Laura Granville (WTA #136; Stanford, 2001).

Having seen these 3 players compete in person at some point in the last 7 to 8 years, I can tell you that their serve speed profiles resemble the WTA profile more closely than they do the collegiate profile.

So, in the end, the difference in achievement (i.e. being a successful collegian versus being a successful tour pro) still boils down to the ability to perform to a given standard…

You see, in US tennis, that “standard” has been your win and loss record as you’ve come up through the competitive ranks. There is little attention paid to the objective performance standards that you need to achieve to be competitive with your (elite) peers. And, as we slowly “fill in” those real, measurable standards (as we’re trying to do here), we will improve our chances of achieving the (competitive) goals we really want. At least you’ll know exactly what you’re aiming for!

TTFN!

TennisSpeed visits Europe - Part 2 (El juego de pies)

A couple of news items to kick off this post:

• The Tennis SpeedChain V2 goes on sale at our website (www.tennisspeed.com) later this week. The original Tennis SpeedChain has been transformed into a complete tennis training system that you can use to develop both optimal stroke techniques and increased racket speed. For those of you hearing this bit of news for the first time, I summarized the incredible new features of V2 in my last post which you can check out by clicking here.

• Congratulations to the University of Tennessee Volunteers Men’s Tennis Team for their outstanding performance this season—including a win (4-3) over the defending NCAA team champions, the 3^rd-ranked University of Georgia Bulldogs to close out their regular season! The Vols (who joined the “SpeedChain family” in January) have established themselves as one of the Top 5 or 6 teams in NCAA Division 1 (for the first time in about 5 years), and will be a force to be reckoned with come NCAA tournament time.

• As this is the time of the year where the college teams close out their seasons with their respective conference championships, and with the NCAA tournament looming, I wanted to give a shout out to all of the teams who were part of the SpeedChain family this season:

University of Tennessee-Knoxville Men’s Tennis (SEC)

University of Tennessee-Knoxville Women’s Tennis (SEC)

Boise State University Men’s Tennis (WAC)

University of Colorado Women’s Tennis (Big 12)

Syracuse University Women’s Tennis (Big East)

UCLA Men’s Tennis (Pacific 10)

University of California-Riverside Women’s Tennis (Big West)

Now, on to the subject of this post where I’ll present some closing thoughts about my European visit in early March…

I wanted to discuss two particular observations from my visit to Spain and Switzerland that have really caused me to shift my perspective about tennis training and coaching.

The first of these observations has to do with the fundamental difference in the training philosophy/approach taken by Jofre Porta and his team at Global Tennis. The best way for me to describe it is to use Jofre’s description of what tennis is really about: tennis is best described as “el juego de pies” or, “a game of the feet”.

The bottom line in tennis is simply this, if you cannot move – using your feet – into the correct, optimal position to strike the ball, playing tennis at a high level is simply impossible. It won’t matter how technically sound your stroking movement is if your feet cannot bring you to a solid position to strike the shot. Your hands, arms and torso cannot compensate for your movement weaknesses… Period.

If your ability to move on the court is somehow compromised by injury, a bad attitude, laziness, or whatever, your whole game is well, compromised at best. And if you need to perform at a very high level to be competitive you should take a careful, objective look at what’s happening below your waist. If you are having performance issues, the quickest way to improve is to work on your court movement skills. Before you even think of tinkering with stroke techniques, work on improving your movement because poor movement is almost always the root cause of poor performance.

During my 6-day stay at Global Tennis, I noticed how much attention was paid by the coaches to the movement and positioning of the players during training. I would say that the vast majority of the corrections given by the coaches to the players during training sessions pertained to moving correctly into the proper striking position for each and every shot (i.e. moving to a position behind the line of the incoming shot as rapidly as possible then forming the hitting stance). I could probably count on my hands the number of corrections pertaining to the stroking movement (the movements above the waist, that is) over the course of the 4 to 6 hours of daily on-court training that goes on there.

Does that mean that the Global Team doesn’t care about those movements that happen “above the waist”? Absolutely not! They definitely pay attention to what the other half of the body is doing, and they understand – rightly – that the main cause of any serious errors or flaws in the whole, integrated stroking movement (that involves the integration of both lower and upper body movements) are caused – triggered – by movement flaws and issues. The upper body “reacts” to the action of the lower body, and therefore if the lower body action is flawed, by definition, the upper body action is similarly flawed.

In other words, the Global team correctly understands that the optimal movement is the true foundation of playing high-level tennis. It also became very clear why Moya and Nadal emerged as Grand Slam champions having been trained in this approach, apparently from the very start of their life in tennis.

This philosophy described by “el juego de pies” used at Global is in stark contrast to what I saw in various training facilities in Switzerland (including training sessions involving federation-sponsored players in their National training center in Biel), and what I have seen here in the US.

The contrast between the Global approach and everything else I’ve seen so far everywhere is that where Global focuses on movement first, everyone else is clearly focuses first on what’s happening above the waist with the stroking movement of the hands, arms and upper body, and then they pay attention the player’s movement “skills” second. It’s as if they believe that they can make up for their poor positioning using their “superb stroke technique”.

Many simply fail to realize or understand that again, it’s just not possible to have “superb stroke technique” without “superb movement”!

This primary focus on what’s happening “above the waist” is tantamount to placing the “cart” before the “proverbial horse”. It bears repeating this message again and again: if you don’t or can’t move into the optimal striking position for each shot, by definition, you can’t make an “optimal strike”. You can’t produce your “best shot” if you can’t move to the “best striking position” for that specific shot.

Am I beginning to sound repetitive?

OK, one last time then...

When your movement goes awry – for any reason – this means that, by definition, your game goes awry as well.

Want to get your game back on track? Immediately focus on moving correctly, and everything else (i.e. power, control, etc.) tends to fall back into place automatically.

The second observation I wanted to mention was the stark difference in the general reaction and attitude of the people I met in both Spain and Switzerland toward the whole SpeedChain training concept and product(s).

You see, here in the US, I would say that 90% of the time, the tennis community here from players and coaches to parents and trainers, responds with great skepticism and sometimes outright hostility toward the very concept of the SpeedChain. When I reflect back on these experiences, it occurs to me that one common denominator shared by these SpeedChain “detractors” is the fact that they simply do not believe or understand that US tennis players – especially at the high-performance level – effectively have a stroke speed “deficiency”. And this “racket speed deficiency” may be a key factor in explaining why there are so few American players who have been able to compete successfully at pro level.

The bottom line is, the Americans have told us that “no (speed) problem even exists”, so there’s no need for anything like the SpeedChain. In contrast, the Spanish (at least among those Spanish coaches and trainers I met at Global in March) and the Swiss coaches and trainers I met reacted like this: “You guys solved that problem? Let me see the SpeedChain! Show me how this works!”

It was quite a refreshing change to talk to people who were largely open-minded and receptive to the very idea of the SpeedChain, to say the least. So, it makes me think that maybe we need to seriously consider setting up shop somewhere across the Atlantic… For once, the Europeans will take the innovation lead (at least when it comes to speed training), and it’s the Americans who will follow.

One thing’s for sure, I’m going to look very seriously at which German and Spanish classes at the local JC will fit into my busy schedule!

TTFN!

New Tennis SpeedChain ("V2") coming soon

Yes, dear readers, you read that correctly…

In the coming weeks, we will be releasing a new version of the Tennis SpeedChain (“Tennis SpeedChain V2”) for sale worldwide.

What’s new about “V2”?

Well, ever since TennisSpeed’s introduction of the original Tennis SpeedChain in late Summer 2006, our research and development efforts together with SpeedChain inventor, Kelvin Miyahira, to add further innovation and value to the original Tennis SpeedChain have been marching ever forward behind the scenes.

We have been testing a number of interesting concepts to enhance the effectiveness of the Tennis SpeedChain, and after weeks and months of extensive testing and proving we are ready to finally share these innovations with all of you out there.

The Tennis SpeedChain V2 brings several key changes to the original Tennis SpeedChain design. The most important innovations featured in V2 are:

1. The development of two new handle shapes to encourage and enhance training of critical stroke movements,
2. Structural and cosmetic changes to the handle design, and
3. The ability to immediately adjust the resistance level of the training device by exchanging an entire chain segment for one with a higher or lower resistance level.

These three innovations expand the versatility and usability of the original Tennis SpeedChain.

While the resistance level of the original Tennis SpeedChain was expandable only in the upward direction, the change in the handle design now enables users to either increase or decrease the resistance by exchanging the entire chain segment for another entire segment using a “quick link” system. This capability may be especially useful for tennis coaches and trainers who train a wide “cross-section” of different players using the SpeedChain.

The creation of two new handle designs has proven in our tests to greatly enhance both technical training (stroke movement training) and speed development.

One new handle design integrates a downward bend (angled toward the ground) at the far end of the handle where the chain segment is attached. This specially-bent handle strongly promotes forearm pronation for both serves and groundstrokes, as well as increases the (rotational) resistance you feel when you swing it.

For example, when you swing the SpeedChain with the bent-handle option, you can really feel the correct “covering” movement required to execute the modern topspin forehand that is achieved using proper forearm pronation as you swing through the impact zone. I have noticed that the accentuated sensation of that forearm pronation tends to ingrain that movement into your muscle memory much faster than by (unassisted) pure repetition alone.

The other new handle design is a special, shortened handle (about 40% shorter than the handle on the original Tennis SpeedChain) for use in serve training. The short handle delivers a higher initial resistance level to help develop increased force production during the initial movement of the racket arm toward contact during your serve motion.

(Oh, and the cosmetics of the handles will also be changed, from the original red to a distinctive “brushed aluminum” finish.)

Together, the new handle options and the ability to change the resistance level of the training device by exchanging the entire chain segment has transformed the original Tennis SpeedChain training device into a larger, most versatile tennis training system that addresses both racket speed development and technical stroke training.

In total, there are 9 distinct configurations possible with the handle and resistance options available with V2…

3 distinct handle options: original, bent, and short

times

3 distinct resistance levels (light, medium, strong)

Equals

9 distinct training configurations for the Tennis SpeedChain V2 that could be used to address a player’s specific training needs and goals.

What we plan to do is to offer the complete system that enables you to have all 9 configurations at your fingertips to help you increase your racket speed and improve the technique of your serves and groundstrokes,

Or,

You can purchase a single Tennis SpeedChain V2 with a basic configuration (effectively a "base model") to start (e.g. the original handle + one medium chain segment) and you can purchase the additional handle and chain resistance components (in any combination) as you need them.

So, say you buy the base model to start and then a couple of weeks into it, you decide to focus on working on your topspin forehand. You would then order the new, bent handle from the website, and when you get it, you remove the chain segment from our "original" handle using the quick-link and then attach the chain segment onto the newly-arrived, bent handle, and off you go.

(And, my experience has been that if you are training properly with the Tennis SpeedChain, you will probably need to increase the chain resistance at some point as you continue to improve your racket speed, as well…)

So, watch for the announcement of the official release of the new TennisSpeed V2 on our website (www.tennisspeed.com), or you can sign up for email notification of the V2 release on the TennisSpeed.com homepage (on the right side of the page in the "News Items").

Our on-going discussion of speed training in tennis will continue in my next post.

Until then, TTFN!

TennisSpeed visits Europe-Part 1

March has been an interesting time for me as I traveled across the Atlantic for the first time without my “boss” and children for companionship and translation.

I was invited to make a presentation about our work with the SpeedChain in tennis at a special, one day seminar (on March 1st) exploring the frontiers of high-performance tennis development that was organized by the Tennis Education Group based in Palma de Mallorca, Spain (yes, that Mallorca that’s home to Carlos Moya and Rafael Nadal).

Tennis Education Group is the brainchild of Spanish Federation Coach, Jofre Porta, whose mission is to help bring to light the best and most advanced methods, concepts and techniques involved in training and developing world-class tennis players. Jofre also founded his own tennis academy based in Palma de Mallorca together with Moya called Global Tennis Team.

For those of you who don’t know who Jofre Porta is, he has already had a remarkably successful coaching career, as he is the man who coached Carlos Moya from the juniors to becoming the French Open Champion in 1998, all the way to helping Moya become the #1 player in the world in 1999. Jofre also played a critical role in coaching Rafael Nadal in his formative years (between the ages 8 to 17). Jofre was in charge of helping Nadal getting established on the right foot as a professional (he appears in the "No Strings" episode featuring Nadal), and even today, although he no longer travels very much on the tour, he continues to coach Moya from behind the scenes from their academy in Mallorca.

IMHO, Jofre is one of the best, if not the best tennis coach on the planet without question. His knowledge, wisdom and experience are virtually unmatched…
The combination of his intelligence, intensity, creativity, curiosity, open-mindedness, honesty and passion for the game, and his genuine interest and concern for the well-being of his players separates him from the other, perhaps more “famous” coaches at the pro level.

Let’s put it to you this way, how many other coaches do you know have taken not just one, but two players all the way from the juniors to Grand Slam Champion? I cannot think of anyone but Jofre who has accomplished this incredible feat in recent memory…

Being Jofre’s guest at his academy gave me the opportunity to see his coaching philosophies and methodology in action on a daily basis. And what I saw I can only really describe in these terms: it was as if I was looking into a crystal ball and seeing what the sport would look like, say, 5 to 7 years in the future. Jofre is training his players to play the sport of the future, not the past like it’s done in most tennis nations, including ours.

It’s not that you wouldn’t recognize existing or established drills and training exercises in their training system—it’s how they are integrated and executed in the context of Jofre’s vision of the tennis of the future that was nothing short of well, genius. Add to that mix Jofre’s own unending curiosity, creativity and openness to new ideas—he is constantly searching for any and all ideas that will help his players develop the skills necessary to compete at the sport’s highest levels—and he and his team have developed novel drills and exercises, on and off-court that exist nowhere but at Global Tennis.

And now, the SpeedChain is in the process of being integrated into the “Global System”, as the SpeedChain training device and training methodology fits seamlessly into one of the most fundamental training principles and goals of Porta’s vision of high-performance tennis: to maximize a player’s capacity to generate speed, acceleration and power in all facets of their physical game.

Jofre told me that the SpeedChain will enable him to break through many of the existing barriers and limitations of current training and conditioning methods and he sees the benefits of training of the SpeedChain extending well beyond increasing a player’s speed and power to helping train and develop, among other things, an athlete’s kinesthetic sense, proprioceptive capacity, balance, coordination, anaerobic fitness and other fundamental athletic skills and attributes.

Anyway, it was a fantastic stay for me at Global Tennis…

There were many hours of stimulating discussion with the coaching team at Global as well as with the other speakers invited to the seminar (including a leading Spanish exercise physiologist, and one of Spain’s leading sports psychologists, as well as Jofre and his head physical trainer, Pedro Zierof), and it was truly a privilege to be a part of what's happening at the “cutting edge” of tennis coaching and training.

What I learned in those 6 short days in Palma has fundamentally changed many of my own ideas about coaching tennis, and how to train and develop a high-performance player. (We’ll get into the details of those changes in future posts). The open exchange of ideas and knowledge between everyone was something that I will remember for a very long time, especially considering the “culture of secrecy” that generally prevails at the highest levels of the sport.

And, you can’t imagine how honored I felt to have Jofre tell me that I would always be welcome in the world of Global Tennis.

More stories, photos, and info from Europe to come…

TTFN!