the international magazine for ptr tennis teachers and … · the international magazine for ptr...

The International Magazine for PTR Tennis Teachers and Coaches

November/December 2015

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contentsVolume XXIV, No. 6

FEATURES

7 We Still Need to Fix American TennisJack Thompson & Mark Allen

13 Ask the DocDr. Mark Kovacs

14 Dr. Howard BrodyDrs. Ben Kibler, Mark Kovacs, Paul Roetert

16 Learning from The Fight of the CenturyMarcin Bieniek

19 Wanted Dead or Alive!The Traditional Backspin VolleyJason Goldman-Petri

26 Propel Your Tennis BusinessHolly Metzger

28 PTR Wheelchair Championships Results

REGULAR FEATURES

2 For the Record3 Your Serve4 Industry News5 State by State22 Member News24 International News30 PTR Rates!32 Playmate Drill

Cover Special Olympics Tennis photo by Dayle ThomasContents PTR Wheelchair Championships photo by Dayle ThomasNovember/December 2015

2 TennisPro November/December 2015 www.ptrtennis.org

For the RecordTENNISPRO®

November/December 2015Volume XXIV, No. 6

EDITOR Peggy Edwards

ADVERTISING Julie W. Jilly

PTR BOARD OF DIRECTORS

CHAIRMAN/PRESIDENT EMERITUSDennis Van der Meer

PRESIDENT Roy BarthVICE PRESIDENT Karl HaleSECRETARY Ajay Pant

TREASURER Oivind SorvaldDIRECTORS-AT-LARGE Leo Alonso, Luciano Botti,

Rodney Harmon, Pat Van der MeerIMMEDIATE PAST PRESIDENT Jorge Andrew

PTR INTERNATIONAL HEADQUARTERS STAFF

CEO/EXECUTIVE DIRECTORDan Santorum

VICE PRESIDENT MARKETING & EVENTSJulie W. Jilly

INTERNATIONAL DIRECTORIñaki J. Balzola

DIRECTOR OF EDUCATIONSteve Keller

MEMBERSHIP DIRECTORHelma Cap

DIRECTOR OF COMMUNICATIONSPeggy Edwards

IT DIRECTORAmanda Mitchell

DIRECTOR OF DEVELOPMENTBrian Parkkonen

US MEMBER SERVICESWill Eagan

MEMBER SERVICESPaige Payne

ACCOUNTINGVicki Neitzel

INTERNATIONAL STAFF CLINICIANDr. Louie Cap

EDUCATION CONSULTANTDr. Anne Pankhurst

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Hilton Head Island, SC 29938(for courier use 4 Office Way, Ste 200, HHI, SC 29928)

800-421-6289 or 843-785-7244fax: 843-686-2033

[email protected] • www.ptrtennis.org

TennisPro is published bi-monthly by Professional Tennis Registry,

a nonprofit organization dedicated to educating, certifying and serving

tennis teachers worldwide in order to grow the game. The opinions expressed in TennisPro are those of the au-thors and not necessarily those of TennisPro or PTR.

Copyright © 2015 Professional Tennis Registry. All rights reserved.

Reproduction of any portion of TennisPro is not permittedwithout written consent of the publisher.

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Go GreenWe are happy to mail TennisPro to you, but you can help save the environment by reading it online. To discontinueyour hard copy and help the planet, simply call or email PTR Headquarters. 843-785-7244 or [email protected]

As 2015 comes to a close, we are anxiously looking forward to 2016. It will be the40th Anniversary of PTR, and we have lots to celebrate!

We hope you will be part of the celebration by joining us for the PTR InternationalSymposium that begins February 17th. Following a spectacular day of openingspeakers, we will have the honor and pleasure of inducting the legendary BillieJean King into the PTR Hall of Fame. It was 40 years ago that Billie Jean helpedDennis Van der Meer launch PTR. So not only was she instrumental in foundingthe WTA, Billie Jean was also influential in the forming of PTR.

When Arthur Ashe was inducted into the PTR Hall of Fame this past February,PTR decided to pay tribute to him by relaunching the ACE Program that had - andcontinues to have - a profound effect on the number of tennis teachers of color.In 2016, in honor of Billie Jean’s induction, PTR is going to make a concerted effortto increase the number of women coaching tennis.

Last year, we set a goal of 33 in 3. The objective is to have 33% of our member-ship be coaches of color within 3 years. We started 2015 with a baseline of 26.5%and we ended the year at 30.6%. This massive growth was courtesy of the ACEProgram. As I wrote in an earlier For the Record, the reason we set the goal of33% was because of a conversation I had with Billie Jean, where she stated thatin order for any group to make a difference in an organization, they must makeup at least one-third of the membership. Currently, women make up 25.5% of PTR.So the push to get to 33% in 3 years is going to be difficult. However, we are con-fident that you will help us by encouraging female coaches to become educatedand certified or encouraging skilled players to teach or coach tennis.

In the USA, we are looking forward to celebrating 10,000 members for the firsttime ever! We expect to reach this milestone in June of 2016. The fortunate per-son to be the 10,000th US member will receive a very special package.

PTR has great things in store for our 40th Anniversary year!

This holiday season, you will receive a special gift from us when we announce awonderful member benefit adding to the already loaded list of benefits. PTR mem-bership is a fantastic value, and we look forward to making it even better!

Finally, we will be making an announcement that will solidify PTR’s position as thelargest international organization of tennis teachers and coaches. So in 2016,look for PTR to again make a global impact in the tennis industry, as we continueto . . . Make a World of Difference.

Dan SantorumCEO/Executive Director

Rob

Kauf

man

www.ptrtennis.org November/December 2015 TennisPro 3

Your ServeDear PTR,Thanks again and keep up the good work. The magazine seems to be gettingbetter and better all the time. Dr. Mark Kovacs is a personal favorite as he al-ways puts out great content and it has been great seeing him become a reg-ular contributor.Jason Goldman-PetriDenton, TX, USA

Dear PTR,I wanted to thank John MacDonald for the great PTR training he gave us inOrmond Beach. I got Professional rating with a 95% on the written test! I re-ally enjoyed the entire workshop and felt totally ready for the online test.Charlotte DebreyOrlando, FL, USA

Dear PTR,PTR has been such a great experience!Jay R. (Dalelar) MiltonPalm Beach Gardens, FL, USA

Dear PTR,Sunday I returned home from a 2,500 mile road trip to Yellowstone and founda box sent by Helma Cap. Tired from driving all day I left the box until afterwork today. To my surprise the box contained a bunch of adidas PTR logoclothing and shoes along with a letter signed by all of you. I'm very touchedby the appreciation and personalization from the entire staff of PTR. It's anhonor to be associated with PTR. Thank you for your dedication in providingtennis enthusiasts across the world with quality instructors through PTR cer-tifications and the opportunity to part of the process.Nigel Pugh, PTR Clinician and TesterSan Ramon, CA, USA

Dear PTR,I want to thank you (Dan Santorum) for being such a positive part of my lifesince we met in 1992, and to express my gratitude for being such a greatleader, teacher and motivator. More importantly, thanks for your example ofputting family first in your life (your own family and the PTR family)! The manypeople, like you and Julie, who have been such great influences on methrough the years, helped inspire me to write this book, which came out inMay - www.bradpearcelifelessons.comBrad PearceProvo, UT, USA

Dear PTR,I wanted to commend everyone on a fabulous PTR Symposium. I had a fan-tastic time with the courses, trade show and tournament. Special thanks toAmanda and Will for all their help with set up, breakdown, information, shuttlerides, candor and friendliness. In the tennis industry, we hear comments allthe time, but we always savor the compliments.Mike PatrickOak Brook, IL, USA

Dear PTR,As my career winds down I greatly appreciate all that PTR has taught me thatI could pass on to my students. Dan, Julie, Helma and the PTR team shouldfeel very proud of all the tennis lives you have enriched. Doug VerdieckSeattle, WA, USA

Dear PTR,I recently used a PTR benefit when I attended the Western and Southern Opennear Cincy. Free tickets to the matches. Great seats. Thanks!Jeff Barger, Head Coach, Penn State Erie, The Behrend CollegeErie,PA, USA

Dear PTR,Thank you PTR for the free tickets to the Winston Salem Open. I took my sonand had a great time! Was able to see most of Harrison and Tiafoe, and partsof a couple of other matches, and saw Tsonga and Simon up close on a prac-tice court playing out points vs. each other. Thank you.Scott MonahanGreenville, SC, USA

Dear PTR,US Open Series tickets is a great promo for PTR members and pro tennis, inmy opinion. This benefit could be worth the price of membership for some. Bill Ozaki, USTA SouthernNorcross, GA, USA

Dear PTR,What a great job Brian Parkkonen did here in Cheyenne! The feedback wasgreat on both the curriculum and the presentation. It was also one of ourstrongest turnouts at a workshop here, so that, along with the quality of theworkshop, should go a long way toward hosting one next year. Shortly after,I was selected as 2015 Developmental Coach of the Year for the IntermountainSection. PTR has played a large role in my growth as a coach, so thanks againfor all you do to support me.Josh CossittCheyenne, WY, USA

Dear PTR,Brian Parkkonen was superlative in all aspects both on and off the court. Hewas exceptionally well received and attracted quite a following. We alreadyhave requests for another course. Brian’s outstanding performance is trulya credit to him and the PTR organization. You have a jewel! It is clearly evidentan enormous amount of work went into the development of the new Adult De-velopment course. No single person could have done this. The work of manydedicated staff members resulted in this smooth as silk event.Don HemingwayLas Cruses, NM, USA

Dear PTR,Many thanks to Dan Santorum for coaching such at great clinic at Yale Uni-versity in August during the WTA Tournament. I learned so much and met re-ally inspiring classmates. Would love to congratulate wheelchair tennisplayer Russ Hesselton for winning the 1 point game at the end of class. Look-ing forward to the Symposium in February! Louis Meehan Spring Lake, NJ, USA

Dear PTR, THANK YOU Julie Jilly and PTR for everything you have done for me! Youhave been the foundation of my success. The short phrase “THANK YOU”doesn't seem to be long enough to express my appreciation. Please knowthat my THANK YOU comes from deep within my heart!Harlon MatthewsAcworth, GA, USA

Billie Jean King to PTR Hall of Fame February 17During the Awards Banquetat the PTR International Ten-nis Symposium, in February,Billie Jean King will be in-ducted to the PTR Hall ofFame. King is a tennis worldchampion and a champion ofthe world through activismfor just causes for womenand men. As the fifth in-

ductee, King will join Dennis Van der Meer, JimVerdieck, Dr. Jim Loehr and Arthur Ashe in the PTRHall of Fame. Photo © Andrew Coppa Photography

David Haggerty Elected ITF PresidentFormer USTA President, David Haggerty, waselected to serve as President of the InternationalTennis Federation, The New Jersey native is thethe first from the USA in 40 years to serve in thisrole. PTR member and current USTA PresidentKatrina Adams will serve as a Vice President,along with Anil Khanna and Rene Stammbach.

PTR Symposium Set for February 2016The PTR International Tennis Symposium will be

held February 17-20 at theSonesta Resort and Van derMeer Shipyard Racquet Clubon Hilton Head Island. Joinand network with hundredsof tennis coaches fromaround the world for valuableeducational lectures and on

court presentations to further your career. Atten-dees and their paying guests are welcome to enjoythe Awards Banquet and Hall of Fame induction ofBillie Jean King on February 17. For more informa-tion or to register, see the enclosed brochure orcall 843-785-7244 or visit www.ptrtennis.org

College Scholarship Ebook ReleasedThomas Anderson, one of the world leaders in col-

lege athletic recruitment,shares his 25+ years ofknowledge on the subject ina new ebook, 7 Steps to Wina College Athletic Scholar-ship. It offers practical tipsand guidelines for any ath-lete, parent or coach. PTRmembers can purchase thevaluable resource for only

$9.95. To order, visit universitysports.com

WTA Hires Steve Simon as CEOThe WTA replaced outgoing Stacey Allaster, byannouncing Steve Simon as CEO just three daysafter her departure. “The WTA board called me acouple days after Stacey Allaster decided to stepback and asked me if I would consider it,” ex-plained Simon, who since 2004, had been Tourna-ment Director and Chief Operating Officer of theBNP Paribas Masters at Indian Wells. "It humbledme to be asked and I said I'd like to take a shot atit, because I think it's a unique opportunity to beprovided a platform to maybe improve the game,the sport and the business, and take it to newplaces. You don't get that opportunity very often.""Steve Simon, with his successful career leadingone of tennis' most prestigious tournaments, is theperfect person to run the WTA," the Board said ina statement. "Steve produced results, pursued ex-cellence and he kept innovating, making the fanexperience even better. He has a very clear visionfor the sport and is held in high regard by all." Formore, visit www.wtatennis.com

Is Your Tennis Center PTR Proud?The PTR Proud designationdemonstrates professional-ism and a commitment toproviding tennis instructionthat meets PTR’s high stan-

dards. To find out if your facility qualifies, visitwww.ptrtennis.org/about/ptr-proud.htm

US Open LEED® Certification & Green InitiativesThe USTA announced its first LEED Green BuildingCertification for its Transportation Building, part ofits commitment to create a sustainable futurethrough continuously seeking ways to reduce theimpact the US Open has on the environment. TheLEED rating system recognizes best-in-class build-ing strategies and practices for high performancegreen buildings. The USTA aims to further this ini-tiative for the new Grandstand and Louis Arm-strong Stadium; slated to open in 2016 and 2018respectively. Since the inception of the programin 2008, the US Open has recycled more than 2.6million plastic bottles, welcomed more than 3 mil-lion fans via mass transit, and diverted more than1,800 tons of US Open waste from going into land-fills. Last year, the US Open diverted more than70% of its waste from landfills through recyclingand composting. This year, more than 650 tons ofwaste will be diverted from landfills, ultimatelysaving more than 425 tons of harmful greenhousegas emissions from the atmosphere.

ITA Award Named for David BenjaminThe ITA Achievement Award is now the ITA DavidA Benjamin Achievement Award, made possibleby a legacy gift from Margie and Stan Smith. Theannouncement of the endowment of the ITA DavidA Benjamin AchievementAward took place during theInternational Tennis Hall ofFame Board Meeting in NewYork. Now in its 22nd year, the ITA AchievementAward pays tribute each year to past participantsin the world of varsity tennis who have achievedexcellence in their cho sen careers. The awardhonors both professional success and contribu-tions to society, made either as a direct result of acareer, or through humanitarian efforts. For more,visit www.itatennis.com

Tennis Trade Show Exhibit Space AvailableThe Tennis Trade Show, held annually during thePTR International Symposium, will be on Thursday,February 18, 2016. An exhibit is a great way toshowcase a company’s products or services tohundreds of tennis coaches from around theworld. One full Symposium Registration is in-cluded with each exhibit space. Requested boothassignments will be awarded on a first come, firstserved basis. For more information, [email protected] or call 843-785-7244.

ITF Extends Designations for PTR TournamentThe ITF has announced that thePTR Wheelchair Championshipshas again been designated as anITF Level 2 and a Grade A JuniorTournament for 2016. Scheduledfor September 29-October 2 onHilton Head Island, PTR Wheelchair Champi-onships is part of the UNIQLO Wheelchair TennisTour and a USTA Fall Southern Championship. Forthe results from this year’s event, see Page 28.

USP College Tennis Showcase December 2-3The USP International College Tennis Showcase,the most important recruiting event in the world,will be held December 2-3 in Weston, Florida.Since 1995, more than 400 players have receivedcollege scholarship offers. At the showcase par-ticipants have the chance to compete in front ofcollege coaches for NCAA, NAIA and NJCAAteams, who come with one goal in mind, to recruitthe best possible players for their teams andaward athletic scholarships. For complete infor-mation, visit www.universitysports.com


Industry News

ARIZONAThe Phoenician Resort's Tennis Center received the 2015 USTA OutstandingFacility of the Year Award. Jason Purcell is the Academy Director and HeadProfessional. • Conrad Ramos has a 501(c)(3) foundation Grassroots Tennis,Inc., dedicated to teaching tennis on a donation basis. • In mid-November,Seth Haynie is conducting a wheelchair coaches workshop, players trainingcamp and the SpoFit Desert Open tournament.

CALIFORNIAEdmund Carter was named Assistant Tennis Coach at Consumnes RiverCommunity College. •Benchmark Tennis Organization, a San Jose non-profitthat bridges the gap between practice and competitive play for red, orangeand green ball players, includes Reno Davenport, Leslie Johnson, AlJuodikis, Sharon Lamond and David Panconi.

CONNECTICUTClaudio Armandi was named USPTA New England Youth Coach of the Year.

FLORIDAChristophe Noblet is the new Head Men’s Coach at Stetson University. •Stan Oley was named a USPTA Master Professional. • Susan Allshouse isworking with the City of Boynton Beach to grow their kids tennis programat Boyton Beach Tennis Center. • John Danise completed the FACA agendafor the mid-December High School Tennis Coaches Workshop. John alsohosts a weekly broadcast. If you are interested in being a guest, pleaseemail [email protected]

ILLINOISMichael Byrd, of Midtown Athletic Club, and Matt Wright, of ACE TennisAcademy, completed the requirements to earn PTR’s highest rating of Mas-ter of Tennis - Performance.

INDIANAClayton Schneider was named Head Pro at Broadmoor Country Club.

KENTUCKYEmmy Kaiser captured the bronze medal in Women’s Singles at ParapanAmerican Games in Toronto. She also won the Women’s Doubles bronze(with Kaitlyn Verfuerth).

LOUISIANAWillie Paz was inducted to Northwestern State's N Club Hall of Fame, thehighest honor NSU awards to former student-athletes, coaches and athleticstaff. Willie was a player and the Lady Demons’ Head Coach for 11 years.

MASSACHUSETTSThe Boston Lobsters’ Salute to Strong Women recognized Billie Jean Kingand Avis Murray before their Philadelphia Freedoms match. • Ron Parlmanand Bill Hamilton have taken ownership of the Wayside Racquet and SwimClub in Marlboro. • Avis Murray hosted the 12th Annual Play for Pink BreastCancer Fundraiser at Bass Rocks Golf and Tennis Club. • The WeymouthClub, where Michael Hodge is Director of Tennis, announced completion ofits new indoor Youth Tennis Center, designed exclusively to teach childrenages 3 to 11.

MICHIGANScott Mitchell is Executive Director of Greater Midland Tennis Center. •Jorge Capestany was received the USPTA Professional of the Year Award.

MINNESOTABen Maes joined the staff of Rochester Athletic Club as the Racquet SportsDirector. • Vanessa Sexton completed the Twin Cities Marathon.

NEW JERSEYEd Ramirez is the new Director of Tennis for Center Court of Mount Olive. •Louis Meehanwon the NJ Senior Olympic Men's 55 Singles title for the sec-ond year. • Erik Borup has been named Head JV Coach at the MorristownBeard School.

NEW MEXICOOn September 26, Candy Giummo conducted a great LCTPA ‘Nick Day’ eventat Lions Park. For 2.5 hours, the tennis courts overflowed as 50 kids andtheir parents had fun. • Curtis Crawley and Donald Hemingway assistedwith a Tennis PE Day at Dona Ana Elementary School for more than 90 chil-dren in Grades 3 to 5.

NEW YORKAkiko Tohmatsu was invited by USTA Eastern to be one of the coaches tohost their Early Development Camps for top local Orange ball players.

NORTH CAROLINADirector of Tennis, Berhe Serekeberhan is proud that Blakeney Racquet Clubwas named 2015 USTA NC Tennis Club of the Year.

PENNSYLVANIATom Schoeninger led Moravian Academy to win the PIAA State Champi-onship for the second time, and was named Colonial League Coach of theYear. • Stephanie Daniel was selected to participate in the Ethnic MinorityWomen in Coaching Leadership Conference in Colorado Springs. • DavidBroida is the new Head Coach at Harriton High School, in Lower Merion. •Anthony DeCecco coached the 12s USTA Junior Team Tennis team at TennisAddiction to win the Section Championships. • Marina Zardet organized the6th Annual Team Nick Mixed Doubles Tournament. Held August 1, the pro-ceeds were donated to the ‘Light the Night’ Leukemia Society.

RHODE ISLANDMaryAnn and Mary Rompf won their second (2013) gold ball at the USTANational Mother-Daughter Grass Court Championships.

SOUTH CAROLINAHilton Head Monthly had a two page spread on Dan Santorum and his in-duction to the USTA Middle States Hall of Fame. • Moss Creek Tennis Centerwas named a USTA Facility of the Year. Tom Ruth is Director of Tennis.

TENNESSEEJulio Godreau has a new position - COO and Co-Director at The TennesseeTennis Academy operating programs at The Windyke Country Club, The Bri-arcrest Christian School and Christian Brothers University. • Margot Carterstarted a new company - Spherical Yellow that even has an iPhone app.


State by State

(continued on Page 6)

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Lubbock Senior Link published a two page spread on JimBlacketer. • The Southlake Tennis Center was recognizedas Texas Section Organization of the Year. Mia Gordon-Poorman is Southlake’s General Manager and StevenPoorman is Director of Tennis. • Susan Nardi, who wasnamed Tennis Pro of the Month (Oct.) by Tennis Club Busi-ness, is now Associate Chief Performance and Architectand Program Director for Nexxplayer Tennis Academy atthe renovated Beaumont Tennis Center.

VIRGINIAA frequent contributor to TennisPro, Daniel McCain hadan article published in Elite Tennis, GPTCA’s magazine. •Elaine Killoran was Co-Chair of the 4th Annual CharityTennis Tournament held at Reston's Lake Newport TennisFacility that raised $4,500 for USTA Foundation's WarriorTennis Curriculum and Cornerstone's Laurel Learning Cen-ter. • For 45 minutes, two of RafaWenzel‘s seven year old playershit the same ball across the net- 1,186 shots - without missing!• Jenny Kile, of Woodlake Swim& Racquet Club, shared news ofKatelyn Hubbard, a student andtough competitor new to tennis, who won Girls 12s at theMcDonald’s RJTC Masters.

WASHINGTONEarl Blanchard is hosting a Tennis Extravaganza at NorthPark Racquet Club October 24-25. Ken DeHart (California)and Page Love (Georgia) are among the presenters.

WISCONSINFour Lakes Athletic Club’s Director of Tennis, JonathanTeune, is helping form one of the first indoor USTA AdultLeagues in the Southern Wisconsin/ Milwaukee area. •John Powless represented the USA for the Gardnar Mul-loy Cup.

WYOMINGJosh Cossitt was selected as the 2015 USTA Intermoun-tain Developmental Coach of the Year.____________

ENGLANDCoachSeek.com named Mike Barrell one of the Top 50Influential Coaches of 2015. All sports were considered,including golf, fencing, martial arts and surfing.

TURKMENISTANMichael-Ray Pallares has been named Technical Directorfor the Turkmenistan Tennis Association.


State by State

TennisPro welcomes news from all ourmembers. We encourage you to shareyour accomplishments, new jobs, jobpromotions, awards and other tennisnews.

Email your tennis news to your State Representative or you may email it di-rectly to [email protected]

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Fix American Tennis

A PTR International Master Professional, and PTR Professionalof the Year, Jack has a graduate background in Exercise Phys-iology and Motor Learning. During his 33 year career, he hasworked as a Head Professional and was Head Men’s andWomen’s Tennis Coach at Catawba College. He is currentlyHead Professional at Cabarrus Country Club in Concord andthe Director of Tennis at the Old North State Club. Jack is co-author of Power, Speed and Stamina for Tennis: A CompleteGuide for the Player and Coach.

Mark was Head Pro and Membership Director at CharlotteRacquet Club. He played DI tennis at the University of NorthCarolina at Charlotte. Mark finished 2010 as the #1 rankedMen's 4.5 Doubles player in NC and #3 ranked 5.0 Doublesplayer in the Southern Section. Also in 2010, he became Di-rector of Tennis at The Sportscenter in Concord, where he hasgrown his junior and adult programs more than 300%. Mark'scompany Performance Racquet Sports, manages the tennisprograms at Cabarrus Country Club in Concord and Old NorthState Club in New London, both in North Carolina.


We Still Need to

by Jack Thompson & Mark Allen, Co-Directors of the Performance Tennis Academy

In 2012, I wrote a three part article published in TennisPro titledHow We Can Fix American Tennis. This article sought to identifyand offer solutions to the reasons the United States -since the mid1990s - has been failing to produce international tennis champions.There were six reasons which were listed in order of importanceas casual factors for the USA’s demise. They were: 1) the declinein physical fitness of our youth, 2) the failure of our coaches to de-velop players with all court capabilities, 3) the fact that our juniorsdon’t train enough on clay, 4) US coaches not teaching character,self-reliance, independence and how to recover from failure, 5)US tennis academies awarding too many scholarships to non-USstudents and 6) the overwhelming number of college coaches whorecruit mainly international players.

Three years since the article was published, my colleague MarkAllen and I decided to examine whether progress has been made.Our investigation revealed the following.

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We Still Need to Fix American Tennis

1. The Decline in the Physical Fitness of our YouthWe listened to many experienced coaches and tennis professionals givetheir opinions as to why we’re failing to produce international championsand a recurring theme keeps coming up: that our best athletes are notchoosing tennis as their primary sport. While this is true, we have foundthat the problem is far greater than this! In fact, we discovered that theUS has far fewer good athletes available for all sports today as comparedto years past – and the numbers prove it! Our research reveals:

• We studied the birth records from 1955 to 19634 (See Table 1). During this time there were 37,630,000 children born.• We then surveyed 1973, when those born in 1955 would have been 18 and those born in 1963 would have been 10. Only 13%5 of our youth ages 10-18 were obese or overweight in 1973. When wesubtracted those kids who were obese or overweight (kids who probably wouldn’t play sports - and certainly not a running sport, like tennis), we were left with 32,739,000 children ages 10-18 who were viable candidates to play tennis/running sports in 1973.

When this same process was applied to births from 1996 to 2004 (Table 2),the total number born was close (roughly 1,640,000 fewer were born from1996 to 2004) with a total of 35,990,000 born during these years. Here’s thebad news, when we subtracted the obese/overweight kids (33% today),the total number of kids ages 10-18 available for tennis/running sportstoday is only 24,113,000!

The difference between these two snapshots in time: 8,626,000 fewer chil-dren ages 10-18 available for (running type) sports today as compared to1973. To put this into proper perspective:• 40 of our states have populations smaller than that!• Virginia, our 12th largest state reported a 2012 population of 8,260,405, which is 365,594 people less than 8,626,000.• According to current estimates, there are 163 countries on this planet with populations smaller than this. Only 93 have populations greater than 8.6 million!

When you further reduce today’s athletic pool by subtracting the numberof children playing soccer (5,000,000) and lacrosse (624,593), sports thatdidn’t exist in the US in 1973, the difference is a staggering 14,250,593.Imagine if we had 14,000,000 more children in the athletic pool today and8% (a number that’s been reported as playing tennis today) chose tennisas their primary sport – that’s 1,200,000 more tennis players ages 10-18!Or how about just 8,626,000 more? Eight percent of this figure is 690,080(more tennis players ages 10-18)! With this increase, don’t you think wecould produce a few more Sampras and Everts?

So, how does the US compare with our foreign competition in terms ofoverweight/obese children? Very poorly! Today, as previously mentioned,a third (33%) of our school children are obese or overweight. Here’s arundown of what other countries have reported as their childhood obe-sity/overweight rates:• Australia: 27% girls, 22% boys• Germany: 17.6% girls, 22.6% boys• Japan: only 3.5% of its entire population is obese/overweight• China: 4.5% girls, 5.9% boys• Russia: 25.7% boys and girls• Canada: 26.1% girls, 28.9% boys• Italy: 30.9% girls, 32.4% boys• Spain: 22.9% girls, 32.9% boys• United Kingdom: 26.6% girls, 22.7% boys• France: 14.9% girls, 13.1% boys• Romania: 25.4% boys and girls• Switzerland: 13.2% girls, 16.7% boys

Only Argentina, Brazil and Mexico have a higher incidence of obesity amongtheir children than the US, and they only exceed our totals by a percentagepoint or two.

To reiterate, saying that our best athletes are not choosing tennis is a grossunderstatement. Our main problem is that we have a far smaller athleticpool today than we have had in decades past. While it is true that manyother countries focus more of their resources on tennis today, it is also truethat a higher percentage of their kids are more fit to play tennis and otherrunning sports. In addition, they also have fewer sports for their kids tochoose from that could reduce their numbers participating in tennis.

The Relationship Between Obesity/Overweight Percentages in US Childrenand US Men’s and Women’s World Tennis RankingsIn order to determine the relationship between the childhood obesity rate(10-18 year old boys and girls) in the US and the decline in US men’s andwomen’s world tennis rankings, a simple correlation of data was performed.(See Table 3).

A correlation is a statistical measure that indicates the extent to which twoor more variables (in this case obesity/overweight % and US tennis worldrankings) are related. A positive correlation indicates the extent to whichthose variables increase or decrease in parallel; a negative correlation re-flects the degree to which one variable increases and the other decreases.Correlation coefficients can range from 0 (no relationship) to 1 (a perfect re-lationship). A high correlation (or strong relationship) would be considered.7 and above.

When the data was analyzed, we found:• There is an extremely strong negative correlation between the percentage of overweight US 10-18 year olds and the number of men in the Top 100 tennis rankings (r35) = -.934, p<.001, as well as women (r35) = -.957, p<.001. In other words, as obesity/over-weight percentages increased rankings dropped. In fact, it wasn’t far off from being a perfect correlation for both men and women!

It should be noted, however, that a high correlation does not necessarilyprove causation, but in this case, it does show an extremely strong relation-ship! Here’s a good example of two variables having a strong positive rela-tionship, but no causal relationship. Consumption of ice cream in the summer(variable 1) and summer drowning deaths (variable 2). Both increase dra-matically in summer (positive relationship). Eating ice cream, however, doesnot cause people to drown. A third mitigating situation - hot weather - isthe causal factor tying these two variables together.

Another, stronger statistically, method of examining ‘change’ over time wasthen performed by classifying the data according to decades. Specifically,an ANOVA test, followed with post-hoc Tukey test was performed. This re-sulted in the following (See Table 4).

Obesity changes significantly over these three decades, F(2,34) = 177.01,MSE = .001, p<.001, ɳp²=.91 (very strong effect), with the 70/80s (M=15.60%)showing far fewer obese 10-18 year olds than the 1990s (M=24.1%), whichin turn showed fewer obese children than did the years since (M = 32.60%).Leaving out the numbers, you can say that obesity percentages have in-creased significantly over the past 37 years, classified by decade.

Number of US men in the tennis Top 100 rankings changed significantly overthese three decades, F(2,34) = 111.95, MSE = 21.78, p<.001, ɳp²=.87 strongeffect), with the 70/80s (M = 33.92) showing far more US men in that elitegroup than the 1990s (M = 14.30) and the decade-plus since (M = 7.40). Leav-ing out the numbers, you can clearly see that the percentage of top US menhas decreased over these years.



Number of US women in the tennis Top 100 rankings changed significantlyover these three decades, F(2,34) = 113.88, MSE = 35.03, p<.001, ɳp²=.87(very strong effect), with the 70/80s (M = 43.42) showing far more USwomen in that elite group than the 1990s (M = 8.50) and the decade-plussince (M = 9.40). Leaving out the numbers, you can clearly see that thepercentage of top US women has decreased over these years.

With the lack of men and women in the Top 100 today comes a secondaryproblem - kids just can’t identify with any champions - and this lessensthe likelihood of choosing tennis as a primary sport. They used to haveAshe, Connors, Smith, McEnroe, Chang, Agassi, Sampras, Courier, King,Evert, Davenport and Austin. Ask any American child today (one whodoesn’t follow tennis) who John Isner is, and they couldn’t tell you. Theysure wouldn’t know who our third best male player (Steve Johnson, #51in the world) is. In fact, most tennis fans wouldn’t know who he is.

We do believe that these data are one of the factors, and in all probability,one of the top two reasons that has led to our demise. The other fivepoints in this article also have played a significant negative role.

The SolutionAs stated in How We Can Fix American Tennis, we believe that PhysicalEducation (nationwide) must return to a sound program of strength train-ing and conditioning, much like we had in the 1960s and 70s. Physical Ed-ucation should be mandatory K-12 and funded accordingly. Current andpast research clearly shows that those children (and adults) who exerciseregularly far outperform their sedentary counterparts on both physicaland cognitive tasks. Children should have to ‘dress out’ and when theteacher instructs them to run, they should run (at their own pace), or sufferthe consequences. This isn’t happening in a majority of physical educa-tion classes offered today. Students should have to shower after physicalactivity; it’s a part of learning good hygiene!

The upper body strength of our youth today is extremely disappointing -65% of boys and girls in 1995 ages 12-17 (the last time meaningful datawas collected nationwide) could only do 0-1 pullup. We feel sure it’s just

as bad and probably worse today. Children today just do not climb, wres-tle, play on monkey bars and throw things (e.g. snowballs, dirt clods, etc.)like their 50s, 60s 70s and 80s counterparts did. Much of their time todayis spent indoors gaming. In fact, a 2012 PBS interview with the Directorof the National Gaming Institute revealed that by the time a kid todayreaches 21, they have gamed more than 10,000 hours, which is equivalentto the number of hours they spend in the middle school and high schoolclassroom combined! To improve our children’s upper body strength, therope climb, weighted clubs, medicine balls, kettle bells and the pegboardshould be put back into Physical Education classes.

We have talked to a number of coaches and physical educators who haveplaced the blame for America’s weight problem on the fact that high fruc-tose corn syrup (HFCS) is so prevalent in foods today. Apparently, theyhave based their opinions on the 2004 study (Bray et.al.)6 that contendedthat HFCS is a direct causative factor for obesity. This is clearly not thecase. John S. White (2008)7 conclusively showed that HFCS is not theunique cause of overweight/obese children and adults in the USA or else-where.

School lunches can be made more healthy, and it’s admirable that ourfirst lady, Michelle Obama has brought light on this issue, but without vig-orous daily physical activity, our numbers of obese/overweight childrenwill continue to soar. Indeed, a recent PBS radio report predicted thatby 2025, 50% of our youth will be obese or overweight! The President’sChallenge (formerly known as the President’s Physical Fitness AwardsProgram) should be reinstated in all school districts. These tests shouldbe given (as they used to be) at the beginning and end of each schoolyear.

Understand, I say these things from the perspective of a physical educa-tor, my undergraduate degree is in Physical Education. I taught Healthand Physical Education in the middle school from 1976-1981. Mark and Istrongly believe that when these measures are implemented we’ll beginto see improvement, but it will take time.

Table 1

Births, Obese/Overweight Children (%) number of children ages 10-18 available for sports in 1973

Birth Year

1955

1956

1957

1958

1959

1960

1961

1962

1963

Total Births

4,097,000

4,218,000

4,255,000

4,245,000

4,258,000

4,268,000

4,164,000

4,098,000

4,027,000

Obesity* 13% in 1973

x .87 =

x .87 =

x .87 =

x .87 =

x .87 =

x .87 =

x .87 =

x .87 =

x .87 =

# Children not obese* in ‘73

3,564,000

3,670,000

3,702,000

3,693,000

3,704,000

3,713,000

3,623,000

3,565,000

3,503,000

Total # of births 1955-1963 = 37,630,000

Total # of children ages 10-18who were not obese* in 1973 = 32,739,000

* Obese/Overweight

Table 2

Births, Obese/Overweight Children (%) number of children ages 10-18 available for sports in 2014

Birth Year

1996

1997

1998

1999

2000

2001

2002

2003

2004

Total Births

3,899,000

3,882,000

3,942,000

3,959,000

4,059,000

4,026,000

4,021,000

4,090,000

4,112,000

Obesity* 33% in 2014

x .67 =

x .67 =

x .67 =

x .67 =

x .67 =

x .67 =

x .67 =

x .67 =

x .67 =

# Children not obese* in ‘14

2,612,000

2,601,000

2,641,000

2,653,000

2,720,000

2,697,000

2,694,000

2,740,000

2,755,000

Total # of births 1996-2004 = 35,990,000

Total # of children ages 10-18who were not obese* in 2014 = 24,113,000

* Obese/Overweight1973 total 32,739,000– 2014 total 24,113,000

= 8,626,000 more children available for running type sports in 1973



Table 3

Incidence of childhood obesity/overweight in US and ATP/WTA world rankings of US players 1978-2014

Year

1978

1979

1980

1981

1982

1983

1984

1985

1986

1987

1988

1989

1990

1991

1992

1993

1994

1995

1996

1997

1998

1999

2000

2001

2002

2003

2004

2005

2006

2007

2008

2009

2010

2011

2012

2013

2014

% obese* 10-18 year olds

13%

13%

13%

13%

13%

13%

16%

17%

17%

18%

20%

21%

21%

21%

21.5%

22%

22.5%

24%

26%

27%

28%

28%

30%

31%

32%

33%

33%

33%

33%

33%

33%

33%

33%

33%

33%

33%

33%

US men in Top 100

35

31

36

39

41

38

41

34

31

26

28

28

29

17

17

14

18

6

14

9

8

11

8

6

10

10

10

8

8

6

6

5

5

6

8

7

7

US women in Top 100

50

51

52

51

48

48

42

42

37

43

34

23

26

23

23

22

20

13

16

14

14

14

14

15

12

10

13

10

9

10

4

4

7

5

9

9

10

* Obese/Overweight

Table 4

Changes in childhood obesity in the US and US Men’s and Women’s world tennis rankings by decade

50

45

40

35

30

25

20

15

10

5

0

Women

Men

Obesity

Number of US Men & Women Tennis Players in the World Top 100 by DecadeOverlaid with Percentage of Obese American 10-18 year olds

1970s/80s 1990s 2000s

2. Failure To Develop a Full Court Game & Too Much Drilling with Too Little Play

In the US, we still seem stuck on the notion that everyone needs to playas either an attacking baseliner or a counterpunching baseliner.Throughout the country, we see the majority of pros feeding endless hop-pers of balls at academies and promoting a ‘grip it and rip it’ philosophyof competing. Understand that we use the term ‘academy’ to include anylarge junior group training that occurs at virtually all clubs around thecountry. At most all that we visited, the time spent on the court brokedown to something like this: 75-80% groundstroke training (drives only);10-15% service work and 5-10% mid-court and net play.

In 2000, my good friend and colleague, PTR Pro and former ATP tourplayer, Tim Wilkison stated in NC Tennis Today, “The juniors today cannotvolley well, cannot hit a slice well or return a slice that’s well hit to them.”Fifteen years later, this is still the case!

So what we’re seeing at virtually all levels of junior play today in the USis a power baseline game. It is as if teaching pros were trying to coachUS players to beat the Europeans and South Americans at their owngame! This approach is wrong and here’s why - training everyone toplay the same way is inconsistent with how humans are wired psycho-logically. Any sports psychologist would agree with this! Do we trainall our football players to be quarterbacks? How about training all ourbaseball players to be home run hitters or train all our track team runnersonly for the 800 meters? In tennis, a kid who likes immediate reward, isrisk taking, athletic and wants to volley, would best be served by beingcoached as a net rusher. Those juniors who are more patient, like thegrind of long points and enjoy wearing down an opponent, would be bet-ter coached as a counterpunching or perhaps attacking baseliner. Anartistic or creative child, who is a problem solver, is probably best servedby being taught an all court game.



Perhaps the best summation of how limiting a ground game only stylecan be was stated in a recent conversation with Tim Wilkison (whocurrently coaches several tour players from China). He said, “If all youcan do is hit hard ground strokes, and your opponent is 8-10% betterthat day at it than you, you lose. There can be no back up strategicplan if you don’t have other shots!”

The SolutionIn the 2012 articles I wrote and now, we contend that coaches shouldteach students (from an early age) all the shots! (PTR is currently doingthis in our new pathway.) This includes slices, topspin drives, flatdrives, flat serve, slice serve, topspin serve, backhand overhead, halfvolley, volley, dropshots, etc. By age 12, a child should be able todemonstrate each of these shots. This does not mean that they cannecessarily execute all of them successfully in match play. Coachesemploying this training philosophy would, of course, need to counselstudents (and their parents) that learning a complete game takes muchmore time than learning to just bash topspin forehands and backhands.

Students who are training in this manner typically annihilate theirgroundstroking only peers by age 16 or 17. The reasons should be ob-vious - a player who has a complete game is able to compete if s/he islosing by adjusting strategy. For instance, if one is losing at the baselinewith drives, s/he could slice or perhaps purposely hit short (drop shots)to bring the opponent forward, and follow up with passing shots or lobs.If that didn’t work, a complete player could try rushing the net. Havingmultiple shots is essential in being able to build points.

Please coaches, we implore you to switch gears and teach a full courtgame and then help your players find a game style that works for them!The cookie cutter approach of the past 20 years has failed - and failedmiserably! Just look at the stats. In 1983, we had 39 men and 51women ranked in the Top 100. Today we have only 7 men and 10women!

Finally, coaches in the US need to have their players drill less and playmore! At our academy, we insist that our juniors play at least two prac-tice matches per week. Incidentally, we don’t consider tournamentspractice matches. A practice match involves the student calling or tex-ting someone to set up a time and place to play a best 2 out of 3 setmatch. Across the US today, this is not happening. Kids will play if it’sarranged for them by the pro. This wasn’t the way it was in the 70s,80s and early 90s.

In the September/October 2014 issue of TennisPro, PTR InternationalMaster Professional Jorge Capestany8 stated, “Today’s junior playersare not playing enough sets. I am fortunate enough to travel the worldas a speaker and coach, and everywhere I go, American coaches tellme they have the same problem. Kids take drills (group lessons), pri-vate lessons, special events, but avoid match play like the plague. Inmy own program, I have seen the shift as well. When I taught playersin the 1980s, they couldn’t wait to get out on the court and play sets.Drilling was only one part of their overall training regimen and it com-prised two to four hours a week at the most. Back then, the good play-ers additionally took a private lesson and played tournaments on theweekend, or if there were no tournaments, they played practice sets.”Later in the article, Jorge summarizes with, “The end result is the de-velopment of an army of American kids who can strike the ball beauti-fully, but cannot seem to win a match. If the game is the best teacher,then match play is best for the game.”

3. Failure to Practice and Compete on Clay CourtsThere is no evidence to suggest that US junior players have devoted morepractice time on clay courts over the last three years. There may be a fewmore clay court tournaments overall, but this doesn’t constitute practice.

The SolutionUS pros and coaches must demand that their students train and play morepractice matches on clay. For more information on this subject, refer to HowWe Can Fix American Tennis - Part 2.2

4. Failure To Teach Character, Self Reliance, Independence, Overcoming Adversity & How to Rebound From Failure

We have seen no improvement in this area. Regrettably, as a country, we havegrown weak. The rugged individualism, strong character and strong workethic that used to define Americans has been replaced by the notion that ifyou fail, the system is unfair and you’re ‘entitled’ to some measure of success.It’s certainly occurring at an unprecedented rate at the federal level, but it’salso happening in sports! Don’t think so? What about giving every kid a tro-phy? What about not keeping score? How about eliminating MVP (most valu-able player) or the giving of such an award to a senior whose record falls farshort of an underclassman?

In a recent article9, Dr. Allen Fox commented on this situation. Specifically, heexamined the role that modern psychologists have played in America’s decline.He states, “Before psychologists became the accepted arbiters of properAmerican behavior, these issues* [family rules, adult purpose, resolve, relia-bility, integrity and character] were determined by trial and error and centuriesof experience. Ideas of education, child rearing, character development, etc.,were passed on from person to person verbally and by example. Familial tra-ditions were taught to children by parents, grandparents, other relatives andfamily friends and associates. These ideas, well tested in practice, came frompersonal close by resources, not theories originated at a distance. Amongthese ideas were the likes of: children should be seen and not heard, spankingis a reasonable punishment for disrespecting and/or disobeying parents, rotelearning is a necessary part of early education, negative reinforcement is use-ful for delineating boundaries, self esteem comes from successful accomplish-ments, high standards of altruism, morality and conduct must be establishedfor children by parents and other adults in authority, etc.”*author’s insert

Dr. Fox, who has a Ph.D in Psychology from UCLA and taught Psychology atPepperdine University, goes on to say, ““Psychologists changed all of this. Be-ginning in the middle of the last century psychologists, with the help of themass media - radio, television and magazines - began to quickly and widelydisseminate their half baked new ideas. These untested assertions had a pow-erful impact on the lay public, gaining extraordinary credibility because theywere stated by psychologists and because they appeared on television andradio, now the accepted purveyors of celebrity status. In short, hundreds ofyears of trial-and-error tested ideas were discarded in favor of sweet soundingtheories - unproven - but given undue weight because people with P.h.Ds aftertheir names got together with the mass media.”

Later in the article, Dr. Fox states, “Fixing the educational system attractedspecial attention* (of which sports is a part) with a new bias toward makinglearning fun rather than driving students to do the necessary but difficult. Rotelearning of multiplication tables seemed old fashioned compared with newmath. Children needed to be stimulated in school with modern gadgets, fancyprojects and hanging mobiles, rather than coerced with traditional memoriza-tion of correct spelling and grammar, driven by blackboards, books, pencils,papers and bad grades for the inept. It sounded timely to state that ‘childrenare people too’ and that their ideas, although they may only be 10 years old,must be seriously considered.



Youngsters should, for example, have a say at the breakfasttable, but also in their school curriculum, rather than having thisdetermined by fuddy-duddy educators. Even more importantly,their self esteem had to at all costs be kept elevated, so correc-tions to their work had to be done with great tact and grades el-evated lest weaker students by psychically damaged (Dr. Spockhad proclaimed that there should be 10 positive reinforcementsfor every negative one, a ‘fact’ that he pulled out of his left ear).And ‘modern’ educators were repelled by the risk to youthfulself esteem posed by competition of any kind, tempting someto propose that sporting events dispense with keeping scoreand that school grades be done away with altogether.”

Is it any wonder, then, why the US is floundering (both in edu-cation and tennis)? Concurrent with the steady rise in liberalchild rearing practices since the 1980s has come a strong senseof entitlement to excellence… and when students fail, they areill equipped to handle the emotions that accompanies failure.With a ‘specialist’ coach for every aspect of their development,many of today’s junior tennis players are counseled, coddled,provided answers to situational (on court and off) dilemma’s theyshould have been allowed to figure out on their own, and toldby their parents that “you failed because the situation was un-fair.” The majority of kids today are simply not resilient in theface of adversity. Teaching pros, especially the young ones, areterrified to dwell on character, self reliance, independence, in-tegrity, honesty and how to recover from failure, for fear of losingstudents to the guy up the road who’s all about just hitting balls.In fact, it is a disturbing recent US trend that students jump shipand go to another coach if they disagree with the coach or failto gain immediate success. In many cases, we see parentsusing multiple coaches - which doesn’t work, especially in theearly stages of learning - in the hopes that one provides the‘magic’ performance cure. This goes on and on, eventually re-sulting in the child being totally confused as to how to play.

We have no hard data to prove it, and it may be impossible tofind such data, but we suspect that juniors from other countriesaren’t spoon fed by their coaches and parents as are our kids.I’ve been a PTR member since 1981, and I can honestly say thatI’ve met very few parents of international players (and I’ve metmany), who were anything less than highly supportive of theirkid’s tennis coach. I was Head Men’s and Women’s TennisCoach at Catawba College (DII) from 1998-2004, and I oftenheard the following comment made by Division I, II and IIIcoaches (and I’m paraphrasing here), “I love recruiting the in-ternational players. They’re tough, they’re not spoiled, they’rehighly coachable, and the parents aren’t intrusive in the coach-ing process!”

The SolutionThere was a time when the majority of US kids possessed strongcharacter, were tough, self reliant, independent, respectful,coachable and able to rebound following failure. Unless we re-turn to teaching these values to all of our youth, we don’t seeanything more than random success for US tennis. Let’s face it- kids are kids - it’s the adults in this country who have changed!

5. Tennis Academies and the Awarding of International ScholarshipsWe only have anecdotal evidence, but it’s strong anecdotal evidence. Conver-sations with parents and pros around the country suggest that many…far toomany tennis academy scholarships are being given to international players. Il-lustrating this are the comments of Michael Burton, whose son Jared plays atthe highest USTA level of competition in Texas. In a letter to the editor of Tennismagazine he states, “Listening to the commentary of the predictable McEnroebrothers during the US Open about how the future of men’s tennis in Americalooks bright sounded a tad hypocritical to me. The problem with American juniortennis is not that there is not enough talent in the United States; the problem isthat former tennis pros and US junior development officials go outside Americato recruit talent.

“Just look at tennis pro Kei Nishikori, who was brought to America from Japanto train at the Nick Bolletieri Academy in Florida when he was 14. Despite thetalent right here in the US, tennis academies are recruiting players outside NorthAmerica to develop their tennis skills on the pro tour. American universities typ-ically recruit junior players outside America as well - for example, South Africantennis player Kevin Anderson, who played for the University of Illinois.

“The problem with ‘American tennis’ is not that there is a lack of talent here - it’sthat our top tennis facilities and top college tennis programs deliberately go out-side the continent to recruit male players. In light of this fact, I think Tennis mag-azine could have chosen another feature for Generation Next featuring Americanjunior boys - Stefan Kozlov was born and raised in Macedonia.”

While it is true that student success helps increase long term academy revenues,why can’t US tennis academies give the scholarships to mainly US players?Wouldn’t having successful US players do just as much, if not more to build acad-emy prestige? It’s baffling to see so many international juniors ‘riding in the applecart’ while US families pull it (with their finances)!

The SolutionThe media and perhaps the USTA could be helpful in this regard, but essentiallytennis academy owners and directors must adopt a philosophy of America First.We understand that they’re running businesses, but feel just as much, if notmore, income could be realized by awarding the majority of scholarships to USchildren.

6. US College Tennis & the Recruitment of International PlayersUnfortunately, nothing has changed since 2012. In fact, this practice may be evenmore common. Today, nearly half of all NCAA tennis players are from countriesother than the US.11 The top 25 Division I teams in Men’s and Women’s tennislist 175 players from abroad - some 37% of all players. Among the top 25 women’steams in Division I, approximately 40% of scholarships go to international players.The top 25 women’s teams in Division II award roughly 70% of their scholarshipsto internationals.11

It should be obvious why this hurts American tennis. Internationals take spotson teams that American players could have. American families need the financialaid and college tennis is an important step for those good enough to go on to thepro tour. Yet in roughly 50% of cases on a men’s and women’s team (DI, DII), weare funding a non-US citizen’s development!

The SolutionAs a collective force (NCAA, USTA, parents, pros, athletic directors at universi-ties, etc.), we should demand that college coaches invest in American players!If the NCAA chose to act, it could impose legislation restricting each team to twointernationals. This would allow international recruitment and give the majorityof opportunity to our citizens.

Several brave pros and college coaches have spoken out- Wayne Bryan, father of the #1 ATP ranked doubles teamof Bob and Mike Bryan, Luke Jensen, former ATP pro andHead Women’s Tennis Coach at Syracuse University, andTina Tharp, Head Coach at West Chester University - in sup-port of recruiting American players. College coaches mustdo their part to stop bringing in players who are using thecollege experience to train for the pro tour. We’ve heardfrom several tennis fans and authorities that, “if the coachrecruits Americans and starts losing, he’ll be fired!” Wethink that in the overwhelming majority of cases this justisn’t so. Tennis, at every college, is a non-revenue sport.We believe that if a coach told his athletic director, “I wantto do my part to build tennis in the US, and expand ouralumni base by recruiting American players, players whohave good grades, are good citizens and who really wantto attend our school” that the AD’s response would be sup-portive of getting back to the way it was.

Another comment we have heard is, “if we only recruitAmerican players… there wouldn’t be enough players togo around to fill the squad rosters.” Really? We don’t re-member schools unable to field teams before internationalrecruitment became prevalent. It might be that the depthof squads would be affected, but this would be the casewith all schools across the board!

Come on college coaches - Put America First!

SummaryNo one factor by itself has been the unique cause of theUSA's demise in international tennis. It has been the syn-ergistic effect of all of the aforementioned reasons that hasbeen and continues eroding our chances of success. Untilthere is a serious effort to address and improve these prob-lems, we believe that the United States will only shown ran-dom ( and very little if any ) long term success inInternational tennis. Coaching (and playing) any sport is apragmatic venture - what you’re doing either works ordoesn’t work. What we’ve been doing for the past 15-20years has resulted in rapid and complete failure! The so-lutions are at our fingertips - we need only to use commonsense and act!

References1. Thompson, Jack (2013). “How We Can Fix American Tennis: Part I.” TennisPro (May/June) pp 24-27.

2. Thompson, Jack (2012). “How We Can Fix American Tennis: Part II.” TennisPro (July/Aug.) pp 11-12.

3. Thompson, Jack (2012). “ How We Can Fix American Tennis: Part III.” TennisPro (Sept./Oct.) 00pp 19-21.

4. “Births and Birth Rates in the United States Between 1910 and 2005.” www.infoplease.com/ipaA0922289.html/

5. Bishop, Middendorf, Babin and Tilson (2005). “Childhood Obesity.” ASPE Research Brief. Aape.hhs.gov/health/reports/child_obesity/index.cfm.

6. Bray, GA, Nielsen SJ, Popkin, BMV (2004). “Consumption of High Fructose Corn Syrup in Nutrition. Vol. 79, pp 537-543.

7. White, John S. (2008). The American Journal of Clinical Nutrition. “Straight Talk about High Fructose Corn Syrup: What it is and What it Ain’t.” Dec.2008. Vol 88, no. 6 17165-17215

8. Capestany, Jorge. (2014). “Serial Drillers: How Group Lesson Programs are Killing American Junior Tennis.” TennisPro (Sept/Oct.) pp 7-9.

9. Fox, Allen (1996). Excerpts from Book Proposal: “How Psychologists Have Been a Disaster to the United States.”

10. Corbett, Melissa Lawrence (2013). “Why is American Tennis Dying?” Team Stream Bleacher Report Inc.

11. The Sports Digest: The United States Sports Academy ISSN: 558-6448.

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tennis specific sport science and physical education info.

Have You Heard the Term Peak Height Velocity?

If you teach kids, you should be aware of the term Peak Height Velocity (PHV).PHV is the period where maximum rate of growth occurs. It is not just how mucha young tennis player grows, but actually the speed of growth. PHV varies witheach individual athlete. It generally occurs around 12 years of age in females,and occurs approximately two years later in boys. However, children the sameage (between 10-16 years) can have as much as a 4-5 year difference in devel-opment. Therefore, chronological age is a poor guide to group children from aphysical standpoint. The sequence of developmental events may occur two oreven more years earlier or later than average. PHV in boys is more intense thanin girls, and usually occurs about two years later.

Peak Strength Velocity (PSV) comes a year or so after PHV. PSV is the time whena young athlete increases strength at the fastest rate, and is a result of an in-crease in hormonal factors (growth hormone and testosterone); it is an importantperiod to develop overall general and specific strength, hypertrophy and power.Early maturing boys may have as much as a four year physiological advantageover their late maturing peers, and it is important to recognize this when struc-turing your groups, as well as when structuring competitions.

Although many of you may know the term PHV, do you actually measure this withyour junior players to help schedule when you train certain variables? If not, youshould start.

Measuring Peak Height Velocity (PHV)

Step 1 Once a young athlete turns six years old, you can measure height every three months and record it in software that has a graphing (charting) capability (for example, Excel or something similar).

Step 2 Produce a chart with height on the vertical axis and age on the horizontal axis.

Step 3 Any major changes in growth should be monitored to highlight thetimes of major growth. This will help guide you when to emphasize certain areas of training.

Step 4 Once this deceleration and re-acceleration of growth occurs, monthly measurements are recommended for greater accuracy. As the following few years are the major time before, during and after PHV. Remember, PHV is the highest point of growth acceleration. After PHV is attained, a deceleration in growth velocity will happen. The athlete continues to grow, but the velocity of growth is decreased.

Step 5 Continue to monitor growth for 18 months after PHV. The athlete’s training has to be adapted according to the windows of trainability.

Monitoring this information will significantly help you to better and more system-atically train young tennis athletes.


Dr. Howard Brody(1932 - 2015)

To achieve greatness, start where you are, use what you have, do what you can.- Arthur Ashe

Dr. Howard Brody was one of the titans in the sport of tennis. Every single PTRmember has been touched by his research and writings. You may have not met theman in person or even read his work directly, but if you are teaching tennis or enjoywatching tennis on TV, you have certainly been touched by his contributions.

He was truly the leader in the ‘physics of tennis’. Anything related to strings, balls,racquets and grips, Howard studied. He produced very high level research, butwas able to simplify this complex information in a way that coaches could under-stand and easily implement with their students.

My last in person meeting with Howard was a few years ago while I was in Florida.Howard joined Dr. Paul Roetert and me for lunch to catch up and talk tennis science.Although Howard was older and slower than in his prime, he was still excited aboutsharing his latest findings and talking about how the modern game has changed,yet the basic physics principles still hold true. His knowledge, expertise and hum-bleness was something that I will always remember, and his contributions to thesport of tennis touch all segments of the sport.

He was a scientific advisor for PTR and served on the PTR Sport Science Commit-tee, ITF Technical Committee and the Sport Science Committee of the USTA. I knowthat I am a better coach, scientist, teacher and educator as a result of the informa-tion that I gained from Howard.

Howard used his unique intellect and passion for tennis to change the sport, he didwhat he could to educate millions of people around the world over his career andhe really did achieve greatness.

Mark Kovacs, Ph.D. Chair, PTR Sport Science Committee

This may sound trite, but Howard Brody was truly one of a kind.His commitment to extending serious scientific information totennis sports medicine was one of the first efforts ever. His abilityto make rather dry information about the physics of tennis playcome alive with interest and application laid the foundation andgained acceptance for other researchers interested in this field.

I will never forget the ‘broken racquet’, sawed in half to make apoint about momentum, his calculations on the chalk boardshowing the mathematical equations necessary to prove hispoints, or his calculations about how high the ball had to be hitover the net to go into the court.

I was fortunate to know Howard for many years, working withhim in the PTR and the USTA Sports Science Committee. He wasalways encouraging and willing to discuss how we could maketennis better, more enjoyable, and safer to play. He continuallydemonstrated the joy of working in science and being able toapply it to real world situations.

Howard was a gentleman in manners, kind and thoughtful to oth-ers, and always exemplified character and honesty. It was a truepleasure to have known him, worked with him, been inspired byhim, and to consider him a friend.

W. Ben Kibler, M.D.


I first met Howard Brody in 1988, when the USTA started a SportScience Committee. Although it was a bit intimidating meetingthe famous Dr. Brody, I soon recognized how generous he waswith his time and knowledge. Dr. Body quickly became Howardto me and several years later some of us actually affectionallycalled him ‘Hobro’. All of this never diminished my respect andadmiration for Howard who, with all his scientific knowledge, al-ways knew how to make complicated concepts quite simple andunderstandable for every coach and player. He was the ultimatetranslator of ‘research to practice’.

One of my most vivid memories of Howard was in the 1990s, atthe Grand Hyatt Hotel in New York during the US Open. As Dr.Jack Groppel and I walked through the lobby at 6am to go out fora morning run, we saw Howard in the lobby with a big smile onhis face. “I just came up with a new formula,” he exclaimed. Todate, no one else has ever made that statement to me and prob-ably never will. No doubt he later presented the results and prac-tical applications at the PTR International Symposium. Anothergreat memory occurred at an International Conference at whichboth Howard and I presented. One afternoon when no one wasaround, Howard asked if I would hit some balls with him. I hadnever seen him play, although I do remember him telling me hehad played in college (MIT). His eye site was starting to let himdown, however he hit the ball with nice long fluid strokes. Whata treat to be able to play tennis with Dr. Howard Brody, one of thegreatest tennis scientists I had ever met.

Finally, something Howard was very proud of was his time as in-terim tennis coach at the University of Pennsylvania. He coachedthe team for the last handful of matches that season, winningthem all. He may be one of the few tennis coaches in college his-tory with an undefeated record! I will always remember Dr.Howard Brody as a exceptional scientist, a most approachablecolleague, great interpreter of scientific findings, excellent writerand presenter, and most of all, a true and loyal friend.

E. Paul Roetert, Ph.D.Chief Executive Officer, SHAPE America

The Coach Youth Tennis online courses and interactive workshops will enhance your teaching skills.

Highlights include:• Teaching tennis skills and fundamentals

• Organizing age appropriate games and activities

• Communicating more effectively with children

Learn more at CoachYouthTennis.com

TAKE YOUR COACHING TO THE NEXT LEVEL

© 2015 United States Tennis Association. All rights reserved.


Learning from

The Fight of the Century

A PTR Professional, Marcin is also a licensed instruc-tor with Polish Tennis Federation. He worked at aclub in Poland, and at tennis academies in Arizonaand California. As a player, Marcin was inspired byhis coaches, and gained knowledge by participatingin tennis symposia and workshops. He has workedon the court with Top 20 players in Poland, top North-ern California players, Top 100 juniors in the world,and with ATP and WTA professionals. He will be aspeaker at the PTR Symposium in February. Marcinhas an online coaching website with tennis drills andarticles at http://tennisisland.us

by Marcin Bieniek


1. Be Confident and Believe in your SkillsLeading up to the fight, each boxer boasted thathe was going to win. They told the media howhard they had worked and how well preparedthey were. Although some may have interpretedthis as arrogant, there is a difference betweenarrogance and self-confidence, and it is in thepreparatory work and skills acquired from thathard work. In addition, as coaches, we knowthe motivating power of positive self-talk. Thefight verified quickly that Mayweather and Pac-quiao were at their best. It is a valuable lessonthat no matter what sport we play, we should al-ways work hard and believe that eventually re-sults will come from that hard work.

4. Be Consistent with Your StrategyThe next lesson that we can learn from this Fight of the Century is related to strategy andthe mental aspect of the game. From the beginning, Mayweather wanted to work in de-fense and wait for the opportunity to counter his rival with a lethal punch. With this tactic,he was able to control the rhythm of the fight, so his opponent had to risk more to evenhave a chance of winning. Some viewers found it boring to watch Mayweather, whodidn’t want to attack at all costs, but I really appreciated the consistency of his approachto the fight. It is not easy to mentally survive sticking to the plan, because it is temptingto go for more and perhaps win the fight with a spectacular KO. Mayweather’s perform-ance wasn’t spectacular for the viewers who yearned for entertainment, but he was ex-tremely effective from strategic and mental perspectives. This is a big lesson for tennisplayers who are impatient and like to change a winning tactic by trying to hit big points,just to impress their friends who are watching. Remember, we don’t get any additionalpoints for beautiful balls, so we should never change tactics that work and will ultimatelywin the game.

5. There’s Room for EveryoneThese two contenders couldn’t be more different. Mayweather is flashy and likes toshow off his wealth. He has impressive collection of luxury cars, and it’s not unusual tosee him walk down a street with a bag full of cash. On the other hand, Pacquiao is afamily man, a devout Catholic and passionate public servant. A legislator, Pacquiao waselected to the Philippine House of Representatives. These great boxers teach us thatregardless of your background, all kinds of personalities have the same chance for suc-cess if they work really hard. You will have followers and you will have critics, but yourlifestyle is in no way a limiting factor in your development. However, in most cases, yourattitude can be.

Tennis coaches, players and fans love to watch Djokovic, Federer, Nadal, Sharapova,Williams, etc., but focusing only on one sport closes the door for developing new skills.Every sporting event provides an opportunity to learn and improve from different perspec-tive. Approach boxing, soccer and other sports from the coaching perspective and try toget something more than cheering for your favorite and booing his rival!

3. Movement and Positioning are CrucialAll tennis players should watch The Money’s footwork to see how a champion moves.His constant movement and quick changing of position was a factor that made it almostimpossible for his rival to deliver an accurate and powerful punch. The Money movedback while in defensive mode to get more time, and to force his opponent to come closer.On the other hand, his offensive attempts were always connected with a quick movementforward to close the distance and achieve better position to hurt Pac-Man. This strategyis exactly what tennis players should learn from this boxer, because too often, juniors tryto hit winners from behind the baseline or defend while being inside the court. Addition-ally, Mayweather was constantly moving so his reaction and agility were at the best pos-sible level. This is another lesson for tennis players who miss a lot of balls because of‘concrete’ legs.

2. Use the Right SkillsMayweather is known for his great defensive skills, but he can turn into a beast whenhe needs to. To the disappointment of many fans, he relied mostly on defending himselfand throwing counter punches. Although Mayweather won by unanimous decision, alot of viewers disagreed with the judges, because of his lack of offensive actions. In myopinion, in boxing as well as in tennis, you don’t get additional points for style, so youshouldn’t try to please others with skills that won’t get you the best results. Even whenyou have all the skills that your sport requires, it’s an art to choose the right skills to defeateach individual opponent.

Just a few months ago, sports fans around theworld were transfixed by one event. Sportsbuffs, especially boxing enthusiasts, followedevery bit of information, every morsel of hypeprior to the match between Floyd ‘The Money’Mayweather Jr. and Manny ‘Pac-Man’ Pac-quiao. Dubbed the Fight of the Century, ticketprices were exorbitant, starting at $3,500 forthe cheap seats! A ringside seat would set youback a whopping $350,000. It was not surpris-ing to see wealthy celebrities like Jay Z, Bey-oncé, Michael Jordan and Mike Tyson in frontrows at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas. Every-one had high expectations for this fight, but thefinal victor wasn’t very important to me. Ilooked at the match strictly from the coachingperspective.

Living in Poland, it’s challenging to followsports in the USA. I had to get up before 5amto watch the televised fight. My knowledge ofboxing is limited, but since we can learn a lotfrom other sports, I used it as an opportunity togrow as a tennis coach. As did most viewers,I expected a good fight with a lot of accurate,powerful punches and a spectacular knock outat the finish. The fight itself didn’t live up to myexpectations, however my strong motivation toimprove kept me glued to the TV. I was sur-prised that the Fight of the Century didn’t bringany blood, cuts and visible bruises. When itwas over, people around the world complainedabout the disappointing fight, and I agree withthem to a point, but I always try to look for pos-itives. Regardless of how exciting it was - orwasn’t - this fight can teach us important les-sons. The Money and Pac-Man showed ussome interesting things we can use to developour tennis players’ skills.

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Jason Goldman-Petri is Director of Tennis and Fitness atApril Sound Country Club, a ClubCorp club located north ofHouston, Texas. Jason has also formerly served as the headcoach for Stevenson University in Baltimore Maryland aswell as numerous other coaching positions. Jason recentlycompleted the USTA High Performance Coach program andhas been certified with the USPTA and PTR. More informa-tion on Jason's coaching can be found on his instructionwebsite http://www.asgoodasanace.com. Jason has alsobeen seen on most of the major news networks and is aHEAD advisory staff member.

Dead or Alive!The

Traditional Backspin Volley

Despite Falling Out of Fashion, theTraditional Backspin Volley looksSet to Impact the Future of Volleyingin the Modern Game.


by Jason Goldman-Petri


Wanted Dead or Alive! The Traditional Backspin Volley

In 2004, Maria Sharapova fought back from 4-0 down in the final set tobeat Serena Williams and win her first Wimbledon title. Many would arguethat the 17 year old Sharapova could not have managed this feat withoutthe help of her big swinging volleys.

At that point the game was well into the shift toward the baseline domi-nance that we see today. Maria’s swinging volleys just seemed to reaffirmthat the future of tennis would be sans traditional volleys.

A certain amount of knee-jerk bandwagon took place in the aftermath ofMaria’s momentous victory, as coaches everywhere started implementingswinging volley practice into their routines, while those who grew up idol-izing the serve and volley greats gave a collective sigh and contemplatedhanging up their ‘irrelevant’ sticks.

At first glance, it seems that only 10 years later, a great swath of theyounger generation has no idea what a ‘continental grip volley’ is; doublesis regularly played with all four players at the baseline; and players whoserve and volley (without first praying!) are a few and far between.

But if you look a little longer at the situation, you’ll notice something else...

Roger Federer continues to come to the net and volley, and his recordspeaks for itself, while the Bryan Brothers, who serve and volley at everypossible opportunity, won their 16th major title at the US Open. This con-tinues their personal record of having claimed a major title every year forthe past 10 years - all of this done, without fail, by employing a traditionalserve and volley based game.

So, despite the initial ‘Maria Mania’ both inside and outside the game, thequestion needs to be asked, “Do you really see swinging volleys all thatoften and how effective are they?”

I would venture to say, I have seen almost as many tweeners on the protour this year, and think just as highly of that shot (read - not very highly)!

So Why Isn’t the Swinging Volley a Winner with the Game’s Big Hitters?For starters, a traditional backspin volley just makes more sense for beingat the net. When it comes to net play, the traditional backspin volley reignssupreme, even holding up better than a flat (stick) volley. In fact, the morethe game changes, the more necessary it is going to be to teach our play-ers how to hit a backspin volley, and here’s why . . .

A Traditional Backspin Volley has the Potential to Stay LowThe physics of spin on a tennis ball means that a topspin, backspin andflat shot travel through the court very differently. For example, applyingtopspin makes the ball drop. The modern game has enhanced topspinproduction to allow players to hit harder and harder, and have the ball con-tinue to drop down inside the baseline.

However, this comes with a price if you’re coming to the net. If someonehits a swinging volley at the net, the ball will drop down faster, causing itto bounce higher. This higher bounce will allow a player who is able toretrieve the shot to hit it harder, because they are getting a better angle.

Backspin, by contrast, will softly float to the court. Because of this, thebounce of a traditional backspin volley will stay low, forcing a baselinerto hit it slower. According to Dr. Howard Brody, in his book The Physicsand Technology of Tennis, a ball struck at knee height from baseline tobaseline can only go in at 60 mph if hit flat, whereas a ball from waist highcould go in at 100 mph!

Now we know that very few pros hit the ball flat, but even with topspinyou get a similar effect. From lower, a baseliner will struggle to producethe same kind of pace while maintaining control (not to mention the diffi-culty with hitting from down low with semi-western and western grips).Moreover, a flat volley will also bounce higher than a backspin volley,while not as high as a topspin swinging volley.

OK, so some of you are probably thinking that I am missing the point. Thatthe reason people swing at volleys or hit them flat is because they will beable to hit it so hard that it will rush the baseliner into an error. But thinkingthis way will get you into a lot of trouble at the net. Which is precisely thepoint I am making.

The advantage of being closer to the net is angle, not power. The closerin you get, the more angles you have at your disposal. The mantra for vol-leying should be, “When at the net, think smarter, not harder.”

Use a Traditional Backspin Volley to Take the Power Out of Your Opponent’s GameWhen you want to hit a drop shot, you opt for backspin and there is a rea-son. Backspin takes power away from a shot, which is a huge advantagewhen at the net. As I said, the true advantage of being at the net is angle,and that is most easily done when hitting softly. The harder you hit theball the farther it will travel, meaning that you will need to hit it straighter(less angled) in order to make it stay in.

Also remember that a typical baseliner will be positioned approximately13-14 feet from the singles sideline. That distance is not hard for the play-ers of today to cover, even in a short amount of time. By contrast, frombaseline to the net it is 39 feet. Even if you are not capable of hitting a per-fect drop volley, hitting a ball with a shallow angle will still force your op-ponent to run to the side and forward, increasing the distance needed tocover. Combine this with the fact that the ball will be bouncing low, andyou can make life off the baseline very uncomfortable for your opponent.

Traditional Backspin Volleys can Help You Out in a PinchSo let’s go back to the swinging volley for a moment. One of the definingcharacteristics of a swinging volley is that it is hit hard. Very similar to agroundstroke, lots of racquet head speed is needed to create the combi-nation of power and spin that makes this shot effective. But the extra timeneeded to set up and hit the swinging volley comes at a price. Instead ofsetting up, you could be moving closer to the net. This would afford youtwo distinct advantages.

One, you now have more of those precious angles at your disposal. Andtwo, you are now able to hit the ball when it is higher (meaning less chanceof missing in the net or wide, because you can angle down). So, when itcomes to shot selection on high floating balls, a traditional volley ends upworking just as well as a swinging volley.

Importantly though, more often than not, you’ll find players are going tohit hard passing shots to test your reactions. In this situation, the extratime needed to set up and execute the swinging volley gives it a chanceof success bordering on zero!

This is one of the reasons the Bryan Brothers, with their traditional serveand volley, continue to be so effective. Even in the face of some of thehardest hitters, the Bryan Brothers calmly put their racquet behind the balland block it back.


In fact, it is possible to put backspin on a ball without even swinging.Just by opening the racquet face and holding the racquet behind theball backspin can be imparted. This means that given nearly no reac-tion time, and no space, a good volleyer can still hit soft angles, or justkeep the ball low to stop their opponent from passing as easily.

The Traditional Backspin Volley and its ExceptionThus far, I have been calling a backspin volley the traditional volley,and for good reason. Even a flat volley will be limited when comparedto a backspin volley. A flat volley, or a ‘stick’ volley as some call it, willrun into some of the same problems as a swinging volley.

For instance, basic physics tells us that when a ball is hit flat on a vol-ley most of the energy is returned, meaning it will be hit nearly as hardas the incoming ball. Remember, we’re thinking smarter, not harder!Now imagine trying to take a ball from below the net. Hit that flat andhard and it will surely fly long, since you have to angle it up to get itover the net.

But certainly there are exceptions to the rule, and one of the excep-tions is on a high volley. High volleys are different, because you canhit down on the ball and make it go in. It is also difficult to hit backspinon a ball that is up over shoulder height.

On a shot such as this, it is okay to hit flat. Just remember, the advan-tage of being closer to the net is still angle. High volleys are great,because you get the best of both worlds; you can hit it hard, and angleit. Just don’t get too cocky and swing at it. So, although there is nobackspin applied here, this is still considered a traditional volley, asyou can use your angles to finish off the point and avoid over hitting.

Volleying in the Modern Game - Preparing the Next GenerationWhen looking at volleying in this way a few things become clear. First,the baseline game will only get more powerful as technology and ath-leticism increase, so there is a very real need to teach players how totake that pace away to help create more angles. Second, volley skillsneed to be taught very differently than baseline skills.

What this means for teaching is that because of how fast baselineshots are hit, after an aggressive approach shot there needs to be apremium on getting in close to net where angles are available. If youhit the approach and only make it to the service line, you are sunk.Even with the ability to take pace off of the shot, if your approach playis weak you will end up in ‘no man’s land’ with no angles available.

Another important teaching point of the modern volley as it applies tothe modern game, is the need and ability to hit a drop volley. Playersare backing up to play defense and the quality of approach shots pinplayers deep, giving a drop volley far greater room for success. Play-ers are now getting so proficient at passing on the run behind thebaseline that the need for a shallower landing shot becomes critical.Volleys can’t just be low to work, they also have to be shallow and an-gled to have consistent success.

Watch closely and you’ll see your favorite players are increasinglyopting for soft angled volleys and drop volleys - and rightly so. Theswinging volley simply does not make as much sense for being at thenet, and even though it looks like the more ‘popular’ shot, it has notmanaged to take hold among many of the better players.

Key Points to Remember1. The advantage of being closer to the net is angles, not power.

2. Backspin can help with angles by taking power away from the ball.

3. Backspin can also keep the ball from bouncing high where players can attack.

4. Backspin can be executed in a pinch, with little time or space.

5. A high floater may seem like swing bait, but instead close in, where angles are available.

6. A flat volley really only make sense when the ball is up high, but it isstill a volley, don’t swing at it!

7. Get in close behind your approach shot or good luck creating any angles.

The real ‘modern volley’ in the modern game is actually the traditionalbackspin volley. Let’s make sure that it’s the backspin volley that catcheson with the next generation.

PTR International Tennis SymposiumFebruary 17-20Hilton Head Island

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www.ptrtennis.org/events/ptr-week


Member News

The group at Dr. Mark Kovac's technical development courseat the BB&T Atlanta Open that kicked off the Emirates AirlinesUS Open Series! After the morning course, they enjoyed GoldLevel seats to watch the matches and the Opening Ceremonyfeaturing Andy Roddick.

Three generations! Dan Wellington, his son andgrandson with David Hayes (far right) with kidsat a 10 and Under tournament in Connecticut.

Ron Miller, Sewell, NJ, withhis first international stu-dent. Neither spoke theother’s language, but there’sno barrier in the universallanguage of tennis!

In August, Brian Parkkonen conducted Wyoming’s first everPTR 11 to 17 Workshop at the Cheyenne Country Club TennisComplex. Several of the 18 participants came from Coloradoand Nebraska. Ken Yamada said, “PTR should be applaudedfor putting together their 11 to 17 programing, making thegame better for attendees and for all in Wyoming.”

In his first year as Head Coach at York University in Toronto,Chris Field (left) led the women's team to an undefeatedseason and their first ever national title. The Lions won theCanadian National Championship.

Dan Santorum caught up with NickSaviano at the US Open. Nick’splayer, Sloane Stephens, auto-graphed TennisPro.

Argentina's Leonardo Mayer, LeoAlonso and Carlos Berlocq at ForestNational Stadium getting ready totake on Belgium in the Davis CupSemi! Leo has coached these twosince the beginning of their profes-sional careers.

Nathan Healey and Radley Run Country Club in WestChester, Pennsylvania, raised $6,750 for Nemours A.I DuPont Childrens Hospital. Above are some of the 150 kids inthe junior programs who raised more than $500 for a localcharity, Blessings in a Backpack, with a WTT format event.

Thanks to Rockingham County Tennis AssociationExecutive Director Shelby Rhyne and 10 & UnderInstructor Bitrus Istifanus, and many volunteers,more than 500 youth racquets and balls havefound their way into the hands of children inRockland County, North Carolina.

Coaches Louis Bolling and Ann Koger and theWomen's Team and Haverford College Arboretumare proud to have joined in the school’s recyclingefforts. The Team also performs community serv-ice by picking up discarded cans and bottles.

Gene Paul Lascano at the first"Hammock Challenge, a crosstown tournament pitting Hammock Dunes Club againstnearby Hammock Beach Resort. Gean Paul is Director ofTennis at Florida’s Hammock Beach Resort.


Gloria Dean, Director of NOVAFamily Enrichment Program in Vir-ginia, with her 10 and Under teamat a Play Day at the World TeamTennis Washington Kastles.

Russ Hesseltonwith some of his sum-mer program participants. He’s nowon to his fall season coaching atCatholic Central High and serving asthe Assistant Men’s Coach at RussellSage College. As far as we know, Russis the only wheelchair coach coachingboth high school and college.

Siobhan Belloli of Oak Meadow CountryClub, Don Martin of Evansville CC, andKeeley Porter of Rolling Hills CC, collab-orated to create the first Junior Inter ClubTennis Circuit in Evansville, Indiana.Coach B's team, consisting of her ‘KidsInstructing Kids’ mentoring programplayers, finished undefeated as 2015League Champions!

All in the Family Ontario! Miguel Cysneiros, a member for morethan 30 years, flanked by his sonsMichael Cysneiros and David Cysneiros- all three are PTR Professionals!

PTR Foundation, its board and staff, work quietly behind the scenesto grow tennis at the grassroots level. We thought we’d pause for amoment and applaud them and some of the good work they’ve doneall year. Thanks to every member who donated to the Foundation tohelp make tennis available to everyone.

For over 30 years, the Rodney Street Tennis & Tutoring Association, aand USTA NJTL Chapter, has provided innovative tennis and educa-tional enrichment programs to at-risk youth in the City of Wilmington,Delaware. This year, Rodney Street got a $10,000. boost from PTRFoundation.

NJTL of Indianapolis received a $3,000 Foundation grant, helping themcontinue the work of enriching the lives of youth throughout CentralIndiana through tennis, life skills, education and healthy life choices.This program turns away no child due to an inability to pay.

PTR Foundation helped fund Team USA Tennis for the INAS GlobalGames that were held in Guayaquil, Ecuador. The primary purpose ofthe trip was to give elite athletes with intellectual disabilities a chanceto compete with their peers from around the world, but they had manysocial and cultural experiences as well. All three members of the USATennis Team have competed at the National Tennis Championships onHilton Head Island, which has also received funding from the PTRFoundation over the years.

These are but a few examples of the generosity of PTR Foundation.Ongoing programs, like Racquet Round Up, serve the underserved.PTR members send their gently used racquets to PTR Headquarters,where, courtesy of the Foundation, they are restrung and gripped thendistributed to tennis programs in need, like inner city youth and afterschool programs.

Your donations help Foundation serve wheelchair tennis players toughgrants to participate in the annual PTR Wheelchair Championships.This year Rafael Rodriguez, who is relatively new to the sport, wasable, not only to compete, but to capture the Men’s C Singles title.Grants were also presented to Sunil Patel and Michael Rankine.

Each year, during the PTR Awards Banquet, the Foundation presentsthe only prize money award. Recent recipients of the Humanitarianof the Year include Sylvia Swartz of Handi-Racket Tennis, Michael Paulof On Target for Vets, and Richard Spurling of ACEing Autism. Eachreceived a $2,500 check to help them continue their fine tennis relatedwork.

PTR Foundation represents the best in all of us who represent thegame. Their efforts and support of in need tennis programs cannotwork without monetary and equipment donations from PTR members.Donating the proceeds of a one hour lesson or adding a little to yourannual membership dues can make an impact on someone who maynot have the opportunity to play this great game.

Thank you PTR members, and thank you PTR Foundation!

Thanks to all the members and volun-teers who helped at Arthur Ashe Kid'sDay, including (left to right)Bob Coburn,Tom Ruth, Katie White, Brian Parkko-nen, Ernie Quarles, Claude Easy, EdRubin and PTR CEO, Dan Santorum.

BREC Highland Park Youth Courtsin Baton Rouge, Louisiana, had itsGrand Opening August 7, unveilingfour permanent 8 and under courtsand a 10 and under court honoringEugene St. Martin, Jr.

Aruna Bernier‘s Wilco Breakers,Austin, Texas, won the USTA Sec-tionals and are going to Nationalsin Palm Springs.

Jack Barker (center) and his teamat the INAS Global Games InGuayaquil, Ecuador.

PTR FoundationPO Box 4739, Hilton Head Island SC 29938

843-785-7244


International News

CHINA

FRANCE

Two days later, James Huang coordinated and conductedan PTR Adult Development Workshop in Gui Yang City (Au-gust 17-20). Most attendees are university students.

A PTR Adult Development Certification Workshop was conducted atthe Zhu Que Tennis Center, in Xi An, Shan Xi Province, August 12-15.The workshop was coordinated by Mr. Ma Ji and conducted by ChenJing Jing and Adams Zhao Ruifeng.

Thierry Lamarre conducted two PTR Adult Development Certification Workshops. The first (top left photo) was held May 31-June 1 inContes at the Club Municipal de Tennis de Contes. At the end of August, the workshop (middle and far right photos) was held in La Fouxd’Allos.

CHILE

In September, our PTR Argentina Representative, Leo Alonso conducted several workshops in Santiago. First Leo guided coachesthrough a High Performance Workshop (top left photo). Special thanks to Alex Rossi, Head Coach of the Fereracion de Tenis deChile and Director of Development, Arturo Torres, for their help organizing the event. While in Santiago, Leo also conducted twoPTR Certification Workshops (top right photo) - 10 & Under and Adult Development - both of which were organized by the ChileanTennis Federation.


TAIWAN

PUERTO RICO

ROMANIA

In August, PTR International Director, Iñaki Balzola conducted a PTR Perform-ance Certification Workshop at the Club de Tenis San Francisco in San Juan.Thanks to Joe Castillo for helping organize the event.

UNITED KINGDOM

Here is the first group in the UK to start the Master of Tennis - PerformanceProgram. Part One was held September 15-18, in Brentwood, Essex. PTR Ed-ucation Consultant, Dr. Anne Pankhurst (far right), conducted the programwith assistance from PTR UK Representative, Andy Dowsett (standing nextto Anne).

Tennis 6.0 San Vendemiano and its owner, Roberta Frisiero (4th from right),hosted ‘How to Be’, a Professional Development Course. ‘How to Be’ coversthe role of the pro, including problem solving, positive communication, publicrelations, teaching philosophy, presentation, customer service, communicationwith different age and target groups. Twelve PTR coaches participated in theworkshop that was conducted in early September by PTR Europe Coordinator,Herbert Schnaubelt (far right).

ITALY

Tennis Club Sporting della Stampa in Torino was afabulous host for a PTR 10 & Under CertificationWorkshop that was held August 27-30. Forty-onepros participated and learned from the expertise ofPTR International Master Professional, Luigi Bertino.PTR Europe Coordinator, Herbert Schnaubelt washead of the testing staff, including Giorgio Roccatoand Michaela Träger.

PTR International Director, Iñaki Balzola (2nd from left)was greeted with USA flags flying when he arrived at theS & F Tennis Academy in Paulesti. Iñaki conducted twoPTR Certification Workshops - Performance and 10 &Under - September 8-13. Thanks to (S & F) Florin andStefan Nita (S & F) for organizing the workshops.

In August, PTR Clinician from Hawaii, Mimi Kennell conducted a 10 & Under Certifi-cation Workshop in Taipei.


by Holly Metzger

Holly graduated from Lycoming College in2002, where she played Varsity Tennisand Basketball. She earned a MastersDegree in Teacher/Leadership Educationand is a Certified Sports Administrator.Holly coaches Varsity Tennis for SpringGrove High School and serves as theYouth Fitness Director at the York JewishCommunity Tennis, as well as the USTASite Director for Spring Grove Jr. TennisLeague. She conducts private tennis les-sons through her business, HCTENNIS,and was co-owner of a fitness studio,where she provided youth fitnessclasses. Holly holds several fitness cer-tifications. Holly’s recently published achildren’s book, Tryouts, is available atBarnes & Nobel and Amazon.

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As tennis instructors and business owners, weare constantly looking for ways to grow andmaster our teaching skills, while creating moreopportunities to make an impact in the tenniscommunity. The expectations and demands ofyouth tennis are changing, as students increasetheir exposure to the electronic world and liveless physical lifestyles. Today, there is a world-wide issue on physical inactivity and health re-lated problems associated with a sedentarylifestyle.

We are constantly exploring ways to generatemore students, revenue, and make an impact onthose who participate in our programs. With thegrowing fitness and youth sports industry, it isvital we capitalize on the multitude of opportu-nities we have in the tennis arena. It is impor-tant to meet the requirements of our dynamicmarket through creative, action packed, engag-ing and innovating programming.

It is a great time to be in the tennis business!With the alarming rate of childhood obesity, andthe demand for more physical activity in and outof school, it is imperative more coaches, in-structors and role models develop new ways tokeep children in the game, whether it’s sportsrelated or fitness based. There is an enormousneed for innovative programs to keep our 21stCentury students engaged.

To constantly evolve as an instructor and/or ten-nis business owner, it is important to stayabreast of new exciting ways to teach.Through many years as a youth fitness director,business owner and tennis coach, I have had amultitude of opportunities to develop, createand teach physical education, fitness and tennisprograms. I have gained knowledge throughexperience and education. To elevate your ten-nis business, there are 5 Benchmarks to guideyou as you begin your journey to develop inno-vative youth programming.


1. Education/ExperienceSome tennis instructors will have a wide range of experienceplaying and coaching players with impressive credentials, aswell as certifications. While having the most recognized ten-nis teaching certifications, education and playing experiencesare powerful, having a background in child development andteaching is also an important factor to the success of buildingand creating opportunities for your youth tennis business. Itis important to understand the developmental stages of chil-dren who are your new market. These are 3 to 9 year old kids.Some of the most important areas to focus on are how chil-dren learn, develop, engage and comprehend. You want yourstudents to be active listeners, participants, inquisitive learn-ers, as well as enhance their knowledge, character, motor andsocial skills. The more education and experience you canbring to the court will be an asset to your program’s success.

2. Applied KnowledgeAs you have more exposure to child development and teach-ing students ages 3-9, your confidence in working with thismarket will increase. Applying your knowledge to develop ayouth program will help you to create lessons plans that willenhance students’ experiences. Your expectations shouldalign with the capabilities of your students to completely enjoyand embrace working with this age group. You will under-stand that using key words, setting routine, being positive, funand funny, will launch you in the right direction to build rapportwith your students and their parents.

5 Benchmarks

3. Ability to Communicate, Motivate and InspireYour ability to communicate effectively with a younger audi-ence will be a key factor to the success of your program. En-hancing and changing your voice in a friendly manner whileinstructing is a powerful tool. Continually praise students whoare making good choices. Get down to their eye level whenyou are giving detailed instructions, as this will help themfocus on your directions. Using positive words and praise willkeep students engaged and wanting to keep moving, learningand doing the right thing. Know all the students’ names andpraise them loudly in front of their peers. Highlighting effortrather than ability will keep your students participating andworking hard. When you need to correct behavior, make sureyou whisper, so you don’t publicly embarrass the student.

4. Be Creative and InnovativeThis is one of the most fun aspects of your journey when de-veloping youth programs. A huge asset to your business willbe your ability to be creative and innovative in developingprograms that organizations will want at their facility. Cre-ativity will also help when marketing your class so parentssign up their children. Preschool and child care centers aregreat avenues to build your youth tennis business, as the de-mands for PE programming and youth movement classes areon the forefront of educators. Creating a class setting thatinstills physical education, character, tennis, sportsmanship,and a healthy learning environment, is crucial to the qualityof your program. Looking to community recreation and ele-mentary school gymnasiums is also a great way to reachyouth in your area. Providing convenient locations for tennisclasses is a huge service to families. Another area to exploreis offering tennis programs to students who have learningdisabilities.

Examples of innovative youth tennis programsOffering a program to students with learning disabilities provides families an opportunityto participate in more extra-curricular activities, which is sometimes challenging for par-ents of special needs children to find. This would be a wonderful outreach program, anda great way to get students physically active and involved in tennis. A program such asthis could be described as Superhero Tennis, a Perfect Match for students with Autism.Design each class with creative lesson plans that have endless action packed adventuresto enhance learning. Market it as - Certified tennis instructor creates a safe and fun en-vironment to ensure every student receives individualized attention to increase effort, selfesteem, motor skills, coordination, cardiovascular endurance, muscular strength, sensoryprocessing, neurological growth and development. Superhero Tennis is an all around well-ness program, focusing on sportsmanship, while developing the love of tennis.

Providing a quality Pre-K physical education tennis program is a fantastic way to increasetennis outlets for this age group, as well as make a huge impact by creating lifetimemovers. Design a program such as this for students ages 3-5 and offer it to preschoolsand childcare centers. You would focus on the physical education component using tennisas the teaching tool. Class emphasis is placed on students receiving adequate physicalactivity during class time. Students will increase their endurance, muscular strength,motor skills, and coordination, while learning the importance of living a healthy lifestyle.Market it as - Certified tennis instructor uses fun, colorful, age appropriate teaching toolsto keep students engaged during class. The use of a mini tennis net, youth size racquets,and larger foam balls help young students succeed in learning tennis and developing ten-nis strokes. Students will be taught individual skills, partner play and how to work withothers. Lesson plans are designed to foster learning at the highest level to provide op-portunities to increase skill. This program lays the groundwork for participating in futuresports teams and classes, as well as encouraging positive attitudes towards physical ac-tivity. Throughout the class, the instructor focuses on developing student’s teamwork,character, sportsmanship, behavior and listening skills, all skills needed to excel in futureendeavors. Each student receives a progress report so parents can evaluate theirprogress during the school year.

As mentioned earlier, you can offer a youth tennis program in your local community, recre-ation centers and elementary school gymnasiums. Offering a Mini Tennis Class for ages4-5 or 6-9 is a win-win for everyone. This provides your community with a quality tennisprogram with a certified instructor who will conduct tennis classes in their neighborhood.Distance creates an obstacle for many parents’ demanding schedules, so offering con-venient tennis programs will allow parents to get their kids playing tennis. Mini tennisnets make it possible for a traveling instructor. Market this program as - Mini Tennis classis designed for children 4-5 to develop solid skill sets for the game of tennis. During class,students will increase their agility, court movement, hand and eye coordination, balanceand stroke development through fun activities and games to keep all participants engagedand active. Participants will have fun learning different tennis skills, being around friendsand experiencing personal achievement. Taught by a Certified tennis instructor, this classsets the foundation for more challenging skills in their future. Participants will receive acertification of completion, team photo and take home assignments to practice their skills.

5. Putting it all TogetherNow that you have more knowledge and understanding of working with younger stu-dents, as well as some ideas for youth tennis programming, it’s time for you to begin toresearch organizations and community centers that have the same mission you do. Whenproviding services to other business partners, it is important their interests and goalsalign with your personal teaching philosophy, so your business relationship will be a suc-cessful partnership. Develop a business contract for your services and a pricing chartfor your programs. Different organizations might be interested in pay per student, hourlyor a package pricing for your services. You might want to also entertain the idea is of-fering a free demo or a fun tennis day event to start building relationships with studentsand parents. Show prospective partners your liability insurance documents.

As a tennis business owner, it is imperative you capture, impact, serve and retain the nextgeneration of tennis students. Focus on the success of your program through students’achievements. It is in your best interest to document and evaluate, not only your students,but yourself, by writing down your thoughts, ideas and experiences. The 5 Benchmarkswill not only help you increase your revenue, rosters, exposure and classes, but by ele-vating your teaching skills, you will build your lesson clientele to new levels.

PTR Wheelchair Championships Results

MEN

Open Singles Takashi Sanada JPN (1) d. Adam Kellerman AUS (2) 3-6; 6-2; 6-4

Open Singles Cons Ben Weekes AUS d. Yoann Quilliou FRA 6-4; 5-7; 1-0(3)

2nd Draw John Becker FL d. Casey Ratzlaff KS 6-4; 6-3

2nd Draw Cons Davis Eads OR d. Larry Keeter NC Wo

A Singles Conner Stroud NC (1) d. Dave Rogers NC (3) 6-4; 6-4

B Singles Bill Eno NC d. Sunil Patel FL (1) 6-4; 6-2

C Singles Rafael Rodriguez GA (2) d. Allen Fiske FL (1) 7-6(2); 6-4 (pc)

Open Doubles Miki Takuya JPN & Satoshi Saida JPN (1) d. Dave Philipson ENG & Marc McCarroll ENG (2) 7-5; 6-2

A Doubles Dave Lewis IN & Conner Stroud NC (1) d. Dave Rogers NC & Stu Contant UT (2) 8-1

B Doubles Eddie Hawkins NC & Rod Spence NC d. Jeff Hall TN & James Whitlock TN 8-1

C Doubles Dave Beauregard NC & Allen Fiske FL RR

WOMEN

Open Singles Emmy Kaiser KY (3) d. Katharina Krüger GER (1) 6-3; 4-6; 6-4

Open Singles Cons Janel Manns AUS d. Sarah Calati AUS Wo (inj)

A Singles Lauren Haneke-Hopps CA (3) d. Stacey Rice GA 6-2; 6-4

Open Doubles Louise Hunt ENG & Katharina Krüger GER (1) d. Emile Chene FRA & Miho Nijo JPN (2) 6-2; 6-4

A Doubles Joanna Nieh NY & Kristy Vaughn NY d. Amy Burnett TN & Hailey Remigio FL (2) 8-5

QUAD

Open Singles Nick Taylor KS (1) d. Greg Hasterok CA (2) 6-2; 6-0

Open Doubles Greg Hasterok CA & Nick Taylor KS (1) d. Gary Luker CAN & Marc McLean FL 6-2; 6-0

JUNIOR

Open/A Singles Chris Herman FL (1) d. Conner Stroud NC 7-5; 4-6; 1-0(3)

Open/A Doubles Casey Ratzlaff KS & Conner Stroud NC d. Chris Herman FL & Cole Wooten GA 8-3


October 1-4 • Hilton Head Island SCpart of the UNIQLO Wheelchair Tennis Tour

ITF Series II Event / Grade A Junior TournamentUSTA Fall Southern Championship

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Professional Tennis Registry congratulates the following members who were Certified between August 1 - October 5, 2015

MASTER OF TENNIS PERFORMANCE

Michael Byrd ILMatthew D. Wright IL

LEVEL 3 JUNIOR DEVELOPMENT

Benny Morentin AZAlanna Broderick CTCarole Waite CTJeffrey Wiedemann DELeah Friedman ILStephanie Stuart MNBrandon Frazier MSAmanda Knight NVSeth Walrath PAClint Laukhuf TXJosé Salas TXDea Sumantri WA

10 & UNDERChristina Hites ALKaitlyn Joe CAArzu Orgad CAMiki Shintani CANicholas Yuk CAShelby Cerkovnik COKatherine Coviello CTJuan Sebastian Cortez FLHector Crespo FLDavid Ensignia FLElizabeth Ferreira FLJose Ferreira FLCarlos Augusto Henriquez FLKiwane Norman FLOrlando Querales FLManuel Quijada FLDavid Ramirez FLDavid Santiago Rodriguez Brandwijk FLFrancisco Suro FLAlvaro Vega FLJuan Velandia FLJane Baginski GAAndy Cha GAMike Robertson GAMatthew Sallerson GAHu Wang GAErin Watkins GALarry Weidman GADeion Whitehead MAAlexa Horoshak MNVanessa Wilson MS

Rama Attaluri NCJerome Bautista NJRyan Fitzgerald NYEvan Kober NYSau Lam NYAriel Rodriguez NYReynante Villan NYLawrence Yasner NYVladimir Ziskind NYKurt Kopp OHDavid Agarwal PAHua Liu PARyan Harry RIRichard Imondi RISteve Zalinski SCThomas Noone VAJulie Ruamthong VADev Hasija CanadaDavid Gabra DenmarkRyan Ansell EnglandCharlie Barton EnglandJasna Bogojevic EnglandPaul Clark EnglandSophie Conway EnglandJames Lamptey EnglandGary Lowe EnglandJack Mays EnglandMichael Oduyemi EnglandObaloluwa Oni EnglandShaun Robinson EnglandSean Roonan EnglandRene Steer EnglandChris Thomas EnglandDenise Watkins EnglandElliot Young EnglandAlexandru Canariov GermanyNicholas Diable GibraltarGrant Arnott IrelandDave Byrne IrelandHugh Dunne IrelandFionn Mcgovern IrelandLaura O`Keane IrelandMatej Sagmeister JapanIvana Filipi Northern IrelandBogdan Avasiloae RomaniaRobert Bina RomaniaVlad Capruciu RomaniaIon Doibani RomaniaCiprian Dragan RomaniaGeanina Griguta RomaniaDavid Iordache RomaniaMiruna Marinescu RomaniaDavid Martin RomaniaAlexandra Naraevschi RomaniaBogdan Nasui Romania

Maria Neacsa RomaniaIoana Negoitescu RomaniaAntonia Petrescu RomaniaDragos Pistea RomaniaGabriel Radu RomaniaAndrei Sopon RomaniaMiruna Tudor RomaniaCuneyt Gursoy TurkeyArsat Kaan Turkey

11 to 17Bryan Balde CAAndy Cheng CARon Jacobs CAJoseph Mui CAVanessa Nommensen CAAnett Schutting CAJohn Agin COShelby Cerkovnik COKenneth Gross COCrystal Messer CORam Vuppala COAntonino Raniolo CTKevin Brandt FLCelestino Gutierrez FLAlexis Lunte FLTina McCall Waters FLRobert Rengifo FLJaime Sanchez-Canamares Rios FLJorika Steyn FLZachary Weiss FLAnsy Zamor FLRyan Williams GAJane Page KYMuyiwa Akinniyi LAWilliam Phillips LADonna Rybicki LAArash Hanif MDAlexa Horoshak MNTom Bossard NCMaurice Rahman NCJordane Warkentin NETodd Doran NJJoao Pinho NJDanielle Carr NYMarion DeLeo NYTerry Jones NYSau Lam NYRichard Mayer NYJeffrey Nowak NYMatthew Thormahlen NYLong Vo PAGregory Drexel SCIan Jones SC

PTR Rates!


Tim Keller SCJose Prado SCJonathan Watkins SCAaron Cortez TXMaria Jimenez Ramon TXJesus Ontiveros TXAlfonso Rodriguez TXJaime Rodriguez TXAgustin Salazar TXJerry Baier WIChase Anderson WYMaciej Bogusz WYJosh Cossitt WYDylan Hatanelas WYEwa Szatkowska WYKenneth Yamada WYChristopher Corbo Canada

ADULT DEVELOPMENTYonwaba Pupuma ALMichael Rooks DEJuan Sebastian Cortez FLHector Crespo FLCarlos Augusto Henriquez FLCarlos Hernandez FLDavid Ramirez FLDavid Santiago Rodriguez Brandwijk FLAlvaro Vega FLChristopher Foy GAJohn Lee GAChas Okamoto HINoel Clayton KYAlex Krol MNJamie Borsodi NMGreg Gallegos NMCandace Giummo NMJudy Harlas NMDonald Hemingway NMJim Maes NMPat Martinez NMMimi Row NMMartha Trost NMRichard Vickrey NMNaamah Saint-Hilaire NVModesto G Dia NYRichard Slizewski NYPeggy Johnson OHKevin Miller OHJason Moisey OHMike Steinley PAStacey Weiner PACledson Carvalho TXDuje Janjic TXHevila Ramos TXKaibing Chen ChinaHang Duan ChinaWeiQuan Gao ChinaLei Jin ChinaDong Li ChinaPing Li ChinaXueSong Li ChinaBinBin Lin ChinaBaiChen Liu ChinaZhongYing Liu ChinaJi Ma ChinaJingJiao Ma ChinaZhao Mu China

HaiBo Pei ChinaXiao Peng ChinaQiang Shen ChinaXiaoJia Shi ChinaYiXuan Wang ChinaYong Wang ChinaZiHua Wang ChinaXuHua Wei ChinaGang Yang ChinaXiaodong Yang ChinaPaul Clark EnglandObaloluwa Oni EnglandShaun Robinson EnglandMickael Balmes FranceAnthony Berdoyes FranceCome Galtier D`Auriac FranceSebastien Girard FranceYann Herve FranceEric Incandela FranceJonathan Lamarre FranceLaurent Marziano FranceNicholas Diable GibraltarAndrea Del Favero ItalyLeandro Giorgi ItalyYudai Fukatani JapanYan Hazan MonacoMorgan Teissier MonacoGuillermo Gomes Trinidad and Tobago

SENIOR DEVELOPMENTRobert Collins GADavid Wage NCCaroline Garvey NYMary Ann Borysowicz SCPatrick Mason SCBrian Parkkonen SCMichael Pollard SCThomas Ruth SCMilena Stephens SCOliver Stephens SC

PERFORMANCEKurt Bishop AZMario Celarie AZRyan Costello AZJustin Fitzpatrick AZMichael Lowdermilk AZCarlos Pedrero AZAlex Ramirez AZVyron Sacharidis DCDavid Santiago Rodriguez Brandwijk FLDorin Schinteie FLNathaniel Fleming ILAlex Muresan ILKristin Roberts MDJonathan Alland MNRichard Kakareka NCMichael Watson NJSaif Ali NYSteve Carberry NYEric Jordan NYDamon Ye NYKurt Kopp OHJason Moisey OHJose Pico OHBruce Stapleton OH

Samuel Stapleton OHNicholas Bennett VAMark Benninger VAGeorge Christoforatos VAChristian Conrad VADaniel McCain VABing Waid VADev Hasija CanadaDavid Gabra DenmarkAlexandru Canariov GermanyImanol Arconada Puerto RicoLuis Bachetti Puerto RicoJaime Garraton Puerto RicoRicardo Maldonado Puerto RicoJamet Perez Nazario Puerto RicoRafael Santiago Puerto RicoBogdan Avasiloae RomaniaRobert Bina RomaniaIonut Captan RomaniaIon Doibani RomaniaCiprian Dragan RomaniaFlorin Dumitru RomaniaDan Mirisan RomaniaAlexandra Naraevschi RomaniaBogdan Nasui RomaniaMaria Neacsa RomaniaCatalin Nedelescu RomaniaIoana Negoitescu RomaniaAntonia Petrescu RomaniaCrisan Radu RomaniaGabriel Radu RomaniaCuneyt Gursoy TurkeyArsat Kaan Turkey


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Intro to Poach

Dr. Louie Cap, PTR International Master Professional

Skill Level: beginner to intermediate

Objective: to learn to poach effectively

Procedure:

• Set Playmate ball machine to feed down the middle

• Player A hits a groundstroke to Cone 1, then runs toward the alley and recovers to original position

• On the next ball, Player B runs across and poaches, hitting to Cone 3, and stays on the deuce alley

• Next ball goes back to Player A who repeats stroke and movement as in first feed

• The 4th ball is cut off by Player C poaching to Cone 3 and ending in the alley on the deuce side

• 5th ball goes back to Player A who repeats stroke and movement as before

• The 6th ball is poached by Player D who hits to Cone 3 and runs to deuce side alley

• The next six balls follow the same sequence, but on the opposite side with Player A hitting to Cone 2, and poaching Players B, C and D hitting to Cone 4 and running back to the alley on the ad side

• After ball 11, Player A runs to replace Player B who runs to take A’s place on the baseline

• The drill continues until all players have taken a turn at the baseline

Send us your best ball machine drill to enter for a chance to win the ball mower. Submit your drill using the format on this page. Include a diagram. Also include a brief biography and email. Send to: [email protected] or Playmate Drill, PO Box 4739, Hilton Head Island, SC, 29938 USA.

Playmate Drill Contest

= Playmate ball machinePBM = target

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