Tag Archives: tennis warm up

The Replacement Series Videos: Tip # 2 Warm-Ups

Posted on March 8, 2018 by in The Replacement Series Videos

The Replacement Series Videos is a series of video drills that focus on simple yet highly effective ways to replace the old school, warn out drills with new, unique, fresh tennis tips. Following is a YouTube link to The Replacement Series Video Tip # 2: Warm-UpsFrank Giampaolo

The Replacement Series Video Tip# 2: Warm-Ups

Frank uncovers why warming up both primary & secondary strokes is meaningful.

Click Here to View

 

Pre-Match Warm-Up Rituals

Posted on June 13, 2015 by in Match Day Preparation, Maximizing Tennis Potential

The following post is an excerpt from Match Chart Collection.  Thanks for visiting, Frank Giampaolo

Frank Giampaolo

 Pre-Match Warm-Up Rituals

Before each PGA tournament round, Tiger Woods warms up every club in his golf bag, just in case he needs it. In the high performance tennis world, players who routinely warm up both their primary and secondary strokes have a major advantage in tightly contested matches. Grooving fundamentals before a match is important, but let’s go deeper.

A first-set tiebreak can often come down to a player executing a winning secondary stroke such as a swing volley or topspin lob.  To confidently perform secondary shots at crunch time, without hesitation, stems from properly warming them up before the match. Players who neglect their secondary strokes have a very different mind-set when faced with the same exact situation. Instead of instinctively moving forward to hit the swing volley to take the tiebreaker, they hesitate and are caught thinking, “I don’t remember the last time I hit one of these? Can I make it? Should I go for it?”  Now guess who misses the easy shot, gets upset and blows another breaker?

 

Obviously, any stroke has to be developed on the practice court long before tournament competition begins. Once developed properly, it should be placed into your match day tool belt.

 

ASSIGNMENT

Make a brand new normal warm up routine. Leave the old school warm up routine behind and begin to warm up in the manner that you are expected to perform.

 

The 5 different forehands and backhands:

  1. Primary drive ground strokes
  2. High and heavy ground strokes
  3. Short angle/side door ground strokes
  4. Slice and drop shots
  5. Defensive lobs

The 3 different serves:

  1. Flat serve
  2. Slice serve
  3. Kick serve

The 5 different volleys:

  1. The basic punch volley
  2. The swing volley
  3. The drop volley
  4. The half volley
  5. The transition mid court volley.

The 2 different overheads:

  1. Stationary, service box overheads
  2. The turn and run, scissor kick overhead with movement

The 5 different approach shots:

  1. Serve and volley
  2. Return and charge
  3. Moon-ball approach to swing volley
  4. Traditional approach to volley
  5. Spot a vulnerable opponent and steal the volley

 

Let’s return to the golf analogy. Tiger Woods knows that each day’s course conditions dictate his upcoming club options. Within your tennis world, your warm up is often dictated by the style of opponent you’ll be facing in the up-coming match. For example, if you know that your next opponent is a Moon Ball/ Pusher, it might be wise to warm up your swing volleys, side doors and drop shots.

 

Often, what separates two talented players is the time and

energy put into properly preparing for battle.

Contact: Frank Giampaolo
FGSA@earthlink.net
MaximizingTennisPotential.com
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Mental and Emotional Tennis Tournament Tips

Posted on March 16, 2015 by in Primary and Secondary Strokes, The Tennis Parent's Bible

Thank you for visiting, Frank Giampaolo

 

Ten Tennis Tournament Tips

As tournament play approaches, common stumbling blocks sabotage even the most talented athletes. Often the difference between winning and losing is simply applying the following mental and emotional tips:

1. Warm up your primary and secondary strokes and patterns  Before a match, warm up the stroke and patterns needed to beat the style of opponent you are about to face. Have the appropriate game plan ready. If you do not know anything about your opponent’s style of play, warm up all your strokes.

2. In the match, keep your intensity and focus up until the match is complete. Often you have a comfortable 4-1 lead and tend to relax and lose focus, now thanks to you, it’s a 5-5 dog fight! Changing from “Playing to win” to “Playing not to lose” is changing a winning style of play.

3. Worthy opponents change their losing game plans. Your opponent switches to their plan “B” and you fail to spot the tactical change and fail to adapt and problem solve.

4. Spot and control the Mega and Mini Mega Points. Remember, you have to take the match from a champion. Expecting them to fall apart and quit when it gets tough won’t happen against the top players. Controlling the “big” points is a critical factor.

5. Perform your Between Point Rituals. Controlling the tempo of the match, your heart rate, mistake & anger management and problem solving takes place in between points. Often against weaker players you don’t bother doing your between point and changeover rituals. Later when you come up against a real competitor, you’re not comfortable with the feelings of problem solving and rituals which makes you uncomfortable applying it.

6. Apply the laws of offensive, neutral and defensive shot selection. Some players tend to go for glamorous offensive shots when they are in a neutral “building” situation. Others tend to get scared and fall back to simply hitting neutral shots when they have an offensive situation. Selecting the appropriate shot at the right time is high performance tennis.

7. Control the energy flow. Your opponent wins 3 games in a row and you just wander aimlessly to the next point. Your head is slumped, like a “poor me”…with a “deer in the headlights” look on your face. You are the only one who can stop this energy flow.

8. Second match warm up routines. Before the second match of the day you don’t bother to re-start your pre match rituals. You don’t bother with a short warm up or visualization with your next opponent’s game in mind. Heck, you don’t even go for a run before checking in. You’re sluggish, unfocused, and go down in flames.

9. If you’re being overplayed and can’t find an answer to get into the match. READ YOUR NOTES. You should have your patterns and plans listed. If you’re losing to a moonball pusher…pull out those notes! Try other options.

10. Gratitude. Your family is behind you 100%. They are always trying to assist you in your life’s quest. They pack your bags, string and grip your racquets, put thousands of miles on the family car to lessons, hitting sessions, off-court workouts, practice matches and tournaments every week! They sacrifice the hundreds of things they could be doing for themselves… They spend their time and thousands of dollars on ….you. Yet, you’re all too often mad at them. You don’t have a chance without the support of your parents. Instead of the “attitude” try gratitude. They are the best allies you’ll ever have.

Contact: Frank Giampaolo
FGSA@earthlink.net
MaximizingTennisPotential.com
Affiliate