Any competitive player knows the importance of keeping their eyes on the ball … so much so that the phrase “they took their eyes off the ball” is now in common usage as a way of describing any situation where someone loses focus. However, we also know from W. Timothy Gallwey’s The Inner Game of Tennis (1974) that telling yourself to watch …
Favorite or Underdog? How to Get the Most Out of Your Tennis There are rewards to playing competitive tennis. Naturally, the most basic one is winning the match. However, it is the contention of this post that focusing only on a W is most likely detrimental to both your inner level of satisfaction and your …
Analyzing the Serve: Why Craig O’Shannessy’s Take is Off the Mark Let’s start with first principles. I think we would all agree that what a server is looking for is to maximize the probability of winning a point when serving. This includes (obviously!) both first and second serves. O’Shannessy’s …
Schewior's new book, Deconstructing Tennis: The 4-D System, arrived in my home recently, and over the past week I devoured it. Let me be unequivocal about one fundamental point: this is not a book for the casual player who has little interest in self-reflection.