What to look for in a Coach and an Academy

Not all tennis coaches are created equal.  There are many tennis coaches to choose from but they’re not all the same.  If you’re looking for a coach to help your child develop great skills, look for one who has a proven record of developing high level players.  What does developing mean?  A good coach is someone who has taken a complete beginner or recreational player and developed them (over many years) into a high level junior player or better. 
Coaching takes time.  It starts with the basics, proper grips, strokes and technique.  Then it takes countless hours of repetitive drills and practice, match play and tournament play to create a quality and consistent game.  Add in strategy and mental toughness, and you have the foundation for a high level player.
When you interview a coach, watch them.  Do they just hit with your child, or do they have a lot to tell your child?  Do they talk to you, the parent as well?  Tell you what they are doing and why?  If they have no answers or information to give you, keep looking.  Ask questions and find out what they know.  With any coach, you are not just paying for their time, but their information.
At BHTA, our coaches have numerous students whom they have developed into high level players, including Division 1 college players, NCAA Champions, and ATP & WTA tour professionals.  Please check out the Staff section for bios and more information.

The Volley, common problems and helpful solutions

The volley is the least complicated of all shots in tennis when done technically correct.  You line the racket up at the oncoming ball and block it back.  You don’t normally need to create pace because if you hold the racket with the correct grip and step, you have more than enough pace from the ball that is hit to you. Putting volleys away is about placement not power. If a player hits a volley 90 miles an hour at Rafael Nadel from the net he still has a good chance of getting passed.  If he places the ball at even 30 or 40 miles an hour away from Rafa, the ball will not come back.   It isn’t the speed that won the point but the placement. When you play doubles and hit volleys at your opponent, they normally come back, play the ball into the open court and it’s a winner.

Many of you have trouble with the volley because you try to hit all volleys with a forehand grip.  You need to either use a modified Continental grip or change grips because a forehand grip simply doesn’t work for the backhand volley.  The other fact is that Professionals set the racket into the correct position with the non-dominant hand.   Many recreation players don’t use the non-dominant  hand to set the racket up which then also allows you to use the wrong side of the racket to hit backhand volleys.  If a player uses the wrong side of the racket to hit backhand volleys, it only works on high volleys. In Professional tennis about two thirds of all volleys are backhands.  Most recreation players try to hit everything as a forehand volley.  Why are two thirds of all volley’s in professional tennis hit as  backhands?  Because everything hit at the body is a backhand volley not a forehand volley!
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If you want to really improve your game, you need to improve your backhand volley either by learning to use a modified continental grip or changing grips, and learning to hit volleys at the body as backhands using the correct side of the racket for the backhand volley. The other important point is the use of the off or non-dominant hand.  No one said change is easy but it’s sure a lot better and more fun than struggling with a weak or non-existent backhand volley.

The Myth about the Spanish Tennis Method

America is being sold a system of playing and teaching tennis that is supposedly modern and new. Everyone is talking about the Spanish system?  These experts tell us that tennis is too fast for playing the net and attacking and I say you’re wrong! The problem is that we all have short memories and tend to think that everything today is better, bigger and faster than it was a few years ago. I believe that Pete Sampras would be a better role model for the USA. The main argument they use is that tennis is too fast today but the real truth is that the ball speeds have not changed on the forehand and serve over the past 25-30 years. Vic Braden proved this in research time and again in his career. What has happened is that America has stopped teaching the volley and related attacking skills. My observation at both the national junior USTA and ITF levels tells me that players in America spend on average 2-4 minutes per hour practicing volleys and over 45 minutes per hour concentrating on the forehand. Who can learn to attack doing that?  Supposedly the Spanish coaches have come up with something new and  better  than everything America has done or taught up to now. If their system was so good why do they only have two women in the top 100?  In the first place it is not new at all!  The things that they are teaching were around in the 70’s, and were used by players such as Borg,Vilas,and Jose Luis Clerc to name a few. Trying to dominate with the forehand, open stance and hitting inside out forehands from the backhand corner. Bjorn Borg made millions using these techniques.
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The problem I see is not really the Spanish system but the fact that America has abandoned attacking tennis and serve and volley. Junior  player’s can’t volley, don’t know what closing is, can’t chip a ball and are afraid of the lob!  You can put a volley away if you close and angle the ball off! You can attack successfully with slice and win! How often today do we see our juniors going in on a short ball, stopping on the service line, getting passed or missing and then saying or thinking, I’m never going to the net again and that it was wrong to even come up that far! We have to a large degree given up on attacking tennis and I think that we need to quit watching the Spanish and learn to volley and  attack .  Tennis is not any faster today then when Sampras came on the scene in the early 90’s. We have a tremendous overweight of Spanish influence at the USTA and ITF. We have a Former Top Spanish clay court player as the head of our National coaching staff, The ITF has had a Spainard as the head of research and player development and he was the former Director of junior development in Spain.  There are also far too many former touring pros on our National coaching staff . We need more teaching Professionals, not hitting partners that played on the tour. Every former touring pro that I am talking about was taught to play by a real teaching professional that taught  them grips, swings, and strategy. It’s also interesting to note that Rafael Nadal was taught to play by a teaching Professional , his Uncle Tony Nadal who is still his coach.  You can put a volley away, you can attack a second serve, ask Sampras and our new star Ryan Harrison. Currently our best player Andy Roddick that also has one of the biggest serves  in pro tennis is not having much success, neither is the 6Ft5in. Sam Querry and the 6ft8in John Isner. None of them look as though the will win a Grand Slam in the near future. If they go the net more they will for sure have more success. Andy Roddick beat Nadal last year in the final in Miami, he stayed back in the first set and lost and then played chip and charge and serve and volley and won the match. American tennis! How short are our memories? America has won the Davis Cup 32 times in the last 111 years and the Spanish have only won it 4 times.