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Stephen G. Pellegrini

Stephen Pellegrini's background is high school and college player ("2 years - studies took over my Junior year"). He graduated from BC in 1975. He then coached a Philadelphia NJTL team in 1973 that won the city championship (took them to the nationals in East Lansing, MI - they placed third). Played recreationally on and off since then. He also studied martial arts for the past 30 years. He has a 3rd degree black belt from Mr. Nackord in Kenpo. He is 50 years old, married with a son, 15 years old, who is also a black belt, and an advanced novice tennis player now. Stephen, his son, and his wife play tennis for fun and recreation.

His tennis article is titled:

Advanced Insights - How Motion Science™ Cured My Forehand Blues - An Application of Martial Arts Principles to Tennis

Steve Smith

Steve Smith is a writer who lives near Chapel Hill, North Carolina. His Web site, Tops 4 Tennis , includes the expanded version of the above article at www.tops4tennis.com/articles/wimbledon.html.

Wimbledon. It's a word that stands for tennis at its best.

Although it is first of all the name of a London suburb, for millions of tennis fans around the world it is shorthand for sportsmanship, athletic prowess, and celebrity stardom. For the half-a-million or so people who manage to see at least some of the annual championship games in person, it also means a huge social event.

One of the great things about the championship tennis tournament played every summer at Wimbledon is that it's one of the few major sporting events for which the average fan (i.e, neither rich nor well-connected) stands a decent chance of gaining entry.

Interestingly, the Wimbledon games ultimately owe their existence not to tennis but to another, more sedate, game that was all the rage among the Victorians: croquet. You see, the private club that sponsors the world's foremost tennis championship was founded originally as The All England Croquet Club.

Founded in 1868, the club did not hold its first tennis championships until 1877. Those games were witnessed by a few hundred spectators in what is described as a "garden party atmosphere."

For a long time now the club's name has been The All England Lawn Tennis and Croquet Club, and the Wimbledon championships are attended by more than 500,000 people as well as carried to millions around the world through mass media and the Internet.

The tournament starts six weeks before the first Monday in August and runs for approximately two weeks. Players from more than 60 countries regularly compete.

If you're planning to be in London during the two June or July weeks when the tournament is being played, getting in to see at least a match or two would be a marvelous experience for any tennis fan. So how can you score a ticket to this greatest of all tennis events?

If you definitely want to attend the next year's Wimbledon, you should enter the public ballot (or lottery) that is held each January for some of the Centre Court and No. 1 Court seats. You will need some luck to pick up a ticket this way, but it's worth a try. All it takes is obtaining the official application form and returning it by the deadline (the exact procedures and addresses are detailed on the Tops 4 Tennis Web site at www.tops4tennis.com/articles/wimbledon.html).

If you are successful in the drawing for tickets, you will be notified about four months before the beginning of the tournament and asked to send payment at that time.

Another way to get into the tournament is to purchase a travel package from one of the many companies specializing in tennis tours. Most of these Wimbledon packages will include transportation, lodging and perhaps some local side tours in addition to the tickets themselves. This is a convenient way to go to the tournament if you like the all-in-one approach to buying travel. If you're more of an independent traveler, it might not suit you as well.

You can find Wimbledon travel operators on the Web by searching on "Wimbledon tournament travel" or "Wimbledon travel package."

There are also a number of ticket brokers online, some of whom specialize in sporting events such as Wimbledon. They buy tickets from willing sellers and re-sell them to willing buyers, or alternatively they simply bring the sellers and buyers together to make their own deal. The brokers make their money through the fees or commissions they charge for this service.

Finally, you can also stand in line for tickets during the tournament itself.

Several thousand same-day tickets are put on public sale while the games are going on. You'll have to be present and willing to stand on line a long time to get one of these. In the end you might still miss out, but if you're in the area anyway and have patience, you should show up early and have a go at it.

If you're an avid tennis player or fan or both, Wimbledon is one event you should see in person at least once in your life.

See you courtside?

How would you like to start playing vastly better tennis ... today?

There's a particular “magic” moment in tennis—one that lasts a mere fifth of a second. If you have (or can develop) the discipline to fully exploit that moment, you may astonish yourself and your opponents with your new-found scoring ability.

The moment I'm talking about is the last 1/5th of a second before your racquet strikes the ball. The discipline I'm referring to is that of keeping your eye entirely on the ball for that super-critical moment.

We've all been told many times that we should keep our eye on the ball in tennis. But how many of us really know what that means? How many of us really practice it?

Keeping your eye on the ball doesn't mean watching it until it is a split second from hitting your racket, and then glancing away to look at your opponent. It means watching it until it has hit your strings and begun its rebound.

This is not a new secret. Bill Tilden, perhaps the greatest player who ever lived, wrote about it more than 80 years ago and tried to drive its importance into the heads of his readers. Early on in his classic book, "The Art of Lawn Tennis," he cited statistics “to show you how vital it is that the eye must be kept on the ball UNTIL THE MOMENT OF STRIKING IT” (his emphasis).

“About 85 per cent of points in tennis are errors, and the remainder earned points. As the standard of play rises the percentage of errors drops until, in the average high-class tournament match, 60 per cent are errors and 40 per cent aces. ... Fully 80 percent of all errors are caused by taking the eye from the ball in the last one-fifth of a second of its flight.”

Wow. Sobering statistics, to be sure. But exciting ones, too, because what Tilden is telling us is that it's within our power, right now, to eliminate the majority of our errors! And reducing the errors we make is the surest way to starve our opponent of points and extend his opportunity to give up points to us.

Tilden was a great tennis observer as well as a player. He studied and wrote about all of the top players of his day, and observed and advised many a tennis beginner. We can trust him when he says that the greatest fault commited by novices (and by many more experienced players) is trying to watch too much besides the ball.

Tilden compared the human eye to a camera, noting that neither is capable of clearly focusing on a moving object and its background at the same time. “Now the tennis ball is your moving object while the court, gallery, net, and your opponent constitute your background.” Therefore, ignore the background and rather “concentrate solely on focusing the eye firmly on the ball, and watching it until the moment of impact with your racquet face.”

Shouldn't you at least take a peek at your opponent, maybe out of the corner of your eye? No: “You are not trying to hit him. You strive to miss him. Therefore, since you must watch what you strive to hit and not follow what you only wish to miss, keep your eye on the ball, and let your opponent take care of himself.”

Tilden provided a chart in "The Art of Lawn Tennis," a very simple one, but one that I hope you will commit to memory. It looked something like this:

A—1—2—3—4—B

Imagine a ball passing from point A to point B, with you as the receiving player at B. According to Tilden, it can be taken as a scientific fact that if you keep your eye on the ball throughout its flight, your chance of making a good return is five times as great as it would be if you took your eye off the ball at point 4 (4/5ths of a second of its flight). Furthermore, your chance is ten times as great as it would be if your removed your eye from the ball at point 3 (3/5ths of a second of its flight).

Tilden wrote: “The average player follows the ball to 4, and then he takes a last look at his opponent to see where he is, and by so doing increases his chance of error five times. ... Remembering the 85 percent errors in tennis, I again ask you if it is worth while to take the risk?”

Keeping your eye on the ball is a good practice not just because you make fewer errors, but also because it strengthens the other parts of your game through developing the habit of concentration. As Tilden humorously explained, “It tends to hold [your] attention so outside occurrences will not distract. Movements in the gallery are not seen, and stray dogs, that seem to particularly enjoy sleeping in the middle of a tennis court during a hard match, are not seen on their way to their sleeping quarters.”

So there you have it – one-fifth of a second that can make all the difference in your tennis game. It can truly be the magic moment for you, IF you cultivate the discipline to keep your eye on the ball not just occasionally or even most of the time, but during every single shot.

P.S: Bill Tilden's "The Art of Lawn Tennis" is in the public domain, which means you can find it and read it online for free. I highly recommend that you do so. Although his references to events and personalities are of course dated, his playing advice is timeless.

Brian Mantel

Brian Mantel is a webmaster of www.funkyfogey.com - The community website for the active, healthy and wealthy over 50 age group. customerservices@funkyfogey.com

Mea Culpa

Dear Reader (I assume the singular and hope for the plural) I have completely re-written this article in the light of comments from my coaching muse, Roger Mills. Roger feels that there were too many ‘negatives’ in the original. The principle here is ‘tell them what to do rather than what not to do.’ I apologise for the negative in that sentence; that will be the last one. Henceforth I will not be so negative. Damn. I mean, ‘henceforth I will be more positive’.

I also apologise to Roger for the fact that the postman got him out of bed, demanding money with menaces, because the copy of the article I sent him was overweight for the stamp. I promise to weigh all my post in future.

Quiztime

Question: What is the most important shot in doubles?

Answers: a) The smash (b) The clear (c) A large Scotch

(a) and (b) are definitely wrong, (c) depends on the circumstances.

The most important shot in doubles is the serve. Having a good serve is a major advantage; which poses the question, what is good serving?

In doubles, we want to be attacking, which means forcing the opponents to lift; so low serves are the order of the day. That is, serves skimming the net tape to land fairly close to the short service line.

Playing the shuttle from below ‘net tape’ (as we usually say in referring to the top of the net) the receiver will be forced to lift or play the shuttle back close to the net tape. (Better players will be able to play a ‘push’ from just below the net tape, past the server - unless the server can intercept).

The variation on low serves will be ‘flick’ serves, which should be hit over the receiver as s/he attacks the low serve. Flicking gives the attack away, but if the flick is deceptive (see below Flick Serves), the receiver should have to change direction quickly, making attack more difficult. Persistently high serving, with no attempt at disguise, is only likely to be effective against relative beginners or players who lack an effective smash. (Even then, it would be a bit predictable). The doubles long service line means the back tramlines are out for serve in doubles, so even the best doubles serves must be shorter than the deepest serves allowed in singles.

It is more common to see high serves in lower level ladies matches, the perception being that men smash harder than ladies. (Before you start sending me hate mail, obviously some women hit the shuttle harder than some men; but at any given level, League, County, International, etc., the men will generally be more powerful). However, good low serves are more effective if the receiver stands further back to receive, as many ladies (and beginners) do. In top-level ladies doubles low and flick serves are much more common.

Most people would settle for accurate and consistent low serves, close to the net tape; but there is more to it than that. Good serving involves knowing how and when to vary the placement of the serve - and when to persist with a serve that is effective. The most important thing is to force the receiver to try to return the serve. Many ‘cheap’ points are scored when receivers fail to return the serve into court. Equally, a lot of errors are made by the server trying to serve too close to the net tape or to the lines. You only need to do that if your opponents are returning aggressively and effectively. Only serves that you make the receiver play are going to earn you points.

A good server will observe how and where the opponents stand to receive, and which racquet face (if any) is preferred. Some receivers will stand too close to the centre line or too close to the sideline, leaving a large space to serve into. Others will stand a long way back from the service line, which means they will have difficulty attacking the low serve, but will deal with flick serves and high serves more easily.

Some players are so biased to backhand receiving that they are much less effective when forced to receive forehand. (Obviously, the same applies in reverse.) Some have difficulty with serves directly at them, which force a 'forehand or backhand?' decision

Servers should develop the ability to serve anywhere along the short service line. If this can be done with deception, great, but even if your opponent has an idea where the low serve will go, it is better to serve to the place they would least like. Variation of serve is also a good idea - low serves to different places along the line, and some flicks.

The time to leave out the variations is when you are struggling to get a good serve over. Then you should go back to your best serve - analogous to the bowler’s stock delivery. If you find a serve which continues to cause a problem for the opponents, don’t change it unless it ceases to be effective.

Flick Serving

If the low serve is being dominated, the normal response is to flick. Flicks serves are serves which are disguised as low serves as long as possible, ideally until the moment of impact, then hit up high enough to be above the receiver’s outstretched racquet, forcing the receiver to move back. A truly successful flick will have the receiver moving forward to take a low serve whilst the shuttle is sailing over his (or her) head. But a lot of flicks are unsuccessful…

Many players hit very flat flick serves or 'drive' serves, which the receiver can intercept without much backward movement, and which, if left, often go out at the back. Another common error is to try to flick too close to the centre line or the sidelines - far too many of these will go out too.

The flick should rely on deception, going over the incoming receiver, rather than on pace or placement too close to the lines. The moral is, if you flick, flick OVER (the opponent), flick IN (the court).

If you have a good flick serve, use it at the first opportunity, to put doubt in your opponents' minds as early as possible. There is, of course, very little point trying to deceive someone who stands a long way behind the front service line with a flick. However, a higher flick serve will still force them back (as far as the rules of doubles allow), where they may be very weak.

To summarise:

Mostly low serves in doubles Find their least favourite serve Vary the placement of the serve Flick over, flick in Flick early in the game - let them know you can Get it over, get it in, make them return the serve

Warning: Although every effort has been made to make this a negative free article, with zero amounts of ‘can’t, won’t, shouldn’t, hasn’t, and isn’t’, the article may contain traces of ‘not’, to which some particularly picky and pedantic readers may have a reaction, especially if they have got our of bed the wrong side having been woken up by the postman.

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