David Ranney's Tennis Blog

Question From Claudia About Getting Players To Go To The Net

 

I have been teaching quite a long time and am a USPTA certified pro.

 

My question:  How do I get players to come to the net in doubles?

 

I have trouble getting doubles players to come to the net area after a return of serve or serving.  I have tried every trick in the book.  Players do it in the practices and play wonderfully.  They are good at the net. 

 

When match play counts in a League, they go back to staying at the baseline and are burned w/the opponents short and/or angled balls.

 

Hi Claudia,

 

First of all, you say that your students can come to the net when they practice but not when they are playing “when it counts.” You may want to deal with this issue first as this may be the deciding factor.

 

What I believe is happening is that they are making the league matches (or any match “when it counts) just too important. Making a match important is not conducive to them playing well. In fact, it will keep them from playing well most of the time. So, they will need to work on “pretending” they are just practicing if that is what it takes to convince their mind that the match really is not that important. With most of my students, they just need to be aware of the fact that they are making it too important and decide to make it not so important.

 

Once your student can deal with the “making it important” issue, he/she needs to figure out a way to come to net in the actual match. Here is the “process” that I would use.

 

The first thing that absolutely must be determined is “Does your students absolutely believe that going to the net (at the right time) is important and the best way to play winning doubles. I am assuming that they do but sometimes you never really know.

 

Then during the match they have to be aware of the times that they are not going to the net when they should.

 

Once they are aware of this, they will need to visualize or talk to themselves about the next time the proper time comes when they should be going to the net, they will just go to net as they have been taught. When the point is in progress, they will “just do it” to use a popular phrase.

 

When it happens again and they don’t go to the net, they just visualize or talk to themselves again. They will do this “process” over and over until they can do it automatically like they do in their practice.

 

If they don’t feel like this is working within a fairly short period of time, then they need to look “behind the scenes” because this process works every time when done properly.

 

Here are some “behind the scenes” issues that they will need to let go of or begin to deal with.

1.     They are trying too hard to win the point.

2.     They are trying too hard to hit the ball into the court.

3.     They are thinking too much about strategy.

4.     They are worrying about what their partner will think.

5.     They are worrying about losing.

6.     They are trying too hard to go to the net.

7.     They are too tense.

8.     Any other issue the may be interfering with them making the “right” play.

 

If your student actually forgets to even think about going to the net when they play, you can be assured that they are either not making it important enough or that they really believe that it doesn’t work and will not help them win.

 

If they just forget because it is not important enough, then you have to find a way to help them make it important.

 

If you think that they just don’t believe that it will work and help them win, you will have to figure out a way to make them believe it.

 

I hope this will help.

 

 

David

 

 

What You Get When You Purchase My CDs

Yes, the audio CDs are basically the book being read but I have added more detail to some of the lessons and have added some new information. As I have always said, this way of playing is an ongoing process and I become aware of “new ways” or “deeper ways” to play the mental game. This new information is included.

 

In fact, I have added two of them to my core principles as I have found it to be a huge help in my quest to play my very best and to improve. These additional “lessons” are not on the audio CDs as I had “discovered” them after I recorded the other lessons. But you get them with the CDs as a PDF file.

Here is the list of the 4 brand new very important lessons that are not available anywhere else. These lessons are the very latest in new concepts and techniques that are very powerful.

1. A Variation of the Mother of All Tips
2. Two Special Additions To The Core Principles
3. The Final Bounce
4. Relaxing Between Hits

The other information that you get with the CDs is the Emotional Freedom Technique (EFT) technique customized for tennis. I have heard about EFT for a few years but it was being used for non sports issues. Then I found a person who was using it for sports with a section on using it for tennis. I purchased the e-book to see what it was all about and found it lacking so I wrote my own “scripts” just for tennis. These you get with the CDs but they are not on the CDs.

 

I also ran across another person who had some EFT techniques for tennis and it cost $197. I went ahead and purchased it because I figured if they were charging this much it must be really good. It turned out that it encompasses a lot more than just the EFT techniques for tennis and the part on tennis, I felt it also was still missing some important parts. At least according to my way of thinking.

 

The 8 EFT scripts that you get with the CDs can be used very effectively with a little study and without spending the $197. However, that information was very good and EFT is now being promoted and used in many other sports. I will be recommending to people to buy this at some time in the future.

 

Please check my web site for the other things that are included with the purchase of my CDs.

 

Sorry to be so long winded but I wanted you to know what one gets if you get the CDs even if you have my book.

 

David

A Short Discusion on the Bounce-Hit Method

I recently sent out my latest Mini Lesson on Tim Gallwey’s Bounce-Hit method of focusing and this is an e-mail I received with some additional insights and my comments.

 

Hi David,

First of all congratulations on what you are trying to do through your website, book and teaching.  Keep up the good work and i wish you all the very best.

I am also very interested in the mental perspective and have a few comments on your latest issue.

First of all, instead of saying bounce-hit, perhaps one-two would be better.  I played around with Gallwey's insights while teaching many years ago.  The reason is because I found many players had a much harsher intonation on the hit than they did on the bounce.  Obviously the ego is not involved in the bounce, but is on the hit so tension only came when the ego was involved.  However, often the hit can be interpreted as a command instead of an observation.  So by saying one-two, it emphasized that these two symbols were simple observations of when the ball touched the ground and when the strings touched the racket (or as close as we could get to those two events).

The key, I think, is not to consciously change the intonation and say the word more softly.  This is done by the conscious mind and has lead to no greater awareness and therefore no real change.  However, what I did was to ask the client to actually focus on the intonation of the bounce and the hit or the one and the two and allowed them to hear the difference.  Sometimes this happened quickly and sometimes it took time, but either way I resisted the temptation to tell them because I knew that there own realization would be a greater catalyst for change.

This is a small thing, but something that inspired me to use as an excuse to reach out and connect with you.

Again, keep up the good work and I wish you the very best always,

 

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Thanks for your comments. I really like to have other people’s insights.

 

I have not tried to use the one-two words while playing yet as we are snowed in and I have not played for over a week. I think it doesn’t really matter what words you use as the main purpose is to get your conscious mind out of the way and saying any words will help. The reason I personally like the bounce-hit words is so that I can have a better awareness of how hard I am trying. I have to keep monitoring how I say hit so that it is more relaxed. I find that my conscious (ego) mind always tries to get around the methods that I use so I have to change what I am doing from time to time. Sometimes I will do just do the bounce hit, other times I will do the bounce hit after the serve and return of serve and sometimes I will just do my normal focus which is seeing the ball and focusing on my breathing. I do find that saying the bounce-hit with really seeing the ball well works best for me most of the time.

 

Some of my students have suggested using other words, like bounce-swing. One of my students actually recites the power of two as he is playing. He says 2, 4, 8 ,16, 32 etc. Of course he is still really focusing on the ball and staying relaxed. Again, the point, as you said, is to get the ego out of the way and if saying bounce-hit is an issue with the ego, then the person should use different words.

 

What you say about the intonation is right on the money. I believe that is equally important to getting the most out of this way of focusing. Where I differ from the traditional Tim Gallwey’s method is that I help my students be aware of what I feel is the “correct” way to say the words and then let the student discover for himself or herself what works best for them. By giving them a goal, I believe helps to get them to the ideal place much faster.

 

Thanks again for sharing with me your ideas on the matter. I am going to put this discussion on my blog so maybe it will add to others understanding on the issue of focusing.

 

David

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Hi David, a few comments on your comments on my comments:

 

Of course, the words we use are inconsequential.  You could say 'coke cola' or pep-si.  Each word corresponds to an event.  The first word corresponds to the ball touching the ground, while the second word corresponds to the ball connecting with the strings (although, in reality, cannot reality see this happen!). 

According to my understanding, 'trying', which you keep referring to, is an obstacle to allowing the ideal mental performance state.  Who is trying?  It is the conscious mind that is trying and that is what you are trying to silence in the first place with the counting.  In addition, trying requires effort and how long can you make an effort.  At some point you will have to rela

 

There is no 'correct' way of saying the words.  It is what it is.  For example if your voice becomes high pitched on the 'hit'; it is an indication of tension, which in turn is an indication that fear has entered through the conscious mind.  You can change the intonation (the outer), without affecting the fear (the inner) that is behind the intonation.  To change the outer without touching the inner is no change at all and will ultimate fail.

 

You talk about a goal.  Who makes the goal?  This goal and all goals come from the conscious mind.  The conscious mind creates the concept of time (past and future) and yet we want to be in the present which is not a part of time.  Goals force us into the future, we want to be present.  So, do you think it is possible for goals, which are a function of the conscious mind to help us reach a place beyond the conscious mind? 

 

Getting to the 'ideal' place will not happen faster by creating a goal; in my understanding it will prevent you from ever getting there.

 

I thik action is driven by intention and intention is necessary, but goal is something that brings attachment.  I do not want to get into semantics here, but goal in the sense you use the word will be a hinderance, in my opinion.

I think that this drill is of limited value.  It certainly has some short-term value, but there are larger issues at stake here.  The whole point of using the bounce-hit or any such combination is to trick the conscious mind into silence.  We are moving from fear-based judgement (a tool of the conscious mind) to simple observation (what I like to call 'instinctive mond').  But why is there fear in the first place?  Because of desire?  Desire is goals.  Desire is there because we mistakingly believe that achieving our goal or fulfillling our desire has some value.  It has very limited value.  When we see that goals can only bring us the outer, we may also see that giving up our goals gives us the inner ( the ability to play and live life without fear) and the inner is everything.

 

David, I hope you forgive my boldness in challenging some of your comments, but I feel we are both after the truth and we are both aware, I would imagine, that we do not have the truth.  We are all on the path and I am just sharing with you the view from my path.  It may be of some help to you, or it may not.

 

By all means place this dialogue on your blog.

 

much love,

 

happy

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Hi Happy,

 

Now you will know why I didn’t get into a lot of the philosophical part of playing the mental game. I just can’t explain it like Tim Gallwey and apparently like you can.

 

Much of your disagreements with my statements are semantics and I agree with everything you have said here with one addition about the goal issue. Some people and maybe most need to have some goal in mind in the beginning. With that being said, at some point down the road, any thoughts of the goal needs to drop away. By the way, maybe my use of the word goal is not the right one. Your use of the word intention may be a much better word to use and, in fact, I like it much better than goal.

 

So, I believe that in the beginning and for most people, this intention has to be defined in order to make faster progress. Otherwise, one is wandering around in the dark. They may eventually get where they want to go, but it will most certainly take them longer. A few will not find their way at all. Once they “find their way”, they will be able to go there again and again and at some point they will be able to get there without any thinking and maybe even get there more efficiently. And just maybe, they will discover for themselves that this place is not really where they want to go so they then move on. There is absolutely an evolution going on as I am still finding out things about myself and my tennis game and I feel that there is much more to come.

 

Thanks again for your comments. I enjoy having these kinds of discussion. My only “but” it that I don’t like to have them in writing as I don’t type very well and I don’t like not having to be able to talk back and forth as we would do if we were having this discussion in person.

 

Maybe someday we can continue this in person.

 

All my best.

 

David

Winning Without Knowing You Had Won

I had a funny experience when playing in my last tournament that I thought was interesting enough to put up here.

I had won the first set and was ahead in the second set, and after breaking serve, we then were changing sides. I am sure you have seen the scoring devices that many courts have to help you keep score of the games. When I went to change the score, all of a sudden I realized that I had won the second set and the match was over. I had never won a match before and not known I had won.

But that is only half the story. My opponent also did not realize that the match was over and that he had lost. Needless to say, we both had a good laugh over us not knowing that the match was over.

I told him that I had played some matches that I didn’t know how I had won, but I had never played a match where I didn't know I had won. It was just too weird.

This story really doesn’t have any importance to you in helping you play better and I will let you figure out what it says about my mental abilities. I just thought it was different.

What do I Mean when I say Keep Watching the Ball Inbetwen Points

Here are some questions that I received on an instruction in my book:

Between points and games, you say to "keep watching the ball".  What do you mean by this?  Do you really mean watch the ball just sitting there on the court?  Most of the time between points, the balls are in someone's pocket, so I cannot see it.  Or do you mean this figuratively?  As in imagine seeing the ball.

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No, I mean this literally. Find some ball on the court to focus on. If you have the ball in your hand, you can bounce it or anything else as long as you are focusing on it. If you must, focus on a ball on another court. If there is truly no ball anywhere that you can see, then you are excused from this for that short period of time. You can still focus and be aware of your breathing.

It is also very helpful to be aware of both the ball and your breathing. Before I was able to be aware of my breathing when I was playing in a match, I would at least focus on my breathing in between points as well as focus on the ball.

This can be a very powerful exercise but I have to say it is very hard to do but worth working on. One way to practice this if you are playing with a fellow mental game enthusiast, is to just play with one ball for a while. See how many times your mind wanders from consciously seeing the ball when you are trying to do it every second.

Be aware of what your mind is thinking during the time you lose your focus. Remember, this is just another way to keep in the here and now and train your mind to stay focused on seeing the ball. The whole point of this is, if you see the ball, even between points, you will be able to focus on it that much easier during the actual point.

About the “other than conscious mind”

Here is a question I had about what the “other than conscious mind” is.

I stole the name “other than conscious mind” from Dave Dobson as I think it explains better what is going on.

The other than conscious mind is that part of the mind that controls all the organs, muscles, and all the other things that go on in the body automatically and is out of our awareness. It also includes the subconscious mind and the ego mind. Since the mind is what controls everything in the body, every part of mind that you are not conscious of is what Dave Dobson called the ‘other”.

Please don’t get too caught up in thinking that you have to really understand all this mind stuff. Just use it as a tool to understand how to get your conscious mind out of the way and let the other part of your mind control your body and to let it learn how to hit the ball into the court.

Without going into a big description, think about when you walk. Your conscious mind determines where you want to walk but you don’t think about walking and how your legs move etc. You just walk. That is the way tennis should be played.

If you haven’t already, you must read Tim Gallwey’s book the Inner Game of Tennis. He goes into great detail about the different minds. In his book he calls it Self One and Self Two but it is all the same as what I am talking about.

Also, Ron Waite’s new e-book will help you to understand this relationship between the different parts of the mind. This e-book is only $10 and it will help you more than just the mind explanation. Here is the link. www.tennisserver.com/turbo/perfect-tennis.html 

I do not go into all this in my book because Tim writes about it so much better than I ever could which is why I recommend it to all players who really are into the mental game.

Getting a Kick Out of Being An Author

I was playing with a friend, Ann, at the local public park when an adult and two kids (about 11 or 12 years old) showed up to practice. The adult was the father of the kids and we heard him talking to the kids about breathing and watching the ball. When we took a little break, Ann said to me that they must have my book because they were talking about breathing and seeing the ball. I agreed because I have never heard anyone talk about these things except me.

When we went back out on the court, I said hi to one of the kids when he came close and he said to his Dad. “Dad, it’s David Ranney, the author of the book.” The kid then told me he thought the book was awesome and that it helped him a lot.

I thought this was pretty amazing that a kid that young was getting so much value from my book. I must say that these kids were members of our club, were not beginners, and were pretty good players for their age. I have since worked with them on their game.

Anyway, I got a real kick out of the fact that they were really benefiting from my book before I even knew them.

Want to play 1000 Times Better in 10 Minutes?

At the National Indoors 60’s tournament, I was selling my book at the tournament desk. A fellow player purchased my book and after reading the lesson on seeing the ball, he came up to me and asked me if I would give him “the test” in person.

In case you don’t know about “the test”, it is a simple exercise that I give new students to demonstrate and experience how the ball must be seen. Only about 2% get this correct and it has shown me that even if I tell people to see the ball, they just don’t know what that means until they get the results of “the test.”

Since giving the test is one of my favorite things to do, I agreed. As it turns out, he was one of the 2% of the people who got the test correct.

However, I noticed that his strokes were not as consistent as they could be. Being the compulsive teacher that I am, I told him I wanted to show him the Mother of all Tips exercise. This is lesson #40 in my book and you get it for free when you sign up for my free Mini Lessons that I send out every two weeks. So, for the next 10 minutes, I showed him how to do this and made sure he was doing it correctly.

It turned out that he was still in the mixed doubles consolation and he was playing with a woman who he had never met before. Later in the day, he came up to me and said, “We just finished our match and my partner asked me after the match what had a happened to me. She said that my game had improved 1000%.” He told me that he just decided to use what he had learned earlier with me and it made a huge difference in his game.

Now, you and I know that 1000% is an exaggeration, but we also know that something dramatic happened to his play, all because of his ability to see the ball correctly and his ability to do the Mother of All Tips during his match. Now I don’t recommend doing the Mother of all Tips in a match, but he was able to modify it enough so that it worked big time for him.

I don’t expect most people will get such dramatic results but you can expect to see immediate improvement just by doing one or both of these concepts.

When Billie Jean King Broke the Wimbledon Record

Elizabeth (Bunny) Ryan, who held the record of the most wins at Wimbledon for many years, was my first tennis instructor when I was a kid. I don’t know when my mom met her, but somehow my mom and Bunny were friends. When I played in Junior Wimbledon we spent a lot of time with Bunny who showed us around and introduced us to some of her famous friends. She would also come and visit with us when she came to Southern California.

Anyway, this is just background. According to my mom, Bunny was very proud of her Wimbledon record, which, as you know, she held for many years. And, if I have my facts correct, she died on the day Billie Jean King broke her record of the most wins. My mom said that Bunny just didn’t want to be alive when her record was broken. If you can believe this, somehow Bunny knew she was going to break her record and just decided this was the time for her to go so she didn’t have to face the fact that she no longer held the record.

Again, I don’t know for sure if this is true, but it makes a good story and I have been telling it for years whenever Billie Jean King’s name comes up.

How to Help a 9 Year Old be Non-Judgmental

Question: Our local pro at our tennis club has your book and has bought into “Mental Tennis.” He has a 9 year old son who goes ballistic when he makes a bad shot. I know corrective ideas for an adult, but what about convincing a 9 year old not to be judgmental on a bad shot?

Answer: The problem here is that the son has an unrealistic view of reality. This was and is created by parents and tennis professionals who don’t really understand how winning happens and how a ball is hit.

I would ask the student, “Who is hitting the ball?” The usual answer is, “I am.” And I say to them, “No, you are not. Your body is hitting the ball.” I would also tell the person (whether it be a child or adult) that if they become the greatest player the world has ever seen, they will still miss shots. I may even point out that Federer who is the greatest player in the world still misses nothing balls.

This child is doing exactly what I did all those years before I took my lesson from Tim Gallwey. I tried so hard to hit the ball into the court and the more I tried the more I tense I got and the more frustrated I got when I missed. Only when I learned to let my body hit the ball and truly let the ball go where it wants, did I stop getting frustrated.

This child (or anyone) needs to learn that their body can hit the ball better than using their conscious mind. They will always achieve better results when they simply let their body do things rather than trying to make them happen. They need to make playing (especially in tournaments) way less important. They need to play a different game. A game where they figure out how to let their body hit the ball. They need to be taught that by letting their body hit the ball, the body will learn to hit the ball far better than if the conscious mind tries to do it.

So, the big question is how we get the child to do this. You do this by teaching the child to see the ball, breathe and relax properly when hitting the ball. Remember that when you relax more you are giving up control of hitting the ball to the other than conscious. In fact when you work on all these things, you are practicing letting the body do the hitting.

In addition, the parents or the teaching pros need to re-enforce these principles. If they still have the child think they have to hit all great shots in order to win and/or hit all the balls into the court and if they encourage the conscious mind to do this, the child will continue to get frustrated.

I hope this answers the question. I feel like I am not able to give as complete an answer since I have not talked to the child or seen how the child behaves on the court, but hopefully, this will help.