Tennis is the sport I have been involved in my whole life as an athlete, a teacher, a coach and now on the athletic development and performance side of the sport. Throughout the journey, the medicine ball has played a crucial role and has evolved into an almost daily part of our program both on court and in the gym.
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By his own admission, Brad Gilbert was not the most talented tennis player. And yet, across the span of his sporting career, he accumulated $5.5 million in prize money, and achieved a career high world ranking of #4, along with twenty singles titles and an Olympic bronze medal. By almost anyone’s account, that is a successful career—so how did Gilbert, who on paper, should have been a middle of the pack player, achieve so much success? As he points out in his book, Winning Ugly, it’s because tennis matches aren’t played on paper, they’re played on a court, between real people—and people can be gamed. Read more
When it comes to player development, it can be surprisingly hard for a large federation to make an impact at the individual player level. At the USTA, Johnny Parkes has been trying to identify where they can make most impact with young players. Their conclusion: the warm up. As physical literacy declines in young athletes, a good warm up can help ensure players are prepared for the ever-increasing physical demands of the international game. On this week’s episode he joins us to discuss some of the strategies they are using to develop players. Read more
