Conscious Tennis

I teach the basic stroke necessities and allow the student to develop a natural stroke, that has all the required elements, but comes naturally to the student.

Remember when you learned to write cursive (script)?  We all had the same chart of letters, but we all ended up with different handwritings.  Your stroke will be different from mine the same way.  But just like with letters, as long as the stroke has the necessities, no one bothers you about the way you swish your "t".  Most coaches are trying to get you to make letters just like the chart (or strokes just like the textbook), which never happens naturally.  These make your strokes artificial and they will need fixing and correcing forever.  They will break down in pressure situations and somedays, won't work at all.  A natural stroke comes out of you everyday.  It is like your walk, the same everyday.

I hold a PhD in Cognitive Psychology with a specialty in motor skill behavior.

Most coaches just train the body and not only neglect, but hinder the mind from developing correctly. 

I work on both from the start and the speed of improvement is much more rapid.

I was in graduate school when I learned tennis and so was studying motor skills while I was learning a motor skill, tennis.  I started to research what was in the psychological journals, that rarely leaks out to the public, about how to learn a motor skill.  I adapted what I was reading to tennis  and began to improve rapidly.

I ended up writing a book on tennis and teaching lessons using what I had discovered.  This technique is the absolute cutting edge of sports instruction.

From 4 year olds to players ranked in the top 1000, playing on the futures and challengers tour.

I was waiting to give a lesson and the young guy (25?) on the court next to me was waiting for his father-in-law (60?).  I had seen them on the courst a few times before.  It seemed to me the old guy was generally the winner.  I had some time to kill so I spoke to him for a few minutes and then had him do 1 drill with me.  Then his father-in-law arrived.  I told him to look out for the kid, and he laughed and told me he had a million dollars to bet.  Well, the kid beat  him 6-4, 6-3.  On the way off the court the older man walked passed me and said, "I'm not happy with you", but he was grinning.  The kid hasn't lost to the older man since.

If your coach has to yell at you to "bend your knees", or, "follow through" or anything else, like 50 time per lesson, he is forcing you into an unnatural stroke, and it just won't stick and your body hates it.

I will give your body a reason to bend it's knees and to follow through.  Then it will happen naturally.  Your body will love you for it.  Your strokes will be less fatiguing and more easily repeatable.

How did you learn to talk?  That's right, speech is the hardest motor skill you do.  Think of all the parts that have to work together to make each sound, hundreds a minute.  Now ask yourself, did anyone tell you where to put any of those body parts?  Where is your tongue when you say a "w"?  What do you do with your lips when you say "g" sounds?  You don't know do you?  Why does your tennis coach insist on you knowing what all your body parts are doing?  It isn't how we do motor skills.  It isn't  how you learned to speak.  It shouldn't be how you learn to play tennis.  Learn naturally.