The main purpose of this site is to help people enact life changes whilst improving tennis. Tennis is a metaphor for life. The way we move through space, handle pressure, diminish ego and embrace competition are comparable to business life and social interaction.

Alexander technique

The Alexander technique has been typically used with musicians and actors to maximize breathing capacity and posture alignment. It teaches how to free ones-self from self-imposed limitations that may have been incidentally learned in past skill building. Its main purposes are movement freedom, self-improvement affecting poise, impulse control and directing attention. After several sessions with Carolyn, I found I had a mechanical ability on all strokes. My serve speed improved and my arms became more relaxed over time. I introduced Carolyn Kepes to a few of my tennis players and they now see her on a regular basis. If you are interested in more information about the Alexander Technique you can email Carolyn at this address carolyn7k@gmail.com

Rolfing

I was lucky enough to receive a phone call recently from a woman named Aline Newton. Aline introduced me to rolfing and after two sessions I found I can move with more efficiency which also translated to the tennis court. Luckily enough, she was interested in learning tennis so our little barter worked out well.

Times are changing in sports at an incredible rate. Professionals used to emerge from some hard work on and off the field/court, but in the future this will not be enough because others will be doing more. In the future, professionals will only emerge if they change their mind, body and their true self. This article will be an outline on how to get a head start into what I believe are the necessities of the future, it won’t be easy to balance all this, but if you can dedicate your life to these disciplines then I guarantee success. Some involve sport/training directly and some indirectly.

Masteries

Nutritional – I cannot give sound nutritional advice because it is not my field but after watching the movie food inc I will not be eating the same things I used to eat. I highly recommend this movie if you can stomach it. I could only get through fifteen minutes and I started tearing up. (Don’t laugh, it is truly traumatic what happens to these animals) I try buy fresh organic foods from co-ops and markets when possible. From the information I have received thus far I would recommend you eat lots of nuts, berries, beans, fruits, vegetables and buy organic farm raised meats if possible. Give up the soda and stick to water. High fructose corn syrup is extremely bad for you so that should be enough to deter you from gatorade and soft drink.

A few weeks ago I was lucky enough to attend a weekend conference with Dr Joe Dispenza at Omega in upstate New York. Dr Dispenza is mostly known for his excellent appearance in the movie What the bleep do we know and tours across the world helping people understand how the brain works with quantum physics and how to change your life with this understanding through meditation.

“Neurons that no longer fire together no longer wire together” (Dr Joe Dispenza)
Unfortunately, when a player reacts to a perceived negative outcome, these neurons are strengthened to further wire the same reaction in a similar future circumstance. This is why you see the same competitors react the same way week in week out. Roger Federer generally does not react to errors because his brain is not wired that way through repetition of not reacting. Roger wasn’t always this way. As a junior he used to react to errors, however, he has changed his philosophy because he had the courage to stop the reactionary strengthened pathways.

Picture this. You have set yourself up for a simple over-head to win the first set in a tiebreaker and you hit the ball into the net. Most would react in a negative way because the mind has been conditioned to perceive this or similar situations as negative.

Next time you are playing a match and you feel angry, try to notice that you are feeling angry and allow the feeling to take place. Replace holding on to that emotion with techniques designed to bring you back to “the present”. 1. Awareness of the breath. 2. Feeling your feet touch the ground. 3. Taking in and letting go of  sounds around you.