The common threads of the forehand. Nadal federer Djockovic

Watch how Federer Nadal and others use the same common threads to hit a Top spin Forehand.

Serve Stretch Video #3, Toes

In this video we learn about the toes and what they can do for your serve. While getting on your toes, you stretch your quads. The stretching of the quads will increase the speed of your upward momentum on the serve. Upward momentum is what we want to achieve on the serve as well as some forward momentum. This video will get you on your way to feeling the up part of the serve. Good luck and stay loose!

Exclusive tennis match: Noah & Bahrami vs McEnroe & Leconte @ Optima Open

Mansour Bahrami, Yannick Noah, Henri Leconte and John McEnroe have showed off their tricks while playing/entertaining the final game of Optima Open. The crowd went crazy when the four magicians showed the "imaginary point" (copyright Mansour Bahrami), where Mansour and the other three members of the doubles match played an imaginary, slow-motion point without a ball.

How To Aim In Tennis?

How to aim in tennis?

How do we achieve directional control when playing tennis? Is this a mechanical process? In other words, are we manufacturing the angle of the racquet head consciously at contact? Or is this possibly an intuitive process? In this video, you will find out the answers to these questions and much more on the topic of directional control.

The Art of Reading Your Opponent

Frank Giampaolo demonstrates the art of reading the opponents passing shots and lobs with his famous Triangle drill.

Effective Return Of Serve Footwork

Effective Return Of Serve Footwork

4 Stretches You Should Be Doing EVERY Morning!

Waking up feeling stiff is extremely common, especially if you work out the day before.  In this video, I’m going to show you the 4 best stretches to do every morning to help loosen up and increase your flexibility for the rest of the day.  Much of what you are trying to overcome are the tightnesses that develop from our sleeping posture.  Each of these stretches is going to help hit these key areas and allow you to do it quickly so as not to take up much time.

The first move is actually not a static stretch but rather a dynamic movement.  The goal is to groove the hip hinge while at the same time stretch out the hamstrings a bit since many of us have chronically tight hamstring muscles from sitting all day.  The reason we do this RDL movement however is not to statically stretch the hamstring but simply to warm them up.  In the case of an anterior pelvic tilt you would not want to perform long stretches of the hamstrings, as they tend to be taut from pelvic positioning not actually muscle tightness.

From here you want to drop down into a deep squat position with your hands between your legs and flat on the floor.  The goal is to turn your hands away from you with your fingers pointed backwards.  This will stretch out the forearms and finger flexors while at the same time providing a nice stretch for the biceps.  Believe it or not, the biceps do tend to get tight when sleeping because we sleep with our arms in some variation of a bent elbow position for hours on end.

The goal of this deep stretch however is to loosen up the hips and groin.  If you are a side sleeper you will have your legs likely pulled up into your chest and your knees pressed against each other.  This will tighten both the hip flexors and the hip adductors or groin muscles.  There is nothing more important in the morning than trying to re-establish a looseness to these muscles since asymmetrical pulling on the pelvis can cause lots of postural low back pain and stiffness throughout the day.

Use your elbows to drive your knees apart and deepen the stretch while at the same time let your thighs help to reinforce the straightness of your arms for that good biceps and forearm stretch.

Next you want to really get at those hip flexors and stretch them out.  The best way to do that is with an overhead leaning lunge stretch.  Here you want to grab a wooden dowel, broomstick, etc that you can plant into the ground in front of you outside of your forward leg.  Drop the opposite leg behind you until you feel a deep stretch on the upper front side of your thigh.  From here, reach up to the top of the stick with both hands and twist/lean towards that side to enhance the stretch.  If you do this right, you will be extending through the thoracic spine to regain any lost mobility from sleeping with a rounded upper back supported by the pillow.

Finally, you perform the standing shoulder stretch with the dowel or stick as well.  This is an incredible stretch that will help to externally rotate your shoulders and work on loosening up the posterior deltoids as well.  When laying on your side or on your stomach, your shoulders are often positioned into internal rotation.  Again, the problem here is that you aren’t just staying like this for a few minutes but rather hours!  If you want to loosen up the tightnesses that you cause by sleeping this way you have to devote just a few minutes each morning to doing that.

Each of these stretches can have a profound impact by just being held for 45 seconds or so, every morning.  It won’t take you long to start to see and feel the benefits of adopting these four into your morning routine.

If you’re looking for a complete program that helps you to not just feel loose but get strong, ripped and athletic at the same time, be sure to head to the link below and get the ATHLEAN-X Training System.  Start looking like an athlete by training like an athlete beginning today.

High Short Ball Tip for Control

In this video we go over a high short ball tip for control. There are many videos out there on this topic and I know it's a major shot to have in your arsenal.

You set up a great point and you finally get your opponent to give up a short high ball and bam. You miss it. It's ok to miss the shot but there may be a way to increase your control on it when going for it. Instead of hitting through the ball, which is mostly the consensus on the internet, I encourage you to hit around the ball. This will give you more grip on the ball and will impart topspin on it as well. The control should be increased when doing this and so should your confidence in hitting it.

Get out there and rip those high short balls with confidence!

Good luck and stay loose!

How To Hit A Flat Serve?

How to hit a flat serve?

1. Flat serve grip

2. Flat serve optimal body position

3. Flat serve swing path

4. Two types of flat serves

5. Does a flat serve have spin

6. Flat serve slow-motion footage

Tennis - Top UNIQUE Styles That Only They Have

This is the special video I want to show you. In the tennis world, there are a lot of strange styles, with my limited knowledge. These are things I know.

Hope you enjoy!

Footwork. Halep vs. Kerber - Part One

In order to produce consistent and reliable strokes, the stances from which these strokes are produced have to be simple, sturdy and comfortable.

As much as the circumstances allow it, a proper stance has to be assumed for each and every stroke.

Getting in and out of those stances — is the product and the ultimate responsibility of your footwork.

3 Things Golf Can Teach You About Tennis

As you learn more about sports and continue playing you realize similar connections to body motions and momentum. This is the key for a few motions we are covering. We're going to share 3 things golf can teach you about tennis that carry over even into other sports. We cover the similarities of handling the club to the racket, dealing with lag, how to load up the shoulders, and how to use body momentum to apply energy to the racket or club and make sweet contact. Tennis has a few extra added movements to be aware of as we go through and we'll cover it all. Learn 3 things golf can teach you about tennis and dominate.

Why Andy Roddick Never Put A Volley Away

How has the volley changed over the years? Modern day players have adapted to deflect and defuse pace better, but it contradicts the proper body mechanics required to generate pace. We're going to look at both ends of the spectrum to give you all the tools.

How to REALLLLY Stretch Your Quads (Best Static Quad Stretch!)

Quad workouts are mandatory for those looking to build bigger legs.  That said, unless you stretch your quads correctly with the right leg stretches, you are likely going to hold back the results that you see in the gym.  Fascia can restrict blood flow through a working muscle if it is inadequately mobilized.  Likewise, when quad muscle length is short, the range of motion you can achieve in the exercises of your leg and quads workouts will be noticeably compromised.

In this video, I show you how to stretch your quads right using one quick tweak to a standard quadriceps stretching exercise.  Normally, people will stretch their legs either standing or laying on their side.  When you perform the quads stretch from either of these positions however, you are likely to substitute lumbar flexion inadvertently in an effort to create a bigger separation between the torso and your quads.  This gives you the false sense of improved flexibility in your legs when it likely doesn't exist.

In order to get the most out of your stretching you have to be sure that you maintain a flat lower back.  This is actually opposite the techniques that we used in previous videos for how to stretch your hamstrings right.  In that case, the pelvis had to stay in an anterior tilt in order to maximally reach the hamstring muscles.  Here, you want to posteriorly rotate the pelvis in order to prevent the lumbar extension substitution.

Try the two variations that I show you in this video and see for yourself just how much less flexibility and range of motion you have in your quadriceps muscle.  If you find that there is at least a ten to twenty degree difference between the two positions you will want to start adding this stretch to your routine about 3-5 nights per week.

It's best to perform your passive leg stretches before bed rather than during or prior to your workout.  This is the optimal time as it helps to prevent the normal tissue shortening that happens during muscle repair and recovery overnight.

Weight Shift For Tennis Forehand

Learn your weight shift in tennis! How do we use our legs to get speed? For those looking to rip some tennis balls, this video on Weight Shift For Tennis Forehand is for you. We have the tennis stroke, from forehand to serve, broken down to the most important keys in our Top Speed Tennis System. If you’re looking to get the most from your technique, we'll cover the weight shift, while improving key topspin generating fundamentals! Start having real control of our game.

I look forward to working with you much more in the future with Top Speed Tennis. Good luck with your tennis.

Serve Stretch Video #2, Core Stretch

In the serve stretch video #2, core stretch, we try to learn how it feels to use the core to generate effortless power on the serve. Using your core will hopefully lead to an easy way to gain more power without straining any muscles. Give it a try and let me know how it works out! Good luck and stay loose!

Safin Sampras Australian Open 2002 Tiebreaks

Australian Open 2002 R16 Safin vs Sampras

The Wrist Lag - How To Make It Happen

Discover the number 1 forehand mistake recreational tennis players make on the forehand and a solution on how to fix it.

The Wrist Lag

Is the wrist lag something that you have to master in order to have a good forehand? This video covers the wrist lag extensively and clears up some misconceptions about this mysterious technical element on the forehand.

Intentional Trust in Your Tennis Strokes

This video is about intentional trust in your tennis strokes. Having full intention on what you are about to do may be more important than your technique. I'm sure we've all played that player that doesn't have the best looking strokes but ends up beating us because they have the better control of their shots. Thinking about technique is the last thing we need to do during competition. We should only be trusting in our intentions and strategy. Try this out during competition and you will gain a new perspective on how to compete like a pro. Good luck and stay loose!

Common Return Mistakes | SERVE RETURN

Returning a serve in tennis is one of the hardest things to do in sports. In today's lesson, Brady discusses what he thinks are the top 3 reasons players miss their returns at the recreational level.

6 Exercises to Kill Chronic Knee, Foot or Hip Pain

If you, just like 15 to 25 percent of people in the US, suffer from chronic knee pain, or just get tired sore feet from constantly being on the go, pay attention to these 6 exercises to cure chronic knee, foot or hip pain. You don’t need an expensive treatment if you regularly perform the simple workout at home. Knees are the second largest source of recurrent pain, and once you add in the feet and hips, it turns out that the legs can cause big problems for a lot of people.

Simple tip-toeing, besides strengthening your calves, helps improve your balance by reducing the area in contact with the ground, which makes keeping your balance quite a challenge. It strengthens your glutes and core muscles, improves your posture while simultaneously relieving back pain, increases the flexibility of your ankles, stretches the muscles around your shins, which are an otherwise difficult muscle group to target.

Heel raises, ankle circles, resistance training and toe games are all effective exercises for relieving pain in different parts of your legs.

Try to do rolling foot massage on a daily basis and do as many reps as you want or have time for. It gives the bottom of your foot a nice stretch and prevents foot-related injuries in the long run.

TIMESTAMPS

Exercise #1. Heel raises 1:01

Exercise #2. Tip-toeing 3:22

Exercise #3. Ankle circles 4:34

Exercise #4. Resistance training 5:47

Exercise #5. Toe games 7:42

Exercise #6. Rolling foot massage 9:24

Bonus 10:04

SUMMARY

-You’ll need to grab a chair for this exercise. Stand behind it and use the back of the chair to support yourself. This exercise helps strengthen your ankles and works the muscles around the knee.

-Simply tip-toe around your house kind of quickly. This will strengthen your calves and give a little workout to your toes and the balls of your feet. Aim to do this exercise regularly for 5 to 15 minutes or until you get tired.

-This exercise helps loosen up the tendons and muscles in your legs and ankles. It’ll improve your flexibility, range of motion, and overall comfort while walking or standing.

-Resistance training targets the muscles in your calves and inner and outer thighs, not only toning but also strengthening them.

-Toe games is an important exercise because it strengthens the tiny muscles in your toes and feet. They tend to be underdeveloped, which can be a big problem since they support your arches, keep your toes properly aligned, and even contribute to balance.

-Rolling foot massage works the muscles in the heels and balls of your feet. It’s also a nice relaxing massage for your arches.

-If your feet are killing you after a long day, use one thumb to put pressure on the spot between your big toe and pointer toe and use the other thumb to press the point between your ring toe and pinky toe. Gently massage these spots for up to 15 minutes for easy and quick relaxation.

The HIGH Forehand - How to Handle the HIGH BALL

Whether you’re at the club level or you’re at the pro level, if you can’t handle the high ball above your shoulder, there will always be those certain opponents that you just can’t beat whether they generate immense topspin or just hit moonballs.

When the ball comes high, you’re forced to hit out of your comfortable strike zone, which makes you more prone to mishits, unforced errors, and excessive energy expense on your shot.

That’s why it’s so important to make the proper adjustments from hitting your forehand at a normal height and returning a high ball.

In this video, we’re gonna cover the techniques used for dealing with the high ball on the forehand side and the goals or tactics when using these techniques.

How To Hit A Slice Serve?

How to hit a slice serve?

This video covers all technical aspects of the slice serve:

1. Grip

2. Toss

3. Body Position

4. Swing path

5. Pronation

6. Finish

7. Trajectory

and much more...

Federer vs. Djokovic - Australian Open 2011 (HD)

Federer vs. Djokovic - Australian Open 2011 (HD)

Effortless Power Using Legs to Pivot for Rotation in Tennis

In this video you will learn about using rotational momentum from the ground up. We wind up our body using the shoulder and core rotation then sink into the ground with our legs bending. Unwinding starts from the legs up into our shoulders making a pivot happen since we are using rotational momentum. Please enjoy and let me know how it works for you!

Kei Nishikori Slow Motion Forehand, Backhand & Overheads 240FPS 1080p

Kei Nishikori practicing at the Western & Southern Open 2013 @Cincytennis

ATP ranking as of filming #12

Mastering the Return of Serve - Michael Russell at The Tennis Congress

If you are wondering how to master the return of serve in tennis, Michael Russel has the answer.

In this video, Michael shares his tips on how to have a great return of serve by knowing:

- When to split step

- Where to stand when returning a serve

- The difference between first and second serves

- The best way to return a serve

5 Red Flags for Weak Glutes (FIX THIS!)

Weak glutes are one of the most common muscle weaknesses exhibited. The irony is, the muscles of the hips and glutes are designed to be the strongest in the entire body. Given their location around the pelvis and their influence on the center of mass and spine, they are designed to be incredibly strong and capable of providing stability in all three planes of motion. As you’ll see in this video however, many of us are walking around with very weak glutes and I’m going to show you how to figure this out quickly.

There are five tests that you can easily perform to determine the status of your glutes. The first is the simple quadruped kneeling leg extension test. Here you want to get on all fours and straighten one leg out behind you. Make sure the knee is straight and that your hips are squared up to the ground. From here, attempt to squeeze your glutes on one side and lift that leg up towards the ceiling. Do you feel an intense contraction in the glute muscles?

If so, that would be a good sign that you have the ability to activate your glutes. That is not enough however.  From here, you now need to bend the knee to further shorten the hamstring and put more of the emphasis on the gluteal muscles to perform the same activity of lifting the leg towards the ceiling.  Squeeze again and see if you are able to reproduce the same discomfort. If not, that is your first red flag.  Be sure to test on both sides as imbalances are common between the right and left legs.

Next you want to perform the bridge test.  Lay on your back and press your heels into the ground with a bent knee position. Lift your hips as high as you can. If you already start to feel some cramping in your hamstrings on either side this would be an early red flag that you are dealing with weak glutes.  If not, then proceed to lift one leg in the air and see if you can hold your trunk and pelvis up throughout the test without sagging. Once again, if you feel cramping here or if the pelvis is unable to be kept lifted then you will need to address the weakness in your glutes.

The third test is the lunge test. Here you want to see what the strength of your glute medius is in the frontal plane. Take whatever weight you would normally use for a set of 12 to 15 reps of dumbbell lunges and then combine that weight into one hand.  So if you used 25lbs for example in each hand, you would hold a single 50 pound dumbbell in one hand for this test. Lunge out with the leg that is opposite the hand holding the dumbbell and try and maintain an upright torso without fallling towards or leaning to the weighted side. If you can’t, then you have a major red flag for glute medius weakness.

The fourth test is actually more of a detection of a symptom. Do you have low back pain that is pin point located just to the right of the bony prominence on your pelvis called the PSIS. If so, this could be coming once again from weakness of the glute medius muscle. I did an entire video on this topic that you are going to want to see as it shows you how to fix this problem instantly by using a myofascial technique.

Tennis Forehand WRIST - Lag and Snap Explained

What is the role of the wrist in the ATP forehand? How do I achieve the wrist lag position? How relaxed should the wrist be?

Let's dive into the video where wrist motion, proper wrist position, and myths about the lag and snap is explained.

Serve Tip: How To Position Your Feet

How are your feet positioned when you setup to serve?

Even though it is not often talked about, this can have a big influence on your service motion.

OTI Instructor Nadim Naser is regularly running serve clinics and he noticed that a lot of players are making the serve more difficult because of poor positioning of their feet.

In this video he explains the most common mistakes and also what works instead.