Tour the New Site
By Kim Shanley
The TennisONE Community
If you haven't done so, access tennisone.com
and see our new website! For those who aren't yet members, you
can sign up for a 30 day free trial by
clicking here.
We launched tennisone.com eight years ago with the mission
of sharing the passion and insight of the game's best instructors
with a worldwide community of avid tennis players. On behalf
of everyone who has worked on TennisOne, in the past and today,
I want to say how grateful we are for the heart-felt response
we've received from you throughout these eight years.
Today, we're deepening our commitment to our mission as well
as expanding it. We know that a large percentage of our visitors
and members play tennis 2-4 times a week and compete in leagues
or tournaments. You're serious about wanting to get better, and
that's where TennisOne has been of some assistance. With our
new site, we are offering an even a wider range of instruction
and instructors. We've now added a whole new "wing" or area of the site called the Peak
Performance Zone. This area focuses on improving your physical
and mental fitness. We'll be introducing you to new products
and technologies, as well as performance specialists, who can
help take your physical and mental fitness to a new level. Yet
living a tennis lifestyle isn't just about striving to play better
tennis. It's also about fun and socializing with like-minded
people. That's why we've created a new section of the website
we call the TennisOne
Club (more on this later).
New Peak Performance Zone
Jeff Greenwald, a leading sports and tennis psychologist (and
former World's number one men's 35s singles and doubles player),
launches our inaugural edition with his Pathway
to the Zone piece. "Playing in the zone" is the
holy grail of every tennis player, but finding the zone has been
as elusive as the search for the grail. Based upon his own struggles
to find the zone as he ascended to the world's number one ranking,
Jeff is the perfect guide for your quest. His article also describes
a new bio-feedback tool called Freeze-Framer that most of the
TennisOne staff, myself included, have tried with good results.
With Freeze-Framer, a good deal of the mystery of finding the
zone ("how do I know if I'm in the zone?") is eliminated.
Jeff Greenwald's article is followed by an in-depth article
("Peak
Performance") by Joseph Sundram of HeartMath, the company
that developed the Freeze-Framer product. Joseph trained the
TennisOne staff on how to use the Freeze-Framer, and he's given
seminars and lectured all over the world on how this tool can
be used to reduce stress and anxiety, as well as enable you to
find and play in the zone on a more consistent basis. Joseph
provides the scientific research that supports the Freeze-Framer
product. For those interested in purchasing Freeze-Framer and
other training and legitimate performance enhancement products,
we've also opened our own Peak
Performance store. As we continue to expand our mission,
we'll be following up these articles with some online seminar
training (webinars), where you can interact directly with the
authors and receive individualized instruction and training.
The last feature ("Improving
Core Strength") in the new Peak Performance area is
by Dr. Donald Chu, who continues with his innovative physical
fitness series on Plyometrics aimed at developing core strength.
Finally, on our Mental
Fitness page, we're offering members a FREE competitive analysis
tool. This online analysis pinpoints your strengths and weaknesses,
including some ways you're approaching the game that you're unaware
of. It takes about five minutes, and only you see your results
(privacy guaranteed). We'll be providing a more comprehensive
analysis tool shortly, and we'll let you know when that's available.
While these self-diagnosis tools can be used by everyone, we
think this and other tools we'll be introducing will assist teaching
pros in quickly assessing their students' personalities and adjusting
their teaching methods appropriately.
The goal of the Peak Performance Zone, then, is to give you
a place to realize your highest goals. Is there one teaching
philosophy, one methodology, or one product that will help you
realize your goals? We don't think so. TennisOne has a Big Tent
philosophy: our goal is to offer the widest range of instructors
and teaching aids, and you choose what works best for you. We
don't endorse any one approach to teaching or learning. Again,
what you're seeing in this inaugural edition of our new site
is a sampling of what is to come. Stay tuned for much more.
New TennisOne Club
As much as we enjoy the process of trying to take our game
to another level, we also enjoy the fun, social dimension of
tennis. This is the reason why we join teams, clubs, and organizations.
In fact, some sociologists say that there is a place between
home and work, a "third place," where we just like
to hang-out, have fun, and socialize. In the non-tennis world
this could be a bar ("Cheers"), a coffee house (Starbucks
or "Friends"), or a bowling alley ("Ed").
In your tennis world, we hope that your on-line third place becomes the TennisOne Club.
We've just built the foundation of this concept in our inaugural
edition, but I can give you a quick tour and point out a few
new areas.
Like you do when you walk into your local tennis club or
facility, you have your choice of several rooms or areas within
the TennisOne Club:
- Lesson
Library: Hundreds of lessons covering every dimension of
the game.
- ProStrokes
Gallery: Video-action of the pros.
- Ask the
Pros: Advice from those who know.
- Streaming
Views: Interviews with the legends of the game.
- Quick Tips: Quick fixes for common problems.
- Big-Screen
TV (New). Every clubhouse has a big-screen TV where members
can watch tennis and other sporting events. If you click here,
you'll go to our big-screen TV room where you can see Jelena
Dokic in large, living color.
- Game
Room (New). Click here and go to our game room, where you
can play an on-line tennis game. This is just the first. This
isn't for everyone, but we offer it as a choice, especially for
our younger visitors.
Magazine
The Magazine section of
the new site contains what you've come to expect when you first
visit the TennisOne home page. In other words, here we have features
on tennis instruction, Readers
Write, Larson
Newsletter, Get
a Grip, Tennis
on TV, etc. The Magazine section continues our high standards
for tennis instruction and continues to be the place we'll introduce
new teaching approaches to take your game to the next level.
In this issue, we introduce a new instructor and writer, Pat
Blaskower, who analyzes a player's immediate need for confidence
(and to win matches) versus a longer-run need to improve his/her
game (Coaching,
Teaching, And Winning). Ever faced that dilemna?
Travel Service (New).
TennisOne will be offering a full-service travel service specifically designed for tennis players.
We're also offering special travel packages for TennisOne visitors and members. Today, we're launching our Resort of the Month program featuring the stunning
Meadowood Resort in Napa, California. By booking your tennis travel through us, TennisOne members will enjoy various
benefits and discounts. Your savings on one trip will pay for your membership!
Join Us
What you see today is just the beginning of an unfolding journey.
If you haven't joined the TennisOne community as a member, click here.
If you're already a member, thanks again for joining us.
Before I close, I want to express my deep appreciation to
all our partners and team members who helped us build the new
site, and a special thanks to Jerry Gist and Pablo Gonzales of
Gist & Erdman, who designed
the site.
As always, I would love to hear your views on the subjects
raised in this newsletter. Please click
here to send your email directly to me.
Kim Shanley
President, TennisONE
If you are receiving the newsletter but haven't become a member
yet, here's some good news. Now you can get a free one month
membership! Click
here for the details.
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Current Features
"First
Things First - The Educated Foot," by Jim
McLennan
In the third installment of his First Things First instructional
suite Jim McLennan turns his attention to the feet and more specifically
where to put the weight both before an after the swing is completed.
Proper balance and weight shift are the keys to efficient and
fluid tennis strokes.
"Coaching, Teaching, And Winning,"by Pat Blaskower
Nothing is more frustrating for a budding competitor in desperate
need of a winning attitude than to be spending court time and
money on a topspin forehand that won't mature for two years so,
when to teach and when to coach? These are essential questions
because the two are markedly different from each other and have
decidedly different goals. Pat Blaskower explains why.
"The
Pathway to The Zone," by Jeff Greenwald
There appears to be a universal consensus that the "zone"
- the mind-body connection that invariably produces our best
"performances" is, for most of us, an elusive place.
In fact, the harder we try to get there, the less chance we have
of arriving. So, this precious state has become more of a random
experience for most athletes. They simple don't have the tools
and ability to focus on the task at hand. Sports Psychologist
and former #1 (men's 35s) Jeff Greenwald may have found the answer.
Could biofeedback elevate your game?
"Peak
Performance," by Joseph Sundram
In the groove, in the flow, in the zone, in the pocket, peak
performance. These are some of the phrases people use to describe
specific and usually short periods of experience in their lives.
For most people, this experience is a relatively rare and hard
to recreate. Not anymore. Human Peak Performance, more accurately
called entrainment or coherence, can be practiced and produced
using a wonderful new tool. See how it is done.
"Improving
Core Strength in Tennis Players, Part 2: Trunk
Extension Exercises," by Dr. Donald Chu
Everyone's searching for that tennis fitness edge? If you
are making progress, but it doesn't seem to be quickly enough,
plyometric exercises may be the answer.
Exclusively on TennisONE
ProStrokes:
Daniela Hantuchova - Groundstrokes
Hantuchova exploded on to the tennis scene at Indian Wells
when she became the lowest seed to win a tier one event. Since
then she's garnered more notoriety for her weight, or lack of
it, then anything she's accomplished on the court. Still, her
groundstrokes are solid and she can hit with power and touch.
A good model to learn from. |
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December
15, 2003
