August 22, 2007 
Introducing TossAssist - "No one ever had a great serve without a great toss!" - SquareHit Tennis The SquareHit Tennis TossAssist™ sets the players wrist into the correct angle to create a quiet, stable wrist and hand platform so as to accurately and repeatedly lift your ball toss up to the same spot. The TossAssist is an anatomically designed tennis trainer that comfortably fits all players and ensures accurate ball tosses so you can fully develop a powerful and reliable serve.
If I Knew Then What I Know Now Dave Smith, Senior Editor TennisOne A few days ago, I received an interesting e-mail, one that included this question: “If somehow you could step into an 18 year-old body with your current knowledge of the game, would you easily be a top world-class player?” On the surface, this question would assume that the depth of knowledge acquired through 30-plus years of playing and teaching tennis would provide something like an “insiders guide” to playing and training well enough to become one of the best. This is exactly what good teaching pros provide their young students: an insider’s presentation of things which the student of the game needs to master in order to get to what I call the player’s “Personal Potential.” If the player were to take their tennis to the professional ranks, there are a number of things they must understand - elements of the game that are much more obvious to me now than they were when I was eighteen!
The information within this newsletter describes how I would train myself if I were again, 18 years old (or younger). Actually, I include this information when I train all my students, including my 8-year old daughter, Kyla. Motivation The problem with the belief that I could take what I know now and mold it into myself 30-plus years in the past, is that even if I personally knew then what I know now, there is an element of “Motivation” which is an internalized factor that can only be driven by the individual. That is, if I use every known motivational tool on any particular student or player, (or myself), that individual must allow himself to be motivated; otherwise, those tools I provide will be completely lost. The player would have to be open to my knowledge of not just the game, (in terms of strokes and strategies), but also the elements that allow me to train both my body as they relate to the challenges of intense training and my mind as it pertains to the psychological aspects of reaching such levels. I mention motivation because, beyond tennis stroke understanding and execution, the real dividing line between reaching world-class levels—or even highly skilled level—and not reaching such aspirations is, indeed, the player’s dedication to aspiration! Motivation must be initiated and sustained by the individual; it can’t be forced upon him. There have been countless stories of famous athletes, tennis players included, who overcame adversity. Players who were told they “couldn’t do it” or were faced with financial hurdles, or were handicapped in some way. Examples of these situations include Stan Smith (who was told at one time he was “too tall”), the William Sisters who grew up and learned tennis in a lower to middle class community. James Blake broke his back, had shingles and lost his dad to cancer, yet managed to reach a top-10 world-ranking. And, we all know how Andre Agassi was all but counted out, sinking to a world-ranking of 141 before roaring back to compete among the world’s best players once again.
These players and many hundreds, if not thousands more, in each and every sport, drew upon an internal motivation that pushed them harder than the multitude of athletes around them. Examples of self-motivation can be summarized in Monica Seles and Jim Courier: Both were known to be the first ones on the practice courts and the last ones off at Bollettiere’s famed tennis factory, putting in far more hours of intensive training than fellow top-ranked players! While neither player possessed what I would call "excessive natural talent" they both put forth an effort that propelled them to reach number one world status; an effort that is accessible to almost all, yet dodged by most. The Five “D’s” and one “S” I emphasize upon my students the concept of motivation and what I call the “Five D’s and one “S”. These are:
Desire: A successful person in any field must have the sincere desire to set and reach personal goals. If the desire is not sincere, the goals will be not only be unreasonable, but they will be unreachable as well. Dedication: Set aside ample time based on the player’s needs and requirements as determined by those desired goals. Drive and Determination: Without drive and determination, a player who faces obstacles, set-backs, failures and disappointments will lose the desire to keep going. Discipline: The ability to overcome the natural human condition to quit when the going gets tough, but also, to stay focused on those methods that may not come naturally as fast or as easy for them as they do for other players.
Sacrifice: The final piece of the puzzle. Players will be subjected to competing interests that can pose distractions, taking them away from the purpose and direction they had originally set forth for themselves. Players will be pulled by friends to spend more time with them doing things that might not only take them away from tennis, but also create negative influences in the process. Sincere players with sincere goals need to understand this element of sacrifice. To help themselves, players should surround themselves with like-mined friends as best they can. They must avoid the common pitfalls of procrastination and diversion. While there are times a player will need to take time away from tennis, all players need to recognize when they simply are avoiding the sacrifice for whatever reason. Remember, if the goals are sincere, and the desire is sincere, then in reality, there are no sacrifices; everything done to reach those goals will be looked at as an opportunity. When the player loses sight of such “opportunities” and sees them as sacrifices, then the player may never reach those goals. Variables Obviously, there are a great number of variables which contribute to a player’s overall success. Character and personality are probably the two most ingrained and genetically-determined traits that can contribute or detract from a player’s road to success. However, of the 3500 players I have trained, only had a handful—perhaps less than five players—didn’t possess the athleticism, or have the character, to become extremely successful. While almost all of my students have mastered the structure of the game, only a few have managed to put all the “D’s” and the “S” into their tennis. And, this also explains why so few players manage to get to the pinnacle of the game. As experienced instructors, we can only give players “what we know,” they must make the connections and self-motivate themselves to follow-through on that advice. This is what makes a champion so very, very special. As always, we would love to hear from you! Questions, comments, personal experiences all create helpful dialogue for everyone! Please click here to send us your email.
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