Who Is Playing?

By Oscar Wegner

Founder of tennisteacher.com
Gustavo Kuertan's Former Tennis Coach

Bjorn Borg used to say, "Tennis is a simple game. Just hit the ball over the
net one more time than your opponent." That is the essence. Yet for all its
grace and simplicity, too often the game and the mind are cluttered with a
myriad of extraneous thoughts that only confuse and restrict the flow. Most
teaching pros try to instill a series of ideas into the conscious mind i.e.,
take the racquet back early, bend your knees, etc., these well meaning
concepts only serve to make a simple sport very difficult. To learn to play
tennis well, I ask only that you empty your mind and, using a simple,
uncomplicated technique, focus on the feel and sound of the ball on the
racquet.

To clarify this concept, perhaps I need to get into the philosophical
aspect.

To best understand the causal relationship between mind and body, ask
yourself the question: who is the operator, the source of the decisions of
the action?

A simple test developed by L. Ron Hubbard (www.scientology.org) reveals who
is in command. Close your eyes and picture a cat, or a dog in your mind.
Clearly see the picture you created. Move it a bit from side to side. Now
ask yourself the question, who is looking? Who created the picture? Who is
in control? The answer is you, the actual source of your decisions and your
existence.**

So what is the mind? You just looked at it in the previous test. It is the
complete collection of mental image pictures, including all perceptions, a
record of all the experiences of life.**

How does this work in tennis? What would be the most practical way to
operate?

Tennis is a sport for the being, rather than the mind. The being thrives on
feeling, on aesthetics, on beautiful coordinated moves; while the mind
thrives on pictures, perfect poses, right-wrong computations.

The best tennis pros are artists who operate at the higher harmonics of
aesthetics flows, with little thought involved, just like concert pianists
at their best and you too can learn to play this way. This level of optimum
performance is sometimes called the zone.

To handle something well you need to put your attention on it. You can place
your attention on many things at once or focus on just one thing at the
time. What is most interesting about tennis is that while you are focusing
your attention on one thing almost exclusively, everything else gets aligned
with that instinctively. Especially when you operate by feel!

Playing tennis on a conscious level which operates by using several mental
image pictures of consecutive body positions, is too mechanical and slow and
therefore inadequate.

Pro tennis players operate on an instinct level, avoiding as much as
possible to think about the task at hand. They remember a stroke by what it
feels like, not how it looks. They don't look into their mind to recall its
mechanics. They play by feel, and consciously slow their mind down.
Breathing or walking are things you do on an instinctive level - hence they
are smooth and effortless. Unlike say, balancing your checkbook, which
requires great mental effort.

When playing tennis that would be the ideal: to operate on instinct and
feel. Follow the ball attentively. Trust instincts. It either feels good or
it doesn't. You'd be the judge.

You can try different techniques, but beware of falling into anything purely
mechanical. Choose the one that gives you more ease and a better and longer
feel of the ball.

Judge your strokes by these simple criteria. Does it feel natural? Does it
get the ball in the court? Do I mildly resemble my favorite pro? (Who has
obviously mastered the stroke)

By copying your favorite pro you are actually using all the years of
practice that he or she needed to perfect his feel, his technique. If it
doesn't work well for you, you can pick the stroking of another pro. You may
learn in a few days by copying what it took the pro years to find.

The simpler you make your task, the easier it will be to know what to
practice, what to put your attention on, and what not. Again, you need to
trust and develop feel. Do not strike the ball head on. It won't stay on
your strings much and the feel is too short. Brushing it up with topspin,
for example, makes the ball stay on your strings much longer. Starting and
prolonging this contact on the strings below the center of the racquet helps
you feel the ball even more.

Focus on repeating that which feels best. Improve it, again by feel,
practicing to get certainty and confidence. Practice until it works.

Tennis is movement. First of all, find the ball, then stroke it wherever you
find it - all this by feel. Use your mind to reinforce one thing, finishing
your swing. Make a picture of the position of your arm at the very end of
the swing and repeat it over and over. Leave the racquet at this position
for a bit, looking at the landing of your shot, even while turning and
recovering, relating this physical finish position of your racquet to your
placement of the ball. This particular process will give you a comfortable
correlation between cause and effect. The racquet up there, the ball landed
there. Easy! Confidence builds up!

It is the best way to occupy your mind. Follow the ball into your racquet as
long as possible and "finish" the stroke. It will help calm your fears and
make sure you don't freeze or change something half way through the stroke.
You may swing slower or faster, but make sure your racquet goes all the way
to that "finish", repeating it each the time. Observe Federer, Henin,
Agassi, the William sisters, Hewitt, Davenport. These pros "finish" all the
time.

In the volley, which is a punch, this "picture" of the finish would be the
impact point, which acts as a stop. Prime example of this would be John
McEnroe, perhaps the best volleyer of all time.

Practice your groundstrokes by simply finding the ball, tracking it into
your racquet, and feel it across your strings, propelling it over the net
while finishing your stroke. No power yet. Mainly feel. Drill. Repeat and
repeat. The ball speed of your strokes will slowly increase. You'll know how
to apply more and more power without losing control.

To focus attention on anything else like feet position for example, will
only impair hand-eye coordination. It takes something you learned by feel,
instinctively, at a very young age, and brings it to a conscious level. This
floods thought patterns, impairs observation, and actually serves to
confuse. You in fact begin to resemble a puppet, working out which foot to
put first, and where. And while you are worrying about this, the ball may
hit you on the head!

Another all too common error is taking your racquet back too soon, a
teaching method that fortunately is on the way out. This also clouds
thought, because it forces you to imagine and adjust to the ball's path
ahead of time. Racquet back early, separates it from the path of the ball
and is a killer of timing, coordination, and of ease of play.

In tennis, as in many other sports, the less you think about positions and
of what is going to happen in the future, the more feel you'll have. Tennis
pros play in the present and so should you. Trying to judge the speed of the
ball only makes tennis more difficult. But here's the secret, you don't need
to judge it. If you look at it carefully, you'll see how much it slows down,
first in the air, then a lot more after the bounce. Research has shown that
from baseline to baseline, the ball loses close to 60 percent of its speed.
And it always curves down, less speed, more curve! Just be ready to approach
it from below!

Take your time, and become an observer, while you are still running to the
ball. Your legs may be going fast to get to the ball but your arm can wait a
lot longer for the ball to get near your grasp.

Tennis professionals have favorite body positions when executing their
strokes, if they have available time. Those preferences were acquired after
much practice and determined by feel, not by thought. Furthermore, in
professional tennis you are usually on the run, and the player easily
abandons those preferences and follows and stalks the ball with the racquet.
When he gets it within his grasp, he then concentrates on getting it over
the net, moving the arm and hand independently of the rest of the body to
accomplish that aim. In other words, they play tennis with the hand, and the
rest of the body acts in an instinctive way.

How would we define instinct? This takes us back to where we started, in the
beginning of this article.

Instinct is the operation of the being at the highest level of thought, with
perceptions coming in and decisions going out at a speed that the mind can't
grasp. Ironically, you can develop this by waiting - by taking your time.
Conversely, you can lose it by rushing.

In professional tennis, when the player is well focused, the spirit, that
inner core, is playing, computing by feel. The ball may be traveling at a
high velocity, but the player is efficient with no need to rush. He looks
for the ball with the racquet as if it is part of the body, an extension of
the hand. Finding it, he explodes with power, guiding the ball over the net
and in the intended direction. The total focus is on finding the ball then
looking to repeat a certain feel. The player may have a favorite place in
relation to his body to execute this feel, but will adjust to the situation
as needed, regardless of the position of the ball.

Attention to sound is equally import when focusing on feel. It takes the
mind off the task at hand. That is why top pros play better when there is
absolute silence during a point. They hear the opponent's stroke, the
bounce, then their own stroke. This sound will confirm to the player that he
is focusing and staying in the present time.

I have had students count to five after the bounce. This seems to occupy and
calm their minds, making for a far more polished timing of the ball and a
cleaner hit. After a while, the mind becomes accustomed and the counting
becomes unnecessary. However, if a player gets nervous again, an indication
of too much thought interference, he can count again until he calms himself
and gets back to the present time.

Even with the power of the modern game, top players will tell you, "today I
felt the ball," or "I did not." Those who are not at the professional level
can learn to hit the same way by focusing on the same principles. Play as if
the racquet was an extension of the hand, stalk the ball, find it and feel
it. Then strike it without exerting too much force, without worrying about
body position, or feet placement. On the contrary, move naturally, in a
light and subtle way, like a cat on a hot tin roof. Balance yourself as you
learned it as a kid, chasing the ball in the most efficient way.

For beginners, practice like a slow motion movie, copying basic strokes from
a favorite pro, stalking the ball first, then exaggerating the finish. Play
slowly, efficiently, without rushing. Later on, when the game speeds up, you'll
need only to adjust your speed, not your form.

Using these principles I had total beginners hitting 60, 90, up to 120 ball
rallies within an hour, at a medium pace, with full forehand strokes.
Miraculous, No! That is actually the potential of the inner being when it
acts naturally by feel apart from conscious thought. Using these principle,
one time I had a hard practice rally with Jimmy Arias, a former U.S. Open
semifinalist, of over 400 balls. And that was the first ball we hit that
day! (And he missed first!)

Practice deliberately, slowly and by feel and you'll be more conscious of
the angle of your racquet when meeting the ball, which is the determining
factor of the direction of your shot. Tennis will become easier, more fun,
because conscious thought about too many details will inhibit the flow of
the game. So take your time, enjoy, and don't rush your game.

**based on the discoveries by L. Ron Hubbard, the founder of Dianetics and
Scientology. It is with the help of L. Ron Hubbard studies and discoveries
that I have been able to develop world class players, such as Guga Kuerten,
world number one in the year 2000, and a tennis coaching methodology that
has astounding results, well above any other known tennis coaching
methodology.

Oscar Wegner
www.tennisteacher.com

Venus and Serena Williams, Gustavo "Guga" Kuerten, Vincent Spadea, Paradorn Srichaphan, Mary Pierce Marat Safin, the pros and coaches on the Spanish Armada, the new crop of South American players and coaches, the Argentinian Guillermo Coria, Gaston Gaudio, David Nalbandian, Guillermo Canas, Juan Ignacio Chela, Jose Acasuso, Mariano Puerta, are part of a long list of players who have benefited from Oscar's teaching legacy. Paul Pisani, who works with Robbie Ginepri, has Oscar's book and videos. Even the Russian Tennis Federation has been using Oscar's book for their tennis programs since the early 1990s. This natural, easy to learn method is also very effective for people who have never played before.