4 OF THE MOST COMMON WEAKNESSES IN YOUR TENNIS THEM

- TOP SECRET REPORT -
4 OF THE MOST COMMON
WEAKNESSES IN YOUR TENNIS
OPPONENT & HOW TO EXPLOIT
THEM
By PAUL GOLD
Zayne Publishing, LLC
About the author
Paul Gold
Paul Gold is widely considered one of the web’s leading tennis
training & coaching consultants.
Paul has been coaching and training tennis players of all levels
(beginner to Pro) since 1995 and is still actively doing so today.
As well as being a Licensed Lawn Tennis Association (LTA) Level 2 coach
he has a Masters degree in Sport Sciences as well as being a certified
Performance Enhancement Specialist (PES) through the National
Academy of Sports Medicine (NASM) and is also a Speed Agility
Quickness (SAQ) trainer.
When he’s not working, Paul can be found spending time with his family,
playing some form of sport esp. football (soccer), in the gym or out on
the tennis courts playing a couple of sets such is his love for the game.
You can also check him out and get your bundle of FREE Tennis
Training stuff HERE
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© Copyright 2008 Paul Gold
ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. You may sell or give away this report as long as it is not altered in
any way, falsely misrepresented or distributed in any illegal or immoral manner.
DISCLAIMER AND/OR LEGAL NOTICES:
The information presented herein represents the view of the author as of the date of
publication. Because of the rate with which conditions change, the author reserves the right to
alter and update his opinion based on the new conditions. The report is for informational
purposes only. While every attempt has been made to verify the information provided in this
report, neither the author nor his affiliates/partners assume any responsibility for errors,
inaccuracies or omissions. Any slights of people or organizations are unintentional. If advice
concerning legal or related matters is needed, the services of a fully qualified professional
should be sought. Any reference to any person or business whether living or dead is purely
coincidental.
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INTRODUCTION
A little known secret about winning tennis matches is that you should
always take notice of what your opponent does from the moment you
walk on the court.
Too many people are only bothered about themselves and what they
are going to do that they miss vital pieces of information that will be
vital in the upcoming match.
Before we move on and I get people yelling at me that they have
heard so called “experts” say that you should only be concerned with
what you are doing, let me say this:
Yes, of course you have to get yourself “right” and ready to play but
tennis is not a sport like say…..golf! Yes both sports do involve
opponents, but their influence on you and the “contest” is totally
different.
Here are my definitions
Golf is a sport that demands that you play as well as you can on every
shot, every hole and every round, with the indirect interference and
influence of your opponent.
Tennis is a sport that demands that you do react to what your
opponent does but there is a direct interaction between you.
Let me explain what I mean.
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When you play tennis, you have to play shots according to the shots
that your opponent hits over the net to you!
You have to react to the situations that they put you in as a
consequence of those shots, because at the end of the day you are
both playing with the same ball, on the same tennis court – hence the
direct interaction!
So, I will say it again - Golf is different!
There maybe situations that arise that force you to re-think your shots
or strategy because of something an opponent has done but that is
only mental adjustment. You are both playing with different balls and
are possibly on different holes - that is why the interaction is indirect.
In tennis, you have both a physical and a mental interaction with your
opponent, so to ignore them is a bit like a lawyer going into a case
with only her legal case notes and no idea about what the other party
is “bringing to the table”.
It just wouldn’t happen!
So, with that in mind let’s focus on your opponent.
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THE OPPONENT
Every player out there has shots and situations that they favor as well
as shots and situations that cause them “pain”. Here are 4 of the
most common “PAIN SPOTS” I have seen in the club player and how
YOU should exploit them.
1. Backhand. Most club players have a weaker and/or less powerful
backhand. So aim your attack there (DON’T forget your serves).
Jim Courier, was “the man” when it came to this tactic.
He was the first guy on the tour to take this tactic and
make a career out of it (World No1 & 4 Grand Slams!!).
He would bludgeon the ball into opponents’ backhands with
his forehand over and over until you either made a mistake
or he got you out of position and he hit a winner into the
open court.
If you can employ this simple tactic you will draw errors as well as get
balls that you can dominate the points from.
The other fact that is often overlooked is that they will have less
chance of attacking you if they are forced to use this “weaker” shot,
and that can only be good.
2. Weak second serve. You must ALWAYS be aggressive when
returning weak second serves. You need to be going for attacking
shots and winners by hitting into space and even coming to the net.
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Don’t be put off if you are missing some of your attempts. Look at it
as practice of a skill that you can improve on during the course of a
match as you get more of “a read” on the situation.
More importantly, doing this will have a devastating mental effect on
your opponent who will be petrified to miss a first serve with the
thought of you “getting after” their second serve. They will either take
pace off their first serve to avoid hitting a second (good news!), or try
to hit an ace on every first serve (good news as well!) This always
leads to an sharp upturn in double faults and therefore FREE points for
you.
3. Poor conditioning. Many club players have poor fitness levels –
that is a fact!!
Andre Agassi was brilliant at this tactic especially later
on in his brilliant career.
He would command points from the centre of the court and
just inside the baseline and move his opponent from side to
side, often prolonging the points just to get the maximum
“physical” effect.
He knew this would build up over the
course of the set and match so that his opponents were
there for the taking whenever he wanted to finish them off.
If you see this as a possible weakness in your opponent then you need
to take advantage of this fact by making them move as much as you
can with lots of changes of direction. This will bring about a state of
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fatigue pretty quickly and we all know what fatigue leads to – don’t
we??
Remember - FATIGUE = ERRORS
To make sure you don’t fall into the same fitness trap, check out these
reports –
Tennis Footwork – http://www.footwork4tennis.com
Tennis Strength - http://www.tennis-strength.com
Tennis Speed – http://www.tennis-speed.com
Tennis Fitness Program – http://www.tennisfitnessprogramme.com
4. Inability to cope with certain shots and/or situations.
Many players show frustration over certain shots or tactics that their
opponent employs.
So, what should you do?
Find it!
And………
Keep playing it & let them beat themselves!!
It sounds cruel I know, but worry about it when you are in the next
round (believe me they will survive!)
CASE STUDY: I was playing in a tournament and turned up to
find out that I was drawn to play my friend and doubles
partner in the singles. Obviously we both would have
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preferred to have played someone else but we had to get on
with it!
Anyway, I served first and pretty quickly fell into the
routine that had helped me win our last few practice
matches, which was serving out wide on both sides and
coming in to volley into the open court. I figured this
would be a great strategy especially as we were playing
indoors (faster court conditions – good for serve and
volley), but more than that I knew he hated struggling to
get the return back only for me to be waiting at the net to
volley).
Now, normally he lost his cool when I pressured him with
this tactic, but today with a bit more on the match because
it was in a tournament, he really lost it!
I kept serving wide and coming in, he completely lost his
composure and concentration (big time!!)and the match was
over pretty quickly with me winning 6-1, 6-0.
It was a long journey home though as we had travelled to
the venue together and he refused to talk to me for the
whole journey.
I lived to fight another day in the singles and we went on
to win the doubles – so a happy ending! ☺
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CONCLUSION
These are just four of the common areas that you should be “hitting”
on when playing matches.
Hopefully you can see now that if I never paid attention to my
opponent, I would never know which one of these tactics would work
and I could be missing out on some golden opportunities to take
advantage of many, many match situations.
I outline more “Pain Spots” as well as player specific strategies (how to
play against different types of opponents) in my Special Report “Beat
All The Tennis Players You Want” which is at
www.beatallthetennisplayersyouwant.com which outlines my simple to
execute 4 step Tennis Matchplay system.
And for a full no-holds barred look at how to improve your tennis to its
best level possible, check out the Perfect 10 Tennis Academy HERE
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