Wacky Wimbledon

In the past two days on the grass courts Sharapova, Ivanovic, Djokovic, Roddick and Blake have lots :-( On the other side, Federer, Nadal and The Williams Sisters look GREAT :-) 

It shows that having one weapon is not enough. You need the all court game. The ability to come to the net, to hit angle volleys and put away overheads, to transition forward. Variety and mixing up spin is huge! A great first serve but an even better second serve. You need the ability to stay mentally tough and not tire. 

As we enter the middle weekend at Wimbledon, go practice your weaknesses. For most people is moving forward, volleys, overheads, slices - which is what the grass courts are all about! Go play some doubles! 

i love tennis

What a fun these past two weeks have been! Despite working 12 hour days, the first two weeks of the girls clinic has gone great. On days where we are short courts we are able to make it more fun and games. These days are super high energy and a great work out. Days where we have courts, we have been spreading out and playing singles and doubles. These are my favorite because I get to see how everyone competes and how well they keep their strokes! Regardless we have been starting off each day with running and conditioning. Followed by an aerobic warm up with soft touch games with lots of moving in between shots. I love starting this way because it gets our eyes, hands and feet ready to play. Since it is tiring, you get the benefit of doing the rest of the clinic already breathing hard. Playing WELL while tired will take you to the next level!! 

Each girl is unique and brings something special to the clinic. I hope that off the court friendships are made and everyone feels like they are growing there tennis directory. Even though I have already worked 10 hours at this point, I love 6-8 Monday - Wednesday. It is the best way to end my day! Girls thank you for working hard and letting me assist you :-)

See y'all Monday!

CONDITIONING @ 5 p.m!! 

FIRST WEEK DOWN, TEN MORE TO GO!!

The first week of clinic turned out great. The numbers were even better than I had hoped for. It was a great group of girls! There were girls from SB Junior High, SB High School, San Marcos High School, La Colina, Laguna Blanca and Marymount. I hope by the end of the summer to have more schools represented and the community of tennis players to have grown even more! 

Now I need YOUR help. Give me feedback, questions, ideas, comments. Last night the girls said serving and match play were two areas they want to practice - I could not agree more! When we have the courts we will spread out and play. Hopefully getting to practice doubles and singles equally (since high school tennis is primarily doubles). What else would you like to work on this summer? It could be a specific stroke, footwork, or strategy - anything. 

As much as we don't like it sometimes, CONDITIONING will continue to be a emphasized. We are so lucky to have Tiffany on Mondays before clinic (5-6 pm) - so take advantage of it! The more we move, the better we are going to get. When we move well between shots, we are able to stay on balance as we hit which will make us more consistent and improve faster! 

Keep comments, ideas, feedback, and emails coming! One more thing, if any of you want to take a lesson or two to work on something specific, let me know - it will really help! Looking forward to another fun week of clinic!! 

Check it out!

Since Sunday is all about our dads I thought I would brag about mine for a second. Besides being the coolest guy I know, other than my husband, he just wrote his first book! This book is primarily about motivating a teenage workforce, but any one interacting with teenagers might enjoy reading it. Waves for Success, written by Ken Whiting (my DAD!) is hot off the press and is available for purchase on Amazon. Check out my Shelfari on the right side bar for more information. 

Get out your all whites!

Here is a sneak preview of Ana Ivanovic's Wimbledon all white look! What do you think of it? 

Good Bye French Open!

Congrats to Ana Ivanovic on winning her first Grand Slam title. She played flawlessly against Dinara Safina in Saturday's final. The nerves and mistakes we saw in her final appearance in Australia were no where to be seen. Her 6-3, 6-3 win and with Maria Sharapova's early exit sends her to #1 in the world! Her confidence and improved fitness made the difference. Safina ran out of gas in long points and by the middle of the second set she had nothing left. Safina's energy both positive and at times negative carried her through the tournament. Her fight, desire, fire are her both her strengths and unfortunately her weakness. She gets that from her older brother Marat Safin! Her road to the final was long and tiring as she took out Sharapova, Dementieva, and Kuznetsova. Be watching out for her to make another run at Wimbledon later this month! 

Before the players came on the court as they waited in the locker room, Ivanovic and her trainer did medicine ball work, footwork drills, running, jumping and stretching. They made sure that she was mobile and loose from the first serve. This extra effort has separated her from the rest of the WTA tour. Most other players don't travel with a trainer but for Ana it has been worth it. When not on the road, besides her normal work outs and on court time, she takes kickboxing and does other cross training. 

Now for the men's final. I am not sure what to say. Rafa Nadal just zoned - making 10 unforced errors the whole match, keeping Roger Federer to 4 games total. He took out Federer 6-1,6-3,6-0. I was up at 6 am expecting a match that would go down in the record books, and like many of you, were left feeling disappointed. Nadal was simply too good. However, I would have liked to see more energy, more positive body language from Federer. Well, watch out for Nadal at Wimbledon - he is going to be after Federer on his own court! 

The clay court season has been fun! We have learned from it and now we get to welcome the grass courts! Time to serve and volley! 

Congrats to Ana and Rafa!! 

John and I at the FRENCH OPEN!! 

Two more weeks

It is 5 am and can't sleep because of the time change. So I am watching the French Open. The women's quarterfinals is being played and it is some great tennis. There a couple things I wanted to share.

First of all, our trip was amazing. Unfortunately, it rained the two days we were there but were still able to see some tennis! The highlight match for us was watching the persistent American Wayne Odesnik take out the flashy Guilermo Canas. The American won 7-6, 7-6, 7-5 and we were sitting first row to cheer as loud as we could! The points were amazing to watch - almost like watching a video game. They were playing at such a high level and making hardly any unforced errors. They really stuck to the cross courts, hitting incredible angles and depth. When there was a lack of depth or speed, they would step in and either hit down the line or hit a drop shot. Then it got really exciting - volleys, soft angles, lobs, sliding, passing shots, overheads! It really was a fun match to watch from beginning to end.

After the French Open, we enjoyed Italy for a week! It was incredible and such a beautiful country.

Secondly, I wanted to check in about summer with everyone. There are only 2 weeks until clinics start! It all starts JUNE 16th with 5 p.m. conditioning and then tennis from 6-8. I have received great feedback but I am still hoping to get more numbers and exact weeks. I really think this summer is going to be the break through time for a lot of girls. With conditioning, clinic and then there own match play every one will see improvement! 

Hope to see everyone June 16th! Looking forward to a great first week of clinic :-)