New York City is a tough place to live in as a tennis player or a teaching pro. Clubs are closing left and right and the hourly rates are sky high, but we do have the U.S. Open every year to compensate for that, a chance to watch the best players in the world go at it in on the biggest stage there is.

As a teaching pro I go to the U.S. Open every year and observe the players. I like going to the practice courts and watch the pros train, look for trends,"steal" a few drills from the pros, and of course watch the matches.

One of the issues that came up in this year's Open was the increase in size of the average player in general and the emergence of giants such as Ivo Karlovic and John Isner, who are closer in height to 7 feet than they are to 6 feet. Throughout history there were a few exceptionally tall players who emerged on the tour, but still the majority of the players were between 5'9 and 6'2.

It is a fact that the average height has gone up over the past 30 years, but still I believe that the deal height is somewhere between 5'10 and 6'3. Sure, it's great to serve down from a tree, serve 20 aces per match and hold 90% of the time, but there is downside too to being extremely tall. Taller people are more injury prone, especially in the knees and lower back, they are less coordinated and most importantly not as quick and agile. These modern-day giants with a racquet will remain any player's nightmare and dominate during the indoor and grass court seasons but will be mediocre on the slower courts, especially on clay.

More importantly, in Grand Slam events they will most likely not be able to sustain the burden of 7 matches of best-of-5 sets in 13 days in hot contitions. Even in the age of big servers and power tennis the game in the highest levels is still about shot making, movement, variety of shots and mental strength. I believe that ideally for the game of tennis it is necessary to have a balance between size, weight, agility, flexibility, speed and coordination, which is me just under 6 feet or a couple of inches above 6 feet.

And just to prove my theory right, the 4 players that reached the semifinals in this year's Open were not taller than 6'2 and 2 of them (Ferrer and Davydenko) were under 6 feet. Off course I could be wrong. Can you imagine a 7 footer with Hewitt's speed, Nadal's stamina, Federer's ground strokes and McEnroe's hands?

Posted by Gilad Bloom at 05:25 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Footwork and speed are incredibly important for a tennis player at all levels. You could have great shots but if you don't get to the ball fast enough and in the right position your good strokes will not help you. It is very important to learn that fact early on.

It is the coach's job to educate the players from an early age. I always teach my students that the 3 most important things in tennis are:

1. Footwork
2. Footwork
3. Footwork
   

Posted by Gilad Bloom at 02:17 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Of course a big fast serve is helpful, as it can win a player many free points and make life easier on the court. But if you look at the 4 players that reached the semis of the U.S. Open, they are not huge guys. They have good serves, especially Federer and Djokovic, but they don't serve bombs. They make a high percentage of their first serves, they have a reliable second serve and their placement is perfect.

To sum it up, I would say that, yes, it's great to serve rockets over 120 miles per hour, but it is more important to place the the ball in the right spot and to mix up the pace of the serve from time to time (like a baseball pitcher). Sometimes a 90-mile-per-hour serve, if it's well placed, can be just as effective as a huge flat serve. Some players actually prefer to return a faster, more flat serve.

Posted by Gilad Bloom at 02:32 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)