Congrats to Bede on clinching 3rd place in both the Boys 16 singles and doubles at the 2024 JT Premier 250 NSW Age at Sydney Olympic Park this week.
Bede knocked out several top-seeded players on his path to the singles semi-finals. He played to his seeding losing to the No 1 seeds in the doubles semi final. Proud dad, Larry commented that Bede had the best volleys on court in the losing doubles result!.
Way to go, Bede! Keep up the great progress!
The Tennis Whispherer is pleased to welcome Coach Tim!
Tim was born in Sydney but journeyed with his family to the United States in the late 1970s, where his passion for tennis blossomed in the competitive junior circuits of the Missouri Valley.
Throughout his collegiate tenure, Tim honed his skills at the Muir Tennis Academy, a cradle for top-tier US junior talent. Having returned to Australian shores, Tim’s zeal for the game remains undiminished. His dedication to teaching mirrors his commitment on the court, striving to unlock the pinnacle of performance in every student he coaches.
The six eye muscles play a crucial role in sports vision, especially in tennis, where tracking a fast-moving ball and anticipating its trajectory are essential skills!
These muscles are responsible for controlling the movements of the eye, allowing an athlete to maintain focus on moving objects, adjust their position according to the ball’s speed and direction, and make quick strategic decisions.
In tennis, the effectiveness of these muscles can significantly impact a player’s performance in several ways:
1. Tracking: The ability to smoothly follow the ball’s movement across the court is essential in tennis. Effective eye muscle function allows players to keep their gaze fixed on the ball, enhancing their ability to hit the ball accurately.
2. Depth Perception: The coordination of the eye muscles helps in accurately judging the distance and speed of the ball, which is critical for timing swings and positioning correctly for shots.
3. Peripheral Vision: Strong eye muscles contribute to a wider field of view, allowing players to see a broad area of the court without having to move their heads excessively. This is particularly important in doubles play, where being aware of multiple players and their positioning is key.
4. Focus Switching: Tennis requires players to quickly shift their focus from near to far objects, such as looking at the ball and then at the opponent’s position. The agility of the eye muscles facilitates this rapid change in focus, helping players to anticipate the opponent’s moves and respond effectively.
5. Eye-Hand Coordination: Efficient eye muscle function is fundamental to coordinating visual information with physical movements. This coordination ensures that players can accurately gauge the ball’s path and speed, adjusting their movements for precise shot-making.
6. Visual Stability: During intense physical activity, keeping a stable visual field is challenging. The eye muscles help stabilize the vision amidst the rapid head and body movements, ensuring that players maintain focus on the ball and make accurate judgments about its trajectory.
Enhancing the strength and responsiveness of these eye muscles through specific visual training exercises can improve these aspects of tennis vision.
For tennis players, incorporating such exercises into their training regimen leads to better performance on the court by improving their ability to track the ball, judge distances accurately, and react swiftly to their opponent’s actions.
Tennis really has its own vibe, mixing up both physical and mental challenges like no other sport. And let me tell you, keeping your eye on the ball is where most of us trip up, no matter if you’re just starting out or touring the world.
Getting your eyes to quickly switch from checking out something in the distance to zeroing in on something close up, all in a split second, is key!
We teach a series of cool exercises, “Agility Eye Exercises”, that’s all about boosting your quickness, reaction skills, and making sure your eyes and hands are in perfect sync. It’s a game-changer for nailing down that ball focus.
Up your game in eye-hand coordination, snap your reaction time into shape, and get laser-focused on watching the ball.
– Any small container, like a ball can
– A bunch of tennis balls
– Hold a ball up by your ear with the can in your other hand.
– Drop the ball and quickly catch it with the can before it hits the ground.
– It’s all about those ninja reflexes and keeping your eyes peeled.
– Find a comfy spot near a wall.
– Toss a tennis ball against the wall and snag it with the can.
– Mix it up with different speeds and angles to keep things spicy.
– Flip between hands each time to get both sides working hard and take away your dominance.
– Bounce the ball on the ground and scoop it up with the can, one hand at a time.
– Flip between hands each time to get both sides working hard.
– Have your partner throw balls at you rapid-fire.
– Catch them with the can and let them go just as fast.
– This one’s like the real deal, matching the pace of an actual game.
– Make it trickier with smaller cans or by stepping further back from, or closer to, the wall.
– Throw in some moves, catching the ball while you’re on the go.
– Spice it up with marked balls – shout out the number or color as you catch them.
Stick with these exercises, particularly prior to play, and you’ll see a major boost in how you track and watch the ball, even when things get fast and furious on the court. Keep at it, and you’ll be acing those shots with your eyes closed (well, not literally).
024 Events (Jan to Jun)
| Date | Venue | Contact | Phone | Entry | Info |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Feb 16-18 | Ulladulla Summer Games | Mary Lou Barclay | 0426 828 341 | Enter Online | Download Info |
| Feb 23-25 | Armidale R/Robin | Charles Hempel | 0425 260 135 | Download Entry Form | |
| Mar 1-3 | Albury NRT 7 | Dom Mahaffey | 0404 167 015 | Download Entry Form | |
| Mar 1-3 | Walcha R/Robin | Roxana Mathews | 0455 501 482 | Download | |
| Mar 8-10 | Narooma R/Robin | Craig Junor | 0415 519 247 | Download Info | |
| Mar 15-17 | Goulburn R/Robin | Corey Greenwood | 0402 837 794 | ||
| Mar 23-24 | Central Coast R/R | Leoni Baldwin | 0420 556 227 | ||
| Apr 5-7 | Inverell NRT 7 | Joshua Parker | 0429 202 160 | ||
| Apr 13-14 | Tennis Macarthur NRT 6 | Michael Jackson | 0413 632 632 | ||
| Apr 19-21 | West Port Macquarie | Vanessa Kendal | 0403 349 274 | ||
| Apr 26-28 | Gloucester NRT 6 | Ruth Johnson | 0418 763 041 | ||
| May 3-5 | Picton Seniors NRT 6 | Michael Jackson | 0413 632 632 | ||
| May 25-26 | West Tamworth R/Robin | Brian Brooking | 0417 614 054 | ||
| June 8-10 | Robyn Castle Mixed Teams | Rod Clarkin | 0411 446 338 | ||
| June 15-16 | Lake Macquarie NRT 7 | Keith Williams | 0412 157 757 | ||
| June 21-24 | Tweed Heads, ITF MT200 | Natasha Kersten | 07 5524 3541 | ||
| Jun 22-23 | Cowra R/Robin | Cindy Fuhlbohm | 0414 702 502 |
| Date | Event | Contact | Phone | Entry | Info |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Aug 2-5 | Forster Seniors R/R NRT 5 | Brian Adams | 0404 955 599 | ||
| Aug 17-18 | Batemans Bay R/Robin | Mario Kefalas | 0419 779 482 | ||
| Sep 14-15 | Orange Ex-Services R/Robin | Chrissie Kjoller | 0403 845 945 | ||
| Sep 21-22 | Tri State, Barham | Graeme Sticka | 0418 402 415 | ||
| Oct 4-7 | State Championships MT700 Sydney | Arthur Olsen | 0400 525 591 | ||
| Oct 10-14 | Merimbula Annual NRT 6 | John Rheinberger | 0438 928 516 | ||
| Oct 12-13 | Gosford Round Robin | Chris Lees | 0411 154 327 | ||
| Oct 27-29 | East Port Macquarie | Mark Giumelli | 0427 669 189 | ||
| Nov 1-3 | Pennant Hills NRT 7 | Michael Jackson | 0413 632 632 | ||
| Nov 2-3 | Myall Park – Hawks Nest | Samantha Leggatt | 0499 981 411 | ||
| Nov 8-10 | Kiama Vets & Legends | David Lehman | 0475 857 740 | ||
| Nov 29-Dec 1 | Nelson Bay R/R NRT 5 | Steve Taylor | 0466 154 580 |
For a full list of Australian seniors tournaments click on the State and National Championships sub-heading of tournaments.Points for singles and age group doubles
The Tennis Whisperer program’s primary goal is to help you play better using the skills you already have. In this message, we focus on overcoming your natural dominance—particularly in footwork.
From birth, we are neurologically predisposed to favor either the right or left side, often leading us to rely on one dominant hand and sometimes one eye. When learning tennis, initial coaching often emphasizes this natural dominance, further ingraining these preferences.
What many don’t realize is that you can be right-handed but have a dominant left foot or left eye, a phenomenon known as “cross-dominance.”
For example, right-handed, left-eyed players often find forehands easier because the dominant eye remains in sight of the ball. Backhands, however, can be challenging, as players may struggle to maintain the ideal stance while keeping the ball in view. The solution? An open stance can help neutralize the eye dominance, allowing for more balanced play.
While strength training can develop your non dominant side, improving balance requires more than muscle alone. Coordination among your eyes, hands, and feet is essential for consistent performance on the court.
Consider the return of serve. Moving toward the ball from a standing start while maintaining balance relies heavily on foot dominance, which affects stance, stroke, and footwork.
In our short video, we demonstrate techniques to “balance out” foot dominance by building new neural pathways. Notice how our model, Pamela, uses a crossover step to trap the ball on either side. Practicing with a partner is ideal, but a wall can work well if you’re training solo.
Start slowly, and be patient with yourself—it takes time to rewire your neural pathways, especially if you’ve played for many years.
The good news? You can teach an experienced player new tricks. So, enjoy the learning process and have fun as you expand your skills!
The Tennis Whisperer
I know this sounds pretty crazy, but you should not be trying to think while you are playing a point.
This idea goes against what our mind is telling us as well as what it is trying to do. We will usually have the tendency to try to work things out in our head during the exchange of shots in a point. Unfortunately, this will have a negative impact on all of the practice and training we have done, and it may cause us to make errors due to indecision.
It is much better to just play the point once it starts. [Just focus on bounce hit: Whisperer]
Before the point, choose one technique idea and one strategy idea to remind yourself how you would like to hit the ball and play the point.
After the point is over, assess what has just happened and repeat the one technique, one strategy idea. You may have to make some adjustments based on what the last point was like, but try to keep things simple.
On the changeovers you can have a little more detail in your own self-coaching, but overall, try not to over analyze.
Letting your body react automatically and instinctively gives you the best chance to execute your shot and play the point the way you want to. To do this, we need to have less going on in our head.
Don’t think during the point!
Steve Annacone, USPTA Pro
When I was a young aspiring player, I often lost tennis matches by being too adventurous, which is my attempt to avoid admitting I was very impatient. I enjoyed playing the front court as much or more than staying near the baseline, and I never saw a short ball I did not want to attack.
Even by the age of twelve I would try and dominate my opponents with strong shots, or I would even serve and volley. Naturally, a game style with this risk profile produces plenty or errors. (In addition to an occasional spectacular play). After lost matches coaches would always tell me the number of unforced errors I had made. I never knew what to do with this information. (It’s not like it was my intention.)
“You made 41 unforced errors today!” a coach would say.
“What does that even mean,” I would respond rebelliously. “You’re just going for too much.”
I struggled with this feedback. How can I learn from this? In hindsight, I wish the coach would have helped me with situational play. When did the errors occur? How long were the rallies before I missed? When may I give myself permission to attack and when is patience more prudent. Certainly, an unforced error at the score of 40-0 is different from one produced at 30-40, don’t you agree?
Last week I was having a conversation with one of my adult clients about her most recent match. She mentioned that she had made too many unforced errors, and then she added a few more stats that she probably got from watching tennis on television. I told her that I was getting the gist of what she was saying, but I still could not get a good feel for the match as stats do not always paint the entire picture. I said that some stats are completely useless, and others can be counter intuitive.
“What ya talking ‘bout Willis?” (she did not actually say this) I continued by asking my Harvard- educated student the following question:
“After the match, what would yourather have the stat sheet say regarding break points, 2/3 or 4/17?”
She looked at me slightly confused (she suspected it was a set up): “I want to say 2/3, but it’s probably wrong, isn’t it?”
“Yes”, I continued. “Think about it, a 66.67 percent success rate (2/3) is indeed much better than a 23.5 percent (4/17), but in this case it is still better to break your opponent’s serve four times, instead of only two”.
She agreed to it being counter intuitive. I only mentioned that my client was Harvard-educated to show that intelligence was not in question here. I wasn’t teaching Penny, the waitress from the Cheesecake factory (no offense if you are a waitress, or don’t like The Big Bang Theory).
For some reason we look at all those break point opportunities and consider it a failure. What can we learn from this? The more opportunities we give ourselves, the better it is. A mindset of neutrality will be helpful here, an unattached approach to the outcome: if the break happens, great. If not, great.
Another stat in this realm is net points won/lost. When you look at a ratio of 4/9, you might judge it as a bad ratio. The player won four points at net, and she lost five points. What if I were to tell you that those four points won were all at break point! Then we might conclude that the nine attempts at net were not enough. If she had attacked the net twelve times for instance, she might not have needed those seventeen breakpoints! Your personal call to courage and to be brave at the right moments is a key strength for a competitor.
In any case, tennis stats are helpful, but have their limitations. Match play will still come down to being patient at the right times, being courageous at the right moments, and staying disciplined all match. Use the stats to dig into those areas more specifically. Answer the questions ‘when’ and ‘why”!
[Our Tennis Whisperer teaches the GHOST LINE strategy to answer the ‘when’ and ‘why’ questions — emphasis added]
Tonny van de Pieterman is a tennis professional at Point Set Indoor Racquet Club in Oceanside, NY. He has previously been named USTA Tennis Professional of the Year for the USTA/Eastern-Long Island Region.
https://longislandtennismagazine.com/tennis-numbers Tennis By The Numbers | Long Island Tennis Magazine
When Ajla Tomljanovic was a little girl, she asked her father about a prized photograph of him holding a big trophy on his head. Ratko Tomljanovic was a great professional handball player, winning two European Championships for Zagreb, the capital of Croatia, and was the captain of the Croatian national team; before that, he was a member of the Yugoslavian team.
His daughter wanted to know where that shiny trophy was, because she had never seen it in their home. Ratko Tomljanovic explained that it had been a team award, and that he did not get to keep it. Unimpressed, Ajla told him that she would not play handball.
“I want the trophy just for myself,” she said.
So Ajla Tomljanovic chose tennis, and she is still striving for that big trophy, for a professional championship. She has shown the talent for it, though her nerves have betrayed her at times — what she calls “the bad Ajla.”
Credit…Corey Sipkin/Agence France-Presse — Getty ImagesBut on Friday night, Tomljanovic, who is ranked 46th, demonstrated to herself and the world that she had the mettle and the shotmaking ability to win a trophy of her own. If she wins four more matches in the coming week, it will be one of the most coveted in sports.
That night, Tomljanovic beat the six-time U.S. Open champion Serena Williams, 7-5, 6-7 (4), 6-1, in front of a raucous, partisan crowd in Arthur Ashe Stadium in New York to advance to the fourth round of the U.S. Open for the first time.
“I feel like I belong here now,” she said.
That was not necessarily what she was thinking in the moments before she took the court.
Tomljanovic was nervous, and for good reason. Williams was her idol, and Tomljanovic had never played her before. She had never played in Ashe. In fact, she had never even practiced on that court. She had asked tournament organizers if they could find a time for her to hit some balls in the largest tennis stadium in the world at least once, but nothing was available.
Then there was the matter of her playing the role of villain, of facing down nearly 24,000 fans, virtually all of them screaming for Williams to win, and millions more watching on television. It would make anyone a tad nervous.
Tomljanovic confided the anxiety to her father, who was happy that his daughter admitted to the nerves. Better than hiding them, he thought. Ratko Tomljanovic also knew about playing in hostile environments, especially in Europe, where handball is intensely popular and the stakes are high. He tried to calm Ajla by evoking the almost comical role of the hard-bitten veteran of scrappy handball matches — the kind of yarn he had spun to her and his other daughter, Hana, many times before.
“Don’t tell me you are afraid of the crowd,” he told Ajla. “I played in some terrible places with 5,000 people booing and spitting, and one time the crowd came on the floor and there was a big fight. Don’t tell me it’s hard because some guy in the 35th row is yelling at you.”
It was not exactly Mickey yelling at Rocky. It was a speech designed to lighten the mood, and it worked. Ajla laughed. “She doesn’t care about what I did, at all,” Ratko said, chuckling.
But then he brought out another motivational tool. He mentioned one of his favorite movies, “For Love of the Game,” in which a pitcher for the Detroit Tigers, played by Kevin Costner, reflects on his life and career in the midst of a perfect game.
“But she didn’t know the movie, so I had to explain it to her,” he said. “I told her, ‘You have to be Kevin Costner today.’”
In the film, he told her, the pitcher focuses explicitly on the catcher’s glove and ignores everything else in the stadium. Ajla understood, and she followed the advice with her own unique resolve.
She blocked out all the noise, the roars for Williams, the indecorous cheers when Tomljanovic missed a serve, all the celebrities in the stands, the video tributes to Williams and her own childhood adulation for Williams, a 23-time Grand Slam champion standing across the net and playing as well as she had in years. But Tomljanovic was better.
“From the first moment I walked on court, I didn’t really look around much,” she said. “I was completely in my own little bubble.”
ATLANTA — The phrase “future of American men’s tennis” mostly inspires groans these days, as 74 Grand Slams have come and gone since Andy Roddick lifted the U.S. Open trophy in 2003.
Invariably, the burden of that drought falls on the American youngsters who quickly rise up the rankings, start making an impact on the ATP Tour and then run into the Grand Slam wall that Roger Federer, Rafael Nadal and Novak Djokovic have erected over the last two decades.
So let’s not saddle Ben Shelton, just 19, with that kind of albatross. But we can say this: The rising University of Florida junior, who won the NCAA singles title in May, is very, very good. And he’s on the precipice of a career-defining summer that may well put him on a very different trajectory from the one that seemed laid out for him just a few weeks ago.
Shelton, whose father Bryan is a former top-100 player and now is the head coach at Florida, played his first ATP-level match Tuesday, at the Atlanta Open. He won it in pretty straightforward fashion, beating veteran pro Ramkumar Ramanathan 6-2, 7-5 and letting out a big scream as he put away an overhead on match point.
“It’s really special,” said Shelton, who was just a few blocks from the courts of his childhood at Georgia Tech, where his father coached until 2012.
But with each tournament he’s played, the bigger story is that Shelton himself might be special, and his performance could very well force some decisions about his future much faster than anticipated.
As of now, Shelton is slated to return to Florida in the fall. But after performing well in several Challenger-level events and impressively winning his first round here, he’s on a fast track to the top 200 in the world rankings. Brad Gilbert, the longtime pro player, coach and ESPN analyst, wrote on Twitter that Shelton will be “top 50 for sure.” And the U.S. Open already has granted him a wildcard into the main draw, which would be a guaranteed $75,000 in first-round prize money — if he turns pro.
“That’ll definitely be a talk later in the summer with my parents and my team and we’ll make a decision based on where my development is and what’s going to be best for me not just on the court but off the court as well,” Shelton said. “There’s no real results or rankings that are going to sway my decision in a big way.”
There’s plenty, of course, that could bring Shelton back to college. It’s a comfortable place for him, he wants to complete his finance degree and it’s certainly a big deal to play for his father on one of the most successful teams in the country.
But as he goes through the process this summer, it certainly seems possible Shelton and those around him will conclude that he’s just too good to go back to school.
“I’m just a college guy out here having fun,” he said. “I don’t put too much stress on my matches. I’m focused and want to do the best I can, but it’s not do-or-die for me out here.”
Shelton will get a better sense of where he stands on Thursday when he faces No. 25-ranked John Isner, who has won the Atlanta event six times. After going 11-4 against pros ranked mostly in the 150-300 range, this will be Shelton’s first opportunity to see how he stacks up against a top-100 player.
But regardless of how it goes against Isner — and certainly it’s a major step up in class for someone who hasn’t turned pro yet — it’s Shelton’s explosive game at 6-foot-3 that is drawing as much attention as the results.
With a big lefty serve that averaged 126 mph against Ramanathan and the ability to get a massive kick on his first and second serve, Shelton already has a legitimate weapon that can win him matches. But he also appears to be very solid off both of his groundstrokes and is very comfortable coming into the net to finish points behind both his power and slice. Shelton won 15 of 22 points when he came in for a volley or overhead.
“I love to get to net, be able to use some of my hand skills, athletic skills and going up to get the ball (to put away overheads) is one of my favorite things to do,” Shelton said. “I could have done a better job today incorporating my serve and volley and getting to net quicker in points but I think that’s a big part of my game and a big part of my development.”
Only the hardest of hardcore tennis fans would have been watching Shelton on a Tuesday afternoon in Atlanta, but it was easy to see why he’s been a dominant college player, going 37-5 in singles last season. It was also a huge advertisement for other tournaments this summer and fall to offer him a wildcard entry, as Atlanta did. Every tournament wants to boast that it helped launch a great career.
It’s far too early to project that Tuesday’s match was the debut of the next great American champion, but at the very least Shelton appears poised for an interesting and successful pro career. Shelton may have some things pulling him back to college for another year, but if he keeps playing like he has the last several weeks, it will be difficult to turn down the opportunities he’s creating for himself right now.
Follow USA TODAY Sports columnist Dan Wolken
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