The following post is an excerpt from the Second Edition of The Tennis Parent’s Bible
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3) Movement, Fitness and Strength
While lateral movement is important, the key to beating pushers lies in the forward and back directions. Here are two rhymes to help you attack moonball retrievers:
“When the ball is high (defensive moonball…Fly!” Go (Fly) into the court for a swing volley.
“When the ball is slow (defensive slice)…Go!” Run (Go) through the volley
Speed is broken down into anticipatory speed and foot speed. Combine cognitive processing speed with foot speed drills to maximize court coverage. What is anticipatory speed?
Anticipatory Speed
Anticipation is the action of expecting or predicting, which is a required skill at the higher levels of the game. Once anticipatory skills are developed, athletes begin to cover the court like a pro.
Foot Speed
Acceleration speed, deceleration speed, recovery speed, changing of directional speed and cardio fitness obviously play a critical role in a 3 hour moon ball match. Often in a national event, your child may have to play two retrievers back to back in the same day.
Core and Upper Body Strength
Upper Body Strength is required in the war against retrievers because your child must be able to hit balls above their primary stroke zone. The head level strike zones requires tremendous upper body conditioning and strength.
4) Emotional/Focus
So as you can see, emotional breakdowns and lack of focus issues stem from a variety of key areas. Players often fall apart because they honestly are not preparing properly. Lacking in just one of the four major tennis components/categories is enough to lose to a retriever. I have discover that some talented athletes are lacking in all four areas.
“Emotional resilience is needed versus pushers.”
For both the parent and the athlete, it isn’t so painful to experience a beating by a superior competitor. The agony of defeat stems from self-destruction. The next section will uncover 10 unique self-destruction techniques that, when applied, will bail your athlete out when they’re losing to a toad.
