Red, Yellow and Green Light Tennis

Shot Selection! Undoubtly a very important part of learning how to make fewer mistakes and win more matches. Once the player has mastered the recognition of different shot selections their consistency improves and gives the opponent more opportunities to miss. The following tip is reffered to as Red Light, Yellow Light and Green Light. Each light determines the shot elevation, target and pace. The lights seem self explanatory, but lets do the boring stuff and define them.

Red Light - Defensive, 20-30 feet above the net. This shot is designed to give the player a second chance and more time to recover. That means that shot your opponent hits you puts you out of position to hit a normal stroke.

Yellow Light - Smart Shot Required with an elevation of 6-10 feet above the net! The yellow light shot is a ball that can be overlooked by players. They feel that they are in relatively descent position and tend to go for a too much. This shot is not really defensive or aggressive. The shot selected for this stroke is designed to be patient and wait for a green light opportunity.

Green Light - Aggressive! This does not necessarily mean hitting winner. A player's postion for the green light is great. This ball should be struck to put the opponent in a red light situation. A player should strive to be accurate and strike the ball at approximately 70% pace.

Shot selection can make or break a player during a match. Next time you go to the courts make sure you are able to recognize Red Light, Yellow Light and Green Light.

Coaching for the Serious Junior Tennis Player

Many players want to know how much coaching does it take to be a great player. Honestly, that varies from player to player. However, for most junior players I recommend 1 private and 2 group drills per week plus at least 4 hours/week of practice during the school year. That is an 8 hours of tennis per week. That is generally about all that a school going player can expect to put into their games and keep their grades up.

It is important that the player be focused during practice and lessons because time is not as easy to come by during the school year. Private lessons must focus on one or two topics and then be diligently practiced on the players own time and during drill sessions. Players generally do not make big leaps during school year tennis, but a player can improve steadily if he/she dedicates themselves to a schedule.

Drill Sessions are just that. They are designed to encompass the entire group. A player only gets out of a drill session what they put into it. I hear junior players complain abou the fact that they don't get much from drill session. My first question to them is, "Did you focus and give the drill 100% effort?" Generally, they reply with "I was bored" or "They weren't working on shots that I am working on". Those are excuses!

In conclusion, a serious junior player should do 1 private per week, 2 group lessons per week and put another 4 hours of personal time into their games. These hours should be focused and have a specific goal in mind. If this pattern is followed, a player can expect a steady increase in skills and improvement.

Thanks for reading my blogs and feel free to leave any suggestion, comments or questions.

Developing Tournament Level Tennis Players

Tennis professionals will argue the path to designing and developing a great player till the world looks level. This pro for one thinks there are many ways to develop a top notch tennis player. I feel that it is more important to focus on what the player does with his/her practice time more than what mechanic works better than another. Players from around the world all have different styles of tennis, but they all have one thing in common. They practice with a focused goal in mind everytime they are on the court.

For example, when we go to school or to our jobs we have specific things that need to get done everyday and we only have a certain amount of time to complete these goals. For the tournament bound player, practice should be taken exactly the same way. A player should enter a practice session, lesson, drill or match with specific goals in mind and spend the time that he/she has on the court with a purpose. If your goal is to practice a certain aspect of your forehand, then you should be attempting to run arround backhands and hit as many forehands as possible. If accuracy is your goal, then you should take hitting winners out of your shot selection and practice strickly hitting to the target. I am sure you catch my drift. The problem with most players is that they lose sight of what they are trying to improve on and only focus on hitting the ball over the net and in the court. That is what this pro calls "Caveman Tennis".

Next time you are on the practice court, have a specific goal for the period of time that you are one the court. Players with discipline and focus on their goals are the first to advance to next level. Those that waste their time with "Caveman Tennis" slowly become extinct.

Good luck out there on the court! May your wins be many and your double faults be few!

Be sure to check out what is going on with tennis in Fredericksburg at Barons Creek Club.

Tennis in Fredericksburg, TX

Hello, and welcome to the Fredericksburg, Tx. tennis blog. My name is Justin Cobb and I am a teaching professional of 18 years and tennis player of 27 years. I am fairly new to Fredericksburg and have just taken a teaching position with Barons Creek Country Club. I have started this blog to help Fredericksburg tennis players keep up with what is going on in the tennis world, publish tips, post results, etc.... My goals to help build Fredericksburg tennis programs and promote the sport of a lifetime. Stay tunned to this blog as it updated continuely. You can see what Barons Creek Country Club has to offer by visiting www.baronscreekclub.com. Keep your eyes and ears open for a blog that will be about Barons Creek.

My tennis credintials are as follows:
-18 years of professional coaching in the counry club industry
-Former Div. I Collegiate Scholarship Player for Southwest Texas
-Former John Newcombe's tennis pro
-Coached and developed numerous collegiate scholarshop players

Anyone interested in tennis can email me at fredericksburgtennis@yahoo.com or call my cell at 830-992-1891.

That is enough about me. Let's talk Fredericksburg Tennis. I always like to start with what is going right in a city's tennis program. Public facilities.....wow, Fredericksburg has an incredible amount courts that are open to the public. Not only that......they are very nice facilities. I have visited cities all over our state and I can personally tell you that this little town of 10,000 has some of the best public facilities in the state. High School Coach.....Coach Randall King.....Fredericksburg is lucky to have a coach that cares like Randall King. Not only does he care, but he has actually played the game. Many highschool tennis coaches have never even owned a tennis racquet much less played at the 4.5 level. I for one am excited to have coach King in charge of the High School tennis program.

There are some things that Fredericksburg tennis can do to improve its' participation and organization. Better promotion of events, creation of new programs, better organized matchplay and a true grass roots program. I am not saying that have all the solutions to these problems, because honestly it is more than just one person can hope to take on. However, this tennis pro has some ideas that he is working on to help tennis in Fredericksburg improve. As they develop, I will promote them via this blog, email, newspaper, world of mouth and any other way I can spread the news.

The last thing I would like to leave you with is a tennis tip for today. Winter tennis.....many players put down their racquets this time of year due to a cooler temperature. Being on the court everyday, I can tell that this is the best time of year to play tennis. It isn't smoking hot and when playing it is actually very comfortable. You tennis players out there also need to take into consideration the fact that Spring Tennis (the most popular tennis season of the year) is only a few months away and practice is a must.

Good luck to you all on the court and feel free to email me suggestions.

Justin Cobb
Tennis Pro