About a year ago, I came up with an elaborate multi-step process in an attempt to fix my serve. Now I am trying the opposite approach: simplify! (1) Hold a steady grip (2) Toss (3) "See the ball, point of contact" (4) Swing up and out That's it! Continue reading

In a revealing passage of OPEN, Andre Agassi writes that the challenge of tennis is to play in a middle-range where you are putting enough pressure on your opponent to make it difficult, but not trying to apply such pressure that you are committing errors. It is far easier to... Continue reading

I know I am not alone in having problems with my serve above the other tennis strokes. It has been a baffling experience to have more trouble with this shot, which should be the most 'controlled.' I've started trying to consider the serve a yoga pose and see if this... Continue reading

I've taken a couple formal lessons recently, not in yoga (which I've only practiced for about a year) but tennis (which I've played for 20+ years). The experience has been humbling, and great. Through yoga, I've learned how to pay more attention to my body at rest and in certain... Continue reading

In the last of three(!) articles in Tennis Magazine emphasizing the mental aspect of tennis over form, Nick Bollettieri emphasizes the following principles: 1. Be steady. [consistency is key. don't put too much pressure on yourself to improve your weaker strokes. just focus on playing the game that you do... Continue reading

Tennis Magazine, Jan/Feb 2011, p. 4. 1. admit you have a problem: "you have to take your ego out of it, and simply face that you are a nervous wreck." 2. "you have to recognize what those nerves are doing to your body (passive serving? poor strokes? lead feet?) "Only... Continue reading

Most yoga courses feature some discussion of mindfulness, meditation, or buddhist teachings. A typical blessing at the end of a course is "May all being have happiness..." During class, teachers often encourage students, don't push yourself too hard, honor where your body is today, stay at your limit, let go... Continue reading

When I picked up yoga, I expected to be struck by its many differences from tennis, my sport of many years. I did find, of course, that yoga had many unique points. I'm stating the obvious when I point to differences such as the fact that yoga is not as... Continue reading

By Adrienne Fawcett via gazebonews.typepad.com Continue reading

"Tennis is the sport in which you talk to yourself. No athletes talk to themselves like tennis players. Pitchers, golfers, goalkeepers, they mutter to themselves, of course, but tennis players talk to themselves — and answer. In the heat of a match, tennis players look like lunatics in a public... Continue reading

As a long-time tennis player and, more recently, yoga devotee, I am interested in exploring the connections between these two exercises. Andy Murray strikes a pose similar to Warrior III at this year's Australian Open. Continue reading