Brad Stine

A great practice session would be one where players have a good attitude and work hard, while also having fun and working on new skills.
 
Transcript: "The answer to this one, for me, is pretty easy. I would define a great practice session as any practice session where the players that you're involved with have great attitudes, they work at a very, very high intensity rate with focus, concentration. And during that time frame, at the same time, they find a way to balance all that with having some fun in what they're doing. And then finally, in the last portion, let's see if we can also add to those things that we're adding some new skills, improving areas that we want to improve, whether that be focusing on our strengths because maybe we're closer to a competition, or whether it's developing some of our weaknesses because we have a little bit more time and a training block to work on some areas that we want to focus on and try and get better within our game. But always, first and foremost, Attitude and Effort, A&E, those are the two biggest things."

To generate more power while playing, use a drill called "As Big As You Can" for 5-8 minutes, where you hit every ball as powerfully as you can without missing or losing your balance. This will help you become more comfortable with higher intensity and pace on your basic rally ball.
 
Transcript: "Great question and obviously in today's modern game Power is at a commodity. So you want to learn to generate as much power and maintain as much power as you possibly can on your basic rally ball as early as you can, while you're developing your game as a junior player and into your later years, I like to use a drill that I call as big as you can for starting out a lot of drilling. Spend about 5 minutes to 8 minutes. Literally hitting every ball as big as you can. I say sometimes as heavy as you can, but as big as you can without missing and without losing your balance on balls, very important to maintain your structure, your position and good quality mechanics and ball striking while you're doing this. But you spend about 5 to 8 minutes literally. Hitting every ball as big as you can without missing that. Being said, you're gonna miss more than you normally do doing this drill and then one of the things I like to try and do is once you've done this, then I asked players to carry that over into the next drills that they're doing and try and maintain that pace as much as they possibly can that just helps create and generate a greater comfort zone at a higher ball-striking level and doing that on a regular regular basis, generally will lead to you being more comfortable with a higher pace, and intensity, and heaviness on your basic rally ball. Good luck."

I recommend The Tao of Pooh by Benjamin Hoff, Thinking Body Dancing Mind, and In the Pursuit of Excellence by Dr. Jim Loehr, A Handful of Summers by Gordon Forbes, and A Terrible Splendor by John Fisher as great books to read to gain insight into tennis.
 
Transcript: "Great question, and an easy one for me to answer, actually, the first two books. I always recommend to guys are a book called The Dow of poo, which is spelled ta 0, but pronounced Dow is written by Benjamin Hoff. It's actually not a book about tenants about the philosophy of taoism, but if you read it with a tennis players mind, you can see how it applies perfectly to what you do in tennis. I've recommended it to many many guys in tennis. Including back in the day, Pat rafter, who to this day, still talks about what a great book. It was secondly, and it leads in perfectly to a book called thinking body dancing mind, which is also a sports psychology book written about and from the basis of taoism. So that's another one that I love. There's another called in the pursuit of Excellence. Great book written by a guy named Terry orlick. I also recommend just about anything. Written by dr. Jim Lehrer kind of the the first guy to really get involved in sports psychology in tennis and then if you want to go the other direction and some books that aren't necessarily about the psychology of tennis or how to perform better two of my favorite books. Just on tennis are a book called a handful of Summer's by Gordon Forbes. Gordon was a South African guy who played on the tour back in the 50s and 60s and Basically wrote about all those experiences traveling all over the world when he was 18, 19, 20 years old. And it's an amazing book. And then the book that I came across recently in red and really loved is a book, called a terrible Splendor by John Fisher, which is about one of the greatest matches. In the history of tenants that was played in 1937 Davis Cup. Tie between Don budge and Gottfried Von kramm of Germany. Read all those out. Keep you busy for a while. You can come back and ask me again later after that. All right. Enjoy."

Transition from grass to hard is easy, just play your normal game, focus on the things you do well and enjoy yourself.
 
Transcript: "To be honest, the transition from grass, back to hard is a pretty easy one, as you're going back to a service where you don't have to worry about that bounces or losing your footing. So you go back to playing your regular Style game from grass to hard the transition from Hardcore to Grass. Court is much more difficult as the bouncers are much different and the play overall is different, but grass too hard. Pretty easy transition. Just play your normal game, Focus. On the things that you do well and enjoy yourself, that's it."

To improve mentally in tennis, practice with your coach and read books on sports psychology.
 
Transcript: "First and foremost, I think that you have to practice mentally. When you're training, you have to sit down with your coach and come up with things that you both feel that you need to improve the mental side of your game and then you need to apply those during your practices. Just like you would practice, hitting a forehand or backhand. Hand volleys or a serve. You need to practice the mental aspects of the game. And the best way to do that is during your training time, practice, mentally, focus on doing things that you want to do. Remain calm, remain positive, do the things that, you know, are going to help you to perform better when you're actually playing matches. Secondly, there is a plethora of great sports psychology books that you can read specifically about tennis. Also about other sports or in general about sports psychology. So, sit down and read, give yourself a chance to study and become a student of what it takes to be a better mental competitor on the court. For me, those are the two first things that you can do especially with Junior players. So as coaches, we need to facilitate that mental practice. And then we need to encourage our players to reach out and do some reading, find some areas that they can gain some knowledge in themselves and then discuss with you as the coach."

The forehand volley requires a compact swing, an eastern forehand grip, an open racket face, backspin on the ball, shoulders to take the racket back, and a punch with the racket head ending on the same side of the body it started on. Look for videos of prominent players such as Stefan Edberg, Pete Sampras, and Boris Becker for guidance.
 
Transcript: "Hey, I think there's a number of key elements to the forehand volley or volleys and general a couple things. First of all, it's a very compact swing. So when you taking the racket back the backswing should not go past your hip pocket on either side. Another very important factor that I think is overlooked, especially nowadays is the grip. Most people think they're holding and Continental grip when in reality They're much closer to an Eastern forehand grip and that leads to a much more closed racket face especially on the lower volleys. That Continental grip allows you to have the open racket face when you make your turn and you want the racket face to be open. So that the bottom edge of the racket is leading through the swing, the Vale on both sides but we're talking about the forehand volley is a slightly high to low. Low swing rather than a low to high swing and you should be imparting a little bit of backspin on the ball, so you can look for those keys. Make sure you're trying to get a little bit of backspin on the ball. You're generally trying to absorb Pace when you're hitting a volley and that's one of the reasons that you want to have that racket face. Open a little bit, make a compact turn. Use your shoulders to take the racket back, a little bit more without really using your hand or your arm to do such. And then a very Compact punch with the racket head finishing on the same side of your body that it started on not across your body. Hopefully, those things help. You can also try and find some video of, some of the best volunteers. I would go back farther in time. And look for guys, like Stefan, edberg, Pete, Sampras Boris Becker and use those guys as a guide for how you want to create your volley in your game. Good luck."