• 2010 USTA Tennis Teachers Conference, August 28 – 31
• 2010 USPTA World Conference, September 27 – October 2
• 2010 Professional Development Weekend, October 7 – 10

Tennis conferences provide wonderful continuing education and networking opportunities. There is no better way to learn and share ideas with some of the best and brightest in the tennis industry. Conference attendance can be taken off as a business expense on your taxes.
So make your plans now as I hope to see you there!

I try and not miss his weekly lesson, even if it means I just come to the club for that 45 minutes. I often realize I get as much out of the time we share together as he does.

What is your oldest regular student? Do you get back as much as you give (I sure hope so!)? What are your favorite things to do in that lesson?

Ever since my good friend Doug Eng attended the first Etcheberry Experience course, I have always wanted to attend myself. Unfortunately I could never align my schedule to make it work until this past February. I was really excited that I could finally attend and become an “Etcheberry Certified” instructor. The Etcheberry Experience is a two day course with the certification testing done at the end of the second day.

For those not familiar with Pat Etcheberry, he has trained world-class athletes in a variety of sports such as tennis, golf, Nascar, MLB, NHL, NBA, Sumo wrestling and motor racing.

Pat has trained some of tennis’s all time greats including Pete Sampras, Andre Aggasi, Martina Hingis and Justine Henin.

I have had the opportunity to see Pat speak at the USTA’s Tennis Teachers Conference as well as at the PTR Symposium so I had some idea as to what I was in for over the two days of training.

Once you register for the Etcheberry Experience, you are sent:

• The DVD series: Strength & Conditioning for Serious Tennis, the Coaches Edition (A 4 DVD set)
• The book: ETCH: Secrets to Training Champions

Watching the DVDs was a great preparation for attending the certification course.

Hanging with Pat

When I arrived for the course I was met by Taryn who was our primary contact as we moved forward for the Etcheberry Experience. Taryn greeted all of us warmly and gave us the class handouts as well as our goodie bag of products that Pat endorses such as “Etch Aloe”, Verve and Vemma as well as a really nice Etcheberry Experience shirt.
The course started with Pat providing an overview what was in store for us over the next two days. Each day starts in the classroom and the last half is on court and in the gym. One of the invaluable parts of the course were the stories that Pat shared about training legends such as Andre Agassi, Monica Seles and Pete Sampras.
The first day on court ran us through many of the Pat’s fitness drills including his basic test to determine a player’s fitness level. The on-court session was a lot of fun and allows for you to really experience what it would be like to be trained by Pat.
The second day is all about getting you ready for the certification testing. We did this by designing a training program for a client. The program included a strength training, agility and tennis component. Pat reviewed our programs and made suggestions for additions to make the program more complete. After a quick lunch it was time to go on court with a partner and demonstrate the training program that we put together as part of our certification testing. This was a great opportunity to utilize many of the tools that Pat uses when training professional athletes. One of my favorites was the Etch-Swing which IMHO is a must-have tool for tennis strength training.
After being critiqued by Pat, we were presented with our certification certificates and we took pictures with Pat.

This was a truly enjoyable course which I learned a lot from. As a member of the National Cardio Tennis Speaker Team, I could see the value in incorporating many of the techniques into my Cardio Tennis classes.
Claire Carter, a tennis pro in the San Francisco area who also attended the course with me, had this to say about the Etcheberry Experience:

“The Etcheberry Certification was an excellent experience. I thoroughly enjoyed working on court with Pat and learning from him in the classroom. It was so much fun to hear some inside stories of the many Pros he has worked with; their challenges and triumphs from the practice court and on the tour. I left the workshop with the tools and knowledge to help my players become stronger athletes. I also realized that I too need to get in shape if I want to set high expectations for my players as Pat does. He demands 100% effort and motivates them to be mentally tough.

The DVDs are a great source of information that I plan review. I can’t wait to get the Etch swing because I can see it will be such a useful tool both physically and technically for my players. A big thank you to Pat and his team! “

Adam Ford, who attended the course with Claire and I also enjoyed the training:

“I learned a lot of good information to take home use with my players of all abilities. I have already started using what I wad taught. I am truly a believer that being a fit player on the court is the greatest strength. The Etcheberry Experience was a good one.”

I throughly enjoyed the opportunity to learn from Pat and to become ‘Etcheberry Certified’. I hope that you will take the opportunity to do so as it will help to make you a more complete tennis professional.

Please visit the Etcheberry Experience website for information on upcoming Etcheberry certification dates.

Cardio Tennis Morning Workouts will be held on:

• Sunday February 14th, 7:15am – 8:30am
• Monday February 15th, 7:45am – 9:00am
• Wednesday February 17th, 7:45am – 9:00am
• Thursday February 18th, 7:45am – 9:00am

The Cardio Tennis Feeding Shootout will be held Tuesday February 16th at10:00am.

The debut of the the Cardio Tennis Kids Workshop will be on Thursday February 18th, 9am – 12pm. If you are not planning on attending the PTR Symposium, but would still like to attend the Cardio Tennis Kids Workshop, you can do so for $35. This will also allow you to attend Thursday’s Cardio Tennis morning workout and participate in the Beach Tennis event from 1pm – 3pm. For more information or to register, please contact the PTR at 843 785-7244.

It is still not too late to attend the PTR Symposium so please contact the PTR to register!

If you have never been to the Symposium, plan to make this the year for your first appearance. The event is held on Hilton Head Island at the beautiful Shipyard Plantation Tennis Center, the home of the PTR. There will be tennis pros, directors from more than 50 countries in attendance. In addition to the conference there are always a great list of Professional Development Courses that you can take advantage of. This year I will be attending the Etcheberry Strength and Conditioning Certification for Tennis.

Emma Nelson, Hans Romer and I will be giving a presentation called Embracing Technology for Tennis Players. This will be a great opportunity to learn creative ways to use social networking to help build your personal brand as a tennis professional and to generate more visibility for your club’s programs.

I will provided more updates as the date gets closer and I will be blogging daily from the conference.

While Serena is a fantastic player and has been a great champion, her actions in the semi-final were inexcusable and should not be tolerated. Yes it is unfortunate that the timing of the foot-fault call was less than ideal. However, threatening a linesman the way she did and approaching her not once but twice should not be tolerated. In any other sport, she would have been suspended, almost immediately. The $10,000 fine while it may be the maximum allowed to be given, by the US Open, is not sufficient. You would not see other greats such as Sampras, Laver, Evert, Federer, Seles or Agassi, behaving that way.

It is unfortunate that we are talking about Serena’s behavior more than how well Kim played then entire two weeks of the championship.

Hopefully this will be a learning opportunity for Serena as she is seen as a role model to many young players.

Friday the Cardio Tennis Feeding Shootout competition was held. We had 16 participants. Congratulations go out to Brian Morissette who won with a score of 32 and runner-up Spritely Roche with a score of 28.

Saturday featured a Cardio Tennis for Kids session which was presented by Ken Dehart. Ken is a Master PTR and USPTA tennis professional and is also a member of the National Cardio Tennis Speaker team. The session was attended by about 20 people and was well received. Special thanks goes out to the kids who participated with us in the presentation.

For more information the on 2008 USPTA Cardio Tennis Feeding shootout, please download the 2008 rules and court configuration from here on partners.cardiotennis.com.

Technorati Tags: Cardio Tennis, USPTA, tennis

I am reaching out to see if you have any input on what would be required to get more of you to participate regularly in USTA adult tournaments. As you may or may not be aware, the draws for many adult tournaments is poor at best. I am part of a USTA New England committee looking at ways we could increase adult participation. Our league participation is very good, but we seem to be seeing a reduction in participants in tournaments.

If you have any specific ideas as to increase (or in some cases start) your participation in USTA tourneys, please let me know. Or if you have had bad experiences which have turned you away from participating, that would be beneficial as well.

Thank you in advance for any input that you have.

Technorati Tags: USTA, tennis

Andy finally was able to stop his slide against Roger with the 7-6(4), 4-6, 6-3 quarterfinal win on Thursday night at the Sony Ericsson Open. Andy played well and served big when he needed it. This was a huge win for Andy who now plays World No. 4 Nikolay Davydenko for a chance to advance to the finals.

Is Roger starting to look vulnerable or is he still recovering from mononucleosis? I think the jury is still out.

Technorati Tags: tennis