Atlanta Tennis Instructor

Jeff Michaud is a Atlanta basesd tennis instructor and personal trainer, who can improve your physical condition as well as your tennis game.

 
* * * * Looking for a * * * *
Tennis Instructor?

Buckhead, Ansley, Midtown Atlanta

Visit Jeff's website
FitnessWithJeff.com

 


 

Friday, September 28, 2007

Beginning tennis lessons for the 1.0 level player, 6 week tennis program

Beginning tennis lessons for the 1.0 level player, 6 week tennis program

Beginning tennis lessons for the 1.0 level player (there are 7 levels of skill in tennis with pro tennis players being level 7) 6 week tennis program.

I have people ask me from time to time, what should I shoot for to learn when they start playing tennis. This is a six week program of things that I feel would be important to the new tennis player.

First lesson: Short intro of student ability and expectations, from the instructor short intro and certificates and experience and what I plan to cover both for this session and what I would plan to do for the first six weeks.

Lesson starts with Grip, Eastern hand shake tennis grip for forehand, Continental grip for the backhand.

The first thing that is important is to get the right grip: on the Forehand side you would want to use what is called a hammer grip otherwise known as a handshake grip, stance is side to the court and a little wider then shoulder width a part, wrist back, keeping the wrist back throughout the entire swing which will keep the ball going straight.

I like to start with for the beginning tennis player work on Volley’s about 20 feet apart from the players, for the truly beginner, I do a bounce feed where the tennis ball will bounce once, this is the easiest ball for the beginner to handle. I stress the volley because it is the basis for the basic groundstroke which will come later. For the 1.0 level player I will pretty much stay on this for entire first lesson and into the 2nd lesson

Home work to the Tennis student
1 to 2 lessons per week with a certified instructor
1 to clinics or hitting sessions with as many different players as possible, level not as important as just getting out there. Duration: about 1 to 1.5 hours.
1 to 2 hours per week reading about the game of tennis with special emphasis on rules and scoring.
1 to 2 hours watching tennis either in person or on TV.

Solo sessions works where you don’t have another person to workout with:
I also recommend my clients purchase a tennis ball hopper (about $30 for a ball hopper that holds about 75 balls, used to pickup balls and has legs so that it is convient to the player to grip tennis balls out of and hit. Practice when ever you have time, great to work on skills and meet other players, great strategy to meet other players who are coming out to do the same thing or waiting on partners, don’t be shy about asking other tennis players if they might want to hit either again while waiting for partners or just practicing on there own. If you don’t find a person the best way to practice is start out by working on what the coach worked on during the last sessions. For this example short volleys, this can be done quite well using a tennis wall, just pushing and hitting the ball back to yourself, great for 1 person practice for all kinds of tennis strokes. The wall does get boring after awhile so I would suggest moving to the court practicing ground strokes, forehands and backhands, later serves and overheads, trying to recall what the coach had instructed the player to do.

Practice with a partner
Using the tennis ball hopper, one player is the feeder, feeding the other player the agreed upon shot, for this article: short volleys, but it could be any kind of groundstroke. Having the basket and the balls allows the most consistency for the player to work on one stroke at a time without having to worry about the ball going to both sides and different heights and angles, for the feeder it is very important to put the ball in about the same spot every time, this allows the hitter to work on there stroke without having to change from stroke to stroke. For the feeder it will help that person gain consistency with where there hitting the ball. Each person taking turns being the hitter and the feeder, maybe switching each time the hopper is empty and picked up.

Week 3-6
Start off again with Volleys for about a quarter of the lesson
I would then add a drill called called small ball, this would be at a distance just beyond the service box line working there way back to the base line for both backhand and forehand.
I would introduce the serve for about the last 10 minutes of the tennis practice.

In short the within the first six week session, the player should be able to volley from both the forehand and backhand side, should be able to have a basic forehand and backhand ground stroke. Should have a basic serve and be able to score a game and basic rules of the tennis court and the game.

Labels: , , , , ,

 


 

Sunday, September 23, 2007

kwiss tennis, USTA Tennis and Visionary tennis leagues and matches in Atlanta

Hello Atlanta Tennis these are the main leagues for Singles tennis play, they are all excellent and give tennis players the opportunity to find Tenni Match play in the Atlanta area. The best way to go about it is to simply go out to these web sites and register, they will help you though the process, even assisting with establishing a tennis rating. These are in no particular order: http://www.visionarytennis.com/ http://secure-apextennis.com/V3/index.php
http://www.usta.com/leagues/custom.sps?iType=930&icustompageid=1145.

These leagues are very popular with my tennis clients at fitnesswithjeff.com, hope that you enjoye them as well

Labels: , , , ,

Atlanta tennis centers, Atlanta round robin tennis matches at Bitsy Grant Tennis Center

Hello Atlanta, I went though some of my achives and found some articles that I thought you guys might like, please let me know if you like it.

In the the archived articles about Atlanta tennis centers including Peidmont Park Tennis Center, Chastain tennis Center, Atlanta round robin tennis matches at Bitsy Grant Tennis Center.
http://atlanta-tennis-instrutor.blogspot.com/2006_10_01_archive.html

Labels: , , ,

 


 

Tuesday, September 11, 2007

Tennis Court Positioning

Court Positioning

Hello Atlanta Tennis group and Friends, I was referred by a client to a very cool online tennis magazine that I thought my readers would enjoy, I have enclosed a short passage from an article that I thought you might be interested, seemed like a pretty cool article, I enclosed the tennis article and the link to tennis player.net below, enjoy...www.fitnesswithjeff.com

David Ferrer and Rafael Nadal delivered a breathtaking performance at the US Open, with both players scrambling across every inch of the court and trading thunderous topspin forehands. And though they finished many points at the net, the overwhelming impression was that both favored forehands over court position, and then scrambling to recover again and again. Could either of these guys sustain this style of play for years to come? Jim McLennan thinks it will take a toll.

http://www.tennisone.com/club/lessons/jm/positioning/court.php


http://www.tennisone.com/

Labels: , ,

 


 

Friday, September 07, 2007

Hitting tennis balls on the run

Hello Atlanta Tennis group and Friends, I was referred by a client to a very cool online tennis magazine that I thought my readers would enjoy, I have enclosed a short passage from an article that I thought you might be interested, seemed like a pretty cool article, I enclosed the tennis article and the link to tennis player.net below, please enjoy...Jeff

Pat Dougherty

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Nicole Vaidisova lunges and transfers her weight in a semi-open stance.
Hitting effortlessly and powerfully on the run is one of the hallmarks of tennis greatness. Slow reactions, sluggish recoveries, and moving with the center of gravity too high, can make the quickest athletes appear slow.

On the other hand, when your intensity and pulse rate is at performance levels and your movement is synced with the tempo of play, the strokes flow seamlessly with the movement.

In this article we will take a look at how you can develop this same ability for yourself. To do this we will explore several techniques for moving through the strokes and also building recovery footwork into the follow through of your strokes.
The rest of the article is out on: http://www.tennisplayer.net/


http://www.tennisone.com/

Labels: , ,

 


 

Saturday, September 01, 2007

Create your Dreams tennis Night Atlanta, Tennis round robin, pro-am tennis tourney and Party

Create your Dreams tennis Night Atlanta, Tennis round robin, pro-am tennis tourney and Party.

Love means nothing to a tennis player but everything to a child's success.
The long-term goal of Create Your Dreams is for all of our students to graduate from high school, pursue a higher education, and become self-sufficient adults.
http://www.createyourdreams.org/index.html

Help us CREATE THE ADVANTAGE at the First Annual
TENNIS PARTY at Bitsy Grant Tennis center 2125 Northside Dr NW Atlanta, GA 30305 404) 609-7193, Please only call for directions.
Register and info about the tennis event:

http://www.createyourdreams.org/tennis/Players.html
Phone: 404.249.9166, please call this number for questions about the event not covered in this email!!
E-mail: createyourdreams@bellsouth.net


to benefit
Create Your Dreams

Round-Robin Doubles (Social and Competitive) Skills Clinics & Contests
Rolling Bones BBQ Party Drinks Music Raffle

With your support, Advantage: DREAMS will raise over $15,000 for the programs and students of
Create Your Dreams. Register today!

Event Schedule*

Healthy Snacks from 6 - 9pm.
Dinner will be served hot from 7:30 until 10pm.
Drinks and Desserts are available all night long to keep the party going
6pm: Warm Up Events, Skills Clinics and Contests

7pm to 9pm: Doubles Round Robins Sets - Each player will enjoy two sets of tennis, split into two rounds. In each round, players will enjoy meeting and playing with a new partner with similar skill level and interests.
9pm: Playoff Set - The scores of competitive players will be tallied and the top mens and womens players from each skill level will play a third set.

10pm: Finals and Exhibition Matches

Players, Raise Your Racquet

Register today as a Dream Maker or Player to attend Create Your Dream's first annual Tennis Party. You do not need a partner to enter; we'll pair you with partners in each round based on playing level and mutual interests. Click here for a tentative event schedule


Dream Makers, $100 Contribution
Players, $50 Contribution
Dream Makers and Players Levels include tennis, dinner and drinks, and all other festivities
Dream Makers and Players will get a great Goody Bag, Thanks to our Sponsors
Dream Makers will also enjoy special benefits
Special activities for children (ages 4-12) of fans and players while parents play or watch ($15)

Labels: , , ,