How to choosing tennis shoes ?

Tennis shoes must be able to support your feet with all the stops and starts you have to make, and it must give you good support at the sides of your feet. Each surface has differing requirements, and all of us have different types of feet, all of which places different demands on your tennis shoes.

The first consideration is what type of feet you have, because that will determine how much cushioning you will need, and what and where you will need lateral support.

There are three basic foot types:

1. SUPINATED – here your wear is on the outside of the shoes

2. PRONATED – here your wear is on the inside around the ball of the foot, and this type of foot suffers the most with injuries from overuse.

3. IDEAL – here the wear is even.

Either get a fellow player to walk behind you to determine whether you are walking with your foot tilting inwards, or outwards, or not at all. Better still find yourself a well-qualified sports shoe person. You could also test yourself by wetting your feet and standing on a square of cardboard.

1. If there is a large are where the arch of your feet didn’t touch you are SUPINATED

2. If the whole of your foot is marked, looking like a rectangle with slight curves then you are OVERPRONATED

3. If your feet leaves an imprint that is a balance between the others then your foot is IDEAL

Confirm this self-diagnosis with a third party watching you walk, and the wear test on your current shoes.

THE FIT OF THE TENNIS SHOE is vital, and points to pay particular attention to are as follows.

1. You need about half an inch of space between your longest toe and the end of the tennis shoe.

2. The foot should be a comfortable fit without any stretching

3. The heel should not slip, although some movement is wanted.

Just remember your feet are different sizes, so pick your size according to the larger foot, and use an insole to balance up your smaller foot.
The most important thing in a tennis shoe is LATERAL SUPPORT because much of your running on a court is side to side, and there are dangers of turning your ankle. Good lateral support is necessary if you are heavy and if you are pronated.

Your tennis shoes will need a degree of CUSHIONING and SHOCK ABSORPTION.
This is especially true if you are a baseliner, and you play most of your tennis on hard courts. Pronated feet jar most easily.

The two most common cushioning you read about are EVA, which is lightweight, but not very durable, or stable, and PU[polyurethane] which is denser, better stability, but it is a lot heavier.

FLEXIBILITY is important, and tennis shoes must bend easily at the ball of the foot, however too much flexibility makes for a shoe that won’t be comfortable.

At the end of the day, comfort is important, and tennis shoes are no different to anything else, you tend to get what you pay for, and I know very few things of quality that are cheap!!

How to Play Tennis - The Basics ?

This article is going to talk about a number of things that go into playing tennis. It will focus on equipment, the various shots involved in the game, and the scoring, but it won't go into specifics on any particular topic.

Equipment

There are three things you need to play tennis: a tennis racket, some tennis balls, and a tennis court. A tennis racket is, of course, specifically designed for the sport. All rackets have approximately the same design: a handle (sometimes called a "grip") and an oval-shaped head with strings. A tennis ball is about two and a half inches in diameter and covered in felt. Typically, the inside of a ball is pressurized so that it bounces relatively high. Finally, a tennis court is 78 feet across and 27 feet wide (for singles) with two-inch white lines dividing the various areas of the court.

The Strokes

There are several basic strokes in tennis: the forehand, the backhand, and the serve. The forehand is hit with your dominant hand on the dominant side of your body. For example, if you are right handed, you would use that hand to hit a forehand on the right side of your body. The backhand is on your non-dominant side and hit with either one (your dominant arm, reaching across your body) or two hands. The serve starts the point and must be hit behind the baseline into a service box.

The Scoring

The scoring of a tennis match is very unique. You need to win four points to win a game and six games to win a set. Matches are typically best-out-of-three sets, but for major tournaments they are best-out-of-five sets. Both players start at 0 - 0. Let's say the server wins the first point. He is now up 15 - 0. If he wins the next point he is up 30 - 0, and if he wins the one after that he is up 40 - 0. So the first point you win gives you 15, the second 30, and the third 40. If both players make it to 40 (so 40 - 40), this situation is called deuce. From this spot, a player must win two consecutive points to win the game. If one player wins the first point, but the other player wins the next, they are back to deuce.

Tennis Tips
The rare shortcuts in the tennis game


There are two major ways of improving your game: tennis tips and lots of repetition. A lot of practice grooves your strokes and establishes a solid foundation from where you can move on.

But before, during and after this learning process you can apply various tennis tips which help you find a more effective, effortless ways of improvement.

You can make various little mistakes when learning or competing and at first you don't even notice the problem.

It's like a ship that changes its course for 1 degree. It doesn't show immediately but after a couple of hours of sailing there is a big difference where you end up.

So tennis tips are actually those little but very important »course modifiers«. That's why they are called tips and not encyclopedias. ;)

But remember – there is a great value hidden in these tips especially if you apply them for a longer period of time until they become subconscious.

Another very important issue that needs mentioning is the learning process. MOST of the learning and improvement takes time, effort, commitment and many repetitions. Our brain and body need many recurring informational packets before they fluidly adapt.

But – there are other ways. In some specific situations repetitions are not needed. What is needed is just a slight change of course and you will sail to your desired treasure island. These are the tennis tips.

There are many different tips – physical, technical, tactical and mental. Since TennisMindGame.com is dedicated to everything related to mental aspect of tennis and everything related to making your mind your best ally, all the tips on this site will be mostly mental ones.

Monday, 21 July 2008

Nadal moving closer to No. 1, Becker feels he's already there

Nadal moving closer to No. 1, Becker feels he's already there

TORONTO (AP) -- Rafael Nadal is OK with being ranked No. 2 in the world -- for now.

With Nadal beating Roger Federer in the French Open and Wimbledon finals, the Swiss star's grip on the top ranking is at its most vulnerable point since he became No. 1 more than four years ago.

If they continue to perform as well as the other in the Masters events this week in Toronto and next week in Cincinnati, then the ATP says Nadal could usurp Federer as No. 1 by mid-August, if not at the U.S. Open, where Federer is the four-time defending champion.

"I don't think nobody doesn't want to be No. 1," Nadal said on Monday at the Rogers Cup. "I want to be No. 1 for sure but right now I don't want to be No. 1.

"Right now, I want to play a very good tournament here in Toronto."

But even if the rankings don't say so many already believe Nadal is the world's best player, including Boris Becker, the 1986 Rogers Cup champion who was included in the tournament's Hall of Fame on Monday.

"Obviously in the world rankings there is still a No. 1 called Federer," Becker said. "But I think if you talk to anybody in the world of tennis who is considered for now the No. 1 player in the world, it's the winner of the French Open and Wimbledon.

"I think there's a change in the position at the moment.

"I think it's a case where Nadal has just improved to a level that nobody expected. Federer is playing as good as always.

"But you can only give credit to Nadal for really raising his game to another level and winning."

Becker believed tennis benefited from the rivalry like that of Federer and Nadal.

"Tennis needs players that bring out the best in each other," he said. "Tennis is in a good place right now having Federer and Nadal really at the very top of their careers.

"Whoever saw the Wimbledon final, I was just amazed at the quality of play from both players."

Nadal said he hasn't watched a repeat on television of the Wimbledon final, one of the greatest matches in tennis history.

"I only watch some points," he said. "But I don't watch the final."

And despite his success this season, Nadal doesn't believe he should be considered the man to beat in tennis.

"I don't think so," he said. "I am playing a good season but if I lost the final at Wimbledon, the season doesn't change too much.

"So I'm happy with how I'm playing. .. but I'm still with the same motivation for continuing to improve my tennis."

As usual, Nadal and Federer can meet this week only on Sunday.

"I would love to play against him," Nadal said. "If I do, I am going to play in the final.

"It would be a very good result for me to play in the final here, no?"

Both have an opening-round bye. Federer will face American Donald Young in his second-round match while Nadal will take on the winner of the match between American Jesse Levine and Canadien Peter Polansky.
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