Hello again, and welcome to week 8.

We begin this week by discussing what has been worked on since we started.
Consistency, footwork, positioning, seeing the court better, opening up the court and staying in the rally long enough and tough enough to earn an opportunity. Well, all of this is great, but now its time to use this part of the game to enter the next phase: Winning The Point.
We started last week with one practice where we touched on this subject and we will continue this week looking into how to finally win the point.
Its important to stay in the rally and important to be patient in developing the opportunity, but once we get it, we have to be able to capitalize on it. this brings us into week 8.
We will be working on taking the opportunity and finishing the point. This will include, hitting bigger, going to the net, looking for winners, moving forwards into the court and finally hitting down the line....
We will be doing a combination of set scenarios to start a point, as well as open play to identify the opportunities within the point.
Hopefully this week will allow players to see the payoff for all their hard work and commitment over the past 2 months and now be able to benefit by putting a check mark into the win column.

Look forward to an exciting week,

see you guys on the courts!!

Mike and Drago

Stay tuff. Stay in the point.

Hello and welcome back for another week. 

This week we will continue to build off of last weeks goal and purpose and continue to work on keeping the ball in play.  Building such a foundation takes a solid amount of mental effort and habit building, so another week of this is just what the doctor ordered.  We will continue to focus on the type of ball that we are choosing to play as the instigator as well as the type of ball we are countering with. The key to building a point is patience and understanding of the court. In order to develop an opportunity we have to have the patience to keep the rally going and not pull the trigger to soon.  To work the cross and try and open up the court for the chance to hit the down the line shot. Or hit heavy enough to force a short ball that we can approach the net on. Both of these goal involve working the cross court and to do this it takes excellent footwork, balance and  positioning behind the ball.  These bring me to the next topic. The gym!

Let's make sure that in this "offseason" time frame we continue working hard on our stamina and speed. Our shot is only as good as our position. 

On a side note: to all players please check out the academy newsletter. 

     http://eepurl.com/bEgKiL. 

We look forward to seeing everyone out this week and to seeing continued progress..

Mike and Drago. 

Hello All!,

Hope everyone had a safe and happy Halloween.

I know Drago loves chocolate very  much so please feel free to bring as many little snacks to him as possible.

The itf event in Burlington wrapped up this weekend and a big congrats to all the players for their solid efforts and play. Special shout out to Ivan Mitric for making the finals. Those points will go a long way going forwards.

Also, shout out to Fed, for finally beating Nadal in a final. For 34 he still looks like he has game!

...and now on to our week ahead....

we will continue to build on last weeks themes: staying in the point, playing tougher on defence, using bigger targets on the court when pulled off in order to extend the point. and we will also be adding getting deeper into the point. running through different scenarios where the point wont start until certain restrictions or numbers are meet.

the goal is to keep pushing ourselves physically and more so mentally to believe and fight for points deeper into the rally. extending our breaking point: the moment when we make a lazy or low percentage decision that costs us the shot.
Sometimes we tend to believe that tennis is about making highlight shots. Although fun, the 1 out 10 times that this works doesn't balance out the other 9 times we end up losing the point. We as players, need to believe that a ball in play is really the number one focus and to do whatever it takes to make that happen. this week, we will.....

to all players using this time as their off season, for training, please make sure you are following your plans and schedules at the gym and that you are still finding time to get set and match play in over the weekends.

Have a great week everyone and see you on the courts!

Mike and Drago

Hello and welcome to another week!

This week we have several of our players participating in the itf event in Burlington, Good Luck to those playing, bring back some points!

For those players with a regular week of practice ahead...

We will be focusing on keeping the ball in play. Sounds basic but, there is a lot that goes into this simple task and we will be focusing on those such things.

We will be challenging you to keep the ball in play while on the run, from the corners, on the stretch and more. Sometimes how the ball comes back is not as important as getting the ball back. Making the other player have to hit another shot. Giving them another opportunity to make a mistake.

Some of the drills will focus on targets and spaces on the court to aim for when in trouble. Using bigger targets in those situations and using more height on our shots to achieve that goal. Being tougher and more determined to get that ball back.

Fitness and conditioning is again part of the program this week but more of it will be on each player to hit the gym and get in the required workouts necessary.

Looks like a fun week ahead!


See you on the courts,

Mike, Drago and staff 

Week 2 of footwork

Hi All,

Well, week one of the footwork progress has a been a good one! everyone seems to be buying in to the importance of movement and the mechanics behind it. We still have one more week ahead of us in this department.

For some of the players in the group we will be adjusting the program a little bit as the upcoming itf in Burlington is this weekend. your focus will be a little more n point play and tactics. but you will still participate in the core session of the drills so that we are all on the same page come game time.

The Footwork for tennis involves not only speed and agility but the specific movement patterns of the pros. Most pro players have great footwork allowing them to hit great shots while still maintaining perfect balance. Getting to the ball is important, because not only does it allow you to make the shot, but it also gives you the opportunity to have more choices on what shot to make and how to make it.

With this in mind we will be focusing on this for the rest of the week and coming back to this topic several times throughout the year

Hello Everyone!

Welcome back to another week of tennis. We hope everyone had a great Thanksgiving and that you all enjoyed the extra family time.

For the week ahead we are going to be working on movement on the tennis court. With the game being so quick and the ball striking happening so early, getting into position has become the number one focus in allowing players to execute their desired shots.

We will be spending the next 2 weeks on footwork drills, working on speed, agility, coordination, footwork patterns and of course, recovery.

There will be a mix of hand feeding, feeding and hitting over this time and station training with props will be involved throughout the next 2 weeks.

The goal will be that after 2 weeks we will see a change in the focus and purpose of the players on court movement and start seeing the changes implemented in their point play.

Lets have a great week!!

Mike, Drago and Coaching Staff

Week 2: Welcome to serving and return of serve

Hello to all and welcome back for another week!
Last week we had the opportunity to get back on court and have players and coaches meet each other, some for the first time. The coaching staff would like to thank all the players and parents for their efforts and patience in our set up and configuration week. I think we have now received the sign ups from players and are able to start shaping and planning out the program going forwards.....

This coming week we will be focusing on serving and returning.

These two shots in the game start the point off every time and its important to have a plan on how to do it. We will be looking at the different types of serves and how to use them and in turn how to deal with these options as a returner.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PqugycCxD7k

Thanks again,

and we look forward to a hard working and informative week ahead!

Mike and Drago