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Summer Saturday Clinics

I am going to begin Saturday morning clinics this summer. These will probably begin the third Saturday of June to give many of you time after school ends to get the summer underway for your kids and those vacations to crowded destinations because everyone else did the same.

Those interested please leave your name and rating (as if I don't already know most) by using the comment section below and please invite a friend. You can follow this update by selecting Notify Me in the comment section.

More detail will follow, but I plan on beginning at 10:00am and then adjusting the time earlier as we approach the true heat.

La Hombres may come out and offer discounted salads and some cool drinks post-clinic. Go by and have lunch or dinner at their place and tell them what a great idea this is.

Thank You for the Turnout

I'm impressed. Thank you all for making a great showing and participating in the Cinco de Mayo - Extra Cheese Please Mixer we had last Saturday. I believe everyone who signed up, showed up.

The sponsors were very gracious and asked if we would be doing these in the future. La Hombres definitely wants to do it again as long as my sidekick, Tom Stanton, doesn't eat so many darn tacos. I think he had over 13 of them. There's something about being from Arizona and tacos.

Whoever came up with the margaritas made with Lemon-Lime Gatorade, nailed it.

All Things Sports was glad to see so many of you who came out and shopped with them this week. That kind of support keeps them sponsoring our events.  

I'll try to schedule more such events during other holidays - significant ones or otherwise.

Again, thank you.

Tennis and Fitness

Tennis is a competitive sport and on most levels we are rewarded with the social aspects as well, yet, tennis is not a substitute for a complete form of physical health and the answer to all your fitness needs, even if you are a pro – ask them.

Tennis, recreationally or otherwise, requires much more from the human body and incorporates many more movements (great stuff) and brings into play a variety of muscle groups, joints and associated tissues, than those required of most other sports - the studies have been done.

You and Your Tennis

To help me create better training programs, drills and even individual lessons, please complete the You and Your Tennis Survey by selecting the Survey link above.

New Assistant Teaching Pro

Welcome Tom Stanton from Mesa, Arizona. He has a tennis bio that is outstanding - I will tell you more later if I don't fire him first for being too good.

He will be assisting me with clinics and group drills and may even be helping with private lessons.

The Modern One-Hand Backhand

I stumbled over an excellent video by Tom Avery on maximizing the one-hand top spin backhand stroke. This video is concise and covers his instruction from the proper points of view, making Tom's explanation easy to understand.

As soon as he had covered the basic parts of the stroke and completed a full swing from preparation to finish, I was reminded of one player, Roger Federer.

I remember years ago after winning a major match (those days when we were more likely to see Roger run around his backhand), he was asked what part of his game he wished to work on the most. "My top spin backhand", was his reply. Well, we know what has become of this - it's one of the most graceful and accurate one-hand backhand swings in the game.