GPTA Keynote Speaker

I was invited to speak at the Georgia Professional Tennis Association’s winter meeting at the Atlanta Athletic Club in Atlanta, Georgia.

The club is the home of the famous golfer, Bobby Jones. They have a trophy room with all his trophies, pictures and memorabilia. There is even a statue of Bobby as you drive up to enter the club. The club hosted the PGA Championships in the past and is scheduled to host again in 2 years. The club house is beautiful, a true example of a Southern Country Club with tutor designed building, dark wood paneling and plaques commemorating past presidents.

I taught most all of Tuesday at the San Jose Swim & Racquet Club with an hour break to have lunch with Karen. She also ran off copies of my handouts for the presentation in Atlanta – “3 Secrets of Championships & 13 Best Drills”.

My last lesson was 7-8 pm and then I grabbed my racquet bag, my Wilson computer bag and ran the the parking lot to meet Karen. She took me to the San Jose airport where I had an easy time getting my boarding passes.

However, they didn’t think my big Wilson racquet bag should go on the plane, which happened to be a 1 and 2 seater small plane to Los Angeles. I convinced them that it had worked for 30 years and would be fine for tonight as well.

Getting through security was pretty easy except for getting the computer out, the cell phone off, the shoes off, jacket off, keys out of the pocket, putting them in 4 plastic grey bins, and then locating the boarding pass so I could go through the scanner. Now put it all back together and get dressed.

I was able to get an organic orange drink and a chocolate chip muffin for a snack. Finally I sat down to read the Dwight Davis (Davis Cup donator) story by Nancy Kriplen. Very interesting because it deals with his family history, his story as a player, politician, father, soldier and business man as well as the actual Davis Cup story.

Time to board the small plane. Oh well, only a little reading then nap time. I awaken about 15 minutes before we were to land in Los Angeles. The city lights are beautiful at night. I like the patterns they create and how far you can see.

Landed, grab my Wilson black and gold tennis bag as they bring it up from the plane’s storage and caught a bus to the main terminal at LA to catch my Delta flight to Atlanta.

With the flight leaving at 12:30 am, I had time for a bite to eat, just not many options – so fish fillet at McDonald’s? Back to the gate 54B to wait for the flight and continuing my reading of Dwight Davis. He lived in St Louis and was a big time advocate of public parks and later served on a national committee for parks. He would at one point become President of the USLTA but resigned to become assistant secretary of war for war for US President Warren Harding.

The flight to Atlanta is about 4 hours so I better get some sleep as I will be up all day and speak from 7-10 pm Wednesday evening. I did sleep and when we landed, I was able to get all gear – didn’t check anything and go to pick up my rental car at Hertz. Expensive rental cars in Atlanta, about $40 for the day – plus – plus – plus. We got one in Phoenix the day after New Years for $17 a day.

My car is a silver Hundi and I exit Hertz, hit Interstate 85 north, find 280 loop and turn right about 40 minutes later into the Atlanta Athletic Club on Bobby Jones Parkway. Wow, what a beautiful entrance and view of the club. Straight ahead is this beautiful brick club house. Off to the left is the 8 clay courts, 4 hard courts and a stadium court next to the 4 indoor courts.

It is about 11:50 am in Atlanta and there is no one on the outdoor courts. The temperature is 40’s and you can see your breath. I leave my racquet bag and computer bag in the trunk of the car and walk past the empty courts, the old pro shop which is now a restaurant-snack bar for the tennis players and toward the indoor court building.

As I walk in the door, the new Director of Tennis, Jeff Chandley greets me at the door. We speak briefly and he is off to run an errand. I walk into the pro shop, past the clothes to the front desk. There are 2 indoor court on my left and 2 on my right and they are well taken care of by the looks of them.

I meet the front desk person and discover he has been here for 9 years, 2 of the other pros have been there 12 years and 26 years. The new director has only been on the job for 8 months. Jeff had been the pro at the The Landings in Savannah, Georgia before coming to this club 8 months ago.

Later, Jeff takes me on a tour of the club. Just a great facility, very large with lots of amenities. They have their own barber shop, convention rooms, bar overlooking the golf course, hall of fame and just beautifully done. We have a salad bar and French onion soup in the bar area and overlook the practice putting green and several fairways.

Jeff and I catch up on where we have been and our wives, how lucky we are to have found such great people the second time around. Lunch is good and we continue some of the tour of the main building – very large.

Back at the indoor tennis center, we talk to Ian Thompson, son of Hugh Thompson of southern tennis history. We rehash our times in Nashville, Sequoia, Woodmont Country Club, Maryland Farms and lots of old friends. Jeff has come a long way to be where he is today. I am slightly envious of the beautiful facility and all the courts vs what I have at San Jose. However, there are trade offs that make everything somewhat even.

I sat down at the tennis bar to do paper work for the next 5 hours before my 7 pm presentation to the GPTA pros.

About 6 pm, some of the pros start to arrive at the indoor courts of Atlanta Athletic Club. Many of the pros are long time friends and some are friends I see at the PTR International Symposium on Hilton Head Island, South Carolina each year in mid February.

The GPTA has prepared some light sandwiches, snacks and drinks for the arriving pros. Attendance should be good tonight as it has started to turn cold outside and the forecast for tomorrow morning calls for temperatures in the 18 to 20 degree range. I hear all the pros talking about having already canceling their early morning lessons, how soon the clay courts will be playable and about what time they will try to start their mid-morning lessons with the bravest of students.

Interestingly enough, the members might be able to play if the clay courts are still frozen – so will the weather be frozen as well, but as they start to unthaw it will become unplayable court conditions for a while. I forget what a big part the weather plays in the pros lives in climates that have big seasonal weather changes. Another reason I like San Jose, California.

There is a last minute rush to run off copies of the 3 Secrets to Championship Doubles handout to go with the 13 Best Drills. We are all standing in the upper lounge area dividing the 2 indoor courts on each side and talking when KJ from Dunwoody Country Club introduces me as the speaker for the evening.

The show begins. I welcome everyone and acknowledge how fortunate I am to have such cold weather outside to bring everyone inside.

We begin with what are the 3 secrets that all teams use to become successful?

1. The tennis talk, what to talk about before the match, during the match and after the match, which includes the 5 essential questions to answer in a post match situation.

2. The tennis dance, how to move during a point to maintain proper position for doing the DAD: distracting, attacking and defending. We address the 4 positions on the court and the job description for each to be part of a successful team.

3. The tennis targets, where to best place your shots to maintain control of the point and establish team control of the court.

This part of the presentation was discussed in the upstairs lounge area. I addressed another question about how to modify practices to make them more effective and stimulating. Use the idea of traditional teaching by presenting a skill for the players, then doing a drill the give them the thrill by allowing a game situation to evaluate their skill performance.

I also suggested that they reverse the model occasionally to begin with a thrill first, start the lesson with a game, then do a drill that would help them in their game situation and finally present skills that would allow them to better drill compete. I also suggested that the students be allowed to teach as teaching a skill, drill or game involves about 90% retention of information as opposed to traditional telling them what to do.

This raised a few eyebrows, what give the students control of the lesson? Yes, why not? Allow them to be part of the process in selecting information to be presented. If you have done your job as a “teaching” professional, they should have an opportunity to demonstrate to you and others what they have learned. This will enhance their confidence in making decisions, talking to their team mates and organizing the information about all the skills you have been working on with them.

Several of the coaches are engineering types that need to be in control. I encouraged them to allow the process to happen to make proper evaluation of the progress of the students learning. This approach as opposed to how much information you can give them that makes you feel important.

On that note, let’s all go down stairs to the 2 indoor courts on our left. Arriving down stairs, we set up some chairs along the wall, I pull out my 3 colored rings or donuts and make a joke about beating the cops to the donuts to be able to bring them here tonight. I ask for some volunteers to hit as I demonstrate the drills tonight.

We start off the on court presentation with how to run down lobs. With 2 players at the net, I feed a ball to the ad court player positioned in square #4, who volleys back to me and I lob the ball over the head of the player in the deuce court or square #1. The ad court player should run down the deep lob to square #2, the net player in square #1 in front of me would switch to the opposite ad court service line to determine the difficulty of the lob to their partner and the opponents position on the court.

The player who ran down the lob should return the lob back down the line to the opponent furthest from the net to allow themselves time to recover and protect their partner still in the mid court position. Once the successful down the line return has been made the player who ran down the lob should attempt to get back to the net area, around the service line and near their partner to regain control of the aggressive position.

Next, I asked them to think of ways to change this drill beside what I had presented. Suggestions included; same drill from the other side, have the player at the service line attempt to poach on the return by the pro back to the player who ran down the lob, feed the ball as a lob without having the volley to the player in square # 4 first and etc.

The point being, my drills are not that special, they are just a beginning. Use your imagination to make multiple drills by changing one or more aspects of the drill you just saw. Change the ball speed, the spin used, the depth of the shots or the directions. In fact the same factors you would use in changing your game in a match; ball in play, change direction, depth of the shot, spin of your shots and speed of your shots.

The evening progressed as I continued to present drills and ask the coaches what factors made the most sense to them. What could we change? How to shift focus to technique, then to strategy and to the mental aspects of the game. Always there was the question; what do you like best so far in the presentation. This gets them involved, reinforces key points so they do not get buried and lost and brings up other key points by others they may have missed. The point being, as you teach, evaluate your own progress, what the students are learning and what direction you may want to take with the rest of your information.

Soon it is 9:30 and a few of the pros have had to leave. I thanked them for attending and reminded them that there were 3 different DVD’s on the counter up stairs that they could buy for $20 each as well as my friend, Jorge Capastany’s strategy book.

I close by asking them each what particular piece of information they are taking home tonight that was new or something they could integrate into their teaching right away.

Most like the terminology, others like the use of the red, yellow and green circles that we use to explain where to move during a doubles point if you the non-hitter, still others liked how I got the players to move by having them circle a cone as opposed to encouraging them to move their feet more and others liked how all the drills got the players to move, vary their spin and speed on the ball.

As everyone leaves, KJ, Ben,Jeff and me wrap things up and get a final picture for the GPTA magazine. KJ, Ben and I go out to eat. I follow them in my little rented Hundi to a mall by Perimeter Mall. We had eaten there the last time I came to address the GPTA. It is also close to the airport so I can find my way back to the rental car I turn easily.

We eat and talk tennis until approximately 12:30 and I can tell they and me are starting to fade. KJ pays the bill and we walk out into the cold Atlanta night air for final goodbyes, directions and I give KJ two of my DVD’s to use for future drawings at GPTA events.

I checked in my rental car at Hertz and walked back to the terminal. It is 1 am and I look for a place to sit or lie down until the US Air check in opens. I finally settle at the end of a bench where a person is lying down and sleeping. Sleeping setting up, I am awaken by the person on the bench and we begin to talk.

He sees the racquet bag and asks if I am a professional tennis player. I explain that I teach tennis professionally and still compete. He is excited to meet a “professional” and asks about my ranking and who I have played, do I know the Williams sisters and who else I know.

I tell him and we talk about tennis and 130 mile and hour serves. I give him one of my brochures with my picture on it and he is excited.

He tells me his father was a policeman and died of a heart attack a couple of years ago and he lost his mother last year. He is a vet and works at the trash compaction plant in Atlanta. He sleeps in the airport because the Salvation Army charges $14 a night for lodging. He also has diabetes and could I loan him some money? I gave him $20 and he thanked me and headed off to the food court.

I saw him later, he did buy food and he gave me a thumbs up as I walked off to go to security to board my flight to San Jose and back to work at San Jose Swim and Racquet Club at 12:30 pm after my 12 pm arrival.

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News and Updates

Posted by Ken DeHart on January 14, 2009 in News and Updates. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.