Win the warm up.

1. Introduce yourselves to your opponents.
2. Spin the racquet before beginning the warm up so you will be on the correct side when warming up and know the serving order as to who will serve first, second and so on.
3. Immediately be the one who “spins” the racquet to decides who will have 1 of the 4 options (don’t spin the racquet on the ground as it often takes too long, scratches the end of the grip when it falls to the ground and depending upon how it is picked up the racquet you can control the be “up” or “down” call. Just spin the racquet in your hand with the butt of the racquet toward your waist until they make their call, “up” or “down” then show them the butt of the racquet to see who won the spin.
4. If the opponents win the “spin” and choose to serve, make them serve from the sunny side of the court first and prepare to lob them a lot during the first game of the match.
5. In the warm up, the first server for each team will take a lot of practice serves as they will begin the offense for their teams initially. The third and fourth servers will take a lot of overheads, a few serves and focus on returning the servers as the first two servers warm up. This is important as the third and fourth servers will play several games before serving and have opportunities to be warmed up before actually being called upon to serve. However they can play an important part of their teams success by focusing on returning well early in the match.

You and your partner need to have a plan before the match starts. This gives you confidence and a purpose for what happens early in the match.

Photo Credits: GeoNando

• 11 Ways to Improve Your Tennis Game at San Jose Swim & Racquet Club - Year 'Round... [/caption] The following are 11 ways to improve your tennis game at the San Jose Swim & Racquet Club: Private hour and half hour lessons. These lessons can include technical work and hitting with the pro during that time to see if the technical and strategy changes work. Semi private......
• 5 Drills to Improve Your Game by Yourself [/caption] 1. A 5 minute warm up is a must. 20 jumping jacks – Puts you on the balls of your feet and stretches out the body. 20 alley shuffles – Start in the alley and side-shuffle across the doubles, then singles side lines, until you have crossed a line......
• Modified “I” and “I” Formations These players like variety and want to get into your head. They like to volley and want to distract you. This formation can be use by the serving team on every point as well as by the receiving team. Don’t be afraid – pick a target and go for it.......
• Serve and Volley or Rush and Crush Formations These players love to get to the net at any cost, hit strong volley winners and overheads. Don’t be afraid of the charging team. Reasons for the serving team to use this formation: 1. The serving team is both good volleyers. 2. The serving team has good overheads and likes......
• Know Your Court - Terms Every Tennis Play Should Know Tennis Court—Where the game is played. 78 feet long - 36 feet wide for doubles and 78 by 27 for singles Love- Score when a player has no score 15- Score when you win the 1st point 30- Score when you win the second point 40 - Score when you......

• More Tips to Improve your Serve There are a variety of different tips that you can employ in your game to improve your game of tennis. Right now we are talking about the steps that can be taken to improve your serve, and by proxy, all of your game playing capabilities. Serving is a truly......
• Tennis Glossary pt4 Pass - This means hitting a shot that goes beyond the opponent, typically when that opponent is either at or close to the net. Passing Shot - This is a shot that goes past the opponent in the court. Penalty Point - This is another word for point penalty. Pickup......
• Top Spin 3 for Nintendo Wii The Nintendo Wii system has become very popular among sports fans, simply because of the advanced functionality of being able to actually swing instead of using a controller with many of the games. Top Spin 3, one of the latest tennis games for Wii has skyrocketed to success, so we......
• Babolat Aero Pro Drive Cortex Tennis Racquet Racquet - Babolat Aero Pro Drive Cortex Tennis Racquet Length - 27 inches / 69 centimeters Head Size - 100 square inches / 645 square centimeters Weight - 11.3 ounces / 320 grams Balance Point - 12.875 inches / 33 centimeters Construction - 23-26 mm Composition - High Modulus Graphite......
• Learning to Play the Violin pt 2 This is a guide to playing the violin, and is a continuation from part one, which touched on the first five steps in the process. For more information about learning how to play the violin well, keep reading! * Keep in mind that more pressure is going to create a......

Tennis Talk

This is the first post of three consecutive posts on the secrets to winning doubles in tennis.

Secret #1 “Tennis Talk” – What to say and when to say it!

Before the match:

• Decide with your partner ahead of time if you want to serve first, receive first, and choose which end to play from or let them choose so when you spin you will already have a plan.
• Decide who will serve first for your team, who will serve from the sunny side or the strongest serving combination to start the match.
• Decide on a “game plan” for the first 3 games of the match to take control (serve and volley, use the “I” formation, Australian formation, two back, lob and take the net and etc.)

During the match:

• Compliment what you are doing as a team to win so you will know why you are winning and what to continue to do as the match progresses.
• “High 5″s” after each lost point to reconnect with your partner and get their mind off the lost point.
• Make your partner tell you their plan for the next point to stay in the present and to get your partner ready at the net or after the return of serve.

After the match:

• Ask the “5 Essential Questions”
  1. What did we do best in the match?
  2. What did they do best in the match?
  3. What was our weakness in the match?
  4. What was their weakness in the match?
  5. If we could replay the match again right now, how would we play differently?

Photo Credits: 1

• 3 Secrets to Winning Doubles, pt 3 [/caption] This is the last post in our series for tips to win doubles tennis. Secret #3 "Tennis Targets" Where to hit & when to go there! Serving as Simple as A-B-C: When serving, tell your partner where you plan to serve - both serves.  For example A-B, B-C or......
• Ladies Finals from Australia [/caption] I got up at 3:30 am here in Charleston, SC to see THE match from down under.  My roommate was asleep, they wouldn't let me access the TV in the bar - afraid I would drink them dry I guess.  Little did they know I don't drink.  I went......
• “I” Receiving Formation – Both Back [/caption]**This UDF works well at club level play, USTA league play, junior and high school matches as well as college matches. This (UDF) Unusual Doubles Receiving Formation puts the receiver and partner on the same side of the court.  The receiver (let’s say – deuce court) is in regular receiving......
• Australian Receiving Formation – Both Back – 1st Point of the Match **This UDF works well at club level play, USTA league play, junior and high school matches as well as college matches. This (UDF) Unusual Doubles Receiving Formation puts the receiver and partner on the same side of the court.  One player is in the deuce court near the deuce......
• 12 Tennis Tips to Improve Your Game 1.) How to know if you are ready to start a tennis match?  As you warm up for the match, notice if you are able to see the spin on the ball before you meet the ball or if you can see a "yellow streak" into and out of your......

• Tennis Glossary pt3 Ace - This is a serve that the opponent is incapable of returning, to serve an ace. Ad - This is a shortened version of Advantage. Advantage - The player that scores the very first point after deuce is said to have had the advantage, because winning the next point......
• Federer and Nadal Coming Closer to a Rematch Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal are both now only two wins away from the first rematch that the two will have had since the Wimbledon match that was held about half a year ago. The two are now entering into the Qatar Open quarter-finals. Nadal only needed an hour in......
• Wii Tennis Tips And Thoughts on Two Weeks of Wii I had previously mentioned that we got a Nintendo Wii. I have two weeks of playing time in and I have to say that it is a winner when compared to watching television. In fact, I'd take the extra step and say it might be equal to an aerobic exercise......
• More Tips for Your Tennis Serve Here are some helpful tennis tips that will give you some perspective on improving your serve. Remember that different tennis tips are going to help different players in unique ways. The true key is going to lie in your ability to try out different tips and techniques until you......
• 6 Tennis Tips and Tricks Tennis tips and tricks are like small tweaks that you can make to your game in order to improve your play. If you are looking for a way to improve your capabilities as a tennis player, consider these tennis tips and tricks and then move on to look at other......

Playing the Score

Practice your singles and doubles match with altered scoring situations:

1. Start all games at love 30, 30 love, 30 all, 15-40 to experience the  pressure of being ahead, tied or behind with no room to play lose points.
2. Start all sets at 2 all, 3 all or down 2-4 and serving to feel the pressure of set scores that create no wiggle room for unfocused play
3. Play best 3 out of 5 tie breakers using the 10 point tie breaker used in place of a third set.  Use this in place of regular sets for challenge ladders and tie breaker experience (first to 10 points by 2 wins the breaker)
4. Play best 3 out of 5 tie breakers using the 12 point tie breaker used at 6 all in a set (first to 7 wins the breaker).

Situational Tactics

1. You can only score while serving.  If you lose the point the opponent serves until someone scores a point from that side of the court (deuce or ad court).  Like the old system of volleyball scoring, this situation teaches the players how to win while serving.  *Regular games and sets are played using this scoring or you may use some of the altered scoring scenarios from “Playing the Score” above.
2. Players must serve and volley both first and second serves.
3. Serves can only go to the backhand in both the deuce and ad courts, only to the forehand or into the body for a designated numbers of games to work on placement of the serve
4. Players only get 1 serve per point – no second serve.
5. All players must serve from the sunny side of the court each game.
6. Serving from the sunny side of the court, the servers must serve underhanded, side arm or some below the shoulder type of serve.
7. Servers must play with only a specific type of serve: slice, topspin or flat for a specific number of games.  This helps the players get lots of experience in practicing a particular type of serve.

Photo Credits: 1

• The Value of Tennis Rituals in Serving Rituals are automatic responses to a situation. In life we have rituals for getting up, driving our cars, eating and sleeping. In tennis we have rituals as well when we serve that help us to operate on an "automatic" or non-thinking level. The value of rituals in serving are many,......
• This will be my last update from Aussie Land... [/caption] Today was another great day and we finally had sunshine - yeah... I took the tram to Rod Laver and was able to get in straight away. Met with the Tennis Australia group that ran the Australian Coaches Conference and thanked them for making it such a great experience.......
• Both Players Back Formation When playing both players back, the serving team or receiving team both start together on the baseline. Reasons for the receiving team to stay back: 1. The serving team is too strong with the serve and it is difficult to return the ball past the server’s partner – fear factor.......
• Davis Cup Report [/caption] Playing in Serbia on the red clay, Americans John Isner and Sam Querry showed heart and where American tennis still has a great crop of young players coming along. In their first ever Davis Cup appearance, John and Sam lost their first matches as USA players.  That had to......
• 3 Secrets to Winning Doubles, pt 1 [/caption] This is the first post of three consecutive posts on the secrets to winning doubles in tennis. Secret #1 "Tennis Talk" - What to say and when to say it! Before the match: Decide with your partner ahead of time if you want to serve first, receive first, and......

• Tennis Glossary Continued Here is a continuation of the tennis glossary of terms that we have been working on for some time now. Round - In an elimination tournament a round is a set of matches where the winners of the matches move up to compete in the next round. Round Robin -......
• 100 Quick Tennis Tips pt 2 Here are 100 quick and easy tennis tips to get your game going. We're going to spread this list out over a couple of posts to keep it interesting. Tip #12 - When the ball is coming so fast that you are not going to get to it in time......
• More Tennis Tips pt 1 This is another installment of tennis tips that will improve all aspects of your game. Armed with the right tennis playing tips, you really can improve all aspects of game play from serves to returns and back again. 1 - When Hitting Forehand, Lay Wrist Back Where the ball......
• Tennis Glossary pt6 Error - This is a shot that did not manage to make it across the net, or that landed out of the court, and this will result in a loss of the point. Face - This is the racquet's flat area, one that is formed by way of the strings......
• Tennis Scoring A game of tennis starts with the service and ends when a player has scored 4 points, as long as they are also 2 points ahead of their opponent. Games are generally part of a set, which is a series of games played until one player has reached six wins,......