Category Archives: Tennis

Shape of Topspin Groundstrokes

I learned this from the legendary Coach Steve Smith. The shape of the swing on a topspin ground stroke goes high-low-high and inside-out. This is a critical concept to understand from the beginning because it sets the stage for an efficient stroke. Later on it also leads to the development of lag or use of the stretch shortening cycle.


The Hips in the Kinetic Chain

The hips play a crucial role in transferring forces from the ground, up through the body and out into the racket. The role they play is a fundamental one in striking sports.

Here is a video of my 3 year-old son swinging a 26 inch racket two-handed. Without even knowing it he is learning how to use the hip in this manner.


Practice Secrets

A few weeks ago I began an experiment. I wanted to teach myself to play tennis right handed. As a reference I am actually left handed in all I do.

Here is a video of my right and left comparisons.

I wanted to do this experiment for several reasons.

  1. A fellow coach @BigFootTennis can play righty and lefty which inspired me.
  2. I wanted to better relate to the kids I work with. I wanted to experience what it was like to learn a stroke from scratch.
  3. I wanted to see if I could discover a way to speed up the learning process.

So each night my 4 year old son and I head down to the garage and pull out the cars. I toss him some balls, he tries to hit me, he gets some coaching without knowing it and we have a lot of fun before bed. Once he loses interest I spend 5 minutes practicing with my right hand. Sometimes I practice with only a racket doing shadow swings and other times I use my Eye Coach (Coupon Code “SlezakPro” gets you a discount). My practice session is not long but I do it each and every day.

In a couple of few weeks I have seen tremendous growth. More importantly I have found out exactly how to speed up the process of acquiring a skill and it even works well in a pandemic.

  1. You must understand the movement. If you do not know what exactly to practice you are in a cycle of trial and error. That cycle wastes a lot of time. This is where a knowledgable coach whether in person or online via video analysis comes in. A coach is invaluable because they save you time and the only thing in life you cannot get any more of is time. Believe me I wish I knew then what I know now about tennis.
  2. You have to be consistent. I did not spend a ton of time each day practicing but I did show up everyday. By practicing just a few minutes each day it sends the brain a message that, “this is important and we want to become efficient at it.”
  3. You have to think about what you are practicing. I started slowly and deliberately focusing exclusively on getting the movement right. Gradually the motion got smoother and more coordinated. I noticed that when my toddler would distract me my practice was terrible but when I was thinking about what I was doing just for a few minutes it was obvious how good the practice was.
  4. It helped not to be on a tennis court. It helped tremendously to not have an end result to focus on. By not seeing a tennis ball flying through the air it allowed me to focus exclusively on my technique, which goes right back to number 3.

I am not surprised by any of the things I learned. In fact it only reinforces what I have known as a coach for years. But I hope learning to play with my opposite hand in my late 30’s inspires youngsters to practice just a few minutes each and every day wherever and however they can.

Here is a video where you can shadow swing right along with me.

Important Summer Tennis Announcement

Unfortunately, with all that is going on with COVID-19 and the announcement that the high school campus will be closed this summer due to construction we will NOT be able to hold our regularly scheduled 2020 tennis camps.

As disappointing and unfortunate as that is I do have some good news. I will still be available for private lessons this summer. If this is something that would interest you please get in contact with me via email info@alexslezak.com or phone for the details.

Teaching all outdoor private lessons this summer will allow for the safest, most productive and flexible way to continue playing tennis.

I appreciate all the support over the years, stay safe and please keep in touch!

Coach Alex Slezak


The 2nd Most Important Shot

If you follow the stats or Craig O’Shannessy you know that somewhere around 65% of the points played in tennis are 3 shots or less. That is a serve, return and one shot after. And no that is not a made up statistic and it is true for Men, Women and Junior players.

The serve is by far the most important shot in tennis. And I am going to venture out and say the ability to turn backhands into forehands is the second most important shot. By doing so as a server you are often able to hit an outright winner, force an error, or put your opponent in a defensive position on the 3rd shot of a point. If you are a returner it allows you to be offensive on second serve opportunities by turning those weaker serves often aimed at your backhand and make it a powerful forehand. Here is a video showing the footwork patterns of the cross-behind and cross-front needed to turn backhands into forehands.

If you were wondering what makes up the other 35% of points played here it is. About 30% of the points played are 4 total shots and just around 5% are 5 or more shots. Listen to Craig O’Shannessy and practice like the game is played. Work on the serve, return and turning backhands into forehands.


Driveway Conditioning Workout

Need some conditioning in quarantine? Set an exercise timer for 20 seconds of work and 10 seconds rest for 8 consecutive rounds.

  • Round 1-2 open stance forehands/closed stance backhands
  • Round 3-4 closed stance forehands/open stance backhands
  • Round 5-6 wide open stance forehands and backhands
  • Round 7-8 closed stance forehands and backhands 
  • Rest for one minute between rounds and during the rest shadow swing serves.

Repeat for 2,3,4 or 5 rounds depending on your fitness level. 


Serve Power Exercises

The serve is probably the hardest thing to work on at home but the trophy or power position is one thing that you can improve upon. Below is a video of some exercises I have been doing at home with an aerobic step and bands.

Also look back at the series I did on serve technique:


Low Box Exercises

If you have an aerobic step at home here are some great exercises you can use to work on the ability to load and explode with the legs. And don’t forget to do your shadow swings and cover some ground laterally. This quick accelerations and decelerations are easy to practice at home and something that gets missed without playing points and sets.