How Not to Play Tennis

By Shaun J Boyce

With the three basic concepts of Prepositional, Optical, and Anatomical, any tennis player truly interested in improving and learning can significantly increase their tennis knowledge and certainly improve their game. And it works! Really.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Shaun J Boyce
• Release date: Feb 22, 2022
• ISBN: 9798201099336

Shaun J Boyce

A cancer survivor, Shaun Boyce, seen here with his wife Geovanna, has been athletic since birth.  Born in Dallas but spending most of his life in the greater Atlanta area, he has always pursued his beliefs passionately be they on the court or off.  His parents were weekend athletes thus he was involved in sports from the age of four. Shaun has always multi-tasked and treasures his time with others.  He especially enjoys helping to discipline and mold young minds using his enthusiastic attitude, sharp wit, and keen sense of humor and does so through tennis, chess, and philosophy.  When it is time to relax, Shaun is most at ease while socializing with his family, friends, and colleagues with tennis on television in the background. A graduate of Lipscomb University in Nashveill, which he attended on academic, tennis and music scholarships, Shaun excelled in math and obtained his degree in Philosophy.  In his spare time, while not on court or working on his studies, Shaun organized an off campus band.  Along with a group of talented musicians, he and his brother Kyle wrote and performed original music using a basement for rehearsals and sound checks. Shaun resides in the greater Atlanta area and continues his multi-tasking style running TennisForChildren.com, he is the cofounder of reGeovinate.com which is a Fitness, Health, and Wellness Studio focusing on interactive online programs, and of course as an author with additional writings under way. -Jason Boyce

Book preview

Acknowledgments

THIS BOOK HAS BEEN a long time in the making. Through countless tennis lessons and putting together my ideas to publish Prepositional Tennis, I have threatened friends and family for quite some time. Without Kathie, my generous editor, and Jon my long time friend and publisher, this project might still be on the list of ‘things to do’.

I truly thank all of you who shared your expertise and opinions through interviews and communication across the country. I also apologize to those personally abused in this book as I did not change their names to protect the guilty.

The republishing of this book into e-book form is a new experience for me. Since my life has changed dramatically since first publishing in 2009, I could not have predicted how wonderful those changes have been.

I thank my wife Geovy, first of all, for offering my life an ‘aim’ as well as assisting with the re-conceptualizing and also re-editing of these now digital pages.  We have had to make some concessions in format, but the content is fully intact.

Next, I thank my friends and family who have supported all of my efforts through the years and I hope to repay them all (somehow) for their kindness and love.

Introduction

Whoever said, ‘It’s not whether you win or lose that counts,’ probably lost.

-Martina Navratilova

HAVE YOU EVER HAD THAT tennis pro who was absolutely sure that there is only one ‘true’ or ‘right’ way to hit a forehand? Thankfully, this is not as common among teaching professionals as it easily could be. I remember going back and forth (for years) about the ‘right’ progression for a client to learn to serve. I had no true opinion of my own at the time but I was fairly sure that there was not only one ‘right’ way for everyone to progress. There is often a ‘right’ way for an individual player to progress, but in this case there is no set program that could be universally applied.

These types of issues led my mind to begin attempting to create some concept or program or maybe even a set of ideals that can be universally applied to teaching tennis. Which (if any) are the ideas or concepts within teaching (and learning) tennis that are always consistent. I have compiled (some might say borrowed) as many ideas and concepts as I can collect and have tried to place them into two basic categories: Universal and Relative. Where Universal concepts should have the ability to be applied to almost every client in almost every situation, Relative concepts are functional only in certain situations with certain clients.

Since my education is based in Philosophy, I have a certain psychological need to create consistent terminology and this leads me to create names for the ideas I share.  As an example, I realized fairly quickly the difference between the prepositions and prepositional phrases I was using to describe certain intentional shots to my clients. After some deliberation, I was able to set commonly used prepositions into two separate categories. Certain directionality based prepositional phrases showed aggressive tendencies or results and others showed passive tendencies or results. Prepositional Tennis is the concept of intent in shot making within the sport of tennis.

First, back up and look at a few examples to clarify the distinction between a ‘universal concept’ and a ‘relative’ one. A Relative concept would be which forehand grip should a beginner learn first? Is the client a 5 year old beginner or a 35 year old beginner? Are they short or tall? Do they have an idea as to how they ‘want’ to hold the racquet and should we allow them to begin with whatever grip feels comfortable and simply adjust their grip as they progress? The forehand grip, although I have actually heard it argued as Universal, is a Relative concept which should be evaluated on a case by case basis. Unfortunately, I have met quite a few tennis professionals that only have one way to teach and one concept to teach, and this creates a lot of bad tennis.  This is where I come in!

Now, an example of a Universal concept would be what to do with your eyes while hitting a tennis ball. In Optical Tennis we will explore the simplest and least known (in my mind) concept which is something I have been heavily promoting to my clients for years. Watch the ball hit the strings. If your tennis coach is not reminding you of this on a consistent basis you should consider finding a more competent coach. This is a concept that is true for every tennis player within every stroke and in every situation.  This is my absolute favorite example of a Universal concept. Notice that the phrase is not watch the ball or keep your eyes on the ball. And we’ll get to that.

So, again; two different categories for all ideas. Universal or Relative. Are the concepts based on a specific circumstance and should be varied and specified differently for individual clients or is it a concept that is true for most situations if not all situations? I’ll discuss a few of these concepts as a need for generic clarity within the tennis teaching profession seems to be clear.

And finally, Anatomical Tennis is a concept that I must attribute learning from other tennis professionals as it was not my original concept.

Two tennis professionals in the Atlanta area realized that club players and professional players alike hit the ball much better while swinging across their bodies, while the shot hit alongside the body was significantly weaker. The best way to describe the results of their studies is to say that most tennis players at most levels follow the same patterns and naturally hit the ball where their bodies anatomically force them. Not only can this help us make better shot making decisions ourselves, but we can have a pretty good idea of where our opponent will probably hit the ball. And this is another example of a Universal concept within tennis.

With the three basic concepts of Prepositional, Optical, and Anatomical, any tennis player truly interested in improving and