WAYS TO GET BETTER THIS SUMMER
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WEST OTTAWA SUMMER TENNIS CAMP
What: 7-week long camp that students sign up for on a weekly basis.
Where: High School South Courts
When: Every Monday-Thursday leading to the Fall Season except for the 4th of July week.
Cost: $40
Time: 10-11:30am
How to sign up: Click the link below, then fill out your name and the week you want to register for. If you want to register for multiple weeks, click the link multiple times.
Where: High School South Courts
When: Every Monday-Thursday leading to the Fall Season except for the 4th of July week.
Cost: $40
Time: 10-11:30am
How to sign up: Click the link below, then fill out your name and the week you want to register for. If you want to register for multiple weeks, click the link multiple times.
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PLAY WITH THE WEST OTTAWA TEAM
MONDAY NIGHTS: MEN'S NIGHT
TIME: 6-8 PM
WHERE: High School SOUTH Courts COST: Free FORMAT: Match play. Usually 3 sets against different players. Play varies between singles and doubles. WHO'S INVITED: All guys who play middle-school or high school tennis at West Ottawa. DATES: June 25, July 9, 16, 23, 30, August 6 |
WEDNESDAY NIGHTS: WOMEN'S NIGHT
TIME: 6-8 PM
WHERE: High School SOUTH Courts COST: Free FORMAT: Match play. Usually 3 sets against different players. Play varies between singles and doubles. WHO'S INVITED: All girls who play middle-school or high school tennis at West Ottawa. DATES: June 27, July 11, 18, 25, August 1, 8 |
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WEEK-LONG ACADEMY
WHY PLAY AT AN ACADEMY: This is where the top Middle-School and High School players train. The vast majority of varsity players at West Ottawa and the top JV players participate in either the MVP or Dewitt Academy. There, you will train for about 5 hours a day, 5 days a week. You will get help from West Michigan's best instructors and you will play with the area's best tennis players.
MVP ACADEMY
DAYS: Monday-Friday
TIME: 10:30 - 3:00 WHERE: West Ottawa High School NORTH Courts DATES: You can the week/weeks that you want. LINK: Click Here for MVP Academy Information Why Some People Choose MVP:
1. It's at West Ottawa, so it's a close, convenient location. 2. West Ottawa offers strength/conditioning in the High School North each Mon/Wed/Thur before their Academy begins. So you can go straight from lifting to tennis without driving anywhere. |
DEWITT ACADEMY
DAYS: Monday-Friday
TIME: 10:30 - 3:30 WHERE: Dewitt Tennis Center DATES: You can pick the week/weeks that you want. LINK: Click Here for Dewitt Academy Information Why Some People Choose Dewitt:
1. On Tuesdays/Wednesdays, their pros stay 30 minutes after the academy to give free quick private instruction to any kids who stay. 2. Dewitt also offers a night academy on Tuesdays and Thursdays from 6-8PM. If you do the daytime academy, you can show up for night academy for free any time you want. |
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PRIVATE OR SEMI-PRIVATE LESSONS
REASON #1 TO SIGN UP FOR A LESSON: If you are looking to play a serious amount of tennis over a given stretch of time, consider getting private instruction at the start of it. For example, if you are doing 3 weeks of Academy, that basically means you will play about 70 hours of tennis! If you are going to spend 70 hours of time doing something, it may be smart to...
1. Think about one or two specific things you want to improve on.
2. Call an instructor who will be teaching at your academy, and set up 1 or 2 privates with them.
3. Tell them exactly what you want to improve at before hand, so they can tailor a lesson to those things.
4. Then, you can spend those 70 hours with far greater purpose, focusing on the new things you are learning.
5. As an added bonus, because you picked an instructor who is at the academy, they will be watching over you for those three
weeks to make sure you are practice your new skills correctly.
Here's a hypothetical to consider from a cost standpoint...the following two options would cost about the same:
Option 1: Doing 3 private lessons along with 2 weeks of an academy.
Option 2: Doing 3 weeks of academy no private lessons.
In my opinion, for the same amount of money, Option 1 is going to make you a better player than Option 2.
REASON #2 TO SIGN UP FOR PRIVATE LESSONS: Some of you are involved in many other activities besides Tennis. Because of this, your time is very valuable. So, even though you may love tennis, it isn't realistic to play 5 hours a day, all summer long, like some of our players do. Private lessons are a way to improve very, very quickly in a short amount of time. In the past, I've seen kids do a private each week over the summer instead of the summer-long academy. This gives them flexibility to do their other activities. Then, when they have time during other parts of the day/week, they go out with friends/parents/teammates and work on the things they learned at the Private lesson. You can improve quickly with this strategy, but only if you actually go out and practice the things you learned on your own time!
1. Think about one or two specific things you want to improve on.
2. Call an instructor who will be teaching at your academy, and set up 1 or 2 privates with them.
3. Tell them exactly what you want to improve at before hand, so they can tailor a lesson to those things.
4. Then, you can spend those 70 hours with far greater purpose, focusing on the new things you are learning.
5. As an added bonus, because you picked an instructor who is at the academy, they will be watching over you for those three
weeks to make sure you are practice your new skills correctly.
Here's a hypothetical to consider from a cost standpoint...the following two options would cost about the same:
Option 1: Doing 3 private lessons along with 2 weeks of an academy.
Option 2: Doing 3 weeks of academy no private lessons.
In my opinion, for the same amount of money, Option 1 is going to make you a better player than Option 2.
REASON #2 TO SIGN UP FOR PRIVATE LESSONS: Some of you are involved in many other activities besides Tennis. Because of this, your time is very valuable. So, even though you may love tennis, it isn't realistic to play 5 hours a day, all summer long, like some of our players do. Private lessons are a way to improve very, very quickly in a short amount of time. In the past, I've seen kids do a private each week over the summer instead of the summer-long academy. This gives them flexibility to do their other activities. Then, when they have time during other parts of the day/week, they go out with friends/parents/teammates and work on the things they learned at the Private lesson. You can improve quickly with this strategy, but only if you actually go out and practice the things you learned on your own time!
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TAKE CHARGE OF YOUR OWN IMPROVEMENT
I'll admit that the easiest/fastest way to get better is to train at a club and get private instruction. But, you can also get very good on a small budget by doing it the old-fashioned way. My friend Mark and I grew up in a town with no tennis clubs and no academies. I took one private lesson in my whole life. I don't think Mark ever took one. Despite that, I was a starter for Grand Valley State every year I played. My friend Mark played for Hope College. Growing up, we worked very hard and were thoughtful about how we trained. Below are the three biggest things that I believe allowed me to find success:
1. Find a good friend and get to work. When I was 14, I met Mark Johnson, now a dear friend of mine. Throughout high school, we spent our summers playing together nearly every day. We played 2-4 hours almost every day together. When we went out, we played with purpose. For example, sometimes we would do nothing but hit down the line backhands for 30 minutes straight. Every time we get together, competition was part of the experience. We always played at least a set, but we usually played a match.
Why was this important? We didn't know it at the time, but the hours we put in together every day basically simulated what kids do at the MVP and Dewitt Academies. We drilled, practice specific strokes, then finished each day with competitive match play. It guaranteed that each day we were hitting thousands of forehands, backhands, volleys, overheads, serves, and returns.
But it only works if: you play with purpose! Just going and playing a lot with a friend doesn't necessarily get you any better. When you go out to the courts, you and your friend should talk about what you want to get better at, and make a plan. And every outing should include some competition, even if that only means playing a few tiebreakers, or groundstroke games up to ten. It's important that you put yourself situations where someone wins and someone loses. Not everyone in life always deserves a cookie, and competition teaches you how to deal with that fact.
2. Serve. I served an average of 150 tennis balls every single day. That is 3 hoppers worth of balls. It only takes about 30 minutes to do this, but you have to do it every day. Somedays I would say to myself, "ok, nothing but ad-court serves out wide today". I'd set up a target, and all I'd do was hit towards that one spot. If you do something like every single day for several years, you are going to get better. My parents are apple growers, and we had a large barn. So in the winter, I cleared an area, and used duct tape and laid down court lines. I set a string where the net should have been. Each evening after school, dinner, and homework, I went out to the barn and served. Every day meant every day!
Why was this important? If you can out-serve your opponent, you don't get broken. When you don't get broken, you don't lose very often. By the time my Junior year of high school came around, not many kids in West Michigan could beat me anymore. I had 2 or 3 different serves I hit, but my best serve was a spin serve that curved into their body or their backhand, depending on what I wanted to do with it. I WANT TO BE VERY CLEAR; A DOMINANT SERVE IS THE #1 WEAPON ANY TENNIS PLAYER CAN POSSESS. PERIOD!
But it only works if: you get quality instruction first. I said above that I took one private lesson growing up. I did it to get an overview of how the serve is hit by a certified professional. I figured it would be well worth the investment, and it was. In retrospect, my biggest regret is that I didn't invest more of my own money as a child into private instruction. Considering the thousands of hours I put in practicing, it would have been a worthwhile investment and I would be a far better player today.
3. Have Vision. When I was a kid, I had a pad of sticky notes by my bed. After my Freshman year, I started writing the name of a teammate or opponent who was just a little better than me on them. Under, their name, I wrote a couple things I had to improve to beat that person. I stuck the note on the wall next to my bed. Then I got to work with my friend Mark to improve on those things. When I felt I had improved enough, I called the person up and played them. If I lost, I went back to work with Mark, and later challenged the person again. When I won, I threw the note in the trash. Then I wrote a new name down and repeated the process.
When I was 14 years old, I was not a good player. But I saw the player that I was going to be. I WAS going to be #1 singles, and before I graduated, I WAS going to be the best player in the conference. And I didn't particularly care how hard I would have to work to do it. Once you know in your gut how good you are going to be, it gives you a focus that can't be described. By age 17, I had become a very hard person to beat. At the end of my Junior year, I went home from the OK-Blue conference tournament as the conference champion at 1st Singles. I had finally reached my goal and a lot of people congratulated me. But my favorite moment from the day came that evening after my parents drove me home. I went straight up to my room and walked to the wall next to my bed. I took that last sticky note off the wall and placed it in the trash can next to my bed. It took 2 and a half years, but I had finally beaten everyone.
KNOW WHAT YOU WANT AND BELIEVE IN YOURSELF. DON'T HOPE FOR GOOD THINGS TO HAPPEN IN LIFE. GET TO WORK AND MAKE THEM HAPPEN.
1. Find a good friend and get to work. When I was 14, I met Mark Johnson, now a dear friend of mine. Throughout high school, we spent our summers playing together nearly every day. We played 2-4 hours almost every day together. When we went out, we played with purpose. For example, sometimes we would do nothing but hit down the line backhands for 30 minutes straight. Every time we get together, competition was part of the experience. We always played at least a set, but we usually played a match.
Why was this important? We didn't know it at the time, but the hours we put in together every day basically simulated what kids do at the MVP and Dewitt Academies. We drilled, practice specific strokes, then finished each day with competitive match play. It guaranteed that each day we were hitting thousands of forehands, backhands, volleys, overheads, serves, and returns.
But it only works if: you play with purpose! Just going and playing a lot with a friend doesn't necessarily get you any better. When you go out to the courts, you and your friend should talk about what you want to get better at, and make a plan. And every outing should include some competition, even if that only means playing a few tiebreakers, or groundstroke games up to ten. It's important that you put yourself situations where someone wins and someone loses. Not everyone in life always deserves a cookie, and competition teaches you how to deal with that fact.
2. Serve. I served an average of 150 tennis balls every single day. That is 3 hoppers worth of balls. It only takes about 30 minutes to do this, but you have to do it every day. Somedays I would say to myself, "ok, nothing but ad-court serves out wide today". I'd set up a target, and all I'd do was hit towards that one spot. If you do something like every single day for several years, you are going to get better. My parents are apple growers, and we had a large barn. So in the winter, I cleared an area, and used duct tape and laid down court lines. I set a string where the net should have been. Each evening after school, dinner, and homework, I went out to the barn and served. Every day meant every day!
Why was this important? If you can out-serve your opponent, you don't get broken. When you don't get broken, you don't lose very often. By the time my Junior year of high school came around, not many kids in West Michigan could beat me anymore. I had 2 or 3 different serves I hit, but my best serve was a spin serve that curved into their body or their backhand, depending on what I wanted to do with it. I WANT TO BE VERY CLEAR; A DOMINANT SERVE IS THE #1 WEAPON ANY TENNIS PLAYER CAN POSSESS. PERIOD!
But it only works if: you get quality instruction first. I said above that I took one private lesson growing up. I did it to get an overview of how the serve is hit by a certified professional. I figured it would be well worth the investment, and it was. In retrospect, my biggest regret is that I didn't invest more of my own money as a child into private instruction. Considering the thousands of hours I put in practicing, it would have been a worthwhile investment and I would be a far better player today.
3. Have Vision. When I was a kid, I had a pad of sticky notes by my bed. After my Freshman year, I started writing the name of a teammate or opponent who was just a little better than me on them. Under, their name, I wrote a couple things I had to improve to beat that person. I stuck the note on the wall next to my bed. Then I got to work with my friend Mark to improve on those things. When I felt I had improved enough, I called the person up and played them. If I lost, I went back to work with Mark, and later challenged the person again. When I won, I threw the note in the trash. Then I wrote a new name down and repeated the process.
When I was 14 years old, I was not a good player. But I saw the player that I was going to be. I WAS going to be #1 singles, and before I graduated, I WAS going to be the best player in the conference. And I didn't particularly care how hard I would have to work to do it. Once you know in your gut how good you are going to be, it gives you a focus that can't be described. By age 17, I had become a very hard person to beat. At the end of my Junior year, I went home from the OK-Blue conference tournament as the conference champion at 1st Singles. I had finally reached my goal and a lot of people congratulated me. But my favorite moment from the day came that evening after my parents drove me home. I went straight up to my room and walked to the wall next to my bed. I took that last sticky note off the wall and placed it in the trash can next to my bed. It took 2 and a half years, but I had finally beaten everyone.
KNOW WHAT YOU WANT AND BELIEVE IN YOURSELF. DON'T HOPE FOR GOOD THINGS TO HAPPEN IN LIFE. GET TO WORK AND MAKE THEM HAPPEN.