Over the years, I’ve invested a huge amount of time and money in my tennis education (clinics, privates, teams, online tools), betting that my investments in training will generate priceless dividends in the form of happiness and health down the road. Given the incredible amount I’m learning from amazing coaches and trainers, it occurred to me that I might be able to help others with a similar drive to improve if I started documenting lessons learned (and frustrations) on my own journey. I’ve learned a ton from the process of putting stuff down on paper (and video)– and it’s my been sincere hope that sharing some of my own epiphanies and experiences will help others wanting to fast-track their own improvement. I also hope my posts help coaches on the lookout for new ways to explain things to students and help them break through to the next level.

This blog is primarily geared towards players who share some (or all) of the following qualities:

• You’re passionate about tennis
• You started playing (or returned to playing) as an adult
• You want to push yourself to the highest level possible
• You want to train as efficiently and cost-effectively as possible

Full disclaimer: I am a student of the game, not a teaching pro— so fellow students are strongly advised to dive into many of the professional sites I’ll recommend on this blog for a far more comprehensive set of time-tested tools and strategies. My goal here is to add insights from a student’s perspective in ways that complement to all the great professional sites already out there. Some of my favorites include

• Jeff Salzenstein’s Total Tennis Training
• John Yandell’s TennisPlayer.net
• Will Hamilton’s Fuzzy Yellow Balls
• Ian Westermann’s Essential Tennis 
• Craig O’Shannessy’s Brain Game Tennis 
• Bob Litwin’s Blog
• Jeff Greenwald’s Fearless Tennis
• Florian Meier’s OnlineTennisInstruction 
• Clay Ballard’s TopSpeed Tennis
• Bill & Matt Previdi’s The Previdi System 
• TennisResources.com

From a tennis fitness perspective, I’ve also worked hard to become an expert on the kind of fitness training tennis players need– especially competitive adult recreational players– to enhance performance on court and ward off injuries well into our “golden years.” In my 20’s I was a certified fitness instructor and have since achieved Personal Trainer certifications from the International Sports Sciences Association (ISSA) and American Council on Exercise (ACE), as well becoming an ISSA-certified “Specialist in Fitness Nutrition.” I’m also an iTPA Certified Tennis Performance Specialist — the gold standard certification for fitness training in the tennis industry–and also am  RacquetFit certified. I pursued these certifications both to be more empowered to create sound training regimens for myself and to stay at the cutting edge in helping design the curriculum for The Tennis Congress.