In honor of the Australian Open we are offering a 10% off lesson coupon to get you out on the court and playing like the pros!  Just enter the coupon code AUSSIE when prompted at checkout to redeem your savings.  This code will expire Sunday February 5th at midnight so don’t delay!

Practice Makes Permanent

by Scott Baxter

We’ve all heard the saying, “practice makes perfect.”  Unfortunately in tennis or in any other muscle memory related activity this isn’t always the case.  Tennis is a sport that requires technique and technique is learned through the repetition of performing the same movements over and over again.  We refer to this repetition as muscle memory, the more you practice the more the technique is ingrained in your brain.  When learning something new in a lesson, it is vital to your continued improvement that you do not revert back to your old habits going forward.  Oftentimes we will work with our students on restructuring their stroke technique during a lesson and developing new muscle memory.  However all of the progress from this lesson is lost if the next time they play with their friends they revert back to their old technique reinforcing the old muscle memory.  Many players believe that the more they  practice, the better they will become, or that practice makes perfect.  It is critical to realize that anything less than perfect practice when in the transition of changing your technique and muscle memory will actually cause you to backtrack, undoing the new muscle memory you worked so hard to achieve.

PlayYourCourt.com’s Tennis Tips are back!  Have a tennis related question?  Send your name and your question to tipoftheweek@playyourcourt.com and we will answer it in our next Tip of the Week!

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Scott Baxter is the Founder/ CEO of PlayYourCourt.com. PlayYourCourt.com provides tennis lessons where you want them, you choose the court we’ll send the pro! Go to PlayYourCourt.com to book a lesson on your court today!

Tennis Gift Cards!

Buy a Gift Card!

Need a great and easy gift idea for the tennis enthusiast on your Christmas list? Look no further, give them the gift of tennis instruction where they want it from PlayYourCourt.com. Buy your gift card at PlayYourCourt.com and instantly receive the gift certificate that allows your friends and family to book their lesson online at any location of their choice. Purchase, print, and gift!

PlayYourCourt.com the mobile tennis business that sends certified club level tennis instruction to any court  of your choice is coming to California!  We currently operate in 7 states on the East Coast and we’re finally expanding west.  We will be serving up various parts of the coast including Los Angeles, Orange County, and San Diego, as early as December of 2011.

If you would like to be informed of our progress click here to fill out our registration form and we will email you when we have professionals available to come to YOUR COURT!

Book a lesson in the first week of August and receive a discount worthy of braving the heat. Enter the code, “AUGUST” when prompted to receive your savings.

This spring PlayYourCourt.com is giving away a brand new Babolat Pure Storm Tour to our most active player.  The PlayYourCourt.com client that books the most lessons between now and June 1st will win the racket, no questions asked.  No registration necessary, just be our most active player and win a brand new Babolat Pure Storm Tour!  Also be sure to follow us on facebook and twitter for coupons and prize giveaways from both PlayYourCourt.com and our sponsors.

PlayYourCourt.com, the company that brings you high quality tennis instruction where you want it, has recently expanded south and now offers tennis lessons in Orlando!  Schedule a lesson with a USPTA certified tennis professional on your court today with PlayYourCourt.com.

Bad Volleys? Come to Net Anyway

by Scott Baxter

Just because you don’t have spectacular volleys doesn’t mean you shouldn’t come to net.  Think about the additional pressure you feel to come up with a more difficult shot when your opponent rushes the net.  This pressure to hit the ball where you’re not is more than enough to force errors out our your opponent that might not otherwise occur.  In fact at a club level of play 40% of the time a player comes to net his opponent will miss the next shot.  For all you math wizards out there that means you only have to make 11% of your volleys for it to make sense to come to net (they miss 40%, you make 11%, you win 51% of your net points).  Remember you don’t need amazing volleys to win points by rushing the net.

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Scott Baxter is the Founder/ CEO of PlayYourCourt.com. PlayYourCourt.com provides tennis lessons where you want them, you choose the court we’ll send the pro! Go to PlayYourCourt.com to book a lesson on your court today!

Keep Your Head in the Game…Literally

by Scott Baxter

One of the most common causes for unforced errors is lack of balance.  An easy way to ensure better balance is to stabilize your head.  Many players follow the ball with their head instead of with their eyes when it enters and exits their strike zone and this results in poor balance.  By keeping your head steady you are much less likely to pull away from the ball at contact.  Follow the ball with your eyes and pretend as if you are balancing a book on your head and you will make fewer errors.

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Scott Baxter is the Founder/ CEO of PlayYourCourt.com. PlayYourCourt.com provides tennis lessons where you want them, you choose the court we’ll send the pro! Go to PlayYourCourt.com to book a lesson on your court today!

There Is No Such Thing As A Low Overhead

by Scott Baxter

I’m not one of those coaches who is going to lie to you and tell you that it’s impossible to be successful swinging at a volley.  However, what I will tell you is that if you swing at your volley and it comes back, it is far more difficult to execute the next shot than it would be if you had used proper technique on your first volley.  You hear coaches time and time again say don’t swing at your volleys; punch them.  When we swing at a volley, particularly a high volley, we generate a lot of momentum with our arm and we follow through.  This follow through makes it very difficult to efficiently set up for the next shot, leaving us unprepared for when our swinging volley is returned.  The next time you think about swinging at a high volley remember that what you gain in power you lose in preparation time for your next volley.

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Scott Baxter is the Founder/ CEO of PlayYourCourt.com. PlayYourCourt.com provides tennis lessons where you want them, you choose the court we’ll send the pro! Go to PlayYourCourt.com to book a lesson on your court today!