Tip of the Week
If You Can't Do It Without a Ball, How Can You Do It With the Ball?

USATT Teleconference
We had a USATT Board of Directors Teleconference last night, from 7-9:20PM. Alas, only five of the nine USATT board members were able to attend. On the call were board members Anne Cribbs (chair), Gary Schlager, Carolyne Savini, Erica Wu, and myself; plus (in various capacities) Dennis Taylor (USATT lawyer), Carl Danner (chair of HPC), Jasna Rather (USATT Director of Para Programs), Gordon Kaye (former CEO, asked to be available on certain issues), Jörg Bitzigeio (High Performance Director), Mark Thompson (COO/Interim CEO), Chris Mauro (USATT Accountant), Han Xiao (Chair Of U.S. Olympic Committee Athletes' Advisory Committee), Roger Dickson, and Sebastian di Francesco.

We were supposed to review and approve the minutes from the October meeting, but we only had four board members at the start - there might have been a mix-up as I think...

Tip of the Week
The Next Point is the Biggest Point of Your Life.

U.S. Open
Wait, was a U.S. Open going on while I was coaching at the U.S. Open? Because I'm busy coaching, I rarely actually see the "big" matches at major tournaments, this this year's U.S. Open was no different. However, I did see the Men's and Women's Singles Finals, and they were incredible! Before I go further, here are a few links:

• Complete Results
• Men's Final - Eugene Wang vs Ryohei Kanoya (9:40)
• Women's Final - Liu Juan vs Lily Zhang (6:32)

Many thought the Men's Final would be an execution, with the way Wang was playing - could anybody beat him? (He's previously won the U.S. Open...

Tip of the Week
Style Disadvantage or Tactical Problem?

Weekend Coaching
On Saturday we had the usual Junior League, which is half league, half coaching. I spent some time working with many of our top juniors on doubles - I've sort of been put in charge of that. I worked with Stanley Hsu and Mu Du, who will be playing doubles together in three events - 10 and Under Boys' Doubles, Hopes Boys' Doubles, and Ratings Doubles. (If they can improve their positioning, they will do well.) In singles, we did a lot of work on serve and attack, forehand and backhand. Some of our players were following through off balance after forehand loops, and unable to get set for the next shot, so I spent a bunch of time on that, including demoing getting back into position quickly, even after a powerful forehand. Balance is key!!! (Dan Seemiller always emphasizes that, and he's right.) We also worked on attacking deep serves, and forehand attacking from the middle.

On Sunday, in the Beginning Junior Class, we ran the players through a number of...

Tip of the Week
Forehand Stroke Efficiency. (Note - on Monday night I added a last line that links to Ma Long's forehand loop, as an example.) 

Weekend Coaching

• Friday: I watched and took notes on our junior players for 2.5 hours during the Friday night league at MDTTC, getting ready to coach them at the North American Teams this coming weekend. Lots of little stuff, some big stuff. The hard part at this point is deciding on what things each player should focus on. For example, there are two players who still tend to serve and go into a backhand position, and so often aren't ready for easy forehands. Do we spend the week trying to fix this, or wait until after the Teams? (I've been on them for this for months.) In general, most are pretty much ready. I told them that for this last week, play lots of practice matches and practice their serves.
• Saturday: I coached in the Saturday night junior league training, which is half league, half training. We had them play team matches, using the...