07/10/2023
About Me:
Former USTA ranked junior from Minneapolis, Minnesota with 10 years experience in competition both USTA and State high school level (Minneapolis All City High School Junior). Worked extensively with USTA Northern legend Nick Pappas, local coaches Jim Barry, Bruce Boland, Todd Ruedisili. More current: Assisted Gary Aasen, John Arp, Greg Witta, and Dana Young
*Former Volunteer Assistant Pro at Baseline Tennis Center in Minneapolis, MN summer 2014-2016.
*Former Assistant Pro at Minikahda Country Club 2018.
*Former Inner City Tennis Summer in the Parks Children’s Head Pro 2021- 22.
I am also a Certified Professional Skiing Instructor with the PSIA. I am working to gather tennis coaching experience and further my teaching credentials toward USPTA Certification currently as a freelance coach.
Philosophy: As a ski instructor the similarities between skiing and the tennis “classroom” afford many comparable methods of instruction and skill development. Balance, movement analysis, teaching method: doer, seer, thinker, feeler? How do you learn best? Refinement comes after mastering the basics...
Movement in both tennis and skiing require the aspiring athlete to often deconstruct the many bad habits that are developed in the beginner/intermediate stages while “trying” to teach yourself, you cannot teach yourself unless you may be a prodigy, no sweat!! To be perfectly honest, YOU NEED A LESSON!!
As my method is to analyze your tennis game, strokes, and footwork take you back to square one if required, solidify the VERY basics, then and only then does style and experimentation come into the equation. Tennis is very MIND oriented, therefore errors on court can be often remedied by simply deconstructing a players form and footwork, video analysis is great tool, watch yourself play, then make those adjustments...
Let’s work on high backhands, backhand overheads, half volleys, serve placement, serve (kickers, slice, outside kickers), foot drills, cardio, split step/split step timing, running your opponent both mentally and physically, slice backhands-two handed-top spin... backboard drills... quickness...
