Hey, everyone. Before we get started today, I want to let you know I'll be posting all podcasts on YouTube now in case you prefer to watch. I personally find watching podcasts is more enjoyable. And although I know many of you listen in your cars, I'll be linking the YouTube video in the show notes for each episode moving forward. The YouTube videos will also be a little less edited in case you want to laugh at me and my guests for making embarrassing mistakes.
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On today's episode, we have Ashley Neves, who many of you may know as the tennis mentor on social media. He has just under 200,000 followers on Instagram and almost 100,000 subscribers on YouTube. He's a two-time LTA Coach of the Year winner in the UK, and he's honestly even a better person than he is a coach. On today's episode, we discuss receiving skills, the five R's and how they can improve your ground strokes, and his best advice for the 4-0 player.
So sit back, relax, and prepare to become a smarter tennis player. All right, Ashley, welcome to the pod. Great to be here, Jonathan. It was great meeting you in New Orleans a couple weeks ago. I asked you, I wonder how many people actually know that your name is Ashley instead of the tennis mentor? I wonder that myself. To be honest, I would say more people.
online know me as the tennis mentor um it does say my name in my um when you go into my account but most people just know me as the tennis mentor and actually i was at a tournament once um and somebody shouted over the tennis mentor um And I had to tell them my name is Ashley and that sort of thing. But it's funny. I love it. Well, you got an iconic look. You have a lot of fans. Like I said, we have a lot of Instagram questions to get to later.
When I asked you over DM, I said, kind of, what do you want to talk about? And you gave me a gloriously broad topic, which was skill development. So the first question I have is. What would be the most important skills or the most important skill that you think a beginner or an intermediate player could learn or could start with? To be honest, my whole coaching philosophy has changed since starting. I used to be a super...
technical coach. I used to love biomechanics. I used to go really in deep with, you know, serve mechanics forehand, backhand. I've been coaching for around 18 years now. So gradually through my time on court, I've kind of figured out lots of things that work really well with my players and other things that don't work so well. And I would say now.
I'm probably the least technical that I've ever been with my players. And so when it comes to skill development, technique is still vital for a number of reasons. I think if I'm looking to prevent injuries with a player.
technique is vital for that you know if i see something going on with somebody's stroke that is going to result in injury then i'll definitely jump in and change it or if i see something that is happening with somebody's stroke that I feel is going to make them hit a plateau within their game, you know, maybe they're inefficient, they're going to lack power or they're going to struggle to get the ball deep, then that's another moment where I'll intervene with something technical.
but really it comes down to receiving skills so Tennis, you know, if you compare it to golf, I think tennis and golf are often compared as two of the most technically difficult sports. The biggest difference between tennis and golf is golf, you're hitting a static ball.
tennis you're hitting a moving ball and every single shot that you strike if we're if we take this serve to one side and think about every other ball in tennis you're receiving something that's coming to you very differently every time height depth speed spin direction so that's what makes tennis so exciting for me no one ball is the same which is why when it comes to skill development i really prioritize receiving skills first
before teaching sending skills when i talk about receiving skills it's how you receive the ball because if we're looking at something technical within a stroke let's say a forehand or a backhand everything revolves around your contact point so if i'm hitting a forehand And, you know, I'm not following through properly or, you know, maybe I'm not able to get enough topspin. Most of the time it's a result of a poor contact, i.e. poor timing. And that comes back to your receiving skills.
And so, yeah, nowadays I really prioritize those receiving skills before we jump into technique. And alongside that, I also prioritize the tactical intention because I think your intention on a shot.
is really the root of any problems that may occur lots of people you know jump straight into technical adjustments but actually if the intention itself is wrong if you've chosen the wrong ball at any given moment then it's impossible to execute that technique and there's one other thing when it comes to skill development that i probably should have said before spoke about receiving skills
i also now try to teach the skill of being able to be coached so i think being coachable is a skill in itself but also having the skill to be able to coach yourself so when i'm working with my players i try not to feed them with all of the information.
that I know, I try to wean that out of them because at the end of the day, I'm not going to be on court with them 24 seven. You know, I can't be on court with them during their matches. I hope that they're going to be training outside of our coaching sessions. And so if they have.
skill to be able to coach themselves through mistake management you know learning from mistakes and trying not to make the same mistake twice in a row then that's going to make them their journey in tennis so much more rewarding
When you talk about receiving the ball, I don't know if you've noticed this. Actually, I saw you hit in New Orleans. You still move okay. I don't move well anymore. Nowhere near the level I did. Right. I can still get in position for the ball because I've seen a million tennis balls hit.
I basically know where it's going to go, about what speed, about what spin. And that's a big part of receiving the ball, right? And I'll see a lot of people that say, oh, I'm out of position. So they want to work on footwork and the correct steps. But then they're just jamming themselves because they don't know.
what ball is coming so when you talk about receiving how much of that is anticipation and then how much of that would be just proper footwork addressing the ball yeah i'm glad you said that because um you know most of the players that i coach now you know movement isn't their biggest strength you know we actually used to have a seniors tournament at our tennis club with an over 90s category so there were kind of 92 year olds playing great tennis and um
The thing that you really see that separates those players that do really well in those events is the way that they read the ball and anticipate the ball. They're actually walking from shot to shot, but they get there with plenty of time because they know exactly where that ball is going to be. I think is really an even split between the cognitive skills of being able to understand how that ball is going to travel. So IE your reading skills, the way you see the ball, the way that you.
predict what's going to happen and then the physical skills are still important because you know let's face it if you know exactly where the ball's going but you just can't physically get there in time that's going to cause frustration as well so you know even if you do have physical limitations I think it's still an area that you should learn to develop
because if you read the ball well and you get to the ball a second earlier than you would have done your shot, you're going to have so many more options. So the physical side is important, but I'd say there is probably a heavier skew towards the anticipation. I know this is...
more than a one answer question so you're the guest you're gonna have to answer this tough question but if you were gonna look at one thing to anticipate what was gonna come to you what part of your opponent the racket their body language their court position the ball you hit What is kind of the most important thing to anticipating that incoming shot? I would say their court position, but I would tie that in with understanding your opponent's capabilities.
Every opponent that you face is going to have a slightly different game style. Some players, when they're stretched out into that far corner, will try to slap a winner. Other players that are more sensible when they're stretched into that far corner will hit a slower loopier ball to give themselves time to recover. And so understanding your opponent is vital. But I think their court position is probably the first.
indicator you know when you see that you've sent that ball super deep into that far backhand corner and you can see that your opponent stretched out of position the biggest sign of them sending that ball weaker, shorter, and giving you a chance to step in and take that on. Equally, if you see them stepping up inside the court, you know that you're going to have less time on that next ball. So maybe sitting back slightly deeper will give you that extra time.
need so um yeah like you say it's not just about court position because naturally if they're in a really bad court position but you see them winding up with their take back they're gonna try to smack it so but i i say Court position probably comes first. So how you've sent your shot and where you've put them on the court. If receiving skills are the most important in your eyes, what is a skill that you see a lot of amateurs?
really desiring to work on or spending a lot of time on that you actually think isn't that important at all or is very, very low on the priority list? It's funny because we work in the online tennis world. And you do get lots of players that watch a lot of online content and they may see something like a video on the waitress tray on the serve, or they may see something about the racket lag on the forehand.
And it can be difficult when players want to work on something that they've seen another player or pro do technically because, fact of the matter is, every... body is built differently and and so there's no one size fits all when it comes to technique which is why i'm less
technical when it comes to coaching you know I don't want to coach players to play like Federer because not everybody moves like Federer and is built like Federer so yeah I try to steer away from those heavy technical sessions however at the same time understand that there are lots of players that have very analytical brains they're very visual learners and they love knowing and understanding biomechanics so you know with those players i will
talk to them about it because they enjoy talking about it but when it comes to actually making a difference to their game and their results i'll always come back to the fundamentals of reading the ball getting into position and how they then send the ball
Like I said, we met at New Orleans with DeVore. Give him a shout out, Tennis House. We had the symposium there, and you gave a presentation. We don't have 75 minutes for you to go through it, but it was absolutely fantastic for me to learn from you. It was titled The Five R's. So I'd love to talk about that today, kind of what those R's are, which ones are most important, and how they can help you get better at tennis. So can you just kind of let us know what those areas are?
Yeah, great. I mean, it kind of ties into what we've been talking about already. So most of them are to do with reading the ball. So the five R's are what I call the fundamentals in tennis. Ready, read, react, respond. and recover so it's a sequence that you will follow on any given shot that's not a serve and i'll say this I am still super technical when it comes to serving because it's probably the one shot that doesn't involve any reading skills. So I actually really enjoy.
working on the serve because i still am very mechanically minded and i do like getting into that but yeah when it comes to ground strokes um and anything in open play how ready are you how well do you read the ball, how quickly and efficiently do you react?
The response is how you then send the ball. And that's very much tactical. And then your recovery, which is probably the one that gets missed the most. If I ask somebody to demonstrate a forehand, they'll move quickly out to the ball. They'll shadow a forehand and finish their swing. And that would be. end of the stroke but actually the recovery itself is still part.
of that forehand and i think anytime we do a drill and anytime i'm doing a drill with a player that recovery is super important even after a serve you know making sure that you hit that serve land and you push off and move as opposed to land and stop So when you're talking about ready, some of that I'm assuming is ready position. Like how do you define a player that's ready to receive a ground stroke? Yeah. So.
Your eyes need to be ready. And that's not just the case of just looking down at the other end, but you can see when somebody's fully engaged, you know, their eyes need to be locked into that tennis ball down at the other end. Having an athletic position, so wide base.
low center of gravity just giving yourself that opportunity to pounce ideally with your weight onto the the balls of your feet as opposed to onto your heels again gives you that ability to pounce and then finally with that ready position it's the timing of the split step so anytime your opponent makes contact with the ball you should be
in the air. It doesn't need to be a huge jump. The smaller jumps are actually better because it just gives you that ability to then push off. And I think that's probably the one thing that gets missed when it comes to ready position is that split step.
Any players that have played tennis, any experienced players that have played tennis for a long time have that split step ingrained into their game. You know, if I watch you just doing a practice session with one of your players, I have no doubt that you would be split stepping on every single ball.
Even if your feet don't come off the ground, the heels of your feet will. And so it's impossible to play tennis without it. So I would say that would be the number one thing about being ready is that split step timing. Do you have...
A lot of people ask me about that timing, like trying to give them a specific moment in the opponent's stroke. But obviously everyone's stroke is different in how they're moving the ball. And like you said, if you took a freeze frame of them striking the ball when the ball was on the strings.
I would be in the air, even though it would be like a quarter of an inch off the ground at this point. And I would be landing right after because then I would know which direction I need to move. Like if I landed when the ball was on their strings, I wouldn't know. I would get stuck. And so people always, we can kind of say that timing, hey, you want to be in the air when they're hitting it. But is there another cue that you have to help people who really struggle with that timing itself?
Yeah, so I tend to work on it at the start of the session, even when we're in the boxes, you know, doing just a service box rally. The cue is be in the air when your opponent hits the ball. Now, that's easy to do when you're doing it in just a rally ball session.
When it comes to playing competitively, the lower level you go, the more time you have after your opponent strikes the ball. So it can be incredibly tough because lots of players feel like they've done the split step at the right moment, but then they're waiting. And so one kind of hack that you can do is bounce multiple times. So instead of just focusing on that one split step and making sure that that's timed well.
just being on your toes bouncing you know kind of think like a boxer in the ring on your toes the whole time because one of those bounces will be at the right moment and even if you do an extra bounce After your initial split step, it's just going to have you ready to then move on to that ball. So that's what I would say for people that struggle with timing is to do multiple bounces. And then secondary to that is.
If you feel like you've made the split step at the right moment, but then you're stuck, that's because you haven't read the ball well and you're waiting to read more signs for that ball to come towards you. And so there, you know, the players that aren't... reading the ball super well. That's where reading skills comes into it and you need to develop those. But the split step comes first, then you can read. Is there anything you want to add? So that's the first R. The second R is read.
we talked about receiving and reading the ball. Is there anything you want to add there that we haven't touched on already? No, I think, I guess going through read and react, the next two will probably cover more because at the end of the day, We're working with split seconds here. Being ready comes first because you have to be ready, but all of the other things happen quite simultaneously, actually.
But the reason we kind of break them down into the five R's is you can work on them individually to sharpen certain areas of your game that you feel you struggle with. Ideally, we'll be doing them all at once, but we can break down and isolate each one to just train them. Perfect. So talk to me about reacting then. So I will quickly go back to Reid because I misunderstood your question there.
So when it comes to reading, knowing how that ball is coming, we can train that into our game in any open drill that we do. You can't do it in basket drills because your coach will be there feeding. You can't really do it with a ball machine because the ball is coming out at the same trajectory every single time. So you have to do it in a live drill with a player at the other end. And a simple drill that you can do is call out.
your prediction of how that ball is going to travel towards you. So a basic one, the most simple one is, is the ball going to come to your forehand side? or your backhand side so during a rally with your opponent whether you do that in your head or verbally call forehand or backhand before the ball bounces on your side of the court now that should be quite simple for most players so the next step to that is can you call it before it crosses the net
If you could do that, then the next step is can you call it as your opponent strikes the ball? So you're really pushing yourself to read whether it's coming to your forehand or your backhand as early as you possibly can. Now, another... Level to that that's slightly more difficult is depth perception. You know, our eyes will judge directions slightly easier than judging depth. So it could be that you put a marker out at your end of the court. I would say maybe a meter behind.
the service line and your aim is to predict whether your opponent is going to send the ball short or deep So again, just in your head, as the ball's coming towards you, you're going to say deep or short. And that will allow you to move and adjust your position according to the depth of the shot. And you can do the same with different spins, different heights and that sort of thing.
you train those judgments into your game the easier it will be because you're just more aware of it and I think sometimes we play on autopilot and don't really think but just the act of thinking in itself can help you to sharpen those reading skills It's so funny because you saw me hit in New Orleans. It's not the prettiest forehand you've ever seen. There are some fundamentals there that are perfectly fine, but most players, when they're playing, they're thinking about their stroke.
oh here's my coil and here's my racket drop and whatever and when i'm hitting all i'm thinking about are the things you just spoke about where's it going how quickly am i seeing it
Where do I want to go with it? What's the speed? And you could say that's because I've hit a million forehands and I have, but it's also, like I said, not the prettiest forehand. And so, yeah, that would be, I don't know if you see that, but I would encourage people to think about what you just spoke about more than maybe that. beautiful racket take back with the racket back high.
100% and I don't know if the listeners have seen your forehand Jonathan has a laser of a forehand like that thing flies and it stays like this close to the net so brutal to play against but you can see that you're focusing on those things because your timing is so good and i think
I would absolutely encourage people to focus on this because no matter what level you play at, even the pros, you know, the pros are working on their reading skills because they have even less time than club players have naturally. So if they can be sharper at reading that oncoming ball and...
for that oncoming ball then their fundamentals their ground strokes that they they are normally hitting are going to be so much more effective so anytime you're thinking about something technical it eats into that precious time that you have so just focus on
reading the ball, preparing early, and you'll be good. I'll ask you a question because this is just like how I grew up viewing it. And like I said, because of my technique, you probably understand why, but I always viewed myself as an athlete and a winner.
not a tennis player. And so I'm like, okay, I get to the ball. I'm going to put the ball in play. I really don't care what it looks like. And I do think we're getting into a generation, especially like you said, as online coaches where it's almost like tennis robots. Like we all want to look the same and we all want to.
hit the same instead of being like, I'm going to get to the ball and put it back in play. It really is that simple. Yeah. I mean, if you look at all the pros on the tour, though, they all play with such a wide array of techniques. And I love to use Medvedev as an example because... You know, he hit some crazy looking forehands and backhands. And as coaches, you know, you look at him and think, oh.
How is he not getting injured? But he puts the ball exactly where he wants it to be. He is so tactically savvy and he moves like for somebody of his height, he moves so well around the court. And so when it comes to coaching players kind of along the lines of... of what you said about thinking of yourself as an athlete as opposed to a tennis player. When I have a new player that comes onto the program and I know whether they've played sports.
you know or if they've just played tennis and sometimes you know you see some really good level junior players who have only played tennis for all of their lives and they strike the ball incredibly well but have minimal problem-solving skills and they lack the ability to adapt when you know things come slightly quicker or slightly wider or you're in a difficult
position so you know you can become very robotic and mechanical if you only play tennis and that's why i think sometimes kids coming in from different sports as a coach it's much easier to coach those players because they have those reading and receiving skills first and that athletic ability to put themselves into different positions. Teaching tennis technique is the easy bit. Talk to me about reacting and how that plays into the whole sequence of the ground stroke.
Okay, so reacting is just how well you get yourself into position. So it's really about making an explosive first step. So once you've landed that split step, being super explosive, the bigger... The step that you can make, the better. I think sometimes we talk about doing lots of small adjustment steps and that is important at a certain moment. But that first step after the split step needs to be as big and explosive.
as you can make it because you need to cover ground quickly and then the key when it comes to reacting is being stable and being balanced when striking the ball. Now, there are tons of different stances. You know, we talk about open, closed, neutral, semi-open. I think it's important to be good at all of those.
I try nowadays not to be too prescriptive with my players about them. In the past, I would have been quite anal about making sure that players are stepping down on their forehands and not hitting open starts all the time. But actually, it's more a case of, are you... balanced when you're striking the ball and can you use your legs and ground reaction force to add power to a shot if you need to
Most of the time, we can use our opponent's power. But sometimes when that ball's coming in slightly slower, we can use our legs to get that kind of coiling and releasing through the ball. So that's when the technical side... comes in but it's it's more a case of being balanced and giving yourself time to execute the shot one thing that's helped me it helps me in golf all the time when i'm nervous and it's helped my tennis players too is i try to finish the shot balanced
So I'm like, after I've struck the ball, if I feel like someone tried to come up and push me and they couldn't push me over, there's a really good chance that I was balanced throughout the shot. And it's ironic because when you start thinking about how you're going to hit the ball.
sometimes it's almost like you're on roller skates. Like you'll finish and you're leaning to one side, your head is over your legs. And so that's a really good thought that's worked for me. Is there any other thought that you have that's helped players get balanced in the shot? I love that. And I've not thought of it.
quite in that way. But you're right. If you are balanced after the shot, that's a result of you being balanced during the shot. You can't fake that. So I love that cue. I'm going to steal that one from you, Jonathan. But yeah. Beat the bounce is a phrase that I use so much because it kind of encompasses everything. When I say beat the bounce it's about being prepared with your footwork and your bodywork before the ball bounces on your side of the court.
You know, it's around 80 to 90 percent of your judgment happens before the ball bounces. So if you think of the ball traveling towards you in two flights, you've got flight one as it leads your opponent's strings and bounces on the court and flight two. is after the bounce and before you hit the ball. 80 to 90% of your reading is done before that bounce. So that's when we need to do most of the work with our reaction moving to the ball.
Depending on surface and weather conditions, there may be a movement after the bounce. So you may need to make a last second adjustment. But generally speaking, if you're playing in good conditions and on a hard court, you know where that ball is going to be. Beat the Bounce is probably the biggest cue because it encompasses Ready, Read and React all together.
Phenomenal. You said the response was, maybe this is a clever way to make it an R, but really it was about your shot that's kind of going towards them. So how do you decide what the response is going to be or what are the biggest things that you consider with a response? So I think I said right at the start of our chat that tactical intention comes before technique. And actually in New Orleans, we had this conversation. One of my very first coaching courses that I went on.
I had an embarrassing moment, but a light bulb moment for me as a coach. It really changed the way I coached. And the tutor on the course, he was doing a demonstration and there was about 16 of us coach candidates on there, you know, learning from him. And he said, right, I want you all to tell me what's wrong with my backhand. So he popped the ball up and he smacked a backhand cross-court and it went long. And he said, right. what was wrong and um i put my hand up because i
I felt super confident at the time and I was really into biomechanics and technique. And I said, oh, you know, that one, your stance was slightly off and it looked like you had the wrong grip. And I thought, yeah, I've got to smash this. And he said. No, I was actually aiming for a drop shot. And for me, it was a light bulb moment because I realised that it doesn't matter what I think I'm seeing if I don't know what my player's intention is.
is with the shot i could be completely wrong and so he was making this point that no matter who you're coaching and what you're working on you need to understand what your player is trying to do with the shot before you make any corrections because if
I'm hitting with a player and the player is constantly hitting the net with their forehand, it's probably not a technical mistake. It's the fact that they're not aiming high enough. If I simply say to my player, aim higher you know aim for two net heights they will fix that technical problem no problem and i think that's where me as a young coach went wrong last you know when it came to technique now
I ask my players what they're trying to do. And they often don't know. You know, they don't realise they're hitting the net. But if they can fix their mistakes through fixing what the ball is doing, rather than thinking about what the racket's doing, nine times out of ten.
they're going to fix the problem themselves. So this is a really easy way for people to fix their own game is look at what the ball's doing. If your ball's constantly going long, rather than trying to change something technical, just think about adding some more spin.
You know, if your ball is constantly going in the net, just add more height. And if they still can't do it, then there may be something technical. I'm so glad you told that story. I was going to, you were speaking earlier and I was like, oh, I want to remind him to tell him that, but I didn't know how to say it without.
spoiling what the story was but you told me that in new orleans and i'm glad you're the one who had to suffer the embarrassment of like that moment but like that hit me like a ton of bricks i was like oh my god that's genius And I do the same thing as well as a coach is like, I don't necessarily know what their intentions are. Have you found that people kind of reject?
The simplicity of that, you know, when someone hits in the net, they always look at me and they're like, oh, are you going to tell me to aim higher? And I'm like, yeah, pretty much because you're hitting in a three foot object. And they want it to be something more complicated. They want it to be that their racket prep or their grip or the angle of the racket instead of something so simple. Have you found that? 100%. And honestly, I think...
If it was me at the other end, I'd be the same. You know, if I was having a golf lesson, for example. i want to know technique i want to know something that i can do with my grip or my backswing that will fix it but actually there are far more simple ways to to fix problems and i would say there's no shortcuts to becoming a great tennis player unfortunately um and there's no shortcuts to improving a stroke but there are things that you can prioritize that will make
bigger inroads to where you want to get to and it always comes down to the simple things um you know where you're aiming the ball how you're preparing for the ball and um tennis is simple when you look at it in that way um of course there's tons of technical complexities and um you know we could set up a whole different call about that but yeah it's just do the basics well one thing um a friend who's uh
a pro coach on the WTA tour said to me is he tries to instill this with his players. He tries to give them an advanced understanding of the basics rather than a basic understanding of the advanced. And I think that's true for us as coaches, as well as players. Phenomenal line. And the last R was recovery. And I remember you had some really cool thoughts and visuals and things that I hadn't thought about. So how would you define recovery and what's important with that R?
So recovery is just about being back in your next position before your opponent strikes the ball, because that will allow you then to go back to the first R to be ready and to do a split step at the right moment. So it's very similar to how you... react your first step
has to be huge it has to be big and explosive so you know after you've hit that forehand from the corner make that first step back towards the center as explosive as you can so that's where that crossover step comes in um you know one of the most
crucial footwork patterns when it comes to your movement. And there's a simple, we talk about beat the bounce this is now beat the hit your aim is to be back into a good position before your opponent strikes the ball and there's a drill that i do called home base and it's simply where you set up a zone and you can set that zone up to be as big as small as you like but it's going to be somewhere near the center of the court and during competitive play your aim is to get back into your home base
before your opponent strikes the ball. If you don't, you lose the point. And so it gets you thinking more tactically, going back to your respond, because when you are in a comfortable position near to your home base...
You can go big with your shot because you know that you don't need time to get back. But if you're really stretched outside of that zone and you're far away from it, you need to think tactically about how to send the ball back to give yourself enough time. And that's where that higher floaty...
deep ball down the middle is going to help you because you need to buy yourself time to then get back into that home base. So we do that with the kids, you know, we do that with throwing and catching because it gets them understanding.
tactics without teaching them tactics you know they figure out that when they're far away from where they need to be they need to throw that ball high and so i'm a huge advocate in coaching a game based approach creating games that elicit the correct response rather than me teaching players the response because if i'm constantly teaching players one they rely on me but two they have to remember words that i've told them
rather than feelings of doing it. So anytime I can set up drills where I don't have to speak, the drill takes care of itself, is a win. You talk about the first step being huge. And my coach always said, you know, big steps at first. And then if you have time, you'll take little steps just to help with your timing. One mistake I see players make a lot.
And I don't know if you have any thoughts on this, but we're both right-handed. So when I move to a forehand, whether that ball is a little bit in front of me, a little bit behind me or to my side, I take a big step with my right foot, my outside foot. I see a lot of people in the backhand would be the opposite. So it'd be my left foot first. They almost don't take a step with that outside foot, but they have the time it took to just kind of pivot off of it.
So then they get a little out of sorts. They're a little bit behind and then they get to the ball and they're a little awkward. Is it going to be a wide closed stance forehand, which is super weird, right? Because they never took that big outside step. Is that something you see or is that also something you agree with?
what your first step should be? Definitely, definitely. So I don't think we mentioned it earlier, but that first response after your ready position in the split step is... a turn so that unit turn happens simultaneously with that big step that you say so you know if i'm going for a forehand i will turn my upper body to allow
my right foot to step out to get behind the ball first. That's going to allow me, if the ball is coming fairly near to me, to have that leg loaded ready to drive into the shot, or it's going to allow me to then run to a wider ball. So 100% agree with that. Okay, like I said, you are an internet celebrity.
You've got the iconic look. And by the way, I watched one of your videos this morning when I woke up. It's 6.30 a.m. where I am because you're doing it UK time. I woke up at 4.45 and watched you and you had the new tennis mentor. I saw the logo on your shirt.
Yeah. Limited edition. I'm going to have to get that. But we do have a ton of Instagram questions. I had to pick only a few to fit in the show. The first one, what are some typical basic strategy tips that you would give to the random adult player? for singles okay singles because um Right now, after your presentation in New Orleans, I'm all about doubles. You know, those poaching drills, I love them and I've been using them since. But yeah, singles, I would say focus on serve plus one.
patterns and I think that that wide serve and then hitting into the open court is an invaluable tool to have in your game for singles just because Once you've hit that serve out wide, you have the entire court to hit into. So you don't necessarily have to go for a big winner. You know, you can just hit into the big space and that's going to mean that your opponent is on the run.
giving you, hopefully, a weaker ball on the next ball. So, serve plus one patterns, I think, is vital. And then return plus one patterns. So, return is really a case of if you're playing a player who's got a decent serve. prioritize your first serve return just going deep middle. I think far too many players try and do something special with the first serve return. Second serve return, however, is an opportunity for you to step up and take it on.
when i when i say take it on one one cue that i like is when you're going bigger with your shot you need to aim to a bigger space so not onto the line you know with your return but aiming you know a good margin in from the the tram lines um but yeah really heavily about surplus one and return plus one patterns do you have any preference or stance when you talk about serving wider
I actually stood a little bit wider a lot of times. I wouldn't always serve wide when I took a step over, but it also gave me some more angles. So maybe every fourth or fifth serve, I would try to hit one in the body or tee just to keep them honest. Do you mind if people start a little wider over, especially like in the deuce, if they were righty to slice it out wide? No, not at all. I mean, I encourage mixing it up. I think some players get a little bit stuck.
with their favourite type of serve and, again, become a bit robotic because that's all they do. So I encourage players to work on serving from different positions along that baseline too so that they can become a bit more adaptable. But also when it comes to matches, being less predictable.
Yeah, I mean, standing wider for that slider out wide is great because most of the time that returns coming back cross court anyway. You know, and you almost want to tempt them into that Hollywood down the line winner. So, yeah, I'm definitely with you on that.
This is a tricky one, but this person, everyone's an individual, but they want to know what someone should look to do when you kind of feel like you've hit an improvement plateau. You know, there's a lot of 4-0s who have been a 4-0 for five years and they're actually really trying hard to get better. but it's just not happening. So what should you do when you feel stuck? A couple of things. I actually made a video on this the other day.
Sometimes if it's really, you know, if you're playing a lot of tennis, sometimes having a break for a week or even two weeks can be a really good reset because it just takes your mind. off of it you know sometimes when you're playing day in day out you're so focused on those small details and and you get caught up in in silly things that aren't really making an impact your game uh taking time off can help you to step back and just look at your game
from a bigger perspective i also think that uh watching yourself play is great and doing that in a match environment so if you're playing a practice set just put the camera on and film it and just take a look back at it and rather than
do what most people do and just look at yourself in this situation you actually need to be looking at what you're doing with the ball and i think i actually made a video on this this morning that's the video you watched actually i think this morning was when you're watching the pros
I think we look at the ball too much. And I think it's important to see what they're doing with their footwork in between each shot. But when you're looking at yourself, I think it's vital to look at what the ball's doing. Because what you'll see is maybe you're not hurting your opponent with depth.
maybe all of your shots are dropping short and it looks like you're super consistent and not doing much wrong, but your opponent is not hurt. So, you know, looking at what the ball is doing, I think is a really important thing. But generally speaking, when players hit a plateau, a break is a good thing to do. And last question here. What is your best advice for the 4-0 player? Wow, that's broad. I know. Love it. Best advice. And we're talking singles again.
Yeah, right now we're doing singles. We actually have a doubles mailbag. We're going to do a little bonus episode right after this. But best advice for the singles recreational player. Okay. If you'd like to give two.
I give you that cop-out because I love your information. You can give two if that helps you. Okay, not really. There's about 20. But no, I would say try to revolve everything around finding... your contact point so i know that's very broad in itself but lots of players try to adjust their
racket and their arm movements to contact as opposed to adjusting their body to contact um and so yeah find a contact point that works for you you know obviously depends on what grip you use but if your contact point is ideally between waist
and shoulders try to make sure that every single time you strike the ball you're in that comfort zone don't get lazy and let the ball you know get up here and down low adjust your positioning um to find your ideal contact point so i think that would be the the main thing um and then alongside that spend time on your serve because there is no other way to win matches. Thank you so much for coming on the show. I know you're a busy man and thanks for sharing your insights.
It was an absolute pleasure, Jonathan. I've been loving all of your episodes. I listened yesterday to the GG one and the day before, Jeff Greenwald. So keep doing you. You're smashing it. And hopefully we'll chat again. All right. I want to thank Ashley for coming on the show today. He's such a thoughtful guy and really knows this stuff. After his presentation in New Orleans, I've been all about the five hours and I can already see how it's impacting my players on a daily basis.
Just a reminder that all episodes and bonus episodes will be on my YouTube channel, and those links are in the show notes. Thanks again for listening. I hope you just improved to tennis without even hitting a ball.