Tennis Pod Pro Videos

Lee Couillard hosts Tennis Pod Pro Videos. Learn all the secrets of the pros as well as methods of teaching the basics to beginners. All ...
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World's Fastest Serve

Added 05/19/12
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World's Fastest Serve

[LESS INFO] 1 VIEWS | ADDED 21:18:17 05/19/12
Download file (right-click and "save as...") Unknown Aussie breaks record for fastest serve three times in same match (?) by Chris Chase: Australia's Samuel Groth, ranked No. 340 and best known in tennis circles for being the ex-husband of tennis player Jarmila Groth, set an unofficial ATP record last week when he hit a serve 164.3 mph at a challenger event in South Korea. That breaks the previous record of 156 mph, set by Ivo Karlovic at a Davis Cup match last year. Groth's serve increased the record by a whopping 5.3 percent. To put that into context, that'd be like Usain Bolt lowering his 100 meter world record from 9.58 to 9.07. ''I just threw it up and absolutely smashed it down the T and it popped up on the gun at 263 [kilometers per hour] and I was a bit like, 'Whoa, whoa,''' Groth told The Age. ''It became a bit of a talking point around the guys; I guess it's not something you see too often, where suddenly 263 pops up on a radar gun.'' The 24-year-old also hit serves of 158.9 mph and 157.5 mph in the same match. This means that the three fastest serves in the history of tennis occurred in the same 60-minute stretch courtesy a player never ranked inside the top 200 at a tournament in a country that's home to one player ranked in the top 500. Oh, and none of it is on tape. The ATP doesn't officially recognize speed records because of a lack of reliability in monitoring equipment. Still, the governing body of tennis confirmed that the radar gun at the Busan event was working and that other data collected was within appropriate range. Oh, like those other two serves that were faster than any other serves in history? And the one that was more than 8 mph faster than the previous record? I'm not saying Groth didn't thrice break the record, nor am I suggesting that speed records can't be set by journeymen. I'm merely suggesting that three record-setting serves from a radar gun at a challenger event in South Korea is a dish best served fishy.

Baseball Tennis

Added 05/18/12
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Footwork - Drive Phase

Added 05/15/12
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Slice Forehand Approach

Added 05/11/12
2 Views

Unstructured Play

Added 05/10/12
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The New Modern Forehand?

Added 04/29/12
309 Views

Poncho at Punahou

Added 04/19/12
321 Views

Poncho at Punahou

[LESS INFO] 321 VIEWS | ADDED 18:26:08 04/19/12
Download file (right-click and "save as...") Lee Couillard, USPTA, Head Tennis Professional, Punahou School shows a clip of Poncho Gonzales playing at Punahou in 1969. From ATP.com Very much his own man, a loner and an acerbic competitor, Richard Alonzo "Pancho" Gonzalez was probably as good as anyone who ever played the game, if not better. Most of his great tennis was played beyond wide public attention, on the nearly secret pro tour amid a small band of gypsies of whom he was the ticket-selling mainstay. His rages against opponents, officials, photographers, newsmen and even spectators were frequently spectacular - but they only served to intensify his own play, and didn't disturb his concentration, as fits of temper do most others. Pancho got mad and played better. "We hoped he wouldn't get upset; it just made him tougher," said Rod Laver. "Later when he got older, he would get into arguments to stall for time and rest, and we had to be careful that it didn't put us off our games." Gonzalez, a right-hander, born May 9, 1928, in Los Angeles, was always out of the tennis mainstream, a fact that seemed to goad him to play harder. Because he came from a Chicano family, he was never acceptable in the supposedly proper upper circles of his city's tennis establishment. And because he was a truant he wasn't permitted to play in Southern California junior tournaments. Once he got out of the Navy in 1946 there was no preventing him from mixing in the game, and beating everyone. He had a marvellously pure and effortless service action that delivered thunderbolts, and he grew up as an attacker on fast West Coast concrete. Although not regarded as anything more than promising on his second trip East in 1948, he was at age 20 ready to win the big one, the U.S. Championship at Forest Hills. Ranked 17th nationally at the time, and seeded eighth, he served and volleyed his way to the final, where he beat South African Eric Sturgess with ease, 6-2, 6-3, 14-12. The following year Gonzalez met the favourite, a Southern California antagonist, top-seeded Ted Schroeder. It was one of the most gripping finals. Schroeder won the first two sets as expected, but they were demanding and exhausting, 18-16, 6-2, and after that Gonzalez rolled up the next three, 6-1, 6-2, 6-4, for the title. In 1949 Pancho also helped the U.S. hold the Davis Cup against Australia, then went for the money, turning pro to tour against the monarch, Jack Kramer. Gonzalez was too green for Kramer, losing, 96-27, and he faded from view for several agonizing years. When Kramer retired, Gonzalez won a tour over Don Budge, Pancho Segura and Frank Sedgman in 1954 to determine Jack's successor, and stood himself as Emperor Pancho, proud and imperious, for a long while, through the challenges of Tony Trabert, Ken Rosewall, Lew Hoad, Ashley Cooper, Mal Anderson, Alex Olmedo and Segura. For a decade Gonzalez and pro tennis were synonymous. A promoter couldn't hope to rally crowds unless Pancho was on the bill. During his reign Pancho won the U.S. Pro singles a record eight times of 11 finals between 1951 and 1964, and Wembley in London, considered the world pro championship, 4 times of 5 finals between 1950 and 1956. By the time Rosewall and Laver were reaching their zeniths during the mid- and late-1960s, the aging Gonzalez hung on as a dangerous foe, still capable of defeating all. In 1964, his last serious bid for his ninth U.S. Pro title, he lost the final to Laver in four hard sets on grass in a rainstorm. Yet there was still much more glory ahead. In 1968, at 40, he beat the defending champion, 31-year-old Roy Emerson, to attain the semis of the first major open, the French, to be beaten by Laver. Three months later, at the initial U.S. Open, he toppled second-seeded Tony Roche (the 23-year-old Wimbledon finalist) to make the quarters, where he defeated Tom Okker. A year later, this grandfather (literally) electrified Wimbledon by overcoming Charlie Pasarell in the tournament's longest match, 112 games, a first-rounder that consumed five hours, 12 minutes, a major tourney record that stood until 1992, eclipsed by 14 minutes by Stefan Edberg over Michael Chang at the U.S. Open. The marathon with Pasarell began one afternoon and concluded on the next after darkness intervened. In winning, 22-24, 1-6, 16-14, 6-3, 11-9, Gonzalez saved seven match points in the 5th set. Later that year, he beat John Newcombe, Rosewall, Stan Smith and Arthur Ashe in succession to win $12,500, second-highest prize of the year, and the title at a rich tournament at Las Vegas. Early in 1970, in the opener of a series of $10,000 winner-take-all challenge matches leading to a grand final, he toppled Laver. The Aussie, just off his second Grand Slam year (and the eventual winner of this tournament), was clearly No. 1in the world, but Pancho warmed a crowd of 14,761 at New York's Madison Square Garden with a 7-5, 3-6, 2-6, 6-3, 6-2 victory. Three months before his 44th birthday, in 1972, he was the oldest to record a tournament title in the opener, winning Des Moines (Iowa) over 24-year-old French Davis Cupper Georges Goven. That year he was No. 9 in the U.S., the oldest to rank so high, and equalled Vic Seixas; Top Ten longevity span of 24 years. As for the World Top Ten, he is alone in that he was a member in 1948-49 and again in 1968-69, ranking No. 1 in 1949, No. 6 in 1969. In 1968, though still active, he was named to the Hall of Fame and he was a consistent winner on the Grand Masters tour for the over-45 champs beginning in 1973. Although his high-speed serve, so effortlessly delivered, was a trademark, Gonzalez, a 6-foot-2, 180-pounder, was a splendid athlete and tactician who excelled at defence, too. "My legs, retrieving, lobs and change-of-pace service returns meant as much or more to me than my power," he said. "But people overlooked that because of the reputation of my serve." He won $911,078 between 1950 and 1972, and crossed the million mark as a Grand Master. Altogether as amateur and pro he won 74 singles titles. He was married six times, the last to a good player, Rita Agassi, sister of another all-timer, Andre Agassi, by whom he had a son. Not a bad tennis bloodline for the young man, Skylar Gonzalez. Gonzalez died July 3, 1995, of cancer in Las Vegas, where he had been a teaching pro for some time. MAJOR TITLES (4) - US. singles, 1948, 1949; French doubles,1949; Wimbledon doubles, 1949. OTHER U.S. TITLES (17) - Indoor singles, 1949; Clay Court singles, 1948, 1949; Indoor mixed 1949, with Gusty Moran; Pro singles, 1953, 1954, 1955, 1956, 1957, 1958, 1959, 1961; Pro doubles, 1953, with Don Budge; 1954, 1958, with Pancho Segura;1957, with Ken Rosewall 1969, with Rod Laver. DAVIS CUP - 1949; record: 2-0 in singles. SINGLES RECORD IN THE MAJORS - Australian (2-1), French (9-2), Wimbledon (10-5), US. (23-7). - Residence: Las Vegas, Nevada Singles titles: 3, 1972--(1) Des Moines 1971--(1) Los Angeles 1970--(1) WCT Las Vegas Won U.S. National Championships, 1948, 49. Won U.S. National Clay Court Championships, 1948, 49. Won U.S. National Indoor championships in 1949. Member of 1949 U.S. Davis Cup team. Won 1949 French Open and Wimbledon doubles titles (w/Parker). Resident pro and Tennis Director at Caesar's Palace since 1970. Won the inaugural ATP Great Player of the Past Award in 1975. Bio Courtesy: Bud Collins

"Farm" hands

Added 04/16/12
280 Views

Fingertip Pressure & Grip Size

Added 04/04/12
345 Views

Grip Pressure vs Grip Strength

Added 03/09/12
389 Views

Weak & Strong Volley Grips

Added 02/26/12
350 Views

Weak Hands = Weak Player

Added 02/15/12
346 Views

Weak Hands = Weak Player

Added 02/14/12
310 Views

Jack "Atomic" Sock

Added 01/28/12
317 Views

Happy Holidays!

Added 11/04/11
358 Views

Happy Holidays!

[LESS INFO] 358 VIEWS | ADDED 19:58:36 11/04/11
Download file (right-click and "save as...") The "Keiki 65" Developed by USPTA pro, Lee Couillard, exclusively for tennis' tiniest players. About the racquet designer: As the Head Tennis Professional at Punahou School (Honolulu, Hawaii), Lee has spent more than 20 years guiding the development of the school's kindergarten, 1st and 2nd grades tennis students. He has a "Little Tennis" certification from the United States Professional Tennis Association and is a National USTA QuickStart Trainer. As a coach and player, Lee understands how critical the "right" racquet is to an athlete's success. Observing how his young students struggled to play with adult racquets, Lee searched for a racquet designed (in size and weight) for a young child. No such racquet existed, so Lee decided to design a racquet that would transform the experience of tennis' youngest athletes. The racquet he created is the "Keiki 65." About the racquet: The "Keiki 65" is the first racquet designed specifically to meet the performance needs of "8 and under" athletes. It corresponds with the decision points for adult racquets, which are personalized according to athleticism, size and strength. Philosophy: The "Keiki 65" was designed according to philoproprioception, which is essentially a person's body position sense in which action is associated with natural instinct and is achieved through awareness of limb placement rather than as an intentional and conscious act. A properly scaled racquet allows young players to develop stronger tennis fundamentals (e.g., athletes develop a stroke that achieves the correct contact with the ball; it is a process quite similar to developing a proper baseball swing). Performance characteristics: The "Keiki 65" is designed as a proportionally sized racquet. Its overall length, head and grip size as well as the racquet's weight are suitable for a child but do not compromise strength, durability, responsiveness, and shock-absorbance. The "Keiki 65" has a longer shaft, which forces the contact point away from the body. As an athlete's grows and his contact point becomes more consistent, a larger personalized racket can be chosen. Because a good swing is dependent on using the entire body properly, the "Keiki 65" is designed to support consistency through scale as athletes are working with a racquet that is appropriately small. Scale = Performance & Safety: As the popularity of tennis grows, so does the pressure to "recruit" and train ever-younger athletes. The "Keiki 65" is designed exclusively for performance and it will prevent injury to tiny players. Success, in every sport, results from passion, commitment - and the proper equipment. The lightweight, properly scaled "Keiki 65," is the equipment for players' aged 8 and under. It will help them to love playing tennis, to learn proper technique and (perhaps) to develop the passion and commitment for competitive success as well as a lifelong love of the sport.

Keiki 65 Tennis Racket

Added 10/22/11
385 Views

Keiki 65 Tennis Racket

[LESS INFO] 385 VIEWS | ADDED 21:45:40 10/22/11
Download file (right-click and "save as...") Lee Couillard designed the Keiki 65. The 2011 Keiki 65 is the first "high performance" junior racket on the market designed specifically for Kindergarten, 1st and 2nd graders. Lee is the Head Tennis Professional at Punahou School in Honolulu, Hawaii. Lee has been teaching tennis to Punahou's Kindergarten, 1st and 2nd grades for the past 22 years. He has a "Little Tennis" certification from the United States Professional Tennis Association and is a National USTA QuickStart Trainer. Until now, there has not been any option for younger players to experience the feel and touch of a smaller racket head size. Like adults, junior players need a personalized racket based on their athleticism, size and strength. Choosing a racket for a junior player can be a daunting task. The numerous lengths, e.g.; 19", 21", 23' and 25" rackets can be confusing depending on the above factors. However, there can be some overlap when choosing a length of the racket and the Keiki 65 is ideal for all players age 8 and under. The Keiki 65's desired performance characteristics; e.g., lightweight, smaller head size, high strength, durability, responsiveness, shock-absorbing, etc. and the need to tailor these properties to the skill level of a young child was the motivation behind its development. The design goal was to make a proportional racket in head, length and grip size for a young child and not max out on the legal trampoline-effect limit. The concept from the start is to train proprioception and that can only be done by using a smaller head size. The early years of child should be about forging the correct contact point, like in a baseball swing. There is no need to over-analyze anyone's particular swing. Their strength and sense of timing will take charge. Let them develop their swing by swinging; however, insist they get into the proper position at the very start. The Keiki 65's longer shaft forces the contact point farther away from the body. As the contact point becomes more consistent, a larger personalized racket can be selected for the child. Again, the emphasis here is to start small and then go bigger, not the other way around. The answer here to a good swing is to adjust the whole body, not increase the size of the head to accommodate poor contact. In what has now become an intense market, performance rackets are lacking at the ever-increasing younger age groups. "Sensitivity" and "feel" are juxtaposed to shock and vibration, and tennis rackets are designed according to the skill and performance level of the individual athlete; smaller head size, quick and responsive for the better player -- big head size, larger sweet spot for the slower, recreational novice player. In the 1970's, the development of the Prince 110 sq. in. tennis racket was one of the most significant factors in the growth of tennis as a recreational sport in the United States and elsewhere. The improvement in equipment continues to be a major factor in the development of the tennis industry today and the 110 sq. in. racket is now not a popular racket with the more advanced players. Innovation will continue to change the sport of tennis, so watch for the next new wave of junior rackets with a wide range of different head sizes.

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Doubles Insight (Part 2)

Show: Tennis Pod Pro Videos

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Doubles Insight (Part 2)
10/07/09

Download file (right-click and "save as...") Katrina Adams is part of the on-air broadcasting team at Tennis Channel. Since joining the network in 2003, she has been the lead analyst for coverage of the International Tennis Federation's Fed Cup competition. Her duties have also extended to analysis during live Women's Tennis Association (WTA) Tour coverage and hosting the "Fed Cup Preview" show. A professional tennis player from 1988 to 1999, Adams captured 20 WTA Tour doubles titles and one ITF singles crown during her career. Her career-high world rankings included No. 8 in doubles and No. 67 in singles in 1989. Adams segued into broadcasting and coaching following her career as a player. Her television career began as a commentator for BET's coverage of the United Negro College Fund Celebrity Golf and Tennis Challenge from 1998-2001. She also provided analysis on the international feeds of the 1999 Pilot Pen and Lipton Championships and ESPN's coverage of the 1999 Bausch and Lomb Championships. Further, she has been interviewed for such programs as "ESPN Sports Century" and Lifetime's "Intimate Portrait." In the coaching arena, from 1999-2002, Adams served as a national tennis coach for the United States Tennis Association (USTA), coaching and mentoring junior and professional tennis players in all aspects of their careers. During that time, she also served as a member of the USTA Player Development Committee (1999) and the USTA Executive Committee (1998-99). In 2005, Adams was elected to the USTA Board of Directors as a Director at Large. Off the courts, Adams has helped provide strategic direction for the WTA Tour and professional women players worldwide, serving four one-year terms as a player representative on the WTA Tour Board of Directors and participating in the integration of the WTA Tour, ITF and Players Association. She also served five two-year terms on the WTA Tour Players Association Board of Directors, in the posts of vice president and treasurer, serving as chairperson of the Anti-Doping Committee, and receiving the WTA Tour Player Service Award in 1996 and 1997. Born and raised in Chicago, Adams started playing tennis at the age of six, in the public parks and recreation program sponsored by the Martin Luther King Jr. Boys Club. She earned an athletic scholarship to Northwestern University, where she studied communications and became the 1986 ITCA Rookie of the Year and 1987 NCAA doubles champion en route to garnering two-time NCAA All-America honors. In 1998, she was inducted into the Northwestern University Hall of Fame. She currently lives in Bradenton, Fla. Zina Lynna Garrison (born November 16, 1963 in Houston, Texas) is a former professional tennis player from the United States. During her career, she was a women's singles runner-up at Wimbledon in 1990, a three-time Grand Slam mixed doubles champion, and a women's doubles gold medalist at the 1988 Olympic Games.