Outside the Lines

US Open 2024: Lessons from the commentators

Commentators are often given carte blanche with their comments. We go deep inside what they're really saying (or not!). The Coco Gauff loss to Emma Navarro serves as the

Self Evaluation

The ability to self-evaluate is valuable in tennis. Yet in psychology, we learn this this is nearly impossible. What's the answer?

Roland Garros 2024 Recap

We review the performances of Nadal, Osaka, Swiatek, Djokovic, Gauff, Sinner, Zverev, and Alcaraz and how they provide valuable lessons for club players.

How Many Coaches For an Aspiring Club Player?

Players on the Tour typically have one coach. Sometimes, a second coach is added, but they always work as a team. We explore the possible loss of efficiency of having mul

Opponent Awareness 1

Who is the Most Important Person on the court? The standard answer is: I am. We explore the often neglected ability to dissect an opponent.

AO 2024 Recap

Tournament results, Osaka, Gauff, Sabalenka, Sinner and Djokovic. Also a new metric for analyzing your own game: "conversions" and "steals."

What's Cookin'? (with your Feel)

Food has Texture; shots have Feel. We talk about this significant but often overlooked part of playing good tennis.

Playing With Freedom

Playing with Freedom. We systematically deconstruct the rewards to playing either Scared or Confidently under the umbrella of a player's role as Underdog or Favorite. It

US Open Recap 2023

We dissect several of the most notable matches with a focus on adaptability. Surprisingly, the top players frequently don't display this quality. The match-fixing scandal

How to Use Your Off-season

The summer season has concluded for most players unless they are heading to Sectionals or Nationals. There is a 6–8-week window without competitive pressure. This is an i

Wimbledon Recap 2023

We review some key matches in this year's Wimbledon devoting a lot of attention to the Alcaraz-Djokovic men's final. Other players highlighted include: Hurkacz, Svitolina

Chestnut Ridge Pro Shootout Preview

Chestnut Ridge is proud to host their Pro Shootout from 7/21-7/23. Featuring both singles and doubles competition in a standard tournament format, many top college player

The 5 Biggest Things That You Don't Want to be Thinking in a Match

Outside the Lines takes a fun look at some of the thoughts that can be detrimental to performance. We conclude with the biggest thought/question of all: Why am I here?

Roland Garros 2023

We go Outside the Lines to comment on this year's Slam. Topics include Djokovic, Karolina Muchova, and Swiatek. We broaden the discussion to talk about other top players

Making Mid-match Corrections: A Conversation with a 3.5 female player

Our subjects and discussions are usually generated by the two of us. Here, we have a conversation with Lisa Lubart, a 3.5 player and address some of her concerns when pla

The Big 5: What are the Top 5 Concepts for Improving Your Tennis?

What are the Top 5 concepts which link tennis together. Bob and Scott, independently, came up with their list: 1) Balance; 2) Split step; 3) Relaxing (staying loose);

How We Learned Tennis and What It Suggests for Aspiring Players

Both of us were essentially self-taught until 13 with only a few lessons thereafter. Seeing the pros in action and imitating what we saw was crucial for our development.

FEAR: What are we afraid of in a tennis match?

We establish that fear is a part of the human condition based upon our genetic predisposition. We have inherited fear from the beginning of human time because it was a fo

How to Finish a Match

Unlike the start of a match, the finish of a match can occur under varying scenarios. We define the finish of a match to be any time that either you or your opponent is w

How to Begin a Match

We emphasize two key points on How to Begin a Match: 1) Preparation begins days earlier than the match by learning how to set the correct expectations for yourself; and 2