former nationally ranked junior and #1 player at Cornell University;
competed on USTA and ITF professional circuit;
studied under Lluis Bruguera (former Spanish Davis Cup coach), Pato Alvarez (former top 10 player and Spanish coach) and Gilad Bloom (former Israeli ATP player and elite junior coach)
Certified USTA High Performance Coach and former nationally ranked junior player, Chris Lewit, considers the serve to be the most difficult shot to teach in the game of tennis. Despite the degree of difficulty, Coach Lewit has become a master at instructing the serve, and has included the important concepts, technical aspects and myth busting you need to become a great server in this video. You'll learn Coach Lewit's four favorite drills for teaching the serve in addition to seeing them put into action during two live serving lessons.
Technical Reference Points and Drills
To perfect the serve, you must first understand the mechanics that are behind it. Coach Lewit breaks down the stance and grip that are commonly used, and points out the "L shape" position that players need to be in after they've tossed the ball. Every phase of the serve is covered step-by-step, from the initial stance to the landing after hitting the ball, to ensure that athletes can pinpoint which steps they need to work on to make improvements.
Once every step has been explained, Coach Lewit goes into his four favorite drills for developing the serve: the L Shape Drill, the 5-5-5 Drill, Toss & Check and Jumping Drills. The drills will help you or your athletes improve muscle memory, rhythm of the toss, movement without the ball, balance, coordination, stability and body awareness.
Serve Lessons
Coach Lewit instructs a young boy and a young girl through two separate individual serving lessons. In the first lesson, the player works on driving the back leg and landing after the serve. The second lesson focuses on loading the back leg and trying to get full body extension so that more power can be produced.
No matter what level of athlete he's coaching, Coach Lewit believes in refining the technique until it's as perfect as possible. By introducing simple methods and exercises and treating the serve as a biomechanical movement, you'll quickly be able to teach your students to serve well.
This video is a great resource for a coach or athlete who wants to learn every step of the serve. Coach Lewit's instruction is easy to follow and perfect for all skill levels.
58 minutes. 2016.
TND-04927B: with Chris Lewit, certified USTA High Performance Coach;
former nationally ranked junior and #1 player at Cornell University;
competed on USTA and ITF professional circuit;
studied under Lluis Bruguera (former Spanish Davis Cup coach), Pato Alvarez (former top 10 player and Spanish coach) and Gilad Bloom (former Israeli ATP player and elite junior coach)
Chris Lewit, certified USTA High Performance Coach, presents a video packed with skills and drills designed to help athletes learn the difficult kick serve. Coach Lewit's three keys to a successful kick serve are the angle, height and spin sound generated by the player. Through a series of three individual lessons, you'll see how Coach Lewit teaches this technique to his athletes, transitioning from a beginning-level player who's never done a kick serve before, to an experienced player that only needs to fine tune the details.
Lesson 1: Starting the Kick Serve
For a beginning player, Coach Lewit begins by moving the athlete closer to the net for the Mini Tennis Serve drill. One of the first points instructed is the importance of tossing the ball slightly to the left (for a right hander), which will put it into the correct spot needed for solid contact.
A challenge for beginning kick servers is learning not to slice. Spin should be put on the ball, but it should be primarily downward, not to the side. Key aspects of the serve include extending the tricep on contact, turning the shoulders and keeping an exaggerated sideways position. Coach Lewit believes that if the player is struggling with the full motion, then breaking the serve down into different steps can help them learn more effectively.
Lesson 2: Technique
Once players have graduated from the beginning phase, then you can begin to teach them more advanced techniques. In this lesson, Coach Lewit teaches an athlete how to add more height to the serve by changing the racket face angle and pushing up more on the contact with the ball. He also goes over how staying sideways can help create the proper angle and maximize spin.
Keeping the lower back straight when executing the kick serve is necessary to prevent a stress injury. Coach Lewit explains how to keep the lower back straight while bending the neck and pushing out the chest to create a slight curve in the upper back. The resulting body position is perfect for players as they execute the kick serve.
Lesson 3: Fine Tuning the Serve
The final phase of the kick serve is working on the small details that can be the difference between a good and great serve. In this lesson, Coach Lewit reinforces keeping an L shape with the elbow on the toss in addition to keeping the head up on the serve. When athletes are consistently hitting good kick serves, Coach Lewit has them begin to work on a "surprise serve" to break out when their opponent begins to cheat too far to one side.
The instruction in this video is perfect for beginning, intermediate or advanced athletes. Coach Lewit's skills and drills are sure to help you or your players improve the kick serve.
84 minutes. 2016.
TND-04927C: with Chris Lewit, certified USTA High Performance Coach;
former nationally ranked junior and #1 player at Cornell University;
competed on USTA and ITF professional circuit;
studied under Lluis Bruguera (former Spanish Davis Cup coach), Pato Alvarez (former top 10 player and Spanish coach) and Gilad Bloom (former Israeli ATP player and elite junior coach)
Eight years spent traveling and studying tennis instructors in Spain has left Chris Lewit with a wealth of coaching knowledge that he's eager to share. In this video, the certified USTA High Performance Coach explains the philosophies and terminologies that Spanish coaches use to train the footwork of their tennis players. You'll also get drills used by Spanish coaches designed to create world-class tennis players. Once you've seen and heard how footwork is taught in Spain, you'll know why the country produces so many elite players!
Philosophies and Terminology
Coach Lewit discusses the different terms and theories that he's learned from observing some of Spain's best tennis coaches. You'll learn about receiving and sending the ball, what the "support system" is, as well as how the Spanish train balance, footwork, agility and more!
In Spain, footwork is integrated while working on the rest of the body and is rarely isolated. Coach Lewit debunks the myth that Spanish teachings focus on the open stance. Instead, he explains that a closed stance is more common. Coach Lewit has learned that Spanish players are taught to "suffer," or in other words, run and try to hit every ball. Getting behind the ball (getting the body set up to hit) is stressed, making it crucial that players sprint to receive every shot.
Drills
Coach Lewit includes nine of the most common footwork drills that he's seen used by Spanish tennis coaches. Many of the drills force players to move all over the court, improving their conditioning while working on making solid contact with the ball. Being set for every shot and "suffering" in every drill will train your players to dig deep and play at their maximum level on the court.
Resistance belts are introduced for advanced players who have worked a lot on their movement and need an additional challenge. Coach Lewit warns against using bands that are too heavy for younger players, as they'll only hurt the athlete's ability to learn the proper technique. When used properly, these drills will improve the quickness, agility, reaction time and coordination of your players.
Coach Lewit's instruction is both clear and informative. If you or the athletes you coach are looking to improve your footwork and have it mirror some of the best Spanish players in the world, then this is the video for you.
68 minutes. 2016.
TND-04927D: with Chris Lewit, certified USTA High Performance Coach;
former nationally ranked junior and #1 player at Cornell University;
competed on USTA and ITF professional circuit;
studied under Lluis Bruguera (former Spanish Davis Cup coach), Pato Alvarez (former top 10 player and Spanish coach) and Gilad Bloom (former Israeli ATP player and elite junior coach)
Spanish players are known worldwide for hitting a powerful ball, and a large part of that stems from the way Spanish instructors have coached athletes for many decades. Chris Lewit, certified USTA High Performance Coach, has spent time traveling all over Spain to observe how Spanish coaches teach the techniques, theory and exercises that go into a forehand. Now, Coach Lewit is here to pass his knowledge on to you, so you or your pupils can hit forehands the Spanish way.
Drills
Coach Lewit includes six drills that will help you perfect the Spanish forehand: the Racket Acceleration Drill, the Front Racket Speed Drill, the Advanced Acceleration Drill, the Alternating Sides Acceleration Drill, the Low Ball Drill and the Swinging Volley Drill.
The Racket Acceleration Drill is designed to help players accelerate and work the ball as deep as possible to their target. You'll see how keeping a solid base and firing your hip can help the ball jump off your racket and cause problems for your opponent.
As Coach Lewit runs through the steps behind each drill, he also presents common technique mistakes that players make while practicing each shot. An example of this is having the ball drop short while working on racket speed. It's important to hit the ball with great depth on every forehand to make it more difficult for your opponent to complete a return.
Forehand Lessons
Two forehand lessons are included in the second half of the video. The first lesson is with a more experienced player, while the second lesson features a younger, intermediate-level athlete.
In each lesson, Coach Lewit works to analyze where the player's forehand is at. Once he's determined what the athlete needs to work on, he begins to incorporate any of the previous six drills that will help the player improve. Posture, balance, stability, level changing, hitting for depth and spin generation are among the skills taught by Coach Lewit in these lessons.
Everything you need to know about the Spanish forehand is included in this video. This is a great resource for both coaches and players who desire to add some tenacity to their forehand.
63 minutes. 2016.