When Victor K. Braden created his Vic Braden Tennis College teaching facility at Coto de Caza in 1974, he started an era of systematic, scientific approaches to solving questions like why professional tennis players win and what do their strokes really look like to make them so successful. Finding answers to those questions and being able to show scientific proof for those findings sent Vic Braden on a lifelong mission all over the world. Working with hundreds of tennis professionals and scientists, he was able to find those answers and create a net of tennis colleges in different parts of the United States in order to translate his findings into a teaching methodology for the recreational and advanced tennis player. Today, 37 years later, Vic is back at the place where it all started, creating excitement with his knowledge, and charming the crowds with his legendary humor.
The greater Coto de Caza community has gone through many changes and the place where Vic started in 1974 is now called Coto Valley Country Club. It was Jeff Lewis, Tennis Director at the club, who invited tennis players from all over the area to sign up for a getting-to-know-us event titled “Vic Braden Doubles Camp” on Saturday, April 9. Word spread through Social Media (Facebook) and many people came and experienced the club and its tennis facilities for the first time.
The camp started with an hour and a half of classroom instructions by the legendary teacher Vic himself. In his usual way of mixing scientific findings with stroke and match play theory, interspersed with funny anecdotes about his life, Vic entertained the class as much as he offered insights into the basics of tennis strokes. Much of his teachings include reference to the mind of a tennis player and the myriad of ways messing with this mind can affect the outcome of a point, a game, and an entire match.
Brain
Good decisions and behaviors are produced when players are thinking with the frontal lobe of their brain, an activity that can be measured. Using the back part of the brain a player finds himself making bad decisions even to the extend of becoming imbalanced.
Brain Signal
If a player feels like she can play someone with good chance of success, her brain signal is clean. A player with problems and doubts about his abilities will produce unclean brain signals that look all messy and uneven.
Before a Shot
Train your brain sending signals to your feet. Soccer players do this all the time. Light and balanced tapping with both feet will get you ready and pre-stretches leg muscles for that first exploding step. Pre-stretching happens on the jump DOWN.
Shots
The only thing important for a player is that next shot. Everything and everyone else is trying to interfere with that shot.
Shots need to come from the shoulder (gross motor skills) and not from the forearm (fine motor skills).
Swinging Through
A right handed player swinging through his stroke is being pulled to the left. Good balance and attention to Center of Gravity is important.
Center of Gravity
The best players move their Center of Gravity (CoG) with their racquet, meaning their CoG makes the same movement as their racquet.
Head
A player’s head needs to remain very still at all times during strokes and serves. This is critical. Watch the best players and how they stare at the ball and keep their head still long after the ball has left the strings.
Doubles Partner
Provide positive signals to your partner. Best example: Bryan brothers. They high-five each other even after errors and lost points. (And they learned that from Vic at Coto!)
Doubles partners need to stay 10-12 feet apart and always move together across the court, “tracking” the ball.
Doubles Opponent
Their aim is to get you confused on the other side of the net. They will screw with your mind any which way they can, knowing that this will induce errors and open up chances for them. Example: Opposing net player fakes a poach movement.
Tennis
Tennis is a lifting game. Never forget the basic rule of ground strokes and low volleys: LOW TO HIGH!
Serve
Keep your head up. Don’t look where the serve is going because this will bring your head down and the serve lands in the net.
No serious tennis player serves in the “trophy position”. Those weird positions prevent you from recoiling during serve. Andy Roddick, one of the strongest servers on the tour (151 mph) throws the ball 4 ft in front of him for his serve.
Return of Serve
Biggest problem: too long a swing. Shorten that swing for faster and more accurate return of serve. And keep that elbow up!
Opponents serve in i-formation: Don’t get rattled. Stick to the plan and return cross-court hard and with topspin.
Hi bouncing serve: Return on the rise. It cuts down on the response time for you and your opponent.
High Volley
Keep elbow and racquet head up and make sure the volley comes from the shoulder. Fine motor skills are not allowing successful volleying. Move forward during volleying.
Low Volley
The low volley (or approach volley), perfected by Stefan Edberg and Pete Sampras, basically looks the same as the high volley. Racquet 90 degrees, lift the entire arm, don’t chop with your forearm, keep your head still, and move forward through the volley.
Lob
Turn around, run back and don’t turn until you hear the ball bounce. Don’t step backwards, don’t move sideways, run back. Remember: You should always cover your own lob!
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After the classroom session I had a chance to speak with Vic some more and ask him a few questions.
RN: What are your plans with the Vic Braden Tennis College?
VB: While I’m focusing my energy on some new projects, I’m still running the Vic Braden Tennis College here at the Coto Valley Country Club. We are planning 4 colleges this year, the first one going from May 13-15.
RN: What are your new projects, Vic?
VB: First of all my new Junior Tennis Ambassadors program, which provides free instruction for adult volunteers who will supervise young elementary and junior high school tennis coaches. We are working with 2,000 kids this year, many of them disadvantaged.
I also have an App out for iPhone, iPod Touch, and iPad, called Vic Braden Tennis Tips. And lastly there is the Vic Braden Tennis Analyst web site, which is not live yet.
RN: What does success mean for the top players in the world?
VB: Success is real important for every player. Best example: Novak Djokovic. Roger Federer produced a welcome effect on many of the top players in the world: He brought everybody’s game up. Djokovic had for the longest time a problem winning against top players in critical matches. After his crucial wins against Federer and Nadal Djokovic was so encouraged and fired up, he said “Now I feel that I can play and beat everybody.” Roger, of course, has a different problem: Now that the top players have caught up with him, HE needs to raise his game another level to stay on top, which is real hard.
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While we were walking to the courts for the on-court part of the camp, we couldn’t help noticing how quiet and serene the surroundings are at the Coto Valley Country Club. The only sound we heard came from the birds in the trees. The blue/green courts are very well maintained and surrounded by beautiful trees and bushes. Tennis Director Jeff Lewis, who runs very active Junior and Adult Tennis Programs at the club, used to run the Vic Braden Tennis College in Florida and before that he actually taught tennis in Germany for 2 years. His mentors were Vic Braden and Steve Smith and his mantra is “back to the basics!” Jeff is proud of his accomplishments at the club and of the high teaching standards incorporating videos and the Vic Braden methodology. He’d love to get the word out more and tell people about the quality of instructions at his club. With just over 230 members and 10 courts there is much room for expansion and the low cost of entry adds to the value of the current membership offering.
Jeff states: “If your tennis teacher can’t help you, can’t improve your game for years, fire him! Vic Braden used to say we’ve got to make you comfortable being uncomfortable. We’ll take you out of your comfort zone and teach you tennis the way it should be taught.”
On court the participants are being divided into two groups. Andy Fitzell, tennis coach, researcher, and Vic’s long time collaborator, is teaching the serve on one court. Emphasis on the quick coiling motion of the arm, bending the arm, and hitting up. After a short while some of the participants are beginning to become comfortable with this motion, producing some amazing serves.
Jeff Lewis is teaching volleys on the other court. He also makes it more interesting by letting doubles teams play points against each other. Jeff makes participating fun and knows his tennis. I was able to ask some of the participants about the club.
Chuck Carey is a member of Coto Valley since 1982. He loves the ambience and the beauty of the place and raves about the tennis.
Tom Fitzgerald is a member since 1978. He had bought one of the first 25 homes built in the area and says: “Coto Valley Country Club is a home with a small community feel. I love the rural setting and the atmosphere is second to none.”
After 3 hours at the club I left this oasis of tranquility which Jeff Lewis calls “the best kept secret in Southern California” with renewed hope for my own tennis game, especially the serve. On my way out I ran into Rafael Romo, an employee at the club for 35 years. He shared with me an opinion that was as important to him as all the other praises of Coto Valley. Rafael said: “Vic is the greatest boss ever!”
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