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With that said, let's get started with 10 minutes of tennis.

Today, this is 10 minutes of tennis with World Round Tennis Coach Australian in Puerto Rico,

Justin Yeo.

This is 10 tips in 10 minutes.

So today's topic is mid court and the movement through the mid court.

So we're going to start with 10 tips on how to improve your mid court game.

Justin, number one, creating a mid court ball.

Go.

Yeah, we spend a lot of time on the baseline.

I mean, most people with your training and all your practice and everything you do is

baseline to baseline, baseline to baseline.

I mean, that's, I'd say almost 95 to 98% of what people do.

But what are we hitting from the baseline is to try to create an opportunity to finish

the point.

And to finish the point, you have to eventually work your way to the net, which is the mid

court section.

So I spend a lot of my sessions on the mid court.

And what I tend to say to people with first tip is learn how to create that opportunity.

You know, let's see how you can court like identify between the three elements, right?

Up down forward and back side to side.

Try to create, which is what's going to give you that invitation to come forward and take

care of the point.

So creating the opportunity to hit a mid court ball is really important to put into your

patterns and your practice from the baseline.

As opposed to just waiting for it and hoping you get that short ball, you actually find the

way to get what you're looking for.

I like it.

Number two, identifying the opportunity before, before what?

Yes.

So same again, right?

Is I've identified what we could create it.

But if I don't identify the opportunity, right, that it's going to see I'm still sitting

on the baseline waiting for a ball, right?

If I've identified it, I'm actually going to start to be prepared to go forward and look

for it, right?

So tend to like tend to see a guy will come out wide and hit the slice and it gets a

float of sitting right there and three quarter foot and we're sort of waiting for the ball

and we're, oh, there it is again, I miss my opportunity.

You know, identifying that that's what he does every time he does hit the slides back.

So like a chess move, I do this.

You do that.

You've got to be ready for it.

Yep.

And you'll see patterns, right?

So I say when you see the patterns, start to say, well, that's identified.

Now, let's, as soon as he does that, I'm looking to go.

Yep.

Number three, take risks in your training.

Yes.

So same again, right?

Like when you're in practice and you're getting a mid-core ball or you're getting chances

to take the opportunity, a lot of people will be too risky, too low percentage.

And if you don't have the mindset that you're going to give that a go, whatever happens and

practice it, like practice feeling the risk, I used to call it kamikaze when I played doubles

with my partner, right?

And he, I'd say before the point starts to say kamikaze, he's like, what's that?

You know, basically the Japanese, you know, they fly in and just, they get bombed or they

blow up something, right?

So same thing, I used to go, I'm striking this ball and I'm running straight to the

net.

I'm running all the way in, you know, so if you don't take any risks, you'll never learn

how to to come forward and actually take care of the point or take time away through your

opponent or give yourself more opportunity to be more aggressive, right?

Have to take risks.

So that's that tip there.

Practice the risk.

High risk, high reward, yes sir.

So number four, split step stance.

Yeah, so a split step stance when you're waiting for the ball baseline and you're rally tends

to be not necessarily in your heels, but you tend to be down neutral, central so you can

go back and forward, back and forth from the baseline.

When you're coming forward, again, identifying is the first part.

Then once you've identified, it's getting more weight and the balls of your feet, getting

your head slightly forward, getting ready to explode forward.

If not, you're going to be one step or half a step behind to hit that ball, which then you

get cautious because you're like, ah, I saw it, but I wasn't in the correct stance.

So ready stance of being able to get ready for that ball is really pretty good.

Which can help you not hesitate, correct?

Correct, correct.

It's giving you the front foot ready to go forward and give it a shot, which again comes

down to the wrist.

Again, what's the next step?

I think it's footwork, right?

Footwork.

I've put pattern take off.

Once I split step, my first two steps need to be full strike versus I see too many people

going into cross steps straight away and they're going to be what I call playing catch-up

for the mid-core ball, right?

When you get that opportunity, you want to have two strong strides to get to my momentum

before you go into your cross step.

So progressing forward with the right footwork pattern is critical as well.

And that's probably what I spend 90% of my training time teaching people mid-core is learning

the footwork progression because then everything just works for them.

It helps them in preparation, it helps everything.

I think that's probably the next one I've probably got is preparation, right?

It's progression to the ball with preparation, yeah.

There you go.

Footwork pattern, along with the footwork's right, you've got your momentum.

So now because you've got my momentum, you can go into cross step, you're going into cross

step, or some people call karaoke, right?

If you go into cross step, that gives you the chance to prepare ready for the ball.

So there is a lot of purpose around the footwork pattern to get ready for preparation for

the ball.

Like a dancer, I have to practice those specific steps.

Yeah, so again, ball short, soft, you've got to run maybe even faster than in preparation.

Then you've got ones a little bit deeper, right?

Three quarter quarter.

So it's like one big strike, get momentum and then cross step and then take advantage.

So you've got to vary it up.

But what I want everyone to understand is mid-core has a lot to do with your footwork pattern

and your stance getting ready.

All of this stuff is preparation, not just I'm waiting for all the sit mid-core.

Now I'll practice it.

Exactly.

All right, number seven, changing gears a little bit.

Drive valleys can help early contact.

Yes, so that's one I practice a lot with kids and even with new week ladies, we call new

week ladies, you just call them ladies, three O's, three Fives, and I'll tell them every time

I hit this ball up in the air, I want you to run forward into three quarter quarter

and drive it out of your chest.

Most of the time at their waist is where they're comfortable.

They're at least trying to drive through the ball with a short contact with a short compact

swing and connecting way out in front.

If they can do it and get the ball and hit it clean, then you let the next one bounce and

then they start to realize, I can hit this on the rise.

I can hit it early and a drive volley can help that.

Great, learn to hit chest height and you included grip tension with loose shoulders only activated.

What does that mean?

Yes, so sorry, grip tension is loose and the only thing that's activated is the shoulder.

So this is connected to the drive volley, right?

Well, I can't be connected to the drive volley, but when you're coming into the net, what

I quite commonly, as your people coming forward into mid-core hall, I send a C tight

grip, tight arm.

In the end, they really don't get the width and the finish when they're coming in forward.

They get a compact short stiff, no fall, it's rude, poke at it.

A blocked approach shot.

When you get a blocked approach shot, you're not going to penetrate.

Then you get caught on the volley.

There's all these things in mid-core.

I try to tell people to hit the ball.

They tend to when they go up for a chest height too, they'll tend to get everything tight.

Everything needs to be loose and the only thing that activates the shoulder joint.

That's why players look so loose in power when they come forward because they're only activating

the muscles they really need and everything else is very elastic.

Yep, and last two are focused on your practice.

Tips to talk about practice specifically.

Number nine is practice mid-core under pressure.

Yeah, so grab a partner, make them feed different balls out to you from different areas of the

court and practice coming forward and playing against them and then put it under pressure

for the score system to it.

If there's no score, there's no pressure.

You see?

And nobody whether it's your buddy or not, nobody likes the loose.

Apply the pressure all the time.

You lose 10-0 big deal.

If the other player does around and you do around and you do around and other people around,

next thing you know it could be 10-2.

Next thing is 10-6 because you're starting to get used to the risk taking the footwork

patterns, you know, taking the ball early, realizing where your mistakes were and improving

it.

So practice under pressure and all these things will start to get better.

That's great.

And do we have any drills to practice mid-core with a ball?

Yeah, finish this off.

Absolutely.

Again, get your partner to feed, dropping, you know, hitting the ball down so it gets

topspin and bounces really fast to you on the way out on the other end.

That's a good one to practice, being able to come forward.

Get them to drop shot and make it short on you so you have to run forward, make it

count and get ready for a volley.

There's tons of different drills but don't be just standing on the middle of the court

and feeding the ball.

Really need to be in the corner.

Really need to be deep in the court.

You know, your partner could be deep in the court and hit it high low and you come in

and hit a drive-off, right?

So practice everything that you're being put into play and practice doing it in ribs.

Well, Justin Yeo has been 10 tips in 10 minutes focused on the mid-court.

Thank you, sir.

We'll see you next week.

See you mate.

Take care.

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