10 THINGS I’VE LEARNED AS A TENNIS PRO
By Robert Russell as told to Joshua Evans

1 Tennis takes a lot of practice. You’re trying to hit a moving object (the ball) with a moving object (the racquet) attached to a moving object (yourself). There’s a lot of chaos going on. 2 All of my coaching is a collage of what I’ve learned from my coaches, what I’ve learned on my own, and what I learn from the people I teach. 3 Tennis is cruel. There’s a lot of losing in tennis. But if you stick it out, there are tremendous benefits to be gained from tennis. You learn to take a lot and bounce back. 4 Most men, not all men, treat tennis lessons like getting directions. They get about half of it and figure they’ll find their way the rest of the way. 5 Players have to understand that they’re never as good as their best day, and never as bad as their worst day. 6 A good coach has to be understanding, tolerant and number one, have a lot of patience. 7 Everybody talks about power, but all the players hit it hard now. It’s the players who can run down the power who are most successful. 8 You have to be very visual. Hardly anybody learns from hearing. Coaches talk all the time, but most people learn by seeing and feeling and doing. 9 A good player needs to be able to work through it and think it out for him or herself. I teach my students to be very independent of me because when they get out there to play a tennis match, they’re on their own. 10 One of my five Robert’s Rules is to always play exactly as you’ve been taught to play. Don’t go out and not play your game because you’re a little nervous. Trust what you’ve learned and go use it. o Robert Russell is the Head Tennis Professional at The Country Club of Jackson. He has been coaching tennis since 1975, and has taught many of the top ranked players in the state and region, including two USTA touring professionals.