This ebook, An Alexander Technique Approach to Tennis, is published on this website in a PDF format. It is very detailed and practical, and it will give you the physical tools you need to take the limits off of your ability to create the tennis technique you want without sacrificing your body.
This ebook is also for sale on all AMAZON websites in a KINDLE format.
Located in Albuquerque, New Mexico, U.S.A. (MOVEMENT THERAPY)
What makes the Alexander Technique teacher so extraordinarily good at working with tennis players is our ability to work outside of the box, whether the Alexander Technique teacher has ever played tennis or not. In fact, the Alexander Technique teacher who has never played tennis may be able to give the tennis player what he or she needs in a way that is way outside of the box. What do I mean?
When I was an aspiring concert guitarist, I went to an Alexander Technique teacher, because I was causing carpal tunnel syndrome to my left wrist, practicing the guitar hours and hours every day. Because the Alexander technique teacher I worked with was not a classical guitarist, she effortlessly got me to question everything I did on the guitar from head to toe.
It was extraordinary for me after years of playing and after many fine guitar teachers, to dismantle everything I thought was necessary to be a concert guitarist, and create my own personal guitar technique. (I do the same with my Alexander Technique clients, not letting my personal classical guitar technique override my Alexander Technique training.)
I kept what worked, let go of what didn’t work, fined tuned what almost worked, and added whole new ways of accomplishing for the first time what I was truly capable of on the guitar.
What I bring to the tennis player are the eyes of an Alexander Technique teacher. I assist the tennis player in being able to consciously use his or her whole body in a completely elegant, balanced, powerful, and coordinated way. I teach the tennis player how to move with ease without paying a physical price by collapsing or hunkering down to hit the ball.
How do I do this? I went through a three year training, and in my Alexander Technique training I learned to use my whole body with ease and balance in everything I do, from walking, to brushing my teeth, to playing the guitar, to teaching the Alexander Technique.
My training also taught me to look at any activity, from running to tennis, and to spot when the person is sacrificing his or her body for the activity. What does this mean? It means when I work with the tennis player, I can clearly see when the tennis player is hunkering down paying a painful physical price to move with control and precision. I can see when the tennis player is not connected to his or her torso and legs when moving to hit the ball. I can see when the tennis player is not balanced from head to toe when he or she moves, and because of this whole body imbalance, is using too much muscle.
What I also bring to the tennis player is that I embody whole body good use as I assist the tennis player in creating his or her personal effortless, powerful, and balanced tennis technique. This means, even if the tennis player doesn’t know it consciously, I demonstrate to the tennis player with my own posture how to move without pain, strain, and compression. I also use verbal directions and directing hands on the tennis player’s body to communicate what is needed to create a pain-free tennis technique.
SINCE I AM NOT SACRIFICING MY BODY AS I TEACH THE TENNIS PLAYER, EVERYTHING ABOUT MY POSTURE, WORDS, AND HANDS COMMUNICATE TO THE TENNIS PLAYER HOW TO DO THE SAME AS HE OR SHE MOVES AND HITS THE BALL.
An Alexander Technique teacher is extraordinarily unique in the world of postural teaching, because the Alexander Technique teacher is teaching the tennis player to do as the Alexander Technique teacher EMBODIES and says, rather than doing only as I say. Simply, if I tell you to hit the ball without locking your neck, and I tell you this with poor posture, you will have one heck of a time learning to swing the racket with a released and lengthening neck and decompressed spine.
You won’t know why hitting the ball with a free neck seems so hard, but it is because unconsciously you are receiving conflicting messages from me talking about good posture and exhibiting poor posture. A certified Alexander Technique teacher can truly say do as I do, do as I say, and do as my hands are communicating to your nervous system through my free nervous system.
