The cold wet winter will soon be over and for many of you out there, its time to get the racket out for the start of a new season.

To try and get you ready for either your friendly or club play try to remember that there are certain basics that you want to try to adher to for the start of the season.

The basics are all about control and without this you are the preverbial ship without a rudder - so here we go

Basics No 1 is "always control oneself"
Before any player steps onto a court, he/she must commit to controlling his/her emotions and demeanor. Yes, tennis can be frustrating. Yes, sometimes the more skilled and talented player loses. Yes, it is better to be "lucky" than good. And yes, tennis can and sometimes will test your emotional mettle. If you cannot control yourself on the court, the chances of you dealing successfully with all of these "unfair" and "out of my control" factors, are slim at best. In particular, I find that many junior, high school and intermediate level players fall victim to their own lack of emotional control.

When Bjorn Borg was a very young adolescent, he displayed his anger by throwing his racquet onto the court. His parents took his tennis gear away and would not permit him to play for a full year. Sounds harsh, but his parents set in place the foundation for the most self controlled player in modern times. Bjorn Borg's nickname was "The Iceman."

Make a personal commitment to being in complete control of your emotions this tennis season. You may benefit from some positive displays of emotion, but you will certainly never benefit from negative emotions or displays of emotion.

Basics No 2 is "make certain you get the ball over the net".
This sounds so obvious that the reader may be thinking, "Of course, one needs to get the ball over the net." We are all going to make errant shots! After all, we are human, and thus, imperfect. But, errant shots that land long or wide are far less serious than those that result in a ball hitting the net. Why? One can easily correct shots that land too deep by simply hitting with less pace. A player can correct shots that are landing wide by simply targeting more to the center.

Shots that consistently hit the net are almost always caused by some "excessive" and severe problem in stroke production and/or court movement. These are not easy to correct during a match and can lead to much frustration.

So, when playing tennis your first goal should be to make certain that your shots never hit the net. You may have heard TV commentators or teaching pros refer to "good" errors and "bad" errors. Shots that hit the net are definitely "bad" errors. Remember that!

Basics No 3 is "make sure you keep your groundstrokes deep".
The farther back your opponent is when hitting her/his groundstrokes the less severe an angle she/he can produce when making replies. It is basic geometry. However when your opponent can step into the court a bit, she/he can go for more severe crosscourt angles, which force you to run hard and usually put you in less than desirable court positions.

There are only two ways to keep your groundstrokes landing deep into your opponent's court: Hit the ball hard and low to the net, or hit the ball with less pace but increased net clearance. If you can hit these strokes with lots of topspin, you automatically can hit a ball that passes high over the net, drops in near the opponent's baseline and "pushes" him/her back.

 Basics No 4 is to control the direction of your shots
Again, this seems self-evident. But in reality, one needs to "work into" a match or even a practice session before she/he attempts to go for angles. If you place targets (perhaps empty ball canisters) near the sidelines of the opposite court when practicing, you can really develop solid crosscourt angled and well positioned down the line groundstrokes. If you can hit these targets while on the run, you are truly in control of the direction of your strokes.

 Basics No 5 is control the spin
 Flat shots (those with little spin) are generally difficult to control. Every player needs to have reliable topspin and slice shots off of both wings. Yes, the flat groundstroke has its place in tennis, but it should be the exception... not the norm. Spin shots by their very nature increase a player's ball control.

Basics No 6 is to be able to hit with pace.
Only when all of the previous steps have been well established does it make sense to try for power and pace in your shots. If over time (when referring to practice sessions) you establish these first five steps, I assure you that the shots you intend to hit with pace will be much more successful and devastating. The pros are so skilled and practice/train so much that the first five steps are almost a given. Thus, they can begin a match and hit out with all the pace they want without taking too much of a risk. Still, I have photographed many tennis tournaments, and I can assure the reader that pros on both tours usually make certain that they get acclimated to playing the match before they break out the big guns. So, recognizing the order and importance of each of these six steps is a great way to approach training sessions and a great way to work your way into a match if you are competing. Using these "building" blocks really helps to establish a solid game!!!