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Thursday, October 19, 2006

101 Tips for Winning More Tennis Matches



I met Michael Kosta in Mobile in 2005 where he was recruiting as the University of Michigan men's assistant coach at the USTA 18s Spring Championships. He was midway through his first season there, and we had a long conversation that included stories from his college years at the University of Illinois and his years traveling on the circuit. He also mentioned he was writing a book, and it has recently been published by coacheschoice.com. It is available for purchase at winmoretennismatches.com, which also features a sample tip from the book.

He sent me a copy a few weeks ago and I've been reading it, ten or twenty tips at a time. Although perhaps most valuable for players competing at a high level, it isn't a book devoted to tennis technique or strategy, although some of the entries are certainly in those categories. Most are observations or hard-won lessons learned from his years playing competitive tennis and, more recently, while coaching others.

The book is divided into seven chapters: Pre-Match, Match Play:Singles, Match Play:Doubles, Post-match, Practices, Tournament Environment and Mental/Physical Preparation. Some tips, like no. 11-- Wear two pairs of socks, and 12-- Accept the weather, are pretty straightforward. Others, like no. 29-- Learn when to go for an ace and no. 37-- Accept code violations, need more elaboration. But none are complicated or difficult to understand. Many of the tips, especially in the final chapter, are especially appropriate for juniors, who often work much harder on the physical part of the game than the mental one. Kosta makes his points clearly, often with anecdotes about his own experiences, and makes use of his sense of humor too.

Kosta is no longer the assistant at Michigan. This summer he left to pursue a career in standup comedy, and I've written a story about that unlikely job change, one I hope will be published soon, for either Tennis or Smash magazine. A person with the courage to take on that kind of challenge isn't going to write a timid book, and he hasn't. You may not adopt all of the tips, or even ten of them, but just two or three may help you not just win more tennis matches, but have a more positive outlook off the court too.

Earlier this month the Detroit Free Press published an article about Kosta and the book, which is available here.

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