"The Zone" Tennis's Mysterious-Elusive Temporary Place Identified

The Zone in tennis is like most sports--it lasts a very short while. The Zone I believe and can prove-- is a technical place and not some magical, mysterious place. In this post I will identify why the Zone is so illusive.
I believe the reason players in most sports and specifically tennis temporarily start producing shots that are remarkable compared to their "normal" production is by mistake and luck. I will give an example: usually a player enters the zone after hitting hundreds of ground strokes with a player with great production--what happens is the player instinctively starts mimicking the swing he "sees" from the better player--the sound is different--the beginning of the back swing is a little different--the finish is a little different. So, by mistake this player will enter a very efficient swing plane--one that is identifiable with a better beginning and end which produces an incredible "whack" sound that the player is able to reproduce--the problem is sometimes the zone will last 15 minutes in practice or if LUCKY may last the complete tournament. Herein lies the problem. Next, the player goes back home--usually to his club pro--or if a tour player to his coach--with these great results the coach assumes the information and swing techniques they were working on is the reason for the dramatic results--It is just the opposite!! So, the coach starts telling the player with his "pro chatter" (the pro thinks he has to give his student his moneys worth) to snap that racket head, etc. and as quickly as that new swing was accidentally discovered --IT IS GONE. At this point they usually hire a sports psychologist--because it could not have been the coaches fault. I know this for a fact because I started out my teaching career as that pro--I kept going to all the USTA teaching seminars for 7 years--then realized their information was wrong and started experimenting and figuring out what the players do not what they think they do--believe me there is a big diference.
This lack of teaching production is the fault of our inexperienced swing coaches--they are trainers and hitting partners only--I believe this is why many of the parents were our top players coaches. So, a little information is better than misinformation. Agassi, Hingis, Sharapova, Connors, Evert, Williams Sisters are just a few examples. When these players naturally moved into "THE ZONE" their parents did not screw it up with misinformed "pro chatter"--they allowed whatever magic they found by mistake to become ingrained.
Its sad but since swing coaches like me have not been identified by the tennis hierarchy to help our juniors and pros identify what their production points are--and what technical parts of their swing will enable them to realize their true potential--so their true potential is only limited by their physical and mental abilities--and not a swing flaw that ultimately shoots down their self confidence and future results.
Harry Hopman Syndrome: Harry Hopman was the old Australian Davis cup coach and coached Newcomb, Stolle, Laver and many other world ranked players including McEnroe. He was a task master and was the best conditioning coach in the world--what he did was surround very talented athletes with other talented athletes and drill them into the ground and sometimes these players would enter the Zone naturally by mistake and stay there for longer periods of time because he would not spit out technique phrases that I believe would have gotten the player out of the zone---So no information and drilling is much better than misinformation and drilling that is being doled out by inexperienced technical coaches. Try to name a top tour pro who actually improved a swing flaw while on tour--this point must not be overlooked--The only answer is obvious--The coaches with these top players have no clue how to clean and improve swing flaws and more importantly add to the players stroke ammunition to keep the players improving and stay on top. Even Federer, whose high forehand is awful and will never beat Nadal consistently unless he allows someone like me to reset his army, disconnected, an wristy swing. I believe this is why he doesn't hire a coach because he instinctively knows that there stroke information is poor--so he hires his own hitting partners and conditioning coaches who at least don't confuse him with miss information.
Remember, the fact that our juniors world rankings have been poor for the last 20 years should prove a point--The only common denominator is the fact the USTA has now and forever hired former tour players as their national coaches--I believe their playing expertise is very important to the total development but they should be used for hitting practice and strategy only---It takes years of on court analysis with both talented and untalented players to even begin to help with a swing flaw. So, obviously they are waiting for the next Agassi, Chang, Sampras, Courrier class to hopefully fall through the cracks.
Being the # 1 production coach in the country I have seen first hand how difficult it is to have access to top junior players--having attended many elite junior training sessions--I was amazed at how the other pros would protect their juniors from receiving helpful advice from me (they all were afraid of losing the student). So, even though I would see many stroke problems in these nationally ranked students we were told to just feed them shopping cart after shopping cart full of balls---the point is they needed help and even at the local level were not allowed to get it--the student would be better off buying a ball machine or have their parent say move your feet, move your feet--1000 times.
How nice would it have been to have a master technician like me reset some of these good athletes and show them what about their swing will allow them to enter The Zone and stay there.
This lack of technical ability is why guys like Roddick have gone through so many coaches in the last 5 years---he is subconsciously looking for me--but keeps finding great players like Connors who had the best penetrating backhand in the history of the game--but does not know how he hits it--after 20+ years in the trenches teaching beginners and world class players I have discovered the "Missing Link" that explains (The Holy Grail of Tennis) how Connors and Evert hit so flat and NEVER go long. It also explains the Zone and why it is so elusive. Roddick's new coach, Stephanki, has helped the worse tour backhand since Courrier but it is still a manipulated mess---Hey Andy call me-I don't want to be your hitting partner and coach---Just your Swing Coach--the problem is you are like everybody else--you think your coach can train & improve stroke production--your awful backhand set up and inside only forehand after hiring 4 coaches in 5 years proves this assumption is wrong--in a few years I would like to train a former great player in the art of swing analysis--until then you will need my technical swing abilities.