August 2007 -- Technology continues to deliver countless benefits to USPTA members, and we’re excited to announce yet another resource that provides you with hundreds of instructional videos, photos and articles that will increase the value of your tennis toolbox. This newest teaching resource is offered through your very own USPTA personal Web site.
Tennisplayer.net, founded by USPTA member John Yandell, is now free to USPTA members. John has made a name for himself in our industry for creating new teaching resources, and many of his high-speed film projects have been featured in our cable TV show on the Tennis Channel - "On Court with USPTA™."
John has designed a site that combines articles illustrated with digital photography and state-of-the-art video. Among those sharing their tennis expertise are coaches Robert Lansdorp, Rick Macci, Nick Bollettieri, Jack Groppel, Jim Loehr, Pat Etcheberry, Allen Fox, and many others who have worked with Grand Slam champions.
Aside from valuable insight from the world’s biggest names in tennis teaching, Tennisplayer.net also showcases the work of coaches you may not know now, but who are likely to make a significant impact on the tennis world. The best part is that the site is packed with practical insights from your fellow USPTA pros.
It’s easy to use, and the home page explains each of the menu items that are also listed on the left side. The "New issue" area describes what’s been added to various menu groups within the site. Just a few of the menu items include stroke archive, forum, classic lessons, physical training, mental game, teaching systems, high performance, future stars and much more. The content is extensive. For example, the stroke archive alone examines the complete technical games of more than 60 great players, frame by frame, in digital video. More than 20,000 stroke clips - all taken from actual matches - allow you to study the techniques of Roger Federer, Rafael Nadal, Justine Henin, and dozens more players, from every possible angle.
The interactive forum gives you a chance to discuss these various resources, to ask questions, and to interface directly with John Yandell, as well the site’s other writers and other Tennisplayer.net subscribers.
This new USPTA benefit is invaluable on its own, but you can take it a huge step further because this collaboration not only provides you with access to a wide range of information, it also provides you with the digital resources for state-of-the-art video analysis.
Every clip in the stroke archive can be downloaded and is compatible with Dartfish, a USPTA-endorsed video analysis software, and other software programs for side-by-side analysis, either comparing one professional to another or to your own students and players. John has promised that in future issues of Tennisplayer.net that he will explain how to do this analysis in clear, step-by-step fashion, even for those who have never used video in their teaching before.
This means you will be able to use this information to assist your students with their games, and possibly write your own analyses. In fact, John hopes this new collaboration will produce more writers and contributors for his site.
The beauty of this new benefit is that it’s available on your personal Web site and easily accessible from there. The reason we decided to use the personal Web site as a portal for this and future resource sites is to encourage each member to use his or her own Web site, which in itself is another valuable free benefit offered by USPTA. Each site is a great way to promote you and your programs, and it’s definitely going to impress your students and club members who visit it. Along with club tennis news and program information, your members will be able to preview Tennisplayer.net. If they want to explore the site further, they will be able to subscribe.
If you’re not familiar with Tennisplayer.net, visit it by either going to www.tennisplayer.net and then using the USPTA login on that page (under the Tennisplayer.net login area), or going directly to your personal Web site. If you go through Tennisplayer.net first and log in, you’ll be redirected to your Web site, where you’ll see a new link there to Tennisplayer.net. If you log in through your personal Web site first, you’ll be sent directly to the site and can start reviewing its features.
We’re excited to be able to offer you even more tennis resources, and we’re working on others - similar to our High School Coaches Resource Center - that will also be accessed through your personal Web site. Tennisplayer.net is like the many other member benefits USPTA provides to you for the price of your dues, including subscriptions to
Tennis and
Tennis Week magazines, liability insurance coverage, free and discounted products and much, much more.
We hope you’ll review Tennisplayer.net and check your e-mail and personal Web sites for new member benefits from USPTA.
