Fixing Stroke Phobias

Robbie Weiss: a great talent with a bit of a serve phobia. In my 17 years coaching the Pepperdine tennis team I saw many strange things, but none stranger than the serving affliction that Robbie Weiss suffered in his first year at school. Robbie was a great recruit and an even greater talent. Before coming to Pepperdine he had won 13 national junior titles. But as a freshman he lost confidence in his serve – developed a phobia about it – even though his action was quite technically sound. At times he was so paralytic that he would double-fault four times in a row, once even whiffing. That’s hard to do since the ball is almost stationary at point of contact. Robbie did have periods where his serve worked properly, but in the back of his mind he was always afraid the trouble would return. And he usually didn’t have long to wait – a double fault or two would reignite the whole horrible process. ...