On the Road: Caneel Bay, St. John, U.S. Virgin Islands

On the Road: Vic Braden Tennis College at Green Valley

Videotape—or in this case digital video—does not lie, which was part of the reason I did not like what I was seeing. In general, I'd considered my backhand to be the most solid of my shots, but viewed frame-by-frame it was unmistakably clear that whatever my impressions this crucial stroke was anything but flawless. The good news is that pros at the Vic Braden Tennis College at Green Valley Resort & Spa in St. George, Utah, are not only adept at spotting technical flaws but at correcting them as well. And over the next several days, they would take each of my strokes in turn and lay out a plan for making each better.

As you'd expect from a program that bases its teaching on scientific research, the Vic Braden Tennis College takes a methodical approach to instruction. The day begins at 8:30 a.m. with a half-hour classroom session during which director Dave Nostrant outlines the key technical elements for each of the strokes they'll be working on that morning. Rather than ask you to take his recommendations on faith, Nostrant backs them up with the research Vic Braden has pulled together and with videotaped examples of current and former professional players.

Vic Braden Tennis College at Green Valley Resort & Spa

Having planted the seeds of a solid backhand, Nostrant and his staff took us to the courts where after a quick warm up each of us had his backhand videotaped—not from in front but from behind. "It's the way the brain works," says Nostrant as an explanation for why they shoot from that perspective. "You see a much clearer picture of what you're actually doing because the brain doesn't have to turn the image around. So it give you a much more accurate visual image. Immediately afterward we got to see the results on a laptop computer. The pro split the screen and first synced up a video of one of the teaching pros hitting an identical backhand—a one-handed backhand in my case. (Because this is digital, they can flop the video of the pro and thus provide an ideal example for lefthanders as well.)

As they go through frame-by-frame you can see precisely where and how your stroke differs from—or is perfectly in sync with—the pro's. The pro occasionally adds telustrator marks to highlight differences and similarities and make the point more graphically. They don't simply want you to see what's wrong; they want you to understand what's right or wrong and instill you with mental checkpoints so that even after you leave camp you can practice on your own. With that visual diagnosis complete, we moved to the courts to begin the work of correcting whatever technical flaws each of us suffered from.

Vic Braden Tennis College at Green Valley Spa

I've attended the Vic Braden Tennis College on several occasions over the last two decades but what struck me most on this last visit was how methodical they'd become. Calling this a "college" had never seemed more apt. Rather than engage in mindlessly repetitious drills, each of us was encouraged to think. We were trying to retrain our muscle memory, after all, to do that we needed in effect to overwrite our own internal software. "Vic's studies show it can take four to eight weeks to accomplish that," says Nostrant. "That doesn't mean practicing for hours every day. It's about the quality of the practice. What matters is recreating the new stroke—even a shadow swing can help—and practicing once or twice a week is enough. Once you can do it seven out of 10 times, you own it. "

Over the course of three three-hour mornings, the college videos, assesses and lays the groundwork to improve all of the major strokes. The pros remember what each player is working on and offer continual reinforcement and encouragement, both during drills and in playing situations where you try to put the new information to work. "Change is uncomfortable," notes Nostrant. "As long as the pain of change is greater than the pain of losing, you'll never change. But once you get sick of losing to the same person over and over and decide to change, then it can happen. And for most of the people we see, once they make that change they become more consistent and putting one or two more balls in the court each rally is all they need to move up a level."

Those who want more than the three-hour morning sessions can add an additional two hours of reinforcing drills in the afternoon. Most in my group opted to play instead. Tennis glutton that I am, I signed on for afternoons as well, joining a couple from Michigan and working with a different pro on more match-play situations. Kimberly Chung and John Kerr had attended four times, having obviously found a program that matched their needs and expectations. In her review, Chung writes:

"This camp is fantastic for me, but it is not for everyone. You have to be patient to really get a lot out of the 'Vic Braden way.' That means you have to be committed to taking apart some of your sort-of-bad-but-completely-serviceable strokes and sometimes making them even worse before they get better. It involves buying into their way of teaching each of the strokes. It's this aspect of the instruction system that turns some people off."
"But, for me, the super attention to stroke details suits my learning style. I've not had a bad instructor in the 4 times I've been to Green Valley. I've enjoyed every one of them. They are also genuinely some of the nicest people in the world. They must screen for sunny dispositions when they hire! I'd highly recommend this camp and we will certainly be back next year ... just around the time that our strokes start to really fall apart. In fact, my husband says that we really need to go twice a year!"

The College tennis program is offered ´ la carte, allowing you to choose your own lodging in St. George or rent one of the Las Palmas Family Condominiums at Green Valley. It also comes as part of a complete spa package, with lodging in the amenity-rich casitas and suites of the Coyote Inn, healthy, low-calorie meals in the spa dining room, and a choice of treatments and activities. See the web site for more details. To see how other tennis vacationers rate this Vic Braden college, see Vic Braden at Green Valley Vacationer Reviews. For more about the resort, visit Green Valley's web site.