Nassau Tennis Club’s High Performance Academy Elite Tennis Players Win National Level Zone Championships

 

Nassau Tennis Club High Performance Academy tennis players, Philip Szkudlarski, Ishaan Ravichander, Nolan Shah, Sameer Gangoli, and Avnika Naraparaju were part of the winning Middle States team of the Boys and Girls 14s Zone Team Championships. These elite players represented the Middle States section at the prestigious National Level Zone Championships in July. 

The National Team Zone Championships are co-ed team events designed to introduce elite players to national competition in which players get to compete alongside fellow Middle States players against teams from other sections.  Players are selected to participate based on USTA performance rankings.

Ten teams participated in Cary, North Carolina for the 14 and under championships.  Teams came from the Southern, Mid-Atlantic and Middle States sections of the U.S. 

Two teams from the Middle States section, which includes NJ, squared off in the finals.  “Ishaan Ravichander and Brinlea LaBarge provided the winning points for the Middle States “B” team defeating Middle States “A” team in a thrilling mixed doubles tiebreaker,” says Ravi Vaidyanathan, parent of Ishaan Ravichander. 

The finalist, Middle States “A” team included Quinn Snyder and Biren Reddy, two additional Nassau High Performance Academy players.

“It is the first time since 2001 that a team from the Middle States section won the Zone Team Championships,” says Marc Hill, Director of Nassau’s High Performance Academy. “It is a great achievement for our elite players to compete at the national level and dominate,” says Marc. 

Nassau’s High Performance Academy is the premier training center for nationally and sectionally ranked junior tennis players in Central New Jersey.  For more information, visit www.NextLevelTennis.com  

Posted in Tennis in Princeton Area | Leave a comment

Central New Jersey Dominate in State Championships

History was made in the 2015 High School State Championships with Montgomery High School winning both the girls and boys doubles state championships.  It is the first time in the history of Montgomery township that a boys team has won the championship.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

l-r Kim Szakats, Emily Roeper, Nikil Pancha and Zach Anderson; Coach Eric Tavel in front

East Brunswick, Joshua Marchalik, won the State singles championships.

Joshua Marchalik

The girls champion was, Kate Fahey from Rumson Fair Haven – representing North Jersey.

 

Kate Fahey

Find out more about USTA Middle States Champions at http://mstennisblog.com/2015/06/12/2015-high-school-state-championships/

Posted in Tennis in Princeton Area | Leave a comment

Joao Pinho Presents on “Teaching Tennis Singles Patterns” at the 2015 USPTA World Conference

Joao Pinho, Manager of Tennis Operations at the Nassau Tennis Club has been invited to speak at the 2015 USPTA World Conference coming up in September in New Orleans.  Joao will be presenting on “Teaching Tennis Singles Patterns.” Click here for full event information.   

Joao will also be presenting on the 2015 USPTA Middle States Conference in November in Princeton.

 

Posted in Tennis in Princeton Area, USTA Tennis | Leave a comment

Boys High School Tennis Teams, Big Winners

 

Liam Lynch whips a forehand to win 2nd doubles title at Somerset County Tournament for Montgomery High School

Boys High School tennis teams competed in county tournaments this past weekend.  The big winners are:

Somerset County: Montgomery High School (read more)

Mercer County: West Windsor Plainsboro South (read more)

Middlesex County:  J.P. Stevens (read more)

Morris County: Randolph High School (read more)

Essex County: Livingston High School (read more)

Click here for Top 20 tennis teams in New Jersey

Click here to see who the players are to watch this season

 

Posted in Tennis in Princeton Area | Leave a comment

Nassau Tennis Club Donates $3,000 to Montgomery First Responders

In Photo: (l-r) Benton Camper, President, Nassau Tennis Club, Bill Spohn, Fire Co #1, John Connacher, EMS, Mike Kaufman, Fire Co #2, Seth Miller, Tournament Director

Nassau Tennis Club’s 3rd Annual President’s Day Weekend Community Tournament to Benefit Montgomery First Responders was a huge success raising approximately $1500.  The Nassau Tennis Club matched donations and presented checks to the Montgomery EMS, Police Department, Fire Company #1 & #2. “Every year, the event grows bigger and we are able to acknowledge the great work of our local heroes,” says Benton Camper, “we hope to continue to grow the event year after year.” 

Visit Nassau Tennis Club online for more information.

Posted in Tennis in Princeton Area | Leave a comment

Video Tennis Analysis: A Great Teaching Tool

Using video to teach tennis is an extremely useful tool for the coach and the player.  It can be applied to improve skills, refine stroke technique, as well as correct court positioning and movement.  Some of the benefits of using video technology on the tennis court include:

  • Complete View: Video allows your coach to see things they may have missed with the naked eye.  Tennis is a dynamic sport and most skills in the game are performed at speed. Reviewing your video will allow your coach to see every aspect of your game.
  •  Slow motion replay: Video can be shown in slow motion or paused to break down your strokes, movement and court positioning.
  • Self-visualization:  Has your coach ever told you were hitting the ball late and you thought he or she was wrong?  Video will allow you to see what your coach is seeing.
  • Tracking performance:  Video can be a very useful tool for tracking any changes that occur so you can reinforce the changes you are trying to make and provide positive feedback to the player as their game improves.

More and more tennis professionals are using video analysis to help players improve their game. Video analysis can be very useful for both adult and junior players.  Ask your club if they can use video in their clinics and private lessons.  The answer may surprise you.

Posted in Tennis Tips | Tagged , | Leave a comment

Nassau Tennis Club Donates $3,000 to Montgomery First Responders

(l-r) Benton Camper, President, Nassau Tennis Club, Bill Spohn, Fire Co #1, John Connacher, EMS, Mike Kaufman, Fire Co #2, Seth Miller, Tournament Director

Nassau Tennis Club’s 3rd Annual President’s Day Weekend Community Tournament to Benefit Montgomery First Responders was a huge success raising approximately $1500.  The Nassau Tennis Club matched donations and presented checks to the Montgomery EMS, Police Department, Fire Company #1 & #2. “Every year, the event grows bigger and we are able to acknowledge the great work of our local heroes,” says Benton Camper, “we hope to continue to grow the event year after year.” 

To learn more about the Nassau Tennis Club, click here.

Posted in Tennis in Princeton Area | Leave a comment

The Importance of Speed & Agility for Tennis Players

Tennis is a game of movement.  Players need to be able to get an early start with an explosive first step.  They need to respond to different sorts of shots, and move quickly while constantly changing direction. 

Speed describes how fast a tennis player can get to the tennis ball. Agility represents the ability of the player to change direction quickly while maintaining good balance and body control without losing time in the transition.

In the game of tennis, players do not run longer than 40 feet without having to either stop, change direction, or change speed.  The player that uses speed & agility more efficiently will be the player with the advantage on the court. 

To learn more about speed & agility training, visit Nassau Tennis at www.NassauTennis.Net

Posted in Fitness, Tennis Tips | Leave a comment

Nassau Tennis Club Awarded 2014 Tennis Facility of the Year

Nassau Tennis Club is this years recipient of the USPTA Middle States Division 2014 Facility of the Year and also boasts that Joao Pinho, Manager of Tennis Operations, was awarded USPTA Middle States Division 2014 Pro of the Year.

The Nassau Tennis Club is a family owned business that has been providing tennis, fitness and sports programs to the Greater Montgomery, Hillsborough and Princeton area for nearly 40 years. Located in Skillman, NJ, the facility has 10 indoor hard courts, 5 outdoor Har-Tru courts, pro shop, pool and a club house with locker rooms, viewing areas, babysitting, workout rooms and an area for socializing & parties. Nassau offers tennis programs for adults and juniors at all levels including instructional clinics, private lessons, leagues, travel teams, USTA teams, fitness programs and social events. Nassau Tennis Club is also the home of the prestigious High Performance Academy.

Joao “Jay” Pinho, originally from Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, has been teaching tennis for over 13 years. Jay has experience as a Division I collegiate coach at Princeton University, The University of Toledo and Utah State University  and has numerous certifications & accomplishments that include:

  • U.S. Tennis Association (USTA): Certified High Performance Coach
  • U.S. Professional Tennis Association (USPTA): Certified Elite Professional
  • USPTA: Specialist in Competitive Player Development & Accredited Coach
  • USPTA: Middle States Rookie of the Year, 2010
  • USPTA: Middle States Member of Executive Board & NJ President
  • Human Performance Institute: Certified Mental Toughness Specialist
  • The Etcheberry Experience: Certified in Strength, Conditioning & Movement in Sports
  • Professional Tennis Registry (PTR): Certified Professional in Adult Development and 10 and Under
  • PTR: 4A Status under the Merit Achievement Program (one of the youngest to achieve this level)
  • PTR: Master of Tennis in Performance (first ever to graduate from the longest coaching program in U.S.)

Jay competed professionally at the National level and was Brazilian National Doubles champion in U-18. He was also a four-year standout at Austin Peay State University and Utah State University, NCAA Division I.

To learn more about Nassau Tennis Club and its teaching professionals, visit www.NassauTennis.Net

Posted in Tennis in Princeton Area | Tagged , , , | Leave a comment

Nutrition Tips – its not Rocket Science

Diet advice is a lot like fashion. Trends come—wedge sneakers, drop-crotch pants, those skirts that are short in the front and long in the back—and a year or two later they seem hopelessly out of date. But the truly stylish always look smart; you’ll never see a photo of Pharrell Williams wearing crocs or Victoria Beckham in a meat dress. Here at Eat This, Not That! we see the same thing with the lean and fit: Those who stay slim don’t follow diets or nutrition trends. They follow common sense eating strategies that keep them looking fit for life.

Giving up gluten, throwing back shots of apple cider vinegar, juicing everything in sight—try them if you think they make sense. But when those of-the-moment diet fads are gathering dust in the back of your metaphorical closet, the simple, smart, sensible approaches will be there like a favorite pair of jeans or a perfect little black dress—look-great staples guaranteed to never go out of style.

NUTRITION TIP #1. Hide your weakness.

If you see it, you’ll eat it. If you don’t see it, you’ll still eat it—but not so much. That’s what a study at Google’s New York office, dubbed “Project M&M” found. Office managers discovered that placing the chocolate candies in opaque containers as opposed to glass ones, and giving healthier snacks like nuts and figs more prominent shelf space, curbed M&M intake by 3.1 million calories in just seven weeks. A similar study published in the Journal of Marketing found that people are more likely to overeat small treats from transparent packages than from opaque ones. Out of sight, out of mind, out of mouth.

NUTRITION TIP #2. Use the 1 in 10 rule.

For every 10 grams of carbohydrate listed on the label, look for at least one gram of fiber. Why 10:1? That’s the ratio of carbohydrate to fiber in a genuine, unprocessed whole grain. The recommendation comes from a study published in the journal Public Health Nutrition that evaluated hundreds of grain products; foods that met the 10:1 ratio had have less sugar, sodium, and trans fats than those that didn’t.

NUTRITION TIP #3. Boost flavor to cut calories.

Ever notice how everything inside a McDonald’s—the burgers, the fries, the shakes—smells exactly the same? That sameness of scent is actually a tactic that can inspire you to consume more calories. A study in the journal Flavour found that the less distinctive the scent of a particular food, the more you’ll eat of it. Adding herbs and sodium-free spice blends is an easy take advantage of sensory illusion that you’re indulging in something rich—without adding any fat or calories to your plate. Furthermore, a recent behavioral study that taught adults to spruce up meals with herbs instead of salt led to a decrease in sodium consumption by nearly 1000 mg a day (that’s more salt than you’ll find in 5 bags of Doritos!). Double down on the delicious health benefits by using Cyan pepper to add spice to your food.

NUTRITION TIP #4. Chill pasta to melt fat.

You can gain less weight from a serving of pasta simply by putting it in the fridge. The drop in temperature changes the nature of the noodles into something called “resistant starch,” meaning your body has to work harder to digest it. Cold pasta is closer in structure to natural resistant starches like lentils, peas, beans, and oatmeal, which pass through the small intestine intact and are digested in the large intestine, where—well, it gets kinda gross from there on out. A study in the journal Nutrition & Metabolism found that adding resistant starch to a meal may also promote fat oxidation. Suffice it say, colder noodles = hotter you. But you’ve got to eat it cold: Once you heat the pasta up again, you destroy the resistant starch.

NUTRITION TIP #5. Dim the lights to get lighter.

A study of fast food restaurants published in the journal Psychological Reports found that customers who dined in a relaxed environment with dimmed lights and mellow music ate 175 fewer calories per meal than if they were in a more typical restaurant environment. That may not sound like a dramatic savings, but cutting 175 calories from dinner every night could save you more than 18 pounds in a year!

NUTRITION TIP #6. Eat, Don’t Drink, Your Fruit

Juicing may be the rage, but like a certain Mr. Simpson, some juice can do more harm than good—including OJ. Researchers at the Harvard School of Public Health found that people who consumed one or more servings of fruit juice each day increased their risk of developing type 2 diabetes by as much as 21 percent. Conversely, those who ate at least two servings each week of certain whole fruits— particularly blueberries, grapes, and apples—reduced their risk for type 2 diabetes by as much as 23 percent. So stock up on the Best Fruits for Fat Loss and eat them whole.

NUTRITION TIP #7. Eat before you eat.

Eating an appetizer of a broth-based soup or even an apple can reduce total calorie intake over the course of the meal by up to 20 percent, according to a series of “Volumetrics” studies at Penn State. Consider that, according to the Journal of the American Medical Association, the average restaurant meal contains 1,128 calories. A 20 percent savings, just once a day, is enough to help you shed more than 23 pounds in a year.

NUTRITION TIP #8. Choose paper, not plastic.

Here’s a simple way to improve the health of your shopping cart: A series of experiments by Cornell University looked at the effects of payment method on food choice. When shoppers used credit cards, they bought more unhealthful “vice” foods than they did “virtue” foods. Researchers suggest that you’re less likely to impulsively buy junk food if it means parting with a hundred dollar bill than swiping plastic.

NUTRITION TIP #9. Water down the calories.

You’ve been told to drink 8 glasses of water a day, but why bother? Well, what if staying hydrated could strip pounds off your body? According to a study in the Journal of Clinical Endocrinology and Metabolism, after drinking approximately 17 ounces of water (about 2 tall glasses), participants’ metabolic rates increased by 30 percent. The researchers estimate that increasing water intake by 1.5 liters a day (about 6 cups) would burn an extra 17,400 calories over the course of the year—a weight loss of approximately five pounds! Fill up at the tap and so you stay hydrated the healthy way.

NUTRITION TIP #10. Remind yourself to lose weight.

A recent study published online in Health Promotion Practice found that people who received weekly text reminders of their daily “calorie budget” and motivational emails made healthier meal and snack choices. A simple hack to help you slim down: set up reminders on your smartphone, so when 6 a.m. rolls around, it’s: You make 1200 calories-a-day look so good! And at lunchtime: Salad for the six-pack, baby!

Stay Fit,Stay Happy,

David Knapp NCSF-MCPT,CNS
www.PrincetonBootCamps.com

Posted in Healthy Diet | Leave a comment