Thursday, April 09, 2020
This Will Improve Your Serve And Take Only Seconds!
Monday, April 06, 2020
Burn Baby Burn!
Doing tennis specific workouts is only one way to stay tennis fit. My wife Jill who always hated for me to encourage her to workout, used to say she got her workout in "around the house". Well, like most things Jill is right again!
The different "workouts" I did around the house elevated my heart rate (got my cardio on), scored me brownie points, made my house look bigger (don't need a bigger house just less stuff) and worked muscles I haven't used in awhile.
So look around your house, yard, garage, etc....so many ways to stay tennis fit! Let's see how creative you can get!


Monday, March 30, 2020
Home Tennis Workout (without a court)
What is one of the things we are always telling ourselves? For me it is "I need to find time too...workout, read, meditate, sleep, spend time with family, connect with friends....". Well, now we all have time to do all those things we always say we need to do. Use this new "found" time to become the best version of yourself by investing it, not merely spending it on the latest binge worthy series or going down the rabbit hole of social media.
Towards investing in yourself, I found a great at home tennis workout by Emily Zabor, a former player I was lucky enough to get to know while coaching for the Alabama Crimson Tide. Emily is currently coaching tennis in Atlanta and is amazing. She was an outstanding player and scholar athlete for the Tide and continues that in her coaching career.
As with anything I suggest or share, listen to your body, we are all different and have different needs/limitations/aspirations. Modify the workouts to fit your individual need. One size does not fit all. Check with your doctor before if you are unsure. Contact me with any questions.
Stay tuned for more ideas on how to become the best version of yourself during this new "found" time! Let's make some lemonade!
#indianhillsfamily

Keith Swindoll, USPTA Master Professional
Director of Tennis Indian Hills C.C.
Volunteer Assistant Coach University of Alabama Women's Tennis

Emily Zabor, USPTA
Director of Junior High Performance
Agape Tennis Academy
7 Day Home Tennis Workout (without a court) Emily Zabor
Thursday, October 04, 2018
Want To Live Longer? Take Up Tennis!
It's been well-established for a while now that exercise helps you live longer. For example, the Cardiovascular Health Study found that people over the age of 75 can expect to gain 1 to 1.5 years of healthy living by being active rather than sedentary. Others studies have looked at the effects of running or walking and found similar positive benefits.
The authors of the new study wanted to look at other sports activities, not just running. Using a large cohort of 20,000 healthy people in the Copenhagen City Heart Study, they identified 8,577 who were in the study from the early 1990s until 2017 and who met a variety of other criteria for inclusion. This gave them 25 years of followup, long enough to ask the question: how does participation in sports affect life expectancy?
In particular, they looked at tennis, badminton, soccer, jogging, cycling, calisthenics, swimming, and health club activities (which included treadmills, ellipticals, and weights).
The bottom line: compared to a sedentary lifestyle, playing tennis extends one's life expectancy by 9.7 years. The other sports all provided benefits too, though tennis was the clear winner. Here's a summary:
- Tennis: 9.7 years gain in life expectancy
- Badminton: 6.2 years
- Soccer: 4.7 years
- Cycling: 3.7 years
- Swimming: 3.4 years
- Jogging: 3.2 years
- Calisthenics: 3.1 years
- Health club activities: 1.5 years
"Surprisingly, we found that tennis players had the longest expected lifetime among the 8 different sports."For those who don't read scientific papers regularly, I should point out that the word "surprisingly" rarely gets past the editors unless the result truly is surprising. One part of the surprise is that spending more time exercising did not correlate with the greatest benefits. In fact, the cohort of people who spent the longest time on their exercise was the health club group, who showed the smallest increase in longevity.
One possible reason for tennis, badminton, and soccer doing so well is that out of the 8 sports studied, these are the ones that require 2 or more people and involve social interaction. As the authors explain,
"Belonging to a group that meets regularly promotes a sense of support, trust, and commonality, which has been shown to contribute to a sense of well-being and improved long-term health."Or it might be that the type of exercise you get in tennis – short bursts of activity rather than slow, steady plodding exercise – might be better for you. The authors noted that
"short repeated intervals of higher intensity exercise appear to be superior to continuous moderate intensity physical activity for improving health outcomes."If you're still skeptical, the only other study similar to this one, a very large study from Britain published last year, came to the same conclusion: racquet sports had the greatest benefit on all-cause mortality, followed by swimming and aerobics.
So if you're not doing it already, take up tennis! It's easy to find clinics and teams at almost any level (in the U.S., that is), thanks to the thousands of local clubs and to the huge network of USTA leagues, with play ranging from beginners on up, and age groups up to 85 and even 90.
That's right, there are tennis leagues for the 90-and-over set. Maybe tennis players really do live longer.
(Caveats: this was an observational study, based on surveys of people's behavior over a 25-year time span. The scientists tried to take into account all the other variables that might affect life expectancy, but humans are complicated and surveys are never entirely reliable. We don't know that tennis, badminton, and the other sports were the cause of longer life–it might be that people who play sports are generally healthier, and that both leads to longer life and allows them to play more sports.)
Monday, February 12, 2018
Indian Hills Junior Tennis Development Program
Red & Orange come at the same time 3:30-4:30pm and Green and HP come at the same time 4-5:30pm. We have several instructors led by Jacob Winton and others so we give each junior a personalized experience. We also support Great Base Tennis and believe that having a great base of fundamentals and skills create lifetime tennis players!
For Indian Hills members and their invited guests.
Tiny Tots (ages 4-5) every Tuesday 3-3:30pm
Red Ballers (ages 6-8) Tuesday & Thursday 3:30-4:30pm
Orange Ballers (ages 8-10) Tuesday & Thursday 3:30-4:40pm
Green & High Performance (ages 11-up) Tues & Thurs 4-5:30pm
*Ages may be adjusted based on ability of junior and are only a guideline. Ball competencies assist coaches in knowing when to move a junior to a new ball group*
Sunday, January 21, 2018
Indian Hills Tennis Staff
- Alabama Junior Player of the Year 2011
- Ranked #1 Player in Alabama in all junior age divisions
- Top 35 ranking in the South
- Won 5A High School State Championship
- Alabama Fed Cup #1 Player
- Maci excels in teaching all levels and abilities and ages.
- Alabama Tennis Hall of Fame member
- Director of Tennis for Selma Country Club, teaches Monday and Tuesday at IHCC
- Alabama Tennis Professional of the Year 2009
- Been ranked the #1 player in Alabama in his age group: 40,45, 50 & 55's
- Represents Alabama on the prestigious Alabama Senior Cup Team
- Member of 4.5 Senior team that represented Southern section at Nationals
- Past coach of Morgan Academy, won State Championship
- Past President of USTA Alabama
$60 per hour for members.
1 1/2 hour clinic $20 per player (must have 4 players)
donnie.ellis@yahoo.com
- Scholarship Manager University of Alabama men's tennis team 1988-91
- Mentored former #1 Doubles player in the world Ellis Ferriera
- Taught tennis all over the world from Tuscaloosa to Hawaii
- Played high school tennis for Central High
- Has been a successful tournament player since he was a junior, past winner of Pritchett-Moore Men's City "A" Doubles
- Assistant Coach Tuscaloosa Academy Boys and Girls State Champ Tennis Teams
- Coach of the Southern Champion 3.5 Women's USTA team that placed at Nationals.
$50 per hour for members
claywilson23@yahoo.com
- Director of Tennis at IHCC since 1987
- USPTA Master Professional, an honor that less than 1% of tennis professionals world wide achieve.
- Six-time Alabama Tennis Professional of the Year
- Two-time USPTA Southern High School Coach of the Year
- Coached Tuscaloosa Academy to 12 State AISA Championships
- Volunteer assistant coach for the University of Alabama women's tennis team 2000-2005 and 2015 to present
- Singles and Doubles Champion of Pritchett Moore Men's City Invitational
- High Performance Coach having completed the USTA High Performance Program
- Completed the Mental Toughness Training program of sports psychologist Jim Loehr
- USTA 10 & under Coach & USTA High Performance Coach
- 2012 Awarded Industry Excellence Award by USPTA Southern for contributions to tennis
- Inducted into Alabama Tennis Hall of Fame, February 16th 2013
- Alan Henry USPTA Southern Pro of the Year 2014
- ITPA certified Tennis Performance Trainer 2015
- RacquetFit Certified 2018- only RacquetFit certified Professional in Alabama
- Certified by the IATP as a Mental Game Coach
- USPTA Southern College Coach of the Year 2020
- USPTA Southern Teaching Professional of the Year 2021
$80 per hour for members $100 for guests
Groups:
2 for hour- $40 each
3 for hour- $ 25 each
4 for hour- $20 each
keithswindoll@gmail.com
*A lesson guest fee of $2.00 for juniors and $10.00 for adults will be added to all Guest lessons.
*Junior clinics, Cardio tennis, men's workout group, tiny tots, team clinics and more available.
Call 349-1505 or
check out our Facebook page https://www.facebook.com/pages/Indian-Hills-Tennis/315646235418
or contact any of our coaches via email.
Tuesday, November 18, 2014
College Tennis: Keep it rolling! A letter to anyone wanting to play college tennis...D1 isn't the only option!
Thursday, March 06, 2014
Bob Morrow Sportsmanship Recipients
1990 Eleanora Mauritson & Jay Masingill
1991 Bonnie Duncan & Dwain Winstead
1992 Ellen Taylor & Curt Keeney
1993 Shirley Whitaker & Eddie Sherwood
1994 Martha Jean Alford & Cary Williams
1995 Cindy Allison & Stretch Reed
1996 Connie Kirby & Dennis Stanard
1997 Tami Park & Mike Coleman
1998 Amelia de los Reyes & Tom Wicks
1999 Michelle McKee & Hubert Kessler
2000 Martha Zeanah & Wayne Williams
2001 Angela Burton & Clif Davis
2002 not given
2003 Tracy Singleton & David Miller
2004 Emily Baker & Tom English
2005 Kristin Thomason & Roger Williams
2006 Christi DeZoort & Ed Schnee
2007 Joyce Gurich & Gay Lake
2008 Susan Cordes & Forrest Fitts
2009 MarLa Sayers & Mac McAllister
2010 Phyllis Wood & Billy Prout
2011 Barbara Winstead & Bob Falls
2012 Stacey Fleenor & Steve Burdette
2013 Kristine Fitts and Bob Singleton
2014 Lisa Ketchum and Barry Fields
2015 Verney Goodman and Calvin Goodman
2016 David Morrow and Tricia Hall
2017 Keith Jenkins and Tara Howell
2018 Burke Askew and Carolyn Kahler
2019 Jim Fleenor and Kathryn Hornsby
COVID YEARS not given
2022 Grant McAllister and Kelly Verzino
2023 Dave Ryan and Sally Reel
Friday, March 08, 2013
Reception for Keith Swindoll Sunday, March 17 @6:00p.m.
He has coached numerous tennis teams and has earned a reputation as an outstanding teacher from beginners to top junior tournament players as well as adults. As a Head Coach he led Tuscaloosa Academy Boys and Girls to 14 state championships. For 6 years he worked as a volunteer assistant coach with the University of Alabama women's tennis team. He is also a USPTA Master Professional, one of only three in Alabama.
Indian Hills congratulates Keith for his continued dedication and support. IHCC will host a reception to acknowledge his achievements on Sunday, March 17th at 6:00p.m. in the main clubhouse at Indian Hills. Please mark your calendars to attend.
Sunday, March 03, 2013
Fleenors named USTA Alabma Family of the Year
Congratulations Fleenors! Tuscaloosa is proud to have the Family of the Year as one of our own!