Tennis instructor Alessandro Giangola is teaching his students how to improve their game through a “mind and body” approach that incorporates aspects of both meditation and yoga.
The East Quogue resident recently started his own business, called Lion Lotus Tennis (now Somatic Tennis) after teaching tennis both privately and at various clubs in the Hamptons for the past 20 years.
While he’s far from a novice on the courts, Mr. Giangola explained that about five years ago (in 2010) he started utilizing yoga and meditation to improve his game, and another two years after that before he began to slowly introduce his new approach to his students.
The results, he recalled, were almost immediate.
“My tennis game was becoming more effortless and enjoyable,” Mr. Giangola recalled. “And when I taught those things to my students, they had the same results.”

His students say they have also seen significant progress due to this new approach.
“It’s very different because it’s all about breathing and it’s all about your ‘tennis brain,’” said Dustin Duke, who splits his time between Manhattan and East Hampton, and is a student of Mr. Giangola. “It’s more in your core, not really in your head.”
Mr. Duke noted that he signed up for lessons only about two months ago, noting that his game has improved considerably over that brief time.
“I can tell from experience when someone is actually connected to center gravity in a shot,” Mr. Giangola said. “I’m more interested in them making that connection to the body than hitting the ball in or out.”
Babak Mohajer of Manhattan, who also owns a weekend house in East Hampton, is a beginner at tennis and another student of Mr. Giangola. Mr. Mohajer noted that once he got the hang of his instructor’s unique approach to lessons, his game began to immediately improve.
Mr. Giangola explained that his technique makes his clients “feel like they have exercised, released stress and tapped into something new in themselves.”