If you have a weak backhand, don't let players exploit it
If you've got a weak backhand, give yourself a different set of expectations. You're not going to rip it like your forehand, so don't try! Work on making it reliable and consistent, a shot that will keep you in the point rather than win it. Make it your bread-and-water shot!
If you've got bread-and-water for a backhand, something else will need to be your champagne-and-caviar. So develop your forehand into a weapon. Or you could develop your net game and win your points that way.
If you keep your shots deep during a rally, you can avoid playing a lot of backhands. That's because you have more time to prepare for your own shots and, if you can improve your anticipation skills as well, you should be able to run around and hit some forehands when the ball arrives in the backhand side of your court.
Avoid going for too much of an angle crosscourt when you play your backhands. An angle invites an angle in return, and you'll find it harder to avoid backhands if you get into that sort of rally. Don't worry about the limitations of your backhand. A judicious mix of bread-and-water and champagne-and-caviar will serve you quite adequately while you hire the services of a chef, sorry, coach and work at improving the menu
Saturday, June 30, 2007
Thursday, June 28, 2007
Backhand - 9.The Corkscrew Slice
The Corkscrew Slice
The slice backhand is a versatile shot and can be put to good use in both an attacking and a defensive situation. If played right, it allows you to hit a low sliding approach shot or a floating defensive ball that buys you time to recover your court position. In particular, there are two distinct types of attacking slice backhand that you would do well to master.
The first involves hitting more around the outside of the ball (the side of the ball facing away from your body) for added control. This is a useful shot if you are looking to hit an accurate approach shot or an angled ball close to the lines. When you get it right the flight of the ball should be straight as an arrow, giving you a great deal of control and accuracy.
The second option involves hitting more towards the inside of the ball. The flight will be harder to control as it will tend to veer to the left, but the spin you impart will not only make the ball skid but will also cause it to break awkwardly to the side. This is a really tough ball to return and is great for forcing a weak passing shot when you have more space to hit into, and for use against players with extreme forehand grips.
The slice backhand is a versatile shot and can be put to good use in both an attacking and a defensive situation. If played right, it allows you to hit a low sliding approach shot or a floating defensive ball that buys you time to recover your court position. In particular, there are two distinct types of attacking slice backhand that you would do well to master.
The first involves hitting more around the outside of the ball (the side of the ball facing away from your body) for added control. This is a useful shot if you are looking to hit an accurate approach shot or an angled ball close to the lines. When you get it right the flight of the ball should be straight as an arrow, giving you a great deal of control and accuracy.
The second option involves hitting more towards the inside of the ball. The flight will be harder to control as it will tend to veer to the left, but the spin you impart will not only make the ball skid but will also cause it to break awkwardly to the side. This is a really tough ball to return and is great for forcing a weak passing shot when you have more space to hit into, and for use against players with extreme forehand grips.
Backhand - 8.Returning deep high ground strokes
Take from Sportsinteractive
Returning deep high ground strokes; the ones that land on the baseline
First and foremost; it is easier to run forward than backward, understanding this means it's OK to play close to the baseline. But not the whole time 1, 2, or 3 feet inside the court. As when they do hit it deep, it's to hard to run back and hit the ball at the same time. Your playing to close in if your letting some GO and they still land in.
Second, anticipation is the key to being in the proper place on the court most of the time. What type of shot and where will they hit it are things you can't buy from any tennis Pro. You must go and play enough and experience enough, to imagine where your opponent will probably hit the ball. Then start going there, even if they haven't hit the ball yet.
Next, learn the rising ball shot; taking the ball right after the bounce. This prevents the ball from getting to high on you in the first place. It may still land deep, but if you always run back to hit the ball that's close to the back fence, your giving up to much court in front of you to your opponent. Playing the ball as a half-volley form the baseline, you won't be giving as much court away. You can still hit the ball low, fast, and far with the rising ball technique, and not pop it up.
High deep shots are are tough on you, so don't let it get up there. Catch it off the bounce.
Tip of the Month
sportsinteractive--Walt.
Feel free to contact Walt @ Tennis Time with any questions you have about instructional tennis. He will be more than willing to help you. Walt's e-mail - tentime@aol.com
Come back next month to learn from from Tennis Time!
Returning deep high ground strokes; the ones that land on the baseline
First and foremost; it is easier to run forward than backward, understanding this means it's OK to play close to the baseline. But not the whole time 1, 2, or 3 feet inside the court. As when they do hit it deep, it's to hard to run back and hit the ball at the same time. Your playing to close in if your letting some GO and they still land in.
Second, anticipation is the key to being in the proper place on the court most of the time. What type of shot and where will they hit it are things you can't buy from any tennis Pro. You must go and play enough and experience enough, to imagine where your opponent will probably hit the ball. Then start going there, even if they haven't hit the ball yet.
Next, learn the rising ball shot; taking the ball right after the bounce. This prevents the ball from getting to high on you in the first place. It may still land deep, but if you always run back to hit the ball that's close to the back fence, your giving up to much court in front of you to your opponent. Playing the ball as a half-volley form the baseline, you won't be giving as much court away. You can still hit the ball low, fast, and far with the rising ball technique, and not pop it up.
High deep shots are are tough on you, so don't let it get up there. Catch it off the bounce.
Tip of the Month
sportsinteractive--Walt.
Feel free to contact Walt @ Tennis Time with any questions you have about instructional tennis. He will be more than willing to help you. Walt's e-mail - tentime@aol.com
Come back next month to learn from from Tennis Time!
Backhand - 7.How to hit your backhand slice with more pace
How to hit your backhand slice with more pace
When you prepare for your backhand slice, your racket arm is bent. The moment at which you extend it pretty much determines the speed of the shot. If your shot lacks pace, try extending just a little bit later, reaching out just before the point of impact. Be careful though, because this will probably make the shot a little more difficult to control. Try it out on the practice court first!
When you prepare for your backhand slice, your racket arm is bent. The moment at which you extend it pretty much determines the speed of the shot. If your shot lacks pace, try extending just a little bit later, reaching out just before the point of impact. Be careful though, because this will probably make the shot a little more difficult to control. Try it out on the practice court first!
Backhand - 6.The Better Backhand
The Better Backhand
Hi Everyone! Welcome to the Park. It's always nice of you to stop by and see what old Tommie Ray has to say :-)
I would really like to talk about the tennis backhand shot and how your shoulder should turn. Let's get one thing straight, I'm learning about this game just like a lot of you readers are. As I go along I understand some of the problems you may be having and what it feels like to get that stroke down and say, YES! That's it!
So on with the shoulder turn-- which I've found to be the most critical part of hitting the backhand. Ok, now first you got to get to the ball. Plant your pivot foot and try to get sideways to the ball and your racket should be back by this point. Now this is a good time to stop and really make sure those shoulders are turned almost to the extreme. Be like a spring ready to uncoil and then that is exactly what you do. Uncoil and drive through the ball. At first really get animated about this and don't worry about where the ball goes. I guarantee you'll see results in your backhand with more power and control. You can also practice this in your house or anywhere, just go through the motions and I'm sure it will become more automatic in time. The body will naturally do it with more practice and time. Always remember, and I know I beat this dead horse all of the time, but tennis is a developmental game and takes time and practice.
Remember you get out of it what you put into it!
How fun and play the tennis game! Thanks for stopping by.
Tommie Ray
If you have any questions or comments please email me :-)
Hi Everyone! Welcome to the Park. It's always nice of you to stop by and see what old Tommie Ray has to say :-)
I would really like to talk about the tennis backhand shot and how your shoulder should turn. Let's get one thing straight, I'm learning about this game just like a lot of you readers are. As I go along I understand some of the problems you may be having and what it feels like to get that stroke down and say, YES! That's it!
So on with the shoulder turn-- which I've found to be the most critical part of hitting the backhand. Ok, now first you got to get to the ball. Plant your pivot foot and try to get sideways to the ball and your racket should be back by this point. Now this is a good time to stop and really make sure those shoulders are turned almost to the extreme. Be like a spring ready to uncoil and then that is exactly what you do. Uncoil and drive through the ball. At first really get animated about this and don't worry about where the ball goes. I guarantee you'll see results in your backhand with more power and control. You can also practice this in your house or anywhere, just go through the motions and I'm sure it will become more automatic in time. The body will naturally do it with more practice and time. Always remember, and I know I beat this dead horse all of the time, but tennis is a developmental game and takes time and practice.
Remember you get out of it what you put into it!
How fun and play the tennis game! Thanks for stopping by.
Tommie Ray
If you have any questions or comments please email me :-)
Backhand - 5.Add Pace to That Backhand
ADD PACE TO THAT BACKHAND by Mat Galemmo, Racquety-Yak
If your tennis backhand lacks pace and depth it may be due to a common trait. Players often bend and lift their elbow before contact with the ball. If you were to watch Edberg (for a one hander) and Hewitt (for a two hander) prepare for the backhand, you would see that their arm is straight and close to the body when they make their backswing. As they start to accelerate the racquet to meet the ball in front of them there is no change in the straight arm. The stroke is smoothly hinged at the shoulder and does not bend at the elbow. You have to "straight arm" the ball without changing your arm set-up. This technique will have you leading with your racquet instead of your elbow or wrist.
You may bend your elbow to hit a backhand volley when the ball is close to your body. Out of necessity, you will bend your elbow to hit a sliced backhand approach shot or groundstroke.
To get the feel for a straight arm stroke, tuck a tennis ball under your armpit, take the ready position and have your buddy hit a medium-paced ball to your backhand side. The object is to make contact with the ball before the ball tucked in your armpit drops out. Be sure to finish with a full, high backswing as though you are airing out your armpit.
After you practice this and have the feel for keeping your straight arm close to your body, try hitting the backhand without the tucked ball. You will be pleased to see your stroke go through the ball sending it to your target with more pace.
If your tennis backhand lacks pace and depth it may be due to a common trait. Players often bend and lift their elbow before contact with the ball. If you were to watch Edberg (for a one hander) and Hewitt (for a two hander) prepare for the backhand, you would see that their arm is straight and close to the body when they make their backswing. As they start to accelerate the racquet to meet the ball in front of them there is no change in the straight arm. The stroke is smoothly hinged at the shoulder and does not bend at the elbow. You have to "straight arm" the ball without changing your arm set-up. This technique will have you leading with your racquet instead of your elbow or wrist.
You may bend your elbow to hit a backhand volley when the ball is close to your body. Out of necessity, you will bend your elbow to hit a sliced backhand approach shot or groundstroke.
To get the feel for a straight arm stroke, tuck a tennis ball under your armpit, take the ready position and have your buddy hit a medium-paced ball to your backhand side. The object is to make contact with the ball before the ball tucked in your armpit drops out. Be sure to finish with a full, high backswing as though you are airing out your armpit.
After you practice this and have the feel for keeping your straight arm close to your body, try hitting the backhand without the tucked ball. You will be pleased to see your stroke go through the ball sending it to your target with more pace.
Backhand - 4.How early should I prepare for my groundstrokes?
How early should I prepare for my groundstrokes?
Regardless of how much tennis you have played or how much coaching you have received, I am willing to bet that you are more than familiar with the advice "Get your racket back early". It was probably one of the first suggestions made to you by your coach or practice partner and the logic of it still holds true. If we are late with our preparation we will be unable to make a solid contact with the ball or generate a full swing. But how early do we actually need to take our racket back? Is it really a case of 'the earlier the better'?
Well, my answer would be no. We should strive to time our preparation so that we can begin our forward swing towards the ideal contact point with no pause in the action. Allow me to explain. The most important aspect of a backswing is that it pre-stretches the muscles of the arm, shoulder, and trunk. This 'pre-stretch' stores elastic energy in these muscles that can be used to generate the swing. The tricky thing about elastic energy is that it can only be stored for a couple of seconds. So if we are to reap maximum benefit from this elastic pre-stretch we should not prepare too early, and risk having to wait for the oncoming ball. Neither should we prepare too late for the reasons outlined earlier.
What we need to do is study the speed, spin, and flight of the approaching ball and adjust the timing of our backswing accordingly.
In fact many of the top tennis players are now learning to get the best of both worlds by preparing early but then tagging on an extra twist and rotation (to set the muscles in pre-stretch) immediately prior to starting the forward swing. Good examples of this would be Andy Roddick's serve and Serena Williams' backhand.
The only potential danger of this particular technique is that it may result in a disjointed swing, and it should not be attempted until you are completely comfortable with the concept of elastic pre-stretch and with being able to time your swings in order to make maximum use of it.
Put your back-hand into it
There are many advantages to using a double-handed backhand as opposed to the single-handed variety. However, one of the potential drawbacks is that the swing is not so fluent. To avoid a stiff, punchy swing on your two-hander or to combat problems of not being able to keep the flight of the ball down (i.e. not imparting enough topspin) try this simple tip.
They key is to hit your backhand with the top hand driving the swing. For right handers it is like hitting a left-handed forehand with the right hand on the racket simply for support.
If you compare hitting a two-handed backhand with your top and then your bottom hand leading you will find that when you lead with the bottom hand your swing has a tendency to push underneath the ball and 'lock out' before you are able to make a full follow-through. Leading with the top hand allows you to drive your swing over the ball and right up over your shoulder. This will provide you with more power and the spin to control it.
Regardless of how much tennis you have played or how much coaching you have received, I am willing to bet that you are more than familiar with the advice "Get your racket back early". It was probably one of the first suggestions made to you by your coach or practice partner and the logic of it still holds true. If we are late with our preparation we will be unable to make a solid contact with the ball or generate a full swing. But how early do we actually need to take our racket back? Is it really a case of 'the earlier the better'?
Well, my answer would be no. We should strive to time our preparation so that we can begin our forward swing towards the ideal contact point with no pause in the action. Allow me to explain. The most important aspect of a backswing is that it pre-stretches the muscles of the arm, shoulder, and trunk. This 'pre-stretch' stores elastic energy in these muscles that can be used to generate the swing. The tricky thing about elastic energy is that it can only be stored for a couple of seconds. So if we are to reap maximum benefit from this elastic pre-stretch we should not prepare too early, and risk having to wait for the oncoming ball. Neither should we prepare too late for the reasons outlined earlier.
What we need to do is study the speed, spin, and flight of the approaching ball and adjust the timing of our backswing accordingly.
In fact many of the top tennis players are now learning to get the best of both worlds by preparing early but then tagging on an extra twist and rotation (to set the muscles in pre-stretch) immediately prior to starting the forward swing. Good examples of this would be Andy Roddick's serve and Serena Williams' backhand.
The only potential danger of this particular technique is that it may result in a disjointed swing, and it should not be attempted until you are completely comfortable with the concept of elastic pre-stretch and with being able to time your swings in order to make maximum use of it.
Put your back-hand into it
There are many advantages to using a double-handed backhand as opposed to the single-handed variety. However, one of the potential drawbacks is that the swing is not so fluent. To avoid a stiff, punchy swing on your two-hander or to combat problems of not being able to keep the flight of the ball down (i.e. not imparting enough topspin) try this simple tip.
They key is to hit your backhand with the top hand driving the swing. For right handers it is like hitting a left-handed forehand with the right hand on the racket simply for support.
If you compare hitting a two-handed backhand with your top and then your bottom hand leading you will find that when you lead with the bottom hand your swing has a tendency to push underneath the ball and 'lock out' before you are able to make a full follow-through. Leading with the top hand allows you to drive your swing over the ball and right up over your shoulder. This will provide you with more power and the spin to control it.
Bakchand - 3.A Flick of the Wrist
A Flick of the Wrist
Listening to TV commentators covering a tennis match, you might think the contestants were playing badminton. John McEnroe particularly likes to say that a player sends the ball crosscourt or down the line "with just a flick of the wrist."
Just how much wrist is used in tennis? High speed photography (200 frames per second) of world class players analyzed by John Yandell of www.tennisone.com shows that there is virtually no wrist movement on forehand and backhand groundstrokes. On a forehand the wrist is locked into a laid-back position at the end of the backswing and remains in that locked position until the end of the followthrough, at which point the muscles of the arm and shoulder relax and the wrist returns to its natural position. This occurs long after the ball has crossed the net. On TV and video replays (at 15 frames per second), it might look like a flick of the wrist, but it is usually a slight roll of the forearm with a firm, locked wrist.
Timing the shoulder rotation and the acceleration of the racquet arm through the ball on a good groundstroke is difficult enough; playing with a lot of wrist adds another, troublesome, variable to the mix. If you cock your wrist back as you prepare the backswing with the intention of uncocking your wrist upon ball contact (as a flick of the wrist implies), your timing must be perfect in order to have your racquet face flush to the ball. If your timing is off, you will mis-hit the ball. This is why most good players eliminate wrist movement in their swings. It gives them one less variable to contend with.
So what's up with McEnroe, one of the best players ever, saying that Agassi and others are making these great shots with a "flick of the wrist"? It's probably easier and more dramatic for McEnroe to describe such shots in this way rather than giving a long technical explanation (as above). It might also be a case of Mac not understanding the nature of the modern forehand, particularly those using semi-Western and Western grips. Look at old videos of Mac playing with his continental grip off both sides and you'll see that his strokes look strange compared to the modern forehands of Hewitt, Agassi, Federer, Haas, Ferrero, Roddick, Kuerten, et al. Mac's a genius on the court, but he hits a different groundstroke than the younger players of today. He, too, however, didn't flick his wrist.
Drive, he said
Want to ensure a successful groundstroke? Then concentrate on driving or hitting through the ball.
Driving through the ball means extending the racquet about two feet or so through the contact zone, with the racquet face continuing on a straight line, parallel to the net, and out towards the target. Many ground stroke errors occur when players abbreviate this extension by wrapping the racquet around their neck or shoulder too early. The "wrap" should occur naturally at the end of the swing but only after you have hit through the ball and your swing begins to decelerate.
You can learn to drive through the ball by practicing a couple of simple exercises. Stand about a foot away from the back fence with your shoulders parallel to the net. Take your racquet back on your forehand side until the head touches the fence. Standing this close to the fence you will only be able to take a fraction of your regular backswing. Lock your wrist and keep your elbow bent and in close to your ribs.
Now drop feed a ball and try to hit a forehand over the net and as deep into the court as possible. Swing high to low for a little topspin. Your racquet should be more-or-less vertical at the point of contact. Extend your forward swing for at least two feet after contact. Finish with your racquet on the right side of your body (left for lefties). I tell my pee-wee students to picture a big smiley face painted on their racquet strings and to let their opponents see that big smile throughout the swing.
A good cue here is the self of the palm of your hitting hand. The image you want is of your palm striking the ball and then pushing the ball straight forward toward the target. You might even put your racquet in your other hand and just practice shadow strokes with your palm to get the feel for hitting through the ball.
Unless you drive through the ball it won't clear the net, let alone land deep in the court. Concentrate on the face of the racquet (or your palm) remaining parallel to the net as it swings through the ball. Keep drop feeding yourself balls and hitting in this manner until you gain good consistency and are getting the ball deep in the court.
In this little exercise, the role of your shoulder is minimized. Your arm is doing most of the work. On a true forehand ground stroke, your shoulder would generate most of the power (coiling and then uncoiling), with your arm picking up the load from the point of contact onward. By limiting the role of your shoulder in this way, you can concentrate more on driving through the ball, which is the main task of the arm in a good forehand.
Another way to get the feel of driving through the ball is to stand about a foot away from the net, with your shoulders parallel to the baseline. Turn your shoulder to initiate your backswing and bring your racquet back until the butt of the racquet is perpendicular to the net. Keep your elbow bent and close to your side and lock your wrist. Now take a short step forward and turn your shoulders back toward the net, which should bring the face of your racquet flush to the net cord. Strike the net cord gently such that half of your racquet face extends above the net. Continue to push the racquet face against the net with your hitting arm, building resistance as your weight shifts forward against the net. Now raise your hitting arm slowly upward until your racquet is free of the net. Extend your hitting arm and let your racquet move forward toward the open court, keeping the face of the racquet parallel to the baseline. This will simulate driving through the ball.
You can also do backhand versions of these exercises. For a two-handed backhand, focus on the palm of your non-dominant hand to keep your racquet face parallel to the net and extending through the contact zone. Let the elbow of the non-dominant arm straighten out before finishing with the racquet around your neck or shoulder. If you are doing a one-handed backhand, you'll need to use a backhand grip. On the one-hander, visualize the knuckles of the hitting hand driving through the ball and out toward the target. This will help to keep the racquet face parallel to the net as it extends through the contact zone. For the one-hander using these drills, I suggest you exaggerate your sideways positioning to the ball so your hitting arm can swing freely from the shoulder joint.
Remember, the two feet of forward extension after contact, generated mainly by the arm(s), is critical. Shorten this important part of your swing by wrapping the racquet too quickly around your neck or shoulder and your shots will lack power and depth.
In practice sessions and match play, a good rhythmic mantra to assist in driving through the ball as described above is to say to yourself "bounce, step, drive."
Randy Cummings
Match Point Racquet Sports
http://www.racquetgear.com/
Listening to TV commentators covering a tennis match, you might think the contestants were playing badminton. John McEnroe particularly likes to say that a player sends the ball crosscourt or down the line "with just a flick of the wrist."
Just how much wrist is used in tennis? High speed photography (200 frames per second) of world class players analyzed by John Yandell of www.tennisone.com shows that there is virtually no wrist movement on forehand and backhand groundstrokes. On a forehand the wrist is locked into a laid-back position at the end of the backswing and remains in that locked position until the end of the followthrough, at which point the muscles of the arm and shoulder relax and the wrist returns to its natural position. This occurs long after the ball has crossed the net. On TV and video replays (at 15 frames per second), it might look like a flick of the wrist, but it is usually a slight roll of the forearm with a firm, locked wrist.
Timing the shoulder rotation and the acceleration of the racquet arm through the ball on a good groundstroke is difficult enough; playing with a lot of wrist adds another, troublesome, variable to the mix. If you cock your wrist back as you prepare the backswing with the intention of uncocking your wrist upon ball contact (as a flick of the wrist implies), your timing must be perfect in order to have your racquet face flush to the ball. If your timing is off, you will mis-hit the ball. This is why most good players eliminate wrist movement in their swings. It gives them one less variable to contend with.
So what's up with McEnroe, one of the best players ever, saying that Agassi and others are making these great shots with a "flick of the wrist"? It's probably easier and more dramatic for McEnroe to describe such shots in this way rather than giving a long technical explanation (as above). It might also be a case of Mac not understanding the nature of the modern forehand, particularly those using semi-Western and Western grips. Look at old videos of Mac playing with his continental grip off both sides and you'll see that his strokes look strange compared to the modern forehands of Hewitt, Agassi, Federer, Haas, Ferrero, Roddick, Kuerten, et al. Mac's a genius on the court, but he hits a different groundstroke than the younger players of today. He, too, however, didn't flick his wrist.
Drive, he said
Want to ensure a successful groundstroke? Then concentrate on driving or hitting through the ball.
Driving through the ball means extending the racquet about two feet or so through the contact zone, with the racquet face continuing on a straight line, parallel to the net, and out towards the target. Many ground stroke errors occur when players abbreviate this extension by wrapping the racquet around their neck or shoulder too early. The "wrap" should occur naturally at the end of the swing but only after you have hit through the ball and your swing begins to decelerate.
You can learn to drive through the ball by practicing a couple of simple exercises. Stand about a foot away from the back fence with your shoulders parallel to the net. Take your racquet back on your forehand side until the head touches the fence. Standing this close to the fence you will only be able to take a fraction of your regular backswing. Lock your wrist and keep your elbow bent and in close to your ribs.
Now drop feed a ball and try to hit a forehand over the net and as deep into the court as possible. Swing high to low for a little topspin. Your racquet should be more-or-less vertical at the point of contact. Extend your forward swing for at least two feet after contact. Finish with your racquet on the right side of your body (left for lefties). I tell my pee-wee students to picture a big smiley face painted on their racquet strings and to let their opponents see that big smile throughout the swing.
A good cue here is the self of the palm of your hitting hand. The image you want is of your palm striking the ball and then pushing the ball straight forward toward the target. You might even put your racquet in your other hand and just practice shadow strokes with your palm to get the feel for hitting through the ball.
Unless you drive through the ball it won't clear the net, let alone land deep in the court. Concentrate on the face of the racquet (or your palm) remaining parallel to the net as it swings through the ball. Keep drop feeding yourself balls and hitting in this manner until you gain good consistency and are getting the ball deep in the court.
In this little exercise, the role of your shoulder is minimized. Your arm is doing most of the work. On a true forehand ground stroke, your shoulder would generate most of the power (coiling and then uncoiling), with your arm picking up the load from the point of contact onward. By limiting the role of your shoulder in this way, you can concentrate more on driving through the ball, which is the main task of the arm in a good forehand.
Another way to get the feel of driving through the ball is to stand about a foot away from the net, with your shoulders parallel to the baseline. Turn your shoulder to initiate your backswing and bring your racquet back until the butt of the racquet is perpendicular to the net. Keep your elbow bent and close to your side and lock your wrist. Now take a short step forward and turn your shoulders back toward the net, which should bring the face of your racquet flush to the net cord. Strike the net cord gently such that half of your racquet face extends above the net. Continue to push the racquet face against the net with your hitting arm, building resistance as your weight shifts forward against the net. Now raise your hitting arm slowly upward until your racquet is free of the net. Extend your hitting arm and let your racquet move forward toward the open court, keeping the face of the racquet parallel to the baseline. This will simulate driving through the ball.
You can also do backhand versions of these exercises. For a two-handed backhand, focus on the palm of your non-dominant hand to keep your racquet face parallel to the net and extending through the contact zone. Let the elbow of the non-dominant arm straighten out before finishing with the racquet around your neck or shoulder. If you are doing a one-handed backhand, you'll need to use a backhand grip. On the one-hander, visualize the knuckles of the hitting hand driving through the ball and out toward the target. This will help to keep the racquet face parallel to the net as it extends through the contact zone. For the one-hander using these drills, I suggest you exaggerate your sideways positioning to the ball so your hitting arm can swing freely from the shoulder joint.
Remember, the two feet of forward extension after contact, generated mainly by the arm(s), is critical. Shorten this important part of your swing by wrapping the racquet too quickly around your neck or shoulder and your shots will lack power and depth.
In practice sessions and match play, a good rhythmic mantra to assist in driving through the ball as described above is to say to yourself "bounce, step, drive."
Randy Cummings
Match Point Racquet Sports
http://www.racquetgear.com/
Wednesday, June 27, 2007
Backhand - 2.How to avoid overhitting when you get a real sitter
How to avoid overhitting when you get a real sitter
Shorten it! Shorten your tennis racket and shorten your backswing! They haven't invented a racket with a button that shortens the grip for these sort of shots, but you can achieve the same effect by shifting your hand up the grip a couple of inches. This should give you the feeling that you've got more control over the swing. Shorten your backswing too - just a shoulder turn will do. But still go for a full follow-through, because the last thing you want to do is trade your overhitting for a "nothing" shot!
Prepare early - but not too early!!
Beginners are invariably told to "prepare early!" It's good advice while you're developing your tennis technique. However, performance tennis players who are looking for a little extra racket speed must pay some attention to biomechanics.
The backswing stage of the action involves stretching the muscles to store elastic energy for the forward swing. If there is too much of a pause between the backswing and the forward swing, the benefit of the stored energy can be lost. Obviously it's not good if your elastic gives out on you!
For maximum efficiency, try to time it so that there's little or no pause between the completion of your backswing and the start of your forward swing.
If you're used to taking the tennis racket back very early, you might find it a useful compromise to prepare early and then quickly take the racket back still further prior to swinging forwards
Hitting bigger without hitting bigger!
You can achieve more power on your groundstrokes by transferring your weight forwards, by swinging faster and by hitting more through the ball. These are things you can apply without too much tinkering with your technique.
The power drives of the modern game, however, are produced by adopting an open stance and driving up from the legs and rotating the upper body (hips, trunk and shoulders) and if you're not already doing that, the change is fairly drastic and you probably need to book some lessons.
But let's try thinking laterally for a minute. Your basic tennis technique is sound and you don't want to bin it, but you do want to inflict more damage on your opponent. Ok, so why not try this - take the ball earlier! Instead of waiting for the ball to drop, step in and take it at the top of the bounce. Once
you're comfortable with this (and it'll take a while, so be patient!), try taking it on the rise.
You'll have more angles at your disposal and your opponents will have less time to prepare for their shots. It's kind of hitting bigger without hitting bigger! Cool, eh?
Hitting on the rise
There's plenty of good tennis reasons to hit on the rise. What are they? Well, you can hit with more power because your opponent's pace is still on the ball. Also, you give your opponent less time to recover and therefore less time to prepare for the next shot. And the more you move inside the baseline the more you see over the net, enabling you to open up the rally with angled shots. If you like getting into the net, hitting on the rise gives you a better chance of closing in.
So, how do we do it? For one thing, you need to get inside the tennis court during the rallies! Easier said than done - it's a psychological leap because you're leaving that familiar comfort zone behind the baseline - so try it in practice first! The other thing that will take some adjustment is your backswing. There will be less time for it, so you need to make it as efficient as possible - a good shoulder turn will probably suffice. Relax at the knees and stay light on your feet. Start your swing early enough to ensure firm contact just out in front of your body. Although you've had to adopt a more compact backswing, accelerate the racket head and follow through smooth and long and full.
One thing you've got to consider is the angle of the ball as it comes on to your racket - instead of a flat or downward trajectory, the ball will be angling upwards onto your strings. You'll find you won't keep the ball in the court if you use an open racket face. So adjust your grip to close the racket face slightly. It's probably a good idea to brush up on the ball to impart some topspin. This will give you a greater degree of control.
Open or closed stance?
I often get asked what's best - an open stance or a closed stance. And of course there isn't a definitive answer. You can argue the merits and demerits of each until the cows come home. It's true that clay courts suit open-stance players and faster courts suit the sideways-on stroke. Ultimately, it comes down to your own athletic and tactical preferences.
Open-stance players can use powerful trunk rotation and produce great racket-head speed, but they find that their centre of gravity pulls to the left (or even backwards) during the stroke, discouraging forward movement.
The step-in forehand, on the other hand, imposes a limit on your swing because your front leg locks up your body, but it encourages forward transfer of weight and therefore favors players who want to close in on the net. By taking the ball on the rise, players who use this technique can cut out the opponent's reaction time and apply pressure by approaching the net. This can be just as devastating as a booming open-stance forehand, especially on fast surfaces.
One word of caution. Open-stance is a bit of a misnomer. It refers to your feet. It does NOT mean having your shoulders parallel to the net! If you use an open-stance forehand, you must coil and then uncoil your hips and shoulders, otherwise there is no benefit to it whatsoever.
Keeping your backhand approach shots low
You need to use backspin to keep the ball low after it bounces. To do this, you need to deliver a kind of high-to-low glancing blow - but be sure not to come down on the ball too severely, otherwise you'll end up just chopping it and losing the pace.
Players like Pete Sampras often add sidespin to the sliced approach. This is produced by moving the racket across the ball with an outside-in action, i.e. from outside the line of the ball's flight to inside the line, as well as high-to-low. This makes the ball skid low and away from a right-hander's backhand.
Make a full shoulder turn and take your racket back at around shoulder height, with the face slightly open. Support the throat of the racket with the fingers of your non-racket hand and keep your wrist firm. As you swing through the ball high-to-low and outside-in, keep the racket face slightly open and try to get a l-o-n-g contact. Extend your non-racket hand back behind you for balance and keep your knees flexed throughout. Avoid opening your shoulders.
It's generally a good idea to aim your approach shots parallel to the sidelines. That gives you your best chance of covering the angles on your opponent's passing shot. But you should vary it occasionally, especially if your opponent is weak on the backhand.
"Shrinking" the Strike Zone
When you're hitting groundstrokes, you'll find it easier to control the tennis ball if your contact is somewhere between mid-chest and knee, a comfortable arm's length away from you and just slightly in front of your body. This is your ideal strike zone.
When your opponent hits the ball, it arrives with gradually diminishing speed. It rises after the bounce and then levels off for a moment as its speed dies.
If you can adjust your footwork so that the levelling-off moment occurs in the middle of your ideal strike zone, you've cracked it! Tennis is a breeze!
But it isn't always that easy. Although most balls level off somewhere between shoulder-height and knee-height, sometimes the ball bounces too low or too high. You may have to hurry forwards to short balls and you may have to bend your knees to cope with low balls. High-bouncing balls travel through your strike zone twice - once on the way up and again on the way down, so you have the luxury of a choice.
The face of your racket must be square to the ball at contact. Swing it up through the strike zone from below the level of the ball, finishing above it.
A common mistake is getting in line with the ball, with the result that you get jammed by it. It's okay to position yourself on the tracks, but remember to dodge aside before the train arrives!
The strike zone is important in baseball, too. Rules committees frequently argue over its definition. When the umpires "shrink" the strike zone, there are more home runs and the hitters (and the fans) are happy. But when they allow a larger strike zone, it favors the pitchers and the home runs start to dry up.
Let's apply a baseball analogy to tennis. Let's say you're hitting balls at all different heights, one ball up around your armpits and the next down below your knees. Well, clearly this is the equivalent of a baseball umpire allowing a large strike zone. And your opponent - the pitcher - is just grinning all over his face.
Use anticipation and footwork to shrink that zone and start scoring!
Is having just a slice backhand the end of life as we know it?
Tennis players with one-handed slice backhands sometimes feel frustrated and envious when they see the top pros cracking two-handed backhand winners. They tell me they don't want a slice backhand any more - they want a slice of the action!
However, I never advocate switching from a one-handed backhand to a two-hander. In my opinion, that's a backward step. The two-handed stroke presents you with problems in terms of reach and there's absolutely no guarantee that you'll compensate by producing more power. It's not that I'm against two-handed backhands per se, far from it. It's just that players with effective two-handers typically start at an age when they lack sufficient strength in the arm and wrist for a one-hander. It's forced on them. The best of these players develop the shot and develop the athleticism to make up for the reach restrictions. But if you're used to playing with a one-hander and you can execute it with a reasonable degree of competence, you should stick with it and try to make it more reliable and more versatile.
The slice backhand is not a purely defensive shot. Used as an approach shot, it skids low and forces your opponent to lift the ball for you to put away with a comfortable volley. Slice makes the ball float further in the air allowing you to dominate your opponent by maintaining good depth. So don't turn your nose up at it. Build up your appetite and help yourself to a bigger slice!
For more bite on the shot, prepare by coiling your upper body using a hip and shoulder turn and bend the elbow of your racket arm. Then straighten your arm as you hit through the ball. If you keep your elbow locked, you'll restrict your swing and end up chopping at the ball.
The slice backhand is least effective against a net-rusher. Instead of learning a two-hander, I recommend developing a flat or topspin drive to give yourself a better chance of making a pass or at least making your opponent contend with a dipping ball.
Two-handed backhands - is time running out for the closed stance?
Although most players still prefer to strike the two-handed backhand from a closed stance whenever possible, the success of the Williams sisters is encouraging more and more players to use an open stance. Venus and Serena use their tremendous leg and upper body strength to compensate for the loss of linear momentum. The technique enables them to cope better when they're rushed into playing a shot (e.g. a service return) and also to recover their court position efficiently by pushing off the outside leg to return towards the middle of the court.
Let's consider the grip first. Although you can hit a perfectly effective two-handed backhand with your dominant hand placed in an eastern forehand grip, you ought to be using an eastern backhand grip (or at least a continental grip) if you want to use topspin and if you want to be able to hit the occasional one-handed shot. Your dominant hand really only provides support - it's your non-dominant hand that should actually provide the power for your two-hander and you should put it into the eastern forehand grip.
Load your weight onto your left foot (assuming you're right-handed) and coil your hips and shoulders. The amount of backswing depends on what you want to achieve. Typically, a shorter backswing will facilitate more control and a longer backswing will generate more power. Keeping your head as still as possible to control the uncoiling of your hips and shoulders, extend your racket out towards your target for control and depth. Complete the shot with a full wrap-around follow-through and push off to recover for your next shot.
If, like Venus and Serena, you have the required athleticism, you might want to make open stance groundstrokes the basis of your game, but even if you don't, practise an open stance two-hander and you'll be able to compensate effectively when you're rushed for time.
The 'Whys' and 'Whens' of spin on groundstrokes
Batting a ball to and from over a net is okay, but it's very basic. If tennis was a language, we're talking morse code. Once you can master the basics, what you really want to do is make the ball do stuff - you want to make it talk, don't you? If tennis was a TV set, you'd want more than just an on-and-off switch and a volume control - you'd want a channel selector and a brightness control and a contrast control and so on. If you're going to control a rally, you need to control the ball. And that's where spin comes in.
With groundstrokes, your spin options are topspin and slice.
With topspin, the ball dips to the ground quicker and bounces higher than you'd expect from a ball with no spin. It allows you to hit harder - and higher over the net - with less risk of hitting long. It also allows you to dip balls at the feet of an incoming volleyer. Use it as your stock rally ball, but flatten it out a bit to go for winners. Topspin is a player's insurance policy and you shouldn't be allowed to drive without it!
With slice (or backspin), the tennis ball floats through the air longer and bounces lower than you'd expect from a ball with no spin. It allows you to hit deeper and lower, forcing your opponent to hit up on the ball - very desirable if your opponent has an extreme "closed" grip or you're approaching the net for a volley or an overhead. Use it as an approach shot and use it for defence when you've been stretched out of position, because the ball will travel slowly and buy you time to recover for your next shot. A slice backhand is essential to an attacking net game, such as that deployed by Tim Henman, Pat Rafter, Martina Navratilova and John McEnroe. It can be particularly effective to combat topspin with slice, since the direction of the spin is maintained rather than reversed, i.e. you're actually adding to the existing spin on the ball.
When you first learn how to play spins, it's okay to experiment and see what you can do. It's like when you get that new TV set and you sit there playing with the remote! Eventually, you'll get familiar with it and just use the controls you need.
Regards.
Dave Winship
Shorten it! Shorten your tennis racket and shorten your backswing! They haven't invented a racket with a button that shortens the grip for these sort of shots, but you can achieve the same effect by shifting your hand up the grip a couple of inches. This should give you the feeling that you've got more control over the swing. Shorten your backswing too - just a shoulder turn will do. But still go for a full follow-through, because the last thing you want to do is trade your overhitting for a "nothing" shot!
Prepare early - but not too early!!
Beginners are invariably told to "prepare early!" It's good advice while you're developing your tennis technique. However, performance tennis players who are looking for a little extra racket speed must pay some attention to biomechanics.
The backswing stage of the action involves stretching the muscles to store elastic energy for the forward swing. If there is too much of a pause between the backswing and the forward swing, the benefit of the stored energy can be lost. Obviously it's not good if your elastic gives out on you!
For maximum efficiency, try to time it so that there's little or no pause between the completion of your backswing and the start of your forward swing.
If you're used to taking the tennis racket back very early, you might find it a useful compromise to prepare early and then quickly take the racket back still further prior to swinging forwards
Hitting bigger without hitting bigger!
You can achieve more power on your groundstrokes by transferring your weight forwards, by swinging faster and by hitting more through the ball. These are things you can apply without too much tinkering with your technique.
The power drives of the modern game, however, are produced by adopting an open stance and driving up from the legs and rotating the upper body (hips, trunk and shoulders) and if you're not already doing that, the change is fairly drastic and you probably need to book some lessons.
But let's try thinking laterally for a minute. Your basic tennis technique is sound and you don't want to bin it, but you do want to inflict more damage on your opponent. Ok, so why not try this - take the ball earlier! Instead of waiting for the ball to drop, step in and take it at the top of the bounce. Once
you're comfortable with this (and it'll take a while, so be patient!), try taking it on the rise.
You'll have more angles at your disposal and your opponents will have less time to prepare for their shots. It's kind of hitting bigger without hitting bigger! Cool, eh?
Hitting on the rise
There's plenty of good tennis reasons to hit on the rise. What are they? Well, you can hit with more power because your opponent's pace is still on the ball. Also, you give your opponent less time to recover and therefore less time to prepare for the next shot. And the more you move inside the baseline the more you see over the net, enabling you to open up the rally with angled shots. If you like getting into the net, hitting on the rise gives you a better chance of closing in.
So, how do we do it? For one thing, you need to get inside the tennis court during the rallies! Easier said than done - it's a psychological leap because you're leaving that familiar comfort zone behind the baseline - so try it in practice first! The other thing that will take some adjustment is your backswing. There will be less time for it, so you need to make it as efficient as possible - a good shoulder turn will probably suffice. Relax at the knees and stay light on your feet. Start your swing early enough to ensure firm contact just out in front of your body. Although you've had to adopt a more compact backswing, accelerate the racket head and follow through smooth and long and full.
One thing you've got to consider is the angle of the ball as it comes on to your racket - instead of a flat or downward trajectory, the ball will be angling upwards onto your strings. You'll find you won't keep the ball in the court if you use an open racket face. So adjust your grip to close the racket face slightly. It's probably a good idea to brush up on the ball to impart some topspin. This will give you a greater degree of control.
Open or closed stance?
I often get asked what's best - an open stance or a closed stance. And of course there isn't a definitive answer. You can argue the merits and demerits of each until the cows come home. It's true that clay courts suit open-stance players and faster courts suit the sideways-on stroke. Ultimately, it comes down to your own athletic and tactical preferences.
Open-stance players can use powerful trunk rotation and produce great racket-head speed, but they find that their centre of gravity pulls to the left (or even backwards) during the stroke, discouraging forward movement.
The step-in forehand, on the other hand, imposes a limit on your swing because your front leg locks up your body, but it encourages forward transfer of weight and therefore favors players who want to close in on the net. By taking the ball on the rise, players who use this technique can cut out the opponent's reaction time and apply pressure by approaching the net. This can be just as devastating as a booming open-stance forehand, especially on fast surfaces.
One word of caution. Open-stance is a bit of a misnomer. It refers to your feet. It does NOT mean having your shoulders parallel to the net! If you use an open-stance forehand, you must coil and then uncoil your hips and shoulders, otherwise there is no benefit to it whatsoever.
Keeping your backhand approach shots low
You need to use backspin to keep the ball low after it bounces. To do this, you need to deliver a kind of high-to-low glancing blow - but be sure not to come down on the ball too severely, otherwise you'll end up just chopping it and losing the pace.
Players like Pete Sampras often add sidespin to the sliced approach. This is produced by moving the racket across the ball with an outside-in action, i.e. from outside the line of the ball's flight to inside the line, as well as high-to-low. This makes the ball skid low and away from a right-hander's backhand.
Make a full shoulder turn and take your racket back at around shoulder height, with the face slightly open. Support the throat of the racket with the fingers of your non-racket hand and keep your wrist firm. As you swing through the ball high-to-low and outside-in, keep the racket face slightly open and try to get a l-o-n-g contact. Extend your non-racket hand back behind you for balance and keep your knees flexed throughout. Avoid opening your shoulders.
It's generally a good idea to aim your approach shots parallel to the sidelines. That gives you your best chance of covering the angles on your opponent's passing shot. But you should vary it occasionally, especially if your opponent is weak on the backhand.
"Shrinking" the Strike Zone
When you're hitting groundstrokes, you'll find it easier to control the tennis ball if your contact is somewhere between mid-chest and knee, a comfortable arm's length away from you and just slightly in front of your body. This is your ideal strike zone.
When your opponent hits the ball, it arrives with gradually diminishing speed. It rises after the bounce and then levels off for a moment as its speed dies.
If you can adjust your footwork so that the levelling-off moment occurs in the middle of your ideal strike zone, you've cracked it! Tennis is a breeze!
But it isn't always that easy. Although most balls level off somewhere between shoulder-height and knee-height, sometimes the ball bounces too low or too high. You may have to hurry forwards to short balls and you may have to bend your knees to cope with low balls. High-bouncing balls travel through your strike zone twice - once on the way up and again on the way down, so you have the luxury of a choice.
The face of your racket must be square to the ball at contact. Swing it up through the strike zone from below the level of the ball, finishing above it.
A common mistake is getting in line with the ball, with the result that you get jammed by it. It's okay to position yourself on the tracks, but remember to dodge aside before the train arrives!
The strike zone is important in baseball, too. Rules committees frequently argue over its definition. When the umpires "shrink" the strike zone, there are more home runs and the hitters (and the fans) are happy. But when they allow a larger strike zone, it favors the pitchers and the home runs start to dry up.
Let's apply a baseball analogy to tennis. Let's say you're hitting balls at all different heights, one ball up around your armpits and the next down below your knees. Well, clearly this is the equivalent of a baseball umpire allowing a large strike zone. And your opponent - the pitcher - is just grinning all over his face.
Use anticipation and footwork to shrink that zone and start scoring!
Is having just a slice backhand the end of life as we know it?
Tennis players with one-handed slice backhands sometimes feel frustrated and envious when they see the top pros cracking two-handed backhand winners. They tell me they don't want a slice backhand any more - they want a slice of the action!
However, I never advocate switching from a one-handed backhand to a two-hander. In my opinion, that's a backward step. The two-handed stroke presents you with problems in terms of reach and there's absolutely no guarantee that you'll compensate by producing more power. It's not that I'm against two-handed backhands per se, far from it. It's just that players with effective two-handers typically start at an age when they lack sufficient strength in the arm and wrist for a one-hander. It's forced on them. The best of these players develop the shot and develop the athleticism to make up for the reach restrictions. But if you're used to playing with a one-hander and you can execute it with a reasonable degree of competence, you should stick with it and try to make it more reliable and more versatile.
The slice backhand is not a purely defensive shot. Used as an approach shot, it skids low and forces your opponent to lift the ball for you to put away with a comfortable volley. Slice makes the ball float further in the air allowing you to dominate your opponent by maintaining good depth. So don't turn your nose up at it. Build up your appetite and help yourself to a bigger slice!
For more bite on the shot, prepare by coiling your upper body using a hip and shoulder turn and bend the elbow of your racket arm. Then straighten your arm as you hit through the ball. If you keep your elbow locked, you'll restrict your swing and end up chopping at the ball.
The slice backhand is least effective against a net-rusher. Instead of learning a two-hander, I recommend developing a flat or topspin drive to give yourself a better chance of making a pass or at least making your opponent contend with a dipping ball.
Two-handed backhands - is time running out for the closed stance?
Although most players still prefer to strike the two-handed backhand from a closed stance whenever possible, the success of the Williams sisters is encouraging more and more players to use an open stance. Venus and Serena use their tremendous leg and upper body strength to compensate for the loss of linear momentum. The technique enables them to cope better when they're rushed into playing a shot (e.g. a service return) and also to recover their court position efficiently by pushing off the outside leg to return towards the middle of the court.
Let's consider the grip first. Although you can hit a perfectly effective two-handed backhand with your dominant hand placed in an eastern forehand grip, you ought to be using an eastern backhand grip (or at least a continental grip) if you want to use topspin and if you want to be able to hit the occasional one-handed shot. Your dominant hand really only provides support - it's your non-dominant hand that should actually provide the power for your two-hander and you should put it into the eastern forehand grip.
Load your weight onto your left foot (assuming you're right-handed) and coil your hips and shoulders. The amount of backswing depends on what you want to achieve. Typically, a shorter backswing will facilitate more control and a longer backswing will generate more power. Keeping your head as still as possible to control the uncoiling of your hips and shoulders, extend your racket out towards your target for control and depth. Complete the shot with a full wrap-around follow-through and push off to recover for your next shot.
If, like Venus and Serena, you have the required athleticism, you might want to make open stance groundstrokes the basis of your game, but even if you don't, practise an open stance two-hander and you'll be able to compensate effectively when you're rushed for time.
The 'Whys' and 'Whens' of spin on groundstrokes
Batting a ball to and from over a net is okay, but it's very basic. If tennis was a language, we're talking morse code. Once you can master the basics, what you really want to do is make the ball do stuff - you want to make it talk, don't you? If tennis was a TV set, you'd want more than just an on-and-off switch and a volume control - you'd want a channel selector and a brightness control and a contrast control and so on. If you're going to control a rally, you need to control the ball. And that's where spin comes in.
With groundstrokes, your spin options are topspin and slice.
With topspin, the ball dips to the ground quicker and bounces higher than you'd expect from a ball with no spin. It allows you to hit harder - and higher over the net - with less risk of hitting long. It also allows you to dip balls at the feet of an incoming volleyer. Use it as your stock rally ball, but flatten it out a bit to go for winners. Topspin is a player's insurance policy and you shouldn't be allowed to drive without it!
With slice (or backspin), the tennis ball floats through the air longer and bounces lower than you'd expect from a ball with no spin. It allows you to hit deeper and lower, forcing your opponent to hit up on the ball - very desirable if your opponent has an extreme "closed" grip or you're approaching the net for a volley or an overhead. Use it as an approach shot and use it for defence when you've been stretched out of position, because the ball will travel slowly and buy you time to recover for your next shot. A slice backhand is essential to an attacking net game, such as that deployed by Tim Henman, Pat Rafter, Martina Navratilova and John McEnroe. It can be particularly effective to combat topspin with slice, since the direction of the spin is maintained rather than reversed, i.e. you're actually adding to the existing spin on the ball.
When you first learn how to play spins, it's okay to experiment and see what you can do. It's like when you get that new TV set and you sit there playing with the remote! Eventually, you'll get familiar with it and just use the controls you need.
Regards.
Dave Winship
Backhand - 1.The Basic (Classic) Tennis Backhand
THE BASIC (CLASSIC) BACKHAND by Mat Galemmo, Racquety-Yak
At practice, some tennis players try too many irregular motions. This will inhibit muscle retention in your strokes. It's a good idea to stay "basic" to build your stroke consistency.
THE GRIP: Turn your hand from the forehand grip until your first knuckle is on top of the handle. Extend the index finger, your thumb may be either across the handle or curled around it.
WAITING POSITION: Stand facing the net, knees slightly bent, weight evenly distributed and slightly forward on the tennis balls of your feet. The tennis racket is held in front of your body, elbows in close, and forearm parallel to the ground. The tennis racket is supported with your free hand. Once you have the backhand grip, the racket should be pointing toward the sideline, not toward the net.
TURN: The shoulders and hips pivot so that your weight shifts onto the left foot and the tennis racket hand touches the left hip bone.
BACKSWING: The left hand slides down the tennis racket to cradle the right hand. The racket is on edge and the angle of the racket and forearm remain the same throughout.
STEP AND HIT: The right foot steps toward the net with your weight shifting onto it. The tennis ball is contacted a little in front of the right leg, approximately waist high and the arm is relatively straight and the wrist is firm.
FOLLOW THROUGH: The follow through is a long, continuous sweeping motion, finishing high with the arm relatively straight. The butt of the racket is past the right eye. (for right handers)
Your weight is now completely on the front foot and your hips and shoulders have turned halfway toward the net. Unlike the forehand, they do not turn as much in the backhand.
At practice, some tennis players try too many irregular motions. This will inhibit muscle retention in your strokes. It's a good idea to stay "basic" to build your stroke consistency.
THE GRIP: Turn your hand from the forehand grip until your first knuckle is on top of the handle. Extend the index finger, your thumb may be either across the handle or curled around it.
WAITING POSITION: Stand facing the net, knees slightly bent, weight evenly distributed and slightly forward on the tennis balls of your feet. The tennis racket is held in front of your body, elbows in close, and forearm parallel to the ground. The tennis racket is supported with your free hand. Once you have the backhand grip, the racket should be pointing toward the sideline, not toward the net.
TURN: The shoulders and hips pivot so that your weight shifts onto the left foot and the tennis racket hand touches the left hip bone.
BACKSWING: The left hand slides down the tennis racket to cradle the right hand. The racket is on edge and the angle of the racket and forearm remain the same throughout.
STEP AND HIT: The right foot steps toward the net with your weight shifting onto it. The tennis ball is contacted a little in front of the right leg, approximately waist high and the arm is relatively straight and the wrist is firm.
FOLLOW THROUGH: The follow through is a long, continuous sweeping motion, finishing high with the arm relatively straight. The butt of the racket is past the right eye. (for right handers)
Your weight is now completely on the front foot and your hips and shoulders have turned halfway toward the net. Unlike the forehand, they do not turn as much in the backhand.
Tuesday, June 26, 2007
Forehand - 5.Get Back to Basics
Get Back to Basics
This month I want to talk about back to basics. Simple basic tennis. Things you should be aware of for a good sound tennis stroke which will eventually give you a good sound tennis game.
Let's review the forehand:
1) You should always have good anticipation on the tennis courts.
2) When you get to the tennis ball, always try to be sideways to it.
3) When you get to the tennis ball, your racket should all ready be back in the ready to swing position.
4) Your eye should be on the tennis ball and you should have already decided where you are going to hit the ball.
5) Step in and swing trying to hit the tennis ball out in front of you. Swing low to high and don't forget a good follow through. Racket should end up around the eye brow.
Now this should take about 5 to 8 seconds. That's what makes tennis an awesome game. Always remember to get the tennis ball over the net. Sometimes you won't be in perfect position and will have to make an on the spot split second adjustment. Always try to make your opponent hit one more shot.
Tommie Ray
This month I want to talk about back to basics. Simple basic tennis. Things you should be aware of for a good sound tennis stroke which will eventually give you a good sound tennis game.
Let's review the forehand:
1) You should always have good anticipation on the tennis courts.
2) When you get to the tennis ball, always try to be sideways to it.
3) When you get to the tennis ball, your racket should all ready be back in the ready to swing position.
4) Your eye should be on the tennis ball and you should have already decided where you are going to hit the ball.
5) Step in and swing trying to hit the tennis ball out in front of you. Swing low to high and don't forget a good follow through. Racket should end up around the eye brow.
Now this should take about 5 to 8 seconds. That's what makes tennis an awesome game. Always remember to get the tennis ball over the net. Sometimes you won't be in perfect position and will have to make an on the spot split second adjustment. Always try to make your opponent hit one more shot.
Tommie Ray
Forehand - 4.How early should I prepare for my groundstrokes?
How early should I prepare for my groundstrokes?
Regardless of how much tennis you have played or how much coaching you have received, I am willing to bet that you are more than familiar with the advice "Get your racket back early". It was probably one of the first suggestions made to you by your coach or practice partner and the logic of it still holds true. If we are late with our preparation we will be unable to make a solid contact with the ball or generate a full swing. But how early do we actually need to take our racket back? Is it really a case of 'the earlier the better'?
Well, my answer would be no. We should strive to time our preparation so that we can begin our forward swing towards the ideal contact point with no pause in the action. Allow me to explain. The most important aspect of a backswing is that it pre-stretches the muscles of the arm, shoulder, and trunk. This 'pre-stretch' stores elastic energy in these muscles that can be used to generate the swing. The tricky thing about elastic energy is that it can only be stored for a couple of seconds. So if we are to reap maximum benefit from this elastic pre-stretch we should not prepare too early, and risk having to wait for the oncoming tennis ball. Neither should we prepare too late for the reasons outlined earlier.
What we need to do is study the speed, spin, and flight of the approaching tennis ball and adjust the timing of our backswing accordingly.
In fact many of the top players are now learning to get the best of both worlds by preparing early but then tagging on an extra twist and rotation (to set the muscles in pre-stretch) immediately prior to starting the forward swing. Good examples of this would be Andy Roddick's serve and Serena Williams' backhand.
The only potential danger of this particular technique is that it may result in a disjointed swing, and it should not be attempted until you are completely comfortable with the concept of elastic pre-stretch and with being able to time your swings in order to make maximum use of it.
Regardless of how much tennis you have played or how much coaching you have received, I am willing to bet that you are more than familiar with the advice "Get your racket back early". It was probably one of the first suggestions made to you by your coach or practice partner and the logic of it still holds true. If we are late with our preparation we will be unable to make a solid contact with the ball or generate a full swing. But how early do we actually need to take our racket back? Is it really a case of 'the earlier the better'?
Well, my answer would be no. We should strive to time our preparation so that we can begin our forward swing towards the ideal contact point with no pause in the action. Allow me to explain. The most important aspect of a backswing is that it pre-stretches the muscles of the arm, shoulder, and trunk. This 'pre-stretch' stores elastic energy in these muscles that can be used to generate the swing. The tricky thing about elastic energy is that it can only be stored for a couple of seconds. So if we are to reap maximum benefit from this elastic pre-stretch we should not prepare too early, and risk having to wait for the oncoming tennis ball. Neither should we prepare too late for the reasons outlined earlier.
What we need to do is study the speed, spin, and flight of the approaching tennis ball and adjust the timing of our backswing accordingly.
In fact many of the top players are now learning to get the best of both worlds by preparing early but then tagging on an extra twist and rotation (to set the muscles in pre-stretch) immediately prior to starting the forward swing. Good examples of this would be Andy Roddick's serve and Serena Williams' backhand.
The only potential danger of this particular technique is that it may result in a disjointed swing, and it should not be attempted until you are completely comfortable with the concept of elastic pre-stretch and with being able to time your swings in order to make maximum use of it.
Forehand - 3.A Flick of the Wrist
A Flick of the Wrist
Listening to TV commentators covering a tennis match, you might think the contestants were playing badminton. John McEnroe particularly likes to say that a player sends the ball crosscourt or down the line "with just a flick of the wrist."
Just how much wrist is used in tennis? High speed photography (200 frames per second) of world class players analyzed by John Yandell of www.tennisone.com shows that there is virtually no wrist movement on forehand and backhand groundstrokes. On a forehand the wrist is locked into a laid-back position at the end of the backswing and remains in that locked position until the end of the followthrough, at which point the muscles of the arm and shoulder relax and the wrist returns to its natural position. This occurs long after the ball has crossed the net. On TV and video replays (at 15 frames per second), it might look like a flick of the wrist, but it is usually a slight roll of the forearm with a firm, locked wrist.
Timing the shoulder rotation and the acceleration of the racquet arm through the ball on a good groundstroke is difficult enough; playing with a lot of wrist adds another, troublesome, variable to the mix. If you cock your wrist back as you prepare the backswing with the intention of uncocking your wrist upon ball contact (as a flick of the wrist implies), your timing must be perfect in order to have your racquet face flush to the ball. If your timing is off, you will mis-hit the ball. This is why most good players eliminate wrist movement in their swings. It gives them one less variable to contend with.
So what's up with McEnroe, one of the best tennis players ever, saying that Agassi and others are making these great shots with a "flick of the wrist"? It's probably easier and more dramatic for McEnroe to describe such shots in this way rather than giving a long technical explanation (as above). It might also be a case of Mac not understanding the nature of the modern forehand, particularly those using semi-Western and Western grips. Look at old videos of Mac playing with his continental grip off both sides and you'll see that his strokes look strange compared to the modern forehands of Hewitt, Agassi, Federer, Haas, Ferrero, Roddick, Kuerten, et al. Mac's a genius on the court, but he hits a different groundstroke than the younger players of today. He, too, however, didn't flick his wrist.
Drive, he said
Want to ensure a successful groundstroke? Then concentrate on driving or hitting through the ball.
Driving through the tennis ball means extending the racquet about two feet or so through the contact zone, with the racquet face continuing on a straight line, parallel to the net, and out towards the target. Many ground stroke errors occur when players abbreviate this extension by wrapping the racquet around their neck or shoulder too early. The "wrap" should occur naturally at the end of the swing but only after you have hit through the ball and your swing begins to decelerate.
You can learn to drive through the tennis ball by practicing a couple of simple exercises. Stand about a foot away from the back fence with your shoulders parallel to the net. Take your racquet back on your forehand side until the head touches the fence. Standing this close to the fence you will only be able to take a fraction of your regular backswing. Lock your wrist and keep your elbow bent and in close to your ribs.
Now drop feed a tennis ball and try to hit a forehand over the net and as deep into the court as possible. Swing high to low for a little topspin. Your racquet should be more-or-less vertical at the point of contact. Extend your forward swing for at least two feet after contact. Finish with your racquet on the right side of your body (left for lefties). I tell my pee-wee students to picture a big smiley face painted on their racquet strings and to let their opponents see that big smile throughout the swing.
A good cue here is the self of the palm of your hitting hand. The image you want is of your palm striking the ball and then pushing the ball straight forward toward the target. You might even put your racquet in your other hand and just practice shadow strokes with your palm to get the feel for hitting through the ball.
Unless you drive through the ball it won't clear the net, let alone land deep in the court. Concentrate on the face of the racquet (or your palm) remaining parallel to the net as it swings through the ball. Keep drop feeding yourself balls and hitting in this manner until you gain good consistency and are getting the ball deep in the court.
In this little exercise, the role of your shoulder is minimized. Your arm is doing most of the work. On a true forehand ground stroke, your shoulder would generate most of the power (coiling and then uncoiling), with your arm picking up the load from the point of contact onward. By limiting the role of your shoulder in this way, you can concentrate more on driving through the ball, which is the main task of the arm in a good forehand.
Another way to get the feel of driving through the tennis ball is to stand about a foot away from the net, with your shoulders parallel to the baseline. Turn your shoulder to initiate your backswing and bring your racquet back until the butt of the racquet is perpendicular to the net. Keep your elbow bent and close to your side and lock your wrist. Now take a short step forward and turn your shoulders back toward the net, which should bring the face of your racquet flush to the net cord. Strike the net cord gently such that half of your racquet face extends above the net. Continue to push the racquet face against the net with your hitting arm, building resistance as your weight shifts forward against the net. Now raise your hitting arm slowly upward until your racquet is free of the net. Extend your hitting arm and let your racquet move forward toward the open court, keeping the face of the racquet parallel to the baseline. This will simulate driving through the ball.
You can also do backhand versions of these exercises. For a two-handed backhand, focus on the palm of your non-dominant hand to keep your racquet face parallel to the net and extending through the contact zone. Let the elbow of the non-dominant arm straighten out before finishing with the racquet around your neck or shoulder. If you are doing a one-handed backhand, you'll need to use a backhand grip. On the one-hander, visualize the knuckles of the hitting hand driving through the ball and out toward the target. This will help to keep the racquet face parallel to the net as it extends through the contact zone. For the one-hander using these drills, I suggest you exaggerate your sideways positioning to the ball so your hitting arm can swing freely from the shoulder joint.
Remember, the two feet of forward extension after contact, generated mainly by the arm(s), is critical. Shorten this important part of your swing by wrapping the racquet too quickly around your neck or shoulder and your shots will lack power and depth.
In practice sessions and match play, a good rhythmic mantra to assist in driving through the ball as described above is to say to yourself "bounce, step, drive."
Randy Cummings
Match Point Racquet Sports
www.racquetgear.com
Listening to TV commentators covering a tennis match, you might think the contestants were playing badminton. John McEnroe particularly likes to say that a player sends the ball crosscourt or down the line "with just a flick of the wrist."
Just how much wrist is used in tennis? High speed photography (200 frames per second) of world class players analyzed by John Yandell of www.tennisone.com shows that there is virtually no wrist movement on forehand and backhand groundstrokes. On a forehand the wrist is locked into a laid-back position at the end of the backswing and remains in that locked position until the end of the followthrough, at which point the muscles of the arm and shoulder relax and the wrist returns to its natural position. This occurs long after the ball has crossed the net. On TV and video replays (at 15 frames per second), it might look like a flick of the wrist, but it is usually a slight roll of the forearm with a firm, locked wrist.
Timing the shoulder rotation and the acceleration of the racquet arm through the ball on a good groundstroke is difficult enough; playing with a lot of wrist adds another, troublesome, variable to the mix. If you cock your wrist back as you prepare the backswing with the intention of uncocking your wrist upon ball contact (as a flick of the wrist implies), your timing must be perfect in order to have your racquet face flush to the ball. If your timing is off, you will mis-hit the ball. This is why most good players eliminate wrist movement in their swings. It gives them one less variable to contend with.
So what's up with McEnroe, one of the best tennis players ever, saying that Agassi and others are making these great shots with a "flick of the wrist"? It's probably easier and more dramatic for McEnroe to describe such shots in this way rather than giving a long technical explanation (as above). It might also be a case of Mac not understanding the nature of the modern forehand, particularly those using semi-Western and Western grips. Look at old videos of Mac playing with his continental grip off both sides and you'll see that his strokes look strange compared to the modern forehands of Hewitt, Agassi, Federer, Haas, Ferrero, Roddick, Kuerten, et al. Mac's a genius on the court, but he hits a different groundstroke than the younger players of today. He, too, however, didn't flick his wrist.
Drive, he said
Want to ensure a successful groundstroke? Then concentrate on driving or hitting through the ball.
Driving through the tennis ball means extending the racquet about two feet or so through the contact zone, with the racquet face continuing on a straight line, parallel to the net, and out towards the target. Many ground stroke errors occur when players abbreviate this extension by wrapping the racquet around their neck or shoulder too early. The "wrap" should occur naturally at the end of the swing but only after you have hit through the ball and your swing begins to decelerate.
You can learn to drive through the tennis ball by practicing a couple of simple exercises. Stand about a foot away from the back fence with your shoulders parallel to the net. Take your racquet back on your forehand side until the head touches the fence. Standing this close to the fence you will only be able to take a fraction of your regular backswing. Lock your wrist and keep your elbow bent and in close to your ribs.
Now drop feed a tennis ball and try to hit a forehand over the net and as deep into the court as possible. Swing high to low for a little topspin. Your racquet should be more-or-less vertical at the point of contact. Extend your forward swing for at least two feet after contact. Finish with your racquet on the right side of your body (left for lefties). I tell my pee-wee students to picture a big smiley face painted on their racquet strings and to let their opponents see that big smile throughout the swing.
A good cue here is the self of the palm of your hitting hand. The image you want is of your palm striking the ball and then pushing the ball straight forward toward the target. You might even put your racquet in your other hand and just practice shadow strokes with your palm to get the feel for hitting through the ball.
Unless you drive through the ball it won't clear the net, let alone land deep in the court. Concentrate on the face of the racquet (or your palm) remaining parallel to the net as it swings through the ball. Keep drop feeding yourself balls and hitting in this manner until you gain good consistency and are getting the ball deep in the court.
In this little exercise, the role of your shoulder is minimized. Your arm is doing most of the work. On a true forehand ground stroke, your shoulder would generate most of the power (coiling and then uncoiling), with your arm picking up the load from the point of contact onward. By limiting the role of your shoulder in this way, you can concentrate more on driving through the ball, which is the main task of the arm in a good forehand.
Another way to get the feel of driving through the tennis ball is to stand about a foot away from the net, with your shoulders parallel to the baseline. Turn your shoulder to initiate your backswing and bring your racquet back until the butt of the racquet is perpendicular to the net. Keep your elbow bent and close to your side and lock your wrist. Now take a short step forward and turn your shoulders back toward the net, which should bring the face of your racquet flush to the net cord. Strike the net cord gently such that half of your racquet face extends above the net. Continue to push the racquet face against the net with your hitting arm, building resistance as your weight shifts forward against the net. Now raise your hitting arm slowly upward until your racquet is free of the net. Extend your hitting arm and let your racquet move forward toward the open court, keeping the face of the racquet parallel to the baseline. This will simulate driving through the ball.
You can also do backhand versions of these exercises. For a two-handed backhand, focus on the palm of your non-dominant hand to keep your racquet face parallel to the net and extending through the contact zone. Let the elbow of the non-dominant arm straighten out before finishing with the racquet around your neck or shoulder. If you are doing a one-handed backhand, you'll need to use a backhand grip. On the one-hander, visualize the knuckles of the hitting hand driving through the ball and out toward the target. This will help to keep the racquet face parallel to the net as it extends through the contact zone. For the one-hander using these drills, I suggest you exaggerate your sideways positioning to the ball so your hitting arm can swing freely from the shoulder joint.
Remember, the two feet of forward extension after contact, generated mainly by the arm(s), is critical. Shorten this important part of your swing by wrapping the racquet too quickly around your neck or shoulder and your shots will lack power and depth.
In practice sessions and match play, a good rhythmic mantra to assist in driving through the ball as described above is to say to yourself "bounce, step, drive."
Randy Cummings
Match Point Racquet Sports
www.racquetgear.com
Forehand - 2.How to avoid overhitting
How to avoid overhitting when you get a real sitter
Shorten it! Shorten your tennis racket and shorten your backswing! They haven't invented a tennis racket with a button that shortens the grip for these sort of shots, but you can achieve the same effect by shifting your hand up the grip a couple of inches. This should give you the feeling that you've got more control over the swing. Shorten your backswing too - just a shoulder turn will do. But still go for a full follow-through, because the last thing you want to do is trade your overhitting for a "nothing" shot!
Prepare early - but not too early!!
Beginners are invariably told to "prepare early!" It's good advice while you're developing your technique. However, performance tennis players who are looking for a little extra racket speed must pay some attention to biomechanics.
The backswing stage of the action involves stretching the muscles to store elastic energy for the forward swing. If there is too much of a pause between the backswing and the forward swing, the benefit of the stored energy can be lost. Obviously it's not good if your elastic gives out on you!
For maximum efficiency, try to time it so that there's little or no pause between the completion of your backswing and the start of your forward swing.
If you're used to taking the tennis racket back very early, you might find it a useful compromise to prepare early and then quickly take the tennis racket back still further prior to swinging forwards.
Hitting bigger without hitting bigger!
You can achieve more power on your groundstrokes by transferring your weight forwards, by swinging faster and by hitting more through the ball. These are things you can apply without too much tinkering with your technique.
The power drives of the modern game, however, are produced by adopting an open stance and driving up from the legs and rotating the upper body (hips, trunk and shoulders) and if you're not already doing that, the change is fairly drastic and you probably need to book some lessons.
But let's try thinking laterally for a minute. Your basic tennis technique is sound and you don't want to bin it, but you do want to inflict more damage on your opponent. Ok, so why not try this - take the ball earlier! Instead of waiting for the ball to drop, step in and take it at the top of the bounce. Once you're comfortable with this (and it'll take a while, so be patient!), try taking it on the rise.
You'll have more angles at your disposal and your opponents will have less time to prepare for their shots. It's kind of hitting bigger without hitting bigger! Cool, eh?
Hitting on the rise
There's plenty of good reasons to hit on the rise. What are they? Well, you can hit with more power because your opponent's pace is still on the ball. Also, you give your opponent less time to recover and therefore less time to prepare for the next shot. And the more you move inside the baseline the more you see over the net, enabling you to open up the rally with angled shots. If you like getting into the net, hitting on the rise gives you a better chance of closing in.
So, how do we do it? For one thing, you need to get inside the court during the rallies! Easier said than done - it's a psychological leap because you're leaving that familiar comfort zone behind the baseline - so try it in practice first! The other thing that will take some adjustment is your backswing. There will be less time for it, so you need to make it as efficient as possible - a good shoulder turn will probably suffice. Relax at the knees and stay light on your feet. Start your swing early enough to ensure firm contact just out in front of your body. Although you've had to adopt a more compact backswing, accelerate the racket head and follow through smooth and long and full.
One thing you've got to consider is the angle of the tennis ball as it comes on to your tennis racket - instead of a flat or downward trajectory, the ball will be angling upwards onto your strings. You'll find you won't keep the ball in the court if you use an open tennis racket face. So adjust your grip to close the racket face slightly. It's probably a good idea to brush up on the ball to impart some topspin. This will give you a greater degree of control.
Open or closed stance?
I often get asked what's best - an open stance or a closed stance. And of course there isn't a definitive answer. You can argue the merits and demerits of each until the cows come home. It's true that clay courts suit open-stance players and faster courts suit the sideways-on stroke. Ultimately, it comes down to your own athletic and tactical preferences.
Open-stance players can use powerful trunk rotation and produce great racket-head speed, but they find that their centre of gravity pulls to the left (or even backwards) during the stroke, discouraging forward movement.
The step-in forehand, on the other hand, imposes a limit on your swing because your front leg locks up your body, but it encourages forward transfer of weight and therefore favors players who want to close in on the net. By taking the ball on the rise, players who use this technique can cut out the opponent's reaction time and apply pressure by approaching the net. This can be just as devastating as a booming open-stance forehand, especially on fast surfaces.
One word of caution. Open-stance is a bit of a misnomer. It refers to your feet. It does NOT mean having your shoulders parallel to the net! If you use an open-stance forehand, you must coil and then uncoil your hips and shoulders, otherwise there is no benefit to it whatsoever.
Closed stance forehand - improving power and accuracy
If you use a closed stance, you should be able to direct your shots more accurately than players who use an open stance forehand. That's because open stance players swing more across the body (and not towards the target) and so theoretically they sacrifice both depth and accuracy.
If adding power is your major priority, however, be sure not to stand completely sideways to the net. Your upper body needs to be at least slightly open - enough to allow your hips to turn through the shot. That way you'll generate power from the use of the big muscle groups in your trunk, shoulders and legs. This rotation of the trunk allows something known as "pre-stretching" of the shoulder muscles to occur. The muscles stretch and load up with tension ready to release energy into the swing. Hit the ball when it's in front of your body and coordinate the trunk rotation with a step in towards your target. Stepping in should also help with accuracy and you can improve this still further by "staying with" the shot right through the hitting zone and out towards your target.
Obviously, extra power is no good to you if the ball doesn't go where you want it to! So try these drills to develop a really steady forehand:
Rally in half the singles court, cooperating with each other and counting how many consecutive forehands you make before the rally breaks down. Then play first to 11 points, taking it in turns to feed the ball in (the ball must be in play for a minimum of 2 shots, otherwise the point must be replayed). When you're comfortable with that, progress to applying the same drill to a smaller court area - the tramlines (doubles alley)! That'll test you!
"Shrinking" the Strike Zone
When you're hitting groundstrokes, you'll find it easier to control the ball if your contact is somewhere between mid-chest and knee, a comfortable arm's length away from you and just slightly in front of your body. This is your ideal strike zone.
When your opponent hits the ball, it arrives with gradually diminishing speed. It rises after the bounce and then levels off for a moment as its speed dies.
If you can adjust your footwork so that the levelling-off moment occurs in the middle of your ideal strike zone, you've cracked it! Tennis is a breeze!
But it isn't always that easy. Although most tennis balls level off somewhere between shoulder-height and knee-height, sometimes the tennis ball bounces too low or too high. You may have to hurry forwards to short balls and you may have to bend your knees to cope with low balls. High-bouncing balls travel through your strike zone twice - once on the way up and again on the way down, so you have the luxury of a choice.
The face of your tennis racket must be square to the ball at contact. Swing it up through the strike zone from below the level of the ball, finishing above it.
A common mistake is getting in line with the tennis ball, with the result that you get jammed by it. It's okay to position yourself on the tracks, but remember to dodge aside before the train arrives!
The strike zone is important in baseball, too. Rules committees frequently argue over its definition. When the umpires "shrink" the strike zone, there are more home runs and the hitters (and the fans) are happy. But when they allow a larger strike zone, it favors the pitchers and the home runs start to dry up.
Let's apply a baseball analogy to tennis. Let's say you're hitting tennis balls at all different heights, one tennis ball up around your armpits and the next down below your knees. Well, clearly this is the equivalent of a baseball umpire allowing a large strike zone. And your opponent - the pitcher - is just grinning all over his face.
Use anticipation and footwork to shrink that zone and start scoring!
The 'Whys' and 'Whens' of spin on groundstrokes
Batting a ball to and from over a net is okay, but it's very basic. If tennis was a language, we're talking morse code. Once you can master the basics, what you really want to do is make the tennis ball do stuff - you want to make it talk, don't you? If tennis was a TV set, you'd want more than just an on-and-off switch and a volume control - you'd want a channel selector and a brightness control and a contrast control and so on. If you're going to control a rally, you need to control the ball. And that's where spin comes in.
With groundstrokes, your spin options are topspin and slice.
With topspin, the tennis ball dips to the ground quicker and bounces higher than you'd expect from a ball with no spin. It allows you to hit harder - and higher over the net - with less risk of hitting long. It also allows you to dip balls at the feet of an incoming volleyer. Use it as your stock rally ball, but flatten it out a bit to go for winners. Topspin is a player's insurance policy and you shouldn't be allowed to drive without it!
With slice (or backspin), the tennis ball floats through the air longer and bounces lower than you'd expect from a ball with no spin. It allows you to hit deeper and lower, forcing your opponent to hit up on the ball - very desirable if your opponent has an extreme "closed" grip or you're approaching the net for a volley or an overhead. Use it as an approach shot and use it for defence when you've been stretched out of position, because the ball will travel slowly and buy you time to recover for your next shot. A slice backhand is essential to an attacking net game, such as that deployed by Tim Henman, Pat Rafter, Martina Navratilova and John McEnroe. It can be particularly effective to combat topspin with slice, since the direction of the spin is maintained rather than reversed, i.e. you're actually adding to the existing spin on the ball.
When you first learn how to play spins, it's okay to experiment and see what you can do. It's like when you get that new TV set and you sit there playing with the remote! Eventually, you'll get familiar with it and just use the controls you need.
Regards.
Dave Winship
Shorten it! Shorten your tennis racket and shorten your backswing! They haven't invented a tennis racket with a button that shortens the grip for these sort of shots, but you can achieve the same effect by shifting your hand up the grip a couple of inches. This should give you the feeling that you've got more control over the swing. Shorten your backswing too - just a shoulder turn will do. But still go for a full follow-through, because the last thing you want to do is trade your overhitting for a "nothing" shot!
Prepare early - but not too early!!
Beginners are invariably told to "prepare early!" It's good advice while you're developing your technique. However, performance tennis players who are looking for a little extra racket speed must pay some attention to biomechanics.
The backswing stage of the action involves stretching the muscles to store elastic energy for the forward swing. If there is too much of a pause between the backswing and the forward swing, the benefit of the stored energy can be lost. Obviously it's not good if your elastic gives out on you!
For maximum efficiency, try to time it so that there's little or no pause between the completion of your backswing and the start of your forward swing.
If you're used to taking the tennis racket back very early, you might find it a useful compromise to prepare early and then quickly take the tennis racket back still further prior to swinging forwards.
Hitting bigger without hitting bigger!
You can achieve more power on your groundstrokes by transferring your weight forwards, by swinging faster and by hitting more through the ball. These are things you can apply without too much tinkering with your technique.
The power drives of the modern game, however, are produced by adopting an open stance and driving up from the legs and rotating the upper body (hips, trunk and shoulders) and if you're not already doing that, the change is fairly drastic and you probably need to book some lessons.
But let's try thinking laterally for a minute. Your basic tennis technique is sound and you don't want to bin it, but you do want to inflict more damage on your opponent. Ok, so why not try this - take the ball earlier! Instead of waiting for the ball to drop, step in and take it at the top of the bounce. Once you're comfortable with this (and it'll take a while, so be patient!), try taking it on the rise.
You'll have more angles at your disposal and your opponents will have less time to prepare for their shots. It's kind of hitting bigger without hitting bigger! Cool, eh?
Hitting on the rise
There's plenty of good reasons to hit on the rise. What are they? Well, you can hit with more power because your opponent's pace is still on the ball. Also, you give your opponent less time to recover and therefore less time to prepare for the next shot. And the more you move inside the baseline the more you see over the net, enabling you to open up the rally with angled shots. If you like getting into the net, hitting on the rise gives you a better chance of closing in.
So, how do we do it? For one thing, you need to get inside the court during the rallies! Easier said than done - it's a psychological leap because you're leaving that familiar comfort zone behind the baseline - so try it in practice first! The other thing that will take some adjustment is your backswing. There will be less time for it, so you need to make it as efficient as possible - a good shoulder turn will probably suffice. Relax at the knees and stay light on your feet. Start your swing early enough to ensure firm contact just out in front of your body. Although you've had to adopt a more compact backswing, accelerate the racket head and follow through smooth and long and full.
One thing you've got to consider is the angle of the tennis ball as it comes on to your tennis racket - instead of a flat or downward trajectory, the ball will be angling upwards onto your strings. You'll find you won't keep the ball in the court if you use an open tennis racket face. So adjust your grip to close the racket face slightly. It's probably a good idea to brush up on the ball to impart some topspin. This will give you a greater degree of control.
Open or closed stance?
I often get asked what's best - an open stance or a closed stance. And of course there isn't a definitive answer. You can argue the merits and demerits of each until the cows come home. It's true that clay courts suit open-stance players and faster courts suit the sideways-on stroke. Ultimately, it comes down to your own athletic and tactical preferences.
Open-stance players can use powerful trunk rotation and produce great racket-head speed, but they find that their centre of gravity pulls to the left (or even backwards) during the stroke, discouraging forward movement.
The step-in forehand, on the other hand, imposes a limit on your swing because your front leg locks up your body, but it encourages forward transfer of weight and therefore favors players who want to close in on the net. By taking the ball on the rise, players who use this technique can cut out the opponent's reaction time and apply pressure by approaching the net. This can be just as devastating as a booming open-stance forehand, especially on fast surfaces.
One word of caution. Open-stance is a bit of a misnomer. It refers to your feet. It does NOT mean having your shoulders parallel to the net! If you use an open-stance forehand, you must coil and then uncoil your hips and shoulders, otherwise there is no benefit to it whatsoever.
Closed stance forehand - improving power and accuracy
If you use a closed stance, you should be able to direct your shots more accurately than players who use an open stance forehand. That's because open stance players swing more across the body (and not towards the target) and so theoretically they sacrifice both depth and accuracy.
If adding power is your major priority, however, be sure not to stand completely sideways to the net. Your upper body needs to be at least slightly open - enough to allow your hips to turn through the shot. That way you'll generate power from the use of the big muscle groups in your trunk, shoulders and legs. This rotation of the trunk allows something known as "pre-stretching" of the shoulder muscles to occur. The muscles stretch and load up with tension ready to release energy into the swing. Hit the ball when it's in front of your body and coordinate the trunk rotation with a step in towards your target. Stepping in should also help with accuracy and you can improve this still further by "staying with" the shot right through the hitting zone and out towards your target.
Obviously, extra power is no good to you if the ball doesn't go where you want it to! So try these drills to develop a really steady forehand:
Rally in half the singles court, cooperating with each other and counting how many consecutive forehands you make before the rally breaks down. Then play first to 11 points, taking it in turns to feed the ball in (the ball must be in play for a minimum of 2 shots, otherwise the point must be replayed). When you're comfortable with that, progress to applying the same drill to a smaller court area - the tramlines (doubles alley)! That'll test you!
"Shrinking" the Strike Zone
When you're hitting groundstrokes, you'll find it easier to control the ball if your contact is somewhere between mid-chest and knee, a comfortable arm's length away from you and just slightly in front of your body. This is your ideal strike zone.
When your opponent hits the ball, it arrives with gradually diminishing speed. It rises after the bounce and then levels off for a moment as its speed dies.
If you can adjust your footwork so that the levelling-off moment occurs in the middle of your ideal strike zone, you've cracked it! Tennis is a breeze!
But it isn't always that easy. Although most tennis balls level off somewhere between shoulder-height and knee-height, sometimes the tennis ball bounces too low or too high. You may have to hurry forwards to short balls and you may have to bend your knees to cope with low balls. High-bouncing balls travel through your strike zone twice - once on the way up and again on the way down, so you have the luxury of a choice.
The face of your tennis racket must be square to the ball at contact. Swing it up through the strike zone from below the level of the ball, finishing above it.
A common mistake is getting in line with the tennis ball, with the result that you get jammed by it. It's okay to position yourself on the tracks, but remember to dodge aside before the train arrives!
The strike zone is important in baseball, too. Rules committees frequently argue over its definition. When the umpires "shrink" the strike zone, there are more home runs and the hitters (and the fans) are happy. But when they allow a larger strike zone, it favors the pitchers and the home runs start to dry up.
Let's apply a baseball analogy to tennis. Let's say you're hitting tennis balls at all different heights, one tennis ball up around your armpits and the next down below your knees. Well, clearly this is the equivalent of a baseball umpire allowing a large strike zone. And your opponent - the pitcher - is just grinning all over his face.
Use anticipation and footwork to shrink that zone and start scoring!
The 'Whys' and 'Whens' of spin on groundstrokes
Batting a ball to and from over a net is okay, but it's very basic. If tennis was a language, we're talking morse code. Once you can master the basics, what you really want to do is make the tennis ball do stuff - you want to make it talk, don't you? If tennis was a TV set, you'd want more than just an on-and-off switch and a volume control - you'd want a channel selector and a brightness control and a contrast control and so on. If you're going to control a rally, you need to control the ball. And that's where spin comes in.
With groundstrokes, your spin options are topspin and slice.
With topspin, the tennis ball dips to the ground quicker and bounces higher than you'd expect from a ball with no spin. It allows you to hit harder - and higher over the net - with less risk of hitting long. It also allows you to dip balls at the feet of an incoming volleyer. Use it as your stock rally ball, but flatten it out a bit to go for winners. Topspin is a player's insurance policy and you shouldn't be allowed to drive without it!
With slice (or backspin), the tennis ball floats through the air longer and bounces lower than you'd expect from a ball with no spin. It allows you to hit deeper and lower, forcing your opponent to hit up on the ball - very desirable if your opponent has an extreme "closed" grip or you're approaching the net for a volley or an overhead. Use it as an approach shot and use it for defence when you've been stretched out of position, because the ball will travel slowly and buy you time to recover for your next shot. A slice backhand is essential to an attacking net game, such as that deployed by Tim Henman, Pat Rafter, Martina Navratilova and John McEnroe. It can be particularly effective to combat topspin with slice, since the direction of the spin is maintained rather than reversed, i.e. you're actually adding to the existing spin on the ball.
When you first learn how to play spins, it's okay to experiment and see what you can do. It's like when you get that new TV set and you sit there playing with the remote! Eventually, you'll get familiar with it and just use the controls you need.
Regards.
Dave Winship
Forehand - 1.The Basic (Classic) Tennis Forehand
THE BASIC (CLASSIC) TENNIS FOREHAND by Mat Galemmo,
Racquety-Yak
At practice, some tennis players try too many irregular motions. This will inhibit muscle retention in your strokes. It's a good idea to stay "basic" to build your stroke consistency.
THE GRIP: Shake hands with the racket. (eastern grip) Extend your index finger in a trigger fashion.
WAITING POSITION: Stand facing the net, knees slightly bent, weight evenly distributed and forward on the balls of your feet. The racket is held in front of your body, elbows in close and parallel to the ground. The tennis racket is supported with your free hand.
TURN: The shoulders and hips pivot and the right foot turns toward the net post as you transfer your weight to it. The forearm is parallel to the ground. The tennis racket head angle with the forearm remains the same.
BACKSWING: From the turn position, the tennis racket goes back until it is parallel to the ground- the angle between forearm and racket still remaining the same. The butt of the racket is pointing toward the net and the racket is on edge.
STEP AND HIT: The left foot steps toward the net with the weight shifting on to it. The ball is contacted opposite the left leg, approximately waist high; the arm is relatively straight and the wrist firm.
FOLLOW THROUGH: The follow through is a long, continuous sweeping motion finishing high with the tennis racket butt opposite the left eye, (for right handers). The weight is now altogether on the front foot with hips and shoulders turned into the stroke.
You can experiment with changes in your tennis grip by trying continental or western after you have grooved your classic forehand. Try chipping and drop shots as well to build a variety of tennis strokes.
Racquety-Yak
At practice, some tennis players try too many irregular motions. This will inhibit muscle retention in your strokes. It's a good idea to stay "basic" to build your stroke consistency.
THE GRIP: Shake hands with the racket. (eastern grip) Extend your index finger in a trigger fashion.
WAITING POSITION: Stand facing the net, knees slightly bent, weight evenly distributed and forward on the balls of your feet. The racket is held in front of your body, elbows in close and parallel to the ground. The tennis racket is supported with your free hand.
TURN: The shoulders and hips pivot and the right foot turns toward the net post as you transfer your weight to it. The forearm is parallel to the ground. The tennis racket head angle with the forearm remains the same.
BACKSWING: From the turn position, the tennis racket goes back until it is parallel to the ground- the angle between forearm and racket still remaining the same. The butt of the racket is pointing toward the net and the racket is on edge.
STEP AND HIT: The left foot steps toward the net with the weight shifting on to it. The ball is contacted opposite the left leg, approximately waist high; the arm is relatively straight and the wrist firm.
FOLLOW THROUGH: The follow through is a long, continuous sweeping motion finishing high with the tennis racket butt opposite the left eye, (for right handers). The weight is now altogether on the front foot with hips and shoulders turned into the stroke.
You can experiment with changes in your tennis grip by trying continental or western after you have grooved your classic forehand. Try chipping and drop shots as well to build a variety of tennis strokes.
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