Interesting video from Fuzzyyellowballs on why he thinks power is overrated. I think power is overrated most of the time, but sometimes it is required. Steady play is of course a lot better than just smacking the ball around court. Thus, possible he needs to make a video about how control is underrated.
Milos Raonic is a great young tennis player who is going to be one of the top players in the world very soon. Milos recorded this video to provide some basic tips on hitting a great overhead smash.
Even kids need a strategy. This is something I see all the time. People learning to play tennis are so focused on the technical aspect they have very little direction in a match. Children, in particular are focused on technique AND VERY vulnerable to distractions.
So, parents, here is a great tip to tell your children, just before they go out on the tennis court to play match.
* win the first two points of every game.
* hit two balls to the backhand, then one to the forehand.
By telling children to focus on just these two simple things, they now have a plan. When times get tough in the match they have a friend. Their plan.
People learning to play tennis do not have distinct strengths and weaknesses, therefore your opponent of equal ability really has no massive strength or no massive weakness. Therefore a basic plan really focussing on yourself will be the most effective.
Let’s talk about the two tips in more detail.
Win the first two points of every game. This actually applies to players at every level however it is very important to beginners who need to understand the importance of getting in front in an individual game. Beginners in particular are more likely to have a negative reaction to losing the first two points. They are more likely to throw the towel in, have a tantrum, drop their bundle. Especially kids. Therefore if you can focus on winning the first two points they may be handed the rest of the game with easy points.
Hit two balls to their backhand, then one to their forehand. the goal of this tip is to basically have some direction with every shot that they hit. So many kids just hit the ball aimlessly. Everybody needs direction with every shot. In actual fact, it doesn’t matter where the ball ended up, just as long as you have a plan. I have chosen to to the backhand won to the forehand because usually players backhands are weaker than their forehands. If there is an obvious weakness, play two shots to that side and one to the strong side.
Recently I saw a great example of this work. The standard of the two young players was very similar. Before the match I told his father, to tell his son, to concentrate on those two tips. During the match, the opponent became very annoying on court. He was screaming “come on” on a double fault. For an innocent ten-year old this is very distracting. By having the basic plan – this gave him direction during hard times. He was able to focus during a very distracting match and beat this opponent.
Let me know what you think !! Enjoy, Michael
Make life easy for yourself and hit the ball on the rise. One of the challenges with tennis is that every ball we hit will come to us differently. Different height, speed, spin, distance from our body etc. Our challenge it to try and move ourselves into position to execute as close to the same shat as possible each time.
Let me give you a tip that will make a massive difference to your groundstrokes. Hit every ball on the rise OR at the top of the bounce.
As soon as that ball starts to drop your whole stroke needs to change to get the ball up and over the net. The stroke becomes much more difficult and you will hit the frame of your racquet more especially if you are trying to apply topspin.
The first picture shows how closed the racquet face can be if you hit the ball on the rise. The key is that you can hit the ball very hard and it will stay in the court. You are changing the direction of the ball. In the picture the ball changes direction by about 90 degrees. Lets see what happens with a dropping ball.
With a dropping ball you need to open the face of the racquet, and hit up to get exactly same ball direction. However in this case the harder you hit the ball the further over the fence the ball will go. In which case most people then back off the power and they let gravity bring the ball down onto the court.
Now you can picture in your minds 2 different pictures. High level players strike across a rising ball and other players tap a dropping ball back up and over the net.
High level players use mainly the wind resistance of a heavily spinning ball to make it land in the court, while other players rely on gravity for it to land in the court.
To see another compact explanation of this look at or think of people playing ping pong. The ball is hit with a closed bat, as the ball is coming off the table. They can generate massive power and still keep it in that little area.
Anyway I hope that has got you thinking. Move those feet, move forward, hit the ball on the rise and WATCH YOUR GAME IMPROVE !!.
Enjoy your tennis !
