Coaching tips! (General Tennis Comments &Tips)

Member Name: theanarchistkid

Product:	General Tennis Comments &Tips
Date:	28/02/01 (870 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: You'll win.

Disadvantages: It takes time.

Tennis is a much more complex game than most people can appreciate. If you watch the game on tennis it often appears that the players are simply hitting the ball as hard as they can, somewhere near the court. The truth is that it is nothing like this at all and there is a lot more finesse required. Watching tennis on TV, it is impossible to appreciate the speed that the ball is travelling at. If you consider that some players serve at 140mph it really is worrying to imagine the speed of the ball.

Of course most players are nowhere near as good as this. I play tennis to quite a high standard and I coach children in my spare time so I consider myself to be technically proficient. I won the Rushcliffe Open last year for the second year running so I am fortunate that I have been fairly successful as a player. In this opinion I will attempt to give you some tips for all of your shots and a few on the tactical and mental side of tennis.

Forehand -

The forehand is a difficult shot to perform correctly but it is normally more powerful than your backhand. The reason for this is that you don't have to reach across your body to carry out the shot, like you do on the backhand. The forehand in modern tennis is primarily hit with topspin but if you watch a lot of club players that have never been coached they are normally inclined to apply slice to the ball. This is because they don't actually know how to hit topspin. Don't worry though, because the fundamentals of it are very simple. Topspin is created by making the trajectory of your racquet go from low to high. This means that as you start your swing you have to get the racquet down at your feet before you can hit the ball. Whilst doing this, you have to turn your shoulders to generate more power. To generate the topspin you have to swing the racquet up and follow through over your opposite shoulder. The key to this is actually getting used to how the ball feels on the strings. You should
try and visualise yourself brushing up the back of the ball with the racquet; there shouldn't be a very firm contact. To generate maximum power you need to turn your shoulders a lot and make sure that you hit the ball when it is between knee and waste height. If the ball is too low off the ground before you hit it, you will struggle to hit topspin on it. If it is too high, you will struggle to get over the top of it and you will most likely hit it out. The most important thing to remember with topspin is what the spin actually does. Topspin makes the ball DIP. This means that you can hit the ball a bit harder yet it will still land into court. In order to make it a good shot though, you have to aim quite high over the net in order to make it land deep into your opponent's court.

Backhand -

The backhand is generally weaker than the forehand for a number of reasons. The primary reason for this is that to hit the ball when it's on the backhand side of your body, you have to reach across your own body. Without going into biomechanics, this simply means that you can't get as much leverage on the ball so generally you can't generate as much power. For a beginner I would reccommend that you use a double handed backhand. Obviously I can't really illustrate how you should hold the racquet but I can give you some simple tips. Make sure that of you do have a double handed backhand, make sure that your two hands are touching each other when you're playing the shot. If they are apart, you will struggle to gain control on the shot. The fundamentals of the shot are the same as the forehand. Start the racquet low and finish with a high follow through over your opposite shoulder. This will generate enough topspin to allow you to keep the ball in court at all times.

Trouble shooting -

The ball goes in the net: This means that you aren't aiming high enough (well, duh!). It may sound obvious but you'd be amazed ho
w many people don't realise this. If the ball does repeatedly end up in the net, DON'T hit it harder. Just aim higher and sooner or later you will get it right.

The ball goes out: This means that you are hitting to ball too late. You should ideally be hitting the ball when it is well out in front of you. This requires rapid preparation and quick take-back. If you hit the ball when it is behind your body it is very likely that the ball will end up flying out the back of the court. It's much easier to hit topspin if you get your racquet back early.

You keep missing the ball: Don't worry, it just means that you need to get used to how the balls bounce. Try throwing and catching with a partner so you get used to the trajectory that the ball takes. The most important thing is that you don't lose confidence in yourself because this is a recipe for disaster.

I don't think that I should talk about any other shots in this opinion because it will probably just confuse you.

Instead, I will talk about some very dirty tactics that you may face when it comes to playing matches.

Last week I was playing in a match against some kid and I was winning quite easily. In this situation you have to maintain your concentration in order to finish off the match. Any loss of concentration could allow the opponent to get back into the match which would make it very frustrating for you. The opponent on the other hand, is looking for any chance to put you off. He/She will try and affect your concentration by using a number of tricks. A favourite one is that they will slow the game down. They will take quite long breaks before and after points in order to make you frustrated. They will also try and affect your serving. When I was playing this kid, I would get into the position to serve, throw the ball up and serve. Before I started the serve he would have been on court ready to receive. When I look up to see where the serve is
going however, he's turned away from the court fiddling with his racquet. The serve then has to be taken again. This is a classic trick which is used to try and make the opponent serve double faults.

Cheating - Some players see fit to cheat when they are losing. The reason they do this is that they are trying to put you off. It isn't for the obvious reason that they want to win the point; instead they want you to get annoyed. If you get annoyed and lose your temper, you are letting them get what they want. In this situation the best thing for you to do is ask if you can play the point again. The opponent isn't obliged to do so but it is considered to be VERY unsporting if they don't. But it's paramount that you don't show your annoyance because then the opponent will do it over and over again untill you simply go mad. If he does insist on doing it, ask for an umpire.

Obviously it's difficult to cover too many aspects of tennis in one review. If I have missed something out that you think is of interest to you, please put a comment on this opinion and I will add it as soon as I can.

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