Great strokes won’t do you any good if you don’t have good preparation.
- Great preparation starts with your stance. This is true for every sport, whether you’re a lineman in football, a point guard in basketball or shortstop in baseball. The shortstop is a good model for tennis. You must have some flex in your knees and your weight must be forward, so you’re ready to dart in whichever direction the ball goes. Bend at your knees, not your waist or back. If you stand too upright, as shown here, you’ll get a late start. You’ll have the same problem if you’re hunched over at the waist. Don’t be tempted to cheat or lean toward your preferred stroke. You’re just setting yourself up for a slow response when the ball doesn’t go the way you had expected.
- A great way to improve your preparation in a match is to scout your opponents during the warm-up. Do they have a shot that’s a weapon? Do they have better left-right movement, or front-back movement? Do they have a funky grip on any of their groundstrokes or volleys? Take a few mental notes during the warm-up and you’ll find yourself anticipating your opponent’s moves and getting to the ball earlier.
- I’ve seen plenty of players who have great shots, a lot of speed and a perfect ready position—but they still get to the ball late and look unprepared more often than not. That’s because they don’t react to the ball until it’s too close to them. It’s easy for your mind to wander for a second or two after you hit the ball. Those few seconds can be costly. If you don’t pay attention to what your opponent does—how he or she sets up and strikes the ball—you’re not going to get a good jump on the ball. You need to move as soon as your opponent sends the ball back to you.
- No matter how well you move and concentrate, you can’t be prepared for every shot. Your opponent is going to put you in some bad positions. When that happens, you need to understand how to get out of trouble and buy yourself some time to prepare for the next shot. My favorite strategy: Hit the ball high and down the middle. The height of your shot will give you a chance to recover to the middle of the court. And the placement of it—down the middle—will give your opponent fewer angles to work with.
- There’s some debate on when to take your racquet back to hit a shot. Your strokes have to be rhythmic, or else they’ll lack power, spin and consistency. But rhythm is useless if you make contact too late. I prefer to have students turn their shoulders early, not long after they know which shot they’re going to hit (a forehand or a backhand). Serena and Venus Williams do this, especially Serena on her forehand. If it works for them, it can work for you, too.
Photo by Tom Dipace
Originally published in the March 2011 issue of TENNIS.