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July 8, 2004 This edition of the WebTennis.net
Newsletter is the complimentary, The WebTennis.net Premium Members' version
is complete with audio, video, and photos which dramatically enhances the learning experience. It's only $7 / month. Check it out here Hi and welcome to the July 8, 2004 issue of the WebTennis.net Newsletter...! Well, I'm off to Colorado Springs next week to chaperone my daughter Molly and a group of her volleyball teammates who are attending a training camp there. While they're training for five days, I'll be mountain biking in Vail and eventually taking in a Giants / Rockies game at Coors Field. My kind of vacation...! Target Practice... Your tip this week is all about how to pick your shot targets. You know, when we decide where we're going to hit any shot, we always have to consider three basic dimensions of the court. Hitting our shots...
Which of those three geometric constraints in general concerns you the most when you play...? From 35+ years of teaching tennis, I've observed that a big majority of players tend to worry the most about keeping their shots inside their opponents' baseline. And the reason I know this is from observing what players do with their stroke mechanics to make sure their shot stays in the court and doesn't sail long... I'm concerned least about getting the ball over the net, then keeping it inside the sidelines, but I am mostly concerned about hitting long over the baseline. Amateur players tend to not trust that good sound stroke mechanics will keep their shots inside the baseline... The consequence is what I call "fiddling" at or just after the point of contact. And fiddling normally means getting or pulling the racket off of the ball at contact with either a wrist movement or swing path that doesn't allow for the ball to be naturally "released" from the racket during a proper finish of the swing... Here's how I overcome the concern of hitting my shots out over the baseline. First of all, I'm 5'10" and if I stand one foot behind my baseline and look at my opponent's baseline, I have to look through the net to see it. In fact, if the net were solid, blacked out, I wouldn't be able to see any part of my opponent's court if I were standing a foot behind my baseline. So, at times, sighting your shot target as a spot on your opponent's side of the court by having to look through the net can be a visual distortion. Think about this, when you hit balls against a backboard or wall, your target areas are always a conscious thought about hitting balls up and over the line on the wall... Against a backboard, you never really consider your target as looking below the line on the wall as if you were looking through a net. You're simply focused on what height do you want to hit over that line on the wall... You can do the same on the court. Try this, next time you're out on the court, take a few minutes and see if you can keep your targets as specific spots above the top of the net as opposed to targets that are on the other side of the net. Imagine that you cannot see through the net to your opponent's baseline. Your focus is not on keeping your shots inside the baseline, but really, can you simply hit the ball to a specific target above the line or net? Does that make sense...? Decent stroke mechanics are designed to help keep your shots within the confines of the court dimensions, primarily within the lengths of the baseline. Trust... OK, this will definitely help you feel that you don't have to "fiddle" with the ball in hopes of keeping your shot inside your opponents' baseline... Have fun out there and keep moving forward...! Be sure to let me know if you have any questions... Brent This edition of the WebTennis.net
Newsletter is the complimentary, The WebTennis.net Premium Members'
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