Tennis Tip #17

As of now we have completed our discussion on groundstrokes, so lets go over the slice. The slice is one of the most interesting shots in tennis, because you can hit it in many situations. For example, when you are trying to neutralize, attack, or defend. More or less, you hit the ball the same way, however, you will hit it a little differently depending on the type of slice that you hit. The key to the slice that is attacking or neutralizing is to keep the ball as low as possible. The slice is completely opposite from a topspin shot, in other words, the ball rises in a slice, and dips for topspin. So, when you are attacking, you will be stepping into the ball and aiming at the white part of the net. The ball will rise steadily after being hit, so aiming at this point is safe. You want to keep it low, because this means that your opponent will have to "hit up" when they hit their shot. Usually when it is attacking, you will be come up to the net, so this will put even more pressure on your opponent. The next type is neutralizing. This is when you are in a rally position with your opponent. You will not want to have the ball too high, because you will then be defensive. This shot is used to change up the pattern of the point to hopefully ruin your opponent’s rhythm. The next type is defensive; this is when you hit the ball high in the air, and slowly. You use it when you are out of position and need to change the speed of the ball to get yourself back into the court, and into position. Many tennis players feel forced to hit it hard, but that gives you less time to get back into position, and more court for your opponent to hit a winner. Tomorrow we will discuss the drop shot, and after, we will discuss how to hit these important shots!

Tennis Tip #16

The follow through is something that will help you hit the ball in to the court. Without this, you will lose a lot of control. But what is a follow through? This is what you do after you make contact with the ball. When you follow through, you want to continue your motion up; this will also help add topspin. Many tennis players have their follow through "forced" but is the last thing that you should do. After you make contact with the ball, your arm should be loose, and your racquet's momentum should carry your arm. Moreover, your follow through should go across your body, and go upward. Some tennis players, notably Rafael Nadal, follow through without going across their bodies. He is able to do this with the racquet speed that he generates, and the spin he adds with his wrist snap. Following through can also make sure that you are hitting up, because without a correct follow through, you may be hitting down, or hitting with less spin. Lastly, you cannot forget to continue moving after your follow through. Just because your racquet stops, doesn't mean that your body should stop moving! In addition, for slices, it is a completely different motion, which we will discuss at a different time. However, when you hit these shots, you will go up, but not follow through across your body. But stay tune because in the next tip we will discuss slices.

Tennis Tip #15

Let's continue where we left off with our previous post. As you are swinging to hit the ball from your "C", there are a couple of things that could happen: you could slowdown, you could fall backwards, or you could jump in the air. All of these mentioned are not things that you should be doing. When you hit the ball, you will always try to go "full speed on contact". Now, when you are learning something new, I would recommend that you hit the ball at about 50% power, and as you get more confident, to start swinging harder. However, keep in mind that full speed on contact doesn't just mean to hit it as fast as you can. You don't want to slow down as you are hitting the ball because you want to maintain your momentum. If you slow down as you make contact, you will lose your power and control on the ball. Other mistakes include players jumping up or falling backwards. This would happen if you are a little nervous and are playing "tight". Whenever this happens you are most likely going to miss, and continue to get frustrated with yourself on the court. You should try to bring your body weight forward, and go into the ball. This will also help to give you power as you hit. The last thing that you will need to do after you bend your knees, is to launch up as you are making contact with the ball. To avoid any, and all injuries, you want to delegate the stress throughout your body. Too many tennis players use too much arm, and that is what causes a lot of injuries. We would like to prevent that, so you can where our clothes every day. Come out tomorrow and learn about follow throughs.

Tennis Tip #14

Now lets talk about the two different ways you can bring your racquet back. The first is a "C” and the second is bringing the racquet straight back. A "C" is when you bring your racquet back in a "C" motion. This is recommended for a lot of junior players to make sure they get their racquet below the ball allowing them to hit with top spin. Your other option is bringing it straight back, however this is not recommended for novice players because they may bring the racquet back too high. While there is no exact position of your "C", you want to refrain from using a big "C" because it needs to be controlled and as small as possible. Your "C" depends on the height of the ball that you are going to hit and the higher the ball, the higher the "C" that you will have to start with. In addition, you want to make sure that you have a short back swing. If you have a long back swing, your strokes will suffer when you are playing with players that hit a fast ball (and we would not want that!). Now that the racquet is back, you will also have to use your wrist. Your wrist will twist, and you will have the butt of the racquet facing the other side of the court. By doing this, you will also roll your wrist to give you the top spin that keeps the ball in the court. Your wrist is extremely important, if you don't do this, you will have a lot of trouble hitting a topsin shot. All of the pointers can also be applied to the backhand shot. But next we will talk about making contact with the ball!

Tennis Tip #13

I am going to jump in with the forehand, and how you should hit this ball. When you get ready to hit this ball, you will be coming out of the ready position, and split step, both which were talked about in our previous posts. From this position, you will begin the forehand. Ground strokes can be extremely detailed, so I will be breaking this stroke up through a couple of tips. I will discuss the beginning of this stroke. You will begin with having your non-racquet-hand infront of you, and your racquet hand will be behind you. You can hit a ball like this, and it is recommended for beginners, but at NU Formal Tennis we have all types of tennis players, and want to help all of you out. If you want to be a little bit more advanced, and to add more power (who doesn't want more power?) You will have to change how you will be bringing your racquet back. You will first garner your core by turning your hips, as you are turning your hips, you will also bend your knees slightly. Adding your core and legs to your forehand will provide you with a lot more power. If you have ever been told that you are using too much arm, then you should try this, and you will see a difference quickly. We know that this is a lot of information all in right now, so we'll give you a day to think about everything before we move on. See you tomorrow!

Tennis Tip #12

After a brief hiatus we are back. We are going to begin discussing ground strokes, but before we get there, we would like to talk about the type of spins that are involved in a ground stroke. The first is a slice. This is when you would "chop" the ball, and the ball produces an underspin. On this shot, your racquet will be open. The ball rises as it leaves your racquet so you must make sure to keep the racquet low as you hit the ball. The next shot is top spin. When you hit the ball on this shot, you will be hitting low to high. Your racquet will be closed for this stroke, unlike the slice, and you will be hitting the bottom of the ball. This is the most common shot in tennis for tournaments and on the tour. The top spin gives the security for the ball to land in the court. When hitting a top spin shot, you can expect your ball to drop faster then other shots. The last shot is flat, this is when you hit the ball "square". On this shot you will hit the ball straight through as opposed to up or down. You can hit this ball as long as the ball is above the net. However, you cannot hit this ball when it is below the net because there is no security for the ball to stay in the court. Look out for our next post where we will discuss the best times to hit each shot.

Tennis Tip #11

Continuing on with the net shots… let’s go with the swinging volley. Sometimes you are about to hit an overhead, but it’s just too low for you to hit. What do you do? You do a swinging forehand, or backhand. This shot is mainly hit while approaching the net, and the ball is almost always above the net, so there isn’t much restriction in hitting the ball hard. Also , you need to hit forward, not up like groundstrokes. Lastly, just like overheads, it is extremely important to keep your body up. The moment you drop your shoulder, the ball will be in the net. Sometimes, when you’re about to hit the ball, you may see the ball is coming faster than anticipated. If that is the case, you should revert to hitting the volley. With all of the power coming from your opponent, you should have no problem hitting an offensive volley. As fun as this shot can be in a practice, or match, there is not a lot of room for error, so you must play smart.