We have talked in cursory detail about; 1. racket preparation and 2. positioning your body in relation to the incoming ball. Basic number 3 is to make contact with the tennis ball to the side and front of your body position.
While it is not always possible to do this, it should be on the high end of probability that you make contact with the ball in this manner. This allows the leverage of the arm and racket to achieve full advantage along with the shifting of your weight adding velocity and increased spin on the shot selected.
This all sounds pretty fundamental, which is the point. All mechanical functions in any sport revolve around basics. It is the combination of leverage and weight shift that allows the mechanics to evolve to increasingly more effective productiveness.
These are the basics in tennis: 1. racket preparation, 2. positioning of your body to the incoming ball, and 3. striking the ball to the side and front of your body.
Without getting into the open stance, I would encourage the beginning tennis player to start their preparation sequence in this progression. To those who are past the beginning stage I would encourage you to focus first on the racket preparation. If the racket isn’t in a position to start your forward swing as the ball arrives at the point of contact, you will find it difficult, if not impossible to achieve any momentum and you will execute a ‘weak’ shot.
Another benefit of early racket preparation is you now have clearer judgement of where to position your body (before the ball arrives). This allows you to be in a comfortable spatial arrangement to the ball, where your leverage and weight shift can combine to offer you the best advantage in executing your shot selection.
That’s it for a cursory examination of the three basics. Next I will cover the timing involved with executing the three basics – how it will benefit your game.
Are you aware of how important it is to make contact with ball to the side and front of your body?
