Style vs Basics

What is the difference between style and basics.

A basic is defined as: the essential facts or principles of a subject or skill. i.e. learning the                                            basics of a business.

A style is defined as: a manner of doing something. i.e. he has a different style of                                                         management.

How do these two terms apply to tennis technique?

A basic is what the former three blogs dealt with: 1) racket back, 2) rotate or turn sideways to the incoming ball and 3) make contact with the ball to the side and front of the body position whenever possible.

Style is how each person, over time, adapts, through repetition, a specific way of movement in contacting the ball. An easy example would be to examine a forehand swing. Let’s look at a beginning junior player in the age range of 5 to 8. In taking the racket back (basic one) do they take the racket straight back, or take it back in a loop manner? What grip are they holding the racket with, an eastern, a western or a modified western grip? Does this affect the way they take the racket back? If they are shorter or taller, does this affect the grip and style of their backswing? Are they ready and able to grasp the concept of top spin or under spin? Does this affect their choice of grip and backswing?

Let’s examine some of the qualities in the older, higher level player. What is their personality like? Are they aggressive, or passive? If aggressive are they trying to hit a flatter ball due to their straight back swing using an eastern grip? If passive are they trying to hit with a lot of top spin with a western grip? Are they taller of shorter? Are they quick in their movement or slow footed?

All these, and more, have much to do with style. In teaching I have developed a philosophy that favors basics over style. I have centered my focus, in teaching, on the basics and have allowed the style to develop to the personality of the player.

Have you given thought to your ‘style’ of hitting versus the ‘basics’ of preparation?

Playing Tennis – Reaction Time

Let’s talk about how reaction time influences the three basics.

The three basics are: 1) racket back, 2) rotate your body to a sideways position to the incoming tennis ball, and 3) make contact (racket to ball) to the side and front of your body.

Let’s take an example of hitting a ball against a back board. I am a beginner. I take the racket back, turn sideways to the backboard, then drop the ball a rackets length away from my body and off  to the side of my front foot. As the ball bounces up off the court and reaches waist level,  I swing my racket forward across my body making contact in an upward and forward motion (low to high) finishing with racket over my shoulder.  If all has been  done correctly technically, the ball should go straight to the backboard and bounce off it back to the same side of my body ready to be struck again in the same manner. However, I realize, too late, my racket isn’t back for the repetetive hit and, trying quickly to get it back in time, the ball is past me before I can swing. I have not done what I thought I was ready to do. That is not using my reaction time correctly. What I should have done is, as the ball makes contact with the backboard, I begin taking the racket back in anticipation of the ball coming back to my ‘hitting zone’. When it arrives my preparation (reaction time) will allow me to be ready for a second, third contact(hopefully many more).

Take each basic in order: 1)racket back, 2)side position to the ball and 3) contact to the front and side of your body position. You can not do all three at once. There has to be a progression. It doesn’t work as efficiently if you run to the ball, then take your racket back. It works much better in the prior sequence. The more you practice and watch the pros, it is almost as if all three are working simultaneously, but there is still a start and end sequence. They have just done it so much, it seems effortless and you don’t notice until you mentally break it down.

The reaction time in preparation for making contact with the ball directly influences two important functions: 1) the earlier you prepare, the more control you have over your chosen shot and 2) the earlier you achieve a good hitting position on the incoming ball, the more choices you have in your shot selection.

Reaction time is how long does it take to prepare to the trajectory of the incoming ball. Another part of this has to do with your reaction to the stimulus of the ball coming off the opponents racket. This affects your preparation timing – my next blog.

In the mean time spend some time analyzing your timing sequence in  preparation for ball contact using these three basics as a guideline.

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?

Tennis basic number two is positioning your body to the incoming tennis ball. Leverage and weight shift are the two mechanics directly relating to this.

To the beginning tennis player, young or old, it is difficult, for most, to understand the importance of aligning your body correctly, combining your  weight shifting from back to front foot while swinging your arm and racket forward to contact the moving tennis ball.

While the kinesiology of largely open stance hitting by the professionals of today is highly effective, I have found the basic side-to-the-ball stance to be most teachable. It would include the following in an instructive sequence(starting with our first basic):

Basic #1  Racket back – pointing  the head of the racket to the back of the court. You                              will note as your racket goes back your shoulders naturally turn as well.

Basic #2 Step with your foot (left for right handers-right for left handers) so you are                              now sideways to the net.

This sets up the body for a natural mechanical swing, combining both leverage and weight shifting while putting the stress on the large muscle groups, not the small. The tennis racket and tennis ball have weight associated with them, unlike badminton, which uses a light bird and racket. In tennis, the heavier racket and ball promotes using the larger muscle groups as much as possible. This can greatly reduce the possibility of injury (pulled ligaments,tendonitis,etc.). As we get older the tendons, ligaments, muscles lose much of their flexibility and strength, which also supports the use of these mechanics for the normal parks or club player.

The third basic, that of where, in relation to my body position, I will contact the ball, will be my next blog.

While this may appear so basic it doesn’t warrant being talked about, racket preparation, leverage and weight shift (movement) is indicative of the mental control a tennis player is exhibiting. A prime example of this in today’s market of players is, of course, Roger Federer. The application of movement on the tennis court he exhibits comes from not only natural athleticism, but from hours and hours of training with his ‘movement’ coach.

One year at the US Open, I asked a top junior player I was working with to pick out the top junior players (they play in their own tournament), not by looking at the seeds on the posted draw, but by watching their footwork. After making the rounds of all the courts we had picked the numbers 1,3 and 4 seeds, simply by watching their footwork and movement on the court.

How much thought and work have you put into your footwork and movement?

What are tennis basics?

In any sport there are basic physical movements that are required to perform. That is what I am being specific about in this blog. Style I will deal with at another time.

Tennis basics

When playing what would be a basic? For example you are teaching a first time student how to hit a forehand. What do you think would be the first thing you would emphasize? Let’s pretend you have just put the racket in their hand. You have positioned them at the service line on the other side of the net from yourself (assuming you have told them the name of the service line). You haven’t instructed them at all. Just put a racket in the hand and told them to stand on the service line. Now you tell them you are going to toss a tennis ball to them from just on the other side of the net.

You toss the ball. What is their reaction? Depending on the age and athletic background of the student, I have experienced many different approaches.  They run at the ball and try to hit it before it bounces (younger players-children mostly, although some adults have tried this-lol). The student runs at the ball and tries to hit it with ball directly in front of their body – windshield wiper like. The student continues to stand still and simply watches the ball bounce by them. Yes that has happened on numerous occasions – mostly with younger children, but also with adults with no athletic background experience. There are other examples, but let’s get to the basics.

With the ball moving toward them, preparation to hit the ball has to take place. That sounds pretty basic and it is. What happens? There is the factor of time as the ball moves toward the student. In order to be ready, what do you think is the first basic in preparation? – moving the feet? setting up in front or to the side of  approaching ball?, or racket preparation?

As you analyze I would hope you would arrive at the racket preparation. We are talking about a beginner, not an experienced player, in which many things might happen seemingly simultaneously-racket back, shoulder turn, feet moving,etc.

There is a time factor involved here. The ball is approaching at a moving pace. Once it is ‘on’ you, it is time to hit. Therefore, the racket has to be the first stage in preparation. As the student sees the ball approaching, the instruction,”Racket back” is to be heard from the instructor. The question arises. What do you mean by taking it back? Oh, to the side back. How far back? Ok, so it pointing to the  back of the court. Is the racket head below my wrist or above my wrist on the way back. Do I take it straight back or loop  it back. What grip do I hold the racket with? Actually, to a beginning student, again dependent on age and athletic experience,  they aren’t aware of many of these aspects. They are just thinking about hitting the ball.

Sound too basic? Well that is what my ‘virtual tennis’ category of my blog will deal with. Tennis basics that apply to the ‘parks’ or ‘club’ player who is not going to achieve pro status. In truth, having worked with players on the pro level who are continually looking for ways to improve technically, improvement can always be traced back to improving these basics.

Have you ever thought about racket preparation as the first basic?

I fell in love with tennis when I was fifteen.

Love – Tennis

I was riding home on my bicycle after school. As I was riding by a huge water tower, my attention was drawn to a man- made hill next to it. Cement steps were set into the side of the it and led upwards to a gate set into a chain link fence which was surrounding the flattened top of the hill. Inside I could see kids and adults moving around athletically. Being an athlete and loving competition, I stopped and walked up the grassy side of the hill to observe closer.

Leaning against the fence I could see individuals holding a racket and hitting a ball. I did not know what tennis was at that time, having only lived in small towns. Hockey, baseball, golf and basketball were well know to me. A lady who was in charge saw me watching, came over to where I was at the fence and posed a question to me: “Would you like to come inside and hit a ball?”

Never one to turn down an athletic situation, I immediately said, “Yes”. The lady, Mrs. Isherwood (from South Africa, I found out later), put a tennis racket in my hand, went to the other side of the net on the tennis court and tossed a ball at me. Instinctively, I moved so the ball came to my side, swung the racket and made contact, sending the ball rocketing right at Mrs. Isherwood. She ducked, gave me a look and tossed another ball. I did the same with that ball, setting myself so the ball came to my side , swung the racket and felt the sweet contact as the ball met the strings and was sent directly into the net this time.

I fell in love with tennis after hitting those two tennis balls. Of course I hit many more after that, but that started a passion that eventually changed the path of my life. A light bulb went on inside me and lit me up. I had found my passion, or rather, my passion for tennis found me. From that day on nothing else mattered. I had just been given a brand new set of McGregor golf clubs (I was ‘living’ on the golf course at the time). Those golf clubs went into the closet. I bought myself a $14.95 Pancho Gonzales (a top world class player at the time) tennis racket and a book by the top rated tennis player, Bill Tilden, the title being, ‘How to Play Tennis’.

Reading the book, rising at 4:30am every morning to get to the tennis courts, hit on the backboard, go to school, ride my bike to the tennis courts at the 1 1/2 hour school noon break, go to my after school job, then to the tennis courts to play anyone who was there till I couldn’t see the ball.

There is much more to tell, but my purpose here is to verbalize my love of tennis. I don’t know what put that burning passion for the game into my blood (God?), but I am thankful for it. It has been the second most driving force in my life next to my faith. It has been my vocation in life. I have been a head pro/tennis director for over 40 years. I love to teach all aspects of the game of tennis.

Have you a love for tennis?