Mytennislessons Reviews

Top Ten Takeaways From a Former Tennis

Top Ten Takeaways From a Former Tennis Student of Michael Wayne Templeton The first sentence of each item is his I wasn t able to select bold for his and italics for my clarification here However if you read all ten items before scheduling lessons with me you will get an idea of some of the things I will demonstrate for you and hopefully help you to master yourself See you on the court soon MikeThe following statements in bold font were written by a former tennis student of mine Since he is a professional writer I asked him to write 10 takeaways from the 10 lessons I provided for him in his own words Following the statements in his own words are some clarifying statements from me in italics His statements prove that he was actually paying even better attention than I thought he was and quite possibly he said it better than I did 1 The importance of movement and mobility on the court You need to anticipate and position yourself to best hit the ball Position yourself to hit to primarily hit low to high top spins at the baseline and primarily high to low volleys at the net Almost all overheads are at 12 00 high 2 Try to hit it in the center of your racket This sounds obvious but how you do it often is not Watch the ball until it strikes your racket strings It is amazing how often the ball will strike strings instead of frame if you will simply watch the ball into your strings 3 The ball may land in different directions so you need to be prepared A different way to state this is that many beginning players only pay attention to pace You must give at least equal consideration to spin 4 Upon serving make sure you take aim where you want the ball to go so it will best connect to your opponent Another way to state this is to divide the service box into three quadrants There is the T box quadrant the body quadrant and the alley quadrant Serve the ball into the quadrant you choose based upon where your opponent is setting up and how effective your opponent is with backhand and body returns verses forehands which almost all beginners up to 4 0 USTA players prefer 5 When playing always position yourself in a proactive stance Bend your knees a bit and don t stand like you are waiting for a bus Never lock your knees You will not only need to move to the ball to hit almost any shot effectively but almost all tennis strokes are best delivered with proper footwork for the shot 6 Adjust your movements accordingly Move back or forward when necessary Give yourself enough room to return the ball There is only one shot that you want to land at your feet and even that shot is fairly rare If a mishit lob happens to drop directly at your feet calmly and efficiently step to the side of it and either hit an overhead cross court away from baseliner or underspin volley drop shot directly behind net player In almost all other cases the result of allowing a ball to land at or near your feet results in loss of point 7 When the ball comes your way don t let it bounce more than once Well obviously you can t allow it to bounce more than once or you immediately lose the point no matter what you do next However at net except for the unique situation described in 6 do not attempt to volley from even a single bounce while at net and avoid half volleys while approaching the net unless you have the talent and skill of a John McEnroe 8 Don t remain stationary keep your feet moving This item should be paired with 9 Your opponent s movement will tell you several things before your opponent even strikes the ball He she will telegraph the type of shot he she is setting up for but also the exact location your opponent is in will tell you the most likely direction the ball will be traveling after striking it These two factors should influence where you move even before his or her shot 9 Keep your eye on your opponent watch his her footwork and seize on what you perceive as any weaknesses Well I would word this just a bit differently unless you are considering future strategy with this opponent As for the current shot see number 8 and respond appropriately to 8 and you will win many of those points 10 It is important to always follow-through on your shots This is especially true at baseline with forehand or backhand top spins I don t recommend big long under spin shots at the baseline because they are easier to pick off by outstanding net players plus you lose the advantage of topspin curving your heaviest paced shots back down into court Volleys are another matter entirely Many outstanding volleys off of fast paced baseline top spins may only require a very short but highly effective punch volley Let all the pace of your opponents shot do the work and a very short but accurate high to low volley cross court often ends the point in your favor