One Handed Backhand fix

Problem

You lack the power you’d like on your one-handed backhand, especially since you seem to swing with plenty of force. Many times this happens because your racquet is accelerating at the wrong time. Instead of speeding up into contact, you’re actually accelerating the racquet after impact. This can lead to an exaggerated and off-balance follow-through.

Solution

On your backswing, hold the upper throat of your racquet with your nondominant hand so the head is back by your hip and your hitting arm is away from your body. Don’t let go of the racquet until the forward swing snaps it out of your grasp. Think of creating all the power and racquet speed on your stroke from the snap out of the backswing to the point of contact. Make sure your nondominant arm and shoulder don’t rotate around with the start of your forward swing. They should work as a counterbalance, helping you resist the tendency to rotate open and providing more power for the front shoulder to pull and drive the stroke. You’ll find that your racquet is now accelerating up to full speed before contact rather than afterward. This will generate more leverage in your swing and make for a natural follow-through.

Make the Most of Your Volleys

"Sensible technique and thoughtful strategy will turn you into a force at net."
Without question, the baseline is where today’s players conduct business. At every level, though, I still believe the easiest place to finish a point is at net. You pressure your opponents by taking time away and forcing them to pass you. Even if you’re a solid baseliner, it’s important to get to net occasionally to keep your opponent off-balance. And if you’re a frequent doubles player, solid net play is a must. Here’s how to make the volley a valuable part of your game. BEGINNER OBJECTIVE 1: Hold the racquet properly. One of the most important aspects of volleying is holding the racquet so you have the same grip on both the forehand and backhand. I like to tell beginners to hold the racquet like they’re shaking hands with it. But there’s no perfect way to do it. Boris Becker used a grip that was more toward the forehand side, and although it wasn’t textbook, it got the job done. Experiment with your grip to see what you find most comfortable for hitting volleys off either side. OBJECTIVE 2: Keep your swings short and body composed. When it comes to volleying, less is more. You want as little motion with your racquet and body as possible. Big swings and lots of movement lead to inconsistent results. Start with a stable base and turn your shoulders so that they’re as perpendicular to the net as possible. Your racquet should only go as far back as your shoulder turn takes it. To hit the volley, step forward and make contact out in front of you. Use a short, punching swing that’s no more than 1 to 2 feet long. The power on the volley comes from the step forward, the punch, and the pace from your opponent. INTERMEDIATE OBJECTIVE 1:Stay in control on tougher volleys. The ball is going to be moving faster at this level, so you’ll be forced to cover more court. Still, you need to have control over your body. That’s why the best volleyers have great core strength (from the thighs to the midsection). This prevents them from bobbing up and down, particularly on low balls. You need to bend at your knees, not at the waist, and keep a stable upper body when hitting a low volley. Also, with the increased pace and movement of the ball, you may not have the opportunity to step into your volleys. Even so, try to get your shoulders perpendicular to the net before you swing. OBJECTIVE 2: Use angles to finish points. Approaching the net is an aggressive play that generally ends points quickly. The easiest way to hit a winner off a volley is to set it up first with a powerful ground stroke. Putting your opponent on the defensive will allow you to get closer to the net and give you opportunities to angle the next ball away from him. The closer you are to the net, the easier it will be to create a sharp angle. Rather than trying to volley deep into the open court, which can cause you to overhit, angle the ball away from your opponent—this forces him to cover more court. Just remember to catch the outside edge of the ball to produce an angle. ADVANCED OBJECTIVE 1: Pick the right moments to attack. At this level, you need to be smart about how you construct your points at net. Make sure you hurt your opponent with an approach shot that opens up the court and then close in and cover the passing lanes. Once at net, you have to decide when to go for it. A ball around chest height is an invitation to finish the point. But shots from around the knees and below may call for more safety. In this case, open up your racquet face a little bit and do whatever you can to get the ball over the net and deep in the court. This will give you more time to recover and force your opponent to hit a longer passing shot. Going down the middle can be a great play in this situation; if you hit a defensive volley to one corner, you open up angles for your opponent to pass you. OBJECTIVE 2: Use the drop volley. The drop volley is an effective shot to use at net after you’ve driven your opponent behind the baseline. Open up the racquet face a little, soften your hand on the grip, and almost catch the ball on the strings. This helps you deflect your opponent’s shot gently over the net. The secret to a good drop volley is not how short you can hit it; it’s actually how far you can push your opponent back behind the baseline before you attempt it. By not having to hit so close to the net, you significantly increase your margin for error.

Bounce-hit to Stay Sharp

Whenever you stop playing for a while, or whenever your game goes into a slump, one of the first things to go is your timing. Strokes that felt natural and automatic start to feel like they've been replaced with awkward and forced imitations. And usually, the harder you try to fix the problem, the worse it becomes. But there's an easy solution that you can use any time you need to bring your timing and your strokes back into focus. It's called the “bounce-hit” drill.

Introduced by Timothy Gallwey in his classic book The Inner Game of Tennis, bounce-hit is deceptively simple, but it works like magic.

Here's how to do it:

Whenever the ball bounces, say "bounce" aloud to yourself. And whenever you or your opponent hits the ball, say "hit" aloud as well. This exercise works because it engages your mind enough to allow the more automatic, semi-conscious part of your brain to take over. That helps return your timing and your strokes to normal. And as a bonus, this drill works just as well when you're nervous or when you feel you're thinking too much on the court.

Control Your Service Toss

Start with your weight on your back foot and you'll put the toss in the right spot.

PROBLEM

(see pic above)

Your service toss is hard to control and tends to drift behind your head. This prevents you from getting forward momentum into your swing and makes it difficult to hit the serve with pace and control.

SOLUTION
(see pic below)
When you’re in the set position before you serve, start with your weight on your back foot. As your tossing arm goes up, shift your weight forward onto your front leg. This will help you get your toss in front of your body. It will also get you leaning into the serve and your body moving into the court as you swing through the ball. With the ball in front of you, rather than behind your head, you can hit a stronger flat or slice serve. Initially you may feel like you’re falling forward, but with some practice this momentum will add even more power to your serve.

Returning a Strong serve

One of the rules of the playground is that you should always stand up to a bully. Show weakness and you’re just asking to be pushed around. You can’t allow yourself to be intimidated on the tennis court, either. If your opponent smells fear coming from your side of the court, his confidence and play will usually soar. One of the more common tormentors in tennis circles is the big-serving bully. This is a player who relies on a powerful first serve to win a lot of free points, which lets him take more chances on his other shots. If you have trouble returning his serve, it’s a style that can put a lot of pressure on you. But if you neutralize his weapon, he’s nothing to be scared of.

Here’s how:
Stand a few steps back: Many power servers favor pace over placement. They simply try to overwhelm you with the speed of the serve because they don’t possess the precision to aim for the lines. So give yourself a little extra time to return it by starting farther back in the court (try a couple of feet behind the baseline) than you usually stand. Unless your opponent is following the serve to net, there’s really no benefit in contacting the ball any earlier. You’re better off forcing him to volley rather than piling up errors.

Shorten your take back: You don’t have a lot of time to set up for the return of a big serve. Luckily, since your opponent is giving you so much pace, you don’t need to take a big swing. Simply making solid contact out in front of your body is all that’s necessary for an effective return. Your backswing should essentially be limited to your shoulder turn.

Hit from an open stance: Again, you’re being rushed, so footwork is at a premium. Rather than taking several steps to position yourself, the most efficient way to make the return is to the line up the incoming ball with your outside, or back, leg and lean into the shot. The coil of your upper body and the pace of the serve will supply the power. This will not only help you put more serves in play, it will allow you to move more effectively for the next shot.

How to Serve

Andy Murray’s Serve

Nineteen-year-old rising star Andy Murray of Scotland has assaulted the rankings in the last two years, moving nearly 500 spots to his current position inside the Top 40. Solid in every aspect of his game, Murray uses his serve to dictate play right from the get-go. And with a few minor changes, he could make it even better.

1. This is a typical stance for most players. It has no significance as far as racquet acceleration and power— each player simply has his or her own way of beginning to focus on the serve. One note: When my partner, Dr. Gideon Ariel, and I analyzed subjects who used this stance, with the racquet extended, there was an increase in the activity in their trapezius (neck and shoulder) muscles. Some players actually got a little stiff using this method. That’s why baseball pitchers shrug their shoulders and exhale to relax the muscles before throwing.

2. Notice that Murray’s tossing hand is nearly parallel to the baseline rather than extended toward his opponent. This causes his body to coil, and it’s the uncoiling of the body in a particular sequence from the ground up that generates racquet speed. That sequence is called the “kinetic chain.” Notice also that Murray’s dominant arm is extended backward. Many players think they should look like the classic serving trophy, with the hitting elbow tucked way down behind them. But that trophy designer must have had a pitiful serve.

3. At this point, Murray brings his back foot up toward his front, which momentarily stops him from uncoiling his body. He relies on loading the muscles in his upper body rather than generating a complete kinetic chain. His knees are bent to activate a forward and upward movement. While the knee bend is an initiator of the kinetic chain, in our research we found that the knee bend alone was not a huge factor in serve speed and generated less than 10 m.p.h. for most subjects.

4. Here is where Murray fails to maximize his racquet-head speed. His body isn’t going as forward and upward as it could be. He tosses the ball farther back than, say, Andy Roddick does. In our research center, we found that the greatest racquet speed was produced when the player’s upper arm was going up and forward toward the net, as in a baseball pitch. Murray’s upper arm is traveling more upward than forward, which will limit his speed.

5. Murray makes contact with the ball at the peak of the toss, which has major advantages in serving percentages. One or two inches in height can often mean the difference between an ace or a ball that hits the tape. Andy continues to uncoil his body, which helps to increase racquet-head speed. Note that Murray’s feet have left the ground. If you jump to hit the ball before the upper arm has achieved maximum speed, you’ll lose power. This is not true if the ball is tossed out front and the server is pulled off the ground when he reaches for it.

6. Murray has one foot behind the baseline when he lands. (Roddick lands more than 2 feet inside the baseline.) It’s important to get the toss as far out in front as you can. As Murray’s game continues to improve, I think you’ll see him tossing the ball farther out toward the net to maximize racquet-head speed, while remaining properly balanced to attack the net or play the point out from the baseline.

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Serve

A serve (or, more formally, a service) in tennis is a shot to start a point. The serve is usually initiated by tossing the ball into the air and hitting it (usually near the apex of its trajectory) into the diagonally opposite service box without touching the net. It may be performed underhand or overhead. The serve is the only shot where a player can take his time to set up, instead of having to react to an opponent's shot.

The serve is one of the more difficult shots for a novice, but once mastered it can be a considerable advantage. Advanced players can hit the serve in many different ways and often use it as an offensive weapon to gain an advantage in the point or to win it outright. Because of this, professional players win most of their service games, and breaking serve plays a crucial role in a match.

coming soon : more on Serving

Supercharge Your Practice

Have you ever felt that you could really improve if only you could find better practice partners, yet the reality is that you’re stuck hitting against the same couple of players all the time? You’re not alone. But there’s an easy way to take your practice to another level even if you can’t bring in new blood: Play two on one.

This was a staple of the Australian Davis Cup team back in the 1950s and 1960s when the Harry Hopman-trained squad was dominating the rest of the world. Two-on-one hitting supercharges your practice because it simulates playing against a stronger opponent. Balls that one player might not reach are easily handled by two, and rallies tend to last longer and be more intense.

In fact, one hour of two-on-one drilling, with each player taking two 10-minute turns on the solo side, can be more intense than two hours of regular hitting. The next time you’re looking for a serious on-court workout, or can’t line up a fourth for doubles, consider hitting two-against-one.