Win More Points With Your Feet

If you watch your players and try to pinpoint the recurring and primary reason players lose points, you will be amazed to see how many errors are the result of poor positioning — not stroke mechanics.

You will rarely see a player in perfect position to hit a ball mis-hit a groundstroke.

Players are either too close too balls and get jammed; they are not properly positioned to the side of the ball and have to swing at a ball directly in front of them; they hit balls with their weight back, losing depth and pace; or are too far away from balls and end up slapping at shots and losing control.

Strokes Come Last
The striking skill is the third skill a tennis player needs. She must first learn to quickly judge the direction, depth, spin and speed of incoming balls. Once she has determined where the ball will land, how soon and with what type of spin, she then must properly position herself to properly make the shot.

Only after your player has correctly executed these first two skills can she make a proper swing. Yet how often do coaches and players practice ball reception and positioning skills?

Following are several tips to help your players better get into position to hit optimal groundstrokes and reduce errors.

Turn Before You Run
The human brain can hold only one though at a time. If you have ever read a book while listening to a favorite album, you have probably had to go back and re-read a page or two after you found yourself listening to a favorite song and not paying attention to what you were reading. Or you may have had to re-wind a tape because you became so engrossed in a particular chapter you missed your favorite song.

The brain can also only execute one motor command at a time. If your player runs to a ball and has not properly turned his torso, he now has to give his brain two commands when he arrives at the ball: get the racquet back; and stop.

He can’t do both. If your player makes the decision to get his racquet back, he will continue to run and will get too close to the ball. If your player focuses on getting to the ball and stopping, he will end up not getting the racquet back in time and will swing late.

Teach your players to make their first move from the core of their body when they have to run for a ball. The initial move should not be with the leg or foot with the body following, it should be a quick shoulder/torso turn, with the legs following.

A quick pivot which naturally gets the body moving in the direction of the ball is the first move of world-class players and allows for a smooth take back of the racquet so that when the player arrives at contact point, all he has to do is stop to get into position.

The player can now make the proper stroke.

Your player’s stroke mechanics will determine how far they should have the racquet back when they arrive at the ball. Some will want the racquet all the way back as they run, while others may want to begin a slow, smooth backswing which accelerates into a forward swing after they have stopped.

In either case, your player should not be trying to take the racquet back and stop at the end of their run.

Hit at the Peak of the Bounce
Another critical aspect of positioning is contact point. Where should your player make contact with the ball?

Your player can either hit the ball on the rise, when it reaches its apex, or when it begins to descend after it bounces.

You will notice many players on your team who back up from each incoming ball, waiting until the ball has bounced, reached its apex, then almost touches the court a second time before they hit it. Notice how far behind the baseline these players are, or the fact that they are actually able to play short balls from or near the baseline because they refuse to move forward and wait for the ball’s descent so long, the ball reaches deep into the court before its second bounce.

From a simple physics standpoint, hitting a ball at the apex is the highest percentage shot because your player has to put less elevation on the ball to get it over the net.

Teaching your players to hit the ball at the peak of the bounce not only decreases their margin of error when hitting groundstrokes, but now also gives them a positioning reference point.

Players who drill with cooperative, baseline or “consistency” drills during the week tend to stay on the baseline during matches. Players who train to attack every ball at its apex position themselves much better when hitting groundstrokes because their point of reference to hit their groundstrokes is no longer the baseline, but the ball itself.

Practicing using baseline rallies creates goalies who position themselves on the baseline in order to make sure balls do not get past them.

Especially watch players with semi-Western or Western forehands and players with two-handed backhands during matches. They will prefer to hit high-bouncing balls at shoulder level or higher when they go for big shots. They will also be on top of or inside of the baseline.

Are you allowing them to practice this way during the rest of the week?

Avoid Line Drills
When a right-handed player is pulled out of his comfort zone (two to three steps in any direction) to his forehand side, he generally finishes his stroke with his weight on his right leg (unless he has a closed or square stance), pushing off with the right leg after the shot in order to recover to the center of the court. His weight should also be going into the shot.

Yet many team and academy drills have players running wide to hit a forehand, then continuing off the court so they can get out of the way of the next person in line and get back to the end of the line.

This means your players will be hitting their forehands with a square or closed stance off their left leg, with their weight continuing to their right and backwards. Coaches who use “Hit-and-run-to-the-end-of-the-line-drills” are actually imprinting hundreds or thousands of strokes into their players’ motor memory which use the exact opposite body balance (to the right and backward) they will use in a match (forward and recovering left).

Ensure that when you drill players, you make body balance, through appropriate recovery, an integral part of the drill.

“High” Backhands
Ask most recreational players with a one-handed backhanded which is the toughest shot in tennis, and they’ll almost unanimously tell you, the “high” backhand, or one which they must hit at or above their shoulders.

There is no such thing as a “high” backhand. If a player with a one-handed backhand lets a ball play them and rise to the height of their shoulders or above, they are creating a difficult shot for themselves, and quite often return a weak shot with their weight going backwards.

Try this drill with your players with one-handed backhands.

Position them on the baseline while you feed balls from the net which will land deep, to their backhands, and with a high bounce. Notice how difficult it is for your players to hit balls which bounce at or above shoulder level.

Now, ask your players where they would optimally like to make contact. Begin feeding balls again using the same type of feed as before, but point out to your players that by properly positioning themselves to get off the baseline or take the ball on the rise, if necessary, they can hit every ball at their desired contact point. They will be amazed at how simple it is to make contact at their desired bounce height with every backhand, simply by using the ball bounce as their reference point, rather than the baseline.

No matter what type of strokes your players use, discuss with them what their optimal contact point is for each stroke, then instill in them the importance of hitting groundstrokes at that contact point as often as possible during drills. You will immediately see players shift their weight forward when hitting strokes during drills, as opposed to the static or backward-leaning body balance which is so typical of cooperative drills. You will also begin to see players moving to the side of balls to properly hit them, rather than standing in front of balls because they are defending their position at the baseline.

Taking Balls on the Rise
The research of physicists, physiologists and biomechanists clearly shows that racquets technology has not had the impact on the power game many people believe. Yes, stiffer racquets do increase ball speeds hit out of the sweet spot by 10-15 percent, while longer racquets allow more high-speed serves to land in (they do not necessarily increase ball speed).

The main reason the game has become so fast is due to the new mechanics which allow more mass to be put into each shot, increasing force.

Another reason for the shorter points now common in tennis is that the majority of top players are either playing on top of or in front of the baseline. The days of players like Lendl and Sabatini playing many feet behind the baseline with success have been over for a decade.

Playing so close to the baseline has allowed players to more frequently attack short balls for outright winners or punishing approach shots because the player is so much closer into the court at contact, and points end much sooner.

A result of this new positioning is that players are now hitting the ball at the peak of the bounce (often at shoulder, eye or head level) and taking balls off the rise much more frequently.

Contrary to popular belief, taking balls on the rise does not add appreciable ball speed to groundstrokes. However, hitting a ball as it rises, as opposed to hitting a ball which has been allowed to slow down as it rises, reaches its apex and descends, allows a player to hit a ball which has not lost as much ball speed and therefore, project a groundstroke without losing as much ball speed. Additionally, by letting a ball bounce, rise and descend, a player allows the ball to travel further back toward the baseline, and must hit the ball from that greater distance, which gives his opponent more time to recover and prepare for the next shot.

By hitting a ball with a higher incoming speed, and hitting it at a distance which is closer to his opponent, a player’s groundstrokes arrive back to his opponent 15-20 percent sooner than if he had let the ball rise and fall.

This means your opponent has less time to recover and prepare when you hit off the rise.

Hitting balls off the rise decreases the advantages associated with hitting at the peak of the bounce because you are hitting balls well below the level of the net, but can increase success because you are decreasing your opponent’s recovery and reaction time.

Summary
If your players are not drilling in ways which allow them to practice the same body balance they will be using in their matches, they will not suddenly be able to override hours, days, weeks and months of improper training during matches.

#1 When running cooperative drills with extended rallies, make sure that players do not develop static body balance.

#2 Have your players use ball-racquet contact point as their positioning reference point, not the baseline.

#3 Teach your players to hit the ball at the top of the bounce.

#4 Teach your players to make their initial move from the core of their bodies.

#5 Avoid line drills, unless they include realistic recovery.

#6 “High” backhands are more a result of positioning, and not the incoming shot; teach players to hit on the rise.

#7 Hitting balls on the rise adds a new dimension to your players’ skills and can and should be practiced.