Make That Ball Do Anything

Sure we all want to able to put the ball everywhere from anywhere in the court. Ever had a vision (from watching Federer maybe?) of what shot you want to pull-off but it turns out turkey? Chances are you haven't developed the necessary BALL CONTROL skills to play that shot.

Here is a step-by-step guide to the COMPLETE set of control skills (for groundstrokes and volleys). They're itemised in order of what you should master first:

No.1
Clear The Net. Basic rule, if it doesn't clear the net, you lose the point. If it goes over the net, you still have a chance. Find ways to punish yourself for missing into the net.

No.2
Keep The Ball in the Court. Well, obviously. I'm not talking about spinning the ball, yet. NO SPIN! Keeping it in without using spin is an important step in learning how to control your racket face and how to use pace. Don't skip this or you will spend years trying to undo bad habits of brushing the ball with no pace and no consistency, and overhitting.

No.3
Control the Height. Throw a lob. Hit it over the net low. Play with the trajectory (what angle the ball is flying off your racket) to vary your shots.

No.4
Hit Deep. Once you have mastered control over the height and pace of your shots, start thinking of hitting with depth. Combine how high with how hard you hit, to land the ball in the no-man's-land (area between service line and baseline). Work on consistency not pace.

No.5
Move it Left and Right. Or just move it away from your opponent. First do it in the proper hitting position all the time - aiming at your target with the left shoulder (if you are right-handed, hitting a forehand). After mastering that, practice hitting left and right from ONE setup position - this creates disguise. Same setup, different shots - very effective.

No.6
Controlled Pace. You don't have to hit hard all the time. If you want to add some angles to your shots, take away some pace so that the ball drops shorter while you aim wider. Or learn to do the drop shot. Perhaps hit it low against the volleyer (forced to 'dig' a low defensive volley) instead of always going for the passing shot. Hitting 70% hard consistently is better than hitting it 100% hard but missing half the time.

No.7
Spin. This is the shit. Too many players overuse spin without first mastering the 6 items above. It's not against the rules or anything, but not many players know how to use spin effectively for that very reason. Most players employ spin as a compensation for their lack of control in another area of their game. Moonballing (and good amounts of shanking as well), or floating chop-slices are examples of this.

I'll keep it simple. If you can master items 1-6, you are already an advanced player because you can already HIT THE BALL ANYWHERE IN THE COURT. A topspin lob is just a lob with a lot more spin. A forehand roll is just a short angle crosscourt forehand with perhaps a little more pace and better percentage. Spin should be used to ENHANCE your shot-making skills, not replace it.

If you have some patience and dedication to improvement, take a couple of sessions to develop the itemised skills above, step-by-step and in successsion.

You may not take as long as you think to master them!!!

Every step teaches you valuable lessons about racket face control, which at the end of the day, is the most important skill you'd want to master.