How To Finish Your Stroke

Ground Game

For groundtrokes, some players finish over the opposite shoulder, some closer to the hip (like Mauresmo and Federer), some finish with a windshield wiper fanning action, some halfway and pointing at the opponent.

It doesn't matter where your racket finishes. What counts is WHAT YOU DO BEFORE YOU GET THERE, i.e. your contact point and the immediate follow-through.

Let me explain.

If you think about how you finish (where your racket ends up at) as a function of your stroke, that's when all the trouble starts. If you are hitting the ball in a way that forces you to, for instance, finish under your opposite shoulder near the hip (so that you look like your favorite pro Mr. Roger Federer), one of these three things might happen to you:

1. you will struggle to hit the ball consistently
2. you will injure yourself
3. you will be dissappointed seeing yourself in a video because you still don't look like Roger Federer hitting.

Develop your fundamentals first, your own style will emerge soon enough when you have mastered what you need to master to play good tennis. Once you understand the importance of things like racket face control, swing rhythm, balance, footwork and many more, you will notice certain tendencies in your own game. That is where you build your own style from.

Now back to getting you there.

As I mentioned before here, the backswing is the most unnecessary part of your stroke. The finish is the most unnecessary part of your thinking (for tennis, perhaps not for you LDP F1 drivers out there).

What is important for you to think about regarding your stroke is:

1. your racket face at point of contact.
2. the swing-path of your racket head during the 12 inches before and 12 inches after making contact with the ball.

12 inches before the ball (as you are swinging), your racket should be horizontally behind the ball or slightly below it. 12 inches after contact, horizontally in front or slightly above. Hence the common term of hitting it "low to high".

From the baseline, NEVER hit "high to low". It is always "low to high", or "high to high". Adjust your racket face to get the trajectory you want.

"High to low" racket action is exclusively for the overhead smash while standing 20 inches from the net.

Even when the ball is half-court, short and shoulder height, beckoning you for a good whipping, your stroke should absolutely be "high to high", which means you swing the racket horizontally forward. And this is for you stronger players out there.

But for most of you I do recommend letting the ball drop slightly and hitting it slightly "low to high". Use some topspin to control the shot.

Remember, placement is more important than power.

Net Game

For volleys, your racket should always travel horizontally, always parallel to the ground. If the shot is low, open up the racket face and punch forward (NOT upwards!). The racket face angle will take care of the flight. This is ensure you make a good clean contact.

Same goes for the high volleys. Take it early and punch forward with the racket face slightly closed. A lot of players miss high volleys into the net because they try to punch it "high to low".

Even for the overhead smash, you want to try and take it in front of you and "hit up" at it, which really means you are hitting it through and forward (much like the serve action). Avoid the "smash down" slam-dunk kind of stroke unless you are very very close to the net, in which case, blast it to the moon if you can.

Conclusion

Remember, how you finish and how you take the racket back are almost purely for style. They are not important for producing the shot.