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.

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.

Little Known Facts About Federer

Found these off some guy's blog.....most were cheesy, these were OK I thought....

If tapped, the power generated by a Roger Federer forehand could power the country of Switzerland for 44 minutes.

Roger Federer once hit a forehand so hard that the tennis ball broke the speed of light, went back in time, and struck Amelia Earhart's plane while she was flying over the Pacific Ocean. Mystery solved.

One night, Andy Roddick dreamt he beat Roger Federer in straight sets to win Wimbledon. The next morning he called Roger Federer up to apologize.

A forehand delivered by Roger Federer is the preferred method of execution in 17 states and 3 countries.

Since 1981 (the year Federer was born), topspin forehand related deaths have increased 13,000%.

Deadliest Sin In Tennis

Unforced Errors = Cardinal Sin #1

Unforced errors hurt your game in more ways than one:

1. Giving away free points.
   
2. Losing confidence in your strokes.
   
3. Increasing your opponents' confidence.
   
4. Keep you from 'getting into the groove'.
5. Letting your opponent into the game, or regain his/her composure.
   
6. Annoys your double partner.
   
7. No fun to even play singles with you (too few chances to hit the ball!).
   

Decrease them. Quickly.

Think of an unforced error as a 2-point swing. You're giving your opponent the point AND not getting it. No it doesn't make mathematical sense, it's more of a psychological scoring.

Getting The Ball In Play

Try hitting at 70% pace first.

Get good net clearance. Miss it long if you have to but not in the net.

Use spin to keep the ball in the court, but avoid brushing the ball too much as it will mess-up your follow-through, which should be forward instead of sideways across your chest.

Move your feet. Adjust your hitting position with little quick steps.

Stay balanced.

Get your shoulders turning. Keep your backswing compact but push a long follow-through. This helps to warm-up the hands.

Start increasing the pace only when:

1. You feel that you are getting into proper hitting position.
2. You feel the racket has 'fused' with your hands.
3. You are putting no less than 5 shots in consecutively.
4. You are confident in moving the ball left and right.
   

Remember, control and accuracy are infinitely more important than pace.

Serve Like a Pro

The serve is the only shot which you have complete and utter control over. Unfortunately not many players take enough trouble to work on the serve.

The problem I see, mostly in learning players or beginners, is the toss, or the lack of it. Without a proper toss, you cannot execute a proper serve.

There is nothing much to the toss except that you have to practice it. Look at the pro tour, every player has his or her own way of tossing the ball.

What they all have in common are consistency, and that the ball is tossed straight up in front of their heads, where it is most comfortable to see and hit the ball.

Tossing height is also a matter of individual taste. While tossing too low (especially in beginners) makes it difficult to extend your arm at the ball, tossing too high creates problems with consistency and rhythm (even more so on windy days).

Some players toss higher to produce more spin (like Steffi Graf), but they are usually advanced players who toss at that height most of the time anyway. Generally, tossing slightly higher than the height of your racket fully extended upwards is best.


The Tossing Technique

1. Hold the ball lightly (like your favorite little furry pet, or bird or something fragile) with your fingertips, with all but the pinky.
2. Keep the tossing arm relaxed.
3. Lift up smoothly as if you were letting a bird go (not jerking or stabbing upwards).
4. Practice until you can toss and catch the ball while standing on the spot.

The Rhythm

The service rhythm is another difficult thing to teach. We all have diffirent natural tempos, and the key to finding it is to practice and practice and practice. In saying that, there is a basic technique which I use to teach the service rhythm;

1. Cradle the ball with the racket in front of you (like 99.9% of players at setup).
2. Count 1 as you drop both arms.
   
3. Count 2 as you lift both arms, one lifting the racket into the back-scratching or hitting position while the other executes the toss.
4. Count 3 as you extend your racket arm upwards at the ball.
5. Count 4 as you take your first step after the serve INSIDE the baseline. Imagine 'chasing' the ball towards the net.
   

Let me explain item 5 above.

Taking a step into the court is a sign of proper weight transfer. It does not mean that you have to rush to the net. Just that you should shift your weight forward following the serve.

This promotes pace, and more importantly, balance. Doing this helps your footwork to spring into action.

Sometimes I also play a favorite song inside my head to help with my rhythm.


My Serve Philosophy

I grew up learning the serve from watching Sampras and Edberg, both great servers. The thing that makes them great is that they both have very accurate and powerful first serves, but more significantly, extremely dangerous second serves.

Sampras and Edberg were not the hardest servers on tour. They relied on accuracy and variety. They used the serve to set-up how they wanted to play the point.

Social players on the other hand, have a much harder time holding serve for various reasons:

1. Inconsistent first serve (low percentage).
2. Weak floating second serves 'to get it in play'.
3. Lack of variety (your opponent prepares for the killer forehand the moment you toss the ball).
   

My suggestion is that you practice your SECOND serve.

It is important to keep your service rhythm similar to the first serve. Firstly, deliver all your first serves like they are second serves, but aim closer to the lines.

**Or for the more seasoned players; mix it up. Vary the spin. Give it a kick, then a slice. Aim wide and down the middle. Short and deep. High or skidding.

Think of it like getting 2 chances to hit a good second serve.

I call this the First-And-A-Half serve strategy. Generally returners do not win points outright from the return-of-serve. But most of them do pound on the second serve more confidently, especially if it's weak.

Putting your first serve in tends to keep them at bay.

Try this for your next few sessions and you will improve your confidence, percentage and effectiveness on the serve.

How To Make Winning Easy

Against Sampras, Federer or Nadal, opponents will often 'go for more'.

This is a huge psychological advantage, because their opponents are forced to play a game that is beyond their normal scope. This throws their performance off more often than not.

It's the reason we see a lot of meltdowns against Federer. His opponents just don't seem to be 'playing their own game'.

And yes, YOU can have this effect on your opponents and playing partners, too.

To me, good tennis is more a mind game than a physical one.

It is almost chess-like. You can beat someone who has all the best-looking strokes, if only you knew how to conquer him/her psychologically. And no, I'm not talking about gamesmanship or thrash-talking or voodoo.

Of course you can also dress-to-kill or show-off those treetrunk biceps, but I'd recommend a more reliable way to do it.

Here's how:

1. Get fit and run for every ball. Or, just run for every ball. Think Nadal. Get every ball back and it will tire-out your opponent, physically and mentally.
   
2. Go for forced errors rather than superheroic winners. Forcing your opponents to give you the point reduces their confidence. When they attempt and fail, it hurts their game more.
3. Good placement rather than raw power. Give them the run-about-like-a-dog-on-a-frisbee-game treatment.
   
4. Attack the net occasionally, even if your net-game sucks. Scare tactics.
   
5. Develop a fearsome weapon. Make them regret they let you hit it.
   
6. Increase your first serve percentage. Read my philosophy on the serve here.
   
7. When they miss a shot more than once, give them more opportunities to miss it again.
   
8. Add variety to your arsenal, with specialty shots like the drop shot or forehand roll.
9. Disguise. A clown suit can be very distracting ;)
   

I once read an interesting observation about John McEnroe's game. Likened to a swordsman, he never kills you off with a big slash, but rather he cuts you here and there until you bleed to death.

A wounded opponent becomes easier and easier to play.

Memorable Live Match

I watched Pete Sampras blast Thomas Muster off the courts, live in Melbourne during the '97 Aussie Open. Man it was awesome.

I distinctly remember how Sampras' shots were like laser beams firing at the lines with an explosive sound and pinpoint accuracy, compared to Muster's high-arching defensive groundstrokes.

Muster sure did a lot of scrambling that day. It was a one-sided affair and was over too quickly.

Now we all watch Federer do the same thing to everyone on tour.

Here is the lesson:
It is the defensive player who usually has the tougher time.

For those of you who are not naturally attacking players, learn to turn defense into offense. Choose your stronger or more reliable side (forehand or backhand) and develop it into a reliable weapon.

But beware of over-hitting. Attacking tennis is NOT THE SAME as hitting hard. Hitting hard, for most players, actually means taking a bigger swing than you are used to, to generate pace that is beyond your control.

Develop accuracy most of all, because it is more effective than pace or spin. Move your opponents around as much as you can.

Just imagine them knowing that they have to do a lot of running, and avoid your backhand at the same time. Not easy. Often the case, that's more pressure than what a recreational player is used to.

So develop accuracy and a reliable weapon, and watch those free points come.