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TennisOne Lessons
Hitting and Reacting Crucial Actions Rolf Clark
In tennis, it is important to distinguish between actions and results. Too often we focus on results, like “win this point”, “just get it over the net”, or “hit to his backhand.” These are desired outcomes, wishes really. They are not actions, but the results of actions. Actions are things you do, like “hit the ball”, “move your feet”, and “block this serve.” Such actions lead to the results you want. Keeping the difference between actions and results clear will improve your tennis. What are the key actions needed in tennis? The most important is driving your racquet's sweet-spot through the ball as you hit. The next most important thing is reacting to your opponent's shot. Driving your racquet through the ball is an action that occurs as you hit. Reacting to the opponent's shot is an action that occurs between hits. The average player should focus on these two actions during competitive play. The words "drive your racquet through the ball" are more useful than "watch the ball" because you need to be aware of your racquet as well as the ball. The ball and racquet need to meet, so you need to do more than just watch the ball; you simultaneously need to sense your racquet's motion. You sense the racquet with your nerve system. You can't watch the racquet with your eyes, but you can feel the racquet's dynamics while you watch the ball, and with that dual awareness drive the racquet through the ball. We need to explore these actions further.
Reacting One of the most powerful breakthroughs you can experience will come from your exploration of reacting. Reacting is more taxing than "be ready," the more typical advice. Being ready usually means assuming a ready position with your torso, hands, and feet. To be ready you stand a certain way, ready to pounce. But real reacting requires moving, not standing. As soon as you finish your hit, move into a position that is near the center of the angle of return possibilities available to your opponent. Then, the instant your opponent hits the ball, concentrate on the ball's flight and on getting your racquet in position to hit the ball. Don't focus on your swing, on keeping a firm wrist, on being ready, on winning the point, or on anything but getting your racquet in position to strike the next ball. Let the ball determine what you do. You don't control your opponent's shot, so you must react to the ball. Yes, a good player can anticipate where the opponent is likely to hit, and that is part of reacting. Reacting is a physical action, but following a series of physical steps will not help you react. What does help is to mentally focus on the act of reacting. Cover the open court position available to your opponent and react to put your racquet in position to hit the ball. Your body will take care of the rest. The right physical actions will naturally follow.
Get Your Racquet into Position I keep saying, "get your racquet into position", instead of "get into position", because it's usually all you will have time to do. You'll react more effectively if you focus on getting the racquet where it needs to be rather than trying to getting your body and feet to a ready place, to a good position. You'll respond more effectively if you focus on getting the racquet to the right place. Concentrating on getting your racquet so it can hit the ball will make you start quicker, run more efficiently, and swing at the right time. It will give you more time to be in the right place. And you'll react better to real world shots, those off balance, wrong footed, bouncing-at-your-feet, straight-at-you shots, etc. The shots where you can get into the classic ready position occur mostly during practice and warm-ups, when your opponent is hitting to you instead of trying to pass you. Good reacting will not happen simply through watching the ball, nor through "being ready." The determination to react to the ball – and then to drive your racquet through it – is what is needed. That determination makes you watch the ball, be ready for the ball, move to intercept the ball, swing the racquet at the ball with the right timing, and hit through the ball. After you hit, start reacting again. That will help you move to cover the open court, and to be alert to what your opponent is doing. You will be reacting better. Hitting Let's explore hitting a bit further. As soon as you've reacted to get your racquet into position it's time to focus on the hit itself. This means to concentrate on driving the racquet's sweet-spot through the ball. Concentrate on that on every shot you hit-groundstrokes, serves, volleys, overheads, half-volleys, all of them.
When you practice or warm up, you have the time to set up for the perfect stroke because your partner is trying to hit the ball right to you. Not only is your partner hitting the ball to you, you're hitting it back to him in much the same fashion. You're not trying to put it away; but instead trying to keep it in play. You are, however, interested in hitting the ball well and the friendly ball exchanges during practice are just right for that. Without the pressure of competition you're less distracted. In practice your mind is free to concentrate on whatever you may be working on. Did you ever wonder why a wonderful warm-up was followed by disastrous play after the match started? The answer isn't complicated. When you play a match you're likely to become result-oriented. Instead of focusing on the actions needed, you start thinking about where you want the ball to go or how big the next point is. And you mis-hit more often. In competition, learn to keep your mind focused on reacting and driving the racquet through the ball instead of all those desires and wishes to win or aim or pass. Focusing on actions will make more balls will go where you'd like them to go. Watching the Ball Won't Do It Simply watching the ball will not make it go over the net. Your racquet needs to hit it. The racquet and ball must meet. So your concentration must include not only the ball but the racquet as well. Of course you can't watch both the ball and the racquet, at least not with your eyes. But you can watch the ball with your eyes while you feel the racquet's movement. And you can focus your mind on the making the racquet face drive through the ball. In those matches when nothing seems to work, check whether your eyes and mind are focused at impact on your racquet meeting the ball. Too often they're not. It takes a lot of practice to change that habit. But it's rewarding when you do. Next Time: Timing and How to Explore It Your comments are welcome. Let us know what you think about Rolf Clark's article by emailing us here at TennisOne.
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