Tennis - Open and Closed stances
Closed stance is also called Neutral stance.
- An open stance or a closed stance depends on where your toes are pointing.
- So for example if my toes are pointing forward, then I have an open stance because my hips are pointing towards the net.
- If I turn my toes to the side, this is a closed stance because my hips turned sideways.
- For example, I can stand in an open stance, but I turn my toe and I completely turn my hips, I kind of close myself more towards the net.
- This is just a little bit for you guys to understand what we mean better
Which stance feels better for a certain situation you’re in?
As you experiment thousands of times while playing different balls in different situations, you’ll feel which stance is better suited for each situation.
I firmly believe that there is no need for a theoretical explanation which says: “In situation A, it’s better to use neutral stance, and in situation B it’s better to use open stance.”
There is no need to tell that to the player ever.
All that is needed is to have the player EXPERIENCE and be aware of how it feels to hit a stroke with a certain stance in a certain situation, and they will very quickly feel which one is better.
After all, we do not think about stances when we play tennis.
We simply operate with energy transfer based on feel and our brain unconsciously chooses a certain stance and body movement based on the situation we’re in.
While we do consciously repeat footwork patterns with players in training so that they improve their foot speed and balance in these specific situations, we do not have to tell them when to use which one. Again, they will not think when they play so this “theoretical” knowledge is pointless.
If one player uses an open stance, for example, when moving forward to a short ball and is afterward approaching the net, that means that the player is simply not aware of how better that would feel with a neutral stance. And how much more ball control he would have…
No one chooses uncomfortable stances and strokes on purpose. The only reason they do is because they are not aware of the more comfortable ones.