Tennis - Ground strokes
(from The Inner Game of Tennis)
When you understand how simple attention can be used to learn any technical aspect of the game, with or without the aid of a technical instruction as a guide, it is quite an easy matter to discover the important places to focus your attention, and then use the same simple process of discovering from experience. A few critical focal points for the ground strokes are summarized below. You could take any instruction from any tennis magazine or book and add to the list.
A partial ground stroke checklist
- Backswing
- Exactly where is the head of your racket at the back of your swing? Where is the ball when you initiate your backswing? What happens with the face of the racket during the backswing?
- Impact
- Can you feel where the ball is meeting the racket at impact? How is your weight distributed? What is theangle of racket face at impact? How long can you feel the ball on the face of the racket? To what extent can you feel the kind and amount of spin being imparted to the ball? How solid does the shot feel or how much vibration is sent up your arm at impact? How far in front of or behind you is the ball at impact?
- Follow-through
- Where does your racket finish? In what direction? What has happened to the face of the racket since impact? Is there any hesitancy or resistance experienced during the follow-through?
- Footwork
- How is your weight distributed during preparation and at impact? What happens to your balance during the shot? How many steps did you take to get to the ball? What size are the steps? What kinds of sounds do your feet make on the court as you move? When the ball approaches you, do you retreat, advance or hold your ground? From how solid a base are you hitting the ball?