WE'RE TEACHING TENNIS ALL WRONG
Anyone learning tennis through the form method never learns to adapt to different types of balls or correctly analyse what they must do on each stroke, nor what is causing their errors.
That player will be forever confused by the unpredictability of tennis and never understand why their smooth stroking during practice sessions has deserted them during the match.
"Step into the ball and take it on the rise" might make sense in a YouTube video. The reality is that, against a good opponent, you need to get just the right ball to perform the stroke like that. Why are we still trying to teach players this "perfect scenario" rubbish?
"Fundamentals are not only the best
way to control the ball; they can help you analyse
mistakes better."
We need to teach and critique strokes based on fundamentals. Fundamentals are not only the best way to control the ball; they can help you analyse mistakes better.
The three Fundamentals I always work with are:
- Contact
- Ground
- Spin
CONTACT
Contact originates from the racquet face and controls the height and direction of the ball. It is said that there are only 4 mistakes you can make in tennis; too long, too short/ too far left and too far right. All these mistakes can be corrected through awareness of the racquet face.
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Contact controls the height and the direction of the ball |
GROUND
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Ground supplies inertia and timing for your stroke |
SPIN
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Spin is used to control the ball and to create angles |
Another advantage to learning or improving your game through Fundamentals is that players can begin to coach themselves as they approach a ball. They start to ask themselves questions such as how much Spin is needed or what type of timing is needed (in the case of the different speeds of the ball).
Lastly, after mistakes, the player who has learned to master the stroke fundamentals can quickly analyse why the error occurred and keep a mental note of the correction for the next time they get that ball. If a player begins to critique their mistakes in this way, they develop tennis intelligence.
The alternative is that mistakes are a complete mystery to the player, or they have so much irrelevant detail in their heads that there is confusion. Instead of increasing knowledge, the player experiences increased frustration.
We're teaching tennis all wrong. By asking players to expect predictability and not training them to make decisions quickly and accurately, we need to give them the tools to develop their games and reach their full potential.
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