Archive for August, 2009
Tennis Tips Blog
If you are a tennis player like me, then you will know how rewarding it can be both physically and mentally. Physically, tennis can be a very fast and challenging sport and demand a great deal of stamina especially when matches can last several hours, playing in extreme heat. Equally challenging is the mental side of the game as anyone who has played a tie-breaker in the final set of an important tournament will know.
Many people at all levels play tennis just to keep fit, but this can be a mistake because the physical demands of the game such as repeated side to side motions, rapid acceleration and constant stretching can mean that injuries often result. I must admit that I used to be one of these players and I was constantly struggling with shoulder, neck, knee and calf muscle injuries. My last injury meant that I was unable to play tennis for several months while I recovered. I could hardly walk for the first week! So one of the best tennis tips I know for both beginners and experienced players is that you need to be fit to play tennis rather than playing tennis to keep fit.
My wife (also a keen tennis player) and I decided to join our local gym and work with a personal trainer. Fortunately, we have a very good trainer who did lots of research on strength building and conditioning specifically for tennis players. She designed lots of exercises and routines that helped us build our strength, improve our overall stamina and fitness levels. Having been through this for about 12 months now, I find that I am a far better tennis player because I have much better physical endurance and stamina. The added physical exercise also meant that I have lost several pounds, which means that I am also faster around the court and there is much less stress on my knees. I even won my first tournament last month.
Another important tennis tip is to find the best tennis pro. in your area and get tennis lessons as soon as possible. It is critical to get the fundamentals right early before bad habits start to take hold. A good tennis professional will not only help with your basic shots, but will help you develop winning strategies and also help with the mental aspect of the game.
I created this blog to offer a variety of tennis tips, especially for beginners and more experienced players who want to improve their game. Over the next few weeks, I will be posting many tennis tips that I have found to be personally very helpful, so please stay tuned.
Tennis Tips: How To Beat a “Left-Hander”
It’s always a shock the first time you play a left-handed player. Your favorite shots that normally go deep to your opponent’s back-hand suddenly coming flying past you for winners. What’s more, that shot to your opponent’s back-hand at the net which has been your big earner is suddenly dispatched with no problem at all. Then suddenly you realize that you are playing a leftie! Those shots are being returned so well because you are playing to their forehand, which is usually (but not always) the strongest sides for most tennis players. Now, in the middle of the match, you are forced to change all your favorite shots as you try and “reverse” everything to play to their back-hand. For example, rather than playing your back-hand cross-court to play to your opponent’s back-hand as you would do for a right-hander, now you have to play down the line to go to the “leftie’s” back-hand. That’s not a shot you want to try in a competitive game when you are not used to it. Unless you play it deep and close to the side-line, it will be quite an easy back-hand return for your opponent.
So what should you do? Well, playing a left-hander in a competitive match is not the best way to learn new strategies. Here are a few tennis tips to help you. The best approach is to practice beforehand with a left-hander so that you can try out all your different shots to see what works and what doesn’t. The next time you play a ‘leftie’, get their phone number and arrange to play some practice matches with them. Always try to have at least one left-handed player in your arsenal of people that you practice with on a regular basis. You can now try your back-hand shots deep down the side-line and your cross-court forehands to pressure their back-hands just as you would normally do for a “rightie”. If you can do it, a very effective technique is to try a very heavy sliced serve out wide to the leftie’s backhand.
Just a word of caution here. Since a lot of left-handers are used to playing right-handers, they may be very familiar with right-handers trying to pressurize their back-hand and may have developed a formidable back-hand to deal with this. So watch out. Sometimes just reversing all your usual “right-hander” shots may not be an effective strategy. If this is the case, try the forehand, bringing them to the net or deep shots until you have discovered a chink in their armor. Mixing up your shots is a very effective strategy against any tennis player to discover their strengths and weaknesses.
Try this out these tennis tips the next time you play a leftie.
Tennis Tips: How to Beat a Backboard Player
Have you ever been in a situation where you playing an opponent who just keeps getting the ball back, no matter what you do? Usually, that player stands on the baseline and seems to just return everything you hit to them. It’s just like playing against a wall or board, hence the name “backboarder”. This type of player normally does not put any pace on the ball, but the ball still keeps in play forcing you to play yet another shot. Your frustration increases and you try and hit it harder and harder, but it still comes back. Eventually you overhit and the ball goes out or you dump it in the net.
If this has happened to you then you need to change your strategy. Try these simple tennis tips. Always think about what your opponent likes and what they dislike? What are their strengths and weaknesses? With a backboard player, they are obviously good at the baseline and they are consistent with their ground strokes even though they don’t put much pace on the ball. So, if you keep hitting the ball harder and deeper, you are just playing to their strengths.
Normally, with a backboard player, you will find that they are very uncomfortable at the net. So rather than just blasting the ball back, try playing a short ball and bringing them forward towards the net. Once they are at the net, you can now try a passing shot or a lob. The backboard player will usually be very uncomfortable playing volleys at the net and so passing shots and dippers (shots that stay low over the net and drop quickly at your opponent’s feet) will usually work well. The lob should also be equally effective because now your opponent is forced to run backwards, which they are not accustomed to doing. If the manage to return the lob, you have the opportunity of an easy overhead or a short angled volley from the net.
So next time you play a backboarder, remember to mix-up your shorts. Try a few deep shots and then a short one and bring them into the net. If you mix-up your shots, you will always have your opponent guessing and they will not be able to establish a consistent rhythm, which is something else that the ‘backboarder’ thrives on.
I hope that these simple tennis tips will help you the next time you play a backboarder.
Tennis Tips : Don’t Worry About Your Opponent’s Ranking
We’re probably all guilty of doing this at some point in our past. We look up details about our opponent and see that they are ranked lower than ourselves. They may have lost to many players who we have beaten in the past and not done very well in any tournaments. We then go on court thinking that this will be an easy game and then the next thing we know is that we start making stupid mistakes. Easy shots go long or we dump them into the net. Our anger and frustration grows and we keep saying to ourselves “I should be beating this person easily”. The next thing we know is that we have just lost the match to a person we “should” never have lost to.
Alternatively, our opponent may have a much higher ranking than us and we go on court thinking that we will lose and we start playing very tentatively and defensive. The end result is the same. If this situation sounds familiar, try out these simple tennis tips.
It is important to realize is that your opponent’s ranking has no relevance at all to the game you are about to play. What is important is that you must always play your game and approach it in the same way, regardless of who your opponent is. Always remain positive and concentrate on your strengths. Every game is unique; your mental state, your opponents mental state, the type of courts, the weather, how fit your are, how tired you are etc. so try and focus on your game and don’t let your opponent’s ranking change your approach. All that matters in the end is who plays better on a given day.
Consider this. If every high ranking player always beat a lower ranked player, then in every major tournament the top eight seeds should always reach the quarter finals. In fact this very rarely happens because it is actually very common for lower ranked players to play better than a higher ranked player “on a given day”. The better ranked players usually win in the long run, but not every single time. Here is an interesting article I found which discusses this in more detail.
So here is a simple tennis tip : Stay focused on your game and don’t concern yourself with your opponent’s ranking.
Tennis Tips: Recommended Warm Up Routines : Part 2 – Basic Warm-Up Shots
Now you are ready to start hitting some tennis balls! One of the best tennis tips I know is to start just hitting ‘short’ balls with a partner using the service court (the boxes closest to the net).
1) Short-Ball Practice
Use short back swings and concentrate on a smooth shot so that the ball lands in your opponent’s service box. It’s very important to develop control over your ‘short’ game before you move onto longer shots from the baseline. Think smoothness and control and make sure you watch the ball completely to the contact point with the racket, rather than where you want the ball to go (easy to say, but much harder to remember in competitive matches). Repeat this cross court on the forehand side (using diagonal service boxes) and then on the back-hand side. This is a great exercise for developing a short angled shot, which is especially effective in doubles.
After doing this for several minutes, try doing volleys with your opponent using the ‘short court’ to develop control over your volleys. After several minutes, you are ready to move back to the baseline.
2) Baseline strokes and volley practice
Rather than just hitting the ball randomly with your partner, use this time to study their game and look for their strengths and weaknesses. Try and hit the ball deep (close to the baseline) on the forehand and backhand side and see how your opponent deals with these shots. Usually, they will be weaker on the back-hand side, especially with the deep ball so make a mental note of this for your game. Next, have one player approach the net while the other player stays on the baseline so that the net player can practice volleys. If you are volleying, try to practice both deep, short and angled volleys and don’t just hit it back to your opponent otherwise you will find yourself doing this in the game. As the baseline player, play shots to the ‘volleyer’ on both the right and left and study how they cope with these shots. Vary the pace and height of the shots and also try a few “dippers” (a shot that keeps low over the net and drops quickly at your opponents feet).
3) Overhead Shots
Next, practice some over head shots. Have your opponent play the ball high into the air (lob) and then practice your overhead return before the ball bounces. Don’t try and over-hit. Use the same action as your service and keep as relaxed as possible. Practice a few angled overheads during this time.
4) Serves
Now it’s time to practice your serve. Don’t go for your big one straight away! Just serve at about 60% speed and concentrate on smoothness and accuracy. Try and aim serves at all locations in your opponents service box (deeper usually better). One you have warmed your serve up a little, vary the pace and direction so that your opponent is always kept “guessing”. When your opponent is practicing their serve, practice your return of serve so that you have a feel for their serve before the game starts. Having practiced your serve, it’s time to start the game. Make sure you top up on ’Sports’ drink (helps replenish electrolyes lost due to sweating) and water before you start so that you are fully hydrated.
I hope you found these tennis tips on ‘Recommended Warm-Up Routines’ helpful.
Tennis Tips: Recommended Warm-Up Routines: Part 1 – Dynamic stretching
One of the best tennis tips is to make sure you have a good warm up routine to make sure that you are physically and mentally prepared for your tennis match. Too many players just rely on warming up during the match itself and then wonder why they are suddenly 5-0 down or have an injury early in the game.
Try and arrive at the courts early enough to give yourself at least 30 mins for a warm-up. Some of the latest research which you can read about in “Complete Conditioning for Tennis” by E. Paul Roetert and Todd S. Ellenbecher (see original blog post) emphasizes the need to do dynamic stretching before a game rather than static stretches. Static stretching should only be done during the cool-down period after your match. Here is a dynamic stretching routine that I have found to be very useful.
- 1) Start by doing a slow jog on the spot. Keep your body loose and relaxed.2) Gradually increase the intensity of the jog until you can feel your body temperature rise slightly and your muscles start to relax.
3) Now start at the baseline, facing the net at the far right hand corner. Jog gently, along the doubles side-line towards the net
4) Start side-stepping gently to the left, parallel to the net until you reach the opposite side-line.
5) Jog backwards along the side-line back to the baseline and then side-step back to your starting point.
Next, repeat 1-5, but this time bring your knees high towards your chest as you jog forwards and backwards. The side-stepping portion of the exercise remains the same.
Finally, repeat 1-5, but now substitute “butt-kicks” (kick heels backwards and try and reach your butt each time) instead of the knee-raises.
After this, your heart rate should have increased slightly and you may be sweating slightly depending upon how fit you are. If necessary, repeat the warm-up routine above. In the second part of these tennis tips articles on Recommended Warm-Up Routines, I’ll cover the basic tennis shots you should practice before you start your game.
