Zen Tennis part 2

Last week we talked about taking your mind, that is your conscious mind, off your tennis, so your subconscious could take over. Continuing with our focus on using your brain to help you play better tennis (or at least not hindering your ability to play to your potential), let’s look at some ways to get your brain involved in the right ways.

   1. Know your strengths- take some time to analyze your strokes, better yet, have a tennis pro evaluate your game. Once you know which shots or abilities (baseline rallying, net play, movement, etc) are your strengths, you can design your style around them. You may excel at long baseline rallies due to a good forehand, great stamina, and excellent foot movement. You may have a great net game and choose to serve and volley frequently.

2. Commit to your playing style- once you understand your game, you can gain confidence in it and commit to practicing and perfecting it. Knowing your on-court identity will help you weather those games where you are making mistakes and, in the past, doubted your abilities.

  3. Think about tactics, not results (and definitely not mechanics)- many times the score can get in the way of your best tennis. And thinking about the mechanics of a stroke is the kiss of death to fluid, focused play. Think about patterns you want to execute…”get into a forehand, cross-court rally until I see an opening for a short angle or down-the-line winner”, serve to his backhand and charge the net”, etc. It also helps to analyze your opponent’s patterns….”When she’s going to serve out wide, she stands further from center mark”, “when I give him a short ball, he cranks a forehand down the line.” Never think about the actual stroke mechanics, that’s what practice and lessons are for.

Zen tennis involves letting your unconscious mind control mechanics

Before I learned the art, a punch was just a punch, and a kick, just a kick.
After I learned the art, a punch was no longer a punch, a kick, no longer a kick.
Now that I understand the art, a punch is just a punch and a kick is just a kick.”
— Bruce Lee

Zen Tennis

think less, play better tennis

I’m going to tell you the secret to playing great tennis and winning more matches and it’s a simple 2 step process…

1. Get a few lessons, get your strokes perfected, and then practice them until they are consistent and automatic.

2. Turn your conscious mind off and let your subconscious mind control your matches.

putting the pieces together for mental preparation in tennis

Simple, right? We wish! But how many times have you heard a sports announcer say something like, “he’s in the zone”, “she’s playing out of her head”, “he’s unconscious!” Obviously all the pros have done step 1. It’s when they accomplish step 2 that they have stellar performances. We play our best when we turn off the part of our brain that worries about the future or dwells on the failures of the past. Even if it’s the failures of the past 10 minutes. Our subconscious mind has the muscle memory and instinctual movement covered. Ideally, all we need the conscious mind to do is keep up with the score! Actually, a focused, but calm conscious mind can implement and analyze strategy…but you have to be careful. The more input you give the conscious mind, the more it takes over…judging your performance, assigning more importance to outcomes, and generally interrupting the flow of the subconscious mind and body.

Check out our page on Mental Tennis. We will have more next week on the right way to getting your conscious mind involved.

Play the Score

Have you ever heard someone say “play the score”? What does that mean? Play the score means, make your shot selection according to whether you are ahead or behind in the game. Whether you are serving or returning, you need to base your shot on the score. If you are ahead in the game, you can go for a riskier shot. If you are behind, you should choose a safer, more consistent shot. What is safe and what is risky? Let’s take a look.

If you are serving from behind. (ex.15-40)…Play it safe. That means serve your most consistent serve (preferably to their backhand) even if it means hitting your second serve.

If you are returning serve from behind. …Play it safe. Hit your return cross court and get the point started.

In both the above cases, once the point starts, rally the ball cross court and deep. Changing the direction of the ball (hitting down the line) is riskier than cross court, and also opens up the court for your opponent. Let your opponent make the first mistake.

If you are ahead in the game, you can try the risky shot. For example, the big serve down the middle, or the kick serve out wide. You could try a return down the line, a lob, drop shot, or any other type of winner. However, you don’t have to try a risky shot just because you are ahead. If playing consistent tennis has given you a lead, why tamper with success? If you are going to try a risky shot, remember when to try that “winner” that we all love to hit. Play the score.

Tennis scoreboard
Tennis Scoreboard

Be a Closer at the net

A sure way to win more doubles matches is by closing in to the net so that you can finish(win) points by hitting un-returnable angles. By moving forward, racket up and ready, you can volley the ball from a higher point, producing better angles. When done correctly, your volleys will be off the court before your opponents can make a move for them. The best news is, that the closer you are to the net the less you have to swing.

I had the pleasure of watching Dennis Van Der Meer demonstrate this principle in a most unique way at one of his tennis facilities in Hilton Head Island, South Carolina. It was an amazing site, especially since he was winning points at the net against a high level junior player…WITHOUT A RACKET. Van Der Meer grabbed the lid from a water cooler, held it in front of him and had the junior player blast ground strokes at him from the baseline. He stepped diagonally forward, pointed the lid in the direction he wanted the ball to go and proceeded to put away volley after volley! By meeting the ball at a high point, in front of his body, close to the net, he was able to hit the ball at an angle that was off the court, into the fence in many cases, before the other player could move.

   Of course even with perfect technique, success also depends on your opponents trying to hit passing shots, not lobs. If your opponents have good lobs, or exceptionally good passing shots(low and/or away from you), you may have to adjust your court position/strategy.

 Generally speaking, the doubles team that can close in on the net and create winning volley angles, wins the match. Practice this strategy with your partner and watch your winning percentage grow

Tennis Volley form

keep a ball up your sleeve to help

  Keeping your upper arm close to your body is important for a good volley. It keeps the shot compact and stable. A  good way to practice this is to put a tennis ball under your arm pit and hit a few low volleys. If the ball falls out, your arm is moving too far away from your body.

This exercise also emphasizes another aspect of good volley form. It forces you to generate power by stepping diagonally forward with your body instead of swinging. Spend a few minutes fine tuning your volley form with this exercise and watch your volley consistency soar. Spend too much time with this exercise and watch your arm pit “sore”.

Getting the low ball back

A lot of people have trouble with balls that stay low or are going to be low by the time they get to them. They tend to hit them into the net. Let’s look at the solutions to this problem.

  • The racket face needs to be open or tilted up. The best way to accomplish this is to use a Continental grip…(hold the racket like a hammer).
  • With the racket face tilted up, the bottom edge needs to get under the ball. To accomplish this you may have to really bend your knees.
  • If you are running to make it to the low ball, get the racket out in front of your body, so that you make contact out in front and use your body momentum for power.

  Practicing these pointers will ingrain the form you need to pick up those low balls and you’ll stay in more points. Have fun on the courts.  

Focus on the Slow Ball

Tennis mistakes happen at slow speeds just like a fender bender
Tennis “accidents” happen at slow speeds too

Did you know that more traffic accidents happen at slower speeds? Why? Distractions. The mind wanders when it thinks it has plenty of time to react. Tennis players fall victim to the same problem when hitting slow balls. 

   When hitting a faster ball, you automatically focus on the incoming ball and the task of returning it. When “waiting” on a slower ball you might start considering all the options and lose concentration. Given enough time, some players even start doubting their strokes and short arm the shot(tighten up and swing tentatively).

  Set up a practice match with a friend that you know hits slower shots and work on your focus and concentration. Remember, keep your feet moving(see previous tip Move those Feet) and practice focusing on the slow ball so you can avoid “accidents” on the court.

Lob the Service Line

To get your lobs deeper, lob over the service line not the net player.

How to lob against aggressive net players
How to lob the net man

If your lobs are consistently landing short, focus on making the high point(apex) of the lob happen over the service line.

 Most people focus on lobbing over the net man. This makes the high point of the lob happen over the middle of the service box, or roughly, where the net man is standing. With a couple of steps, the net man can move back and hit the overhead from the service line. Not a desirable out-come for you.

By lobbing with the service line as the apex, you make the net man shuffle back to almost the base line to hit the overhead, or better yet, chase the lob and hit a defensive shot back.

So remember to lob against aggressive net players, use the service line as the focus.

Clay Court Tennis Tips

As the pros are about to start the clay court season, this seems like a good time to talk about some of the particulars of playing on the surface. Making the transition from hard courts to clay courts can be a challenge. Here are a few simple rules to help you succeed quickly on clay.

clay tennis court
Red clay tennis court
  1.    You must get a high percentage of first serves in. Second serves are much easier to take advantage of on this slower surface. Use more of a kick serve or a slice to help your percentage. See previous tips Kick(serve) some Butt!/ Kick(serve) some Butt(2)!/
  2.    Always hit behind your opponent in a ground stroke rally. In other words, don’t hit to the open court unless you can hit a winner. Also hit higher over the net with topspin for consistency. See tips Hit “de fence”, stay on offense/ One more ball
  3.   Lastly, once you have control of a point and can hit a winning volley, make sure you move forward through the shot. On clay, the ball doesn’t penetrate like it does on a hard court, so it’s important to keep you body weight going forward to add power to the shot. 

Practice these techniques on the clay and watch your winning percentage go up!

The Overhead part 2

Last week we talked about footwork and preparation for the overhead. This week we exam the options based on what type of lob you’re given. 

  1. A high and short lob that drops straight down – let the ball bounce and use your quick feet to get in position to hit an angled overhead put away
  2. A looping/topspin lob that’s also short – take this ball out of the air, if it bounces you may not catch it
  3. A well hit lob going over your head – just try to get under it enough to tap the ball back deep and stay in the point, or if you are athletic – jump and hit the overhead a la Pete Sampras
  4. A very deep, high lob – let the ball bounce, move into position and hit a slice overhead similar to a serve, or even hit an aggressive ground stroke to gain control of the point

 Fast feet, early preparation, and proper shot selection will improve your overhead. As a matter of fact, those 3 things will improve pretty much every shot in tennis.