| Keep your eye on the ball. You hear this from all tennis | | | | the ball, you'll screw it up. It's very hard to make any |
| players. Why is this important? What does it really | | | | adjustments to a very fast stroke and that means not |
| mean? | | | | putting the ball where you want it in the court. If you |
| The secret to tennis is accuracy not power. If a tennis | | | | set yourself up for a relaxed easy stroke, it's a snap |
| player can place the ball in the court in the right spot, | | | | to add a little extra punch to the stroke in mid-swing, or |
| the chances of winning that point are great. Putting the | | | | to change the direction of the ball. |
| ball where you want it means strategically moving your | | | | Let's get back to watching the ball. Try to fixate on the |
| opponent around the court. They have to run to hit the | | | | ball at all times. In fact trying to read the words on the |
| ball which increases their chance of making an error, | | | | ball or see the fuzz on the ball. As the ball leaves your |
| sometimes they have to swing while running, it tires | | | | opponents tennis racket watch the ball all the way to |
| your opponent, and sets you up to hit a winning shot. | | | | the strings of your racket. When you're swinging the |
| Hitting the ball with a lot of power increases your | | | | tennis racket at the ball keep your head down, hold it |
| chance of hitting the ball into the net, or out of the | | | | down until after the ball has left your racket. This is |
| court past the baseline. Also it's much easier to apply | | | | critical to both beginner tennis play as well as |
| power from a relaxed easy stroke than it is to | | | | championship tennis. It's one of the easiest skills to |
| remove power from a stroke that set up to crush the | | | | learn and one of the hardest to execute even after a |
| ball. Think about it this way, if you want to hit the ball | | | | lifetime of playing tennis. |
| hard and at the last second change the direction of | | | | So what did we learn? |