September-October 2013
Reminders of key points covered during our first set of private tennis lessons:
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Footwork is essential. Split step as soon as your opponent hits the ball.Take large running steps to the ball, then nice, quick little adjustment steps to adjust, and hit the ball as cleanly as possible. Cross-over step to recover after hitting a ball. Cross over step and step in for vollies. Stay light on your feet.
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Keep a loose arm for more groundstroke power. On your groundstrokes, you want to get as much racquet head speed as you can, especially on your forehand groundstroke, so lay your wrist back, and accelerate on that ball.
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Traffic Light Guidelines
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For a red ball: You are in danger on this shot, so aim high and deep. Your objective is just to keep the ball in the court and stay in the point.
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For a yellow ball: You have opportunities on this shot, so aim a deep in the court or to the opponent’s weaker side. This ball is a set-up shot. Don’t go for too much or be timid with it.
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For a green ball: You have a chance to hit a point-winning shot, so hit with power and placement. If you can hit a shot that doesn’t come back (winner or just unreturnable), that is your job on this shot.
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Focus on point-of-contact. Keep your eyes on the ball as long as you can off your racquet and keep your head still.
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Consistency is key. Get your two’s in every point you can!
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Returns are critical. On your return of serve, focus on getting it back past the service line and with good pace. Get lots and lots of returns in play. Take a short backswing to have the best contact point as possible, and block the ball back to the middle if it’s a hard serve.
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Serves are important and rely on a good toss. On your first serve, have your toss be around 12 or 1 o’clock position for a flat serve or one with slice. Toss balls for your second serve around the 11 o’clock position.
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Your mantra for serving and receiving. Make sure to get as many first serves in as you can while serving in a match to keep the pressure on. When returning, opponents think “make him play”, but then on the second serve then think, “make him pay.”
- Always have a great attitude. You’re playing a competitive sport, and you want to give the opponent as little hope as possible, so have a positive attitude while playing, so you only have one opponent to face.
- Have Fun. At the end of the day, tennis is a fun sport which should encourage competitiveness, yet be fun, and be a nice activity.
Videos:
[video_lightbox_youtube video_id=”D1ayjPvYIE8&rel=0″ width=”640″ height=”480″ anchor=”Kris in action – Lesson 5″]
Your preparation for the serve was great!
You got down really low
Your serves were really fast because your motion was nice and fluid, you swung fast, and you bent your knees.
In points usually if you come to net, you want to stay there or find a way to get in if you get lobbed.
Overall this was a great clip of you playing at a high level.
[video_lightbox_youtube video_id=”AnIUnoECSw4&rel=0″ width=”640″ height=”480″ anchor=”Kris in action – Lesson 5 -Receiving”]
Here you did a great job of hitting the ball and recovering fast.
However you just want to hit the ball, and not look at it to give yourself more time to move to the middle.
You also want to hit the balls as balanced as you can.
This point really shows great hustle and awareness on the court.
[video_lightbox_youtube video_id=”UkYx30aumeo&rel=0″ width=”640″ height=”480″ anchor=”Kris in action – Lesson 2 -Returns”]
Here you want to have a lower split step, and quicker footwork to get out of the way quicker.
You also want to have a shorter backswing on your returns, and just block it back.
[video_lightbox_youtube video_id=”19FGY1Iqblk&rel=0″ width=”640″ height=”480″ anchor=”Kris in action – Lesson 3 – Point Play”]
Here you need to transfer you weight into the ball and return to the middle faster.
There were some great shots of you getting around your backhand, and accelerating through the ball, which was really nice.
[video_lightbox_youtube video_id=”YCrI069HeCU&rel=0″ width=”640″ height=”480″ anchor=”Kris in action – Lesson 3 – TenPoint Game”]
This was a really good shot of you playing smart, getting your 2’s and setting up the points well.
The only real critic I would give you about this shot is that you need to stay planted when you hit, and have your weight transferring into the court. Overall this was a really good clip.