Podcast #133: Learn 3 things to help you return more shots

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Alright, let’s go ahead and get started with our first topic on today’s show, and it’s a really good one, an interesting one, something that we haven’t talked about on the podcast before, and something that’s probably a little bit more detailed and a little bit more in depth than what you guys will guess, and today’s question, our first question comes to us from [inaudible] in Southern California. He wrote and said, “What are better ways to counter tennis wild balls and bounces during a match? What I mean by wild balls are different slices, miss hits, windy shots, wild bounces on clay, on lines, and on grass etc. It takes me 10 plus shots to get used to different slices and other wild balls. These 10 plus errors are the difference between a win or a loss. Please address the following: #1 backspin shots, #2 side spin, miss hits, line shots on clay–ah–grass, hard etc. #5 uneven bounces on clay, grass, hard courts etc. and then lastly, windy shots that move side to side.”

So, [inaudible] is wondering how exactly to deal with shots that don’t bounce normal.– ha, I guess, ah–when you, when you hit it or when a ball bounces on your side of the court and it doesn’t bounce, you know, straightforward,– ah–it doesn’t, it doesn’t maintain its current trajectory and it makes a goofy bounce in some way or another, based on those many different criteria that [inaudible] mentioned, it can sometimes be really tricky and difficult to to be consistent. It’s not an easy thing to deal with.

Now, I’m going to talk about 3 tennis skills that nobody teaches. I don’t see a lot of instruction about this online. I definitely don’t hear tennis professionals teaching it very much–um–I definitely have seen it in some places, but it’s not a common theme, it’s not your typical topic that you guys are usually going to see talked about in tennis videos or, definitely not in a clinic, if you guys go to a tennis club and you’re looking for instruction. These are not topics that you’re going to hear covered, and this is kind of, this is one of the reasons why I really enjoy the podcast, because while the podcast, you know the audio format might not lend itself perfectly towards technique all the time or strategy, – you know, a lot of you guys are more visual learners and I appreciate that – but what the audio format is great for is things like this, that you guys can learn more about and maybe learn about it for the first time, and go and implement these things into your game. Now these 3 things, it doesn’t mean that some of you don’t need to really work on these things just because they’re simple

They’re not complicated, but you guys will definitely need to work on some of these areas, in order to improve your game.

So, these 3 skills that aren’t taught very often: #1 is judgment, and judgment quite simply is the ability to tell where the ball is going after it’s bounced. Or I guess in general, we could really expand that to be talking about volleys or overheads, you know, other shots that you take out of the air. You know, we could definitely expand the definition to include that as well. So it’s the general ability to tell where exactly the ball is going. And the resulting thing that you guys should be doing once you can tell where it’s going is placing your body in the correct spot on the court so that you’re able to make an effective swing at the ball, so that you’re able to hit the best shot possible.

And everybody has different amounts of natural judgment. And you guys, some of you guys I’m sure, are probably thinking to yourselves, “Well yeah, doh, I mean obviously we need to be able to tell where the ball is going, otherwise we’re going to have a hard time getting it back,” but let me tell you: many of you guys need to work on this.

And you don’t have large amounts of natural talent, most of us don’t have huge amounts of talent to draw from, where you know, we just kind of pick things up automatically without thinking about it first or being aware of it. Most of us are not like that. Some of you guys are and God bless you. You probably don’t have to think about this. Others of you, are going to have to actually make this a conscious effort at first to get better at judging exactly where the ball is going and it’s something that can be worked on.

Now, I have 2 examples here of judgment gone wrong. So, specific examples of what happens when players aren’t the best at judging exactly where the ball is going. And many of you guys will be able to identify with both of these examples right away.

Example #1 would be repeatedly jamming yourself or positioning yourself too close to the ball on either you forehand or your backhand ground stroke. This is something that I see very commonly, both in my instruction in person where I work, and when I watch recreational players in general, when people send me videos to look at of their stokes. I very often see players position themselves too close to the ball. And it’s not something that happens once in a while, it’s a repeatable pattern over and over again. And so their judgment is off. They’re just not seeing correctly where the ball is going and they’re not judging correctly where the ball is in relationship – I’m sorry, where their body is – in relationship to the ball.

A second example of judgment gone wrong would be repeatedly hitting the ball up higher than what your strike zone is, over and over again. And I also see this very commonly, and you guys know what I’m talking about: you’re on the base line in the middle of a single’s or a double’s point, the ball comes over to your side, bounces, you prepare yourself, you get ready to swing, you start to make that swing – that forehand or backhand stroke – and before you know it, the ball is up shoulder height or maybe even higher and you’re making contact well above where your comfort zone is.

Maybe you even identified that it was going to bounce high and you backed up a little bit, but it was still way too high and it became a very difficult shot. Those of you, especially who have one-handed backhands, know what I’m talking about. When the ball is just a little high outside of your strike zone, it becomes much more difficult to hit an effective shot back.

So, any time this happens, it’s the result of not judging the ball correctly. Any time you position yourself too close to the ball, it’s a matter of not judging the ball correctly, and so you have to improve your judgment. That’s skill #1, that nobody really talks about or teaches.

Skill #2: anticipation, having a strong sense of what’s coming next before it happens. And this is something, again, natural athletes just kind of get. And they’re always trying to think one or two steps ahead, one or two plays or shots ahead in a point or in a match. They’re trying to anticipate what their opponent is going to do next to try to beat them. And this is something that you guys can develop, it’s not an easy thing. It’s not something like a stroke where you can say, “Alright, this is how you do it,” and you know–shadow swing and practice it first and then go out and try it with a ball. And there’s not quite the clean progression that you would normally have for a lot of tennis skills, but it’s something that you guys can develop.

And examples of anticipation would be: having a strong sense or a good guess of what shot placement or shot direction that your opponent is going to hit next. Where are they going to aim their next shot? If you’re good at anticipation, you’ve got a pretty good idea based on their tendencies, and their strengths, and the patterns that they’ve shown you thus far in the match. From shot to shot you’re going to have a pretty good sense of what’s happening next. It doesn’t mean you’re always going to be right. Obviously, your opponent could always throw something in there that is a little bit different and catch you off guard, but people who are good at anticipation very often have a high success rate of telling what’s coming next.

And there’s even certain professional players that are known for this. Andy Murray is kind of known as having good anticipation and when you guys watch him on TV, you’ll very often see him start to run before the ball is hit by his opponent, which is part of what makes him cover the court so well.

Example #2 of good anticipation would be– um, I lost my spot. Oh, here we go– shot selection of your opponent. And what I mean by shot selection is not where they’re aiming, but the type of shot. As an example, a drive, a lob, a slice shot, or a top spin– you know, shot–all examples of different types of shots, that your opponent could hit. Taking out the accuracy, or the aim, or the placement of the shot, they could also choose to hit different types of shots. And that’s another type of anticipation.

And then thirdly, lastly, realizing that the ball is about to hit a line on your side of the court, or it’s about to hit the net court, or there’s a strong possibility that’s it’s about to bounce off the net, or it’s some other spot on the court that you frequently get a bad bounce off of. When you have good anticipation you can start to pick up on things like that before it even happens. And again, you might not always be 100% correct. And you might say, “wow, it looks like it’s about to hit the line,” and it might not. Maybe it’ll land inside the line and not touch it at all, or maybe it’ll land outside the line and you’re off by a couple of inches. But my point is that players that are good at anticipating, they have these kinds of awarenesses and thoughts on their mind and they start trying to pick up on these types of things before they happen, so that they can make a good adjustment to be more successful getting the ball back. So that’s skill #2 out of 3: anticipation.

And skill #3 that’s very infrequently taught is, skills at reading what your opponent is doing. And this is similar to judgment and also it’s similar to anticipation, but it’s a little bit different.

Let me explain what I mean: Basically by reading, I’m talking about understanding what’s coming next based on outside influences to the ball. And an example of what I mean by this is the direction of your opponent’s racquet swing, would be one example. So, if they’re starting with their racquet high, and as they make contact the racquet is coming down, it means they’re going to be putting back spin on the ball. It’s also pretty likely that it’s going to be short. It’s probably going to be a drop shot. Not necessarily; they could also knife through it and hit a slice deep in the court as well, but it’s something that you would be looking for. And again, this is very akin to anticipation, but I’m going to put this in a separate classification of reading what your opponent is doing and what your opponent is doing to the ball. Again, close to anticipation, but I don’t think quite the same thing.

Another example of reading would be the angle of your opponent’s strings. When you guys play doubles or if you’re playing singles and you come to the net a lot and you’re worried about the lob, very often you can see the lob coming, based on what your opponent is doing with their strings. Very often, players telegraph what they’re doing next by what they do with their racquet face. And so if you see your opponent running towards the ball with their racquet open already, the ball’s going to be going up in the air, and unless they chop down at it aggressively – it is possible they could hit some kind of power slice, but look for the ball to pop up. That would be an example of reading what your opponent is doing.

#3, the sound that contact makes coming off of your opponent’s racquet. This is a big one that I almost never hear anybody talking about, and this is why it’s so important at a professional tennis event. The chair umpire and event staff is so being quiet is so important. It’s such a big deal, because professional players get a lot of information based on what it sounds like when their opponent hits the ball. And this is something that fans often times don’t understand, and outsiders to tennis definitely don’t understand, and they think it’s kind of a silly thing that everybody has to be quiet.

But truthfully, you can tell a lot about what’s coming your way by the sound that the ball makes coming off the racquet. A cleanly hit shot makes a very different sound from a shot that hits a little bit off center on the racquet, and definitely a lot off center. If it hits, you know, they just purely shank it, that’s good information. You need to know that, because the bounce is going to be very different and the flight of the ball is going to be very different than a cleanly hit shot.

And you can also hear different types of spin. I guarantee you guys, that blindfolded I could tell you guys if a ball is hit with drive, heavy top spin, or a slice, or hit softly, or hit off center. All of those things I can tell you guys, what’s happening coming off the racquet without even looking. I can tell you what type of swing it was, how aggressive it was, all those types of pieces of information, you can tell just by listening carefully and picking out what different sounds mean as far as what’s happening with the ball.

And #4, a last example of reading skills: and that would be the wind. Being able to read what the ball is going to do based on the wind. Both, the direction of the wind and the strength of the wind; both really important factors when trying to tell exactly what’s coming your way.

So, there you have it: judgment, anticipation, and reading. Again, these are really closely related, but slightly different skills, and when you put all of these things together, you’ll have the ability to deal with any possible shot to the best of your ability.

That doesn’t mean that it’s always going to be easy. It doesn’t mean that you’re always going to be in a comfortable place and it’s going to be no problem of getting the ball back. But you’re going to give yourself the best chance to be successful – even when the ball is hit awkwardly to you – by doing all of these different things.

Now, it’s so important, because you can’t even use whatever athletic gifts you have, unless you read and anticipate and judge the ball well. You could have the world’s greatest forehand, but if you consistently misjudge where the ball is going, and you don’t react to the ball until after it’s been hit every time and you’re not anticipating, and if you’re poor at reading what your opponent is doing and what the wind is doing and how clean a contact they made etc., if you’re not doing any of those three things well, you’re rarely going to be in the right spot to hit your best shot.

And so you kind of waste that kind of ability to hit great tennis shots. So, unless you can do those things and know what’s coming, you’re really kind of doing yourself a disservice. And so, it’s really improve at all three of these areas.

Before I move on and finish this topic up, I want to remind you guys about the official sponsor of the essential tennis podcast, and that is Championship Tennis Tours. You can find them at tennistours.com, they specialize in tennis tickets and travel packages to professional tennis events. Definitely go check them out!

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Alright, let’s go ahead and move on and [inaudible] asked me to address several specific instances of what he called wild bounces or wild tennis shots. And now that I’ve gone over the three main ways that you guys are going to best position yourselves and be in the best possible place to hit a good tennis shot, let’s go ahead and go back and talk about each of his

[speaker] specific circumstances and real briefly I’m going to take what I talked about already and apply it to those specific occurrences around the tennis court, so that you guys can tell exactly which part of what I talked about are going to apply to these different circumstances.

So #1: backspin shots. He asked me to address backspin shots. Well, this is all about reading the swing, first of all. If you can read that he is coming down at the ball and that the racquet is open, you know that he is going to be hitting with backspin. And so you should be able to anticipate that a backspin shot is coming based on reading the swing. So based on those two things, you should be able to judge exactly how much spin is on the ball, and then move forwards accordingly, because a backspin shot is going to cause the ball to kind of check up, to bounce, and maybe even go backwards a little bit. And based on exactly how aggressive the swing is, you should be able to read and anticipate exactly how much the bounce is going to be altered. And that’s how you change your game. Based on that you judge where to go and you position yourself accordingly. So that’s kind of working down all three steps there, when your opponent hits you a backspin shot.

Sidespin, same thing: read the swing, anticipate what’s coming, and judge how much spin is on the ball and move accordingly. And depending on what direction your opponent’s racquet moves, you know that the ball is going to curve the other direction in one way or another. Or it’s going to not necessarily curve, but bounce and skip to the right or to the left. You’ll be able to tell based on what direction your racquet, I’m sorry, your opponent’s racquet is moving.

#3, miss hit shots. This is all about listening. And I put that under reading. You’ll be able to tell when it’s miss hit based on the sound and also watching closely. The ball won’t come off the racquet the way it was supposed to when your opponent hits it when they miss hit the shot.

Now as far as what’s going to happen specifically with the ball, they are all different. This is tough. This is a really tough shot, when your opponent shanks the ball, you’re going to get a variety of different bounces and resulting shots from the other side of the court and so this is tough to judge and know exactly where to go. The best thing I can tell you is, try to visually see the spin on the ball.

Very often you can actually see what direction the ball is spinning and you can see it already starting the curve as it travels through the air, and so you can get a read on which direction it’s going to bounce when it hits the court. This is a tough one, but if you pay close attention both, by listening and watching, you should be able to get a decent jump and position yourself correctly.

Fourth one: line shots. This is tough, too. And you’re going to be able to best deal with these by anticipating when it’s about to hit the line, or when it’s most likely to hit the line. And you can adjust the timing of your swing accordingly. Usually when the ball hits a line, it kind of skips, it comes off the court a little faster than it normally does and usually a little bit lower, and so you have to start your swing a little bit sooner than you normally would to adjust for that. And this is just a tough one, because you might have a good feel for when it’s going to hit the line, but you’re not always going to be right. The line’s a small piece of court, guys. It’s not easy to tell for sure when it’s going to hit the line. So if you misjudge that and you’re off by a little bit, don’t worry about it. It’s a really tough one, but it really comes down to watching the ball carefully and anticipating when it’s about to hit the line.

Second to last one: uneven bounces on hard courts, clay courts, grass courts etc. This really comes down more than anything to quick adjustments, because you’re not always going to know when you’re going to get a bad bounce. In fact, usually, you’re not going to know. It’s going to catch you off guard. Sometimes, it’s something you can anticipate, but not usually.

So this is really more a matter of just simply your reaction time. How quickly can you react to the bad bounce? How quickly can you make an adjustment both, with your feet and with your swing? It really doesn’t go back to anticipation and reading and judgment a whole lot, because you just have very small amounts of time to make a change, and it’s almost impossible to tell for sure when you’re going to get a bad bounce. Sometimes you’ll have a good idea of when it’s going to happen, but this is another really tough situation.

And then lastly, windy shots that move side to side. This is something that you should be able to read and anticipate simply by feeling and listening, and watching the ball, and seeing exactly what’s taking place from shot to shot. Now of course, sudden gusts of wind could come about and make it difficult, and you might have to make a last second adjustment, and that can always be tough, but in general, you should be able, I mean, you know it’s a windy day, alright? The fact that it’s a windy day shouldn’t catch you off guard. That’s something that you should have felt already moving into the match.

Of course, each individual shot might be a little bit different, but there’s not going to be huge changes in direction and strength of wind, most likely. And so you should have a pretty good feel based on what side of the court you’re on, what direction the ball is probably going to move, when the wind does catch it. So, this is something that you should anticipate based on what’s already happened that day as you’ve been outside, but again can be a tricky situation.

Alright, so [inaudible] , that’s it. I could have gone a lot longer on this. I’m trying to actually get through my outline quickly, because I want to get to another question today, but really good questions and hopefully I’ve given you guys some things to think about and some things to work on, some things to be more aware of when you’re out on the courts and to watch more carefully for. If you guys can get better at judging, anticipating, and reading what’s going on around you, you will become a better tennis player. Period.

And these are things that recreational players very often either are just not aware of, or they’re aware of it and they just take it kind of for granted and they say, “well, yeah, obviously I’m supposed to try to figure out what’s coming next,” but it’s not something that they really work on and take seriously, because they feel like it’s too obvious of a thing. So if you guys do take it seriously and you really pay close attention and you work on it, you can improve your game. [inaudible] thank you for the great question, I appreciate you being a listener and hopefully, this was helpful to you. Alright.

One more question I want to get to before I wrap up today’s show – and this comes to us from Megan in New Zealand – Megan, great to have you as a listener in New Zealand, I really appreciate you listening and writing in with your question. She simply wrote, “What are the best ways to get heaps of power on your ground strokes and serve?” That’s it. Simple, straight to the point, I like it. Well, Megan, efficient and coordinated transfer of energy from the ground through your core and out through your arm and racquet head is how you’re going to make a lot of power on both, your ground strokes and on your serve.

And this is called the kinetic chain, the kinetic chain. And this is something I’ve referenced a couple of different times on the podcast. I actually did a whole podcast on it, and that was episode #41. I had a medical doctor on the show with me as my guest and we talked all about the kinetic chain and the creation of power using the body.

And the kinetic chain is basically a biological theory of how you use your body to best accelerate and create power in general. And this goes for any sports. Any sport where you’re accelerating something that you’re holding on to. So, golf, baseball, hockey, tennis, anything where power is wanted or needed, the kinetic chain is in use.

And it all starts with the legs, as they push up and pivot off of the ground and into your hips, and into your core. Now that’s where it should starts. From there, the core should rotate and turn your upper body and your shoulders and your arm. And as that happens, from there, that energy should transfer through your shoulder and arm as they rotate and accelerate the racquet towards the ball. And so there’s this push and this rotation, starting form the ground and traveling up your body and out your arm and into the ball and, I’m sorry: into the racquet, and finally transferred it into the ball. All of that must happen in the right order, and it all must be coordinated together smoothly, in order to really get as much out of a tennis swing as possible. Otherwise, your efforts and your energy will be lost, and it will wasted.

And recreational players who lack power, who try really, really hard, and – there’s a lot of you guys listening out there who are going to relate to what I’m about to say – a lot of you guys put lots of effort into swings, a forehand or a backhand or a serve. You try really hard, but the results, the resulting shot isn’t very powerful. And then you look over to the court next to you and there’s some 4 or 5 or 5.0 level players hitting and it doesn’t look like they’re even trying hard. And they’re hitting twice as hard as you, and it’s not fair. And it doesn’t seem like it should be right, because you feel like, “Whoa, I don’t understand! I’m putting all of this effort and energy into it. Why am I not getting the same results?”

And it’s because recreational players very often don’t use this method. Instead of transferring energy up through, up from the ground through their body and out their body to the racquet smoothly and coordinated, they swing as hard as they can, using only parts of their body. And usually it’s the arm and the shoulder all by itself, and they’re just using that part of their body to try to accelerate the racquet super fast. Or, they’ll use multiple parts of their body, but it’s just not smoothly coordinated or it’s in the wrong order.

And very often you guys will see players that do use their whole body pretty well. And they do try really hard, but it’s just all kind of herky-jerky and not smooth. And they just don’t look like a good athlete, when they try to hit the ball hard, everything gets really tight and abrupt. That’s one way to really kill your power, is by not being relaxed and one with your swing.

Or, it could be in the wrong order. And this is a really common thing as well, that I see when I do video analysis, is a player will accelerate their arm and their shoulder first to try to move the racquet towards the ball in a powerful way. They’ll hit the ball and then after contact is made, then their core rotates forwards. It’s like, well, what was the point of that? Your core rotated forwards, but the ball was already off the racquet, and so so they feel like, “Wow, I’m really turning my body,” but it’s a wasted motion, and their energy is not actually going into the shot. The big parts of the body, the legs and the hips and the core all need to start their rotation before the ball is even hit, and then only after the rotation has begun, should contact be made and that’s when you’re going to really transfer all of that energy into the ball.

Now, I’ve talked about… This is all talk about how your body should work together and how it should be coordinated. I haven’t talked at all about correct technique. And that’s a big part of it as well. And usually good athletes, who kind of just get the kinetic chain – and they walk out onto the court and they’re already doing it well – usually they kind of pick up on technique pretty quickly as well, and it’s something that comes kind of naturally.

Many of you listening will have to consciously and purposefully work on coordinating your body together correctly, and using the kinetic chain correctly. Some of you listening have attended some of my clinics, and you and I have worked specifically on this, to try to create a more powerful shot. You guys you know who you are, who are listening to me talk.

For those of you who haven’t worked with me personally: this can be a really tough thing to learn for the first time, especially if you’ve already been playing tennis for many years, you played when you were younger and you’re just starting to pick it up again, and also especially, if you haven’t already played a lot of different sports, where you’re trying to create power. It can be a really tough thing to learn.

So don’t be frustrated, if you’re putting a lot of energy in and not getting much out. I really encourage you guys to get a video camera and check out your technique on video, on the computer, and go frame by frame and see how your body is being used. Many of you are scared of that, but it is the best way for you guys to see exactly what you need to work on and where things are not working the way that they should.

So Megan, that’s the answer. Use the kinetic chain, coordinate your body and your efforts together smoothly and in the correct order, and that’s how you’re going to get the most out of your technique. Both, your ground strokes and your serve, that’s how you’re going to get the most power and the most spin, the best results out of your technique.

So Megan, thanks very much for your great question. Hopefully, this was helpful to you and check out podcast #41 in the archives at essentialtennis.com. Just click on podcast and then on archives and you can listen to that whole show where myself and Dr. [inaudible] talked about the kinetic chain.

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Alright, that does it for Episode # 133 of the essential tennis podcast. By the way, I’d like to point out that the podcast archives are completely free. I do ask you guys to sign up for my newsletter, but I only send that out once a week. I don’t spam you guys and all I do is tell you guys about what’s new at essentialtennis.com and then you can access every episode of the essential tennis podcast for free. It’s up to something like 70 or 80 hours of instructional audio. So, if you liked the show, go start downloading those extra shows and listen to them during the week.

One more thing I want to talk to you guys about before I wrap up today’s show, and that is Tennis Express. Now, I’ve done 2 shows where I talked about their possible sponsorship of the podcast already. I checked in with them over the weekend and I think I heard back from them on Sat. or maybe Sun., and at that point, 4 orders had been placed with the code essential. And I was disappointed by that.

At this point, there’s hundreds and even thousands of you guys out there listening. And I know a lot of you guys are new to this show, so I don’t expect you guys to go and support the show by purchasing anything at Tennis Express or anywhere else, so don’t worry about it, but I do want to just give one more pluck for this, because I was really hoping that they could become a sponsor of the show, but if more than 4 purchases don’t get made, they’re definitely not going to see the value in becoming an advertiser on the podcast.

Now, maybe the show is just not ready for that yet, and maybe my audience isn’t big enough. Trust me, I’m going to continue working on it, I’m going to keep growing the audience for this show. And so maybe it’s just a little bit too early, maybe you guys don’t appreciate me asking you guys to do that. And if that’s the case, then that’s fine, it just wasn’t meant to be. But if you do appreciate the show and you would like to see it continue to be successful and all those good things, then I’d really appreciate you guys checking out tennisexpress.com and make any size purchase, doesn’t matter how big or how small. And when you check out, use the code essential.

You won’t get a discount, but you will help me hopefully secure them as an advertiser. And we can continue to work together to get you guys some discounts in the future. Alright, that does it for this week’s show. Thanks everybody for downloading it and for giving it a listen, I appreciate it. Take care and good luck with your tennis!

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