ETI 013 | Circle of Play
This one is entirely visual.
Draw a full circle with your racquet, visualizing the face of a clock.
At 3 and 9 o’clock, your arm is horizontal, the racquet head is well away from your body.
Down at 5 and 7 o’clock your arm points down, the racquet head falls below your hand, and your reach is not as extended as it was at 9 and 3.
Use this feel to know that when balls are low (5 and 7), you actually want to play them “inside” but when balls are bouncing up (9 and 3) you actually want to play them “up and away.”
The circle of play is a natural way to feel how your arm moves at various heights, and how to position for the low and high shots.
ETI 010 | The Pete Sampras Snap
At the net put your forearm at net level and parallel to the net strap, with the racquet head at right angles to your forearm.
Now practice quickly turning your hand and wrist such that the racquet head snaps forcefully against the net strap.
Take your time, keep experimenting – and once this feels somewhat natural – toss up a few (rather than tossing down a few) and see how it feels on the serve.
You may be pleasantly surprised!
ETI 009 | Waiting and Weighting
If you want to hit the ball with less effort and more power, take a page from the baseball batter or the boxer – both wait with their body weight on the back foot before swinging the bat or delivering a punch.
Too often players pay too much attention to grips, swings, and spin without ever mastering their balance. And truly even the pitcher puts their back foot on the pitching rubber before hurling the pitch.
ETI 007 | The top of the bounce
Watch the professional players who are adept at moving inside the baseline to finish the point. They will invariably make contact when the ball is well above the net, if not the absolute apex of the bounce.
And at this height (which is nearly always above the level of the net) the net is less an obstacle. In fact, in many instances it appears the stroke and follow through are almost level if not slightly down, that is they are driving the ball over the net but down and into the court.
ETI 006 | Looking through the net
Tennis is a game of “UP.”
Suzanne Lenglen, French world champion in the 1920’s, was trained by her father. And the story goes that they would have a tennis outing to a park in Paris, but, and this is an important but – they would play as long as she did not hit a single ball into the net. And the practice stopped (dead in its tracks) with her first netted error. Long, or wide and they continued, but the net was the obstacle to be avoided at all costs.
ETI 005 | Holding your finish
Holding your finish for just a moment clarifies your balance as well as the quality of your stroke and follow thru.
Further, this method has been used by so many famous coaches – Tom Stow, Robert Lansdorp and more. It will help you as well.
Stow remarked that if the stroke started correctly (balanced on the back foot with a compact but loose preparation) and finished correctly (weight shifted forward and arm well extended toward the target) then everything between the start and finish – meaning contact – would be just fine.
ETI 003 | Corkscrewing – using your legs for topspin and power
Push on the ground and the ground pushes back. This is somewhat a common phrase from mechanics and physics, but it dos take some explaining. Meaning if you were on thin ice and pushed on the ground, it would not push back but rather you would break through the ice.
Said another way, if you are on a bathroom scale and you drop and suddenly land you will be lighter when dropping but heavier when you land. And this down and up action adds to the power of the upward drive.
So when using the ground to create more topspin and more power, the key is how you push on the ground, and whether you can create an upward rotational movement.
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