The Sports-India Community

I have been surprised about the lack of material on the internet to help in improving your tennis so this thread is for all the fellow hackers out there to share material which they have come across and found useful.

I have found Videojug to be a fantastic source of material

http://www.videojug.com/tag/tennis

http://www.netfit.co.uk/training/sports ... itness.htm is a good page on tennis specific exercises

Thanks, Sam.  It's a great idea to start this thread.  I wonder why no thought of it earlier.  Do we have many serious tennis players on this forum?  Or are most avid followers of the sport but not players?  I know some of us are tennis' version of musicologists - tennisologists, may be!  I am an avid player, have played on and off for 35 years, but I can't imagine learning anything new off the web.  Still, I am keen to see how popular this thread becomes.

I find the video information to be useful. There are some sites which are text based which I can't see the benefit of. I guess if you are an experienced club player and play to a very good level then the value of these sites is diminished but if you are at the beginner/improver/intermediate level then there is nothing wrong in being reminded of the basics from time to time.

Thanks for the links, Sam. It can definitely help someone who is be interested in taking up the game of tennis. I played tennis for a long time like JIC, but had to stop playing tennis completely for last four years to travel and learn more about the game.  I just started to play tennis again and I am able to adapt to these modern strokes.

Here is a good site about the top spin serve

http://www.tennismindgame.com/topspin-tennis-serve.html

and loads of other really good stuff by browsing through the index; especially the section on drills

My forehand cross-court shots fall long a tad more often when I am fresh and can hit with full force.  When I am tired the shots fall in but slower.  I can take off the power to keep the ball in initially, but is there a way I can hit a winner with power and keep the ball in?  I know that perhaps I should add more top-spin in my shots, but, even with my best effort to put top-spin the ball falls out.  Does anyone know without seeing me hit, what change I can make to get the ball to fall in without sacrificing power?  I should take tennis classes, but, in this small town the public classes are full for the summer and in winter there is no tennis due to snow.

What are my options:
a) Eat less candies to have less energy to start with,
b) Play with my left hand to get the ball to fall in (will it cross the net?),
c) Leave tennis altogether because it is a futile endeavor?

-pm

prasen9 wrote: My forehand cross-court shots fall long a tad more often when I am fresh and can hit with full force.  When I am tired the shots fall in but slower.  I can take off the power to keep the ball in initially, but is there a way I can hit a winner with power and keep the ball in?  -pm

Take a few private lessons from a good coach (someone who works well with adults with limited tennis skills).  A tennis pro can evaluate your game, recommend corrective actions, feed you balls to practice your tennis strokes and make you a better player.  You will enjoy the game a lot more when you can hit the ball with decent control.

I have belonged to a tennis club for the past 24 years and I know the pros who work well with children and those who work well with adults.  Try to find that out in your area.  If not, get a couple of lessons from a pro and if you don't like working with him/her, look for another onw.  You do not have to belong to a tennis club to use the services of these pros because some of them give private tennis lessons outside their tennis club.

Once you have become a better player, join a tennis league and your skills will improve further by playing different players.  If you want to save money later on, join a drill group periodically (I am not sure if these are available outside of a tennis club or not).

Good luck.

In order to avoid getting tired, you need improve your muscular endurance  through weight training(low weights and high repetition ) or using elastic bands.
The secret of a good stroke is based on how well you can manipulate the larger and smaller muscle groups.

What kind of momentum (linier, rotational or vertical) are you trying to create when going for cross-court shots? On balls that you get below the net, you need to hit with spin and rotational momentum. While on balls that you get above the net, you can hit  balls with linier momentum.  The correct mental state and the appropriate foot work is also required.

prasen9 wrote:My forehand cross-court shots fall long a tad more often when I am fresh and can hit with full force.  When I am tired the shots fall in but slower.  I can take off the power to keep the ball in initially, but is there a way I can hit a winner with power and keep the ball in?

Use two rackets strung at different tensions, but otherwise identical. Looser strings -> more power but less top spin & control. Tighter strings -> vice versa. So you can use one when fresh & the other when tired. Getting your rackets strung in this way is probably a whole lot cheaper than lessons...

prasen9 wrote: My forehand cross-court shots fall long a tad more often when I am fresh and can hit with full force.  When I am tired the shots fall in but slower. 

Have you tried hitting with more top spin to begin with? Playing with more top spin will also be more of a percentage shot as you will be less likely to hit the ball into the net and still maintain the power and keep the ball in. I find returning top spin shots difficult at the beginning of the session because of the extra weight the shot carries.

The other option is to perhaps stand back an extra pace or two to begin with to compensate for the extra power that you are imparting. Perhaps try that as part of the warm up and see how you feel.

Thanks everybody for the tips.  Yes, Samarth, I generally hit with as much top-spin as I can muster.  I think standing back or receiving the ball back is a choice.  Today, I was trying to observe which shots are going long a bit more critically than usually where I just go and hit.  I think v george's comments were very appropriate.  A number of shots that I hit long, I was not possibly in the optimal position and swung fully nevertheless.  So, I need to pay attention to moving more swiftly or as swiftly as my reflexes will allow me to have time for.  May be if I do not have the full space with the ball for the shot, I should just dink it in deep and keep the rally going.  The other part were the high balls.  I do not know if I should just smack them flat in instead of top-spin.  At least today, the flat hits all went in and some of the top-spin missed.  For the low balls, all the cross-court shots were falling in, at least, all those that I was in a position to hit.  In the long run, I will take up Bhusan's advice of getting some coaching.  I am too lazy to do weight-training and since I play really really recreational very amateur tennis, I may take that up as a last resort, though, I recognize the value of it.

and one more advice.. Try taking the ball on the rise...

by high balls, do you the mean the ones that bouce to your shoulder height? If so one of the option is to try a slice ( very effective especially for one handed backhand ).And if you play double fisted backhand, you can easily pummel it by raising on the heels or even a little jump. 

Interesting article about the experience of a high intermediate/top club player from England who went to Bollettieri's for a week.

Independent on Sunday

S_K_S wrote: Interesting article about the experience of a high intermediate/top club player from England who went to Bollettieri's for a week.

Independent on Sunday

Bollettieri’s tennis academy has wonderful facilities, perhaps one of the best in the world, and several pro-tennis players practice there.  Many junior players from America and other parts of the world spend months to years training at this tennis facility.  The program appears to be structured to produce good players and there is no doubt that it improves the skills of the people who undergo tennis training.

However, I have not been too impressed by the subtle claims made by Bollettieri’s tennis academy that producing Grand Slam winners such as Agassi, Maria Sharapova, et al qualifies the center as the top one in the world, or that Nick Bollettieri is one of the best tennis coaches.  The tennis center has produced champions, but it has also attracted many top talented junior players from around the world and failed to turn them into top pro tennis players.  There are many factors that go into the making of a champion and some of them are related to the talent, drive and work ethics of the individual player, yet Bollettieri’s tennis academy remains a place that is more likely to produce top-500 player than a tennis champion. 

Many junior players are fascinated by the fact that several top pro-level players can be seen using the facilities of the tennis academy, and it is a great selling point for the academy.  There is a right place to train for every junior player, and the trick is to find that right place.  Bollettieri’s tennis academy may be the right place for some players while other academies would be better options for many other talented players.

Kumar wrote: and one more advice.. Try taking the ball on the rise...

by high balls, do you the mean the ones that bouce to your shoulder height? If so one of the option is to try a slice ( very effective especially for one handed backhand ).And if you play double fisted backhand, you can easily pummel it by raising on the heels or even a little jump. 

Thanks Kumar for the advice.  Yes, I meant, the ones that bounce to my shoulder height.  I hit a one-handed backhand slice and it goes okay.  If it is low, I play a double-handed backhand only if in position, but, more often play the one handed slice --- I find the latter easier to control.  I was talking about problems on high forehand.