Hello and welcome. Are too many errors ruining your tennis? It may simply be because of the way you are practising!
Hi, I'm Adrian, lifelong player and coach, and here on Personal Best Tennis we help keen competitive players reduce errors through a better understanding of how to use the strokes they've already got.
We all do it, don't we? We walk onto the court, and what do we do until we are ready to do something else? We rally back and forth. To get the feel. To get our timing. And to keep the ball in play we hit it back to each other. Straight. Up and down the middle. Our partner frowns at us if we don't hit it straight back to them! So, we practise hitting straight up and down the middle. The repetition creates the habit!
The habit manifests itself under pressure in a game situation when thinking is more difficult. We revert to automatic responses at times like that. And that thoughtless reflex action of hitting straight can cause needless errors.
We get so used to hitting straight that sometimes we receive a cross court ball and, without thinking, hit it straight back, into what appears to be a gap! This, in itself, is a much more risky shot than hitting it back across court, but it is the subsequent shots that can prove our downfall!
Your opponent reaches your straight hit ball, and sends it across court. Because you did not recover to the mid point quickly enough you are now a little late getting to the ball! You therefore hit the ball late, making contact a little behind you. This makes it very difficult to hit anywhere other than straight again!
Guess what happens now? Your opponent hits back across court. So who's doing most of the
running?
Down the line shots are more risky than cross courts. The ball travels over the high part of the net! The distance is shorter, more danger of hitting it long! The margin for error width wise is much smaller! And if you do get away with those, the longer this pattern lasts, the more running you have to do! The more likely it is you will make an error, or be forced into making one!
Wouldn't it be nice if you could get your opponent to do all the running, and take bigger risks each time?
Why not try this, see if it works? In a game situation. HIT EVERY BALL CROSS COURT!
I mean every ball! How do you think your opponent would react? Would they be the first to change direction and hit straight? Or would you?
Cross court shots travel over the lowest part of the net, into the longest distance, have a wider margin for error, AND your best recovery position, half way in between your opponent's widest return options, is just a few steps away!
Have you ever noticed the pros do this on really big points, like 5 all in a tiebreak? With all their skill and confidence you quite often see them engage in long exclusively cross court points!
So, here's a challenge. How many cross courts could you hit before the urge to hit straight gets to you? Can you at least double cross the opposition? Let us know. This will be very interesting.
Till next time. Happy Hitting!