LEARNING TO VOLLEY

When learning to volley, especially with the one handed backhand volley practice with one hand behind your back. This is most efficiently done with controlled feeding from the coach or parent standing behind the service line. A reminder to keep the arm/forearm in front of you and the elbow close to body on the forehand volley and on the backhand volley to reach across your body but keep the arm and elbow bent and relaxed with the hand and wrist extended. You backhand volleys might then approach the quality of the likes of rosewall, roche, laver, stolle, hoad, etc. dd

PRONATION (Serve)

There is always some degree of pronation on all serves including the slice up and off the side line. As a reminder the pronation movement is done with the forearm turning inside out. wr

NON DOMINANT ARM USE -- FH

Use the non dominant arm/hand for spacing when turned or turning to the forehand side. The contact point should be well outside the length of the non dominant arm when turned prior to contacting the ball. Tips to remember about the non dominant arm when turning: Reach across the body with the non dominant arm when turning. Keep the arm below the shoulder and extend the arm, but not stiffly. afdd

LEG DRIVE -- A Critical Component for the Power Serve.

A critical component of the power serve is the effective use of the leg drive. One must drive with the legs from the loaded position to get additional power behind the serve. First, there must be a sufficient leg/knee bend, then there must be an explosive push up with the legs into the court to where the ball is contacted close to its toss height. One would land inside the baseline with the front leg first with the back leg coming in and through after. There may still be some servers that do the scissor kick landing with the back leg landing first, but a majority of servers in the game today will land with the front leg first. But, for foot up style servers, the leg push can be quite important as these servers are not as effective vertically as the foot back servers are. Remember the ideal degree of leg bend is somewhere close to 110 degrees plus or minus 5 degrees for optimum use. The effective use of the legs lends itself to a strong body core and of course strengthened calves, quadriceps, and hamstrings. goyc

FOREHAND -- Critical elements of a Great Shot

These elements are critical for a great forehand in today's modern game: a) a high hand or high racquet take back b) an extended wrist c) separation distance of the elbow from the body d) significant hand speed to swing e) leg use or leg drive. To briefly comment on the importance of each element above I will begin with (a) the height of the hand allows for more speed and momentum to build up to contact. Shoulder height is minimum with top of human head level extreme, but still excellent. An extended wrist is critical for prestretching the hand for maximum acceleration AND for bloody racquet head control. Regarding (c), the elbow separation from the body allows for greater length of stroke! The longer the stroke the more powerful the stroke. The speed of the hand is quite important but must be practiced by swinging fast. Just swing faster! The legs are very important because with the open stance forehand, the drive or loading down into court allows for more rotation speed and 'torque' when swinging. When closing one's stance the greater leg bend allows for more proficient shifting of weight into the forehand, hence more power. afdd

Doc's Tip -- Serve

Remember, when serving and reaching up to swing at the ball the non dominant arm will drop and as it drops down you want to tuck that ARM into your stomach to facilitate the shoulder over shoulder rotation speed as well as upper arm elevation. The tucking of the tossing arm reduces the inertia up and forward which allows the shoulders to rotate faster. afd

Doc's Tip of the Evening -- movement/positioning.

Moving your feet and getting into position to hit the ball is probably the most important factor in the game of tennis once your strokes become proficient. Moving your feet means running to the ball and judging the correct space or distance you will need to establish body balance prior to striking the ball. Always run or get into proper position before starting to swing at the ball. Even when the ball is hit right to you there is footwork to be done to position properly before starting your swing. Usually the footwork done once you are at the ball is referred to as adjustment footwork. Jkd