3 Steps To Hitting A Perfect Tennis Shot
In this video lesson, LTA Senior Performance and RPT National Professional coach Simon Konov of Top Tennis Training will help you to hit the ball much cleaner in your tennis.
Hitting the ball in the middle of the stringbed (the sweetspot) is the best way to generate clean strokes that generate effortless power.
Hitting the ball on the edge of the stringbed or the frame itself is one of the worst feelings in tennis and if done over and over again can lead to injuries due to the vibrations that occur when you make contact off centre.
Follow these three steps to hit the ball much cleaner:
1. Early preparation
Track the ball off your opponents racket and start your preparation as early as possible, as soon as you recognize which side the ball is coming to. If you see it’s a forehand, turn your left shoulder to the net (for right handers) and start the racket preparation with that initial unit turn.
This early preparation will create time later in the swing, and creating time is one of the most important things you can do on the tennis court for yourself.
2. Read the ball
Track the ball all the way from your opponents racket right up until the ball has bounced on your side, so you are tracking the ball all the way from the opponents strings, seeing it cross the net, seeing the bounce and then seeing it rise up towards your racket. By fully committing to seeing the ball perfectly, you are setting yourself up to hit a clean shot and will pick up on the spin rates, the speed the ball is travelling at, be able to adjust if there is a bad bounce and many other factors that are crucial when trying to hit the ball off centre.
3. See the contact zone
The last step is now seeing the ball come onto your strings and come off them. The actual contact point happens so quickly that it may be impossible for your eyes to see the actual contact point, however you will be able to see the ball coming onto your strings and then coming off the strings. That is exactly what you want, and the more your practice this skill, the better you’ll get at it and for slower shots you may well see the actual contact of the ball onto the strings.
Talking from my own experience, the deeper my concentration levels are on the ball, I can start to see even faster balls impact the strings and see the strings moving back.
Go out and work on these three steps and I guarantee you’ll see great results with the quality of your ball striking.