Essential Tennis Instruction

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Here are the 3 keys to winning #tennis:

I receive many questions about the serve, concerning technique, grips, swing path, spin, the action of the arm hand and racquet, and truly the most common question concerns pronation. How do I do pronate? What causes pronation? How can I feel pronation? Why should I pronate?

Depending on the difficulty of the incoming ball, dragging the racquet head outside in creates a borrowed hit - often used to return heavy first serves - whereas swinging inside out pops the racquet head adds more speed to the shot, but requires great timing.

Practice makes permanent, but perfect practice may make perfect - or so we hope. Practice without the ball, counting 1-2-3, balance, rhythm and make the racquet swish in the air without effort. #tennis

The Superfluid Swing

Roger Federer's Liquid Whip:

For sure there are times when you can and in fact need to add pace to the incoming ball. But other times, especially when returning a fast first serve, the secret is to absorb the pace, Tom Stow called this "borrowing pace." Consider, if the server is the hammer, then truly the receiver is the nail, and often errors are made when receivers try to "hammer" their return. Absorbing pace creates (if not requires) a shorter and cleaner stroke where the racquet moves precisely to the intended contact zone. Notice clearly how close Roger stands to return serve -and how simple his blocking technique appears against first serves. Too often those with a hammer look only for nails, but that does not always work as regards absorbing pace and getting the return of serve in play!

Far too often players actively use the wrist to accelerate the racquet head through the ball, and for better or worse that action will tend to spray the ball (laterally or vertically). But using the example of children playing crack the whip in an open field or on an ice rink - the largest child pulls first (think hips) then the second largest child pulls (torso) and so forth until the last child is flung and similarly the racquet head is flung through the contact zone when ...you loosen up and accelerate first the shoulder, then the arm, then the hand and finally the racquet head. The telling moment occurs when the butt cap points at the ball at the last moment of the forward swing. Roger can do this in spades. As regards to the serve, the grip drives the entire project. Those using the forehand grip tend to push the racquet through the contact zone (for sure there are a few exceptions now and then) and the continental grip will often migrate during the motion where the player starts continental and follows thru with the forehand grip (and presumably the grip change occurs just prior to contact). But if you are willing to take the grip past continental towards the backhand grip you cannot in any manner push the ball.

Throwers and servers either push or pull (the ball and or racquet) and the key moment in either delivery is whether hand precedes the elbow (pushing) or whether the elbow precedes the hand (pulling). And likely we have all felt the need to "push" the ball to get the serve in the court - but the remedy is the leading elbow which will in fact automatically produce sidespin on the serve.

As regards to the serve, the grip drives the entire project. Those using the forehand grip tend to push the racquet through the contact zone (for sure there are a few exceptions now and then) and the continental grip will often migrate during the motion where the player starts continental and follows thru with the forehand grip (and presumably the grip change occurs just prior to contact). But if you are willing to take the grip past continental towards the backhand grip you cannot in any manner push the ball. Pancho Gonzalez in one of his books recommends the backhand grip, and then goes on to say, Once mastered, the server will serve with spin, speed, and disguise.

The famous Pancho Gonzalez, in order to loosen up in a big situation, was known to remove his pinkie and even part of his ring finger. The last 3 fingers of your hand are your gripping fingers, but weakening them on the grip enables the racquet to be swung as a whip. This photo: https://goo.gl/VC5TQU clearly shows Pete Sampras with his fingers loosely holding the racquet, and one of my mentors Fred Earle had said in an interview that, Pete had the loosest most flowing moti...on he had ever seen. Watch the video > https://youtu.be/Xd3uh36lXU4