Whip The Ball For Better Topspins

When trying to develop monster topspin shots off your ground strokes, it is important to visualize a whip. A whip is thicker at the handle and tapers down towards the tip. When snapped, it can create speeds surpassing the sound barrier (cracking sound). Your body is similar to a whip in design: your trunk/torso is generally thicker and moves slower. However, your shoulder, biceps and forearms are considerably smaller and, therefore, move faster.

Once you start uncoiling into a shot - particularly the forehand - the momentum generated travels through your arm towards the racket. Here is where things get interesting: although your arm moves in one direction following its natural path, the wrist often snaps (or, some say, forearm rotates) in order to generate topspin (a deviation from the normal angular momentum of the arm). This "snap" is a slight (for some, not so slight) brushing of the ball which creates the spin. However, to do so, the wrist must deviate somewhat from the natural path of the arm (obviously, it still remains attached to it) while holding on to an object (racket) about half its weight (human hand weighs between 22 and 30 ounces). 

The issue that we're dealing with is control of the racket. In order to have a good topspin it is important to have a strong grip (although not choking the racket) as well as a strong forearm in order to commence the topspin motion. Remember that momentum = Mass times Velocity. In this regard, although the hand (tip of the whip) weighs less than your body, it's also moving faster thereby creating momentum in a certain direction. To "break away" from its natural path, a greater "force" is necessary (i.e., forearm and hand strength). Tennis players, like baseball players, have understood the importance of hand and forearm strength for decades. Some have squeezed broken tennis balls as a way to cross-train; others have lugged around forearm builders such as clamps and pulleys.

One of the best way to develop forearm-grip strength for tennis is to practice a lot of drop-feeds where you are isolating this portion of your body. Try to LIFT the ball 6 feet over the net by BRUSHING the ball (rather than scooping it). Once you get the concept, you can transition to slightly more sophisticated workouts such as hitting against rapid-fire balls on the ball machine (minimum of 300) or hitting 1000 volleys in a row against the backboard. The key is to "feel the burn" in your forearm and develop grip and forearm strength. This concept is particularly important for female players. Unlike guys, girls tend to not be gym rats and they don't often play sports which require arm strength (e.g., baseball or football). Therefore, although girls generate a great deal of force with their torsos, shoulders and arms, they tend to fall just short of mastering the topspin due to their relatively low forearm strength. As a result, a lot of female player tend to have flatter shots and a lot of teaching pros perpetuate this mistake by teaching the shots that they see on TV rather than addressing the physical issue. 

Nevertheless, things are starting to change and some players have broken away from the general mentality. Take, for example, Samantha Stosur. When she first started on tour, she was a very good player but her shots lacked the "bite" necessary to penetrate the court. Take a look at the size and definition of the arm, particularly the forearm (note: size is only one indicator of strength but it's not exclusive).

Now take a look at the picture on the right taken in 2011. Forget about the racket finish - we are only using this picture to point out the definition of the arm, specifically the forearm. If you watch Samantha play now, you will notice that she plays similar to a male tennis players: not just powerful shots (Venus and Serena have been doing that for years), but shots with heavy topspin. 

Given the pace of the game, these shots would not be possible without forearm and grip strength. Therefore, rather than making excuses as to why you're not hitting decent topspin, take the initiative and start improving yourself physically and then see how it goes from there. With modern technology (lighter rackets; more powerful strings; awesome gym equipment), there's absolutely no reason why you should not be able to generate monster topspin groundstrokes.

Of course, don't forget about the other components of the shot (e.g. footwork, balance, torso, preparation, etc.) and to practice, practice, practice. Before you attempt to tear phone books and crush rocks (and destroy fluidity and range of motion in the process), know that this is only a small piece of the puzzle (Stosur's as well as yours). However, when encountering obstacles in the development of these shots, keep in mind the strength ratio between your body/arm and forearm/wrist. 

Go Forth and Let The Children Be Your Guide

Great movement, intensity, passion and focus (eyes) coupled with clean strokes for her age. You don't have to watch pros to learn proper fundamentals; watch this girl. Awesome! Keep up the good work and good luck, Solana. 

Steal This Drill: Watch The Ball!!!

Are you the type of player who has trouble with focusing on the ball? Do you own a couple of tennis balls? Maybe a felt marker? Next time, draw a couple of markings on the ball (e.g., letters, numbers or symbols) about 1/2 an inch in size and rally until you can pick up the marking (coach or practice partner feeds so that you don't know which ball is being used). Guess wrong run a sprint!

With a fast moving object, the sense of sight is the most important. Train your tennis hand to eye coordination by focusing on the ball until you can spot the marking right off the opponent's string bed. The sooner you see the ball, the earlier you are able to anticipate the trajectory if the ball and prepare for it; the earlier you can prepare, the better your chance of getting in position and doing something effective and proactive with the ball. This is a great way to practice ball control. Remember, that tennis requires the striking of a moving object, with a moving object while you yourself are in motion (anticipating your opponent's future positioning is another component of motion). Or, in medi-geek: "[t]he human visual system must perform complex visuospatial extrapolations (VSE) across space and time in order to extract shape and form from the retinal projection of a cluttered visual environment characterized by occluded surfaces and moving objects", The neural correlates of visuospatial perceptual and oculomotor extrapolation (Tibber M, Saygin AP, Grant S, Melmoth D, Rees G, Morgan M.). Therefore, given the pace of the modern game, you simply cannot afford to have "lazy", untrained eyes.

Give Yourself a Heart-Attack for Better Serves

OK, no, not really! This would be a terrible idea and you are advised against it. However, on a tennis-note, have you ever wondered why your serves always break down in a match but you're virtual maestro in practice? Well, let's think about it for a second...when do you practice your serves? In the middle of the workout? At the beginning? The end? Do you sprinkle serves throughout your practice? Of course not. If you're like the majority of players taking lessons, you will spend 52.5 minutes working on your ground-strokes and then finish your workout with a couple of minutes of serves. Even if you are extremely motivated and practice serves for 20-30 minutes at a time, you could still use some tweaking in your method in order to get the most out of your serves in a match.

Here's the deal: when you play points, you are likely to move... sometimes a lot. The movement takes a physical toll on your body. You will breathe harder and maybe even break a sweat. To keep up with a higher demand of your muscles and lungs, your heart will start beating more vigorously in order to supply more oxygenated blood and glucose (i.e. energy) to your cells (at least, this is what we remember from that one day we stayed awake during high-school Biology class). To summarize, when you're actually playing points your heart works hard(er).

Conversely, when you're working on your serves in practice, you are doing it at a relatively resting heart rate. You hit a serve... you walk back to baseline... you think about your motion... you bounce the ball... wait for an airplane to pass; etc. If you were getting ready for serving at a County Fair, this is the type of exercise that you would require. However, when you're playing a match, your opponent has something to say about the state of your cardiovascular system when you're executing the motion. Your opponent doesn't toss the ball for you or tell you where to hit the serve but if he's made you play a long, hard point beforehand, he will have a say regarding the quality of your serve... unless, of course, you practice hitting serves with a slightly elevated heart rate thereby training your system to respond better to stressful situations.

With this in mind, if you are committed to improving your serve under pressure, try this next time you work on your serves: incorporate some form of physical exercise between serves. For example, hit a serve and do 5 burpees; hit a serve and do 5 kangaroo jumps; hit two serves and then shadow-swing 8 side-to-sides; hit a serve a sprint to the service line and back; etc. The key is to train yourself to hit serves when you're tired; when you're winded; when your brain lacks sufficient oxygen to make smart decisions. By giving yourself these mini heart-attacks, you will be a lot more prepared for dealing with serving at a key point while your heart is pounding out of your chest. This skill is particularly important when the rest time between points is not sufficient to bring your heart rate back down to normal levels - which tends to happen quite often the higher level you play.

Why Are you Hitting Yourself? Huh? Why Are you Hitting Yourself?

Why Are you Hitting Yourself? Huh? Why Are you Hitting Yourself?

- if you've grown up with older siblings, the questions above are likely to send shivers down your spine. If only I was bigger, she wouldn't grab my hands and make me slap myself with them.

Let-chords, lines, bad calls (http://parentingaces.wordpress.com/2011/11/15/99-out-is-still-100-in/), wind, sun, cold/hot weather, loud noise, frames, balls rolling on your court from other courts (especially on "big" points), etc., sometimes all combined....at some point, a player will run into some of these "unfairness" factors at critical points in the match. Heck, if you've played long enough I'm sure that you will remember when the opponent framed the ball that ended up clipping the tape and dropping on the line for a winner. You may have actually lost the match because of this "unfairness." Is there a way to win in spite of such luck - good on the opponent's part; bad on your part?!

Well, if you're like me, you will have heard numerous times that tennis is a lot like life. As a matter of fact, all sports are a metaphor for life. For example, if you're a lawyer you can make the best possible arguments - apply the law to the facts as best you can and communicate the argument, in writing or orally to judge/jury - and still lose the case. It happens ALL THE TIME! It happens all the time to the best lawyers! Sometimes, the judge will rule for the exception as opposed to the general rule. Some other times, the jury will simply decide based on sympathy (regardless of instructions). Is that "FAIR"?! If you're a doctor, you can prescribe the best possible treatment and the patient will not respond to it resulting in death. Is THAT fair?! How about getting into a car accident due to no fault of your own and getting sued for damages that you didn't cause?! That's fair, right?! Wait a second, I know: no good person has ever contracted a terminal disease, right?!

Well, the fact is that life is full of unfairness...some people win the lottery; others are better looking; some may be born into wealth; some may get straight A's without studying; some may be naturally bigger/faster/stronger; etc. Unless you're either very young or very dense, you should know this. However, when the same person steps on the court, s/he often forgets this concept (i.e., that unfairness happens) and does not know how to handle an unfair situation that is not favorable to her.

If you're the type of player who's prone to mentally breaking down when things don't go your way and allow matches to slip away, you have three choices: (1) quit ("Bye-bye! Thanks for playing. This sport's too tough for you"); (2) keep doing the same thing and hope that things will magically go your and that all of your opponents will have discovered religious enlighterment (good luck with that); or (3) accept that unfairness happens and prepare your mind to deal with these situations and bounce back. Hopefully, you will have chosen what's behind door #3. 

For example, one way you can mentally prepare to deal with unfairness is by setting up the court to contain certain zones which results in automatic points FOR your practice partner if s/he happens to hit them. They don't have to be in specific locations - they can be anywhere (middle of the court, close the baseline or off-center). The purpose is to practice tempering your mind to unexpected consequences favoring the other side. After all, adversity builds character and it's your character under pressure or unfair situations that counts.

This drill can be performed where only one person plays with the handicap or both players play with the handicap. Another drill is threading a broom-stick (or plastic tube) through the net a playing points. Sometimes, a player will hit the broom-stick/tube and the ball will ricochet for a winner; other times, it will bounce back on your own side. All these outcomes are unfair but they will turn you into a more mentally-tough opponent. It is particularly important, for purposes of this drill, that the slightly weaker player is handicapped - after all, isn't it amazing how, sometimes, the best players have all the luck?! With two even players, both can take turns handicapping themselves.

Another way to toughen yourself up is for one player to grant the a other a couple of "bisque" points. These handicaps can be used on big points (or any points) - where the "hooks" tend to happen. How about playing tennis points with distractions? Ilie Nastase used to practice - when he actually used to practice - with stereo blasting. He said it reminded him of crowd noise. Maybe he just liked the music but he certainly had the advantage when the fans got rowdy at a big match. When was the last time you played a practice matchwith a leaf-blower blaring?

You think that this is crazy or unnecessary? How about this: go talk to someone who's served in the military and has gone through basic training. Ask him/her about his/her uniform or bed-check experience. How many times did s/he have to redo the bed or re-polish his/her boots despite being perfectly in order the first time around? Or, how about the push-ups that he had to do because of someone else's screw-ups? On the one hand, these punishments are intended to build team unity. But they are also intended to teach the soldiers how to stomach unfairness because (1) sometimes bad things happen to good people, and (2) sometimes good people have to follow orders that lead to unfair consequences. So if practicing for unfairness is good enough for the military (and ours is the best), it should certainly be good enough for someone playing with a yellow ball over the net.