For the moment let’s not worry about your tennis racket.
Instead, pick a straight stick, about half the length of a broom handle. A child’s baseball bat may be used. It’s helpful that the state be about the same weight as your racket.
Take your position back of the service line. Stand sideways to the net so you are looking down the service line. We will pitch slow, underhanded balls to you. It only the ones that come between your knee and your shoulder. Do not hit the ball hard. Just tap it over the net. Now you are ready. The ball is coming.
The stick goes at once to your shoulder similar to the way he would hold a baseball bat. That is the natural place to swing from. Why? Because the bat is on a level with your eye.
Relax as you wait for the ball. Do not squeeze the stick too tightly. A firm but not frozen grip makes you swing smooth and easy. Pretend you’re holding something delicate like a banana. The moment your stick comes in contact with the ball, the hit is made. The stick has done the work. It should, if done properly, point directly at the pitcher.
Now throw away the stick and pick up your racket. Take it in two hands just as you took the stick. Hit the ball with a flat face of your racket, swinging slowly so that you see the actual contact with the ball on the racket strings. Tap the balls gently over the net exactly as you did with the stick. This should be a bit easier than it was with a stick.
In tennis, however, the racket is held with one hand and not two. Therefore let go of the racket with your non-dominant arm. Slide your main hand down to the butt of the handle. This is where you should hold a tennis racket.
Hit the pitched balls low over the net with your main hand. This is the forehand stroke. If correctly executed, your racket finishes in the direction of the flight of the ball.
This pointing of the racket is called the follow through. A tennis ball cannot be accurately off the ground without it.
In his first training we get you to hit the balls back to the pitcher. We know if you can hit the ball back to him now, later on you will be able to send them away from him. That is tennis.
Grip:
No two tennis players in the world had the same exact grip. This may seem strange, but it is very obvious when you consider that no two human hands are exactly the same.
A tennis player creates his own grip.
You have already created yours. You created it when, raising her racket to the shoulder, you took away your non-dominant hand and slid your main hand down to the butt, and hit your one-handed forehand. It is your natural grip. Without thinking about it, you used it throughout your batting practice.
Any time that you are in doubt about your correct natural grip, place the racket on your right shoulder, make the swing as though you were going to hit a ball with a stick, and automatically you re-create the correct forehand grip.
A backhand grip is created in precisely the same manner. Reverse your position , reverse your various actions. And you have it.
With both hands on your racket, raise it to your left shoulder. Take away the nondominant hand and that pitched balls low over the net with your main hand only. This is the backhand stroke.
The preparation, execution, and follow through of the swing are identically the same as in the forehand stroke. You have now created your automatic backhand grip. You need to get yourself when you took away your nondominant hand to that main handed only.
If you are ever in doubt about it, placed a racket on your left shoulder, make the same hit a ball with a stick swing, and you automatically re-create your natural and correct backhand grip.
What has this done for your tennis?
- You learned to stand sideways to the net, hitting both forehand and backhand.
- You learn that the natural place to hold the racket while waiting for the ball was on your shoulder.
- You discover that the correct forehand and backhand grips are natural, automatic grips.
The rubber meets the road or your hand meets the grip. Using an over grip to keep your sweaty hands from slipping is key to ball control. This is one of the best inexpensive investments you can make. A great choice:
