Ready Position
Preparing to receive the ball, we want to be in a ready position with activated feet. The ready position is facing the net, racquet tip up, hands in front, feet shoulder width apart and weight towards the balls of your feet. Our lateral movement will be initiated from our split step. A split step is a small hop step and the purpose is to gather our balance and use ground reaction force to move in the direction of the incoming ball. Notice how the feet are apart and the player is in an athletic position with intent to move.
Week One Sending Skill Development
The first day of tennis training, we will learn the basic sending skill for a groundstroke. We will start with a hand strike, then a push behind the strings and ultimately a two handed stroke for the forehand (dominate side) and Backhand (non-dominant side)
Lateral Movement
In module 1- we will learn the ready position, activated feet, split step, walking steps and cross-over shuffle. These new skills will be the foundation of your tennis development and it must come natural and intuitively. Everything that we do forward will build on these foundational skills. Module 1 will include hitting, but the main skill of footwork is the focus.
Hitting and Ball Striking
Early preparation is very important. Right after the split step, we want to pre-load for the unit turn. The pre-load includes pivoting, turning the shoulder and raising the elbows on the forehand side. On the backhand side, the pre-load is simply getting the handle buttcap near the non-dominate hip. During this phase, we want to start extending the wrist and keeping the forearms relaxed so the wrist can extend during the forward swing. This creates racquet head loading that will add racquet head speed to help control be ball and hit deep in the court.
Find Your Game 