Podcast 83: Today I share my top three things to do and not do (Part 3)
So there should be a constant switching back and forth between both players to try to find the upperhand. If neither player is paying attention and neither one has secondary game plans or different ways of hitting strokes, then it can become very boring to watch and maybe even boring to play because both players know what the outcome is going to be.
So, Chris, hopefully that gives you some good ideas and everybody else listening , all my other listeners, hopefully that gives you a good idea of what you should be looking for and what you should be avoiding to be a better strategical player and I'll recap these again real quickly. Top three things that get in the way of players making adjustments, these are your top three things to avoid.
Don't focus on your own technique. Make sure you are paying attention to what's going on on the other side of the court, and make sure that you don't only have one style of play. And the top three things to make sure you do, be aware of your opponents strategy, their technique and also their tendencies.
Make sure that when you do practice your strokes, practice a wide variety of things and directions– wide variety of strokes and wide variety of targets. And make sure that you do it consistently, not just one to each spot. Make sure you can hit a bunch in a row and lastly things that you need to do to adjust like a good player .
Make sure that you keep adjusting until you find something that works and then stick with the winning game plan. Don't get off the winning game plan. So, Chris, thank you very much for the great question. That was really an excellent topic and something that I can definitely talk more about but that's a good basic overview on basically strategy in general. This is how you should be playing guys. If you go out there and just hit the ball and you're not being aware of what's going on and there is no purpose behind how you are hitting the ball, you are not going to be very effective. You're going to be effective to some degree or the other depending on who you are playing against. So if you want to be able to win more often, these are the things you should be thinking about. [music] [music] [music]
Alright, let's go ahead and move on to our next question and I've got two questions I've got here that I'm going to answer from Richard, who is located in Northern Ireland. Richard, I'm pretty sure that you are my first listener that I've heard from in Ireland . Really great to hear from you and thanks very much for your questions. I'm always excited to hear from people in new places– it's cool to hear that the Podcast is reaching a lot of different parts of the world. So, Richard, has two questions here and I like both of them a lot. The first one is short and sweet. ‘Which in your opinion is better, power or placement?' That's an excellent question Richard and just to be short and quick about it. If I had to pick only one, if I had to choose between either hitting the ball hard but with very little control or hitting the ball with less power, maybe even slowly, but having very good placement, I would have to pick placement. In my opinion, that's more important. However, that being said, why would you want to choose only one? Why wouldn't you rather have both — clearly nobody is going to say ‘I'd rather only have one or the other. Obviously having both is better but basically what I want to get at here Richard, is you need to start developing your game so you are able to do both. And Richard rates himself at a 3. 5 level player which is just about average and to be able to make your way up to higher levels, Richard, you're going to have to start developing some weapons. When beginners first start out– when you first begin playing tennis, your first priority needs to be to place the ball. It needs to be control– to be able to control what is going on with your body, with your swing, and with the ball. You have to be able to develop some consistency first.
Every tennis player, every good tennis player needs to have a good solid base of consistency before you start trying to hit the ball hard. However, once you've achieved that , you have to be able to start developing some weapons or else you are going to get stuck. And this is why most tennis players are between a level 3.0 and 4. 0, is because they don't put in the time or the effort or the focus needed to start developing weapons that they can hit consistently . There is a lot of players out there that can hit the ball very hard , they are good athletes but they don't necessarily have the technique or the swing mechanics to be able to keep it in play consistently. So if I had to only pick one of those Richard, I would say I'd rather have placement because that's really more important , keeping the ball in play, being consistent , however I definitely would not have gotten where I did competitively with tennis if I didn't also have the ability to hit the ball hard and to hit the ball with power. So for you to develop to a 4. 0 level of play, or a 4.5, certainly a 5. 0, you have to start developing some power as well. There is really just no way around it. Players at a 4. 5 or a 5. 0 level, move extremely well, they are extremely efficient and they have weapons . They have the ability to put the ball away and they have the ability to do it consistently.
If all you can do is just be consistent, that can be challenging to a player like that to a certain degree. But you are only going to get so far with your tennis game if you don't have both. So let's go to Richard's second question, and that is ‘Hi Ian, I'm in a bit of a dilemma . I'm the kind of person who loves to hit the ball hard with lots of pace, however, while hitting the ball like this, it's hard for me to control the length of my shot. Most of the time they will just barely clear the net and not get very much length , either that or they land close to the line or go just long. Should I slow my shots down and sacrifice power for more consistency and length instead of constantly trying to go for winners with power?' So now we really see why Richard was asking his first question, which is better power or placement. And again, if you only could choose one Richard, I'd like you to have placement. So if your swing technique is not going to improve at all, I'd rather you slow down and control the ball. However, let me talk to you about technique a little bit here. What you are describing — Richard is describing basically the choice between barely making it over the top of the net and usually having the ball go kinda short, or hitting a little bit higher over the net and having it be barely inside the court or be out .
So he's kind of stuck between having a shorter, weaker shot, or if he hits it a little bit higher, risking that it's going to go out pretty often. What you are describing there Richard, is a classic description of a ground stroke hit with no top spin. A ground stroke that's hit flat. And there is a reason why the pros are able to hit so hard but still maintain consistency and that's because they hit with a lot of top spin . Hitting with top spin gives you a higher margin for error and it does that because the ball , you can start to curve or arch the ball . Curve it down into the court. Top spin makes the ball spin and curve downwards so you are able to swing aggressively. You are able to aim high over the net and make it a safe shot and the top spin brings the ball back downwards into the court .
If on the other hand, you don't have any top spin, and you hit the ball aggressively, if the ball is just a little bit too high, it just continues to go forwards and forwards and forwards and you'll miss ; it'll go out once you get to a certain speed. So, the only way to keep the ball in play at that point is to aim low over the net and this is a very risky thing to do. It's difficult to do consistently and this is the reason why woman's professional tennis is less consistent. In woman's tennis, there are more mistakes, there are more errors ratio-wise between errors and winners. The points are shorter typically because they hit flatter and harder, and harder meaning not necessarily the speed of their shots, but they are trying to drive the ball directly at their target very often.
The male players on the professional tour hit with a lot more top spin, on average, it's not to say that they don't flatten it out and drive the ball to be able to put it away. But they all hit with much more top spin on your typical average rally ball hit back and forth.
And so, very commonly the points in male players are longer and even though they are hitting faster, they are hitting with more consistency because the ball is curving a little bit more. As with anything, there is exceptions to this but on average, when I'm talking about is correct. So what you need to do Richard, if you want to be able to hit with power and consistency, is you have to start to develop more top spin. Top spin is created by swinging upwards as opposed to forwards. Right now, it sounds like you are hitting the ball very flat and very straight. To really make it to the next level and be able to hit aggressively but maintain a high level of consistency, your racket path has to start being more upwards and not sure much forwards . The key to hitting with power and consistency at the same time is going to be that top spin-assuming we're talking about ground strokes. So Richard, that was a quick explanation and a quick overview. I could certainly talk more about the technique of hitting with top spin but that's my answer to your question. If you'd like any more explanation or if any other listeners would like more explanation of what I'm talking about, please feel free to let me know. Thanks very much for your questions Richard and again great to hear from you in Northern Ireland.
Take care.
