On Mechanics and the Need for Good Coaching

There are many ways to hit a tennis ball. But the number of best ways to hit a tennis ball are few. Therefore mechanics are all important.

Even the best players (Andy Murray, left)
get coaching (Brad Gilbert, right).

In my weekly tennis schedule I see many players (most, in fact) who can objectively be rated 3.5 or below. Many of these players believe incorrectly that they are at the 4.0 level. These 3.5-and-below players as well as the few 4.0 players that I see, are unlikely to advance much no matter how much they play and practice.

The reason is found in the initial paragraph of this article. Mechanics. Oh, you can try to emulate your favorite pro by watching slo-mo videos. You can take virtual lessons by watching the myriad free instructional videos on YouTube. But these methods usually fail. And the vast majority of players who deserve an NTRP rating of 4.0 or below have poor mechanics and little hope of rising above them.

What is needed is a great teacher, who must be able to do several things:

• Know the correct technique (many don't)
• Objectively observe a student's technique
• Effectively communicate in words as necessary
• Know the drills, exercises, and tricks to get you using the correct technique



Coach Tom Herb in action

• Know and share the practice routines and schedules to make your corrected technique habitual and implemented in the appropriate situations

One of the best teachers that I've seen (and who has a resume of students' success) is Tom Herb, who currently works out of the Wessen Indoor Tennis Club in Pontiac, MI. The Wessen-Indoor facility is nice in that it's new, has a fresh, clean locker-room, and has six hard courts and three clay courts to accommodate different players' needs and preferences. It is not expensive to join and is a place that seems to be drawing some good and up-and-coming players. 

I encourage you to seek coaching -- that is, if you really desire to improve your tennis play. Tom Herb is a great coach, and if you're in or near Southeastern Michigan, I encourage you to contact him via the Wessen Indoor Tennis Club. If you feel that private lessons may be outside your budget, get together with some tennis friends and do semi-private or small-group lessons.

As the motto of the Wessen Indoor club says: Play Big!

Return of Serve: Solved! [And updated!]

The return of serve is the second most important shot in the game -- right behind the serve itself. And my return has always been pretty lousy. Oh, I've been able to get by, when playing singles against a big server, with a deep underspin block.

But as I've played more doubles (primarily to improve my singles game), I've been doubly frustrated: both by my own poor returns, but also by how some players seem to have my number when returning my serve (which is actually pretty good). The doubles play has improved my return to some extent, but I recently discovered that to really get it right, I needed to revamp my thinking and my mechanics when returning serve.

The service return is not the same as a groundstroke. To boil this down, here are the key differences when returning:

• Stance: the feet should be fairly wide and the body's center of gravity fairly low. This provides for a strong, quick push to reach a wide ball.
• Split step: Required. If you're not making a split step as the server contacts the ball, you're not going to be as ready to hit a good return. Upon landing, the feet should be wide apart -- wider than shoulder width.
• Footwork: when returning a wide serve (either at the sideline or up the middle), the first small step should be with the leg closest to the ball, and the push away is with the leg farthest from the ball. If no small step is required, then the weight is transferred to this leg from the push away. This sets you up for an open-stance stroke for your return. On most serves that are close, this single step will be adequate to get your racquet to the ball.
  [UPDATE: On wide serves, a second step may well be necessary.]
• Racquet preparation: the racquet take back is simplified to a basic unit turn of the shoulders. As described in the previous bullet, your feet and hips will be in an open stance, but you close the take back with your shoulders. The racquet is laid back using the wrist(s), but the arms are not further taken back from the body.
• The forward stroke is essentially an elongated block with a follow through, and though the follow can either be upwards (for topspin) or downwards (for underspin), ideally it is upwards unless you are hitting a chip or drop shot for a specific tactical reason.
  [UPDATE: The ideal follow through for forehands and two-handed backhands is when you touch your back with the racquet. (This is also and especially true on groundstrokes!) Despite Federer, Djokovic, et al and their windshield-wiper follow throughs, for most of us non-touring-pro mere mortals, we don't have the practice time, talent, or racquet speed to successfully AND CONSISTENTLY emulate the top men pros' technique. Touching the back with the racquet helps a great deal to have the proper racquet orientation through the hitting zone.]

Tend to this advice and you'll likely find that you've solved the return-of-serve puzzle.