Wednesday, October 12, 2011

Staying Observant During A Match

 tennis coaching tennis tactics Sometimes, you just have to be observant during a match.

Usually, when I play someone with a big forehand and a less powerful backhand, I'll tend to serve to the backhand and avoid the forehand.

But, I would say that there are many players, especially those with two handed backhands, who have more technically efficient returns on the backhand side.

So, although they may generate more power on the forehand side with a much bigger loop, they actually may make more errors.

In a recent match, I was playing one of those tall, young guys with a big semiwestern forehand and a two handed backhand --the norm for young guys these days.

Early in the match, I hit a second serve kick to the forehand and I paid the price as a winner whizzed past me.

A little later, I made another mistake serving to the deuce court, and hit a slice kick to the forehand. This serve made my opponent move to his right and he hit it way wide.

This miss made me wonder if I had found a little treasure to mine for the rest of the match.

So, I went back there with similar good results. And, I kept going back, even on first serves. Turns out that, on this day at least, my opponent didn't have good footwork when forced to move to his right on the return. He became off balance and netted a lot of returns, even though he hit them hard.

So, always keep your brain working during a match. even your mistakes may bring you dividends.


Until next time,

Glenn Sheiner M.D. - author of Insider Tennis Strategies Serving To The Forehand guaranteed to make you a smarter tennis player and take your tennis to the next level. Also, check out the world's top tennis humor screensaver
Tennis Cartoon Screensaver
. You can download a trial version for FREE.

Technorati Tags