There is not too much to write about this month concerning the progress of tennis – did not play enough games, played more as double at challenge court than as single, lost more than wining. It seems like my tennis lesson gave me quite a few useful advices but destroyed my former routines without completing building newer ones. The stability, depth, and directional control of ground strokes deteriorated in different degrees. Here are some advices from my 2nd lesson –
- As the main points stated in the last lesson, the racket only has a very small window to accelerate itself. If it is accelerated earlier, it is more likely that I would hit the upper side of the ball, which would in turn make the ball travel shorter.
- After building the weight at the head of racket, the face of racket is parallel to the grip when it begins to accelerate, rather than still behind the grip.
- ALWAYS let the upper side of racket lead the way, or the return would fly high…
- The difference between “right” and “wrong” is only two inches apart.
- Be patient. Let the match (tennis ball) come to me, rather than pushing forward. Although the window is small, pushing it would not make it easier and better.
- The follow-through is a natural gesture after the racket is thrown forward, but not a must to complete using force. That is, I should focus more on driving the return forward using the head of the racket, and then let it going back. It is incorrect to push it from the touching point to the end point.
- I still use more shoulder and body movements than necessary. It would make me easier to feel tired. The only part that is working is the forearm, while the rest of the body including the grip should be as relax as possible.
- The relax of the wrist will also help me quite a bit for the serving. Currently, the racket face is always behind the wrist when it get contact with the ball. As a result, I push the ball rather than smashing it, which is wrong. The contact point should be as high as possible. The racket should be vertical to the ground, or leaning forward a little bit, so that there is a larger window and more force to put on the serving.
- Returning a fast ball does not mean I also need a full or even larger swing. On the contrary, I only need to retain the tempo and keep the touching point and the racket face right. A fast ball would have a fast return all by itself.
Keep going.