How do I get more control over my ball?
Lisa asked me a question last week...
"How can I develop more control over the ball?
I feel a bit wild.
Every time I am hitting the ball it is going everywhere except where I want it to go."
It is an excellent question, thank you for asking it.
Answer:
The first skills a tennis coach will start focussing on is giving you are the Gross motor skills or the key points of the strokes.
When working on trying to make your strokes look "television-worthy," the ball might not go where you want it to go.
The habit tennis players have to increase their control is revealed every time they play.
The mini warm-up how they work on their fine motor skills.
The secret is in how they warm up for the match.
They start with mini tennis (minis).
The first benefit is that the area is they are hitting into is smaller than the full tennis court, and there is less distance between the players.
Thereby forcing them to have more control and to hit more balls per minute
They can hit more balls to get quickly the feeling of hitting the ball accurately.
You would both stand one step past the service line and start hitting the ball to each other.
The ball should bounce before going past the service line.
- The backswing of the stroke is short and compact.
- The feet are split stepping and moving quickly to the ball each time.
- Ater the follow-through the players arms and racquet always return to the ready position.
It should feel as if you are bumping the ball over the net with a follow-through (catch).
The warm-up is 2 to 5 minutes of minis every warm up, and then people would move back to no-mans-land.
Here is a short demonstration of the mini warm-up.
Here are a few more advanced mini type drills for more advanced players from my mentor Steve Smith.
Coach Carl