Becoming a good Tennis Player -Move Your Feet
Learning a proper forehand and backhand in tennis is more complicated than I thought. Just swinging at the ball causes it to fly in all directions. In order to get the proper height, spin, and distance your feet must position your body in such a way that your arm can smoothly swing through the ball and at the last second brush up and create spin on the ball.
This may seem easy enough but you must remember the ball is moving towards you and can spin in all directions after the bounce. This is why it is critical to move your feet. Being able to shuffle and explode from side to side will allow your body to setup earlier giving your swing more time to go through the proper motion of hitting a tennis ball.
Athletic Stance
First you must get in a proper athletic stance. Begin by placing your hands on your hips. Next stand with your feet about an inch or two wider than shoulder width apart keeping your back perfectly straight vertically. Bend at your knees just until you feel a strain on your thighs all the while keeping you back and upper body straight. The angle that your legs make should be between 120 and 140 degrees. Now taking your hands off your hips move them straight out to your sides with a slight bend at the elbow. Finally bend your torso forward at the waist about 15 degrees off vertical. Make sure to keep your head up. This will keep the upper portion of your body vertical.
You should now be in the proper athletic stance. Your legs and lower back should feel strained after a few seconds if you don’t regularly get into an athletic stance. Keep practicing and try holding it longer and longer. You can do this while watching television at night.
Shuffle Your Feet
If you’ve played basketball with a team there’s a good chance your coach has had you shuffle your feet from side to side. It helps build endurance and strength so you can play defense late in the game. If you haven’t, don’t worry, it’s easy and quick to learn.
First assume the athletic stance we just got done working on. For starters lets just keep our hands out to the side, later on we’ll pick up the racket. Next take your right foot and place it about 2 inches away from your left, directly next to it. Then take your left foot and move it left so your feet are just outside shoulder width apart again. Repeat these steps moving farther and farther left. Speed up. Don’t cross over. Now switch directions and shuffle to your right.
There you have it. Just make sure to keep in an athletic position while you shuffle and don’t cross your feet. After going from side to side for a little while your thighs should start to burn.
Drills on the Court
You don’t really need a tennis court to do these drills but being there might help you get a feel for the court size.
First start out at letter A, the center of the service line. Assume the athletic stance that we worked on above. Now make your body angle towards B by pointing your left shoulder in that direction. You should be facing the direction of C. Next shuffle your feet to point B. You don’t have to shuffle your feet quickly at first but I find the faster I go the less stress I feel on my joints. I suggest a medium pace for beginners.
Once you reach B stop, then shuffle back to A along the same line with your body facing the same direction and your right shoulder pointing towards A. Upon reaching A rotate your body so your right shoulder is now pointing towards C. Holding your athletic stance begin to shuffle your feet towards C. Once you reach point C stop, then shuffle back to A on that same line with your left shoulder still pointing towards A.
When you have reached A you have completed one full repetition. You can start out by doing 2 sets of 10 full repetitions and then gradually build up your endurance from their. This is also where you want to hold your racket since you probably won’t be shuffling during a match without it.
Sometimes I like to turn my body once I reach one of the three stopping points to simulate getting my body in the correct position to hit the tennis ball. Both forehand and backhand.
The following are also some combinations that I like to try. Feel free to mix them up and to shuffle to other points on the court. This should just give you a start on how to build endurance on the tennis court.
A-B-C-A
A-B-C-B-C-A
A-B-A repeats
B-C-B repeats