Lesson # 10 with Eldon

2/4/09  Wednesday 10:00A.M.

Chico Racquet Club

 

 

I went into this lesson wanting to work on my forehand, return of serve and possibly my serve.  We had time to mainly work on my forehand and some on my return of serve.

 

FOREHAND

 

1.         Taking the ball out front.  This will give more pace to your shots.  You don’t have to move your head as far either.  Also, you will have more racquet head speed taking the ball out front.

 

2.         Head to be in the impact position much before the ball arrives.  You should be able to see the ball coming through your peripheral vision.  Your head should remain relatively still through impact, similar to the golf swing.

 

3.         Squeezing the last three fingers of your racquet hand at impact.  This is a timing issue at first.  With practice this will come.  The squeeze or firmness at impact gives a little more resistance in striking the ball which in turn imparts a little more zip or pop and thus more penetration and skidding off the court surface.

 

4.         Torso initiates the forehand groundstroke.  After rotating your torso for the backswing of the stroke, you want to begin unwinding with your torso first.  Your racquet arm follows, in a sense being pulled along for the ride.

 

5.         There are many different forehand shots that a player will need in a rally in match play.  You are waiting for that ball that sets up in your wheelhouse zone that you can really hit out through and put that extra pop on in order to penetrate through the court.  This is the shot selection that will give your opponent some trouble.  

 

6.         Too much effort can make you tight in your upper torso and be self-defeating in trying to create pop on your forehand shots.  You have to let your body put all the proper movements together and let it flow.

 

7.         The flying elbow tends to come from the topspin stroke.  In a penetrating forehand stroke the elbow needs to be more extended and stay down in place until well after impact.  Sometimes my elbow comes up early when I don’t take the ball out front.  I am late with my stroke.  The elbow comes up and I lose total control, sending the ball flying way long.  I want to focus on a more extended elbow and arm.

 

8.         Footwork.  When balls are hit at me I need to really be aware of moving my feet to get into position so I can load up on my back leg.  I tend to have better footwork with balls that I have to run to.  Also, I have to be careful to be sure that I don’t get my right foot on the same line as my left.  I can’t load up properly with my feet in this position.  My right foot has to be further back in relation to my left foot.  Eldon says that in general I am doing better with my open stance footwork and moving more into my shots like I do on my backhand side.

 

 

RETRUN OF SERVE

 

9.         Return of serve.  Start watching the ball with the toss.

 

10.       Time your move forward with the toss.   You have to step into the ball with your swing.

 

11.       Keep your backswing to a minimum.  Time your swing to take the ball out front just like on a regular groundstroke.

 

12.       Hold the racquet in your left hand before the opponent’s ball toss in order to allow your racquet hand to relax in between points.

 

 

EXTRAS

 

13.       I was curious about how fast 3.5 players are hitting the ball in a match.  I asked Eldon this question since I work on the ball machine a lot and want to know if the speeds I practice with are emulating real play.  He said probably between 40 and 60 mph.  (Pros will sometimes hit groundstrokes that go 90 mph.)That’s good since that is the speed range that I normally work in with the machine.  I am a firm believer in work on the ball machine.  Eldon is too.   Those repetitions build consistency and allow me to get stroke form to a subconscious level.  The ball machine is an incredible tool owing to the fact that it allows me to work on different kinds of shots in a wide variety of locations on the court.

 

14.       Closeness to the net when volleying?  Eldon says a little more than an extended racquet arm’s length.  In other words you shouldn’t be able to touch the net with your racquet fully extended.  (Old school is closed in right on top of it.)  Eldon also mentioned you need to be prepared to move back away from the net at times in order to prevent being lobbed by your opponent.  It depends on how well you have made your approach shot or previous volley.

 

15.       I asked Eldon what does that penetrating ball look like in terms of its spin?  He says a good penetrating ball will often have some sidespin on it.  It’s also possible that it will have a slight topspin rotation, but not much.  The mark that a penetrating ball leaves on the court is much longer than the mark of a ball struck with less pace.  Eldon has demonstrated this several times to me in my lessons by calling me over to his side of the court to point out a long ball mark made from a ball I had just hit that had extra pop on it.  This is why I like to call these shots, “skidders.”

 

16.       Take the first three games of a match to hit out on.  Don’t worry about winning points here.  Just try to get into a rhythm of hitting through your shots with that little extra pop.