Tennis Game

No matter what level of tennis you play, you always want to get better. Even Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal, the two top men's tennis players in the world, seek to improve their games. Since both can well afford to pay coaches with far greater expertise than this humble writer, the following suggestions are geared toward the amateur tennis enthusiast.
The best goal to set for yourself, and the hardest to attain, is improving your footwork. This can be as simple as taking your heels off the court when you're at the net or receiving serve. Doing so will give you an extra split second to move for your shot. There are also numerous drills that you can incorporate into your practice routine, like running up to the net and back, or gliding rapidly along the baseline. Running backwards improves balance and well as foot speed. Jumping rope is a good exercise to improve your fleetness of foot, too.
If the majority of your tennis is played socially, and you've reached one of those plateaus that abound along the journey of tennis, another aspect of your game that you can re-emphasize is watching the ball. Although that is the first lesson any teaching pro emphasizes, it's also the first one that is forgotten by most players. Everyone has a tendency to watch where his/her shot is going to go instead of concentrating on the act of hitting it. Focusing on your performance can be difficult when you're playing with your usual foursome, but if your goal is to improve, a deliberate effort to separate chatting at the net and bantering between points from actually playing the game needs to be made. It takes practice and determination to do this, and it's about as much fun as watching paint dry, but when mastered, you'll see a significant change for the better in your game. One boring way to do this is stare at the tennis ball you're squeezing in your racquet hand while building up the strength in your hand and forearm.
Finally, something that you can do on your own to improve your game is to get into better shape. If you can run faster or longer than you have previously, your tennis game is bound to become better as a result. Wind sprints, when you run fiercely for a few yards and then pause only to start to run again, are a good imitation of the type of action found in a competitive tennis match. Bicycling will strengthen your leg muscles, too, and if it can save you some gas money as well, all the power to you.
If you've played tennis for any length of time, you know that improvements rarely, if ever, happen overnight. However, once you've chosen to improve, mapped out a program and followed it through, you also need to keep believing in it. Sometimes you need to take a step backward before you can go two steps forward, and this can often be the case when you change your tennis game.


By : Lynn Edwards