5 Tennis Tips On Serving, Returning and Mental Toughness
Tomaz your website is truly great. It has really help me as well as your books particularly in the mental part of my game.
Thanks for the kind words! Ok, to your questions…
1. I have a pretty good serve that´s very fast and I have continue to improve it but i find that most of my serves land long, any suggestions?
Since I can’t see your serve I can only guess what could be the possible reasons for hitting the ball out:
- your elbow keeps pushing forward and thus keeps the racquet head slightly open. You can also pull it down too early. The racquet head should go down first after the contact and the elbow and the rest of the arm should follow.
Check this video of Pete Sampras and notice his elbow staying quite high after the contact while the racquet head is going down:
- you don’t put any rotation on the ball and then it’s difficult to make it go down
- you don’t hit the ball at the highest contact point possible
2. I can handle fast shots very well but I find it a little bit more demanding when i face a moonball particularly if its deep. Do I send a low moonball back or do I try to keep my opponent on defense?
If the moonball pushes you back behind the baseline you must accept that you have been neutralized. You are not in an offensive position so you have to play a neutralizing ball back. Playing a high top spin to your opponent’s weaker side is the most common reply…
3. On the return I have usually used a two-handed backhand but I cannot return it aggresively if I cannot read the serve and it is going to my body so I was thinking to use my one-handed backhand which I can play just as well. What do you think?
Well, you are free to play however you want so if you are comfortable with one hand, sure, go for it. You could slice the ball back if it goes to your body – if you manage to get at least some space from the ball.
Perhaps you can also step back a little bit and give yourself more time to react and to move away from the ball to have enough space to swing… Did you see where Murray waited for the serve from Del Potro?
4. I have always played in clay but I stop playing for a while and I am playing on hard courts now but I have found that when I try to run on clay my feet slide so I cannot accelerate fast enough. What do I do?
You’ll just have to find that feel again. I don’t think it can be taught by words. You are obviously too aggressive when you push on a clay court and you slip.
You need to move smoother and with more feel when you play on clay. You may also want to use special clay court shoes that have good grip with clay.
5. Finally I am playing national under 16 tournaments for a while now but I have always see that my level dramatically drops on matches and I see that if I could play like I do on trainings I could win many mathces.
Also after a while in the matches I start to play better but the the matches end to quickly for me to loosen up. I know you have address this in Psychology but do you have any extra tips to loosen up before a match?
You are tight because you have negative thoughts before you start playing. Your body may also prepare for battle without you thinking anything since you know you’ll play soon.
I recently wrote an article about tennis choking which shows you how to prevent and deal with it.
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September 25th, 2008 at 3:10 pm
Some of my personal opinons on the questions to Tomaz above. On the first one a serve that’s going out it usually means you are not snapping your wrist down at the point of contact.
On the second question for moonballs you usually want to take it on the rise. It speeds things up and makes your opponent have less time. Try also doing a lot of serving and volleying against a moonballer this seems to work too. Stay in IVP as moonballers like lobbing.
On 3 use both one hand slice and two hand backhand. Many two handed backhand pros have a one handed slice as a defensive shot when their limited reach and position.
For 5, practice a day before the match or maybe a longer practice to get you loosened up for the big match.