Thinking in Tennis

In most sports, you spend the beginning few years or so learning mechanics, meaning, you learn to be conscious of what you do. Some people care about mechanics, that is, the exact motion that you make to be most effective. Others simply do, and sometimes they get lucky and they don't think much anymore after that.

I fall into the category of folks that think about my strokes all the time. My forehand is all right. I can get good topspin on it. However, I lack any power on that side, so I've watched various pros from Federer to Blake to Djokovic to Agassi trying to see what I'm doing wrong. Watching pros can only take you so far because it's hard to catch the minutiae of what they do. It helps to see it live where the full 3D effect can be seen, but even then, the speed is so fast you don't catch many of the tiny things that happen, which they might not be aware of.

For example, maybe a pro holds the racquet incredibly steady at impact, or they are more relaxed, or something. Those are things you really can't see.

So my main problem with my forehand is getting enough power on the shot.

My backhand is more of a mess. I'd like a pretty heavily topspun backhand too, but that seems harder to achieve. I hit it fine moderately flat, but for some reason, I'm into the topspin.

The latest thing I've read is to treat the two-handed backhand as an off-hand forehand (for me, a lefty forehand) with the dominant hand (my right hand) as a support. When I was learning it, I did the opposite, treating it like a one-handed backhand with the top hand for support.

But in hindsight, that makes no sense. If the forehand is more dominating, then you should learn to hit a lefty forehand.

It's going to take some time to learn that, but I'm hoping it will yield results. And to think, I've been thinking about the two-handed backhand the same way for years. I've never really given the idea of a modified lefty forehand as the way to hit a two-handed backhand.

Now to get on the court and give it a try.

If only it weren't raining.