Taking Stock

I've said it quite a few times already.

There is a ton of advice on how to play tennis. With resources like YouTube, you can now find this advice readily. It may not be like having a really good coach correct you all the time, but it's not bad, given the alternatives, which is, I suppose, picking up a book. A book, in general, is really a weak second choice for learning to play tennis.

Yesterday, I posted two videos. One video was about the "sit and lift" idea, which stresses rotational acceleration vs. linear acceleration, which is basically the modern way of hitting (open stance) vs the classic way (closed stance). The modern way isn't extremely modern. I've been hitting open stance forehands since I first learned to play tennis. Borg was perhaps the first "modern" player of any stature, and he played 30 years ago.

In the first video, the guy demonstrating the sit and lift technique is practically doing a lunge, a move I'm familiar with because I used to take fencing when I was in college as part of my phys. ed. requirements.

The second video talks about hitting a natural forehand, and demonstrates this by making you hit a forehand with two (or three) fingers. This relaxed motion lets the racquet move as it would without you directing it so much. Any unnatural movement is eliminated, but most importantly, it forces you to be relaxed and swing more freely.

Surprisingly, I was able to apply both pieces of advice, and they worked reasonably well. I'm still getting used to hitting the relaxed shot on the forehand, but it felt a lot nicer than it has in a while, when it felt completely awkward and inconsistent. I felt tense and tight, and at times, unnatural.

The "sit and lift" idea was also pretty good, at the very least, it forced me to get down to hit low shots. You can hit a much more solid shot when you get down then if you try to scoop it out, so I was hitting the low shots decently, even though my purpose was really to try to get more power.

I'm still not completely there with the power, but it's better.

Again, two courts down from us, two guys were hitting the ball really well. I'm surprised how many Asians hit the ball really solidly, amazed that this hasn't lead to any good Asian players doing well on the pro tour. I suppose it's one thing to hit hard at the above average tennis player level, and to hit at world class level.

I suppose they should have depressed me, given I'm not likely to get to their level soon, if at all.

However, I was happy that I could take these two pieces of advice and make it work somewhat well. A very pleasant surprise.

Even if my serve is still crappy (pace-wise, not consistency), I won 6-3, 6-1, mostly because my opponent could barely get a first serve in, so I was able to break quite a bit.