Australian Open Day 5: Tennis Lesson

Day 5

I hope you are enjoying the 2012 Australian Open. Every year I am amazed at how much better the players get and I love watching all the different shots they have in their arsenal.

Today I am going to go over the 4 Forehands of the pros. If you watch, notice they just don’t follow through one way. They have a number of ways they finish the shot and the follow through is different depending on what kind of desired result they are after. Sometimes they are looking for more power, sometimes more spin.

By changing the swing path you can change the amount of risk vs reward you are going for. I hear so many coaches telling players to not swing so hard to keep the ball in play. In some cases this is good advice, but in most cases this can make matters worse as the player gets too tentative with their swing and the result is more errors.

The key to success in today’s game is to develop a reliable topspin shot. Topspin allows you to be aggressive and conservative at the same time. As long as your body is in control of the swing, the faster you accelerate the safer the ball becomes. The perfect example is Nadal. He has awesome racket head speed yet he has a very high percentage game.

Understanding the appropriate swing path depending on the ball you are receiving will help you get more balls in play rather than slowing your swing down. This is also a lot more fun to play this way. Watch this video and then work hard to get comfortable with all these different strokes. Your competition won’t know what hit them!!! Enjoy the rest of the 2012 Australian Open, you learn a lot by watching.