Timing and the Feel
of the Racket Head

Don Brosseau

Timing is a fascinating but curious subject. Compared to such topics as the open stance forehand, almost nothing has been written about it. But timing is an absolutely essential skill to reaching the upper echelons of the game. And for maximizing your potential at any level.

A top player may not necessarily have great foot speed, be the best athlete or have a huge serve. However, all great players can time their swings to generate effective shots off the tremendously challenging balls they receive in top flight tennis.

Take a player like Lindsey Davenport. She has been one of the top players in the world for years not withstanding the fact that players ranked hundreds of spots below her cover the court better. But Lindsey is a ball striker par excellence and great timing is at the heart of those ball-striking skills.

You might acknowledge the importance of timing but argue that you are either born with good timing or you are not. But this view is too simplistic.

You can draw an analogy between movement and timing. Genetic factors do place an ultimate ceiling on your speed, but training techniques to improve footwork and maximize your physical ability can greatly improve a player's court coverage.

Similarly, I have found that if players become aware of the racket head and practice various key skills, they can substantially improve their timing. These two articles will cover some of these exercises and drills that can help take your timing to a higher level.

The techniques are organized around two fundamental principles. The first principle--covered in the first article--is to know--and I mean really "know"--where your racket head is at all times.

The second principle--coming up in the second upcoming installment--is to learn how to release the racket head at different times depending upon the kind of ball you are receiving, including all the potential variations in speed, spin, angle, depth, and location.

The Racket Head and the Pocket

In his 1950 book How to Play Better Tennis, Bill Tilden wrote that the head of the racket, and only the head of the racket, returns a ball.

Much has changed in tennis since that time, but that simple fact has not. Speed and pace are controlled completely by the manner in which the racket head is swung against the ball.

In a recent television commentator appearance, Andre Agassi stated that what set Roger Federer apart was his phenomenal ability to control the racket head. Delivering it to the contact point at just the right time for the just the right shot is what timing is all about.

In my opinion, great players have an innate sense of the racket head. In particular, they feel the weight of the racket head both as they prepare the racket and then swing it forward.

There is a "pocket" in the strings in the middle of the racket head. This is what ideally strikes the ball. When a player really feels the weight of the racket head he becomes "connected" to that pocket.

So it's very important to distinguish between simply swinging the racket, and having a feel for the racket head and the pocket.

The Exercises

So assuming you are part of the 99.9% of the population us who are not born with an innate world class feel for where the racket head is at all times, how can you improve this skill? You may not have ever thought of the racket head separately from the racket itself, or ever really felt what it is like to connect with the pocket time after time. Through these execises you can.

Some of the exercises I will share here may seem incredibly basic, but if you practice them I can assure you will improve your timing tremendously. Or make the point another way: if you cannot execute these basic exercises successfully, it demonstrates that you don't currently have the feel you need to realize the potential of your strokes.

Most players are far too rigid in their arms, and particularly, the forearm. When your forearm is tense you feel the weight of the forearm itself, rather the weight of the racket head. The tense player becomes "disconnected" to the shot because he can no longer feel the critical elements in the forward swing.

Have you noticed how much better you stroke the ball when your arms are relaxed? Why is this? A primary reason is that when your racket arm is relaxed you have a much better kinesthetic sense of the location and weight of the racket head.

Feeling the weight of the forearm rather than the weight of the racket head is a problem I have encountered with practically every student who has ever walked onto my teaching court, from beginners to highly ranked tournament players.

When I suspect that the student has this issue, I ask him or her to take a practice "shadow" swing on the forehand but to freeze the swing at the contact point. I then ask where the pupil feels the weight -- to help I take the wrist of the hitting arm and hold it between my fingers.

At this point the student usually realizes that the weight they are feeling is mostly the weight of the forearm and not the weight of the racket head itself. I then explain that this makes it very difficult to time the oncoming ball. The center of the strings is actually about 20 inches away from what the player is actually feeling. This is the same problem that arises when a player tightens up on a difficult shot and/or under pressure.

How can this problem be corrected? The solution is to change the "pressure points" in how the player grips the racket. Most players with this problem hold the racket too tightly (i.e., squeezing) with their thumb and index finger. This tightens the hand too much and the weight is felt in the forearm.

I change this by telling my students to hold the racket more deeply in the palm of the racket hand. The feeling should be "snug" but not tight. By moving the pressure point into the palm they are more easily able to feel and properly control the momentum of the racket head.

If you hold the racket too tightly, you severely limit your ability to hit with power. You have to control your racket to make the swing, but that control should come from an educated, tactile sense in the palm of the hand, not from squeezing the thumb and index finger.

A very helpful basic exercise to impart the feeling of how to hold the racket is to practice rolling a tennis ball around the edge of the racket frame. Practice rolling the ball both clockwise and counter-clockwise keeping it in contact with the frame of the racket head.

Notice that if you tighten your thumb and index finger, you diminish your ability to roll the ball on the strings. You can not control the ball as well and you are not able to roll it as fast.

I highly recommend that you do this drill regularly -- it will really help you develop more feel for the racket head. It may seem simple, but it's amazing how many players can't do it successfully. I use it even with nationally junior players, when they complain that their timing is off.

Another variation is to roll the ball from one side of the racket face to the other side without losing touch with the frame. The trick here is to get the ball rolling up the face and then pull the racket under the ball as the ball reaches the point of inertia.

Another very effective drill is to try swinging in slow motion with a quarter balanced on the edge of the middle of the racket head. This is a little artificial as the head in reality closes somewhat on the backswing, and sometimes slightly on the forward swing as well. But this drill will definitely increase your awareness and sensitivity. The quarter should stay in position on the racket until well after contact.

Tossing Drills

Here is a series of ball tossing drills that work on your feel in slightly different ways. In the first drill, your teacher or practice partner tosses the ball to you from a short distance and you literally catch the ball on the racket face. Start by using your non-racket hand to trap the ball on the strings. But practice until you can catch the ball on the racket face without the aid of the additional hand.

For advanced players, the drill can be made more difficult by increasing the distance between the person tossing and the player catching the ball on the strings. If the catcher can handle it, the person tossing can go to the opposite side of the net. The most advanced variation is for the person tossing the ball to toss it away from the player -- the player then has to move to the ball and catch it on the strings.

Regardless of which variation of the drill is used, there are two critical questions I ask my students. The first is "Were you more careful positioning the racket head when you tried to catch the ball or when you were actually hitting?" Invariably, the pupil will answer that they were more careful when they were trying to catch the ball.

The second question is: "Which is more difficult, catching the ball or hitting it to a target?" Because students have spent countless hours hitting tennis balls, they will usually answer catching the ball.

The reality is catching the ball is far easier--if you spent an equal amount of time practicing both. Learning to catch the ball requires the player to develop heightened sensitivity to the location of the racket head. The point I make is that every player should apply this same heightened awareness to actual play.

Hitting Off the Racket Face

Another terrific tossing drill is one I learned from the late Jerry Alleyne. Jerry was a great New York teaching pro from whom I learned the principles that form the basis of my teaching today.

Start the drill by balancing a ball on the racket face. Stand inside the service line, pick a target in the middle of the service box on the other side of the net. The goal is to hit the ball to the target, but without pushing the ball up into the air before you contact it. This means you have very little time to accomplish the task.

The only way to do it is with a continuous looping motion. If you stop the racket during the backswing the ball will hit the ground before your racket can get to the contact point. Most students will naturally adopt a small looping motion when performing the drill.

The drill gives a great feel for developing a compact circular backswing motion in the actual stroke. It also gives the player the sense of throwing the weight of the racket towards the target and this is exactly the feeling you want when you stroke the ball. You can vary the drill by hitting to targets in different parts of the court, including targets deep into the court. One note: This drill will work with any forehand grip between from a semi-western to a continental. But it will not work with a full western grip.

The Real Deal

Now let's apply some of these basic principles to hitting actual forehands. I divide the forward swing into two phases. The first phase is the unit turn. The second phase includes the racket drop or loop, and the forward swing. Let's see how the awareness of the racket comes into play, especially in the second phase.

When initially teaching the forehand swing, I will have the student make a small pause after the completion of the unit turn.

The unit turn starts the preparation of the body and the racket. At the completion of the unit turn on the forehand, the racket shaft is pointing upward and toward the back of the court. The right elbow is just off the right hip and the racket head is just past the right shoulder.

The racket face is somewhere between vertical and closed, as there are a range of backswings shapes that can be effective. The exact height and position of the head will also vary between players and also according to the characteristics of the oncoming ball.

When you make the unit turn you want to feel "connected" to the ball. You want to establish a relationship between the incoming ball and your racket head as you make the unit turn. Think back to the ball catching drill. In order to catch the ball on the strings you need to "connect" the incoming ball to the racket head. You want that same kind of connection in the unit turn. This connection should be continuously developing as you move to and read more information about the oncoming ball:

You need to feel the speed, spin, height, angle, etc of the oncoming shot. Based on this information, you will adjust the position of the racket head for the shot you are about to hit. In this way, the unit turn is actually slightly different for every ball. Great players have this subtle, continuous feeling and that helps make tough shots look easy. Most recreational players don't, and this is why they can make easy shots look hard.

Phase 2

You set up the swing with the unit turn and now in phase 2, you let it go. There is a pause at the completion of the unit turn. But it phase 2 the motion is continuous. This is where the awareness of the racket head becomes critical. I call the start of this phase the "gravity drop." The racket drops to bottom of the backswing and then accelerates forward to the ball.

The proper grip pressure, the relaxed arm, and the feeling for connecting the ball with the pocket, all come together in these critical instants of the forward swing.

Many players stop the racket at the bottom of the backswing loop. But in doing so they lose the benefit of the "gravity drop." In addition, they also impair their ability to disguise the shot and whether they will hit a lob, slice or a topspin drive.

Most importantly, by stopping at the bottom of the loop, they make the whole motion too deliberate and mechanical. This type of motion will have the tendency to break down a lot more under pressure than an automatic, continuous motion.

Orientation

Simply knowing the location of the racket head in phase 2 is not enough; you have to actually feel its orientation in space. You should close your eyes and do practice swings to better develop this sense.

Feel the weight of the racket head as you drop it in the loop and then feel the momentum of the racket head on the forward swing as the racket head goes out towards your intended target. You have to feel how the face closes in the backswing. You have to feel how that changes to perpendicular or possibly slightly closed as the racket moves onto the intended path of the shot and then through the hitting zone. You must also develop the feeling of keeping the racket head on this path as long as possible.

Eventually, you may find yourself melding the two phases so there is no break between the parts of the swing. Roger Federer and many other pros do this with the result that the racket is in continuous motion from the moment the swing starts until it is finished.

This probably results in even more feeling for where the racket head is. But in my experience, most players are better off at least initially if there is slight pause at the completion of the unit turn.

Weighted Racket

Here is a final exercise using a teaching tool I created that has greatly helped my students. This is a customized racket with lead wire wrapped around the racket head. Make sure to wrap the wire evenly around the racket head and add about 5 to 6 ounces to the head weight (for lower level kids or smaller adult players you can add less weight). Using this racket is not intended to make you stronger. Rather, it is intended to give you the kinesthetic sense of the weight of the racket head, and also, to feel the increased momentum of the racket head as it flows through the hitting zone towards the target.

To start, the player hits a simple shot down the line off of a gentle feed with the non-weighted racket. Try to feel the racket head and where the momentum is directed in terms of the line of flight of the ball. Disciplined monitoring of the followthrough will tell you what is really happening. Players will often swing across the ball too soon instead of continuing the racket head along the intended down the line shot path.

Now, the player hits a second tossed ball down the line with the weighted racket. Due to the extra weight, the player has no choice but to swing further along the line toward the target, because it is much harder to manipulate the heavy racket. The additional weight enables the player to feel the momentum of the racket head. The end result is that the players learn to let racket head do more of the "work."

If the player still has trouble getting the feel of it, the player should hold the weighted racket with only the thumb and middle finger on the racket. Now the player has no choice but to let the momentum of the racket work for him. This drill is also great for working on the volley.

So that's it for Part 1. In the next article let's see how the timing of the release of the racket changes given the specific ball the player is receiving and trying to hit himself. Stay tuned!

Note: Special thanks to Tennisplayer.net Contributing Editor Ed Weiss for working closely with Don in developing this article! And extra special thanks to Danielle Lao, Angela Kulikov, and Daniel Weingarten for the fantastic job demonstrating the strokes and the exercises.