The Real Issues in Building Technique

[clewit]

Thanks Chris. Personally, and maybe for everyone, the hardest transition is within stage 4 and specifically moving from predictable feeds (whether ball machine or hitting with a coach who's trying to provide a reasonable ball) to live ball. As for video analysis, I use it constantly...I record almost everything except full matches (I'll record practice sets though) but the limitation there is that the video doesn't correct you in real time and it takes a lot of discipline to actually check the video frequently enough to not be practicing the wrong form given how easy it is to revert after a few reps. I appreciate there are likely no easy answers here, but any tips would be appreciated!

When I returned to tennis (which I was never good at or took seriously) as a busy adult, I spent three years changing from a deeply-ingrained nearly full western to what is now a mild semi western on the forehand (not to mention from a fake continental to a pretty strong continental on the serve, and from a semi-western to a strong eastern on the backhand) so I know technique changes can happen. Grip changes have their own challenges (mainly, losing all control and confidence haha) but in some ways they're easier to chip away at because you can check them in nearly real time; a lot harder to 'feel' whether my target one-handed backhand prep and fixing my slightly too-early release of the left hand are being implemented during a rally, you know?

Yes I think it’s true that the stage you mention is critical. I talked about this stage in my book. The key is very soft, light hitting. I recommend the chipping technique from Spain. That works really well. Anytime there is relapse, stop and review the key points with hand feeding. Go back and forth between soft rallies and hand feeding and that should do the trick.