It’s a Brick Wall

Whatever the activity you choose to engage in, having a firm grasp of the most basic fundamentals is absolutely essential if you desire to rise above even an average level of performance.

In terms of tennis, it is imperative to get the proper technique ingrained before you are locked into swing mechanics that limit your ability to add power while maintaining accuracy.

Spheres (baseballs, golf balls, ping pong balls, cannon balls, TENNIS BALLS) moving through the Earth's atmosphere are affected by the friction of that atmosphere and will begin to spin, and that spin will cause that sphere to curve in its flight.

If you have been coached properly during the formative weeks and months of your introduction to tennis, your fundamentals should allow minor tweaks to your swing path and follow through to purposefully add or subtract spin from the ball you are striking.

What makes tennis the difficult to master sport that it is, is low-quality/inexperienced coaching at the early stages of learning the game.

Generally speaking, at most municipal tennis courts and sadly at tennis clubs as well, the least experienced and less qualified coaches teach the beginner classes. The exact opposite should be the case.

Physics and geometry make the rules on how a tennis ball must behave, and without the knowledge of how to shape your ball flight inside the rectangle where the game is played, you'll soon be relegated to the lower levels of the competitive ladder.

If you are an adult player striving to lift your level of play, don't assume if you pound balls for hours on end with your practice buddy or on the club ball machine, that you'll make any significant positive changes to your stroke production.

An error of a few degrees in the angle of the racket face during high-speed impact can send the ball out by feet, not just inches.

Find a coach that understands how to get you where you want to go, and then be willing to invest the time in yourself to properly practice your technique.

Without the proper guidance, the technique intensive demands of tennis will have you running into a brick wall on your path to a higher level of performance.

Howie Burnett is a USPTA Elite Level Professional with more than 50 years of coaching experience. Prior to accepting the Tennis Director position at the Island Country Club in 1998, he operated the Net Advantage Tennis Club management company and concurrently served for 10 years as Head Coach of the USTA Training Center for Elite level Juniors in Central Massachusetts and New Hampshire. Howie was inducted into the United States Professional Tennis Association New England Hall of Fame in 2016.

He is currently teaching part-time on the Tennis Staff at the Marco Island YMCA.

His Book --NET NOTES (common sense ideas to lift your game) is available on amazon.com.

You may contact him with tennis questions or lesson inquiries at marcoY10s@icloud.com or hb10s@me.com.