What’s the Rush?

A tennis ball rides on the strings of the racket for roughly four one-thousandths of one second.

If the racket is kept on its intended path and face angle for that brief moment, the ball will travel unerringly to its target time and time again.

So, having that understanding, you go out and practice your stroke diligently until it's second nature. You own it and are now ready to go play a match.

When the pressure is on, does your stroke hold up, or do you make errors you thought you had eliminated by your hours of practice?

Very few of us can maintain the clean results that we can generate in a practice session because we are alternately seized by ambition and fear in the course of a rally.

The most common error produced by highly accomplished players is generated by the need to recover to the center of the court as soon as - and as explosively as possible following the finish of their swing.

What happens?

The ball is riding the face for that .004 of a second and just as the ball is leaving the strings, the player begins moving back to the middle of the court and inadvertently changes the spin on the ball, causing it to tail just a little bit away from the target.

The result is a beautifully executed swing of the racket sabotaged by the anxiety fueled recovery movement.

Every shot you play has a beginning, middle and an end. 

Make sure you stay with your follow through until it is complete, and the ball has left the racket face cleanly.

There is absolutely no need to scramble back to the center of the court if you have just missed your shot!

Howie Burnett is a USPTA Elite Level Professional with over 50 years of coaching experience. Before 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.