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Tennis Evolution
Video Capture: Tennis Tip: The Right Distance To The Ball — Tennis Evolution
Hello everybody in a team here for online tennis instruction I would like to discuss a very important topic in concept today having to do with proper spacing to the contact point and how that impacts your swing path now it's very important to note that this drill and exercise today has to do with balls that are coming very close to you at the baseline so I'm not going to talk about balls that you have to run a great distance to but it's a regular fed ball.
Or a heavy ball anything that is coming within a close distance to where you're already positioned on the court so let's take a look at the setup I have here the lines and the cones are supposed to illustrate the conundrum I find a lot of players being in so for illustration purposes let's say you are positioned where this yellow cone is and what happens when players struggle with the correct distance to the ball and the negative impact it has on the swing path.
One of two things mainly happen now first of all they don't move at all players don't move at all let the ball come in and adversity what happens is as they swing to the timing is off there is not enough time to execute the proper swing so they find themselves a lot of coaches you might have heard already say you're hitting the ball too late or too close to the body what they actually mean in that case is your elbow at contact is very close to.
Your upper body almost like jabbing it because there's just not enough room to do anything else and consequently what happens is your swing path will go across and you won't be able to have the proper swing path which is inside-out I'll go into that a little bit further detail in a minute the other thing that say somebody does happen to move most of the movement done however is not proper either so take a look at these blue cones I've set up when somebody does.
Move most of the time it's one step to the side either way whether it's a 400 or backhand so that there's a little bit more space to swing at the ball however because again I'm not distanced properly the ball is bouncing way too close to where I'm positioned my swing path now although I have a little bit more room will go way over to the right side on a backhand and way over to the left side as well to where if you're looking from the angle that you're.
Looking at me right after contact the heating arm elbow will disappear causing another bad swing path what we call the outside in swing path so the distance will definitely impact your swing path and as you want to what I want sorry what I want you to get from this is that we always want to have an inside-out swing path to contact which we can't really get unless with distance properly so let's take a look at this a little bit more in detail what exactly is the.
Inside-out swing path I just mentioned what is very important to note let's still take away the distance and just explain the inside-out swing path what I briefly note I mentioned before is that outside in swing path which makes the elbow disappear right after contact so you no longer can see my elbow okay the inside-out swing path is a path where you do start close to the body as you begin moving to contact but then as you swing to contact you're going out so.
You're coming from the inside close to the body to out outside of the body so you can only do that you can only maintain this proper swing path inside out swing path where the elbow is still visible right after contact from your view it is very important to have the proper distance to the ball and that distance is outlined with these yellow lines what I want to be sure you understand is that when somebody spaces themselves to the contact point when.
Receiving a ball that is very close to where they are originating from it's not just about moving laterally or backwards but it's a combination you need to space backwards and then move over to create the proper space in order to get that inside-out swing path let me quickly show you what and I'm going to do a drill right after this so let's say I'm starting right here on the baseline where that yellow cone is so I notice the ball is coming close I want to hit a.
Forehand so I would go back around okay I'm distancing myself not just laterally where the blue lines are and not just straight back but actually backing around so that I can then step into the ball and maintain that inside-out swing path I cannot create that swing path if I just move one way or the other I have to move both ways I hope that's clear and to even emphasize it further I would like to show you this in an exercise okay now I'm going to show you.
How this looks like in an exercise you can do on your own in order to work on the proper spacing and maintaining the correct swing path so what Greg is going to do for me is going to feed the ball right at me from the center and take a step away so I don't hit him the idea is for me to space myself properly to the ball as he dropped feet sit very close to where I'm standing and for the purpose of this exercise I'm going to be standing very close to this line here whether a yellow.
Cone is so we're going to first demonstrate the forehand and then the backhand so it's do a couple let's say two or three for the forehand Greg here we go so I'm going to start he's going to feet right at me I'm going to distance myself and then step back in so you see how I moved back and the last step went back to the ball let's do that one more time so I distance myself and then I can step back in without throwing the racquet around twisting over and you.
Will still see my elbow at the end let me do this one more time so you can actually see where my elbow finishes and see that I truly swing inside-out so one more time split turn and then I come out and I still have the elbow on this side here I did not rotate around and this is a good check point for you to have when you work on this so let's take a look at the back end I'm going to demonstrate the one hander same idea here I space myself away and then I can swing on balance one.
More time you can see that I'm going not just sideways and not just over but I'm doing both I'm going a little bit in a curved position from where I'm starting so that I can create that inside-out shot one more time here we go split turn and then I can step in I hope this makes sense I highly encourage you try that with this exercise and also let's say you don't have a partner with self feeds and that's what I'm going to show you next let me quickly show you.
How to do this by yourself if you don't have a partner I'm going to move this yellow cone here real quick because that's exactly where I'm going to be I'm drop feeding myself the ball so same idea again I'm going to demonstrate only the forehead now but same thing let's say the ball comes really close I got a space myself properly to then step back in and maintain balance so I don't have the incorrect swing path so let's take a look at this I'm going to hand feed that.
Right to me and then I can step in and space myself one more time right in front of me and then hit that ball again right in front of me space away maintain that inside-out swing path it's only possible to do that if you move back and over in order to maintain the inside-out swing path keep working on this let me know how you do when you practice this because self-feeding may be a challenge for some but I'm more than happy to get back to you with any.
Comments so good luck and until next time the beam is now available for private lessons in sunny South Florida year-round when you work within a team you get state-of-the-art instruction with instant video feedback right on the court if you want to take your game to the next level with private lessons simply click the link inside this video for all the details.
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