Consistency is the Foundation of your Tennis Game
© 2000, Roger Haeske and Adrian Chis
Consistency is the FOUNDATION of great tennis. Consistency means keeping the
ball in play and not making unforced errors. I’ve seen many players who could
hit the ball very hard but not keep it in consistently; lose to players who had
very weak strokes but who just kept the ball in play. Consistent players are
very difficult to beat because in order to beat them you have to be as
consistent as them, and then find an opening to put the ball away.
If you’re consistent and have great placement you’ll be better than the
player who just is consistent. By adding spin and power, you are on your way to
becoming an advanced tennis player.
However, what happens if you develop power first and consistency last? You
will lose to the consistent player. If you develop any other element of your
game like spin and placement before you are consistent, then the consistent
player will always beat you.
Let’s compare building your tennis game with building a house. The first
thing you build in a house is the foundation. Without the foundation, the house
would quickly fall apart. The foundation has to be built deep to hold up the
house. In a skyscraper, they spend most of their time working on building a
strong foundation. Once the proper foundation is built which could take many
months, the rest of the building goes up quickly after that.
After you build up a solid foundation or consistency, then you can build your
first floor, which is Placement. Placement means being able to aim the ball, to
hit it short or long and side-to-side. If you have consistency and placement,
you are well on your way to a winning tennis game.
Your second floor will be Spin. This includes topspin, slice and even side
spin. Once you can consistently add spins to your game, you have many more
weapons at your disposal.
Finally, you want to complete your home so you decide to add the roof. The
roof in this case is Power. Only once you have mastered the previous three
levels should you try to get some real power strokes into your game.
A note about power; don’t hit the ball at the same hard speed all the time.
It’s good to mix things up by varying the speeds of your shots. This will keep
your opponent off balance and not allow him or her to get used to your power.
This applies to serving as well. Another point is that many shots can ’t be
hit very hard. An example of this is a short angle cross-court shot. You need a
lot of topspin but you can’t hit it extremely hard. Shots hit from mid court
should be carefully placed. Many players can hit fine from the baseline but
often make errors on the so-called easy shot from mid court.
As you get better, so will your competition. They will start developing these
shots as well. Your job will then be to master hitting with consistency,
placement, spin and power, and to handle someone else doing the same to you.
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