John was fairly new to the game of tennis and uttered the magic words….’I have my own ball machine’.
He conveyed that his forehand was pretty erratic with more than the occasional ball being launched and hitting the back fence.
We began his lesson by having him hit cross court forehands and sure enough, many were sailing well beyond the baseline.
We met at the net and I told him about the first tennis book I’d ever read…The Inner Game of Tennis by Timothy Gallwey.
John seemed rushed in his movement to normal forehands and muscled the ball like a well trained wrestler.
I decided to tweak Gallwey’s ‘Bounce, Hit’ drill to have John say ‘Bounce, Smooth’. The results were better but still the errant long ball occurred too often.
We met again at the net and I showed him what Cory Ross used to do in his ‘State Champion’ high school days when his forehand was off. He would put the racquet under one arm, place his hands a couple of feet apart with the right lower than the left. He’d bring the right palm up to his left…press into it for a couple of seconds and then brush up and away from the left hand. Voila…spin reinforcement.
Having the spin trainer nearby seemed to be the next best part of the progression. I had him hold the trainer so I could smooth some forehands with topspin. He seemed to get it and then he tried the trainer with immediate success.
Before heading back to the baseline, we dumped the ‘Bounce, Smooth’ and replaced it with ‘Bounce, Brush’.
The long ball was now replaced with shot tolerance friendly ball that resembled the spin of the spin trainer and Cory.
Moral of the morsel:
Gallwey’s idea is still terrific but may need tweaking for some who are wrestler like and similar to Kyrgios slamming a ball to vent after a point.
** It’s reported that the ball boy is dong well with weekly therapy.
What You’re Saying