Tip of the Week: Use Your Own Swing
Tennis players at all levels of the game tend to develop their own unique swing. We see similarities in players’ swings and shots but there are very few (if any) that are exactly the same.
The professional players have many things in common (shoulder turn, early point of contact, etc.) but when comparing, there are differences. The serve is especially unique to each individual player. Some players toss the ball extremely high, others toss it just high enough to make contact at the peak of the toss, and others hit the ball on the way up. Some service motions are long, others very short, and many are in between.
The goal should be for a player to develop a comfortable, repeatable, and natural swing. There is not a right and wrong way to swing the tennis racquet. I try to give the players that I coach a few basic ideas (use shoulder turn to bring the racquet back, start racquet moving forward slightly below the ball, and finish up high) and then let them develop their own natural swing. If things get off track, we work on adjusting in the direction of a “textbook” swing.
Try using your own natural swing and focus on watching the ball, making contact early and finishing with a nice long follow through, then then do it again!
Steve Annacone, USPTA Elite Pro, is the Director of Annacone Tennis www.annaconetennis.com and MyHamptonsPro, www.myhamptonspro.com throughout the Hamptons, NY. In addition, Steve, Phil Lepisto, and Gill Gross run the ACT (Advanced Competition Team) program at the Tucson Jewish Community Center (Tucson, AZ) for high level players ages 8-18. Please contact Steve at sannacone@tucsonjcc.org or 865-300-7323
