Today I went out for just an hour, I started off with serves. To preface this there are 2 new developments: I subscribed to get the Tennis Channel and my beloved got to get the Soap Channel! All for only $6.95 per month more! Well there was only 1 hour of tennis to 3 hours of Soap channel, well until she fell asleep at night! This was a good move in reality. I also watched 3 tennis videos covering the serve. I am going to post links to these and actually make articles regarding the aforementioned tapes. Everyone needs a refresher course and things change but they also stay the same, one guy on a tape says "you really don't want to try to scratch your back like they used to say" but then when he does the motion he "scratched his back" with the racquet! He probably meant how some people took it to the extreme but in my opinion "scratch your back" is still there. On instructor said it was like throwing a ball and the other said it was like hammering a nail. I agree with a combination of the two. I would recommend watching the three tapes and trying it out and coming up with your own conclusion. One guy demonstrated serving from the service box and progressing to the baseline....I like this drill and I tried it and it helped considerably, I will warm up this way all of the time now. I am going to find those little cones soon, so I can make targets.
When I was younger I was very GUNG HO when I tried to learn something, I used to do what I called saturation training......repetition and new techniques and strategies. Now as an older person, I have been a little more patient, but still a little gung ho. When I was younger i would have just banged out a bunch of serves at 100% till I got tired and got my groove. When I first started serving this years I started out the same way, but now I am going to ease into my strokes and groove into my strokes. It took me half the time to groove on the wall today as well! I watched a video on Agassi's forehand and Federer's backhand on tennis.com which you will also see a link to later. Even though I was having a few beers yesterday and took it off I was still practicing the strokes in the air, man Cindy is one patient and supportive woman! One thing I have noticed is that just like playing air guitar, air tennis is easy! But grab a real guitar or hit a real ball and it's a whole different animal in some ways. High balls give me trouble for now (when I was younger and playing it, I attacked these balls or hit these type of balls on the rise) but as I was air stroking I gave myself auditory cues with each swing like: high ball, medium ball, low ball, with each corresponding stroke. This worked very well. When I served I said "one smooth motion" and "throw the ball", this worked as well. Another thing I did was to slow myself down and serve at about 65% and sometimes 75% and 100% when I lose discipline for now. End result was more consistency and more spin and I felt good mentally and physically.
Things I will work on tomorrow:
1: Stretching and flexibility (I will stretch tonight as well)
2: Stroke production: follow through, different spins, WRIST AND BODY POSITIONING, swing with shoulder.
3: FOOTWORK I need to be on my toes more, ironically I hit on the run pretty well. But I feel like I have lead feet.
4: Cut out the things that make me gain weight, this will be a weaning process, but i don't work out well that way, it needs to be all or nothing with me.
5: Spin serves again: My serve workout was good today but I need to work on the TOSS, BODY AND FOOT POSITION, AND WATCHING THE RACQUET HIT THE BALL.
When I was younger I was very GUNG HO when I tried to learn something, I used to do what I called saturation training......repetition and new techniques and strategies. Now as an older person, I have been a little more patient, but still a little gung ho. When I was younger i would have just banged out a bunch of serves at 100% till I got tired and got my groove. When I first started serving this years I started out the same way, but now I am going to ease into my strokes and groove into my strokes. It took me half the time to groove on the wall today as well! I watched a video on Agassi's forehand and Federer's backhand on tennis.com which you will also see a link to later. Even though I was having a few beers yesterday and took it off I was still practicing the strokes in the air, man Cindy is one patient and supportive woman! One thing I have noticed is that just like playing air guitar, air tennis is easy! But grab a real guitar or hit a real ball and it's a whole different animal in some ways. High balls give me trouble for now (when I was younger and playing it, I attacked these balls or hit these type of balls on the rise) but as I was air stroking I gave myself auditory cues with each swing like: high ball, medium ball, low ball, with each corresponding stroke. This worked very well. When I served I said "one smooth motion" and "throw the ball", this worked as well. Another thing I did was to slow myself down and serve at about 65% and sometimes 75% and 100% when I lose discipline for now. End result was more consistency and more spin and I felt good mentally and physically.
Things I will work on tomorrow:
1: Stretching and flexibility (I will stretch tonight as well)
2: Stroke production: follow through, different spins, WRIST AND BODY POSITIONING, swing with shoulder.
3: FOOTWORK I need to be on my toes more, ironically I hit on the run pretty well. But I feel like I have lead feet.
4: Cut out the things that make me gain weight, this will be a weaning process, but i don't work out well that way, it needs to be all or nothing with me.
5: Spin serves again: My serve workout was good today but I need to work on the TOSS, BODY AND FOOT POSITION, AND WATCHING THE RACQUET HIT THE BALL.
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