direction of groundstrokes

[tomato123]

When I try to hit cross court baseline groundstrokes, more often than not I'm hitting it right to the middle instead of hitting the angles that I might want to aim for. My question is, what are some of the key factors that go into hitting an effective cross court shot? Turning my body more, hitting the inside part of the ball, or does it make a difference if I've used a 27" racquet after having used a 27.5" racquet for most of my playing career? Oh, and these are shots that I'm attempting to hit it to one side of the court from my position in the middle of the court.

[Skinny Dip]

Don't feel bad, at least they're in. My angle shots tend to go wide until I hit a groove.

[Cypo]

From the middle of the court on the baseline, you don't have the angles to hit wide. Wait for a better opportunity to try to change the direction of the ball.

[Agent Smith]

The angle of the racket face at contact determines where the ball will go, so ur racket face angle is wrong.

[Exci]

If you're on time: turn in your body more towards the desired spot, so you'll be looking straight at it (gives away your play though, but that's ok..), remember to hit it ON TIME, that's very important.

If you're late: run, Forest, run.. You could try to hit it with extreme spin with a stroke that finishes above your hittingarm's shoulder, look for that at tennis.about.com
They've got a video that goes along with that instruction.

http://tennis.about.com/cs/yourgame/a/fhessftvideo.htm

There it is..

[jkhtennis]

It is the racket face that determines the angel of your shot. There are two different cases:
1. If you have plenty of time to set up and hit the ball, and you still cannot hit a crosscourt shot (or your desired direction), then probably there's something wrong with your swing. Keep a firm wrist and give it more practice.
2. For me, especially on the backhand side, a lot of times I cannot hit the desired direction because I am late. Earlier preparation, quick footwork and better anticipation might be able to help. My personal opinion is not to attempt your regular swing if you are on a dead run, make a shorter backswing and try to get the racket face right pointing to your desired direction. Again, that's just my opinion. Bungalo Bill, can you give us some inputs?

thanks.

[TennsDog]

Use your wrist(s) more for a cross court shot. If you keep the rest of your swing the same and then just break your wrists a little more at contact, the racket head will pull the ball with it. I used to have a problem getting any cross court angle on my 2H-BH, but the wrist thing really helped me.

[Eli]

The above suggestions are all things to consider. One thing I didn't see mentioned that can make a big difference in putting you on the right track. And that is getting more behind the incoming ball, especially on balls coming from crosscourt. If you position yourself the same way for balls coming at you and balls moving away from you, you will always be a little bit late and inside those travelling away, leading to straight ahead returns, or worse, shanked balls. This enables you to get the outside of the ball which is mandatory for consistently and accurately hitting cross court returns and generating the crisp angles.

There's a book called "Coaching Tennis" that includes a good chapter (Wardlaw's Directionals). You might benefit from getting a copy of this.

[Bungalo Bill]

Originally Posted by Eli

The above suggestions are all things to consider. One thing I didn't see mentioned that can make a big difference in putting you on the right track. And that is getting more behind the incoming ball, especially on balls coming from crosscourt. If you position yourself the same way for balls coming at you and balls moving away from you, you will always be a little bit late and inside those travelling away, leading to straight ahead returns, or worse, shanked balls. This enables you to get the outside of the ball which is mandatory for consistently and accurately hitting cross court returns and generating the crisp angles.

There's a book called "Coaching Tennis" that includes a good chapter (Wardlaw's Directionals). You might benefit from getting a copy of this.

I second this! Good book as well.