Need Consistancy

AHJS

Professional
My forehand is a very powerful weapon, but can be a little inconsistant. But my backhand is my weakness and on top of that I dont feel comfortable hitting it. I am a junior player (13) and am playing at a very high competitive level. Thanks for your help.
 

gregor.b

Professional
My forehand is a very powerful weapon, but can be a little inconsistant. But my backhand is my weakness and on top of that I dont feel comfortable hitting it. I am a junior player (13) and am playing at a very high competitive level. Thanks for your help.

More practice. That is the only thing that will make it more comfortable.

Just hit cross court rally balls all session and it will happen soon enough.
 

LeeD

Bionic Poster
As said, only cure is more practice. Most juniors who play tourneys practice 3 days a week, at least 3 hours each of the days. You are still LEARNING a new stroke (to you).
Once you're old and had been, you can play twice a week and stay the same.
 

HughJars

Banned
Umm he's 13 - put your ego away and cut him some slack...geez.

Practice, practice, practice and practice.

Remember, often a deep/wellplaced topspin forehand can be just as effective, with a lower margin for error, than a flat, pacey forehand.
 

Ballinbob

Hall of Fame
My forehand is a very powerful weapon, but can be a little inconsistant. But my backhand is my weakness and on top of that I dont feel comfortable hitting it. I am a junior player (13) and am playing at a very high competitive level. Thanks for your help.

As others have said, you can't really have a weapon of a forehand if it isnt consistent. I realize you are only 13 but it's good to have a slice of humble pie every once in awhile.

My backhand is weaker than my forehand (like many people). I just hit all my backhands cross court and don't try to do too much with it. Simple as that really. Keep your backhand in play until you get a forehand that you can dictate the point with. Practice your inside-out forehand and the footwork that goes with it

But seriously, forget about power and hitting your forehand hard. Biggest mistake I made as a junior was trying to hit too hard. Just keep the ball in play and deep and you'll skyrocket up the rankings
 
Any chance of you actually offering the guy advice instead of being a hero?

Alright, but I sort of said it (maybe indirectly).

Don't let it get into your head that you have a "weapon" when you can't rely on it.

I often associate inconsistency with impatient. When you go for shots that aren't there, then it'll likely ruin your consistency. Practice and work on your point construction.
 

boramiNYC

Hall of Fame
common pointing out obvious is usually not called ego. and I knew a couple 13 14 YO kids playing very good tennis. unbelievably precocious these days. as another poster mentions mostly likely he's inconsistent because he's trying to hit to hard instead trying really hard to keep them in. the question was pretty open ended. not much help other than reality check can be given and if he takes it well it might even help him.
 

rkelley

Hall of Fame
My forehand is a very powerful weapon, but can be a little inconsistant. But my backhand is my weakness and on top of that I dont feel comfortable hitting it. I am a junior player (13) and am playing at a very high competitive level. Thanks for your help.

Wow, that devolved more quickly than usual.

Anyway, in answer to your question, perfect practice makes perfect. How is the footwork? Are you split stepping at opponent's, balanced, with racquet ready? Do you know how you want to set-up on the various balls you get?

Speaking of set-up, once you get to the ball and your feet are right, is your stroke set-up consistent? Is your head on the ball and still at contact? How's the swing path? Are you recovering for the next shot?

How's your shot selection? Are you going for high percentage shots?

Just some stuff to thing about.
 
My forehand is a very powerful weapon, but can be a little inconsistant. But my backhand is my weakness and on top of that I dont feel comfortable hitting it. I am a junior player (13) and am playing at a very high competitive level. Thanks for your help.

As has been said, reign in that power and go for consistency. The power will come as your body changes. Make sure your technique and everything else about your game is on point...

KL
 

dman72

Hall of Fame
The inconsistent forehand "weapon" becomes a major liability against better players, because what happens is, your opponent figures out that your forehand is strong, so they go after your backhand. Now, because YOU view your forehand as a weapon, that 4th ball that comes to your forehand after 3backhands leads you to go for way too much..and since it's inconsistent, the errors start piling up. Spoken from experience.
 

AHJS

Professional
Ok, well thanks for the feedback. To clarify a little, my forehand is actually a very good shot, and it not as inconsistant as it may have seemed to some of you guys. I have taken some advice from you, and am already seeing some improvements. Also, if ya wanna hate, go somewhere else, because my forehand is really good, and I am not actually getting all high and mighty. I play against people who can beat me all the time, so just wanted to let you know that. Thanks for all the constructive feedback I have gotten.
 
Stop calling your forehand as being good if you yourself admit it's inconsistent. My 120mph 1st serve is really good too, I just don't make a lot of them in. But trust me, it's damn good if I ever get one over and in.
 
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kdang

Rookie
Hey, you sound like me. To work on my consistency, I hit more and more everyday. A problem I encounter is if I don't play for awhile, I reset. So always practice practice practice!
 

martini1

Hall of Fame
My forehand is a very powerful weapon, but can be a little inconsistant. But my backhand is my weakness and on top of that I dont feel comfortable hitting it. I am a junior player (13) and am playing at a very high competitive level. Thanks for your help.

Too much power = bad. Dial it down a notch, hit until you can get the ball in with your eyes closed. Then start with the power. Power is your enemy if you can't control it.

You can't win games if you are not hitting any good backhand. Ask your coach to work on your backhand for the entire day. Get your confidence built. You are 13 and I think you can get use to hitting a bh in just a few lessons.
 

gmatheis

Hall of Fame
In practice sessions start favoring your backhand. If a shot is coming right at you and you can step either way, take it as a backhand. Heck even run around some forehands and hit backhands.

I'm not saying to totally ignore your forehand ... but start making your backhand a priority in practice. Force yourself to develop it.

When you have a forehand and backhand that are very close in level it's extremely frustrating to opponents since there is no weaker wing to pick on.
 

Tennisean

Rookie
Any chance of you actually offering the guy advice instead of being a hero?

Hey, the world needs heroes!

It's got enough villains already.


My advice would be to start a serious push-up/pull-up regimen. And hit against a backboard/wall at least several times a week, for an hour each.
 

AHJS

Professional
Stop calling your forehand as being good if you yourself admit it's inconsistent. My 120mph 1st serve is really good too, I just don't make a lot of them in. But trust me, it's damn good if I ever get one over and in.

I would love to see that 120mph serve. Really educational lol. You don't need to be a troll, go give your bad advice to someone else. I don't need it, thnx for your try at being helpful.
 
To the OP, here's the cardinal rule of tennis: IF YOU'RE ABOUT TO ATTEMPT A SHOT AND AREN'T SUPREMELY CONFIDENT YOU CAN MAKE IT, DON'T ATTEMPT IT!!! Play a safer shot.
 

ATP100

Professional
As others have said, you can't really have a weapon of a forehand if it isnt consistent. I realize you are only 13 but it's good to have a slice of humble pie every once in awhile.

My backhand is weaker than my forehand (like many people). I just hit all my backhands cross court and don't try to do too much with it. Simple as that really. Keep your backhand in play until you get a forehand that you can dictate the point with. Practice your inside-out forehand and the footwork that goes with it

But seriously, forget about power and hitting your forehand hard. Biggest mistake I made as a junior was trying to hit too hard. Just keep the ball in play and deep and you'll skyrocket up the rankings


Please don't do that....

Practice your backhand a lot first.
 
I would love to see that 120mph serve. Really educational lol. You don't need to be a troll, go give your bad advice to someone else. I don't need it, thnx for your try at being helpful.

I don't have a 120mph serve. I was making a point but I guess your arrogant self missed it. If you can't consistently make a shot, that just means you're not good at it. So stop saying it's good.

If you can't play the sport with an ounce of humility, then don't play it at all because you'll never get better.
 
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user92626

G.O.A.T.
To the OP, here's the cardinal rule of tennis: IF YOU'RE ABOUT TO ATTEMPT A SHOT AND AREN'T SUPREMELY CONFIDENT YOU CAN MAKE IT, DON'T ATTEMPT IT!!! Play a safer shot.

If that socalled cardinal rule of tennis is true, then there'd be no tennis because there's no loser, someone hitting $h#$% shots.
 

AHJS

Professional
I don't have a 120mph serve. I was making a point but I guess your arrogant self missed it. If you can't consistently make a shot, that just means you're not good at it. So stop saying it's good.

If you can't play the sport with an ounce of humility, then don't play it at all because you'll never get better.

I would suggest that you maybe actually know what you are talking about before you make ridiculous statements like you did above. I am not arrogant, and in fact I am pretty down to earth about where I stand in tennis. Also, thats what I expected, I was pretty sure that you didn't have a 120mph serve, because if you did I would assume that you actually knew what you were talking about, and weren't a person sitting behind a computer with over 5000 posts, and not knowing how to even play tennis. If you did know, then maybe you would give better advice. Finally, I think you should get better before telling me what to do with my game.
 

AHJS

Professional
Yeah ok, you're down to earth:

"I have a pretty good forehand, it's just inconsistent... "

Right...

I am actually, you are an incompetent moron who knows nothing about tennis. My forehand is consistant, unless I go for a winner and am impatient, which I admit that I certainly am. I can hit forehands all day out on the court, and now have been practicing my backhand, and it is becoming solid as well, unlike you sitting behind your computer, not playing tennis at all, and giving terrible advice to people.
 
I am actually, you are an incompetent moron who knows nothing about tennis. My forehand is consistant, unless I go for a winner and am impatient, which I admit that I certainly am. I can hit forehands all day out on the court, and now have been practicing my backhand, and it is becoming solid as well, unlike you sitting behind your computer, not playing tennis at all, and giving terrible advice to people.

I don't play tennis... lol yeah alright man. Sure, if that's what you want to believe, go ahead.
 

Ballinbob

Hall of Fame
Yeah, a frickin 3.5 player telling me what to do and how to improve. Go away, and maybe rank up before you come talk to me.

Dude, no need for insults. He was telling you to be a little more humble, that's it. I know you said you're a down to earth guy, and I believe you. But you can't blame Say Chi for thinking otherwise when you say "I have a pretty good forehand, it's just inconsistent ". You really do have to be humble to get better at this game.

Back on topic...Just keep working on your backhand and keep up the practice. Developing a good backhand slice, to me at least, is just as important as a good topspin backhand. So it might be in your best interest to develop that shot as well
 
AHJS, I hate to break it to you, but you're not coming across very well right now. Cool it with the insults, okay?
 
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Yeah, a frickin 3.5 player telling me what to do and how to improve. Go away, and maybe rank up before you come talk to me.

Funny that most people who's played me or have watched the video don't think I'm a 3.5 and that the fine folks at USTA made a premature judgement based on a small sample size (2 matches). You done being sore?

You know how if your friends will tell you about other players, and tell you what to watch out for? If someone were to tell me "hey watch out for his forehand, it's "powerful" but inconsistent." I'll be like: "so what exactly should I be worried about again? LOL"
 
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