Consistency or pace?

[CAM178]

Hah! Sounds like something I've gone through before; i.e. winning the first set easily, building a big lead in the 2nd set, then my opponent goes into pusher mode and I lose the last two sets. Damn you CAM for giving that advice!!!

Anyhooz, you should listen to this CAM guy, smiley, dude's got mad skillz!

LOL. . . sorry about giving pusher advice, boojay!

And thanks for the compliment about my skillz. It is really fun for me to give advice to other players when asked. It makes me proud to see them doing better and to hear about their positive results.

 

[Zachol82]

Consistency for sure. If you keep playing with the correct form, there's no reason that your power wont increase. If your timing is precise and you hit the ball on the rise, that will definitely generate more pace.

Playing against a consistent player is very hard since most of his/her shots are bound to go in and that does psychologically affect the opponent.

However, hitting consistently is not enough, you will also have to be good at placing the ball...which is generally the hardest thing for most players to do. Think of a fairly-paced, well placed ball. If you can hit from 1 corner to the other and then drop shot from 1 side to the other, do you know how much energy your opponent is using to chase down all those balls? Not to mention that they wont be able to return it the way they want to.

The way I see it, your priority should be:
1) Consistency
2) Placement
3) Power/spin

Consistency and placement alone will be enough to drive 4.0 and below players crazy. Adding more power and spin to that, you've really got something going there.

 

[Cindysphinx]

Smiley,

Like you, I take a lot of lessons. I worked very hard last summer and improved many things about my form. By the fall, I was ready to start *spanking* people by spanking the ball.

In September, the combo season started. And suddenly I couldn't hit the shots I wanted. My form looked better and was better, but still I missed. I would lose to players who had inferior technique.

After taking one particularly unfortunate beating, I talked to my pro about it. The advice was that I had misunderstood the purpose of good form/technique. The point of good technique is to achieve consistency. If you set up correctly and swing low to high while you keep your eye on the ball, you pretty much cannot miss.

Regarding power, much of it comes from good technique. At the same time, it is a mistake to go for power for power's sake. It's like the accelerator of a car. You only push the accelerator as hard as you need to. No need to stomp on it. Same thing in tennis: use power for a purpose, and don't stomp on it for no reason lest you waste gas or lose control.

I took this advice to heart, and suddenly I started doing much better. I was letting the technique do the work rather than trying to stomp the accelerator just because I had paid big bucks to learn how.

 

[Pusher]

Train for consistency and consistent you will be. That will win you a lot of club level matches. It will get you beat at higher levels.

The required technique changes at the higher power levels. Look at other sports involving swinging an object of some kind-baseball or golf. I doubt the coach would tell you to swing at 50% power until you master the technique.

Teaching pros vary their approach based on their students. For adults that want to play club and league matches at the 3.0-4.0 level they will certainly teach consistency. For serious juniors that are looking to play at the college or pro level they will teach differently. Some will certainly go with consistency and then add power. Some will go with power and add technique.

IMO, swinging at max power will give you a beter idea as to your technique requirements while also training your body to give that max effort over the course of a match. Set-up, balance and footwork all change as you hit harder. Training to be consistent is sort of like a walk-thru practice in football or basketball. It has its puropse but you have to go full speed to learn the game.

 

[Cindysphinx]

Train for consistency and consistent you will be. That will win you a lot of club level matches. It will get you beat at higher levels.

The required technique changes at the higher power levels. Look at other sports involving swinging an object of some kind-baseball or golf. I doubt the coach would tell you to swing at 50% power until you master the technique.

Teaching pros vary their approach based on their students. For adults that want to play club and league matches at the 3.0-4.0 level they will certainly teach consistency. For serious juniors that are looking to play at the college or pro level they will teach differently. Some will certainly go with consistency and then add power. Some will go with power and add technique.

IMO, swinging at max power will give you a beter idea as to your technique requirements while also training your body to give that max effort over the course of a match. Set-up, balance and footwork all change as you hit harder. Training to be consistent is sort of like a walk-thru practice in football or basketball. It has its puropse but you have to go full speed to learn the game.

Ya gotta walk before you can run.

Even if you hope to run Olympic marathons someday.