dominikk1985
Legend
I definitely don't think that better strokes are a myth. A well trained tennis player will usually beat a more athletic bad tennis player, john mcenroe could still beat most young pro athletes who haven't played tennis much easily.
However I think the mistake many make is to focus too much on the hand and racket when thinking about technique. That stuff is important at the highest level, but the main disadvantage most rec players have is how they move their body dorsal from the arm.
That doesn't just include footwork but also body posture, balance and your ability to turn your body.
If you made a video of djokovic or federer with their arms and racket cut of (digitally
) and you only see how they move their legs, hips, head and trunk you could see already that they are excellent players without even seeing their arm and racket.
I'm training baseball hitters and we are doing a lot of dry turn work (also, sequencing work where hips turn ahead of shoulders) with a bat across the chest while traditionally the batting coaching focuses a lot on hands and bat and maybe a bit feet and balance.
Those macro moves are what most rec athletes are missing, if you want to be a good player learn to move your body well from your shoulders down.
That doesn't mean that it is unimportant what arms and racket (or baseball bat) do but it is a lot easier to do that right when the base is right.
That is generally a big issue with kids today, their have great fine motor skills with their hand and fingers (because they use them a lot) but poor body control of the bigger parts because they sit all day.
That is why many great tennis players have been great multi sports athletes (especially soccer), that gave them better body control than guys who just played tennis.
However I think the mistake many make is to focus too much on the hand and racket when thinking about technique. That stuff is important at the highest level, but the main disadvantage most rec players have is how they move their body dorsal from the arm.
That doesn't just include footwork but also body posture, balance and your ability to turn your body.
If you made a video of djokovic or federer with their arms and racket cut of (digitally
) and you only see how they move their legs, hips, head and trunk you could see already that they are excellent players without even seeing their arm and racket.I'm training baseball hitters and we are doing a lot of dry turn work (also, sequencing work where hips turn ahead of shoulders) with a bat across the chest while traditionally the batting coaching focuses a lot on hands and bat and maybe a bit feet and balance.
Those macro moves are what most rec athletes are missing, if you want to be a good player learn to move your body well from your shoulders down.
That doesn't mean that it is unimportant what arms and racket (or baseball bat) do but it is a lot easier to do that right when the base is right.
That is generally a big issue with kids today, their have great fine motor skills with their hand and fingers (because they use them a lot) but poor body control of the bigger parts because they sit all day.
That is why many great tennis players have been great multi sports athletes (especially soccer), that gave them better body control than guys who just played tennis.
