How to Use Wimbledon to Help You Play Better Tennis By Paul Gold At Isnare.com Ezine Articles

Yes Wimbledon is a few months away but preparations have to be made to help transition tennis players from the clay to the grass.

I was looking back at some notes I had made a year or so ago just before Wimbledon.

I had made these notes for some of the players I was working with who had Wimbledon qualifying coming up and I suddenly thought, “this stuff is not only good for the grass court season and Wimbledon, but it’s perfect for advancing your tennis game the rest of the tennis year”.

As I looked over the stuff I had written down, I pin-pointed 4 or 5 areas which were crucial to success on grass but also crucial to playing tennis just about anywhere else especially at club level.

So here they are.

1. Serve & Return

You should know by now that the 2 most important shots in tennis are the tennis serve and the tennis return.

When you play tennis on grass these shots become ultra important in terms of your control of the point, if you do neither well then you are unlikely to win very much.

But stop for a second and think about your own game, hitting the spots wth your serve and making good sharp returns can only be good even if the only time you ever get to “play on grass” is when you walk the dog!!

Let these shots become the cornerstone of your game regardless of what surface you play on and you can't go wrong.

2. Footwork

One of the other things about playing on a grass court like they have at Wimbledon is that the footing can be uncertain, especially early in the tournament.

If you are not careful, the amount of sprinting and changes of direction you have to make could see you ending up being up ended!

To help my players stay on their feet I have them working on their tennis footwork focusing on getting themselves into a slightly lower and wider stance than they feel is normal (which also helped their balance and helps them cope with the low bounces that occur sometimes).

Again, you should take a moment to reflect how having better footwork and balance would improve your tennis game regardless of what level you are and where you play your tennis.

Work from today on getting a bit more flex in your knees and a shoulder wide stance and see how that not only improves your balance and agility but also your POWER!

You can check out my Fantastic Footwork For Fantasy Tennis Special Report @ www.footwork4tennis.com

3. Play Naturally

Because grass court tennis by nature is fairly fast it does take away or at least reduce your thinking time.

Most people are scared of this or see it as a bad thing but you need to see this as a good thing.

The fact is that most players actually play worse when they think too much and try too hard.

You need to set targets for yourself in terms of how you want to play and then - go for it!

It doesn't matter if you are playing on a hard court - natural free flowing tennis should always be your goal.

4. Develop a Wicked Slice

One characteristic of a grass court is that is "takes" slice meaning that the shot is a good one to use on that surface.

It stays low and skids through making it difficult for your opponent.

You will therefore find players who don't normally slice on other surfaces being forced to slice heaps more when they come to play on grass.

Again, just because you don't play on grass it doesn't mean you should never slice the ball (and I don't just mean when you are in trouble and pushed out wide).

You only need to look at two of the greatest players in modern times who won on all surfaces and who were virtually unbeatable on hard courts.

Federer and Henin both had really good slices that they used for great variation as well as to set up their topspin and to attack the net.

Even Nadal is adding the slice into his game more and more.

So there you have it, 4 great reasons to take some great tactics that most people leave on the grass courts and add them to your game to make it heaps better.

Who said grass was only for cows??

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