There Are Only 4 Mistakes In Tennis

With all the information available to us right now through the Internet, books, television and coaching, there is a big chance that you might get overwhelmed by all the possible explanations and definitions of tennis technique.

You can analyze your strokes and footwork for hundreds of little mistakes and try to correct them. That makes you think too much and fall into paralysis by analysis. Your technique and playing performance don't improve. They may even get worse.

Luckily for you, there is a much simpler and more effective way to improve.

If you miss a shot, you might start wondering what you did wrong.

There could be hundreds of reasons, beginning with ball judgment, movement to the ball and appropriate footwork, balance, timing, leg thrust, hip rotation, shoulder rotation, elbow too late or too early, racquet face too open or closed, racquet face changing angle during contact, following-through incorrectly and so on.

Whew, I could write for the whole afternoon on this!

But here is a much better way to improve.

There are actually only four mistakes you can make. (OK, you can also miss the ball completely, but that's another topic.)

You can hit:

• too low or too short (almost the same idea)
• too long (closely related to too high)
• too much to the left
• too much to the right.

That's it.

And what do you need to do when you miss? Well, just do the OPPOSITE!

If you hit too short (too low, in the net), AIM HIGHER.
If you hit too long (too high), play shorter (lower).
If you hit too much to the left, aim more to the right.
If you hit too much to the right, aim more to the left.

Don't complicate and analyze!

SEE what happened — the ball is your coach! The ball tells you exactly what happened, and all you need to do is use LOGIC to correct the outcome by aiming differently.

What will happen is that your body — your subconscious mind which coordinates your body — will correct the technical mistakes in order to make the shot in.

Everyone from four-year-old kids onward can play higher, lower, more left and more right. Trust me, I've tested this theory on four-year-old kids. They can do it.

OK, now here is the trick question;

If that were completely true and we don't need any technical instruction, we just need to see where the ball lands and try to correct it, then why don't all recreational players with 0 hours of tennis instruction have perfect technique?

All they are trying to do is get the ball in a certain place, and they are quite good at it but not as good as competitive players who've had hours of technical instruction.

Why? The answer — next time...

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