Accuracy before Power
by Joseph Pitts
(Canada)
Hello,
I'm a 16 year old boy and I play tennis religiously. Me and my brother (he is 18) play tennis almost every weekend and we started playing at the same time. However we approached the game with different mindsets.
When we first started we were beginners and couldn't even get the ball back into play. Our mindsets were the same at this point "Get the ball into play". Within a few months we were rallying competitively and that's when our mindsets differed. On the serve I thought that serving accurate was more important than power and that power would come after you were accurate. My brother thought the opposite- that serving with power is more important and that accuracy comes later.
Now in the present our games differ a lot. My serve is a really accurate, fairly hard serve and a high bouncing topspin second serve. My brother's serve is a really fast serve that is extremely hard to return - BUT it hardly goes in. His second serve is a really weak serve that is easy to attack. He also only knows how to use a slice serve and that is for his first and second serve.
Additionally, serving the same sliced hard to a person for a whole match is predictable and the person will return it back easily after getting used to the serve.
This also brings up another point. If you hit really hard to a person but at the place where he is standing (because you can't aim it where you want) then the person will have an easy time returning it. Compared to hitting an accurate moderately powerful shot which forces them to run, they will have a much harder time.
This proves that accuracy comes before power. My brother can't hit the variety of serves that I can, and he can't place it where he wants. I however have a very consistent, reliable first serve that I can place anywhere with moderate power.
My second serve is also very consistent with a high bounce (occasionally I hit a first serve as my second serve to keep the opposition guessing- an idea he would never try!)
Remember accuracy before power!!!
