Players must possess a wide range of different tennis skills and techniques, which includes stroke production, strategy, mental toughness, and physical athleticism. Some these tennis skills and techniques are discussed here.

Fundamental Tennis Skills and Techniques

Below are the fundamental tennis technical skills that every beginner player should acquire. Additional skills are acquired as players mature and become more knowledgeable of the more advanced technical skills. Examples of these advanced skills are net play, net charge, making contact, slice, drop shots, swing and many others. Only the fundamental tennis skills and techniques are described here.

Tennis Forehand Tennis Skills and Techniques

The tennis forehand stroke is the number one part of tennis skills and techniques for many players from beginner to professional tennis players. The forehand stroke is considered as the most natural stroke in tennis.

If you are a right-handed player, and your opponent returns a ball directly towards your body, your tendency is to step to your left and hit the ball from the right side of your body. If you are a left-handed player, and your opponent returns a point directly towards your body, you naturally step to you right side and hit the ball from the left side of your body. Because the forehand stroke is a sort of s natural stroke, this stroke is performed more by players in tennis matches compared to the other tennis strokes.

Tennis Backhand Tennis Skills and Techniques

The backhand stroke is executed from the opposite side of your forehand stroke. Thus, if you are a right-handed player, you hit the ball from the left side of your body. If you are a left-handed player, you hit the ball from the right side of your body.

To correctly execute the backhand stroke, you must bring back you dominant hand or racket hand around your body before you hit the ball.

The tennis backhand stroke can be awkward to execute in the beginning. But if you are diligent to familiarize and practice it regularly, it can be a very good additional tool for you tennis skills and techniques.

Tennis Serve Tennis Skills and Techniques

The tennis serve is the beginning of a point in a tennis game. The player who serves is called the server and the player on the other end is the receiver. There are several types of serves such as topspin, topspin-slice, flat, slice, kick and many others.

Since the serve begins every point, it’s crucial to develop this among other tennis skills and techniques.

A perfect serve is achieved by executing the right stance, the right tennis serve grip and the correct ball toss. In addition, power can also be added if the server has the ability to execute the proper body movements (knee bending and body coiling), the right racket swing and the right point of contact. Most importantly, the serve must be developed as a primary weapon while achieving pinpoint accuracy and depth.

Tennis Lob

A tennis lob shot is an important additional asset to add to a player’s tennis skills and techniques. It is a shot that can be used as an offensive or defensive shot. A lob shot is executed by hitting the ball high and deep into your opponent’s court. Normally, an offensive lob shot is hit when the opponent is at the net. Whilst the defensive lob shot is used to force the opponent back and allow you to recover to a better defensive position. As a result, you can gain back the control of the play and make it to your advantage.

Tennis Overhead

A tennis overhead is a shot hit above the player’s head just like the serve execution. It is also called as a smash shot as it is usually hit with power. If executed correctly, it gives a point to the smasher. If a lob shot is normally hit down deep, an overhead shot is normally hit near the net or in the middle of the court. In some cases, a poorly executed lob shot (not very high and not to deep) can be returned as an overhead shot by the opponent. To give more power to an overhead shot, hit it before it bounces on the ground. A lob shot is another addition to the player’s tennis skills and techniques that ensures a point.

Tennis Volley

A tennis volley is a shot where the ball is hit before it bounces on the ground except for the overhead shot and the serve. In most cases, a tennis volley is hit when you are playing net. However, it can also be done even if you are in the middle or even on the baseline depending on the circumstances.

A volley is considered as part of the overall tennis skills and techniques that can be applied when you are off balance or out-of-position to hit a groundstroke. However, it is normally played as an offensive shot near the net, where you hit a winner angled or a well placed volley shot.

Physical Tennis Skills and Techniques

General athletic ability

The game of tennis involves a lot of physical activities. It needs speed, agility, endurance, and flexibility that any players to want to reach the top must have. These are among tennis skills and techniques needed to be a successful player.

You need speed to run for a ball as quickly as possible and you need agility and alertness to anticipate your opponent’s shot.

Your muscles and tendons needs to be flexible for you to be able to hit balls that seem unreachable. Lastly, you need to have the endurance to last long hours of tennis matches.

Balance

Balance is one of the very important physical tennis skills and techniques a player must have. Balance is vital to hit well placed and accurate shots. Good balance also minimizes injuries especially in the lower part of the body such as the legs, ankles and knees. Exercises and drills to improve balance can be done both on court and off-court (e.g. gym).

Hand-Eye-Coordination

Tennis is a sport where hand-eye coordination is important so that your hand and the other parts of your body quickly react to do the right moves in response of what your eyes see. Hand eye coordination is one of many tennis skills and techniques that are very important especially for advanced tennis where the nature of the game is very quick and fast. Although this skill is believed to develop through years of playing tennis, drills to develop this skill is still necessary especially for young beginners.

Mental Tennis Skills and Techniques

Motivation

Without motivation, tennis skills and techniques are of little use. Having the motivation to accomplish something is the recipe of many successful individuals in their own fields. The same is true for tennis players. Young beginners have to have motivation to learn the different tennis skills and tactics for them to succeed and improve. Professional players on one hand, must be motivated enough to win difficult matches.

Concentration

Concentration and focus play a vital role in every tennis player’s performance. To have focus while you are on court means you have to eliminate all the other thoughts especially the negative ones that can distract you. Concentration is necessary to let your first serve in especially during crucial points or you need to focus not to miss your second serve to avoid double faults.

Concentration is not only important on court but off court as well such as during practice. You need to have a full concentration for you to improve your tennis skills and techniques during regular practice.

Competitive spirit

Tennis is a tough game particularly for tennis singles. It can become tougher if the match is not going your way because you are alone out there on court. Your competitive spirit is tested when you are racing against the leading opponent. The way you handle the situation when you are losing will be determined on your competitive ability. A competitive player does not give up until the winner is declared.

Problem-solving

In tennis, a player must develop a game plan whoever his/her opponent will be. However, a game plan does not always work. Unlike basketball where a coach can ask for a time out to change his game plan if the first one is not working, a tennis player needs to come up with his own solutions in case his tactics are effective. He has to find ways to stop the opponent’s momentum for him not to be out played.

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The post Tennis Skills and Techniques – Technical, Physical and Mental Skills and Techniques appeared first on Tennis Instruction.

The upside is that even recreational and club players can learn the recipes and tennis skills needed to succeed in tennis.

Physical Tennis Skills

Let’s discuss physical tennis skills. Firstly, flexibility, balance, aerobic health, and strength are all required in order to garner the best results from your tennis skills; that is, you need to work on all four areas to be physically fit for successful tennis.

How to achieve fitness in each area? Remember, it’s best to get fit to play tennis, not play tennis to get fit, so most of your workouts will occur off the court.

For flexibility, try practicing yoga. Yoga poses stretch not only the muscles, but the joints as well — and, a sequence of yoga poses will stretch the entire body, necessary for enhanced physical tennis skills. A body which is rigid at the beginning of learning yoga may become quite flexible, even those parts which have not been consciously worked upon.

For balance (essential for agility), consider the ancient art of T’ai Chi; studies have proven the association of T’ai Chi practice with significant improvement in balance which is a requisite for improved physical tennis skills. Your local fitness or recreation center may offer a class. (T’ai Chi’s gentle flowing movements also reduce stress.)

Aerobic Fitness for tennis

For aerobic fitness, consider the following. The benefits of aerobic exercise are many: strengthening the muscles involved in respiration, thus, facilitating the flow of air in and out of the lungs; strengthening the heart muscle, thus, improving its pumping efficiency; and, strengthening muscles throughout the entire body. Solid aerobic endurance sustains a player’s tennis skills for the duration of a game, which may last several hours.

For aerobic health, no one exercise is best for everyone. But it is always necessary to use large muscle groups repetitively for a sustained amount of time; and it is best to perform the exercise for 60 minutes, preferably five days a week.

The intensity of your aerobic workout can be determined by your heart rate. Use the following formula to ensure your exercise is helping you achieve aerobic fitness: subtract your age from 220, and multiply the resulting number by 60%, or .6, and by 90%, or .9. The resultant numbers represent the optimal low end and high-end heart rates you should maintain while exercising.

For instance, if you are thirty years old, your optimal low-end heart rate would be 114 and your optimal high-end heart rate would be 171. Choose an exercise you enjoy; swimming, running, and cycling are excellent forms of aerobic exercise. At the gym, ski machines, stair climbers, steppers, and ellipticals can all offer an aerobic workout.

And, finally, strength training augments your tennis skills; whether you want a stronger serve, groundstroke, volley, or overhead smash, building a stronger body is key. Tennis specific weight training will not only improves your tennis skills, it will help ward off injuries. But, strength training to enhance tennis skills must be very sport specific; you must find the appropriate amount of muscle mass for power — too much bulkiness slows down court speed. Working with greater repetitions and lower weights maintains agility and speed while appropriately increasing strength.

Mental Tennis Skills

Now, let’s discuss mental tennis skills. You may have dominant physical tennis skills — you may be more flexible, more balanced, aerobically more fit, and stronger than your opponent, but without mental tennis skills, you will likely lose to the physically weaker player with more advanced mental tennis skills. That is, no matter how skilled and fit you are, if you break down in significant matches and close calls, you will lose.

Mental tennis skills will prepare you for close matches and enhance your strokes — in essence, it will give you that all important edge.

Even over opponents with superior physical tennis skills, merely by the power of your mind. Mental tennis skills are crucial to the success of your game.

The techniques of cognitive-behavioral therapy, a type of psychotherapy developed by American psychiatrist, Aaron Beck, may be used to develop mental tennis skills. Cognitive-behavioral therapy challenges negative self-talk and provides more balanced reality-tested alternatives.

For instance, a technique in cognitive therapy termed cognitive rehearsal can be applied to great effect. Imagine a situation during a recent game in which you did not succeed. Consider what difference(s) in your game would have helped you succeed.

Visualization in Tennis Psychology

Then in a relaxed setting, imagine over and over again the situation playing out in that successful manner. When you are confronted with a similar situation again, the imagined, or rehearsed, behavior will be automatically drawn upon; you will play successfully. Statistically, it’s been proven that those who visualize the end they hope to achieve are twice as likely to succeed as those who do not.

Other techniques, which originated in Buddhism, improve mindfulness and can help you ‘let thoughts’ be, and dissociate yourself from sensory input which is a distraction from achieving optimal physical tennis skills. Other cognitive-behavioral techniques will also help you improve your concentration on set goals, your mind-set and mental attitude, your self-control and self-discipline, your ability to recuperate after training, your self-esteem and self-belief, your stamina in training, and your self-understanding and self-awareness.

Breathing Exercises

Specific breathing techniques are also useful mental tennis skills taught through cognitive-behavioral therapy. Proper breathing allows you to practice moving between the left and right hemispheres of the brain; thus, shifting from the low arousal, goal within goal thinking associated with the left brain hemisphere to the high arousal, and more process orientated ‘take it as it comes’ attitude associated with the right brain hemisphere. Breathing techniques therefore can help you demonstrate your best physical tennis skill, remaining in the moment, without the need to reflect, analyze, or assess performance until after the game.

Check your local bookstore or library for books offering training in cognitive-behavioral therapy. Then practice the techniques. Once mastered, you will find yourself single-minded and present-focused in your game, demonstrating the most effective delivery of your physical tennis skills.

Emotional Tennis Skills

And, finally, let’s discuss emotional tennis skills. Certain emotions, in particular, those involving anxiety, can diminish even the best of physical tennis skills. Emotions frequently contribute to players losing to inferior opponents. Why? Tennis is inherently antagonistic, hence emotional, since each players use their tennis skills to combat his or her opponent.

Emotions on the tennis court

Threat and intimidation may play significant roles in tennis; it is a far more emotional game than it may appear to the observer. Closely contested matches become stressful — winning them is emotionally significant and uplifting, and losing them is emotionally painful. No matter how much you hone your physical and mental tennis skills, emotions will likely effect your game if not controlled. But, emotional tennis skills can be learned just as certainly as physical and mental tennis skills. And emotional strength contributes to success on the court.

The goal of emotional tennis skills is the ability to have a positive response in a negative situation and when feeling negative emotions. Whereas mental tennis skills involve positive thinking and good concentration under stress, emotional tennis skills involves positive feelings such as low anxiety, good motivation, calmness, courage, optimism, happiness, and confidence.

Emotional tennis skills allow you to consistently access empowering emotions during a match. Similar to developing mental tennis skills, but with variations, developing emotional tennis skills requires that you use controlled breathing, centering, and cognitive restructuring — and, that you transfer emotional tennis skills to games using visualization, imagery, and simulation.

In other words, the thoughts and images you have in your mind have emotional consequences; undisciplined thoughts and images will negatively affect your play. And you need to practice emotional responses. You won’t have a new emotional response to a difficulty on the court if you haven’t practiced emotional responses off the court. Just like muscles, emotional tennis skills need time and stimulation to grow. And, interestingly, when and what you eat and the quantity and quality of your sleep and rest can effect your emotional tennis fitness as well.

So, to be a top-notch player, or just to improve your game, practice physical tennis skills, mental tennis skills, and emotional tennis skills off the court; you’ll soon see the results on the court.

Learn to Hit a Forehand Like Roger Federer

If you want to jumpstart your forehand and play like the PROS, check out my 70+ page Tennis Ebook that will immediately show you how you can take your forehand to the next level.

The Modern Forehand Domination Ebook is guaranteed to improve your tennis technique, and increase power, topspin and accuracy of your tennis forehand!

Modern Tennis Forehand Ebook
Learn How to Hit a Forehand Like Federer, Nadal and Djokovic

The post Tennis Skills – Physical, Mental and Emotional Tennis Skills to Win a Tennis Match appeared first on Tennis Instruction.