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Video Capture: Tennis Movement Tip: Beat The Ball To The Bounce — Tennis Evolution
The challenge now becomes can you beat the ball to the bounce and you can hear me say that's quite a bit are you and the ball are having a race so every time the ball is being struck by the opponent you are in the race with the ball and the finish line is the balance now that that's probably the most important thing you can hear me say during this clinic even that's the only thing you take away from here you go work on that learn to beat the.
Ball to the bounce so you must learn to win the race that's why you see pros they move their feet at double the pace of the ball even at slow pace you have a pro in front of you toss them a ball they will hear us all they attack the ball with their feet if they get there too quickly they will make adjustments tips that's why you hear if each each D they will make adjustments tips if they get there too fast but they will never arrive with the.
Ball or after the bounce that that's a big mistake and then that's what we see at the lower levels all the time when you're not dealing with high level professionals you see people losing that ability to beat the ball to the bouncer whether it's because of the incoming shot or they just not they didn't develop their eyes very well one key aspect for beating the ball to the bounce is improving your first reaction to the ball here is Ian.
With an explanation and a very effective drill for improving your first reaction to the ball okay we're talking about the first reaction to the ball this is another way to really practice it the Box drill that first reaction to the ball is really critical to me when I just realized the difference it makes when people quickly off the mark versus not so quick off the mark there the best players in the world watch them.
Carefully they very quick off the anticipation is incredible and you can improve your game immediately by simply getting your eyes more involved tracking the ball better and working on your first reaction so the Box drill is great because the Box drill to me as it works on something that recreational players never really learned and that's called the flow split the ability to not split on both feet but to split on one foot so that the.
Turn the turn actually takes you in the direction of the boy this when I split step I don't split step and then go my split step and my first step are sort of in sync but you can't do that if you're landing on both feet we were most of us were taught to split step on both feet and then to make that the first reaction and it's not wrong okay there's just nowadays with the game being faster with the rackets.
Being stronger you need to have a better first reaction so you notice when I split step I don't split step on both feet I only split step on my left foot if I see the ball coming to my right only split step on my right foot when I move to the left so that the foot that strikes the ground now becomes a pushing device it opens the hip in the direction of where you're moving and the box drill is fantastic for that so I'm going to bring Subash in and the first thing we're.
Going to do just want to I want you to know this we're going to put him on top of the box okay and the Box now represents elevation that's all it helps him elevate because we don't really want the feet to be on the ground at contact we want the feet to be slightly off the ground at contact so we're simulating that situation by using the box we elevating his feet off the ground so now by the time he lands he's not going to land on both feet so I have a cone there I want him to land on.
The left foot and let that left foot be a pushing device into direction to the right okay so watch carefully he's going to land on the left and push to the right and he's just shuffling around that cone we're not hitting a shutter and him we're just working on fast feet okay land on the left and push to the right very good okay now stand on the Box land on the right and put to the left push very good elevate and pop right and you notice I.
Used to I say ball and that's when the opponent makes contact when the opponent makes contact you want to have your feet slightly off the ground just show them that one more time move again move to your left and ball see so he had ball the feet are slightly off the ground so he sees the ball coming to his left and he lands on the right foot to move in that direction of course it involves a lot of tracking skills you can't wait for the ball to be.
Bouncing on your side or crossing the net already when you make that decision that's why your eyes have to really be on the other side of the court all right now we're going to make it a little bit more I want him to flow a little bit more so instead of putting both feet on the box he's going to step on the box with his left foot and land on the left foot so notice he's going to sort of walk over the box and that's going to create this kind of thing it's going to.
Create flow it's going to create flow see so when he steps off over the left foot steps the left with lands and he flows to the right watch carefully step over the box land and push very good one more time over the box land and push ok stop good now he's going to go to the other side the balls coming to his backhand he's a righty so step on the box with your right foot and push all right ready step on the box and push all right so that's not bad at all see I'm still.
Working with him and as he gets better at this that first step will get stronger the lower you sink the lower you make your center of gravity the quicker you're off the mark see so if I become much quicker watch boom as I as my center of gravity stays high that will not be explosive Ian now offers one day oti movement clinics where he helps you drastically improve your movement in just one day for information on the next.
Oti move clinic please send an email to Valerie at online tennis instruction calm said she can send you all the information.
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