What can you do to make your ground strokes better?

Answer 1

There are a few things you can do to make your tennis ground strokes better including: technique, drills, lessons, and match play. First, make sure that you have the proper technique when you hit your ground strokes. Are you keeping your knees bent throughout the stroke? You want to make sure to bend your knee so you have more control on the ball and don't stress out your back. Do you have a complete follow through in your technique? Watch your backswing as well. Make sure it isn't too big. Minimize your backswing to help control your shots. Eventually work back to a full backswing. When do you catch the ball? Do you catch it on the rise or has it fallen too close to the ground. You want to hit the ball out in front of you. The height depends somewhat on if you hit the ball flat or with topspin (and loop backswing). Try the following drill to help improve the consistency of your ground strokes. Rally back and forth with a partner cross court and try to hit 30 balls in a row with out missing. Do this down the line as well. Really think about your shots and the timing you need. Remember timing is everything! Another option, of course, is to take lessons. Private lessons and group lessons can help you focus on your ground strokes through instruction and observation of your tennis instructor. Match play should be your last option for improving your groundstrokes. Often times during match play we are too worried about winning and don't try to improve our strokes.