Tip of the Week: Use Your Shoulders to Direct the Shot

There are many ways to get the tennis ball to go in a certain direction. Hitting the ball early or late, adjusting the angle of your racquet face, and positioning your body and shoulders are the most common.

Based on my experience, using your shoulder position is the most reliable way to direct the shot. This allows you to use your normal swing, adding to the consistency of the shot. Try lining up your front shoulder towards the target and holding that position through contact. As you get better at this, you can line up your shoulder towards a certain spot and use an earlier or later rotation of the shoulders to direct it towards a different target. 

I would recommend keeping things simple and sticking to hitting the ball to the area where you have aligned your shoulders. Focus on hitting the ball well, which is more important than fooling your opponent. Practice the basics of this concept and you will become confident with your ability to control the direction of your shot in the heat of the match.

Steve Annacone, USPTA Elite Pro, is the Director of Annacone Tennis, www.annaconetennis.com and MyHamptonsPro, www.myhamptonspro.com throughout the Hamptons, NY. Sam Alexander, Steve, and Gill Gross run the TOP (Tennis Optimization Players-Top Team) program at the Tucson Jewish Community Center (Tucson, AZ) for high level players ages 8-18. Please contact Steve at sannacone@tucsonjcc.org or 865-300-7323