How to hit relaxed groundstrokes every time

If you spent much time on YouTube watching tennis videos, you'll have heard multiple different coaches talk about the importance of keeping a nice relaxed wrist on your shots. And you'll

have also seen videos of players like Federa stroking the ball gracefully without so much of an ounce of tension in their body. But then when you step out on court, even though you're trying

to be relaxed, you keep on tensing up at the last second. So the question is why?

That's what I'm going to be talking about in this video. I'm going to be explaining three of the most common reasons that players tense up and how to fix them so then you can hit more relaxed, efficient shots. So, out of the

three underlying problems, two are going to be technical issues. So, I'm going to explain how to fix those first. And then

the third one is going to be something very different that you probably haven't heard about before, but it's really important. So, I'm going to talk about

important. So, I'm going to talk about that at the end of the video. But before

we start, you need to understand why we need to have a relaxed wrist. And

really, it's all about transferring kinetic energy into the ball. On all of our shots, we're effectively trying to turn our body into a whip. So, we're

trying to load the big muscles when we do our unit turn and store energy in our legs. We're then going to be driving

legs. We're then going to be driving through our legs, followed by a torso, which is then going to create a racket lag that rapidly stretches the chest and the internal rotator muscles of the shoulder, and it rapidly stretches the

muscles in the wrist and the forearm as well. So, what we're going to be doing

well. So, what we're going to be doing is driving legs and torso, stretching the muscles, and they're then going to whip through to contact. And if we have

tension in our wrist, it really prevents us from being a whip. It stops that efficient energy transfer. So, this is going to be exactly the same on the forehand, the one-handed backhand, and

[snorts] the two-handed backhand. They

all obviously look a little bit different, but the principles are the same. Now, in terms of the underlying

same. Now, in terms of the underlying problem, the first big fish and thing that you're going to need to fix is your spacing. Because in order to use these

spacing. Because in order to use these efficient biomechanics, there's going to be a contact point that needs to be a certain distance away from the body.

This applies on the forehand and both backhands, but it's often a lot more of a problem for people on the forehand because we need to be further away. So,

if you kind of look at this ball here, if I set up too close to the ball, I have to do something to compensate. So

my di ideal contact point would be maybe out there somewhere. Look at how much space there is. Look at the difference between where the ball is and where the the sweet spot on my racket is. So to

make this work, I have to do something with my body. One thing that often happens is players don't rotate properly. So they don't end up using

properly. So they don't end up using their torso. But the other big thing

their torso. But the other big thing that happens is players basically tighten up their arm to swing through to contact. So, they tighten up the chest,

contact. So, they tighten up the chest, tighten up the bicep, and they tighten up the wrist just to make the contact point work. And then it's going to be

point work. And then it's going to be exactly the same thing on the backand.

If I'm hitting a one-handed backhand and I set up too close to the ball, so I should be contacting the ball out there and instead it's here, I'm going to have to manipulate that with my arm and with my wrist. Same thing on a two-hander.

my wrist. Same thing on a two-hander.

Instead of swinging out to contact there, I'm having to manipulate it, tense [snorts] my arms up, and tense my wrists up. So the first thing that

wrists up. So the first thing that you're probably going to need to fix is your spacing. Now here you want to

your spacing. Now here you want to record yourself and see whether this applies to you. It's kind of a really important part of it, but it's very highly likely that it will. Now in terms of fixing spacing, the main thing that

you're going to need to do is focus on it properly in practice. A big challenge that players have is there's lots of different things that we have to do well to hit our shots. So players get distracted by stuff like creating the

racket lag. But if you are too close to

racket lag. But if you are too close to the ball, you have to fix that first. So

every time the ball's coming to you, you're just thinking about setting up further away from the ball and then you're evaluating your performance based on that. It's also necessary for some

on that. It's also necessary for some players to work on footwork patterns so they can kind of move and make the necessary adjustments. And then another

necessary adjustments. And then another issue is actually what we're going to be talking about towards the end of the video. But the first big thing to fix is

video. But the first big thing to fix is going to be spacing. The next key technical thing that you're going to need to fix is going to be your timing.

And really this follows on from the spacing and it basically causes the same problem. For every shot you're going to

problem. For every shot you're going to hit, there's going to be an ideal contact point out in front of the body.

Can't always be perfect cuz sometimes your opponent hits amazing shots and just have to do what you have to do. But

we're going to be trying to contact the ball roughly out in front of the body.

And again, it's going to vary depending on the height of the ball and depending on the exact grip that we're using. If

the ball is too far this way, so in terms of when I'm making the contact, it's going to be too far back relative to my body, it causes me to make the same compensations that I've just

described. My brain wants to do this to

described. My brain wants to do this to swing out to contact. It wants to meet the ball out there. But because I'm in this position relative to the ball, my

brain knows that it can't use these biomechanics. So, it has to make an

biomechanics. So, it has to make an adjustment. And what it does is it

adjustment. And what it does is it tightens things up. Again, we're under rotating with the torso. And then we're arming and tensing up the bicep and tensing up the wrist to make this

contact work. And it's going to be

contact work. And it's going to be exactly the same onehanded backhand and two-handed backhand. For the onehander,

two-handed backhand. For the onehander, it's really important to get that contact out in front of the body. Well,

if it's here, I have to arm it. And my

brain's smart. I can't have a relaxed wrist when I'm making contact in this position. It's just going to take the

position. It's just going to take the racket out of my hand. So, I have to tense it up to make the contact worked.

And [clears throat] then exactly the same on the two-handed backhand. So, the

second issue that you got to fix is going to be the timing. Unfortunately,

this one is easier said than done.

Firstly, because you got to prepare on time, you got to fix the spacing first.

And then secondly, just because timing is really hard. Every single shot that you deal with is slightly different. So,

it requires a really good ability to read the flight of the ball and it requires tremendous coordination so that you can initiate your swing and so that you can adjust the speed of your swing.

So, for a lot of players, you actually need to train and improve your vision and coordination before you can fix your timing. But, I've got a class that can

timing. But, I've got a class that can teach you all about that if you'd like to learn more and I'll place a link to it in the description. Because other

than training the underlying skills that are required to have good timing, it's just about being out on court, spending a lot of time thinking about it, trying to evaluate the flight of the ball and trying to think about when to initiate

your swing. Often thinking about your

your swing. Often thinking about your hip instead of your arms can be a really helpful coaching cue for you to think about. But timing, until you've got good

about. But timing, until you've got good timing, it's going to be really hard to stay relaxed on your shots. The third

underlying reason why you tighten up on your shots is probably something that you haven't thought about before because it relates to how your visual system functions. Now, I've just mentioned

functions. Now, I've just mentioned vision briefly when it comes to timing.

Because the reason that a lot of players can't start their swing soon enough is because they can't read the flight of the ball well enough. And this also goes for spacing as well. A lot of players get too close to the ball because they can't read the flight of the ball well

enough and they can't set up in the right position. So from that

right position. So from that perspective, visual issues can lead to you being tight on your shots. But

independent of those issues, just how the visual system functions in general can cause players to tighten up. Our

brain uses more brain real estate. So

more different parts of the brain to process visual information than anything else we do. And when we're playing tennis, there is a massive amount of visual information coming towards us.

Got to be able to read the flight of the ball. We're moving. We're twisting.

ball. We're moving. We're twisting.

We're turning. We're making decisions.

There's a lot of stuff going on. And

that can simply overload people's brains and cause them to kind of tense up as a protective mechanism. And that might

protective mechanism. And that might sound a little bit silly, but I've assessed hundreds of players over the last 5 years. And it is very, very, very common for players to tense up when

they're doing basic eye movement and other vision exercises. So just tracking a moving target like that. People often

tense up their whole body and especially when they're doing fast eye switches. So

it should be really easy. there's no

reason to tighten up. But just because of the parts of the brain involved and how people's systems are functioning, it causes people to tighten up. So that in itself can be a major reason that you're

tight when you're playing shots. And for

all those reasons, training your visual system can be a really important thing to do to improve every aspect of your game, including you uh being more relaxed on your shots. Now, if you'd like to learn more about that, I've got

a class that's going to teach you all about it, and I'll place a link to it down in the description. But this is how I would recommend that you think about why you're tightening up. When something

isn't working in tennis, there's always an underlying reason. So firstly, you look at the underlying reason in terms of the technical things. Is there

something that I'm missing? And here

we're talking about spacing and timing, but then in addition to that, you're always looking at underlying physiological things. Is there something

physiological things. Is there something that my body isn't capable of doing that it needs to be able to do for me to fix the thing that I'm working on? And if

you approach your tennis like that and improve the technical underlying problem and the physical thing, it really enables you to improve every aspect of your