5 Tennis Hacks To INSTANTLY Improve Your Game

Now if you've reached a plateau or you're stuck in a rut with your tennis then this video is for you as I'm going to be sharing five hacks that can help to instantly improve your game. Now as a coach that's been coaching for over 18 years working with players from beginner all the way through to pro level I've experimented with tons of ways of helping my players to get better and generally I'm a strong believer that there are no shortcuts to becoming a great tennis player. Usually I'm not a fan of videos that have a title like this one as most hacks or quick fixes generally come with a downside. However in this video I've put together five hacks that I genuinely think can make an instant improvement to your game without impacting your game negatively. Now I will say that although these tips will make an instant improvement to your game they won't last unless you spend time practicing them. Let's get into it. Hack number one is for your return of serve. This is going to be especially helpful for players with a double-handed backhand yet if you have a single-handed backhand I've got a tip for you as well. Now a big problem that players have when returning serve is shifting between forehand and backhand grip with very limited time. Now a really simple and efficient way to hold your racket is by holding your base hand in your forehand grip ready to go and your offhand prepared in your backhand grip. Now for me I use a semi-western grip for my forehand and an eastern backhand grip with my left hand. Preparing for my return of serve like this means that if the ball comes to my forehand side I simply need to release my offhand as my forehand grip is ready to go but if the ball comes to my backhand side I'll keep my offhand in position using it to shift my base hand onto my backhand grip which for me is a continental. Now if you've got a single-handed backhand you can use exactly the same concept using your base hand ready for your forehand grip but this time your offhand will hold the throat of the racket. Just like before when the ball comes to your forehand side you simply release your offhand but if the serve goes to your backhand side you'll use your offhand to shift your base grip over to your single-handed backhand. Now by starting with your grips this way it can really make you far more efficient in that short amount of time that you have to return the serve. So if you don't already do this this is going to be a game changer for your return but if you do this already here's hack number two. So my next hack is one that you may have seen if you watch my videos on volleys and although this hack is great for beginner players it's also used by players such as Rafael Nadal and it's choking up your grip when hitting volleys. Now what I mean by choking up your grip is instead of holding your hand right near the bottom of the grip like you would for a forehand a backhand or a serve is actually holding the grip slightly higher up. Now how high up the grip you go is completely up to you whatever feels comfortable but what I would say is if you go too high up the grip you start to lose reach. There are a few benefits to moving your hand slightly up the grip. For one it helps to keep your swing compact. We all know that when we're hitting volleys we want to try to avoid a big back swing and a big follow through. By moving up it really does help you to shorten that swing and to make it more punchy. The second benefit is it definitely makes your volleys feel more stable. When you've got your hand right at the bottom of the grip although it does create a longer lever allowing you to hit with more power you can lack instability. So what most players find by moving up the grip you increase that stability. Now although you do lose a little bit of reach and a tiny bit of power what you make up for that with stability and feel massively outweighs it. And after all when you're hitting volleys power is your last priority. Feel, touch and precision is far more important. Hack number three in my opinion is one of the best ways to help you to improve your serve ball toss consistency and it's simply removing the spin on your toss. Now as a coach I've tried tons of technical interventions to help people to improve how consistent their toss is. I've talked about trying to release the ball at a certain height, trying to keep your arms straight. I've experimented with different teaching aids but nothing has helped as much as this tip. And the reason being it takes out all of the technical thoughts that go through your mind. As soon as you start thinking about your elbow position, your wrist position, how high your hand is when you release the ball you start to overload and especially when you're playing competitively these things aren't easy to think about when your focus is on winning the point. If you focus purely on stopping that ball from spinning it will actually fix lots of these technical things. Without knowing it you'll start tossing the ball with a straighter arm, you'll start releasing the ball at a better height and you'll start taking more care over pushing the ball up instead of launching it up. Now yes if you slow down professional tennis player serves you may see that ball spinning but they have supreme accuracy and precision with their toss as they've done thousands and thousands of them over years of practice. But if you can stop the ball from spinning it will pretty much guarantee that your ball travels in a straight line as opposed to forwards, backwards or sideways. So give that a go next time you're practicing your serve. One thing I will say about practicing your ball toss is to try to practice it within the full motion of your serve. I see tons of players practicing their ball toss in isolation and it looks perfect. They're able to put the toss in the same place every time but as soon as they bring their racket into the equation it throws everything. So when possible when practicing your toss try to do it all together with your full service action. Sorry to interrupt but I'll keep it brief. If you're enjoying this video or finding it useful I'd love it if you'd support the channel by hitting the like button, dropping a comment or even clicking subscribe. Massive thanks, let's get back to the video. Now hack number four is going to help pretty much every shot within your game and it's breathing out as you contact the ball. Now the reason this is going to help all of your shots is because the act of exhaling helps all of your muscles within your body to relax and in turn this will allow your racket to flow more freely. When you hit a shot whilst holding your breath your muscles are more likely to stay tense. This kind of links to what I've spoken to you about before with having a tight grip on your racket. Breathing out helps you to loosen that grip and when your forearm is more relaxed it allows your wrist to move naturally allowing the weight of the racket to flow through the ball. Now allowing your racket to flow more freely not only increases the speed of your racket but it also helps you to improve spin potential as well as having that looseness to your wrist will allow you to whip through the ball. Now breathing out during contact will not only help your strokes technically but it's also great to focus on during a match especially if you're a player that gets tight as having something simple like this to focus on can really ground you and to get you into that flow state that can help you to play tennis more freely. This is the main reason why players grunt, this is them exhaling as they strike the ball. Some players do it a little bit dramatically which is unnecessary but the concept of breathing out as you strike the ball really helps you to execute your shots well. Now as I mentioned hack number five is the easiest of all and it kind of links to the previous one with regards to having a slightly looser grip and relaxing through your strings and it's as simple as replacing your grip more frequently. Now every time I have an upcoming tennis match I put a new over grip on my racket. It gives me that extra bit of tackiness and feel that I need so that I don't have to grip onto the racket when swinging through the ball. Now some players like over grips others like replacement grips whatever you prefer it's good to keep your grip fresh. I see tons of players that I coach using their grips for months and months until they're pretty much torn apart and to be honest this is really hurting their game as as soon as you lose that tackiness you have to grip tighter on the grip and even if you're gripping 10% harder than you need to it's going to be at a detriment to your swing and your looseness. So if you're going to do one thing from this video do this one first as it's so easy to do although if you're not very good at applying grips I suggest you get somebody good to do it as it makes a big difference. So let me know in the comments below which of those hacks you're going to be trying first and if you've come across any hacks that have really made a positive impact to your game. Thanks as always for watching this video I look forward to seeing you in the next one take care.