One of the most common groundstroke errors coaches see their pupils make, day in, day out, is –starting the backswing too late.By the time your opponents shot has travelled a foot or two from his or her racquet, you know if your next shot will be a forehand or a backhand.This is the time you should start your backswing. But many players are still in the ready position when the ball bounces on their side of the court!
Let’s say that your opponent has hit a shot which will take 2 seconds to travel from his racquet to your racquet. If you start your backswing early, you will have the best part of two seconds to complete your backswing and bring the racquet forward to the contact point with the ball. If you wait until the ball bounces on your side, you now have maybe half a second to get the racquet back, then forward to the contact point! Not exactly a lot of time…..
In most areas of life, people make mistakes if they are rushed. Tennis is no exception. Start taking the racquet back earlier and you will be surprised at how much more time you have to stroke the ball.
