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06/23/2020
keith@orindawoodstennis.com
Monday Musings: The Quality of Contact, Of Connection

Monday Musings: The Quality of Contact, Of Connection

 

Hi Everyone, 

 

The ball comes over the net, racing towards you, it bounces, exploding off the ground, the service bearing down on your return. Wanting to eat you up. Eat you alive. You split step, turn, move, coil, …. we are about to experience the most important exchange in tennis. 

 

In women’s tennis, 25% of the points, the serve is not returned in play. In men’s tennis, that number rises to 33%. The numbers are probably higher in doubles. The most common rally length in tennis is one shot. 

 

The serve is made, the return is missed.

 

That point happens more often than any others. By a lot (see below).

 

The serving team in doubles hits the last shot in the rally (shot 1, 3, 5, 7 etc) almost 2/3s of the time. So even when the return is made, the serving team wins most of the points. Huge advantage for the server. 

 

Let’s look at the other scenario, when the first serve is missed, and a second serve is required, the most likely shot to be missed is the third one, the shot the sever has to try to make when the return is sent aggressively back at them. 

 

So, this tells us 1) the serve is SO important. You have to serve well, whether it is a) dominating play with your first sever, or b) avoiding being a sitting duck (or your partner in doubles) on your second serve. 

 

And 2) the return is MASSIVE! a) Get this ball in on a first serve, in anywhere, and you are ahead of the game (you have avoided the most frequent outcome). And b) you have to be able to attack the second ball, make a winner or force an error with the second serve return. That’s your best chance.

 

Get the ball back in play on the first serve, attack the second serve.

 

Most points in doubles last 3-4 shots made (men 3 shots, women 4 shots). OMG, we are so worried about the lob, and people can’t even hit a good serve, or get the return and one volley in play. The lob often happens on the fourth shot. We practice rallying, when rallying is very rare indeed. Even in singles. 

 

In the 2015 Australian Open men’s singles (slow hard court) the numbers look like:

2.7 % double fault

29.5% one shot (serve in, no return)

9.5% return in, no third shot

15.4% serve +1 made (serve, return, serve +1 made, fourth shot missed)

7.5% four shots made

8.6% five shots made

5.3% six shots made

4.7% seven shots made

3.1% eight shots made

2.2% nine shots made

About 10% of the points were 10 shots or more. Very few.

 

55% of the points were OVER after 3 shots, 63% after 4 shots made. OMG. 

 

If this doesn’t change the way you are practicing, you need to go back and read this again. Practice: 

 

 Servers and returns.

Serve + 1, Return + 1

Volleys at the net in doubles. (shots 3 and 4).

 

Rallying is not how tennis is played, and even more so in doubles. Practice the shot after the serve (serve + 1). Practice the shot after the return (return + 1). 

 

Again, if you are returning, get the ball back in play on the first serve, attack the second serve (force an error, hit a winner). 

 

If you are serving, force them on the first serve ball, play the second serve ball so you can’t be attacked (“Just get it in” is not good enough). Make more first serves (top players make 60-65% first serves). 

 

***

 

In order to do this, we need a good connection with the ball. There are three phases of contact on a good, positive connection with the ball. 

 

First there is receiving or catching the ball. The ball, the serve in this case, comes towards you, and pushes the racquet and the strings back. The weight of the ball overwhelms the racquet. The ball is winning at this point, pushing you back. You are absorbing the incoming ball (serve), catching or receiving the ball (you are the “receiver”, after all, receive!). In order to do this properly, you should have soft hands, and feel the racquet handle being pushed back into your hands. In fact, if the ball didn’t push you back, perhaps you are holding the grip so loose the racquet would come out of your hand if you went forward. In essence, you need the ball, you need the incoming speed and pressure, to play the ball well. 

 

Ask any good player what the hardest shot is, and most will say the ball that sits there, doesn’t really come to you. The one you have to move up for. This takes years of training to master this ball, this dead sitter, (3.5 sitter) where with footwork, you have to make the ball act like it is still coming to you, still pushing the handle back into your hand. This is one of the real challenges with second serve returning. The ball is often really slow and not much on it. We have to master this shot to take advantage of the opponent’s weakness, the second serve. Don’t let them get away with doinking (technical term) it in there. 

 

Drive. After the incoming ball pushes your racquet and the string bed back into your hand, it is as if the racquet and the ball have become one. The ball imbedded in the strings. The wrist can’t bend back any more, and the body starts to push the two joined objects, the ball and the strings back forward, towards where the ball came from. The racquet, the strings, hold the ball, much like a lacrosse wicket, the strings digging into the felt of the ball, ever so momentarily, as speed is gradually added in the opposite direction. There is an energy exchange, the incoming ball speed is now starting to be reflected back by the trampoline, the strings, to be used for the next shot. The body is winning this exchange, this is the drive. It’s leverage, it’s push, plus bounce.  

 

Release. On a topspin drive, the racquet starts to rotate up, back and away from the ball, releasing the ball from that momentary hold on the strings, the strings, moving mostly up in this case, grip the ball and start to make it roll. Eventually the racquet disengages from the ball from a combination of the ball bouncing off the strings and the strings rolling up and off of the ball (to the follow through). The ball is released, with spin and speed, to go back over the net. It is through spin and speed, that the ball is controlled, and propelled. This is what looks so quick on good players, the release (of the ball, of energy). 

 

The three phases of contact: catch, drive and release.  

 

Every shot in tennis has some catch, some drive, some release. Some shots, like a volley, are mostly drive. While other shots, like the serve, are mostly catch and release (throw). Not a lot of drive, or forward “swing.” Groundstrokes are kind of more evenly distributed, between catch, drive and release, depending on the amount of spin. 

 

We need all three components. But they must be done in the proper sequence, at the proper time. Catch at the wrong time is just as deadly as drive or release at the wrong time. We need to time this correctly, using the four elements of the stroke: rhythm, form, footwork and timing (timing these changes / transitions from catch, to drive, to release). 

 

If the ball is flying long, there is probably too much drive, too much hit. Too much bounce. Not enough catch (absorbing), not enough release (rolling, spin). 

 

If the ball going off into the net, you are probably early, the release is too soon, and too dominate, and there is not enough catch (or receiving), or enough drive (leverage, pushing). You are on the follow through, before you have even caught the ball or drove it. This is the classic, “he tried to throw it before he even caught it.”

 

If there was too much catch, the ball would stop. We see this on the volley sometimes, we are too soft, not enough drive (push, punch). The ball just drops softly, harmlessly in the net (like say, on a missed dropshot). On the serve, if we are too soft, too much catch, the serve could be too weak, and not enough drive and release (shoulder rotation). 

 

But generally, with most errors, we are forward thinkers (not in a good way), and there is too much drive, or inappropriate release. Too much forward action, too soon. If we don’t catch the ball, it is impossible to do the rest well. So often we focus on the drive or the release because we want the power, and the outcome. But it has to start with receiving. 

 

***

 

Same is true with conversation. With communication with others. A verbal rally. We need to have a good connection with what is being said. The quality of contact must be established and maintained between two people.

 

“You think because you understand 'one' you must also understand 'two', because one and one make two. But you must also understand 'and'.” 
 Rumi

 

First, we need to receive the incoming information. We need to listen. Recognize there are two people in the conversation. Not as easy as it seems. 

 

Everyone has something to say, everyone wants to be heard. You may want to speak back (hit your shot) but you need to receive the ball (the conversation) first, or you will lose control. We need to “catch” their drift. 

 

Or perhaps you don’t believe in what you say, or your right to say it. The only person in the conversation is the other person. There is a ball coming, but no racquet to play it back. This is not good either. This is codependency, or being bullied. 

 

There is the ball AND the racquet, each must have their say. We must understand “and.” 

 

I have found that even if what is being said is 95% bunk, there is 5% that is very valuable, and needs to be heard. Don’t miss that, don’t miss that chance to make things better. That is a terrible waste of an opportunity if that 5% goes by unnoticed. Some of the best things I have done at the Club in the past 25 years is because I could hear the 5% in the middle of all that frustration, anger and misplaced logic it was covered in. 

 

Hearing that 5% can change everything. Change the world. Certainly, change the conversation. 

 

When the person feels like they are being heard, there is connection. Connection between the two people. This is the drive. The two people (the ball and the racquet) can get something done. They are connected. There is aiming, direction, power. An exchange of energy. Lining things up, seeing what is possible. 

 

Then there is release. Putting the shot back out into the world in an effective manner. With the right spin, placement, power and control. It is keeping the shot in play, continuing the conversation, the exchange. A rally can develop. Maybe an epic point, replayed on Sports Center for all eternity. Rafa and Roger… 

 

The better the exchange, the better the game. Both sides grow, get stronger, hone their skills, let their talents be on display. The world becomes a better place. 

 

If one side dominates, the other side doesn’t feel heard, the unrest grows. If that side hasn’t been heard for a long time, say since the beginning of slavery, the unrest can get pretty ugly at some point. And that won’t really be effective communication either, just destruction, and the turning off of the other side, many of whom wanted to be sympathetic. 

 

How to keep the conversation with enough heat (energy) to move forward, but to still engage the other side and move the whole dialogue in a direction that works for everyone. There is the real trick. Some have mastered it (MLK, Gandhi, Nelson Mandela, even Malcom X). We need more of that.

 

“Raise your words, not voice. It is rain that grows flowers, not thunder.”
Rumi

 

The most missed shot in a conversation is the return of serve. Mostly because the serve was not received well. We were too strong, or too weak, out of position, trying too hard, had other plans. Ot