Have you ever wondered the harder you try to kick a football or smash a golf drive the slower the ball seems to travel? Many a time people try to belt the cover off a golf drive just to see the ball arrow straight up in the air, or scuff along the ground. Some people are baffled by this, to use an immense amount of force and to expend such energy just to see failure.
Tempo & Timing
The exact same applies to tennis, if you try to smash the living daylight of a lob the chances are the ball will end up in the net or way out of play. A lot of sports commentators talk about hitting the sweet spot of the racket but what they mean is that the player has hit the ball with the best technique in the smoothest manner.
The end result of hitting the ball with the right tempo and consistently finding the sweet spot is that you end up achieving maximum power with minimum effort.
Finding The Sweet Spot
Have you ever hit a shot close to the frame of the racket? Did you find that you lost power even though you used maximum effort? This is because you tried to swing too fast and not accurately enough. You should only swing as fast as you can control the swing, even the pro’s don’t swing as fast as they possibly can, they control the shot.
Try to work with your tennis coach to maintain swing speed and tempo so you can regulate your shots. Many tennis players problems come because they are inconsistent, if they can learn to regulate things on a continuous basis they will be far more successful.
Admittedly the speed of your swing does rather depend on the type of shot you are playing and the speed of the ball. But a smooth swing inherently does bring power.
Jumping out of your tennis shoes with sheer effort of trying to maximise as much power will not bring as much power as a controlled and smooth swing that finds the sweet spot.
Rein In Your Aggressiveness
Raw power seldon wins in tennis, and expending energy on poor shots will rarely win you a match. This goes as much for a smooth technique as your movement around the court. In a long match your energy levels are really important, the more you conserve then it makes sense that the more you will have in the bank for later on.
One way of conserving your energy levels is by playing smoothly, timing your shots and hitting the sweet spot on a regular basis. You will still generate power and the ball will travel as fast as if you used 100% raw power.
