Ten­nis Lessons from Mar­tial Artists

The most astound­ing find­ing is that in ten­nis, just like in mar­tial arts, the best per­form­ers do not meet the ball head on. They deflect it. The force is applied to turn the ball around in the direc­tion it came from.

The player receives the ball in his rac­quet and turns it around com­bin­ing top­spin or slice with a side motion. On ground­strokes, espe­cially on top­spin strokes, play­ers direct the force not only up but also across the body, rather than plainly towards the intended tar­get. Sliced back­hands are also hit across, as well as serves.

This action actu­ally applies widely to the best strokes ever in the game, those which you watch in awe.

Even before the mod­ern onslaught of top­spin, so called “flat” shots from Jimmy Con­nors included plenty of side­ways spin, increas­ing his con­tact, con­trol, and ball speed. Bill Tilden, Jack Kramer, Rod Laver, are also some of the biggest names of play­ers who deflected the force of the ball.

So how should you apply these ideas to your game? Sim­ple and easy. Wrap the rac­quet across. When hit­ting the fore­hand, bend your arm, bring­ing your fist towards the oppo­site shoul­der. Rather than hit­ting five balls in a row, as the say­ing goes in con­ven­tional ten­nis teach­ing, hit the first one and avoid the oth­ers by chang­ing your path across. Start slightly before the impact. The power inher­ent in the con­trac­tion of your biceps and pec­torals will explode the ball.

For two-handed back­hands use the same path across. Notice how nat­ural it becomes to pro­duce top­spin, as the eas­i­est path is also an upward move.

On the one-handed back­hand the rac­quet also moves across to the right, while going up. Here the larger group mus­cles are those of the trapez­ium in your upper back. They help you lift your arm and get your shoul­der blades together. The left arm goes back not only for bal­ance but also to increase the use of your upper back.

What is less noticed is how, with these tech­niques, you deflect the incom­ing ball and use that speed to pro­pel the ball for­ward.  You’ll be able to counter the onslaught of a hard ball and send the ball back faster than it came into your rac­quet. Deflec­tion is the best way to com­bat force.

With today’s rac­quets you don’t need to hit on the cen­ter of the strings. The rac­quets respond much bet­ter to hits half way between the cen­ter and the edge, giv­ing you a bet­ter feel and help­ful torque.

This is par­tic­u­larly true for the serve, where the best servers approach the ball with the front edge of the rac­quet, and then they pronate it vio­lently across to the right (for a right han­der), hit­ting the ball quite close to the frame clos­est to the player’s head. Watch Roger Fed­erer and Ser­ena Williams as the fore­most expo­nents of this technique.

Over­all, be aware that the most effi­cient way of play­ing is to use your opponent’s force to your advan­tage, rather than meet­ing it head on.

—Oscar Weg­ner, orig­i­nally pub­lished Decem­ber 8, 2008

[Editor’s note: this arti­cle is part of a series of arti­cles from mod­ern ten­nis guru Oscar Weg­ner. You may find more about Oscar at his site www.tennisteacher.com. Used by permission.]