ETI 029 | Tap Tap Tap

Great concept. I find I get the most balance and body weight against the ball when my forehand grip is as much to the western as I can handle.(had a continental grip origonally) Also as much racquet head speed as possible for control .
regards.

Thanks Jim…this is a great tip to know and one I haven’t seen until now!
Your doing great work for us ‘recreational players’, that are trying to improve our game.
You should be traveling around and showing up on our courts…would be great to meet you!
Take care, and God Bless 🙂

I am of the same generation and work on the same principals with my students. Always look forward to your instructions, The old KISS saying always works.

I do not think there are very many individuals who would disagree that balance is vital to just about any movement, but I suspect there would be a great deal of disagreement about what constitutes balance. Moishe Feldenkrais talked about reversibility, for example. He felt you should be able to perform any action slowly and balanced enough that you could stop it at any point and reverse the action. If you have ever seen Federer react to a ball hitting the net and redirecting his swing, you would see the value of this definition. So balance should include reversibility for as long as feasible. On the other hand, most instructors would agree with your definition that the ability to hold a balanced follow through shows excellent balance. In table tennis, however, balance was equated with instant recovery, not necessarily a full follow through. Bruce Lee had an excellent definition of balance which was performing the movement with the least possible variation from the neutral position. I will stick with a slight variation of the Supreme Court’s opinion on pornography, I may not be able to define it, but I know it when I feel it.

Good tip for those of us who have a tendency to use too much arm and forget to use our weight to give momentum to our shots. It ties in well with one of my favorite McLennan tips, which is to keep your head still and pretend you are balancing a ball on it. That forces you to keep your body upright and maintain your balance. It may be basic, but its not obvious. Otherwise we would all be doing it right.

Jim, this is simple and excellent. I once took a tennis clinic called the ‘dance of tennis.’ Balance was stressed, but not detailed like you did so gracefully.

Jim,excellent drill and reminder.W/o good balance everything else becomes more difficult.An important part of the game that I tend to forget about.
Thanks.

Jim,
One often hears tennis commentators talk about the player’s weight being on the wrong foot or not having been properly transferred. This is the BEST, down to earth and right to the point explanation of what they’re talking about! Thanks for the tip and the exercise!