The Five Fundamentals: Preparation

Preparation for a specific purpose: hitting each stroke in tennis well! In the first article in this series on the Five Fundamentals of stroke production, we looked at the Ready Position across every stroke in tennis.  (Click Here.)  Now let’s do the same for the second fundmental, Preparation. According to my dictionary, the word “prepare” means “to make ready for a specific purpose.”  That is an apt description of how preparation works in tennis.  The “specific purpose” is to hit a tennis ball well.  Preparation is what makes that possible.   Without the right preparation, it doesn’t matter what else you do in your swing, you won’t hit the ball well.  Are you overlooking this critical prerequisite in any of your strokes?  Read on and find out.  But first some historical perspective that helps explain why preparation is still so widely misunderstood. Historical Perspective In the beginning of my tennis teaching career, teaching pros believed that the key to preparation was “getting the racket back early.”  One of the biggest changes in the way the sport is taught is the revision of this concept and the new focus on using the whole body to prepare properly for the stroke.  When we...