The Five Fundamentals
Position on the Ball: Groundstrokes

Michael Friedman

Did you ever wonder how the pros make this game look so easy?  To the pros the opponent’s side looks huge and they almost always get the ball in.  Then you get on the court and the other side looks like a postage stamp. 

There are two explanations for this cruel illusion.  First, the average player doesn’t recognize where the ball is going the way the pros do.  Second, the great players always know where their optimum contact point is going to be—anywhere on the court. 

The pros recognize how the ball is traveling, where they need to be, and then move efficiently into position to make the shot.  It’s true whether they hit the ball in the air, on the rise, at it’s peak, or on the way down. 

This constellation of skills explains why a good player doesn’t lose his level when playing a lesser player.  Good players get into position and find their ideal contact point time after time.  They do this because they maximize their use of the time available, because they know exactly the position they are striving for, and because they know how to get there.  Yet these tasks seem much more difficult for beginning and intermediate players.

Why do so many players’ games get worse when they play with a weaker player?  The answer lies in the inconsistency of the exchanges.  This exposes the weaknesses in the skill set described above. 

Against a stronger player, the exchanges have consistent rhythm and pace and this takes many of the potential decisions out of the equation.  Against a weaker player, the exchanges are generally much more uneven.  Often you have to generate your own pace.  The type of ball coming back to you can vary wildly.

Theoretically if you have more time against a weaker player, you should be able to get into optimum position more often and actually play better.  But this requires greater ability to read and react, to move with precision, and to find the correct contact point on a range of balls that can higher, shorter, softer, etc.

The common denominator here is this: getting into the proper relationship to the ball.  Getting into this relationship requires a combination of good footwork, agility, reflexes and timing.  It starts with the ability to judge the flight of the on coming ball.  I call this combination of factors creating Position on the Ball. 

Good players do it no matter what the level of the opponent.  Position on the Ball is something you have to develop for yourself as a player if you really want to raise the level of your game and your ability to deal with players of all abilities.

Position on the Ball depends on time and distance and what shot you are about to hit.  It requires that you know your options.  But most importantly, it requires that you know your optimum contact point for every option.  Everything follows from this. 

So let’s go through and look at Position on the Ball across all the shots in the game.  In this article we’ll start with the groundstrokes: the forehand, the two-handed and the one-handed backhand.  Then in the next article we’ll look at the volleys, overhead, serve, and the returns.

Ball Recognition

If you watch pro players you’ll see that they are constantly responding to the flight of the ball.  After they hit, they adjust  their court position based on the depth, speed, trajectory, angle, and spin of their own shots.  Then they react virtually instantaneously to the opponent’s hit.  Tracking the ball back and forth over and over is how good players learn to anticipate their contact point, which in turn becomes the basis for movement and position on the ball.

But too many club players never learn to track the ball in a systematic way.  Instead they wait and then react when the ball bounces on their side of the net.  This is why they are surprised by so many balls, are out of position, and unable to create consistent contact points. 

Watch Pete Sampras’s eyes in the high speed animation.  You can see how focused he is on the trajectory of the incoming shot.  Note how he follows the ball virtually all the way into his racket.  Following the ball back toward the opponent after your hit, and then reading the opponent’s hit and following the incoming ball all the way to you are the prerequisites for good position. 

Ideal Contact

There is a precise three dimensional point in space where the contact point is perfect for your stroke.  This point in space is the point at which you have the most racket head speed and the racket is moving with proper angle of attack. 

With the ideal contact point, you will be able to hit the ball with power and spin and still be able to control the height, depth and direction you want. 

As the ball approaches you, it goes through the optimum contact position at four different times.  The first is in the air, before the bounce. At this point the ball can be hit with a swinging volley. 

The second opportunity is to hit on the rise after the bounce.  The third opportunity is when the ball has reached the top of the bounce, depending on the bounce height.  The fourth opportunity is when the ball is coming down from the top of the bounce on a high bouncing ball. 

For all the strokes you want to physically create this ideal contact position.  Learn to do it without the ball.  For example, your most powerful point in the swing on the forehand and two-handed backhand will be roughly a forearm’s length in front of your body, with the forearm angled away from your body at about a 45 degree angle. 

To test this, have a coach or partner push against the racket face at your contact point.  It should be the point at which you are strongest and most easily able to resist the “push,” either from the person or the ball.

Now practice swinging your racket rapidly without the ball.  Where you hear the loudest swish is where your racket is moving the fastest.  Make the swish correspond with the contact point you have just created.  When you develop the feel for this in your actual stroke, the ball will look like it is sitting on a tee for a split second just before the hit.

Which Foot is the "Right" Foot?

When I start working on position on the ball and flight recognition skills with new students, I ask this question:  “If you get too close to the ball on your forehand, which foot got too close?”  The correct answer is the right foot but many players think it is the left. 

The right foot is the foot that has to stay away from the ball if you plan to step in with the left foot.  The right foot also judges the distance for an open stance or running shot.  Furthermore, the right foot and leg also need to load in optimum relationship to the ball to be able to initiate the flow or explosion into the shot.

So let’s use some of the great new footage in the Stroke Archive of Stanislaus Wawrinka to see how this all works on the forehand.  We’ll look at a variety of balls hit from different positions on the court with different stances. 

In the first animation, let’s see what happens on a short ball.  Watch how Stan gets his right foot or back foot into perfect position.  See how to do this he takes one additional small adjusting step.  Now he can step directly forward into the ball.  Once again this comes from a superb sense of the contact point he wants to create.

Moves Back

The second animation let’s you see how Stan moves back, letting the ball drop to his preferred contact point.  The right foot takes the judgment step.   Watch how he works to position this foot so he is perfectly aligned to hit the ball with an open stance. 

This animation also shows the key role of the right foot in allowing the player to load the back leg.  As his left arm stretches across the body the knee bend deepens.  At the maximum point it’s probably bent at 30 degrees or more. This is the optimum leg position to explode into the shot. 

Even though he has backed up and allowed the ball to drop, Stan is still able to swing aggressively, possibly creating the opportunity to transit from defense to offense. This is because of his positioning.

Inside Out

Watch the same process when Wawrinka moves around the ball to hit inside out. Here Stan is getting away from the ball with his right foot.  Notice he uses small shuffle steps because he has the time to do so. 

There are many step patterns and combinations of steps that the players use at different times based, situationally, on the incoming ball.  But the goal is the same.  He is positioning the right foot at the correct distance from the ball to create his contact point.   He is also positioning the right foot and right leg so that he can again load and then uncoil into the shot.

Running

Finally, let’s look at how Stan positions the right leg on a forehand that he hits on the dead run.  It happens too fast to see with the naked eye, but with our video on Tennisplayer, we can break it down clearly.

After the split step, Stan turns and then immediately takes a large cross step with his left foot because the ball is so far away.  He takes another large running step with the right foot.  

But notice that once again he coils the outside leg with the knee bent at a significant angle.  This allows him to unload into the ball and maintain that perfect contact point, even as he takes an additional step with the left foot.  Notice also that the contact occurs in the middle of the step, with the left foot landing after the ball is heading toward the other side.

Two-Handed Backhand

Now let’s look at the same factors on the two-handed backhand.  In my opinion there is no better model to emulate than Andre Agassi.  No one was better in reading and responding to the shot, and this in turn led to his incredibly efficient movement and precise positioning on the ball.

The foot closest to the ball judges the proper distance on the backhand, just as on the forehand side.  So for the backhand, this is the left foot.  Watch how Andre aligns his left foot on this ball near the center of the court allowing him to step directly forward into the shot with the front foot.

With the neutral stance, particularly if the ball isn’t too high, there will be less knee bend and less loading of the left leg, with more use of the front leg.

Because Andre hits his backhand with both arms straightened out, his contact point will be almost an arm length in front of his body.  For players who hit with both elbows bent, the contact will be similar to the forehand, about a forearm length.

Open Stance

Andre was equally adept at hitting from an open stance as we can see in this second animation. Here Andre only has to take a couple of shuffle steps back and to his left to get his left foot into position. 

He uses his left leg to brace himself and initiate the swing by driving off his left foot and leg.  Notice that the loading on the left leg is now greater, similar to the right leg on the forehand.  It is easy to see how he judges the distance from the ball so he can take a full swing. 

Running

In the third animation we can see this same use of the left leg even when Andre is hitting fully on the run.  Look at the step just before the hit.  Andre takes an especially long stride to establish his position on the ball. 

Even on the run he is using the left leg to coil so that he can explode into the ball.  Notice how deep the knee bend is even though he is moving full speed to his left.  This is similar to what we saw with the Wawrinka running forehand above. 

After the hit, the right foot continues across and becomes the first of a two-step braking pattern.  The right foot lands and then the left foot continues across and behind.  Now Andre takes a small drop step with the right foot, pushes off and begins his recovery.  Beautiful!

One-Handed Backhand

When you use an eastern backhand grip, similar to players such as James Blake or Tommy Haas or Taylor Dent, your racket face is going to square up further in front of your body than the two-hander. 

If you turn your grip over further to a more extreme version, this will push the contact point further still in front.  In both cases, the distance is approximately an arm length.  The difference is in the angle of the arm.  With the more classical grips, the arm points more to the side, and with the extreme grips, it pointsmore in front and is usually also higher. 

The Left Foot

The feeling for the contact point on the one-hander, whatever your specific grip, is again what drives the movement to the ball.  The top players are responding to the hit and creating position on the ball that will allow them to establish ideal contact as often as possible.

Once again the left foot is critical in judging the ball.   We looked at neutral and open stance positioning with Andre’s two-hander, although the top two handers, including Agassi, actually hit many shots stepping across and forward with a closed stance. 

With the pro one-handed backhand, this use of the closed stance is even more common.  To do this means stopping a little further away from the ball.  Around the middle of the court, you will also see players take a reverse pivot step, moving the left foot away so that they can then cross step with the right.

Closed Stance

It’s clear that the closed stance is the one-handed backhand preference at the pro level because it tends to increase the amount of shoulder turn before the swing.  That may not always be the best idea at the lower levels, but the point remains the same.  The player positions to the ball with the rear foot to allow him to create the contact point in front and to hit from whatever stance is most appropriate. 

Watch how this works in the Federer animation.  Roger could get easily get closer to the ball on this shot if he wanted. 

Instead he uses a shuffle step rather than a cross over step to position the left leg.  A key point is how he loads the leg, even though his distance to the ball is going to be substantial.   You can see this in the amount of knee bend prior to the cross step.  

Now look at what happens when he steps with his right foot.  The step is far across the body, almost directly sideways.  This is an extreme example of closed stance.  But look at the angle of his shoulders as he steps.  They are turned far past perpendicular and are actually approaching parallel to the net.  As he swings you can see the amount of rotation he gets when his shoulders square at the contact point.

By looking at the extreme example we can reinforce the basic principles we’ve seen in this article.  Superior shot recognition and supreme awareness of the contact point drives the players to create ideal position on the ball.

So that’s it for the groundstrokes!  Next we’ll look at Position on the Ball for Volleys. Serves, and Returns.