Control the court, with the forehand

This strategy is one of the more commonly used strategies, as high performance players usually have stronger forehands in today’s game. In the ATP and WTA, you will see right handed players position themselves toward the backhand corner when playing a point. This position allows any player to hit more forehands. Notably: forehand angles ‘inside out’ and ‘inside in’. A lot of patterns that high performance players implement are patterns that provide them with opportunities of hitting forehands from the backhand corner.

In the most recent AR Tennis lesson, we discussed forehand positioning on the court and what angles this can provide for a player. In addition, we discussed the danger of getting too close to the sidelines, which gives your opponent angles that can take control of the point (not in our favor). One of the most widely used patterns in today’s game is the, “inside out forehand”. This shot selection allows you to hit forehands to your opponent’s backhand, which is usually the opponents weaker side. This position also allows you to “control the court” by hitting a target around the opponents backhand corner. While we look for an opportunity to hit the inside out, the alternative is to also hit an “inside in”. An inside in is used when you gain a shorter ball and hit a forceful approach shot down the line. With the court position shaded toward the backhand corner, there are different patterns (as we discussed) that are available to any player that is looking to hit more shots with their forehand.

In the video, our AR student is drilling forehands: inside in, inside out and cross court. These 3 shots are extremely important to a player that likes to take control of a point. If your opponent does hit a strong inside in (down the line) to your forehand side, your next ball should go “cross court” to the opponents forehand, heavy topspin and deep if possible – giving your time to get back into the point. Your footwork should be moving to recover close to the middle of the court to gain position to hit a backhand cross court or “inside out forehand” and regain the pattern and target your opponents backhand. Remember to shade the court positioning, back to the backhand area allows you to control the court with your forehand once again. These shot by shot scenarios are very popular with high level players. Players are continuing to structure points around gaining forehand court positions to take control of the points they play. With that being said, the Augmented Reality Tennis App is a great way to train shot placement.

The Augmented Reality Tennis App is a great way to train these 3 shots, focussing on ball placement to target the backhand, deep heavy balls to the forehand and cross court backhands. AR Tennis App allows you to place visual targets over the net, providing a visual to focus on. . These drills can be done with a ball machine or coach/training partner feeding and drilling the targets – be sure to set targets at different heights over the net to force you to hit heavier with depth vs driving the ball flatter, as a heavier ball to the backhand corner will provide you more time to gain position.

With that being said, target training is a core functionality of the Augmented Reality Tennis App. If you are interested in learning more about AR Tennis, please contact us and fill out a, ‘Reserve your App’ form, and receive the latest news about AR Tennis: official launch date, pricing, and subscribing to the AR Tennis App. We are launching the product in the summer of 2020. In the meantime, you can contact AR Tennis directly if interested.

Written by: Bryan McConnell & Brian Elliot

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