Effortless Hitting

Here are ten simple ways to make your time on the tennis court more productive, energy efficient and effortless.

1. Relax your grip on the racquet between points, during changeovers and even between shots (using your non-dominant hand for more support).
2. Breathe and exhale as you hit each shot.
3. Hit with soft hands using your little finger as the main support of the racquet and focal point for the grip on the groundstrokes. Create a gap between your racquet handle and the heel of your hand in the serve power position.
4. For effortless serving footwork, focus on hopping up and out into the court with your lead foot and kicking back with your back foot.
5. Absorb pace with spin (particularly with underspin when hitting the ball outside of your strike zone).
6. Learn how to slide from an open stance when going wide to hit your groundstrokes.
7. Use a cartwheel action to generate racquet head speed (not hand speed) in hitting your serve.
8. Use the weight of your racquet head to generate momentum and flow with your groundstrokes. Keep the tip of your racquet head up as you turn and prepare to the set position. Then use a looping action to generate racquet speed as you drop into the hitting position.
9. Relax your arm (breaking with the elbow) as you complete your swing.
10. Maintain active feet, staying off the balls of your feet as you prepare with adjustment steps for each shot. Stay light on your feet with a dynamic split step (which essentially directs your feet in the line with the ball) as a first reaction to the oncoming ball and a gravity step (which requires a bend and relaxation of the lead feet) to get a good first jump to the ball.