Can I Tell What You're Trying to Do From Three Courts Away?
When you understand the objective, your movement begins to make sense.
When I'm watching a player hit tennis balls, there's a question I often ask myself:
If I watched you from three courts away, would I be able to tell what you're trying to do?
If your objective is to hit the ball over the net, I should be able to see that intention in your movement. I should see you prepare your body and racket to lift the ball, then move in a way that help accomplish that task.
This is one of the ideas at the heart of Lift Tennis. Rather than beginning with a list of technical instructions, I want players to understand what they're trying to accomplish and let that objective guide how they move.
Start With the Objective
In my first article, The Net Is the Biggest Obstacle in Tennis, I explained why getting the ball over the net is our first job.
That simple objective has important implications for how we prepare to hit the ball.
If we're going to lift the ball over the net, we need to put ourselves in a position to do it. We lower our body into an athletic position and get the racket below the level of the incoming ball.
Now we're ready to make the movement that accomplishes our objective.
Notice that we haven't started by talking about the angle of the racket, the position of the wrist, or a series of technical checkpoints. We've started with the job we need to do and established a position that makes it possible.
The technique has a purpose.
Let the Body Drive the Swing
Once the body and racket are in the right starting position, the next step is to initiate the movement.
The legs begin the upward action, and the core is central to the swing. The body is the engine that drives the movement, with the arm and racket connected to it.
As we begin the forward swing toward the ball, the intention remains simple: lift the ball over the net and swing straight.
We don't need to consciously recruit a collection of muscles to move each part of the racket. We establish the position, initiate the movement through the body, and allow the swing to unfold naturally.
The arm isn't disconnected from the swing, and it isn't doing nothing. It's connected to the body and responds to the movement the body generates.
This is an important distinction. Rather than trying to manufacture the stroke with the arm, we allow the arm and racket to work as part of a coordinated movement.
The Wrist Is Passive
One phrase I often use when teaching is that the wrist is passive.
That doesn't mean the wrist is locked or that it doesn't move. It means the wrist shouldn't be an active participant in generating the swing.
The core is the engine. The legs help initiate the movement, the body carries it, and the arm and racket are connected to that movement. The wrist may move as the stroke unfolds, but we don't need to deliberately manipulate it to make the swing happen.
When players try to control every part of the racket with their hands and wrists, they can introduce unnecessary tension and complexity into a movement that should be more connected and natural.
The goal is to establish the right starting position, initiate the swing through the body, and allow the arm, wrist, and racket to respond to that movement.
There's much more to explore about how these parts work together, and I'll return to those details in future articles. For now, the important point is that the wrist doesn't need to become another thing the player consciously tries to control.
Don't Confuse the Result With the Instruction
Watch professional tennis players hit forehands. You'll see incredible racket speed, substantial wrist lag, and movements that can look very different from what a recreational player produces.
It's tempting to focus on those visible features and tell developing players to reproduce them.
But there's an important question we should ask first: Are we looking at the cause of an effective stroke, or the result of one?
A movement can be a natural consequence of good mechanics, relaxation, and timing without being something a player should deliberately try to create.
That distinction matters. If we focus on reproducing the appearance of a professional's stroke, we may encourage players to manipulate individual parts of their swing without understanding how those parts fit into the whole.
Instead, I believe we should teach the underlying principles: establish a good starting position, use the body to generate the movement, maintain a connected and relaxed arm, and understand what we’re trying to accomplish with the swing.
As players develop, their movements will evolve. But we shouldn't assume that teaching every visible feature of an advanced stroke is the best way to help them get there.
Let the Objective Guide the Movement
Tennis instruction can become complicated when we ask players to think about too many things at once.
Where should the elbow be? What should the wrist do? What angle should the racket take? How should each part of the body move?
There may be a time and place for discussing any of these details. But I believe we often get better results when we begin with a simpler question:
What are you trying to accomplish with this shot?
When the answer is to lift the ball over the net and swing straight, we can work backward from those objectives. We can establish the right starting position, understand how the body initiates the movement, and allow the connected motion of the body, arm, and racket to produce the stroke.
Instead of trying to control every piece, we give the movement a purpose and let the fundamentals work together.
That's the approach I want players to understand through Lift Tennis. The game gives us the objective. The objective helps us understand the movement. And the movement gives our technique meaning.
Start with the game. Understand what you're trying to accomplish. Then let that intention guide how you move.
That's where better tennis begins.
