How To HIT HARD In Tennis! (without missing)

Summary

A tennis coach analyzes a student's game and realizes she's playing tentatively during matches compared to practice. He takes her through drills to hit with more confidence and intensity around a 6-7 out of 10 effort. After establishing her full swing capabilities, he has her dial back power while focusing on tempo and consistency to a target zone. Armed with adjustments to keep shots in play, she then plays points with far better consistency and offense, going from passive shots to confidently pressuring her opponent.

Takeaways

• 😀 The student had good technique but struggled to maintain intensity during points
• 👩‍🏫 Three main reasons players slow down: fear of errors, lack of adjustment skills, poor swing awareness
• 🚀 Had student hit out at 100% effort to establish intensity baseline
• ⚖️ Backed off to 60-70% effort without missing wide
• 🎯 Added target area challenge while maintaining tempo
• 📝 Gave adjustment tips to control shots without slowing down
• 👍 Made 5 shots in court at target pace before missing
• 🎾 Better quality points after focusing on consistent tempo
• 💡 Simple concept but hard to maintain tempo without adjustments
• ✉️ Email coach Ian for personalized help

Q & A

Why do many tennis players struggle to maintain intensity during matches?

There are three main reasons - fear of losing by beating themselves, lack of understanding how to keep shots in play without slowing down, and poor awareness of their swing speed and intensity.

What was the first drill used to help the student hit harder shots?

The coach had the student hit a series of forehand shots as hard as she possibly could at full intensity to establish her baseline capability.

What feedback did the coach give when the student started missing shots at full intensity?

The coach encouraged her to not slow down and detach the misses from being the primary focus. Instead he focused feedback on tempo and using that as the optimization target.

How did adding a target zone help the student's progress?

Having a defined target area between the service line and baseline crosscourt helped introduce an additional challenge of directing shots accurately while still prioritizing tempo.

What are the two technical dials the coach refers to for keeping shots in play?

The coach doesn't reveal what those two dials are in this video. He says to stay tuned for a separate video explaining those adjustments.

What was the step-by-step progression used in training?

1) Hit at 10/10 effort to establish baseline 2) Back off to 6/10 intensity 3) Maintain 6/10 with target zone 4) Play points focusing only on tempo intensity.

How did the quality of points played at the end compare to the beginning?

After the training, the student was able to sustain a higher quality of play by keeping a consistent 6/10 tempo. She put more pressure on the coach with confident shots.

Why is being disciplined about tempo training challenging?

It's difficult to resist the urge to slow down and be more careful without knowing the technical adjustments to keep confident shots in play.

What were the tangible results the student experienced from this tempo training?

The video shows the student hitting much more confident and aggressive forehand shots during play after working on maintaining her tempo.

Where can you find the next video explaining shot adjustments to control tempo?

The coach says to check for his next upload revealing those swing adjustments. Or you can email him at [email protected] for instruction.

Outlines

00:00

😊 Explaining why the student's intensity and swing speed drops during actual point play

The coach observes that during actual point play, the student's confident, athletic swing changes to look short, tense, and careful. He explains this intensity and swing speed drop happens for 3 main reasons - fear of errors, not knowing technical adjustments to control shots, and poor awareness of actual swing intensity.

05:03

😃 Taking the student through drills to unlock full swing intensity

The coach first has the student hit out at full 10/10 effort to feel true intensity. He then dials it back to 6/10, still hitting confidently but with more control. He encourages her through misses, focusing on tempo over just making shots. Lastly, he adds a target zone challenge to her 6/10 tempo shots.

Keywords

💡intensity

Intensity refers to how much effort and speed a tennis player puts into their shots and movement. The video teaches that many players lose intensity during matches compared to practice. The student went from low intensity shots early in points to hitting much harder later on. Maintaining swing speed and effort level is critical.

💡tempo

Tempo means the speed and rhythm of the student's shots. The coach has her focus on optimizing tempo instead of just making shots. Keeping tempo consistent helps unlock athletic potential without overhitting.

💡confidence

Confidence is necessary to hit freely without fear of mistakes. The student was tentative early but gained confidence in her shots through the drills. This let her swing confidently during points.

💡progression

The coach uses carefully designed progressions in the lesson to incrementally develop skills. He gradually increases challenge after successes to build competency.

💡adjustment

Making proper adjustments allows controlling shots without slowing down. The coach teaches adjustments to keep swinging confidently.

💡feedback

Feedback from the coach guides development. He gives feedback on tempo and confidence, focusing less on errors.

💡consistency

Developing consistent tempo and swing speed takes repetition. Only through quality training can shots remain consistent during matches.

💡intensity

Intensity refers to how much effort and speed a tennis player puts into their shots and movement. The video teaches that many players lose intensity during matches compared to practice. The student went from low intensity shots early in points to hitting much harder later on. Maintaining swing speed and effort level is critical.

💡athleticism

The coach says many players fail to use their full athleticism in matches. Unlocking athletic potential and using athleticism fully in matches requires mastery of skills.

💡discipline

Being disciplined in training intensity and tempo leads to match improvement but is challenging. Diligence and focus on proper training is essential.

Highlights

Student was winning matches at 3.0 level but struggling at 3.5 level

During points, student's swings got shorter and slower, intensity dropped

3 reasons players slow down: fear of errors, lack of shot adjustment skills, poor intensity awareness

Had student hit forehands at max effort to establish full intensity baseline

Backed off intensity to 6-7 out of 10, focused on confident tempo over just making shots

Added target zone challenge - 5 in a row at 6-7 out of 10 intensity

Gave technical adjustment tips to control shots without slowing down

Student made 5 in a row to target at proper tempo after adjustments

Layered progressions: 10/10 intensity, back off to 6-7/10, add target zone, play points

In points after training, student maintained tempo and put coach on defense

Focusing on confident tempo improved point quality dramatically

Simple concept but hard to maintain discipline without shot adjustments

Next video reveals swing adjustments to control shots at high tempo

Poor awareness of swing speed and intensity very common

Must optimize for outputs like tempo instead of just making shots

Transcripts

wouldn't you like to hit the ball hard

in matches so that you can put away

points and beat players who get

everything back that's exactly what

you're going to learn in this lesson as

you see my recent student go from

playing points like this to playing

points like this in just one session

together let's find out exactly how she

did it so you can copy the same drills

and start hitting your own tennis shots

much harder in

matches every time I work with a student

we start with an evaluation of their

skills and when I watched this one start

warming up and hitting forehands and

backhands something just didn't really

add up because she told me that she was

winning matches at the 3.0 level but

losing quite a bit at

3.5 and I just couldn't at first see how

that could be possible with such long

confident athletic looking swings but

when we started playing points out

things started to make sense during

points together all of a sudden her

swings started looking really short and

Ted and careful you can see she was like

reminding herself in between points to

to follow through and her swing speed

just kind of fell off a cliff and all of

a sudden everything was a level lower

and I could tell she just wasn't able to

use the athleticism that she actually

has during points and this is a problem

that tons of tennis players have and I

took her through a special series of

drills to help her unlock her

athleticism and finally hit confident

shots during points so why is it so

common that tennis players drop in

intensity and level during real Point

play or matches in my experience it

happens for three main reasons reason

number one is a fear of losing by

beating themselves and so tennis players

slow down and be careful to make sure

that they don't make a mistake second

big reason is a lack of understanding of

how to keep the ball in play they don't

understand the technical dials to turn

to adjust their shots and keep the ball

inside the lines without reverting to

slowing down and just being more

tenative and the third big reason why

tennis players slow down is poor

awareness of their intensity and their

swing speed I know that sounds kind of

crazy that a player wouldn't know how

intense they're actually moving their

body but in my experience there's very

low awareness of this and that's the

first thing that I wanted to focus on

with this student so to start off her

training I asked her to hit a series of

ball

on her forehand side as hard as she

possibly could full intensity Max rocket

head speed so here's what those swings

look like and you'll see it's

dramatically different all of a sudden

her racket is moving super freely and

long she's following through all the way

she looks really confident and of course

she's missing some of these because I'm

encouraging her to try to hit the ball

as hard as she can but what's incredible

is that she makes some too even though

she's swinging at full effort bunch of

these go in the courts and so she has

enough technical Foundation to be able

to actually hit the ball quite hard and

keep it in play but she just doesn't

have the ability to maintain it at a

consistent and confident level during

real match play now that she could feel

and understand what a full intensity

full effort swing was like I asked her

to dial down just a little bit and

Target a six or a seven out of 10 on the

intensity scale here's what that looked

like so these swings still look

confident but you'll notice she's making

a lot more of them now it's a

dramatically better shot than what she

was hitting against me in points but

without spraying the ball all over the

place and so you'll notice that I'm

really giving her a lot of feedback it's

a little faster yeah I like that that's

six that's six but I'm also encouraging

her when she misses to not slow down I

felt like seven or eight to me bring it

back to six again and encourage her and

say yes yes that was a six that was a

seven you're doing great that's nice

that's fantastic keep it there keep it

there and so I'm detaching the Miss as

being like the primary focus instead of

focusing all of her effort and intensity

on just not missing the shot I'm

encouraging her to focus on Tempo and

using that as the output or the result

that we're optimizing for not just

making the shots and you're going to

reach a point in you're tennis career

where you have to do that where you've

got to remove the making of the shot as

your primary focus so that you can

improve and develop and create better

tools and better habits in your game

once my student demonstrated the ability

to hang out at a six or a seven out of

10 we progressed and added a little bit

more challenge by giving her a Target

zone or a Target area so you'll notice

we created a Target Zone by using cones

up here at the service line and then

baskets back at the Baseline and so her

Target area is between the service line

and the Baseline and crosscourt and so

her goal now is to have a Target while

also managing her Tempo and so the tempo

is the primary focus but we also want

her to start to demonstrate an ability

to put the ball in a certain spot on the

court so now we're dual focusing and

having the tempo be the primary thing

but now we also of course eventually

need to be able to hit the ball in a

certain spot on the court and not just

focus on the tempo so what we're doing

here is we're shooting for five in a row

and as she started to make some misses

but manage her Tempo well I realized

that she needed some additional

information or tools to be able to

adjust and keep the ball in play without

slowing down go grab a quick drink and

I'm going to write a super important

phrase down okay all right this

is

everything this phrase

describes the physics behind every

tennis shot sure it's super critical

there's two technical dials that you can

turn to keep any ball in play no matter

how hard you hit it and she needed that

information at this point to complete

the task of making five in a row and in

this lesson you're watching right now I

want to just keep the focus on Tempo but

stay tuned for a separate upload that

reveals what those dials and those

adjustments are that you can make armed

with that knowledge of how to adjust her

swing and keep the ball in play without

slowing down she was able to make five

in a row to our Target area while

staying at a six or a seven out of 10

Tempo which is incredible good four do

not slow it down keep it

confident five keep going keep going so

notice we've layered some progressions

here and this is what you can copy back

in get home with any swing in your

tennis game I had her start out at a 10

out of 10 just to feel what it was like

get a baseline of full intensity then I

had her back off to a six or a seven out

of 10 without any kind of Target or

Target Zone then I had her maintain a

six or a seven out of 10 while targeting

a certain Zone on the other side of the

Court focusing on her output and

actually achieving consistency while

keeping the ball in the courts then we

went out we had LUN

that's I guess progression number four

we came back and we played some points

where I asked her to only focus on

maintaining her intensity and

maintaining her output at a six or a

seven out of 10 and these points were

dramatically higher quality than what we

played just an hour or two earlier in

the morning she did a fantastic job of

maintaining her intensity keeping her

swing speed at a six or a seven out of

10 and the results were just

dramatically better in the morning when

we played points I honestly felt no

pressure at all like all I had to do is

just hit the ball back in play she

didn't hit anything that put me on the

defense and all I had to do is just hit

a certain number of shots you know in a

row in the court and eventually she

would miss maybe occasionally she would

try to kind of juice it up and like put

it away but because she'd hit so many

shots at like a three or a four out of

10 when she went up to a seven or an

she would just spray the ball and miss

it because it was such a big jump now

after doing this training she could just

hang out at a six hang out at a seven

and actually build a point and build

some structure put me in a little bit of

defense and then start to put the ball

away which is super exciting and fun to

watch going home with a focus on Tempo

has given her awesome results like

this and

this and this the concept is simple but

being disciplined about training your

Tempo is not necessarily easy especially

when you don't know the technical

adjustments to make to keep confident

swings in play and that's why you can't

miss my next upload where I'll tell you

what dials to turn to keep the ball in

play in the meantime if you'd like to

work with me on the court then shoot me

an email to Ian essential tennis.com