The Hidden Detail in Tennis: 3 Different Ready Positions

Please take your seats quickly, ladies and gentlemen. Thank you. Hi guys, welcome to OneMinuteTennis.com. In today's session, I want to talk to you about the ready position. And I want to show you that almost everybody watching this video, maybe everybody, will be getting the ready position wrong and getting the ready position right. Because there's three different ready positions. So if you're just using one ready or preparedness position, then for most of the time, by law of averages, it has to be that you're getting it wrong. Now I'm willing to bet that for 99% of the players out there, the ready position they'll use is this ready position here, sort of cut down just below their waist. The reason for this is very simple. That's the one that you see most of the time. Because when do you ever observe the ready position? You observe it on return of serve. And the return of serve ready position is low. You see, we want to get the racket back and forwards as quickly and efficiently as possible. We're not always or rarely adding speed to the serve. What we're doing is redirecting the existing speed of the serve. So when we watch the pros, that ready position is really low. The moment that the pros come out of ready position and go into a ground stroke position, then the ready position is here with the racket comfortably above the hands and the racket head, kind of the tip of the racket, kind of just below the chin. So return of serve ready position, rally ready position, and they're distinctly different. The reason for this is fairly obvious that when we make the unit turn from this position, the racket is just placed into the correct preparation position to make the stroke. If I begin with the low return of serve ready position and then make a normal forehand, then I'm going to kind of have a lag on the racket, especially if I'm rushing. So the return of serve ready position low, the rally ready position, kind of chest height. And then we have the volley ready position. If you watch doubles on YouTube or on TV, then you'll see that the ready position of the pro players when they're at the net and volleying is super high. I'm kind of looking at the court through the strings. They will be slightly into the backhand side. So not like that, but like that. So my view of the court will be something like this. Not like this, but like this. The reason for the high ready position and the angle of the racket is that to protect ourselves, we want to favor the backhand volley. Now, if I have the racket perfectly perpendicular to the opponent, to the court, then naturally I'm going to go to the forehand volley first. And if the ball's coming down this side, there's loads of gaps. I can't defend myself. But if I'm already in the backhand position, then naturally I'm going to be able to defend myself. And the high take back is because we're totally out of control of how high we'll make contact with the ball on the volley. We don't know if it's going to be high or low. It's much easier to go from high to low than it is to go from low to high, especially with control. So the return of serve ready position is low. The ground stroke ready position is sort of medium. And the volley ready position is high. If you're not using three different ready positions, then by law of averages, most of the time you're not ready. And if you're not ready, you'll be late and you'll make unnecessary errors. I hope this makes sense. Apply it to your game and let me know how it works. You know, I love your feedback and I try to reply to every comment. If you like my ideas on tennis, check out what we're doing online. I'm helping players all over the world with a unique blend of video analysis and one-to-one coaching. Or check out our books on Amazon. We have books on every aspect of the game, and the books break down the strokes into the biomechanics and the science of the strokes, and then super simple solutions with great illustrations. Everything we do is designed to help you become the best tennis player you can, and become the best version of yourself. So remember, low for return, medium for rally, and high for volley. You'll make less errors, you'll make better strokes, and you'll play better tennis today. Thanks for watching, and see you next time for more unique tennis lessons that really work.