How to Hit Smoother Tennis Strokes (And Unlock Easy Power)

Hey, Thomas from Field Tennis. One of the questions I get asked often is, how can I hit with smoother tennis strokes? And I believe the player is more looking for a nice looking stroke, for a fluid looking stroke, but the reality is that when you hit with smoother tennis strokes, you actually unlock very easy power and you have much better ball control. When your stroke is smooth and fluid, that means you're connecting your body parts very efficiently together, we call that kinetic chain, and that produces very easy power. And if you're hitting strokes with a rigid arm, so you're not smooth, then you're not able to adapt to different balls, well, high, low, fast, slow. And a smooth tennis stroke means that your arm is relatively soft and adaptable and it's very easy to adjust to different balls that you're receiving, which means you have very good ball control. So in today's video, I'm going to show how to build a smooth tennis stroke and how that can actually change your whole game. So step one in developing smoother tennis strokes is this actual question that you already ask yourself, that's why you're here, because you do have a desire to hit smoother tennis strokes and that is already the right way. Many players don't ever ask themselves how to hit with smoother tennis strokes and it is very unlikely that they will develop them. So what does it mean in essence that you want a smoother tennis stroke? So when a stroke is not smooth, that means that there's some tension in it. So in essence, it means you're hitting with a lot of tension. So tension kind of breaks your body apart, you are not hitting in a smooth, synchronized way because that is a smooth tennis stroke. And a smooth tennis stroke means that the body moves nicely in sync, right? It's very synchronized. That means it's also relatively soft and it can adapt to different balls. And so when you're hitting the ball with certain tension, your first step is to kind of identify the tension. You have to scan your body and check where do you feel tension. Usually you're going to feel it in your arm, you can feel it in your forearm, you can feel it in your wrist. And so you have to kind of scan what is my level of tension for this particular shot and then you try to dial down by a few percentage points. So if I kind of demonstrate like a tense, not smooth tennis stroke and then I ask myself, okay, I'm going to attempt another shot but I will try to be a little bit less tense. And can I still maintain good ball control? Are the balls more or less coming into the court? And so if the answer is yes, you can try and loosen up a little bit more, maintain a bit more freedom in your shot and that's how you're going to develop a smoother tennis stroke. You're basically just dialing down the tension. That is the whole main process of developing a smoother tennis stroke. The next skill you need to work on if you want to have smoother tennis strokes is tracking the ball, watching the ball really well. So if I'm hitting a ball and I don't see the ball well, then I'm going to be searching for it kind of blindly somewhere here and I don't know when exactly to release my stroke. So the stroke becomes jerky because I'm kind of searching for the ball. And so the only way you can have a smooth tennis stroke, if you track the ball really well from the bounce, you see the ball really well already from the first ball flight and second ball flight, so that your mind knows when to release the stroke. So only when you're going to see the ball really well here, then the stroke will be smooth because you can then release it in a smooth manner. Your mind can calculate all the movements. It can connect the whole body into the shot. That can happen only if you track the ball really well. So very important skill not just for smoothness of tennis strokes, but the most important skill in tennis is really tracking the ball well. I recorded a video in the past on ball watching drills. I'll give you a card above and link in the description. You can also download a PDF that is optimized for smartphones. It's a vertical. You can pick one or two drills per session. Work on your ball watching and tracking skills because that is the most important skill to improve in the game of tennis. You cannot hit a smooth tennis stroke if you're uncomfortable when you're hitting the ball. So let that sink in a little bit. If you're uncomfortable when you're hitting the ball, there will be tension in your body and you cannot hit a smooth tennis stroke. You're uncomfortable. You're a bit too far from the ball. You're reaching for the ball or you're unstable. You might be even in the right place. You might be in the right place, but you feel unstable. Tension is going to rise up through your body and there is no way you can hit a smooth tennis stroke if you're uncomfortable. So again, players are typically uncomfortable when they're too far from the ball. It comes down to balance. The moment you're a bit out of balance, if I position myself like this, immediately tension comes up. It creeps up through my legs into my body and the stroke is not going to be smooth. That's why I mentioned watching the ball first, because unless you watch the ball and track the ball really well, then you will not be able to position in the right spot. You will be too far, too close, too late and so on. And the moment you're not in the right place, you're not comfortable and then you cannot hit a smooth tennis stroke. So there are many, many drills for balance and positioning and footwork and so on. So I will not go deeply into many of them. I just want to show you one very simple drill that you can do like this with the ball machine. And what you do is that after you hit the ball, you give yourself a little bit of time and check if you can stand in balance. You can have a bit slower tempo than I have here. So hit the ball and see if you can stand on the leg. It doesn't matter which stance. You can hit an open stance and see if you're balanced. You can try and hold balance on the outside leg. So if you cannot hold balance, then you are not in the right spot. If you're falling like this, you're not in the right spot. So that is one way to kind of force yourself to position really well, have good balance, whatever the stance, you can go in this stance and check. Am I standing really well or am I hitting the ball and I feel falling forward? So the moment you're a bit off balance after the shot, that means that very likely you were off balance when you were hitting the ball and a smooth stroke is not possible. So add this drill to your regular practice sessions. Hit a ball in whatever stance, mix your stances, hold your balance for about two seconds. If you can do that, that will actually force you to position much better. Your mind, your eyes, your brain are going to pay much more attention to the ball and your positioning and you're going to get in the right position where you don't have to lean or reach. And when you do that, then a smooth tennis stroke is possible. The moment you're off balance, a smooth tennis stroke is not possible. Here's another super important element for developing smooth tennis strokes. Breathing. If you're holding your breath when you're hitting a ball, that creates tension in your body and as you learned, tension is your biggest enemy in terms of developing a smooth tennis stroke. So when you're hitting and like holding, that tension goes everywhere around your body and so breathing is something that helps you release the tension throughout your body, make the stroke much smoother. And breathing has to be long, so you need to start here already, like not just at contact, not here very short, like not like this, but long, like practice starting to exhale. The moment you start swinging forwards, exhale all the way to the follow through, so from here to here or until the ball bounces. You can practice exhaling to the moment the ball bounces. It's not very long, it will feel very long at first, but your ball flight from your contact to the bounce is maybe a bit more than one second and for sure you can hold your exhale or keep breathing out for one second, no problem. And so that is one of the single most important things for developing smoother tennis strokes. You have to breathe. If you're going to hold your breath inside, a smooth tennis stroke is not possible. I have one bonus tip for you at the end, which is similar to the one before when I said the ball is yellow air, don't fight the ball. This one I call speed versus force. So one reason why your stroke is not smooth and why you're too tight is because you believe that you need a lot of force to make the ball go away. So you're tensing up and breaking the smoothness of your stroke because you think it requires a lot of force to make this ball go over there. It does not. So I'm going to demonstrate. I will hit a few balls, just holding my racket with three fingers. Now I will not have very good control of the shot. I'm certainly going to make some. So you're going to see from the back view, I'm going to make some shots, but I just want to show you that I don't have to be very strong at contact. The ball is going to go very fast out of my racket without me being strong because I'm not strong with three fingers. I don't need a lot of force. I just need very good racket head speed. And that means letting go, relaxing, having a very smooth tennis stroke. So you saw quite a lot of, quite a few good shots from the back view that I just hit with three fingers. Obviously, I cannot apply force to the ball. I'm not very strong, but I can make the racket go fast. And that is kind of the main realization that you also stop fighting the ball. Don't think you have to apply a lot of force. You just need to let the racket go more, breathe, watch the ball really well, position well to the ball, and you're on the right way to developing smoother tennis strokes.