Doubles Only Tennis Podcast

Mini-Lesson: Where You Hit The Ball Matters Most

• Will Boucek

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Today, Sunday, November 24, is the last day to get 35% off the new Tennis Tribe Memberships (coupon: LAUNCH).

This mini-lesson covers a phrase coined by Craig O'Shannessy (Brain Game Tennis), that has had more impact on my doubles game than any other lesson I've learned over the last decade.

I believe that if you can focus and train with this simple lesson in mind, you'll improve faster and understand doubles on an entirely different level.

If you like this shorter format, let me know by sending me an email: Will@TheTennisTribe.com

Speaker 1:

Today I'm going to cover a short doubles lesson that's probably had the biggest impact on my game over any other doubles lesson over the last five to 10 years. It's a very simple idea and I think that's what makes it so effective. I think some of the best coaches in the world, some of the best ideas in the world, are very simple and, like I said, some of the best coaches I think are able to take kind of complex situations and simplify them into a short sentence or phrase or something like that. They can really stick with you and have an impact. I remember talking earlier this year with Rohan Bopana at the Miami Open and he had won the Australian Open a few months earlier and I asked him about his coach, scott Davidoff, and what makes Scott such a good coach and he said Scott doesn't say much, but when he says something it's always the right thing at the right time and you always listen and it has a big impact. And I'm trying to get more and more kind of clear with a lot of my language and a lot of my lessons so that I can get you know the entire lesson into just a couple of sentences and have a bigger impact that way and I think this phrase that I'm about to share with you does that, and it's certainly done that for me, and it's something I've talked about a little bit on the podcast in the past but never dedicated one episode to it. And I want to do actually more of these short podcast episodes because I know a lot of you have told me that you listen on the way to practice or on the way to a match, and this will be a good way for you to very quickly get kind of focused, get a doubles lesson in and get your mind right before practice or before a match Before I get to the actual lesson.

Speaker 1:

Why are we having a podcast on a Sunday? Today's the final day of the membership sale, so I want to briefly explain. Mention that as well. It's 35% off through the end of today, which is Sunday, november 24th. You can check out the show notes for this episode and I'll include a link there. If you enter coupon code LAUNCH at checkout, you get 35% off. A few of you have asked me is that 35% off just for the first month or is it ongoing? The answer is it's for the lifetime of your membership. So the middle tier, the club level membership, is $29 a month. If you enter coupon code launch, you'll get it for $18.95 per month. You're saving $10 this month, next month, a month after as long as you remain a member, you're saving that $10. So it's the lowest price. You'll see the membership. We'll have more sales in the future, but they will not be this steep of a discount, so this is the last chance to do that.

Speaker 1:

When you do sign up, you get access to premium video lessons, so those are five to 10 minute lessons. I'll be releasing one every week for members. A monthly members-only webinar. We did our first one last week on tactics to beat teams that push and lob and the recordings of those will go up as well. So you'll get access to recordings of previous webinars. The strategy eBooks, which are over 200 pages of content. You get access to those. The strategy courses, which are over 10 hours combined of video lessons on the mental game, net play strategy and a lot more. You get access to those for club and private clients, and then also one-on-one training with me for club player members and private clients and then member-only discounts. I've partnered with Tennis Warehouse, adv Tennis, functional Tennis, topspin Pro, a few of my favorite tennis brands, ria Eyewear that makes my favorite sunglasses, and I've asked them to take the percentage that they typically pay to Tennis Tribe for a referral fee and give that money back to you. So these are member-only discounts that you will not find on any other website or anywhere else. You have to be a Tennis Tribe member to get access to these discounts for these products, and you get discounts at Tennis Warehouse too, which is really cool for these products, and you get discounts at Tennis Warehouse too, which is really cool. So, again, I'll include a link in the show notes and enter coupon code LAUNCH to get 35% off by the end of today.

Speaker 1:

So let's dive into this phrase, or this short lesson that has had such an impact on my game. So one of the coaches that I talk about a lot, who has been a big influence for me, a big mentor for me, is Craig O'Shaughnessy from Brain Game Tennis. He's got lots of great singles and a little bit of doubles strategy on his website, including some awesome courses that you can check out. But one of Craig's phrases that he uses in his presentations and in a lot of his lessons is this how you hit the ball matters, but where you hit it matters more, and this is a phrase that sounds very simple, but it's something that when I first heard it I was like, oh, got it. And then a year went by and I was like, oh, I understand that, what that means in terms of how it applies to the doubles court on a much deeper level than I did a year ago. And then another year as it goes by and I'm like, oh, now I really get it. And then another year as it goes by, and it's one of those lessons that the more you think about, you really can't get it out of your head and you see all the areas of the game that it's true and that it impacts. So I'm going to try to briefly explain what it means for me and how you can kind of implement it into your doubles game.

Speaker 1:

So we focus too much on how the ball comes off of our strings, how we're hitting the ball. So we want to hit the ball in the center of the racket face. We want to make clean contact. We want to hit the ball hard. We want to hit the ball heavy with topspin. These are all things about how we're hitting the tennis ball, about how we're hitting the tennis ball, but that's less important than where the ball actually goes. So what I really care about is not if I feel good while I'm playing on the court. I care about if I feel good after, which means I won the match. I care about winning, and winning feels good, and over time you'll correlate winning with these things that actually lead to winning, and a lot of times they're not connected. So hitting the ball really hard feels good, but it doesn't lead to winning.

Speaker 1:

Generally, hitting the ball with depth is more important than hitting the ball hard, or being able to hit the ball with the right direction is way more important than hitting the ball hard, or being able to hit the ball with the right direction is way more important than hitting the ball hard. So you have to kind of learn to appreciate these other aspects of the game rather than just how you hit the ball. Shea Su Wei is probably the best example of this. On the pro tour. She's won, I think, like nine grand slams or seven, maybe I'm not sure. She's one of the best doubles players in the world over the last 10 years and she hits the ball not very hard at all for a pro level player, but she can place the ball wherever she wants on the court, she can redirect off of both sides, she can lob it well and she's one of the best doubles players in the world, so she's definitely evidence of where you hit the ball matters more.

Speaker 1:

I've talked in the past earlier this year with Peter Freeman, who ran TennisCon 8, about using the continental grip, and he said he challenges some of his students to play an entire match with a continental grip. And I've actually done this before in super windy conditions and beat a team that was probably four or five level or so, and you can do this. I think you can really get up to a four, maybe even a four or five level with only a continental grip and just guiding the ball to the location that you want it to be in. I really, really believe that, because you don't need to be able to really really believe that, because you don't need to be able to hit the ball very hard. You don't need to be able to hit tons of spin. It matters more that you're consistent and that you're able to place the ball wherever you want. And if you have better control of the continental grip, then use a continental grip A lot of times, if I haven't been playing a lot of tennis, especially if I haven't been hitting from the baseline and I'm going to play a match that matters.

Speaker 1:

I'll use a continental grip on almost all of my approach shots and I'll just slice the ball and try to hit it deep to the opponent's backhand or through the middle of the court, because I understand that it's much more valuable for me to get the ball deep and place it to their backhand or place it to the middle, to take away their angles, than it is for me to try to hit the ball with a lot of spin or try to hit the ball really hard. Where it lands matters so much more than how I actually hit it. So I want you to think about this next time you're playing a match, but next time you're practicing as well. So set up targets and think about trying to find the opponent's weaker side. Think about trying to hit to the weaker opponent if one of them is significantly stronger than the other. Think about keeping the ball low when both players get up to the net. Think about keeping the ball deep if there's an opponent back at the baseline and you want to try to push them back. Think about keeping the ball through the middle.

Speaker 1:

On the approach shots, like I talked about. The approach shots like I talked about and focus as much as you can on where the ball lands and the direction you're hitting, way more than how it feels when it comes off your racket. There's definitely matches. There's specific shots.

Speaker 1:

I remember over the last five years that were very big points in tournaments where I would hit a not clean volley. I would float the ball up to the opponent's backhand but I didn't care because it got to their backhand and then they would dump it in the net or they would sail it long. It really doesn't matter that much how clean you hit the ball, how good the ball looks. What matters is the direction you hit it and where it lands. So hopefully this helps you Again.

Speaker 1:

Next time you're out there practicing or playing a match, think about where you're hitting the ball. Don't worry as much about how it feels when it comes off your racket. If you'll have any questions about the membership before the sale ends later tonight, you can reach out to me will at thetennistribecom. Thanks to everybody who has already signed up. It's really cool to see all the support. I'm excited for the new webinar next month. I don't have a topic yet, but I'm going to be getting that to you soon, and the recording of last month's webinar is going to be up shortly as well. So thank you all for signing up, and I will talk to you all soon.