Tennis Improvement Memo 457. Conventional tennis instruction causes you to stumble from the very first day you start playing.

The first thing you are taught or told when you start playing tennis is generally how to hold the racket, or what is known as the grip, isn't it?

How do you hold the racket?

So, the coach teaches you to place your palm against the racket face, slide it down to the grip, and hold it as if you were shaking hands, which is called the Eastern forehand grip, and so on.

This is also a form. At Tennis Zero, we tell you that because it is a
form, focusing on it will actually make your tennis worse.

The reason it makes you worse is that you stop being able to focus on the ball.

To put it another way, you stop seeing the ball.

Even if you can see it vaguely, because you are focusing on how to hold the racket, you cannot accurately perceive the necessary information, such as the speed and distance of the incoming ball.

If your focus is on your hand, there is no way you can clearly see the ball a few meters away (conversely, if you stop focusing on it, you will start to see it clearly).

Therefore, if you focus on how to hold the racket (the grip), your tennis will actually get worse.

In other words, from the very first step on the day you start learning tennis, you are already starting to stumble.

Then, if you are holding the grip correctly but still cannot hit well, they will pile on with the following:

"Bend your knees properly!" "Turn your body sideways!" "Take it back more compactly!" "Keep your elbows in!" "Watch the ball over your shoulder!" "The trick is to use your left hand to gauge the distance to the ball!"

and so on.

And they say,
"Okay, let's try hitting while focusing on those!"

…There is no way you can do that. I have already forgotten the first piece of advice they piled on me (laughs).

If you are watching TV while eating, playing with your smartphone, and thinking about tomorrow's meeting, you won't be able to taste the food (the information).

Beginners in tennis might tend to think that skilled pros hit well because they are intimately familiar with every grip and can use them appropriately, but that is not the case.

There are countless pros who don't even know the name of the "Eastern" grip.

In fact, average players are often more knowledgeable about such "facts."

There are other problems as well. Not only do you stop being able to focus on the ball the more you try to focus, but
your movements become jerky.

For example, breathing.

Your breathing while reading this was, I believe, unconscious Try it now: try to consciously breathe in and out.
Compared to when you were doing it unconsciously, you should feel at least some shortness of breath.

Even breathing becomes awkward.

The reason why beginners on tennis courts are mass-produced into robots is that the more they consciously think about how to hold the grip, the take-back, or their body orientation, the more awkward they become.

This is not limited to tennis.

In baseball, golf, soccer, badminton, and table tennis, too, many talents are spoiled because instruction focuses only on 'form,' such as how to hold, swing, or kick.

Don't children who are good at physical education have a mischievous image?
That is because they don't listen to the teacher's explanations and instead just do it quickly based on their own intuition.

On the other hand, the more serious children are, the more they take to heart the teacher's instructions like 'Raise your knees high' or 'Swing your arms wide', and their talent is spoiled.

The entirety of sports instruction in Japan is structured this way.

In the first place, some elementary school teachers have just graduated from university after completing their student teaching, and while I wouldn't say they have no experience learning about sports instruction in earnest, it is likely limited.

It is surprising that an English teacher might 'not be able to speak English,' but when I was in junior high school, a rookie male teacher became the advisor for the soccer club, and I was shocked to see a practical book titled 'Introduction to Soccer' placed on his desk.

It's not that the teachers are bad, the schools are bad, or the boards of education are bad; it's just that the structure is like that.

In the same way, it's not that tennis coaches, tennis schools, or tennis practical books are bad, but that is the structure.

I've digressed, but as for how to hold the grip, there is no single correct form.

Roger Federer, Rafael Nadal, and Novak Djokovic are all different.

Of course, it doesn't mean that if you imitate their grip, you can hit the same kind of ball, and similarly, it doesn't mean that if you imitate their hitting style (form), you can hit the same kind of ball.

The grip should be different and should change depending on the person's skeletal structure, muscle strength, palm size, flexibility, or the shots and types of balls they hit.

Even tennis coaches who teach how to hold a racket in tennis lessons do not consciously think about their grip or how to take back when they play in a match themselves.

Unless you are a practitioner of some discipline, you do not consciously think about 'how to breathe' in your daily life, just like that.

For example, while people say 'keep the take-back compact,' former world No. 1 Lleyton Hewitt had a relatively large take-back.

You might say, 'That's because he's an advanced player!', and that may be true, but if so, that is not the 'essence' of hitting well.

This is because the essence of the game cannot be divided into categories like "for advanced players..." or "for beginners...".

So, what is the essence of improving at tennis? It is"hitting timing".

If your hitting timing is off, you will inevitably make mistakes, whether you are a beginner or an advanced player. Conversely, if your hitting timing is perfect—assuming your spatial awareness is correct—your shot will always be successful.

Now, form instruction is major.
It is so "super" major that it has become common sense, and perhaps it is even beyond question.

Major methods are popular.
You could say they are major because they are popular.
Therefore, many people have already tried such methods.

On the other hand,Tennis Zero is minor.
Because it is still minor, it can be calleda new method that most people have not yet tried.

We do not change your form at all.
As long as it feels comfortable to hold, easy to swing, and easy to move with for you, that is fine.

That is why there is no awkwardness, andthe most natural play can be realized starting today.
On top of that,the ball will start to look much clearer.

People who blindly believe in form obsess over"shape", but they fail to realize that the essence of tennis improvement lies in"time (timing)"; in fact, their obsession with shape is what keeps them from noticing it.

It is a great shame if the first day of tennis, which you started to enjoy, becomes"the beginning of a long, arduous journey".

If you have not seen results with major methods, I hope you will trythe minor Tennis Zero.

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