Essential Tennis Podcast #162
Welcome to the Essential Tennis podcast. If you love tennis and want to improve your game, this podcast is for you. Whether it’s technique, strategy, equipment, or the mental game, tennis professional Ian Westermann is here to make you a better player. And now, here’s Ian.

Ian Westermann: Hi and welcome to the Essential Tennis podcast, your place for free expert’s tennis instruction that can truly help you improve your game. Today’s episode of the episode is brought to you by tennisexpress.com and tennistours.com. Thank you very much for joining me on today’s episode. I’ve got a very special guest on with me to talk about tennis strategy. That’s a good conversation, and I’m going to go ahead right to it. Sit back, relax, and get ready for some great tennis instruction.
My guest today on the Essential Tennis podcast is cofounder of FuzzyYellowBalls.com, Will Hamilton. Will, welcome back to the podcast.
Will Hamilton: Hey Ian. Thanks for having.
Ian Westermann: You bet. It’s great to have you back on the show. I think this is your third or fourth time back on the podcast, and I want to thank you very much for spending your time with me and talking about tennis.
Will Hamilton:Yeah. I think it’s three off the top of my head, but really happy to be back. Always enjoy doing this.
Ian Westermann: So let’s talk a little bit about tennis instruction. Before we do that, I know that you just had a really fun trip. I’m really jealous by the way. I don’t want to hear too much about it, but I want to hear a little bit about your trip out to Indian Wells to film some of the BNP Paribas Open. Tell us a little bit about.

Will Hamilton: Yeah. That trip is incredible. Any of your listeners if you’ve never gone, you absolutely have to go. I would almost make the argument thatit’s a more fan friendly tournament than the U.S. Open or basically any other tournament I’ve been to. It’s just sort of unreal how beautiful the scenery is, how fantastic the facilities are, and people – I’m sure a lot of your listeners have seen some of our YouTube videos with the footage we shot out there. As credentialed media, we can get right up on the fence and shoot footage of Federer and Nadal, Sharapova, Wozniak, and so on. It’s just fantastic also from sort of the coaching perspective. So yeah if you’ve never been, you’ve got to pencil it in maybe the next year or the year after.

Interesting tournament to be media at because the access is pretty crazy not just in terms of the ability to get right on the court, but the kind of cool thing– I’m trying not to make you too jealous here Ian.
Ian Westermann: Yeah. Thanks a lot.
Will Hamilton: The really thing is that the player and the media cafeteria is the same. Ian Westermann: Wow.
Will Hamilton:So you’ll go in there and for example I was ordering, can’t remember what I was ordering, but I was standing next to Federer in line.
Ian Westermann: Sweet.
Will Hamilton: He was right next to me, and I was eyeing what is he eating, trying to get some behind the scenes kind of look at that. He was ordering pasta by the way.
Ian Westermann: Good choice.
Will Hamilton: But, yeah. He’s a bigger guy than people – he’s listed at 6’1. I mean, I think he’s pushing 6’3 almost. He’s bigger in person than he looks on television. It’s just interesting to see thatbehind the scenes stuff. The one thing that’s kind of funny about that cafeteria is that you would expect all the food to be all this very–
Ian Westermann: Healthy?
Will Hamilton: Yeah, healthy like “athlete’s food,” but they’ve got like ice cream in there and sodas. I was like I don’t know if you should be eating this before a match, but I think most players are pretty good about that.
Ian Westermann: You and Adam on the other hand.
Will Hamilton: That was not as, yeah. We didn’t police ourselves as we should’ve. The other interesting thing is you go out. It’s not that big of a place, so there’s a couple kind of hot restaurants. We walked into this sushi place, and I literally walked through the door and staring back at me is Novak Djokovic who was just sitting in the booth right by the door with his entourage.

And the funny thing was those guys definitely knew who we were because we’d been right up on the court, so there was kind of that knowing glance you kind of get sometimes. You don’t want to bother those guys so we went and sat down. But that’s sort of one of the other cool things about going to the tournament is if you go out on the town afterwards and you hit some of the restaurants that are just generally recommended by the folks who are out there, there’s a good chance you’ll run into these players.

That Japanese restaurant actually there was Djokovich. There was some German players in the booth next to us. At the bar sitting by himself drinking a diet Sprite of all things was Jurgen Melzer. And then later on Dinara Safina walks in. So it was kind of like the player cafeteria just moved to this restaurant downtown. It was kind of surprising to be honest.
Ian Westermann: I hate you, Will.
Will Hamilton:Come next year man. You’ve got to make it out.
Ian Westermann: Yeah. Definitely want to. So from an instructor’s standpoint and obviously Fuzzy Yellow Balls is best known for their ridiculous video quality and breaking down the strokes of the pros, etc. So all of this access and close quarters to the pros both on the court and off the court, does that help you at all get a better sense than what you’ve had previously as far as what the pros are doing that make them so special and make them that high quality of a player?

Will Hamilton: Yeah absolutely. I think the thing you really see, and unfortunately the thing that doesn’t come through our videos as much because they’re very technique oriented in terms of how the player is playing the rackets. When these guys go out for these practice sessions particularly once the tournament gets started and they know who they’re playing, the practices are very much focused on the type of opponent they’re going to face.

I remember, this wasn’t this past Indian Wells but previous year, Federer was facing Karlovic in, I’m not sure what round it was. His entire practice session was his hitting partner just standing up at the service line just blasting serves at him so Federer could kind of find the range and get his return down. So it’s very interesting because it’s very focused on the types of shots and the types of patterns in terms of point construction that are going to be necessary for the opponent they’re going to face in the next round.

So they’re very deliberate and thoughtful about how they go about the ir practice sessions, which I don’t think you typically are as aware of. You don’t really think about that most of the time. So from an instructor’s standpoint that is very cool, and obviously fans can watch these guys in Indian Wells because the practice courts are so well laid out; watch them do this kind of stuff during their practice sessions.

The other good thing from an instructor’s standpoint is there’s a lot of very well -known coaches that come to this tournament to film for their particular websites or whatever projects they might be working. So for example you had Vic Braden out there this year, and I was lucky enough to spend some time talking with Vic and his lovely Melody about technique. And what Vic is doing is he has cameras actually on center court, and they basically have multiple cameras that they link and film. The images are then used to construct three dimensional models of all the players so they can measure, for example, how much extension Federer gets when he hits a forehand. Vic was telling me it was over 4 feet. I can’t remember the exact length of his follow through, but it was very long. I think del Potro was another guy with a very long follow through.

So that’s another really cool thing about this tournament. There’s a lot of ve ry smart tennis coaches out there, so you can learn a lot just by hanging out in the media room and talking to whoever comes through the door.

Ian Westermann: Awesome. Now let’s switch gears and talk about a specific application that you have used those videos for, and that is a free course that you just released a couple of days ago. Will and I are having this conversation on Sunday night the 20th. You’re right in the middle of this course at the moment, right?
Will Hamilton: Yep.
Ian Westermann: So tell us a little bit about what footage that you used for Indian Wells and exactly what you’re trying to accomplish in this free video course that you just released.

Will Hamilton: The free video course is called Tennis Ninja. The whole course focuses on strategy, so a ninja is a very strategic, calculated warrior so we thought that was appropriate. So one of the things we did when we went out to Indian Wells was we focused like I said earlier on watching these guys and how they go about not only with their practice sessions but just how they construct points during a match. The footage we shoot at Indian Wells when we upload that stuff to YouTube like I said before it’s very focused on technique. We have videos of– I’m not sure how many views that Indian Wells footage has gotten, but it’s millions and millions of video plays at this point.

There’s a video I filmed a couple of years where I just look at how Federer holds the tennis racket, literally what grip is he using on his forehand, and that thing is at 900,000 plays. So most of the stuff we upload and the most popular stuff is focused on technique. You obviously know this. The top pros are that good not only because they swing a racket beautifully but it’s really the strategy that sets these guys apart. They know how to zero in on their opponent’s weaknesses. They know how to construct points in a way that allows them to attack their opponent’s weaknesses, mask their weaknesses, play to their strengths, and so on. It’s very much a part of the game that typically is kind of brushed over, and again just based on the YouTube stats, that’s sort if evidence to that fact.

It’s unbelievably necessary obviously at the pro level, and it’s something that because most rec players kind of gloss over it. If you focus on that a little bit, it actually is going to have huge positive impact on your game. So that’s why this Tennis Ninja free training videos is focused entirely on strategy because it’s that weapon that’s hidden in plain sight so to speak that most rec players rarely take advantage of to the fullest. Ian Westermann:Absolutely. So tell my listeners about exactly what they’re going to learn when they sign up for this free course.

Will Hamilton: Well, there’s four videos in this free training. We just released the third one today. The next one comes on Tuesday. The first one essentially focuses on the strategic foundation, and that’s kind of the stuff that doesn’t change, the truths about strategy such as for example the dimensions of the court aren’t going to c hange, but because the tennis court is a rectangle that is going to affect how you can play, the shots you can hit based on where you are in the court. So it basically boils down to directionals, which is Wardlaw’s. His terminology for high percentage low percentage shots.

Actually interestingly, Wardlaw – I think it was Wardlaw– jumped in on the comments on that video just to say what’s up, good to see that you’re spreading the word about directionals.
Ian Westermann: Awesome.
Will Hamilton:I’m pretty sure it’s him. The guy that left the comment was very knowledgeable, but obviously there’s no verification.
Ian Westermann: Yeah.
Will Hamilton: So there’s directionals. There’s court geometry, which is again the court is a rectangle. Court positioning, because where you stand on the court both in terms of your lateral positioning and your vertical positioning is going to change based on where your opponent is hitting the ball. So that’s the strategic foundation. Then we focus also on something also in the first video called SWOT, which stands for strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats. And that is our explanation for how you evaluate what you’re good at and what your weak at, and how you evaluate what your opponent is good at and bad at it,. And then based on that, that’s going to create a match up.

Sort of the important concept there is most rec players say I’d like to hit my forehand and that’s sort of what their game plan is, to hit forehands. But if you get into a forehand to forehand rally with you opponent and your opponent actually has a better forehand than you, then it doesn’t make any sense to do that right?
Ian Westermann: Sure.
Will Hamilton: So it might make more sense to get into a backhand to backhand rally, even if that’s not what you typically like to do. Well, if that’s going to be a winning proposition, that’s absolutely the approach you should take. So we really focus with SWOT on the matchup that results from that analysis because it’s something you don’t see but it’s so key to playing winning tennis. So that’s video number one.

Video number two is called defense neutral offense, DNO for short, and that is a term we came up with to essentially talk about what the strategies and tactics the pros are using and then everybody how they can apply the same strategies and tactics to their game.

There’s a couple core pieces of DNO. The first is you can be in three states, on defense, in a neutral rally, or on offense, and based on that evaluation then you have sort of this tactical toolbox that you can apply to sort of work the point. If you’re on defense, you have a certain number of tactics to neutralize the rally. Once you’re on neutral rally, there’s a certain number of tactics you can use to go on offense. And the tactics you use are going to depend on who you are as a player.

Somebody like Roger Federer loves to hit inside out forehand. Run around his backhand, hit forehands to go on offense to turn a neutral backhand rally into an offensive situation. Somebody like Davydenko likes to stand up on the baseline and go corner to corner, not focused as much on hitting that inside out forehand, but likes to move his opponent from side to side as sort of his way to gain control and be on offense.

So we talk about some of the strategies and tactics you can use to apply those same tactics the pros are using and how you can do it based on your style of play. Then finally we throw in a tactic you can use to beat a pusher because that is a very common opponent that thwarts a lot of rec player.
Ian Westermann: Those dirty pushers.
Will Hamilton: I know. They are really irritating. I used to hate playing them when I was in juniors. The thing about pusher is once you know how to attack that player and you’ve done that SWOT analysis and realized what they can and cannot do, then they’re actually not the most difficult opponent to beat if you just know how to approach them. Again that kind of comes back to the whole core of this series. It’s just simply by thinking about strategy a little bit you’ll improve significantly without actually having to swing the racket. It’s just a matter of understanding.

The third video is think differently, and that basically talks about how a tennis match is a troubleshooting exercise. We say this in the video. There is a German general in the 1800s called Helmuth von Moltke. I might be pronouncing that right. I’m notorious for mispronouncing names. He basically said that no battle plan survives first encounter with the enemy, and most rec players come into a match and they say this is my game plan. It’s plan A. If it works they win. If it doesn’t then they don’t win, but there’s not really any adjustments that go on over the course of the match.
Ian Westermann: Sure.
Will Hamilton: If you look at the pros, they’re constantly adjusting. If something isn’t working, they’ll change up their tactic a little bit because they need to. This isn’t working and I’m going to lose if I keep following this tactic so I need to try something a little different. Did you watch Federer versus Djokavic in the semis?
Ian Westermann: No. Unfortunately I missed that match.
Will Hamilton: You missed it. It was interesting. Federer lost that match, but in the second set which he won he made a nice adjustment where Federer – it was actually very similar to the Aussie Open match they played. Federer came out swinging really aggressive. Djokavic was playing really great defense, so Federer was making a lot of errors. So Federer kind of dialed it back a little bit, put a little more air under his backhand in particular. A lot more kind of heavy topspin balls and some slices, more variety, and was just a bit more patient which allowed him to win the second set. Actually it was about to go up into the third and then he kind of lost his concentration. That kind of segues into the– so to round up the third video, it’s basically how to make these adjustments just like the pros do.

And then the fourth video is how do you compete like the pros. How do you stay mentally tough? What are some– I think a lot of– I don’t know if this has matched with your experience Ian, but I think a lot of the advice when it’s talking -- mental toughness is stay positive or keep your concentration. It’s very broad comments, and what we’re trying to do is there’s actually tactics you can apply when the situation is tight or you’re a little nervous to make sure you stay consistent, to build your confidence. There’s actually tactics you can apply to attack your open. If you know your opponent, there’s certain things you can do to really twist the knife there.

So that’s what the fourth video is all about, and we’re actually going to be talking about the Federer Djokavic match because there’s some very kind of perfect examples and lessons that can be pulled from that third set in particular. So that video will be out on Tuesday.

Ian Westermann: Nice. It sounds like as always, not that I would expect anything less from you guys, it sounds like you have put a lot of thought into the structure of this free course and it really hits on a lot of different parts of strategy. Even the mental toughness aspect in there which is awesome and in general. And tell me if your experience has been the same, it seems like these are mostly very practical things, almost things that if you would point them out to somebody who hadn’t really thought about it cognitively yet, they would say oh that makes sense. Of course. That seems logical. A really large percentage of recreational players go about their matches completely unaware of when these things are happening such as the transitions from different phases of the play, from defense to neutral to offense, and what specific tactics they can use during those transitions to make things come out in their favor, or the adjustments and tactics, directional, etc. Does that sound about right? These are things that are pretty simple in nature and yet such a large percentage of players just don’t take advantage of them.
Will Hamilton: Yeah. I think to a large extent, a lot of this stuff is, to use the term I said earlier, it’s just hiding in plain sight.
Ian Westermann: Yeah.
Will Hamilton: It’s really about teaching you how to think when you’re on a tennis court on a match. There’s a thought process there, and the analogy I would use is going to college because when you go to college you pay a lot of money but it’s not they bring you into this secret room and then reveal something to you that doesn’t exist in society in general. College literally you go and sit in a classroom and they’re like here’s your $40 textbook. If you’re taking an English class, you’re reading all these books that are available that have been written hundreds of years ago and are available on Amazon.com, but the reason college is so valuable is they say you’ve read this book and read this textbook, now we’re going to show you how to think about this stuff so you can really be a critical thinker when you go out into the real world. That’s what the liberal arts education I had teaches you how to think. That’s what we’re trying to do with the Tennis Ninja class.
Ian Westermann:That’s what I was supposed to learn?
Will Hamilton: (laughs) Whoops.
Ian Westermann:Well, I’m not going back. (laughs)
Will Hamilton:Yeah. It typically works. I didn’t read all the textbooks. Don’t tell my parents that.
Ian Westermann:Well, I won’t tell yours if you don’t tell mine. Will Hamilton: Fair enough. Deal.
Ian Westermann: At this point I’m sure my listeners want to know exactly how they can go to get this stuff because I mean you just spent like 15 minutes rattling off these specific things that they’re going to learn, and again this course that you’ve been describing thus far is free, correct?
Will Hamilton:Yep. It’s free.
Ian Westermann: Nice. All of you listening can go check it out. Will what day is this course available until?
Will Hamilton:Well, first of all a caveat. It’s free but you have to sign up with your email, and the course is available through Wednesday.

Ian Westermann: Okay. Tomorrow we’ll be releasing this show, which is Monday the 21st. So you will only have that day and two others to get inside and check out this free instruction, which I 100% recommend that you do right away. You can check that out by going to EssentialTennis.com/Ninja.

Like Will said, you’re going to be asked to submit your email address. Don’t worry. Will is a standup guy. He’s not going to spam you or sell your address to somebody else. He really values your privacy just like I do. I wouldn’t be endorsing this course unless I believe that he would treat you the right way. You’re going to get a ton of value out of this free course for sure.
Will Hamilton:Yeah it’s right on the signup page. We will not share your email with any third party, so yeah that’s absolutely key.
Ian Westermann: Now transitioning from this free course is a more comprehensive paid course, right? The full Tennis Ninja course is going to be much more comprehensive and cover a lot more details having to do with tactics and strategy.

Will Hamilton: Yeah. The free stuff is available through Wednesday, and then on Thursday is when we offer the full Tennis Ninja training program for those who want to continue their education. But the free stuff is a very good indication of what’s going to be in the full training program. I’d say it’s the 30,000 foot view of the training program, but yeah the full course is extremely comprehensive, and there’s a lot in there.
Ian Westermann: So just to be clear, the free course is only available through Wednesday the 23rd, and then Thursday it’s no longer going to be available, correct?
Will Hamilton: What I’m going to do for people who sign up before Thursday is I’ll email them download links if they want to download the videos too. So they can download them to their computer. Even though they won’t be online, people can just hang onto them afterwards.

Ian Westermann: Great.So give reason to give Will your email address. He’ll give you free stuff to download. So the full course comes out on Thursday, and I want to let everybody know who is listening to Will and I talk right now that I’m going to be offering just like in Will’s last release of his last course, which was Tennis RX, I’m going to be offering a little bit of an extra bonus for everybody who purchases through Essential Tennis.

By the way when you purchase through the link that I send out, and I think all of you listening have got to be on my mailing list. If not, you can do that by signing up for the podcast archives. But you’re going to be receiving an email from me on Thursday with a link to go sign up for Tennis Ninja, which is going to be an incredible course. You guys are going to get a ton of value out of that I’m sure more than whatever Will is going to be charging for it. But on top of that, I’m going to be throwing in a big bonus as well. I’m not going to give any details right now because I’m still putting together what that’s going to entail, but make sure to keep your eye on your email inbox on Thursday, and you’ll see full details from me at that point.
So anything else to add Will about the free course or the full Tennis Ninja course?
Will Hamilton:Well, do I get a copy of the cool bonus you’re putting together?
Ian Westermann:I’ll let you know on Thursday too, alright?
Will Hamilton: I appreciate it. (laughs) I don’t know what else necessarily there is to add about Tennis Ninja other than it’s – I’ve been reading the comments and it’s awesome to see that this stuff is already helping people. It does seem to be like a lot of the folks haven’t thought about strategy as much as they could have. It’s just so powerful because it takes understanding. You don’t have to develop any new technique or learn how to swing the racket. The hidden benefit of the strategy is when you tweak your technique, it doesn’t necessarily mean your technique is going to get better. It can actually go on reverse sometimes.
Ian Westermann:That’s a good point.
Will Hamilton: We’ve all had that experience where you’re tinkering with your technique and then your stroke blows up. But with strategy there’s none of that. There’s just understanding. So the more you know about strategy, the better you’re going to get, and it’s sort of why there’s a lot of older players who even though they’re not physically as quick, they’re really wily and crafty and end up giving you a lot of trouble because they just know where to put the ball and know how to really frustrate you.
Ian Westermann: So after taking this course, my listeners will be able to dominate pushers and old people. Is that what you’re saying?
Will Hamilton: (laughs) Yes. Sure. Not sure how to answer that question other than say yes.
Ian Westermann: Alright. That was my awkward question of the interview. I wanted to at least one in there.
Will Hamilton: Good work. It was very effective.
Ian Westermann: Thanks. So in wrapping up, again, only through Wednesday you guys can go check out the free instructional course by going to
EssentialTennix.com/Ninja. You’ll be automatically rerouted over to Will’s course. Just plug in your email address and you’ll get immediate access to that free instructional video. And on Thursday, keep your eyes on your email inbox and you’ll see an awesome bonus from me for those of you who sign up for Tennis Ninja through my link. Just in the interest of full disclosure, I’m an affiliate for Will’s product. So if you do purchase, you’re going to get that bonus that I’m going to be offering. Part of your purchase is also going to come help support me and EssentialTennis.com. So you’re going to become a much better player. You’re going to help support Fuzzy Yellow Balls and Essential Tennis. I believe they call that the win-win-win, right Will?
Will Hamilton: The super cliché. Yeah.
Ian Westermann: Yes. (laughs). Will, at this point I want to thank you very much for spending time with me and talking to my listeners. Thank you very much. We appreciate it very much.
Will Hamilton:Thanks for having me on. I always enjoy coming on. Next year we’ll have to get you out to Indian Wells.
Ian Westermann:I’d love that. Hopefully that works out. That would be great.
Will Hamilton: Again, everybody listening, go to Indian Wells. Pencil it in at some point. It’s an awesome tournament.
Ian Westermann: Awesome. Thanks again Will. Best of luck with your course launch this coming week. I hope it goes great, and I look forward to seeing what else you put out in the near future.
Will Hamilton: Thanks Ian.
Ian Westermann: Alright. That does it for Episode number 162 of the Essential Tennis podcast. Thank you very much for joining me on today’s episode and for listening. I always appreciate that. In wrapping up, I’m going to read two comments that were left on last week’s show, number 161.

First from Beth, I was talking about how big of a difference there is between professional players and recreational players and how not many people really understand how big of a difference it is. She wrote and said, my gosh you’re so right on the difference in level between the pros on TV and the pros from six feet away and us regular folk. I just got back from threedays at Indian Wells, and the pros’ hitting partners are way better than anything you will ever see on your local courts and as amazing as the sub 100 pros are. When you see a top 10 player up close and person, there is a whole new level. The pronation, acceleration into the ball from the racket drop is just crazy. Then the explosion that deforms the ball as it topspins over the net as an egg. Yeah. Absolutely. You know what to be totally honest, back in the day when I was graduating from high school going into college, I got a late start in tennis relatively speaking. I didn’t start playing until I was about 10 or 11.I know some of you are saying poor Ian didn’t start until he was 10. I didn’t start until I was 25, 30, or 40. I mean as far as relatively high level player is concerned, I started relatively late. I always thought to myself maybe if I started younger – most of the pros start when they are 4, 5, 6 years old. I used to think to myself maybe it could have happened, maybe I could have gone pro. But as I’ve seen friends, and somebody I played college tennis with went out and tried and he was a much better than I was. I played the bottom of the lineup on my college team. He played the top my senior year, and he went and tried challengers and future events and he didn’t win at all.

I literally actually don’t think he won a match, and he was out there traveling for I don’t know about 6 or 8 months playing different events in Europe and the rest of the world. He had a great time and competed hard, but he didn’t have what it took. He was definitely stronger than I was. The players out there on the challenger circuit were much stronger than he was, and the players that were beating him for the most part, I mean they’re not making the ranks of the top ATP players. And just within the ATP players, there’s tons of different levels of skill and ability.

So when it comes down to it, the players on TV are just like better than human. They’re like a whole other being of player. It’s not even close to what any of us have ever comprehended. You can only really appreciate it in person and close sitting court side. So it’s great you got to go to Indian Wells, and Will was just talking about that in our interview as well. It’s excellent to be able to get close and see what the pros are doing. It’s really incredible.

Then a comment from Mark. Very interesting and useful as usual. Thanks. Sunday I just played against a new opponent and this guy was hitting deeper and harder than what I’m used to. So he was pushing me back and my reaction was to push back and hit hard and deep as well. That’s good Mark. However, since I’m not used to that I made a lot of mistakes and many balls went long. However, based on this podcast it seems it was still the right reflect. I was wondering how you can defend against a player that hits hard and deep. Not the kind of player I usually play against. Maybe I need to start getting my strokes to the next level to learn how to hit quicker and harder without letting them go long.

Yes, Mark. That’s exactly right. Eventually you’re going to have to do more than just getting the ball in play. You’re going to have to take a ball that’s hit hard and deep to you and hit hard and deep right back at your opponents. And until you’re able to do that, it’s going to be difficult to make a big jump in your ground stroke game up to the next level. The big adjustment that you need to make as you start accelerating more with a confident swing is the angle of your racket face needs to close. I replied and let Mark know this in the comments for episode 161, but that’s the big change. If you’re missing long and you’re making an upward topspin swing on either your backhand or forehand side and it goes too far, continue following through aggressively or confidently and just close your racket face a bit more and you’ll see the trajectory of your shot change and it’ll stay in play much more easily. So keep working hard at that Mark.

Okay, so those are a couple of comments that were left on episode 161. Go to EssentialTennis.com/podcast and leave your comments or questions about this episode, number 162. I do my best to reply to all of those, and I’ll read at least one or two in the next episode of the Essential Tennis podcast. Until then, thank you all very much for listening. I appreciate it. Take care and good luck with your tennis.