Hey, hey, this is Shaun with the GoTennis Podcast powered by Signature Tennis.

While you're here, please hit that follow button.

And after you listen, please share with your friends and teammates.

Also, let us know if you have questions or topics you'd like us to discuss and we'll

add them to our schedule.

With that said, let's get started with 10 minutes of tennis.

We are doing 10 tips in 10 minutes.

And this one, Justin, we are talking about the front court, which I'm sure you will

cover as to why we're saying it that way.

But jumping right into our 10 tips, your first tips for playing in the front court, number

one, read the play, read the racket.

What are we talking about?

Yeah, excellent.

Let's just cover quickly what the front court is.

Sometimes people get it confused.

They sort of have back court, mid court, front court.

I sometimes think about front court meaning preparation and approach and coming from back

to front because back behind the baseline, front moving forward and being aggressive to

the front court.

So we could claim it that we're actually talking about mid court and front court right here.

But I just wanted to quickly mention that that is a critical part of the game right now.

If we really look at the way the sport is gone, everyone's taking the net, everyone's

coming forward, everyone's trying to take time away.

And it's a critical one that everyone needs to understand that there's some methods that

you need to use, which are these 10 tips.

So we're going to go into number one.

Number one, read the play, read the racket.

Yes, so read the play, read the racket, read the play meaning, look at your opponent, see

that they're in trouble.

Think about coming forward now because so many people are so used to being back on the

baseline and waiting for the absolute perfect opportunity.

You don't get that anymore.

So read the play.

You've already pushed him one to side.

Now he's a little bit 20% less.

He's in the ball shorter.

Take your opportunity.

So read the play and look for him first.

Okay.

Second one is read the racket, meaning if you're watching the racket, you'll identify what

type of ball that you're approaching on.

So by reading the play, reading the racket will give you your cues to be able to come forward

and be more effective.

There you go.

Number two.

Perfect split step.

Yes, so the split step is critical because a lot of people too tend to be so comfortable

on the baseline.

They tend to sit versus be more in the balls of their feet and ready to take off.

So being out of read the play, read the racket, being in a decent split step will allow you

to get a quick step forward if you get the right split step in the balls of the feet.

And an extra one from me, but technically from you, you like me to split step before

my opponent hits the ball.

So an early step is better gives you a little extra time to figure out what's going on

and to read the play.

Number three, movement is everything.

Yeah, movement is everything.

So where a lot of people get troubles going forward into the front court or at least into

the mid court, I've already qualified that, but going forward, you really got to use

your body.

You've really got to use your legs.

You've really got to get your momentum going.

And if people don't think about their body moving forward and their whole momentum coming forward,

their forward court or front court is always going to be struggling.

And after the split step, talking about your movement, number four is the first two steps

are critical, not the first three, not the first one, but the first two.

Yes, yes, yes.

If I could be on a court right now, I can show which I've showed a thousand times over,

actually, a million times over.

The first two steps is what gets you momentum going.

So you should be in a linear motion.

And that's what gets you momentum going into then what we call balance or adjustment steps

to then as you're critically making the decision and execution.

But they're getting into the front court, pushing off, getting off the first two steps

are critical.

And I commonly tell people you should be almost doing one or two arm pumps and one two

full linear steps to then get your momentum forward into the front court.

That makes a lot of sense.

I know they teach running where your arms are just as important as your legs.

And 100% of legs, there's a segue.

Number five, strike with your legs to have options.

What do you mean there?

Yes.

So again, all this has been talked about momentum, build up, getting your body to the

ball.

But when you go to strike, you want to make sure you're trying to drive out of the legs

into the ball so that your hands can be relaxed, compact and hit towards your contact.

A lot of people tend to get there and they tend to either stop or they slow down their

momentum or they actually then try to over swing because they didn't adjust or read the

ball properly.

I almost say, I always tell everybody think about your legs striking the ball because then

you'll be at the ball and you can drive the ball through your body.

Number six, front foot hop for effectiveness.

What is a front foot up?

Yeah, that's a new one that's been around for a little while.

Actually, it's been around for a long time but people don't really teach it.

And it's not hard to teach if you just practice the movement patterns before they strike a

ball.

But front foot hop basically allows you to stay more square to the ball as you're striking

it and land on the front foot versus allowing the outside leg rotating through which can sometimes

affect driving the ball in the direction you want to go.

So front foot hop can really keep you square on, head on contact and drive through to

you the contact which have a place or a direction you pick.

Reminds me of that little karaoke step where you have a little half in the leg.

I can stay sideways to hit your target better.

Yep, yep.

Federal was the perfect example of that front foot hop, especially on forehand.

Yep.

Alright, so number seven, strike the ball on the rise.

Is this every once in a while?

Is this all the time?

Is it most of the time?

What are we talking about?

The ball on the right.

The whole idea of coming into the front court or trying to work your way into the front court

is to try to take time away from your opponent.

So yes, taking the ball on the rise, you should be thinking about getting there early, taking

the ball on the rise.

Don't let it drop.

Don't let it become harder under the net.

If it's a little bit higher, it's easier to hit clearance over the net.

So there are so many advantages by making sure you're coming forward to try to take

the ball earlier on the rise, versus letting it drop.

And that's a lot about time.

We talk about that in a bunch of conversations you and I have, which is taking time away.

It's more important now since the mid-2000s, when players backed up and realized you just

can't get it past anybody.

Will we take the way?

Moving forward is a more modern view.

Absolutely.

And all these tips are just trying to help you if you struggle to get to the front court,

to try and give you cues and things you can work on.

And I think most people could work on this almost every day just to keep getting over and

over the intuition to be able to go, "Okay, I'm going forward.

This is what I got to do."

Or I made that mistake, "Okay, let me correct that."

And it's all about movement, taking it early, taking the time away and being able to get

into the net.

Obviously, the biggest one also is you've got to be able to volley.

So.

Yeah, that's a lot.

And speaking of allying, number eight is to commit to a target.

Yes.

So a lot of people tend to be when they're coming forward into the front court, or through

the mid-court into front court, is they will commonly try to pick a target, but they'll

look before they strike.

Or they haven't decided.

And then, decided is they're striking, look away.

And unfortunately, that's where the mistakes happen.

So, I always say, when you're coming forward as quick as possible, commit to a target.

Your movement pattern, your striking, everything goes towards one thing and then setting up for

the net play.

We talk about that in golf as well, because that's going to allow to help for your number

nine tip, which is eyes and head on target.

Can I guess the head?

You still, the eyes need to be looking at the ball, the contact, that kind of thing.

Yeah, again, so if you commit it to a target, you're going to be a lot more easier to stay

on target and stay on contact when you're driving through the balls.

So, they sort of go hand in hand a little bit, because once you've committed, you actually

can stay on the ball, but you will be surprised how many people get the opportunity coming to

the front court to have a commitment and a look for the end result before they strike the

ball.

So, that's where committed and staying head on the ball, eyes on the ball, is a very effective

tip to make sure you make it count.

We'll put all those things together.

I'm taking the ball on the rise.

I'm moving forward in a less common movement.

Now I'm going to hit the frame if my eyes look up, because I haven't quite decided if I've

cut that target.

I'm looking to see if you've moved and all of a sudden my head's off, contact, that ball's

going sideways, right?

Yeah, absolutely.

Yep, and that goes into tip 10, obviously, where we go in and follow the trajectory of the

ball.

Basically, you should be following it all the way in, geometry of the court, everything

else, making sure you're going towards your target so you can close up the court and help

set yourself up for an easy volley.

And number 10 being important, because I think that's a more complex one.

Following the ball's trajectory is different from following the ball.

The old idea of moving laterally, moving sideways with where the ball is, which we've gotten

away from a bit, where it's more of, if I'm hitting the ball cross-court, I want to move

toward where I hit the ball.

If I'm hitting the ball down the line, I move toward where the ball is going as I approach,

correct?

100%.

Yep.

And that makes it easier in the front court to be able to try to close up the court and

give your opponent less targets.

You're covering the higher percentage shot and an easier volley to finish in the front

court.

Which mathematically means approaching cross-court offers more options to your opponent, which

I'm guessing most coaches have shared with players a lot.

Yeah.

Yeah.

You do see more cross-court approach now than you did before.

When I grew up, it was always down line.

You always told the go down line and close in.

But I think you see a lot more cross-court for the reason that people are further deeper

in the court now.

And so the cross-court sometimes is the best option to take them away and make them run

as far as they can.

So, you know, it's still not the best because it does give the opponent more options to go

at you on the front court where you're in the net.

But otherwise, it's still following the trajectory of the ball.

It's still the same method.

Yep.

Makes sense.

Justin Yew.

This has been 10 tips.

10 minutes, I think we actually made it this time.

Thank you, sir.

We'll see you next week.

Excellent.

Thanks, guys.

See you soon.

Well, there you have it.

We want to thank reGeovinate.com for use in the studio and signature tennis for their support.

And be sure to give us a review in your podcast app.

We can't give you a direct link, but I'm sure you can find it.

For more Racket Sports content, you can go to LetsGoTennis.com.

And while you're there, check out our calendar of events, great deals on Racket Sports products,

a parallel and more.

If you're a coach, director of any Racket Sports, or just someone who wants to utilize our

online shop, contact us about setting up your own shop collection to offer your branded

merchandise to the Atlanta Racket Sports World.

And with that, we're out.

See you next time.

[MUSIC]