The following post is an excerpt from the Second Edition of The Tennis Parent’s Bible NOW available through most online retailers! Click Here to Order
QUESTION: What are secondary strokes?
Frank: Building a solid foundation is vital to your child’s success. Although this is not another “Mechanical Stroke Book,” a flawed stroke causes unforced errors, produces short vulnerable balls, causes injuries and inhibit your child’s growth into the next level of competition. If stroke production is what you seek, I recommend my bestselling book Championship Tennis. In this book, primary and secondary stroke production is covered in extreme detail.
“Efficient stokes aren’t always elegant strokes.”
Just as being tall is a prerequisite to playing in the NBA, efficient strokes are a prerequisite to playing in the highest levels of tennis. But, if just being tall earned you the right to play in the NBA, my cousin Big Vinnie wouldn’t be driving a limo at Kennedy airport. So, though fundamental strokes are important, they are only part of the puzzle.
Here’s a fun painters analogy. To this day, we can all run to the store and pick up a beginners paint set. These pre-packaged sets come with paper, a paint brush and a strip of a few basic paint colors. As we dabble and enjoy the art of painting one thing becomes evident, if only primary colors are used, the paintings will continue to look “amateur.”
Advanced painters have learned that to make a painting jump off the canvas and become “life like” they need to master the skills of applying secondary colors. Now, instead of applying one shade of green, they have multiple versions of green! They essentially have more tools in their painting tool box.
