The following post is an excerpt from Championship Tennis (Available through Human Kinetics and Amazon) Thanks for visiting, Frank Giampaolo
Primary and Secondary Ground-Strokes
The beginning and intermediate stages of stroke development often resemble a game of catch. Players are content to simply hit the ball back and forth. At the advanced levels, training starts to look more like a game of keep-away.
To maximize potential and accelerate the learning curve, players should begin by understanding the components of winning ground-strokes. To the untrained eye, perfect primary strokes are the main reason for players reaching the advanced levels of tennis, just as being tall is a prerequisite for playing top-flight basketball. But if just being tall was all it took to play in the NBA, my cousin, Big Vinnie, wouldn’t be driving a limo at Kennedy Airport.
Owning only primary strokes in tennis—or unusual height in basketball—is usually not enough. For players to experience accelerated learning, they need to develop additional tools and skills, or what are known as secondary strokes.
A good comparison that can be used to help players understand the importance of these strokes is to look at the differences between amateur and professional painting. Anyone looking to get started in painting generally begins at the same place: a prepackaged painting set that comes with a canvas or paper, brushes, and a strip of colored paint containing basic colors. As the person dabbles more in painting, though, one thing becomes evident: Using only basic colors makes the painting look amateurish. Advanced artists and professionals have learned that to make a painting jump off the canvas—to make it become lifelike—they need to use secondary colors as well. Instead of applying 1 shade of green, they may use up to 12 different versions.
The process of developing ground-strokes into weapons follows a similar principle: A player should start with a base version and then enhance it with three secondary options.
Contact: Frank Giampaolo
FGSA@earthlink.net
MaximizingTennisPotential.com
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