I. STAY LOW, PLAY BETTER

It's one of the most-repeated bits of advice in the instructor's lexicon: "BEND YOUR KNEES" but why?

Here are four good reasons:

1. Bending your knees helps keep the strings aligned with the flight path of the ball longer, which increases your likelihood of making solid contact.
2. Preparing low allows you to hit with more power, because force is generated with the help from the ground, places your body in better position to produce trunk, hip and shoulder rotation.
3. Keeping your body closer to the ground allows better balance because your center of gravity is lower. This give you more control, it enables you to recover more efficiently.
4. Bending your knees helps you to cover court better because it puts your body in the optimum position to spring into action for the next ball.

II. POUR IT ON

To learn how to follow through on a topspin forehand, imagine that you have a cup of water in your dominant hand and a cup perched on your opposite shoulder. Your goal is to swing all the way around so you can pour the water from one cup into the other.

III. DON'T SPIN OUT

It's a common mistake on the one-handed backhand to open your hips up as you hit the ball. This causes you to swing across the ball and produce an unreliable stroke. Here's a quick fix:

Hold a basket full of balls with your off hand and have a partner feed balls to your backhand side. The weight of the basket will keep your hips from flying open and force you to use your shoulders to drive through the ball. If you don't have a basket of balls, use a heavy tennis bag.

IV. SWING WITH NO STRING

Racquet acceleration, or swing speed, is the key to hitting harder shots, and one way to get the racquet around the faster is to relax your hitting hand and arm enough to swing freely. Here's a trick that will help you learn to do it.

Bring two racquets to the court, one strung, one unstrung. Hit three balls with your strung racquet and then "hit" three with the unstrung one. Ofcourse, when done correctly the ball will simply pass through the open racquet face. Keep alternating between the strung and unstrung racquets until your swing speed with both is the same.

V. CATCH THE OVERHEAD

To learn to get into the proper position for an overhead, practice by catching ball with your non-dominant hand extended. This forces you to get underneath the ball for the smash.

VI. LOB ON A CLEAR DAY

The lob is always an effective shot, but on clear days its a killer. Why? because there's no reference point in the background that your opponent can use to judge distance. When there are clouds, most players find it easier to perceive depth and hit overheads.

VII. FIND THE IDEAL CONTACT POINT

You've probably been told to hit the ball "out in front" on a volley. That's misleading. You should make contact between your shoulders. If you make contact at this point, your arm acts as a lever and pushes through the ball for more.

All the Best,

Coach Peter
"just play the JINJI way"