Tennis - Open Stance

Explanation: The open stance is often best used when a player has little or no time to prepare for an oncoming ball, which in today's game is fairly regularly. This is because a player has to step out, shift body weight, load the hip and turn the trunk before a ball traveling 100mph reaches them.

This stance allows players to load up on the hip and explode into the shot, producing forehand and backhand winners.

How: Players start with the back swing, which consists of rotating the shoulders and hips together, to about 90 degrees (side on), to the right for right handed players.

The weight then needs to be shifted to the outside foot, (right for the right handed), and remain balanced throughout the swing, follow through, and recovery.

Back to the shoulders and hips, after the back swing players will start the forward motion along the same path with speed and try to make contact with the ball as far out in front of the body as possible to give control and power to the stroke.

Points to remember: Try and keep the non-hitting hand pointing in the direction of the target, this should help with the height and depth on the ground strokes.

Don't shift the weight too early, this will more than likely cause the ball to fall short.

Other Ground Strokes and Techniques: