How to watch the Pros?

(from The Inner Game of Tennis)

HOW TO WATCH THE PROS When I was a child, I used to play touch football, and I noticed that I played quite a lot better when I’d just come home after my Dad had taken me to see the San Francisco 49ers play. I hadn’t studied the passing technique of Frankie Albert. But I had picked up something, and it made a difference when I played. I think most people have experienced something very similar to this. Although it is obvious that we can learn a great deal by watching better players play tennis, we have to learn how to watch. The best method is to simply watch without assuming that how the pro swings is how you should be swinging. In many cases, for a beginner to try to swing like a pro would be like asking a baby to walk before it has crawled. To formulate technique while watching the pro or by trying to imitate too closely can be detrimental to your natural learning process. Instead allow yourself to focus on whatever most interests you about the movements of the pro you are watching. Self 2 will automatically pick up elements of the stroke that are useful to it and discard what is not useful. With each new swing, observe how it feels and how it works. Allow the natural learning process to lead you toward your best stroke. Do not force yourself to make the change. Just allow Self 2 to “play around” while it searches for new stroke possibilities. In doing so it will use what it can of the “hints” picked up in observation of the pro. Based on my experience and the experience of those I have worked with, Self 2 has very good instincts about when it is time to work on any particular element of your stroke. In learning how to learn by watching pros play, you may want to alternate between external observation and experimentation on the court, until you have confidence that you can access the particular stroke technique you are working on. With the Inner Game approach, the final authority stays inside during the alternation between external observation (or remembrance of an external instruction) and total focus of awareness on your own movements. But there is no judgment necessary in the process. You see differences between what you are doing and the external model, but simply notice them and continue to observe, feel your own movements and check the results. The prevailing learning mind-set is a freedom to search for the feel that works for you. In summary, I believe someone who has discovered his or her best stroke can help you discover your best stroke. Knowledge of technique learned by one person can give another an advantage in discovering what technique works best. But it is dangerous to make that person’s stroke or any stroke description into your standard for right and wrong. Self 1 easily gets enamored of formulas that tell it where the racket should be and when. It likes the feeling of control it gets from doing it by the book. But Self 2 likes the feeling of flow—of the whole stroke as one thing. The Inner Game is an encouragement to keep in touch with the Self 2 learning process you were born with while avoiding getting caught up in trying too hard to make your strokes conform to an outside model. Use outside models in your learning, but don’t let them use you. Natural learning is and always will be from the inside out, not vice versa. You are the learner and it is your individual, internal learning process that ultimately governs your learning. What I like about this approach is that I do not have the feeling that I am fitting myself or my students into an external model that may be in fashion for the moment, but that I am using any external model to further help me take a step in the natural evolution toward my very best strokes. After an Inner Game tennis lesson, a golf professional put it this way: “What I consider to be the right technique for my swing is ever-changing day by day. My model is always being destroyed and rebuilt as I learn more and more. My technique is always evolving.” Self 2’s nature is to evolve every chance it gets. As your technique evolves, you will start to become better at learning technique and be able to make big changes in a short period of time. As you discover Self 2’s learning capabilities, not only will your tennis strokes improve, but you will have increased your capacity to learn anything. Opposite is a table that can give you an idea of how to take instructions on any strokes from a pro, a tennis magazine or book, and alter them into an awareness instruction that will facilitate the discovery of your own optimal technique. These observations should be made over the course of as many shots as it takes until Self 2 has had the chance to experiment and has settled on its preferred stroke. If you have a teacher, let him or her teach, but keep Self 2 in control, because it really is your greatest resource. STROKE TECHNICAL INSTRUCTION AWARENESS INSTRUCTION GROUND STROKES Follow through at shoulder level. Notice the level of your follow-through relative to your shoulder.

Take your racket back early. Observe where your racket is when the ball bounces.

Get down to the ball. Feel the extent of knee bend on the next ten shots.

Take the racket back below the level of the ball to produce topspin. Notice the level of your racket in relation to the ball at impact. Feel the contact and notice the amount of topspin produced.

Hit the ball in the center of the racket. Sense (not with your eyes) where the ball makes contact with the racket face.

Plant your back foot when setting up for your ground stroke. Notice what percent of your weight is on your back foot as you prepare to hit your ground strokes VOLLEY Hit the ball in front of you. Notice where you are making contact with the

Volley the ball deep into the opponent’s court. Notice where your volleys are landing in relation to the baseline.

Don’t take a backswing. Punch the ball. How far back are you taking your racket? What is the minimum amount possible? What amount of backswing provides the best opportunity to punch the ball?

Whenever possible, strike the ball before it drops below the level of the net. Focus on the space between the ball and the top of the net. Notice the differing amounts. SERVE Hit the ball with your arm fully extended. Notice the degree of bend in your elbow at the moment of impact with the ball.

Toss the ball as high as the extended arm and racket, and about six inches in front of your lead foot. Observe the height of your toss. Let the ball drop and notice where it lands in relation to your lead foot.