Why You Should (Almost) Always Hit The Ball Up In Tennis

How should you hit a tennis forehand and backhand to have a high consistency of shots? Here's a simple tennis tip: always play the ball up.

So let me show you what's the usual idea that players have and how the play the shots incorrectly...

If we split the different heights of contact into 3 areas we can say that we hit the ball at low contact point (which we'll define lower than the top of the net), medium height (which is between the height of the net and shoulders) and high which is above the shoulder height.

The reason why we define low contact point as all contact points below the top of the net because it's logical to players that they need to hit the ball up in order to cross the net.

What is not so logical to players and which is the topic of this video is that they should play almost all shots where the contact is in the medium and even high contact point also up.

What players typically imagine is that from medium contact height they should play straight, meaning horizontal and from high contact point they should play downwards.

The reason why that's not a good idea is because for one you're playing very close to the net and can easily miss the shot.

And secondly, it's very likely that your ball will land short and give your opponent a chance to start dictating the rally because the ball is bouncing right into their strike zone.

There are a few exceptions to this rule (namely playing the ball up):
- you can play a high contact point behind the baseline horizontally
- you can play a high contact point downwards when you're well inside the court
- you should play a backhand slice from a high contact point downwards (just make sure that the angle is not too steep)

0:00 Intro
1:20 Incorrectly Imagined Trajectories
3:19 Correct Trajectories (All Up)
4:25 Three Exceptions
7:06 Focus On The Ball Vs On Technique

[prashantgupta]

In a video with such a harmless name, you drop your nugget of genius in the last segment. Thank you Tomaz. Very helpful.

[ZorroNumber]

Good to know that there’s a coach out there who is able to get into the mind of a player he has never met.

[narendrasolanki]

You are always right about what we (tennis learner) think.

[kor]

Thomas, you don't know how much your videos help me with my game. One of your videos about using the racket as a weight rather than a tool helped me overcome my tennis elbow issues. I love the way you explain things. It's easy to understand and apply. It's as if you know exactly what an amateur like me is thinking and trying to overcome. Again, thank you very much. Keep up the good work.

[Skama]

Excellent material! I thought i am the only one who makes mistakes due to split attention to a lot of stuff. 😅

[mauriciodenardipeterlevitz]

Thomas is always givings us all the technical movements and also the sugar top that makes everything different. One of a kind tennis instructor.

[memomaniac]

You're the best Tomas. You know every single step of being a tennis player and are aware all the mistakes that a player can make. Awesome, good work. Please continue documenting the knowledge about tennis. The world needs this.

[paddlepower]

What a lesson. I'm a beginner and I hope doing a few hundred shadow swings will help me improve my form enough to just focus on hitting the ball up.

[markomarko]

Like always, great info!
Thank you coach. From Croatia :)

Srdacan pozdrav

[bpn]

Very subtle learning point. Focus on the ball flight you want and the body 'should' do the necessary (if you've grooved your technique) excellent.

[deepguy]

Brilliant and simple and contrary to most teaching which introverts attention onto the body, the racket and specific movements and tricks... all of which detract from correct focus.

[brianhentschel]

Amazing Thomas, this simple tip layered on top of the teaching from your courses increased the consistency and the depth of my shots. Every shot, I kept thinking "hit the ball up". If you haven't done Thomas' courses you should. They are incredible and worth every penny.

[Redstonist]

This was most definitely a "feel tennis instruction" - very nice!

[jassay]

Just imagine trajectory in a full picture instead of full of instructions, the inner game of tennis, amazing Video as always, tks tmz

[THM]

Super video Tomaž! Zelo enostavno in razumljivo razloženo. Lep pozdrav iz DE,
Tonko

[droopcat]

What a fantastic, insightful last point.

[rickconard]

really good stuff. I can see this working so much better. thanks Tomaz.

[timothyforsyth]

Another really great video, Tomaz. Thank you!

[basslin]

Hi Tomaz, it is really Good advise that to visualise the ball b4 hitting !!!I will practise this,
But normally most of the times my eastern forehand goes up only, I need to control this, u try to hit with visualisation

[steveboom]

I wish I seen this video 25 years ago!!! Thanks!!