Impact

One of the ‘fundamentals’ that every great player shares is an appropriate impact point (or contact point – these terms can be used interchangeably) given the shot they are receiving and the intent of the shot they are sending.

The impact point is something you can practice with a partner when hitting up the middle, doing crosscourt drills and even when one player is at net working on volleys. While watching the pros performing simple cross court rally drills during practices, they are undoubtedly focusing on something without the casual observer knowing it. And often times, the impact point is one of those things they are focusing on.

Impact Height

A Reid et al 2016 study found that pro players at the Australian Open had a mean shot contact height of 0.95m (just over 3 feet). That’s about waist height. Of course, there are instances when players are attacking and the ball is struck at a higher point or the ball is very low because of a slice, drop shot etc. and is therefore struck below that height.

But for the most part, in rally situations, the height of a player’s impact should be somewhere around their waist. This isn’t an easy task.

This is tennis basics 101. Yet so many players – especially amateurs – aren’t focusing on this.

For the purposes of the following arguments, let’s assume the player is not taking the ball on the rise.

When rallying – in order to have an impact around the waist – there are a couple of critical requirements. First, a player must perceive the oncoming ball – should I move forward to meet the ball at the right height, should I move back, diagonally etc.? Second, they must move well in order to get into the appropriate spot, based on their perceptual analysis. The faster they can make this movement, the better will be their set-up – which opens up a variety of options in terms of how they want to play the ball.

Many amateurs and developing players, however, see the pros hitting and focus a lot of their attention on how (form) their swings look – and attempt to copy these swings – instead of what their swings produce (function). The pros have strokes that are so well tuned that they can essentially play the ball towards the same relative target on every shot during practice settings. Thus, they don’t seem to be moving much (but in fact they are and it’s more than one would think). This ability, along with their technically efficient strokes, has taken years for them to develop.

Amateurs and most juniors aren’t good enough to do this. In order to meet the ball with their racquet at the appropriate height, they’ll have to make a lot of adjustments with their movement.

Take home lesson:

While rallying, focus on making contact with the ball around waist/hip height (at minimum, above the knees and max, below the shoulders). This will require that you track the ball well (using your anticipatory and perception skills to ‘receive’ the ball appropriately) and make the necessary adjustments with your footwork.

Lateral Impact Distance

If you ever get to witness a practice run by a highly seasoned coach, you’ll probably hear the word ‘space’ floated around a lot. Or ‘create space’. What does this mean exactly? Essentially, this means having enough room to swing the racquet freely. Again, if you don’t move around the ball, or away from the ball, it’ll be quite difficult to make an unencumbered swing – you’ll almost feel jammed up.

The opposite is also true – if the ball is too far away from your body (laterally speaking) – it’s difficult to make a powerful, coordinated cut on it. In many cases, players will use more arm then body – again, assuming that this is a rally setting.

Take home lesson:

While rallying from the back of the court, focus on meeting the ball with the racquet far enough away from your body that you have room to swing freely but not too far where you feel like you’re reaching/extending yourself too much.

Horizontal Impact Distance

Similar to lateral impact distance, horizontal distance refers to how close or far away the ball is in terms of forward and backward. In rally scenarios, the ball should always be in front of the body but how far depends on your grip, how long your arm is, the path of your racquet and so on. With all these variables, it’s tough to give an exact location (as you are probably aware by now, exactness/perfection etc. doesn’t exist).

For example if your grip is more western and you attempt to hit the ball way in front, you’ll often see the ball landing short or dipping into the net – because the angle of the racquet is facing downward at impact. Many players who do this actually compensate by swinging heavily from low to high – but this only partially solves the problem as now there is a lot of topspin on the ball but it doesn’t really have any pace to it.

Take home lesson:

While rallying, focus on meeting the ball in front of your body – your grip and racquet path being the primary dictators of how far forward your strike of the ball will be. Experimentation is your friend here.

Strike Quality

This is something many amateurs and juniors fail to even consider – how pure was their contact. If you’ve played a significant amount of tennis, you’ll know the difference between hitting the ball clean and hitting it off-centre. Not only do you ‘feel’ the difference (more vibration is felt through the arm when it’s not clean) but you hear the difference (that crisp thump/thud when you hit it centred).

But how often do you actually practice hitting the ball ‘pure’? In golf, pro players are able to tell you exactly which groove they attempted to hit on the club face AND which one they actually hit (Young 2015). Certain pro players actively work on trying to hit the ball clean with a relaxed swing. Not only will this produce the most effective ball response coming off the string bed, it’s also better for arm health.

A study by Li et al (2009) found that hitting closer to the tip of the racquet (called the ‘dead spot’), produced 1.6 times more force compared to hitting in the centre (the ‘sweet-spot’). Similarly, hitting the ball towards the throat of the racquet or off-centre (towards the outside borders, relative to the sweet-spot), produced 1.4 times more force compared to hitting it in the centre.

Does that mean that hitting cleaner can also have a positive impact on injury prevention/attenuation? Looks to be that way.

Take home lesson:

Provide feedback to yourself based on the feel of the ball leaving the racquet. If you DO hit it crisp, you’ll feel as though the swing was effortless. The same can be done by listening to the sound of the ball and trying to emulate a ‘crisp’ sound; ball after ball.

Some secondary comments on improving your impact point:

1. There are various ways you can give yourself feedback when working on your impact. Telling yourself ‘yes’ or ‘no’ after each contact (whether you thought it was at the right height/distance away from you), the sound the ball makes coming off the strings and the resultant shot etc.
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2. With all 4 factors from above, there’s always variability and no 2 shots will have the exact same impact point. This is fine – aim at getting as close to perfection as you can while knowing that subtle differences exist – the process will allow you to refine your impact quality as you practice more.
3. Skills and technique practice are not the same thing. You can be skillful at hitting the ball into one area of the court, with a variety of techniques (good or bad). A seasoned coach can provide technical feedback to help improve a certain element of your impact point. Technique almost becomes a tool to improve skill.
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4. If you mindfully focus on creating a more repeatable/reliable impact point, you will notice that early on, you may get fatigued. This is normal as a new set of muscles, activation patterns and so on are now being used. Once your practice this more often, it will again become more autonomous and a greater sense of relaxation in the working muscles will manifest itself.
5. Focusing on a repeatable impact point will often improve technique without any technical cues. This is especially true when you combine impact point training with another goal/aim – an example being hitting the ball with depth. The feedback from your shot will allow you to naturally adjust your swing to meet the desired demand. This is a form of constraint-led learning.
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6. Another added benefit when focusing on a solid impact point – you’ll inherently work on other abilities. Your focus to ‘track’ (perceive) the ball sooner will heighten. Your desire to move with intense effort will augment. For coaches, instead of telling players to move more or better, be demanding (and precise) with where you want them to meet the ball.