 Hey guys, so in this video I'm going to go through three ways that you can instantly improve your tennis. Now tennis is a very complex sport, so please bear in mind that these three fixes aren't going to sort out any technical issues and any long-term things that you need to improve on, but actually they're going to be short-term fixes. So if you're playing in a tennis match or having a bad day on the tennis court, these three ideas will definitely help you to play better. Also, if you're a parent of a junior tennis player and you want to take them out to the tennis courts, you don't want to get too technical, so these three ideas will actually give you some simple things to work on that will help to improve their tennis without contradicting with anything that they've been working on with their coach. So the first way to improve your tennis, in my opinion, is the most important, but with that said it's actually the toughest to improve. So there are a couple of very quick fixes that you can think about, but actually it's a longer-term project for you and it's your footwork. Now there's no point in having perfect technique on your forehands and backhands if you don't get yourself into the right position to hit that ball. Now any time you're on the tennis court, whether you're training or playing in matches, your number one priority with your positioning is to make sure that your contact point is comfortable. Now any time that you're stretching for a shot, whether it be stretching down low, stretching out wide or even too tucked in, it can upset your technique. So like I said, if you've got perfect technique and you're in the wrong position, there's actually no point. So footwork is the number one way to improve your tennis. Now you can simply improve your footwork by thinking about it, so put it in your mind as your number one priority when you're playing. I tend to focus on getting a good recovery after every single shot and with that in mind I think about a split step as well. So when you're playing in a match, when you're playing in your training, make sure you're thinking about getting back into a good position as quickly as you possibly can to give yourself time on the next ball to make that contact point as comfortable as possible. With the kids, we tend to say happy feet, so rather than hitting and watching, we want them to hit, move and be on their toes with their happy feet here. Most of the time when you're having a bad day on the tennis court, it actually comes down to poor positioning and poor footwork. And what tends to happen is when we start playing badly, it gets into our head and as soon as our brain starts thinking negative thoughts, it slows our footwork down. So if you are starting to feel those negative thoughts and sometimes it's difficult not to in a match, make sure you translate that into fast footwork. So negative energy, try to translate it into speedy feet. That way you'll soon turn that downward spiral around and start playing a lot better. So although there are a couple of quick fixes for your footwork, please realise that footwork is a long-term thing that you need to be working on. So focus and prioritise some of your time in improving your footwork, improving your recovery speed, improving your speed to the ball and just understanding where you need to be recovering to. Like I said in the previous video, I've actually made a video on your positioning and how you can improve it and I'll link that up at the top and I'll also put it down in the comments below. So the second thing that you can improve is really useful if you're struggling with your consistency on the tennis court. So like I said before, whether it be in training or in match play, if you're struggling to be consistent and you're randomly missing shots or you're struggling with your opponent's speed, then this second way of improving your tennis will really help and it's shortening your take back. Now obviously with shortening your take back, it does come with some negatives. The main one being you can lose power, but the positives definitely outweigh that if you're being inconsistent. So shortening your take back gives you two really important things that can help you. Number one is it gives you more time on the ball. A shorter take back takes less time than a long take back, giving you more time to actually execute the shot. Sometimes if your opponent's hitting the ball slightly faster than you're used to, if you have your normal size swing by the time you meet the ball, the ball is already behind you. So by shortening your take back, your racket face is much closer to your contact point, giving you more time on the ball. The other thing is with it being closer to your contact point, there's less that can go wrong. So if you imagine my take back point being A and my contact point being B, to get from A to B with a big swing, there's a lot more that can go wrong between here and here. My strings could change direction. I could meet the ball late. The ball could move into a different position. If I have a shorter take back, A and contact B here, you can see that there's a lot less that can go wrong between the two. So with a short take back, I'm able to time the ball a lot better. I'm able to hit the middle of the strings more often, and therefore I'm able to be more consistent. Now I tend to use this technique quite a lot. When I go into tennis matches, because I don't play as often as I used to, my timing isn't as good. So my first few games when I play a tennis match and during the warm-up as well, I tend to have a much shorter take back to get my timing. Once I feel fully confident in my timing and my consistency, that's when I start to increase the size of my swing so that I can get a little bit more power and a little bit more depth onto my shots. But most of the time, to start off within a match, I want to be super consistent so I have a very short take back. Now, this is something that's really useful in return of serve as well. But in general, try to start off with a slightly shorter take back. If you feel like your opponent is damaging you with their weapons and hitting the ball a lot harder than you, and you need to put a bit more pace on the ball, then you may need to start to increase the size of that take back. But if consistency is the main problem, then shortening the swing will definitely work. So the third and final way to improve your tennis quickly. It may sound obvious, but it's avoid making the same mistake twice. Now, so often I see players when they're playing tennis matches hit a shot in the net. Two points later they hit another shot in the net, and again and again and again. And after four or five attempts, they realize what they've done and they start to hit the ball higher over the net. Now, if you can be hyper aware of where your mistakes are being made and instantly correct them, you're going to make far less mistakes. So an example of this when you're training, if you're doing a consistency drill and you're trying to keep the ball in play, if you make one mistake in the net, make sure that your next mistake is not in the net. If your next mistake is long, that's fine. If you hit one long, the next mistake isn't allowed to be long, so you're trying to decrease the length of your shot or hit your shot slightly lower over the net. If your next mistake is wide to the left, then make sure that your following mistake isn't. And if you constantly make those quick corrections, you may find that at the start, you'll hit one in the net, you'll hit one miles long, you'll hit one in the net, you'll hit one long, but eventually the range between your two mistakes, your low ones and your high ones, will become a lot smaller. And eventually you'll see your consistently improve massively. So this is something not just to bear in mind in training, but actually when you're on the match court, if you have received the short ball and you've hit that ball long, next time you receive a short ball, picture the shot that you hit long and make sure that you hit with a little bit more topspin next time. And just by making those small tweaks on those mistakes will limit the amount of mistakes you make. Give those a go. So to recap on the three ways to improve your tennis quickly, number one is to focus on your footwork. Make sure that when you're playing, you really focus on that. Explosive first step to the ball, moving quickly back towards the middle, getting a split step in at the right time. The second way to improve your tennis is making sure that you're having shorter swings. This is quite a specific way and make sure that you're doing this if you're lacking in consistency. If it's power that's your issue, if you're not hitting the ball hard enough, then it's not the right thing for you to focus on. But most of the time, if it's consistency then having a shorter take back can definitely help you. And the third and final way is making sure that you're not making the same mistake twice in a row. And again, this can be practiced in training and in match play. If you're a parent, number one and number three are probably the best things to work on when you go out into the tennis court simply because they're pretty easy to work on. Improving footwork and making sure you're not making the same mistake twice in a row. The second way of improving, so shortening the take back, does become a little bit more technical. So probably best to leave that one out and focus on the number one and number three initially. Unless number two is something that your coach is working on with your child. So get out there on the tennis courts, give those three ways a go, and let me know how you get on. If you've got any questions, as always, pop them down in the comments below. And if you like this video, hit subscribe and look out for future videos. See you soon.