Straight and Narrow

Putting concentration to the test again, I worked on solo drills hitting straight forehand and backhand.  The aim is to complete 10 straight volleys, 10 straight drives.  I did the volleys without much trouble and I could repeat the set pretty effortlessly.  The drives gave me nothing but trouble.  I must have spent over an hour before I finally completed 10 uninterrupted straight and narrow drives.  And I did it by ignoring the lengths.  I couldn't get it right when I tried to hit the lengths behind the service box.  I could finish no more than 5 before an error put the ball off the straight course or before the ball fell short of the service box.

What I learn from this is that I can hit the ball straight when I don't try to hit it hard.  If I concentrate on just hitting it straight, I have a much better chance of success.

Another thing I learned is where and when I hit the ball in relations to my shoulder.  I have two types of errors.  One, is when I prepare early but panics and hits it in front of my shoulder or too close to my body.  Those drives end up crossing my body.  The other error is when I prepare too late and I hit the ball after it has passed my shoulder.  In that case, the ball hits the side wall and pops out towards the middle of the court.

The correction in the first case is to hold a bit longer before hitting the ball.  This is also true when the ball comes off the back wall.  I tend to hit it too early before the ball reaches my shoulder because I'm afraid the ball would drop too low and hit the floor. But I learned today that watching the ball closely I realize I can let the ball drop further and I can still hit a straight drive with some height to it by bending my knees lower still.

The correction for the second case is to snap the wrist so the racquet reaches perpendicular to the side wall by impact.  That should keep the ball straight.  I've seen pros hit it that way when the ball has passed them.

Lastly, I practiced successfully scooping the ball from underneath to bring it straight down the side wall after the ball has come off the back.

There are a lot of mechanical skills that better concentration helps to execute.  Straight drives definitely is one of them.  Once I get the hang of straight tight drives, then I will work on the lengths.  Trying to hit lengths right now creates too many errors.