Tennis Equipment Online: Raise The Level Of Your Game

Tennis, a sport that requires much skill and athleticism, features pulse-pounding action from start to finish. For a player to do that, he or she should use great tennis equipment. These items are made by world-renowned manufacturers, many of which used by the best tennis players in the world. You can raise the level of your game in using such equipment.

The Tennis Racquet

An athlete plays the game of tennis often using a light, graphite-based racquet, which influences your swing and the manner you hit the ball. Ideally, a racquet shouldn't be too heavy, so you won't have trouble swinging it. This goes well for returning lightning fast serves and strokes.

Durability is a big thing when purchasing a racquet. The ones used by top athletes have sturdy strings, which don't break even if used successively to return powerful strokes. As for the frames, durable construction is a must, since a bent racquet won't be able to return strokes the right way.

Racquets come in different sizes. There are tennis equipment made for kids, teens and professionals. Weight is a factor. The lightest racquets are made for beginners and youngsters, while the heaviest ones are reserved for pros. A heavy racquet, after all, influences the power of a stroke.

Tennis racquets are made by a lot of manufacturers, some of them well-respected by players. These brands make the best racquets, sporting durability and quality. These items are sold all over the Internet by distributors. Some sites offer them at discounted rates, so you can find cost efficient if you do a little sleuthing online.

Tennis Wear

The tennis racquet isn't the only item that can influence your game; you have to wear the right tennis clothing, so you can move freely on the court. If you visit the websites of online sellers, you will notice that many of the garbs sold are form-fitting. Wearing them won't restrict your movements, so doing a variety of strokes won't be a problem.

The clothing for women comes as either a one-piece tennis dress or a two-piece garb, composed of a form-fitting top and a small skirt. Men's clothes, on the other hand, are the basic shirt and shorts, usually. Aside from aerodynamics, the clothes worn by tennis players are quite stylish. You can wear them as casual clothing, if you're not playing.

Tennis clothing also comes with a collection of accessories, namely caps, wristbands, sweatbands and sunglasses. Not only do these items appear fashionable, they are useful on court. Some of them affect your stroke in a positive manner, while others block the view of the sun as you play.

Buying Tennis Gear Online

Lots of sellers and distributors of tennis gear are found on the Internet. Many of them sell big-named brands for racquets, clothing and other equipment. From time to time, these sellers slash the prices off their goods, to entice more buyers. You can take advantage of such deals by visiting these websites occasionally. Who knows, you find might all the tennis equipment that you need, the next time you go online.

Thetennisshop.com.au is the ideal destination online for Tennis equipment and tennis clothing. Sold on this site are products made by topnotch brands, including Wilson, Prince and Head. Make the site your first choice for all your tennis needs.

Taking movement to the next level

I would like to address a question I was asked in reference to my last blog, “Movement is easy to understand, but tough to do right. It’s one thing to see it and know when each step type should be used, another to be able to feel it on court, and yet another to do it instinctively.

Any suggestions for going from one level of knowledge to the next?”

It’s correct to say that movement is easy to understand and tough to do right. This is in part because there are numerous steps to learn, correct patterns of movement, and more importantly, breaking through some of the counter-intuitive principles of associated moving correctly.

For instance, people understand that it’s faster to take large steps to the ball, but fail to realize that it’s not economical to take one last large step and effectively lunge to a ball. They don’t make the connection of the wasted energy and time it takes to do a lunge than take the extra 2-5 small steps to be on balance when they hit. I’ll often tell clients that if they feel like they can get to shot in 5 steps, to try to take 10. In essence, it forces them to break through their own psychological barrier.

Psychological barrier aside, people don’t understand how important maximizing time is while hitting. Many people from about a 3.0 level and up can hit decently when a ball is fed directly to them, but as soon as they are forced to move, their strokes diminish quickly. This is in large part due to people trying to time their movement to meet with the ball instead of getting there quickly and giving you the time to hit. If you’re timing is off by even the slightest margin, you’re going to be out of position for the rest of the point.

One of my old coaches used to tell me to just sprint to the area where the ball is going – I didn’t need to be exact, but to get to the area as fast as possible to set up for the shot. Since my game was and is based on foot speed, it instinctively made sense to me. Now as a coach, I try to teach the benefits of this mentality.

In terms of learning, it’s important to understand the movement, the patterns, the correct steps etc… but also the causation – what causes you to get out of position during a point.  Once you have a firm grasp on those aspects, just going out and doing it will really help you get a feel for what is correct and moving you from one level to the next. I remember when I first hit with Ian, Jason and the other guys on the team at Ferris – I had the strokes to hit with them, but I was nowhere close to being in the correct position to play points with them. I ended up feeling like a rag doll. After about a week or so of struggling to maintain my competitiveness, I started to be as aggressive as I could be with my feet. The subtly of being a passive observer to a conscious decision to be aggressive allowed me to play my game with them.

Am I advocating playing with better players? To an extent yes – they have a better grasp of the importance of time and from a movement perspective, it might mean taking a beating or two before you start to understand the subtleties as well.

View the original article here