Simple Tennis Adjustments That Actually Work at 55+

Comments · 15

• FS

  @fsilber330 · 8 months ago (edited)

  I remained a 2.5 player for 45 years. &nbsp;And now I suffer physical disabilities (loss of half my spinal rotation, loss of half the vision in my left eye). &nbsp;But now I&apos;m finally improving again and playing the best of my life (approaching 3.0). &nbsp;I always thought practicing meant just hitting lots of balls. &nbsp;(And why not? &nbsp;I got better in reading simply by reading a lot. &nbsp;I didn&apos;t force myself to try different, initially uncomfortable ways of reading, with progressions to work on, starting with 1st grader readers again. &nbsp;I merely did a lot of it. &nbsp;Likewise, with writing.)<br><br>But with video, I realized how bad my technique actually was. &nbsp;Then I tried watching a lot of videos to learn the &quot;right technique&quot; -- and that didn&apos;t help much, either. &nbsp;I realized I needed to design my own techniques to accommodate my own unusually poor athletic talent.<br><br>That meant, for example, doing everything possible to reduce the need to predict early the path of the incoming ball (i.e. developing compact strokes that minimize the need for preparation).<br><br>It meant doing everything possible to reduce dependence on good timing (i.e. giving up the glancing blow of topspin for swinging along the path of the incoming ball as Jimmy Connors often did).<br><br>It meant putting lead tape at 3 and 9 o&apos;clock to widen the sweet spot.<br><br>It meant putting even more lead tape on the butt cap for balance, and then reducing the swing weight of my heavy racket by chocking up two inches. &nbsp;The shorter racket made hand/eye coordination easier. &nbsp;The heavy racket lets me use my opponent&apos;s pace with only a minimal swing. &nbsp;Holding the racket only a few inches below the balance point makes it easy to keep the strings facing forward as long as possible (the racket head doesn&apos;t try to swing around prematurely), and lets me move the racket in the last moment to where the ball is -- without the racket head wanting to lag behind and then overshoot.

  4

• PH

  @philg1440 · 8 months ago

  I happened across your Youtube page and I do hope you keep it going. Lots of great information on here for sure. I&apos;m 58 and just getting back into tennis after 15 years of being off the court. The body doesn&apos;t bend like it used to, I&apos;ve slowed down and like most seniors, hurt everywhere before we get on the court. LOL. I look forward to watching more of your episodes as they come out.

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• TH

  @TheCocotennis · 5 months ago

  Great info! Looking forward to checking out Coach Wolff’s resources. Thanks for all you do for us older players, Mike! 😊

• DH

  @Dhdywjdhfjwhwg · 6 months ago

  Really good advises. Thank you so much!!<br>Will share this with my friends.

• JO

  @jorgelarangeira7013 · 6 months ago

  Great advice

• SH

  @shajappu5203 · 4 months ago

  Im 60 serving &nbsp;230km with out any difficulty. &nbsp;Serve and volley is better for 50 years becouse you can defeat the 25 to 30 years in just two or four shots without losing stamina.......

  1

• AB

  @abtns5 · 8 months ago

  A ball machine is ideal but not very accessible. How about hitting against the wall?