After giving instructions to two men working on my house, I jumped into my car and rushed to the court so that I would have time to practice before my match. When I opened my trunk… no rackets. I rushed back home and back to the court and practiced my serve until my playing partner turned up. Except that he never turned up. I can entertain myself for hours hitting a tennis ball against a wall, weird I know but it comes in handy sometimes.

I’ve discussed the difference between thinking about technique when you hit a shot versus having an image of where you want the ball to go. If you are thinking about technique once a point starts, you’ll never be able to keep up – you have to react, not think. In the book Zen Golf, Robert Parent describes the situation another way. If you’re thinking about technique then you are worried about hitting a good forehand, backhand or whatever. If, instead, you keep the target in mind, landing the ball in a deep corner of the court for instance, then you can swing freely without worry and likely get a better result. Parent puts it very well: “The best target is where we want to send the ball. The best intention is to trust our swing. The best purpose is to enjoy playing the game.”

Our subconscious instructs our body to carry out all those perfect shots we execute on the court. The subconscious works with images not words, especially if those words are, “You idiot, you took your eye off the ball again.” That explains why we mentally rehearse our next shot before each point and also explains why keeping a target in mind is an effective way to execute a shot.

Practice Report: practiced for two hours, hit against the wall for half an hour.
Solutions Analysis: the backswing on all my strokes is a trunk twist – my racket goes back only as far as my trunk will twist. It also helps to step into the ball and hit it well out in front of my body if I want to hit it hard.