Many recreational players have a hard time getting a rally started and that is
because they do not know how to properly feed the ball. So in today's video I'm
going to show you the right technique on the feed.
First let me show you the most
common mistakes at the recreational level and that is either feeding the
ball with the eastern forehand grip or a semi-western forehand grip. So what
happens when you feed a ball with these grips is that it's usually gonna be too
high. Now the other person has to hit a high ball to get the rally started and
it will usually not work. Or more commonly what happens at the
recreational level is that players will leave the feed too short and now the
other person has to reach and step up to the feed and it's very difficult to get
a rhythm in a rally that way. And some players will feed the ball with a
backhand grip and what happens when you feed with a backhand grip is that the
ball will usually have side spin and now it's gonna be very tricky for the other
person to get the rally started. What you must do is feed with a continental grip.
This is gonna give you the best chance to get a nice flat straight ball with
medium pace that's gonna make it very easy for your partner to get the rally started.
Position yourself in an open stance position when your're feeding. This is
most comfortable way to feed the ball. It's unnecessary to be completely sideways
and now what you're going to do is when you're in an open stance position and
ready to feed do not take a full backswing because when you do that
usually the ball will fly too long. What you're going to do instead is point the
tip of the racket towards the side fence and you're going to lay the ball in
front of strings and simply accelerate the racket across the body and something
very interesting happens when you do that. When the tip of the racket is
pointing towards the side fence and you accelerate across the body the tip of the
racket will point back and your wrist will lag behind the same way it does on
a regular forehand
And this will take place without you being conscious of it. So when the tip of
the racket is pointing here and I accelerate from this position. See the
tip of the racket ends up going back and I'm not even aware that this action is
taking place. Now do not throw the ball too high because then you'll have to
wait for the ball to come down. This is overall gonna make the feed more
difficult. Simply lay the ball in front of your strings. You put your hand
across the body and just let the ball sit there and then feed it. This is the
easiest way to feed the ball. Position your arm across lay the ball up and feed
it to the other side. Now when it comes to your finish I want you to point the
tip of the racket towards the other side and I want you to keep the finish on the
feet relatively short. So it's not gonna be a full finish like you do on a
regular forehand. Simply go from here to here. This is all you need for your feed.
The fascinating thing about the feed is that it's one of those shots that we
don't practice. It's an intuitive shot. We simply pick up the ball and feed it to
the other side and it's logical to think that we should feed the ball in a linear
way in other words going through the ball but what happens in reality if we
do that the ball we have a very difficult time staying inside the
court. It's very easy to spray the ball long if you hit through the ball like
this. See if I go through the ball it ball goes very far and now if I go
across the body with my feed I'll get a lot more control
and I don't even have to exert as much energy. See my body is more comfortable
and I have to reach forward towards the target and high-level players do not
think about this we just simply pick up a ball and we hit across the body intuitively
but you as a recreational player must do this consciously because this is
a slower type of ball you can control the arm action I want you to simply have
the hand go across the body after you meet the ball and the tip of the racket
that should be lined up with your non-dominant shoulder and pointing
straight towards the other side it looks something like this you're gonna go
across the body and then you're gonna stop the racket right here.
If you follow these tips your feed is gonna have a lot more control. Your
partner is gonna shoot you less dirty looks if you send a bad feed their way
and you're gonna have a more enjoyable hitting session.