Move over Patrick Rafter, Radwanska just may have taken your place as my favorite all time tennis player of all time. Even though she lost in the next round to a determined Li Na, what she did, and how she played, in the Australian Open Quarterfinals against Azarenka was incredible. If you can find the whole match on replay, it’s worth watching!
Here’s just three things I like about Radwanska, and what I think you can learn from her.
1) She never hit the ball any harder that she had to, leading to very few unforced errors.
2) She is always thinking two shots ahead, and her anticipation skills are honed. When asked how she does it, she said that after 20 years on the tennis court, why shouldn’t she know where her opponents next shot would be? Hmm, then shouldn’t all the pros be that way?
3) On a finer point, she lined up on her groundstrokes the same whether she was going down the line or cross-court, thus giving no clue as to where she was going. This keeps her opponents off balance and takes away at least a step.
4) She mixed up her game, using all the shots there are, including the big forehand, touch drop volleys and lob volleys, angles, changes of pace. You name it, it’s in her bag of tricks.
Why can’t we all be like Radwanska? Well, the truth is, I think we can! The key is when she said “….after twenty years on the court you just know.”. Even though most of us can’t spend all our days on tennis courts, we can make the best use of our time, and video is one of those things. By getting a birds-eye view of the action, we can actually incorporate some of that viewpoint into our games, and learn to recognize where those openings are (or aren’t) that we don’t see when our only point of view is from the ground level. I really believe that giving our brains the extra information of a viewpoint that is at a minimum on the top of the fence, is invaluable if you want to be a top player.
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