One needs to train everything that will actually happen in a match.

The purpose of my video above is to push a typical recreational tennis player at least a little bit into hitting slow as many elements of the stroke and timing correct themselves gradually.

A typical recreational tennis player NEVER plays tennis slow. ;( They do not understand the importance of it, they don’t have enough tennis knowledge. They are also driven so strongly by ego which keeps pushing them to hit harder and harder…

In the video above you can see that I play around 10 minutes slow at the beginning and 5 minutes at the end. The rest of the session is done at a good tempo that challenges both me and my partner.

So for you to get better dealing with fast balls you need to be constantly challenged to play at your level and then slightly above.

You will obviously have problems if you keep receiving slow balls for many sessions and then suddenly play a fast hitter.

So again, all situations in tennis need to be practiced. The improvement happens only when the brain and body are challenged to the limit as only then they start adapting to the new challenges.

I’m also still working intensively on my own technique and work a lot with my ball machine and video analysis. I can confirm all of your statements here and I think it is extremely important to first identify and work on technical deficits with slow balls.

However, I have found that I get huge problems if, for example, after training with slow balls, I play against a player who plays a lot of topspin and fast balls shortly afterwards. I usually play much worse than if I hadn’t worked on my technique at all. Is there a risk that I might play worse permanently if I practice a lot with slow balls? How important do you think it is to practice fast balls intensively?

I plan to publish quite a few video articles on the topic of timing and also ball control in the future. For now, try ideas in this article: https://www.feeltennis.net/how-to-deal-with-fast-balls/

The only time that’s not the case is when you rally with a highly skilled tennis player or a tennis pro who has mastered the ability to slow down and control any type of ball that they receive.

Beginners and intermediate tennis players lack this skill (it’s a difficult one!), and they tend to hit the ball fast if they receive a fast ball.
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This could be an interesting topic for a future video:
How To Slow Down A Fast Incoming Rally Ball.

Or even a moderately fast incoming ball that you want to send back slowly during a cooperative forehand rally. I am guessing that you still want to take your normal takeback (no blocking) and try to apply topspin to reduce the outgoing pace.

Hi Zach,

Yes, playing with new balls is not easy. They are very bouncy and fly fast through the air.

Step further back and play slow. 🙂

So sure, used balls are better to control as they are softer and slower.

How often to change is hard to say, I use Dunlop Fort balls for my basket and they can last 2 or even 3 months just fine. That means they retain some fuzz and are still relatively hard.

So those are your conditions for keeping the same ball. Obviously the harder you hit them and the more you spin the more they wear off. I would say maybe 10 – 15 hours of play for one can…

It is counterintuitive that’s why it’s important to share the message of encouraging slow hitting so that players who really listen and commit to some period of slow hitting finally discover the secret to effortless tennis.