Use Your Tennis Stroke to Enhance Your Golf Swing

So you have played tennis for years, but find yourself playing a little more golf than tennis these days because golf agrees with your body more. Or perhaps you just want to try golf because so many other people are playing these days. Whatever your reasons for playing or wanting to play golf are, the good news is that it is probably easier for a good tennis player to become a good golfer than for a good golfer to become a good tennis player. And, you can use your tennis stroke to enhance your golf swing. Having played both games for at least two decades, tennis competitively, I feel qualified to make the comparison between the two.

If you are a fair tennis player who has taken lessons and play somewhat competitively, whether the competition is a 3.0 USTA League, a Community Association League, or professional tennis, there are some basic fundamentals that you have learned on your own or were taught by a professional. In tennis, to hit fundamentally good shots, you must:

1. Choose two targets: where the ball will be when you make contact, and where the ball will go after being struck;

2. Turn your body and racquet away from the target as you prepare to hit the ball;

3. Establish a balanced foundation from which to swing;

4. Coordinate the timing of your body turn toward and through the target with the act of striking the ball;

5. Make contact with the ball in front of your body;

6. Maintain eye contact with the ball until after you have hit it; and

7. Follow through after contact. And you must do all of that within specific spatial and timing parameters. In other words, you have to do things in a particular sequence, in a particular space. For example, you don't want to try to choose a target while swinging (timing parameter), and you don't want the ball too close or too far (spatial parameter) from your body when you swing.

Can you guess what you have to do to make a good golf swing? That's right. In golf, you have to:

1. Choose two targets: where on the ball the club should make contact, and where the ball will go after being struck;

2. Turn your body and club away from the target in preparation for hitting the ball;

3. Establish a balanced foundation from which to swing;

4. Coordinate the timing of your body turn to the target with the act of striking the ball

5. Maintain eye contact with the ball until after you have hit it; and

6. Follow through after contact. And you must do all of that within specific spatial and timing parameters, just as described above. For example, if you look up to see where the ball is going before you have hit it (timing parameter), you are likely to hit a poor shot, and the trajectory upon which you take the club back (spatial parameter) will influence the type of shot you hit as well.

Other commonalities between the golf swing and tennis stroke include modifying your swing to suit the trajectory of the shot you want to hit; changing the position of your body, the racquet or club, and the follow-through to impart different spins. While there are many similarities between the two games, the degree of physical and mental acumen required and the stress imparted significantly differentiate them. Tennis requires a high level of athletic ability to play well, and puts a lot of stress on the body, while one can play golf very well without much athletic ability and it is much less stressful on the body. Golf, on the other hand, requires a very high level of cognitive or mental ability and imparts more mental stress than tennis. Despite these differences, it is the following similarities that can be of use in making the transition from tennis to golf, if the knees and shoulders protest too much on the tennis court.

Choosing Your Targets

As mentioned above, you choose targets in both sports. In tennis, choosing your target takes place on the move, while in golf you are stationary. In tennis you must select a target point where you will intersect the ball, so that you can get there in time to return it across the net, and you have to choose a target to hit the ball to once you reach it. The first target is chosen with barely any thought, and is based upon where you are on the court in relation to where the ball is coming from, its trajectory and how fast its traveling. Good players see the second target in their minds as they are making contact with the ball, without looking at the court. Holding the target image in mind assists the body in guiding the ball to that spot.

In golf, you pick out where you want the ball to go before you begin your swing preparation. Having that target image in mind as you take your swing is instrumental in getting the ball as close as you can to that target. The second target in golf is the spot on the ball that you want your club to strike. On most shots in the fairway, your target is the rear third of the ball, as close to the bottom as you can get. It is a much more difficult to hit that tiny spot on the smaller golf ball than it is to make solid contact with a tennis ball. However, fixing your eyes on that target, while holding the image in mind of where you want the ball to land will surely help your accuracy in golf.

Body Turn & Follow Through

To hit a good forehand or backhand in tennis, you have to turn your body as you take your racquet back, and do so with plenty of time to prepare for making contact with the ball. In today's game, many players only turn the upper body on the forehand side and maintain an open stance (lower body still facing target), but a body turn is still necessary to generate power. However, if you turn more than your body can negotiate comfortably, it will be difficult to maintain a balanced foundation, and I'll bet I don't have to tell you how important balance is in any endeavor, particularly in sports. If you turn so much that you become unbalanced, then your body uses energy to rebalance and get into the proper position; energy that it should be using to generate power.

Turning the body or a portion of the body away from the target coils the body like a spring, storing energy that is released upon the reverse turn back toward and through the target. That "turn for power" is a critical element of the good player's game whether the game is tennis or golf. In tennis the turn helps you generate racquet speed and in golf it helps generate clubhead speed. Greater racquet speed results in more powerful strokes, and more clubhead speed produces longer distances in the fairway...or the rough.

The body turn toward the ball that unleashes the power stored by the turn away from the ball has to be done in concert with the motion of the arms and shoulders that brings the racquet or club to the point of contact with the ball. Failure to coordinate this movement will result in a loss of power and improper racquet or club position when contact is made. Keeping the turn flowing through the contact point, to the target and beyond (the follow-through), while maintaining harmony with the arms and shoulders swinging the racquet or club, is the hallmark of a good stroke in tennis and a good swing in golf. Keeping in mind the body turn required to hit a good shot in tennis will assist you in making a good body turn in golf.

External Eyes on the Ball; Internal Eyes on Target

In both tennis and golf, a common tendency is to try to see where the ball is going before we make contact with the ball. This demonstrates a focus on the outcome of the shot rather than the process of the shot, and often results in miss hits of various kinds. In tennis, focusing on keeping one's eyes on the ball until it makes contact with the racquet helps in two ways.

First, keeping your eyes on the ball helps you remain focused on the process of making a good stroke, rather than on the result of your stroke (whether it goes in or out). This frees your mind from the pressure of the moment, and allows your body to function free of tension. Secondly, keeping your eyes on the ball through contact enhances your chances of making solid contact in the center of the racquet. Where the eyes go, the body follows. If your eyes aren't on the first target (the ball), your body will have a hard time directing the racquet to hit the ball accurately toward the second target (your chosen spot across the net).

While your physical eyes are on the ball, you must also learn to keep your "internal eyes" on the target to which you are directing the ball. This is often referred to as visualization. In tennis, you know where you are on the court and you know where your target is. You don't need to look at the target with your "physical eyes" to direct the ball there. Keep an image of the target in your mind as you strike the ball. This will improve your chances of getting it there compared to hitting the ball without a target in mind, or trying to look at the target as you strike the ball. The same applies to golf. If you take a look at a good golfer's swing, you will notice a focus on the ball that never wavers until the ball is on its way to the selected target. And, if you had an opportunity to ask a good golfer what he/she had in mind as he/she swung, he/she would answer, "my target."

From court to fairway, many of the basics remain the same. If tennis is your game, but you are trying your hand at golf for a change, think about the components of your tennis stroke as you head out to the range and the course. Chances are your golf game will benefit!