Recording yourself to improve your tennis

Written by: Jonas Eriksson | November 8, 2017

One of the best tips I have for any level of tennis player is to record yourself while playing and analyze your technique and your movement afterwards. You’re bound to find out some interesting things!

Since I started recording some of my own tennis sessions (more reviews to come, I promise), I’ve released and aimed to correct a lot of things in my own game and although it takes a while to do so, there is no better coach than you realising what you need to improve to become a better tennis player.

One important thing here is not to be too hard on yourself as a recreational player. Focus on one thing to improve at time and don’t compare yourself to Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal. It’s better to work on the technique you have than to try to imitate a professional player’s strokes. Unless you’ve been playing tenns since you were a toddler and hit ten million tennis balls, you’re not supposed to have professional level shots. Tennis is too difficult for that.

What do you need to record your own tennis sessions? Well, a decent smart phone and a cheap tripod is actually all you need. You can edit your videos on the phone or on your computer and the software is so easy to use these days that pretty much anyone can do it. And if you don’t know what to look for in your own games, ask a coach or why not send them to me and I’ll try to help out with what I can.

Usually you will notice things you do that you had no idea about. There are so many technical moments in a tennis swing that you can break it down into parts and work on one small tweak at a time. Just take the tennis serve where there are so many things that can go wrong, but that can also be improved. Since I started watching my own serve on video, I’ve realized that there are so many things that I can improve. It doesn’t matter that I’m relatively consistent with it, I instantly see ways to achieve a more relaxed swing and achieve easier power. The trick is now for me to work on them without confusing my whole game and that is not always easy. I need to isolate one motion at a time and work on that.

Recording myself have definitely given me a better hang on my weaknesses and strengths and will surely make me a better and more well-informed tennis player.

Are you video-taping your tennis sessions and if so, what areas of your game do you need to work on? Please comment below.

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2 comments

  1. Recording does work great, speciali in a ecoing indoor tennis court so u can hear when u hit a clean in the midel of the racet shot.
    But it always looks like your movment is slower than you think it is. Im a fast mover on the court but it always looks slow in video. (Maby bec im comparing my movement whit lets say monfils on tv.
    Not a fare or realistic comparison. :(

Jonas Eriksson

Jonas has been known as "tennis nerd" mainly for his obsessing about racquets and gear. Plays this beautiful sport almost every day.