I’m getting more and more convinced lately that the best players have mastered the skills of “Tennis Responses.” Specifically, having the racquet be in the “Beginning of the Swing Positions,” yet, combined with “Second Law of Tennis,” which is take off to the ball (or away from the ball, in the cases when the ball comes right at a player or when a player backing up to let the ball bounce in front of him). Having this habit or skill taking place as early as possible allows the player to focus on relating to the ball with his movement and timing the contact with the ball depending on its speed and direction, at the same exact time having his own purpose in mind. This, in my opinion, clearly illustrates the fact that tennis, as Hockey or Lacrosse, requires simultanious use of upper body, lower body and mental processing.
Therefore having quick, even instant, and well developed upper body habits becomes something that is totally up to the player and it becomes the point of mastery, wether direction, speed, spin, height and etc. of the oncoming the ball is up to opponent and mostly random. Same with player’s strategic and purposeful responses: they are random and intuitive and the matters of instant processing in a very short period of time. Sure enough there are strategic and tactical patterns and recommendations, but the best players always know how to be unpredictable, don’t they?
I think that “clean” Tennis Responses complement greatly The Three Laws of Tennis. When they are mastered to be used together or at least improved to some degree, the difference in performance increases drastically without any doubt.