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The Drive - The Strikes and Their Uses Navigation   Browse Other Pages Homepage A Viewpoint on the Game How It Began A Viewpoint on the Game 2 A Viewpoint on the Game 3 Concentration; Practice Condition, Physical and Mental Keep Your Eye on the Ball Footwork and Weight Control Women's Tennis The Grips The Service The Drive The Chop and the Slice The Volley The Subtle Shots Courage Your Opponent's Weaknesses General Tactics Outside Conditions Pressure on Your Opponent Doubles and Mixed Doubles The Coaching Job Legendary Tennis Players Olympic Tennis Does Youth Rule Tennis Hall of Fame Amateurism to Open Tennis Some Defects in Tennis Doping Olympic Review Technology and Sport The Slice Service Flat Serve The American Twist The Drive The Backhand Drive Drive - The Main Uses The Volley Net Position The Volley Position The Overhead Smash The Half-Volley The Drop Shot The Mechanics of the Slice The Main Uses of a Slice The Grips Doubles and Mixed Doubles To Open the Court Doubles In Europe and US Legendary Tennis Players (1940's) Questions in Australian Tennis History of Australian Tennis History of Australian Tennis 2 History of Australian Tennis Players Women's Tennis in Australia Australian Tennis: Nature Ages of Tennis Players The Careers of Women Players The main uses of the drive are: 1. To return service (both attack and defence). 2. To make passing shots against the net player (attack). 3. To advance to the net behind a forcing shot (attack). 4. To hit clean winners (attack). 5. To open your opponent's court and manoeuvre him out of position (subtle attack). 6. To get yourself out of trouble when you are forced into bad position (defence). From these six uses you can see that the drive is primarily an attacking shot but not necessarily so and, if used as an attack, is very often not an outright winner but is used to build up the point for a winner-often from the net. Therefore, it should carry a fairly high average pace but only at times should it be slugged with full power. Too many modern players have only one drive, and that is at the top of their power. The sound average-pace drive, and the slow drive with its insidious weapon of variation, are the greatest losses of tennis today, and they must be regained. The Mechanics of the Forehand Drive The Backhand Drive  Next Page:  The Chop and the Slice