Many members will be familiar with Windmill Hill, the excellent tennis and golf academy in East Sussex.

For those who have not had the pleasure, Windmill Hill offers excellent tennis coaching packages for all ages and abilities. These include: half and full day coaching sessions, residential weekend breaks, four night midweek holidays or bank holiday getaways.

Windmill Hill has 18 courts offering some of the best tennis facilities in the UK.  From £395 per person full board, for 5 days including 14 hours group coaching and video analysis.  Junior summer camps start at £550 per week. 

More info at: www.windmillhill.co.uk.

John Mills, Director of  Tennis at the Academy offers this useful advice:

“Most players are familiar with the standard tennis tips such as move your feet, watch the ball and bring the racquet back early, but here are two less obvious pointers which, if practised, will greatly improve your game.”

 Balance

The importance of the top six inches "for balance".

The head should be balanced on point of contact. If the head is unstable or unbalanced it causes a chain reaction of excess movement which often causes miss hits or shanks.

Remember to move to the ball, balance, make contact with the ball and move again.

Remember:  Move - balance - hit - move again.

 Grip 

A common mistake for many club players is to grip the racquet too tightly. If you make contact with the ball in front of the body you need only squeeze (not strangle) the grip on point of contact. Because of course you must control the racquet head on point of contact but not impede racquet head speed.

Remember:  Hold the racquet relaxed, squeeze on point of contact then release.