How You Can Play Tennis Like Venus Williams

Even if you don't watch or play tennis, you know the name Venus Williams. She and her younger sister, Serena, are icons. They are known throughout the sports world. Venus was the first one of the two to break on the scene. Her ground strokes where blistering. Her serve just zoomed pass unsuspecting returners. And to back it all up, she believes that she can win every match that she plays. This was evident in 2005, when she won Wimbledon against all odds.

Believe it or not, you can play the style of tennis that Venus plays in your own matches. Impossible, you say? You may not be over 6 feet tall, have an extremely long arm span, or the worlds fastest serving speed for a woman on record, but there are some very tangible things that you can translate from her game to yours.

Get Ready Early

A big part of power is proper preparation and techinque. If you ever watch Venus play, you'll see that her racquet is in the ready postion before the ball even travels over the net. This allows her time to set up for her shot and determine where she wants to hit it. This is where a great amount of her power comes from. Sure, Venus can muscle the ball, but you conserve energy and increase precision by being prepared to hit shots earlier.

You can do the same thing. Try to determine where the ball is going soon after it leaves your opponent's racquet. Have your racquet back in either the forehand or backhand position and begin to move towards the ball. Once you get this skill down, you'll begin to take time away from your opponent and force them to react to you instead of the other way around.

Stalk the Baseline