Arrow Alignment: Teaching Tennis Aim to Juniors

Most kids don't miss because their swing is ugly. They miss because the racket face is pointed somewhere other than the target at contact. Arrow Alignment is how we handle teaching tennis aim at SRQ Tennis, and it fits in one sentence: face it, then chase it. Set the racket at the target first, adjust your prep to the ball, and drive through the line.

That's it. No ten step swing checklist. No copying a pro off TV. A junior at Potter Park or Pineview can learn it in a single session and start measuring it the same day.

Why aim is a racket face problem, not a swing problem

Pillar 3 of the Six Pillars is Technique Is Geometry. Technique comes down to two things: center contact and a square face. Those are the Two Laws of Ball Striking. Everything else in a stroke exists to make those two happen more often.

Here's what that means for aim. The ball goes where the strings are pointing at the moment of contact. Not where the shoulders are turned. Not where the eyes are looking. Not where the finish ends up. The face decides. A player can have a beautiful backswing and a textbook finish and still spray balls wide, because the face was open by 10 degrees when the strings met the ball.

So when a 10 year old keeps hitting into the net or past the baseline, the question I ask isn't "what's wrong with the swing?" It's "where was the face pointing?" Nine times out of ten, that's the whole answer. We coach the contact, not the choreography.

This is good news for parents. It means aim is fixable without rebuilding the stroke. A junior doesn't need a new forehand. They need a clear picture of where the face is at contact, and a simple routine to set it there before the ball arrives.

Face it, then chase it: the three steps

Arrow Alignment gives the player a fixed order of operations. Same three steps, every ball.

• Step 1: Face it. Before the ball arrives, point the racket face at the target. The strings are the arrow. Wherever the arrow points, that's where the ball is going. Some kids find it easier to think of the face as a flashlight. Aim the beam at the cone.
• Step 2: Chase it. Now adjust your preparation to the incoming ball. Move your feet. Set your height. Take the racket back. The face stays aimed at the target while your body gets into position around it. The target doesn't move, so the arrow doesn't either.
• Step 3: Drive through the line. Swing along the line from the ball to the target. Keep the face square through contact and let the racket travel toward where you want the ball to land.

The order matters. Most juniors do it backwards. They react to the ball first, swing hard, and hope the face lands somewhere useful. Arrow Alignment flips it. Target first. Ball second. Swing last.

Why start with the target? Because it's the only thing on the court that isn't moving. The ball is moving. The player is moving. The target sits there. If the face is set to the one fixed thing, the player has one less variable to solve while the ball is in the air. That's a big deal for an 8 year old who's still learning to read the bounce.

Two coaching cues do most of the work:

• "Show me the arrow." The player freezes just before the swing and shows me the face. If it's pointed at the cone, we go. If it's pointed at the fence, we reset. No lecture. Just look at the strings.
• "Where did the arrow point?" Asked after a miss. Not "what happened?" That question gets a shrug. "Where did the arrow point?" gets an answer, because the player can feel it. Open face, ball sailed long. Closed face, ball hit the net. They diagnose their own miss in three seconds.

How we measure it inside a live rally

A picture in the head is a start. Numbers are what make it stick. That's Pillar 4, Confidence Is Built, Not Given, and it's why every Arrow Alignment session ends with a count.

We set a target zone. For a beginner it's a big box, half the crosscourt court. For a Rally Builder it shrinks to a cone cluster deep in the corner. Then we count. Ten balls. How many landed in the zone? A first session often looks like 4 out of 10. Two weeks later it's 6 out of 10. A month in, 8 out of 10 is realistic for a kid who's practicing the three steps every ball.

That 8 out of 10 number isn't random. It's the 85/100 Rule, Pillar 1, Accuracy Inside Representative Conditions. The standard is 85 percent shot quality at 100 percent commitment. Eight of ten to a target, with a full swing, not a poke.

The key phrase is inside representative conditions. We don't run Arrow Alignment off a basket feed for long. A few balls to find the picture, then straight into live ball. A partner across the net, a real bounce, a real decision. Pillar 2, Live Ball Is the Method. Aim built against a perfectly fed ball doesn't transfer to a match. Aim built inside a rally does.

So the progression at SRQ Tennis looks like this:

• Coach feeds 5 balls. Player shows the arrow before each one. We're only checking the face.
• Cooperative crosscourt rally, 10 balls. Player calls "arrow" out loud before contact. Count how many land in the zone.
• Same rally, but now the player changes direction on a cue. The arrow has to move to a new target mid rally. Count again.
• Point play to 7. Same target zones, now with a score attached. Count again.

Each stage adds pressure without changing the instruction. Face it, chase it, drive through the line. The number from stage one and the number from stage four tell us whether the skill is real or whether it only works when nothing is at stake.

What this means for your kid

If your junior is missing a lot, the first thing to check isn't the grip or the follow through. Ask them where the strings were pointing at contact. If they can't tell you, that's the gap. Aim isn't a talent. It's a picture plus a routine, and both can be taught.

You can help at home without a court. Have them hold the racket, pick a target across the room, and set the face to it. Then have them close their eyes and feel the angle. Then open them and check. That's Step 1. Thirty seconds a day builds the picture faster than an hour of hitting without it.

And ask for the number. Not "how was practice?" Ask "how many out of ten?" A kid who knows they went from 5 to 7 has something real to stand on. A kid who was told "great job" has nothing to check.

In our group programs the max is 6 players per court, so every player gets checked on every ball. In private lessons Arrow Alignment is usually the first thing we install with a new junior, because everything else gets easier once the face is honest.

Wrap up

Aim is geometry. The ball goes where the face points. Arrow Alignment gives a junior a fixed order, target first, then ball, then swing, and a number at the end of every session that shows whether it's working. That's teaching tennis aim the SRQ Tennis way. If you want to see it on court, take a look at our fall 2026 programs or send me a text.

See you on the court.

Coach Michael

Coach Michael Boothman is a USPTA Elite Professional and the founder of SRQ Tennis in Sarasota, Florida. He coaches juniors and adults at Potter Park and Pineview. Text 941-840-2571 or email [email protected] to talk about your player.