Take a look at the accompanying diagram. The faded portion of Player A shows a typical racket preparation point for many players (including myself). The racket is brought around and behind by turning the shoulders and waist, and often the playing forearm is turned a little further back as well.
This preparation point works quite well for hitting across court, since we can naturally bring our arm back around by turning the waist and shoulders, moving the bat in a circular motion as shown by the arrow. Provided contact in made in front of the body (which is normal), the racket face will be angled towards the left of Player A.
In order to hit the ball down the line, the player must either
- Bend his wrist so that the bat angle changes, pointing the tip of the racket more towards the right hand side of the player, and perhaps even so much that the handle is actually further forward than the bat face. This increases the chances of missing the ball completely (as explained in Step 3)
- Make contact with the ball at a point more to the side of the player, and not as far forward. This has the effect of contacting the ball when the bat face is naturally pointing down the line, but it can cause problems as well due to the change in timing, and the fact that the ball will often be dipping in that extra bit of travel time, making the contact point lower relative to the net, and reducing the power that the ball can be hit with.
