The moment of contact on the average tennis ground stroke is a mere .04 seconds — that's four-hundredths of a second.

Not a very long time to get your message to the ball.

Message? What message?

Well, let's see: direction, depth, speed, spin, height — wow! That's a lot to communicate in that .04 seconds.

As short a time as that may be, many players fail to continue the racket on the intended path long enough to get the shot they are visualizing to be produced by the swing.

The grip is OK, the backswing is plenty early, your feet are set and you still miss! Why?

Think of your racket as a communication device to a tennis ball — a telephone, if you will.

The moment of contact is just the word hello — no more.

Anything you need to tell the ball after that is delivered in the follow-through. If you are hitting a forehand or a two-handed backhand ground stroke, keep the racket on the ball as long as possible by accelerating through the shot until the racket has no farther to go. Then let it relax up and over your opposite shoulder momentarily as you recover to your ready position for the next shot.

If your swing stops or even begins to decelerate, the ball no longer gets the information it needs and behaves badly. Basically you've hung up after saying hello and left the ball scratching its head wondering what you wanted.

Finish the conversation! Your follow-through, if well executed, keeps the image of the shot you visualized flowing to the ball as it leaves the racket face.

Watch the top players finish their strokes. There's no jabbing and poking going on.

Their strokes are always flowing with a dramatic finish.

They don't hang up after hello.

Howie Burnett is a member of the United States Professional Tennis Association and tennis director at the Island Country Club on Marco Island.

Burnett welcomes questions on strokes, tactics or etiquette. To reach him, call the tennis shop at 394-4464 or e-mail him at islandclubtennis@hotmail.com.