M
MixalyJR
Guest
Ok, i play in a little bush league of like 6 7 of my friends and we started playing tennis about 2 years ago (6 months a year cuz of winter). The tennis season for us has just begun. We all decided 2 years ago that none of us would take lessons just to make sure that the playing field is even and plus some of us arent as financially secure. I am 5'10 170 pounds. Im extremely fast and natrually athletic and after 2 years of self teaching myself (and watching federer's and the rest of the men on the ATP ) i would say im a good 2.5 player. My best shot is my 2h backhand topspin it has depth and power (enough power so they have troubles returning it). I can put some direction on it but its pretty much left side of court or right side of court. i also have a developing forehand but it is much weaker than my backhand. It often goes long. I am very Fast and i often take action to the net even when i dont have a good approach (stupidity 
). I find that at our level a good aproach is not needed because a passing shot is rare. Only thing that gets me is the lobs. I base my game around the net. My serve is pretty brutal. I hit about 5-10 serves a 3set match with actual pace. They are flat and thats hard at 5'10 im guessing. I really need to learn how to get topspin on my serve so i can take away height disadvantages. my 2nd serves are pretty much flatshots that die in the service box. I would say i have 10 double faults a match. My biggest weakness is by far the unforced errors. EVERYTIME i walk into a match i keep saying tomyself less unforced errors and i will win. i try to take some pace of the ball but i usually forget as the match goes on and it goes well out or hits the bottom of the net.
As for my main rival. If i beat him i will be the undisputed best of the group of my friends. (we are extremely competitive and we dont mind bad mouthing eachother which is all in good fun tho) he is 5'10 aswell and he is 225 pounds
its mostly muscule but hes got a little bit of fat on him too. I would say he is a stronger 2.5 maybe leaning toward 3.0 maybe not. He does not have a topspin whatsoever. He cannot hit a forehand if his life depended on it. (ive tried to take advantage of this but i can only direct ballsto a certain vacinity of the court not exactly to his fh). He cannot to topspin backhand either. His whole game and i mean WHOLE game is a combination of flat 1h bh shots and mostly 1h bh slices. I often find myself out of position to hit slice as they die as soon as they hit the ground. Because we play so much he is used to me rushing the net and has developed quite a nice and accurate lob. His serve is much more consistent than mine but i would say that mine is faster. he rarely double faults. and makes quite a few unforced errors but i still think i make a few more. He is not the fastest guy and i hit more winners than he does because of this. His endurance is also no where near mine. His technique looks NOTHING like the pros and he has a very akward positioning so im pretty sure that his skill level must plateau because hes basically taking a wrong approach. As opposed to me i try to immitate the way the pros swing, the way they move, the way they serve, everything!
Last year he pretty much walloped me! something like 10 matches-2matches. It seems that i need to be so concentrated just to win the match. I think my main problem is definitly overthinking! This year began and we had an exhibition just to get warmed up and he won 6-3 4-6 6-2.
So now for a few questions:
If you have some sort of gameplan where i take down 1dimensional player like this that would be great. (even if u have a some sort of play like for example what i like to do is TRY to hit to the left side of the court with my bread and butter shot which is my 2h topspin backhand as i rush the net. he either returns with his fh or mostlikely runs around the ball and slices it with his bh if its was not that good of a return. Then i try to get the easy volley for the point.)
How to hit a better fh. i would like to add this shot to my arsenal. WHat kind of grip do u recommend for beginner level. My forhand usually either hits the net or goes like 3 4 feet long and its frustrating with this inconsistancy.
How to get topspin on my serve. that would help get probably double my first serve % so i can rush the net more effectively.
If you have any other ideas in what im doing wrong and how i can stop this 225 pound beast.
Any tips on how to stay concentrated I often win the first set lose the next 2. or he wins first set and i win 2nd then i lose the breaker.
if u dont understand something please post and i will try to clear it up. I know this is an akward tennis situation, but hey its different from the usual tennis post!
(BTW i am 17 he is 22. Last year i was 16 he was 21. IS IT possible that i was just out manned cuz of the physical size difference or what?)
). I find that at our level a good aproach is not needed because a passing shot is rare. Only thing that gets me is the lobs. I base my game around the net. My serve is pretty brutal. I hit about 5-10 serves a 3set match with actual pace. They are flat and thats hard at 5'10 im guessing. I really need to learn how to get topspin on my serve so i can take away height disadvantages. my 2nd serves are pretty much flatshots that die in the service box. I would say i have 10 double faults a match. My biggest weakness is by far the unforced errors. EVERYTIME i walk into a match i keep saying tomyself less unforced errors and i will win. i try to take some pace of the ball but i usually forget as the match goes on and it goes well out or hits the bottom of the net.As for my main rival. If i beat him i will be the undisputed best of the group of my friends. (we are extremely competitive and we dont mind bad mouthing eachother which is all in good fun tho) he is 5'10 aswell and he is 225 pounds
its mostly muscule but hes got a little bit of fat on him too. I would say he is a stronger 2.5 maybe leaning toward 3.0 maybe not. He does not have a topspin whatsoever. He cannot hit a forehand if his life depended on it. (ive tried to take advantage of this but i can only direct ballsto a certain vacinity of the court not exactly to his fh). He cannot to topspin backhand either. His whole game and i mean WHOLE game is a combination of flat 1h bh shots and mostly 1h bh slices. I often find myself out of position to hit slice as they die as soon as they hit the ground. Because we play so much he is used to me rushing the net and has developed quite a nice and accurate lob. His serve is much more consistent than mine but i would say that mine is faster. he rarely double faults. and makes quite a few unforced errors but i still think i make a few more. He is not the fastest guy and i hit more winners than he does because of this. His endurance is also no where near mine. His technique looks NOTHING like the pros and he has a very akward positioning so im pretty sure that his skill level must plateau because hes basically taking a wrong approach. As opposed to me i try to immitate the way the pros swing, the way they move, the way they serve, everything!
Last year he pretty much walloped me! something like 10 matches-2matches. It seems that i need to be so concentrated just to win the match. I think my main problem is definitly overthinking! This year began and we had an exhibition just to get warmed up and he won 6-3 4-6 6-2.
So now for a few questions:
If you have some sort of gameplan where i take down 1dimensional player like this that would be great. (even if u have a some sort of play like for example what i like to do is TRY to hit to the left side of the court with my bread and butter shot which is my 2h topspin backhand as i rush the net. he either returns with his fh or mostlikely runs around the ball and slices it with his bh if its was not that good of a return. Then i try to get the easy volley for the point.)
How to hit a better fh. i would like to add this shot to my arsenal. WHat kind of grip do u recommend for beginner level. My forhand usually either hits the net or goes like 3 4 feet long and its frustrating with this inconsistancy.
How to get topspin on my serve. that would help get probably double my first serve % so i can rush the net more effectively.
If you have any other ideas in what im doing wrong and how i can stop this 225 pound beast.
Any tips on how to stay concentrated I often win the first set lose the next 2. or he wins first set and i win 2nd then i lose the breaker.
if u dont understand something please post and i will try to clear it up. I know this is an akward tennis situation, but hey its different from the usual tennis post!
(BTW i am 17 he is 22. Last year i was 16 he was 21. IS IT possible that i was just out manned cuz of the physical size difference or what?)
