Modern Tennis Tips by Oscar Wegner
 

I will be posting here some tips about modern tennis, as an alternative to conventional teaching. Please keep your comments civil.

A few tips
 

Look, Don’t Think
Be a natural, a tennis whisperer. Observe.
The human mind needs to be calmed down.
This mind is too fast, thinks too many non-efficient things.
If you operate looking, rather than thinking, you’ll be calmer, more efficient.
Just move your head and your upper body to start in one direction.
The outside foot will slide underneath the body, which now, unbalanced, will move on its own.
There will be no need to push hard.
Then find the ball in your favorite hitting spot, feel it, and finish your stroke all the way.

The Edge
Conventional tennis had been thought to be played with the strings meeting squarely the ball.
Modern tennis power emphasis is led mostly with the racquet’s edge.
Think of it in terms of Martial Arts. The edge of the hand is your powerful weapon, and also your defense.
Today’s high power game is more of deflection than straight power. You want spin on nearly every ball.
Lead with your racquet’s edges, top edge for topspin, bottom edge for slice, and you’ll have more control.

Transference
I have tested, for decades, an interesting experiment that has proven helpful to a lot of players, from amateurs to pros.
Rather than trying to position your body at a certain distance from the ball, track the ball with your playing hand or hands as if you were trying to catch it.
Now comes something that is instinctive, dictated by your intention of driving the hand to your favorite end of the stroke. For example, you track the ball with your hand, you see it right where you want it, with a bit of back and forth hand movement you then accelerate your racquet diagonally, that is, up for topspin and across your body for control. You finish the stroke pointing the butt of the racquet to where you sent the ball.
It is an easy transfer of focus where you transition from catch to hit with no doubts or reservations in the blink of an eye.
You may even have your racquet quite loose.
It may seem too simplistic, too left to chance. But by keeping both hands on the racquet while tracking the ball, your playing hand will determine the timing necessary and the details of your stroke. Just make sure you finish the stroke all the way.
Focusing initially on the hand, rather than on the racquet, can develop several abilities. One is something that you most likely learned at a very young age: the skill to catch a moving object while YOU are on the move as well and then throw it away.
Another resulting advantage is the simplification of the thought process. There is a hand and there is a ball you want to catch. Nothing else matters. I’d like to venture that there is no thought necessary at all. You are free to go about it as you please.
It is nothing complicated, nothing rushed. Your lower body may be in an emergency, running fast. It will tend to look for efficiency to help you execute your primary intention, which is your stroke. Let your body teach you. Feel it and don’t force it in authoritarian ways.
The details on how to maximize your control and power are in other sections of my work.
Give it your best try and let me know the results.

This is SO true. Playing with a quiet mind optimizes performance in any sport.

Cool, I keep saying and others disagree that Tennis is in the brain, we all have the same equipment, the difference is the mind. I do disagree big time with point 2, that's what these guys do teach, but not all shots should be topspin, we need flat shots, slice, sidespin, the whole gallery, but yea cool:)

You use the edge on those shots in point 2 as well, except maybe the flat, lack of spin that is
not too common really with better players.

Biggest part for many who have some info, is to know what to leave out.

Can people please be civilized and can TT not delete these types of threads?
Let the discussion grow, let people debate. The more different types of coaching philosophies we have on here the better, even if you don't agree with anything mentioned. This is getting beyond ridiculous.

Thanks for the tips Wegner.

couldn´t agree more with the points you made

If they leave out flat shots they are not "better players", they may think they are though.

I agree 100%, who are the complainers that keep getting these threads deleted. This is supposed to be a tennis site for tennis discussion, it amazes me that on a tennis site a long time tennis instructor is giving free advise and the threads keep getting nuked.

It makes you wonder if some of the haters are worried that the same instruction that they claim is so wrong could be found to be helpful and ruin their non stop Oscar bashing.

I think most players looking for help take a little something from many different teaching methods, some they will like and some they will think are no good. But it would be nice if we would at least get to make that choice.

And if Oscar is so wrong I do not understand why the same few haters have to jump in and start the trouble. If they know it is wrong just stay out of these threads and stay with what they think is the right way. Isn't that what most normal people would do?

There's no good guy/bad guy here.

Why are these threads being deleted???

There was a good discussion yesterday and now that thread is gone

It is good to hear all approaches.

You must mean flatter trajectory then, because I don't see the big 4 hitting
without spin but on the most rare occasions. Do you?

If you mean trajectory, then using the edge still applies then too.

Thanks for trying to simplify tennis.

Best advice ever, applies to every stroke, even the serve. Truly the foundation for playing well.

Also, thanks for contributing here. You and Daniel from Babolat are standup guys for engaging in the rough and tumble of an internet forum. Hopefully others will remain civil...

These are more or less correct.

Only things to add are that for many beginners, the outside foot does not automatically slide out towards the ball, as the natural tendency is to crossover with the inside foot (in real life, you usually want to turn and step across if something interesting is on one side). So this might have to be encouraged a little by a coach if it does not happen automatically.

For the second point, the terminology "lead" is indeed correct. Perhaps it is simpler to say "keep the face a little closed for top spin, a little open for slice," which is the same as the above. Important thing is that leading with one edge does not mean that contact will necessarily be towards that edge of the strings or the opposite edge, or in the center, but will depend on other things. A steeper lead will favor contact with the lower edge of the strings, a shallower lead more with the center.

Related to that, there is a subtlety that for topspin, the actual contact position is often not closed. The racket face is often vertical at contact. This is seen in Fed and Nadal forehands. It is difficult to see how this can be reconciled with a closed face or leading with the top edge. It seems that there is supination or opening of the arm on the forward swing till impact, followed by pronation during the dwell time and after. Otherwise, it is impossible to reconcile vertical face at impact with supposed closed face or leading with the top edge. I think the vertical to closed transition is what gives the solidity at impact. Instead of the swing path being a single arc over the ball, it is more like an arc coming up from under the ball and then closing over it at the end of the dwell time.

hey mr wegner. great to have a Coach of your credentials here.

First let me say that I think you are a great Coach. you teach modern aspects of the game but still don't make it overally complicated. I think analyzing it too much is not going to help.

but I still do have a a couple of issues with your Videos based my studies of biomechanics literature. note that this is not a criticism as many great coaches Keep it simple and still get the results. cues and reality are not always the same and in Coaching it is not about what the Coach means but what the Student does on court:

1. you don't seem to mention the ground up kinematic chain (sequential acceleration of Body parts from the ground up starting at the legs and ending in the racket. instead you Videos seem to Focus more on the arm and racket.

2. you mention hitting "across". I do of course agree that pros do finish across but isn't that more because the circular centrifugal swing of the racket around the Body and the pronation pull the racket around?

those shots of federer seem to indicate that he does "extend" through a Little and the across happens after the ball has left the strings (which would mean that the across has absolutely Zero effect on the hit ball).

http://s1.directupload.net/file/d/3115/ukj4f4jo_jpg.htm

or am I interpreting this Image wrong? don't get me wrong-I still like the across (or better around! which would be a better term IMO) finish because it allows for a more free acceleration of the rackethead (the modern swing does allow for higher RHS) but I don't see a "to the ball and then across" but instead I see a constant arc around the Body which of course later turns left. or do you see the radius of the arc changing around contact?

3. the slow to contact and then accelerating Thing:

again I understand why you teach that: you want a smooth and gradual acceleration to contact and no "jerking" of the racket. but biomechanically the contact time is so short that the swing is basically over the Moment the ball touches the strings. the ball will leave the racket before the shock waves in the racket reach the Hand. there is a study about the Baseball swing that suggests that theoretically a Player could release the bat before contact and still hit the ball the same distance.

that would mean all acceleration must happen before contact (but you don't want to slow down either so your cue might be a good Thing).

Again I admire your results as a Coach and I'm certainly in no Position to criticise you but I want to understand why you teach some things. are you intentionally keeping stuff simple? of am I missinterpreting your stuff? could you please Elaborate on my 3 Points? It is probably not necessary to know all this and it would sometimes be better to just perform and athletic Task without thinking but I'm a quite analytical guy (sometimes too much:)).

Across, up, and extension happen together as the arc is 3D. You cannot artificially separate them.

yes they can be separated. if your torso is rotating and your arm is acting independently or disengaged from the rotation (arming it etc)then you can go straight through with no across. or if let/make your hand move away at an increasing distance from the side of your body while your torso/shoulders are rotating then you can nullify/short circuit the across.

you can see the pros do the latter a lot. i do this when i want pure top w/ no side action.

that's what I was saying. there is no "across" in a Tennis shot. it is just a natural continuation of the arc around the Body. of course you could actually fight against the arc by extending. and you could also cut the off by actively pulling the arm in (active pull across).

but to me it Looks like neither is Happening- there is just one arc around the Body.