Tennis with YonexPureStorm

[MarinaHighTennis]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FFgWwCzUeQk
no edit: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eosD3tgko5M
We played best out of 3 with a 3rd set 10 pt. tiebreak
7-5 2-6 10-7, If we played a 3rd set he would have won.

btw what should have been a recording of a full match ended up wasted bc of camera problems and the camera tilt in the 2nd set forward

Whats going on:
(me): Forehand down the line was good, backhand was solid, serve bad at first then warmed up to normal, approach shots good, backhand sliced failed me today (everytime he served to my backhand and I sliced it, I lost)
(him): Forehand good, backhand led to many short balls in which I attacked, serve bad at first then became normal, the forehand kept me in check.

The bad thing especially for both of us was the numerous double faults, we both got an ace but the double faults messed us up.

@yonex: do something similar to what I did (what you thought was good and bad from both of us)
@everyone: tips appreciated RATE, COMMENT, SUBSCRIBE

Nice hitting with yonex. Next week more

HAPPY NEW YEAR!

[westcoast777]

Good hitting - more knee bend required, though.

[MarinaHighTennis]

Thanks heres the no edit: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eosD3tgko5M

[Xizel]

First point seems like dude's not even moving

[TonLars]

Nice hitting guys, also nice camera view, and weather!

[MarinaHighTennis]

Originally Posted by TonLars

Nice hitting guys, also nice camera view, and weather!

Thanks its means a lot when you say it
the weather was nice but the court on the far side was full of puddles and slippery. Whoever went on that side had a harder time. Its like playing on clay

BTW any tips? We both got tourneys coming soon in a week or two

[willroc7]

Yonex,

I assume you start in the near court. You have a nice serve and good strokes. The good news is the technical aspects of your swings look pretty good to me. However, here are some things you can work on to improve.

Work on getting fully prepared to hit your groundstrokes. This includes court positioning, footwork, and body position when you are about to begin your swing. Keep your feet happy and make as many adjustment steps as possible to put yourself in the most ideal position possible to execute your best shot (forehand). While moving to the ball you also want to be setting up your body to unload the kinetic chain. Work on getting your hips and shoulders turned every time, and BEND THOSE KNEES, backhand and forehand. The swing starts with the legs. You get nice leg drive on your serves, bring that into the rest of your game. As a result of your positioning, you are often reaching for and/or arming the ball. See 0:05, 0:15, and 0:25. Maybe you are just warming up here but you also need to warm up your footwork and preparation. At 0:38 you hit a nice forehand but you are still so vertical when you hit it. Since you are mostly arming it, your opponent has the time to recover all the way from the doubles alley on the other side to retrieve it. You should also be moving in here when you see your opponent on the run go to the forehand chip shot, but that's a whole different can of worms. When you load up your legs and shoulders, you hit a good ball (0:55). Focus on doing this more consistently and you should be able to improve significantly. Look at the point at 2:16. You arm back the return, then slowly shuffle back to the middle. You need to be more explosive back to the middle to set up for your next shot. Your preparation on the next shot is very poor. The rest of your forehands in this point are better, with the second to last lacking a bit on kneebend. You win this point but a better opponent will take advantage of these opportunities. If you have more kneebend at 3:06, you will make this shot. When you do recruit your legs, like at 3:20, you hit a much better shot. Work to the point where this is your rally shot. Footwork drills will do you loads of good.

Don't watch your serves. They are strong and you should be looking to pounce on weak returns with your footwork and shot selection. This is your problem at 3:32 and 3:46.

Finally, work on hitting on the run, your forehand in particular. This ties into footwork and positioning somewhat. If you put some serious time into these things you should be able to improve your level around a half ntrp point, in my humble opinion.

Cheers and Happy New Year! If there is interest I will do a similar breakdown for your friend.

[MarinaHighTennis]

Originally Posted by willroc7

High Tennis,

I assume you start in the near court. You have a nice serve and good strokes. The good news is the technical aspects of your swings look pretty good to me. However, here are some things you can work on to improve.

Work on getting fully prepared to hit your groundstrokes. This includes court positioning, footwork, and body position when you are about to begin your swing. Keep your feet happy and make as many adjustment steps as possible to put yourself in the most ideal position possible to execute your best shot (forehand). While moving to the ball you also want to be setting up your body to unload the kinetic chain. Work on getting your hips and shoulders turned every time, and BEND THOSE KNEES, backhand and forehand. The swing starts with the legs. You get nice leg drive on your serves, bring that into the rest of your game. As a result of your positioning, you are often reaching for and/or arming the ball. See 0:05, 0:15, and 0:25. Maybe you are just warming up here but you also need to warm up your footwork and preparation. At 0:38 you hit a nice forehand but you are still so vertical when you hit it. Since you are mostly arming it, your opponent has the time to recover all the way from the doubles alley on the other side to retrieve it. You should also be moving in here when you see your opponent on the run go to the forehand chip shot, but that's a whole different can of worms. When you load up your legs and shoulders, you hit a good ball (0:55). Focus on doing this more consistently and you should be able to improve significantly. Look at the point at 2:16. You arm back the return, then slowly shuffle back to the middle. You need to be more explosive back to the middle to set up for your next shot. Your preparation on the next shot is very poor. The rest of your forehands in this point are better, with the second to last lacking a bit on kneebend. You win this point but a better opponent will take advantage of these opportunities. If you have more kneebend at 3:06, you will make this shot. When you do recruit your legs, like at 3:20, you hit a much better shot. Work to the point where this is your rally shot. Footwork drills will do you loads of good.

Don't watch your serves. They are strong and you should be looking to pounce on weak returns with your footwork and shot selection. This is your problem at 3:32 and 3:46.

Finally, work on hitting on the run, your forehand in particular. This ties into footwork and positioning somewhat. If you put some serious time into these things you should be able to improve your level around a half ntrp point, in my humble opinion.

Cheers and Happy New Year! If there is interest I will do a similar breakdown for your friend.

Thanks but I'm the one with the green shorts but yonex will certainly appreciate the tip

[86golf]

Nice hitting. Your foot speed really ticks me off. I wish I had played tennis at your age.

I wouldn't mind seeing some drop shots especially seeing how your friend likes to camp on the baseline and wait for the ball to get to him.

Good tennis and thanks for posting.

[zapvor]

Originally Posted by MarinaHighTennis

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FFgWwCzUeQk
no edit: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eosD3tgko5M
We played best out of 3 with a 3rd set 10 pt. tiebreak
7-5 2-6 10-7, If we played a 3rd set he would have won.

btw what should have been a recording of a full match ended up wasted bc of camera problems and the camera tilt in the 2nd set forward

Whats going on:
(me): Forehand down the line was good, backhand was solid, serve bad at first then warmed up to normal, approach shots good, backhand sliced failed me today (everytime he served to my backhand and I sliced it, I lost)
(him): Forehand good, backhand led to many short balls in which I attacked, serve bad at first then became normal, the forehand kept me in check.

The bad thing especially for both of us was the numerous double faults, we both got an ace but the double faults messed us up.

@yonex: do something similar to what I did (what you thought was good and bad from both of us)
@everyone: tips appreciated RATE, COMMENT, SUBSCRIBE

Nice hitting with yonex. Next week more

HAPPY NEW YEAR!

love this! finally seeing some good tennis by TW members. i esp love the aggressive returns dtl, etc. yonex with a big fh. good kneebend taking the ball early. i guess teh only thing is i would like to see more consistency (too many errors), and why the doubles??? you guys obivously can play, so why the doubles?

[MarinaHighTennis]

Originally Posted by zapvor

love this! finally seeing some good tennis by TW members. i esp love the aggressive returns dtl, etc. yonex with a big fh. good kneebend taking the ball early. i guess teh only thing is i would like to see more consistency (too many errors), and why the doubles??? you guys obivously can play, so why the doubles?

Thanks unfortunatly have seen the first few games (again) BUT due to camera tilt and power save it left out the rest of the match and A LOT of good points. But we can still see the front person hitting groundstrokes. I'm looking through this and picking parts you can critique.

[willroc7]

High Tennis,

You have good foot speed and a nice split step. Your anticipation is also quite good and is not something that can be easily taught. Some of my advice here may be a little off base as you hit the ball significantly differently than I do. So if there is someone out there more versed in your style, feel free to step in. What I mean by this is you seem to slap at the ball and reverse finish as your rally stroke. This isn't necessarily a bad thing, but you might be robbing yourself of some drive through the court that comes with the regular finish across the body. My general advice about your strokes would be to slow down the motion a little bit in practice and try to add some fluidity. Think about hitting through the line of the ball and driving it forwards into the court rather than just brushing up behind it. Once you have the smoothness, you can add the swing speed back.

Starting from the first point, you have a nice split step, but from there your footwork bogs down. You take a reaching step-swing at the ball and don't put a lot on the return as a result. If you can, try to take one more small step to the ball after you split step to get yourself in better position. You are in better position for your next return and you play a better return. Work on getting yourself set into that hitting position as consistently as possible. See 0:23.

At 0:40 you probably could have hit a topspin forehand. This is when it's nice to use the reverse finish, as it will afford you the angle and topspin to get the ball back and crosscourt, even when you're not 100% set up. Good anticipation in any case. You made your opponent hit a difficult shot to win the point. You attempt to do this at 0:58, which is good. At 0:50, I feel like you need to do more with your return, and a traditional follow through could help you here. Your return is short and does not have enough topspin to bounce out of your opponent's strike zone on the forehand. If you're going to use the reverse finish, you really need to accelerate more to get more topspin and depth. When you follow through across your body, you hit a nice ball (1:37).

Don't approach on weak slices like at 3:05. Work on staying more grounded on your backhand. You jump as you hit it too much.

[MarinaHighTennis]

Originally Posted by willroc7

High Tennis,

You have good foot speed and a nice split step. Your anticipation is also quite good and is not something that can be easily taught. Some of my advice here may be a little off base as you hit the ball significantly differently than I do. So if there is someone out there more versed in your style, feel free to step in. What I mean by this is you seem to slap at the ball and reverse finish as your rally stroke. This isn't necessarily a bad thing, but you might be robbing yourself of some drive through the court that comes with the regular finish across the body. My general advice about your strokes would be to slow down the motion a little bit in practice and try to add some fluidity. Think about hitting through the line of the ball and driving it forwards into the court rather than just brushing up behind it. Once you have the smoothness, you can add the swing speed back.

Starting from the first point, you have a nice split step, but from there your footwork bogs down. You take a reaching step-swing at the ball and don't put a lot on the return as a result. If you can, try to take one more small step to the ball after you split step to get yourself in better position. You are in better position for your next return and you play a better return. Work on getting yourself set into that hitting position as consistently as possible. See 0:23.

At 0:40 you probably could have hit a topspin forehand. This is when it's nice to use the reverse finish, as it will afford you the angle and topspin to get the ball back and crosscourt, even when you're not 100% set up. Good anticipation in any case. You made your opponent hit a difficult shot to win the point. You attempt to do this at 0:58, which is good. At 0:50, I feel like you need to do more with your return, and a traditional follow through could help you here. Your return is short and does not have enough topspin to bounce out of your opponent's strike zone on the forehand. If you're going to use the reverse finish, you really need to accelerate more to get more topspin and depth. When you follow through across your body, you hit a nice ball (1:37).

Don't approach on weak slices like at 3:05. Work on staying more grounded on your backhand. You jump as you hit it too much.

Thanks very much for the help. I usually don't hit reverse forehands but a big hitter like yonex forced me to. I do feel my footwork brings me down which I'm trying to improve

[willroc7]

Use your footwork and your speed to set you up for your normal forehand, then. Against a hard hitter you just have to do this more aggressively. Try not to let his ball play you. It helps to concentrate on setting up to execute your personal "textbook" forehand every time. If the ball is coming faster just adjust the timing of your swing, ideally not the swing path. Emergency changes in the swing path are only ok if you are really out of position or something. I'm going to link myself here to illustrate. I'm getting a variety of depths, spins, and speeds from an inconsistent opponent here, yet my swing path remains consistent. This entire video I use only one reverse finish forehand, when I am stretched wide at 1:06.

[Photoshop]

Good hitting guys (although there will undoubtedly be people rating you 3.5's )

My game is similar to yours in that 2-handed bh is better than bh slice... so I write a mental note to myself that if I can get into a position to hit a backhand, I'll hit a 2hbh every time instead of a slice. Slice is a good weapon to have but why hit it if it's failing on you.

Also I think your forehand take-back is too short. Have you tried taking a bigger backswing?

[MarinaHighTennis]

Originally Posted by Photoshop

Good hitting guys (although there will undoubtedly be people rating you 3.5's )

My game is similar to yours in that 2-handed bh is better than bh slice... so I write a mental note to myself that if I can get into a position to hit a backhand, I'll hit a 2hbh every time instead of a slice. Slice is a good weapon to have but why hit it if it's failing on you.

Also I think your forehand take-back is too short. Have you tried taking a bigger backswing?

That's true I don't why I kept slicing when it failed me repeatedly but I feel I have to slice out his big forehands.

I have tried a bigger backswing but I feel it takes away time and I hit perfectly fine with my ugly looking forehand.

@willroc thanks for the tips. Ill try to get in better positions for my shots so I can hit through the ball.

[dr325i]

Originally Posted by Photoshop

Good hitting guys (although there will undoubtedly be people rating you 3.5's )

My game is similar to yours in that 2-handed bh is better than bh slice... so I write a mental note to myself that if I can get into a position to hit a backhand, I'll hit a 2hbh every time instead of a slice. Slice is a good weapon to have but why hit it if it's failing on you.

Also I think your forehand take-back is too short. Have you tried taking a bigger backswing?

What level would you rate them at?

[BaboFan]

Originally Posted by dr325i

What level would you rate them at?

They are without a doubt a 3.0. 3.5 is too high

[dr325i]

Originally Posted by BaboFan

They are without a doubt a 3.0. 3.5 is too high

I assume that is supposed to be funny?
It is actually OLD...and NOT funy a bit.

[BaboFan]

Originally Posted by dr325i

I assume that is supposed to be funny?
It is actually OLD...and NOT funy a bit.

Fair enough. I support people who post vids here. I'd say they are both high 4.5 or low 5.0. I've seen marina play and seen him beat a 3 star.