posters who you want to see hit.

[HunterST]

Originally Posted by tennis_balla

it is rather funny.

Remember the thread I made about Spanish Training Methods, where I posted exerts from Luis Mediero's DVD (which got later taken down from Youtube ) you commented in the thread a few times, anyways that DVD alone opened my eyes and still gives me goosebumps everytime I watch it cause he's so right and its so simple, explaining the 4 key elements to train (rhythm, movement, technique, recover). It fit in perfectly with my own philosophies. The man is an inspiration and you can see and hear in his voice the passion he has towards the sport. Speaking on DVD's, do you have or know of any others I can buy from RPT or of Luis? Would really love to get my hands on more stuff. I'm coaching in Europe now, so shipping should be easier.

So do you think those 4 areas are improved from playing and hitting often, or are specific drills/exercises targeted at each element needed? Obviously movement would require outside fitness work, but what about the other three?

[arche3]

Balla, and ASH. I have seen some of the links you posted in the past about the spanish method. hand feeding, etc... If you guys do find out where those dvd's can be purchased please let the rest of us know. I am very interested in those methods.

Originally Posted by tennis_balla

it is rather funny.

Remember the thread I made about Spanish Training Methods, where I posted exerts from Luis Mediero's DVD (which got later taken down from Youtube ) you commented in the thread a few times, anyways that DVD alone opened my eyes and still gives me goosebumps everytime I watch it cause he's so right and its so simple, explaining the 4 key elements to train (rhythm, movement, technique, recover). It fit in perfectly with my own philosophies. The man is an inspiration and you can see and hear in his voice the passion he has towards the sport. Speaking on DVD's, do you have or know of any others I can buy from RPT or of Luis? Would really love to get my hands on more stuff. I'm coaching in Europe now, so shipping should be easier.

[dozu]

Originally Posted by HunterST

So do you think those 4 areas are improved from playing and hitting often, or are specific drills/exercises targeted at each element needed? Obviously movement would require outside fitness work, but what about the other three?

see, how civil we all are when the culprit is not around?

[theZig]

At the end of the day regardless of what is going on, sennoc just said he has more knowledge, at least about volleys, than professional coaches.. and by professional I mean actually produced pros. I'm actually really surprised. God, just imagine if he were a cook and were on Kitchen Nightmares.. the laughs the world could have had.

as for Sennoc; the real issue is that you aren't respecting people. You may feel as though "why should I? I'm the one being attacked", but that's precisely why you need to be the one respectful and make THEM look like nothing more than trolls/children. If a child were to kick you in the leg in public, would you start screaming at them? Of course not, you'd perhaps scold and sternly tell them not to do that, but you'd never hit them back or scream. Why? Because you are an adult and know better than them. You've said you know better than the rest, and certainly treat them like children, yet you get involved in the same actions (such as kicking) as the "children" do.

Now, as for your arrogance, it really is arrogance. To say anything at all that you've done is a "fact" based on your own "research", regardless of what you have backing it up, is arrogance. If I had said elephants could fly and gave you all sorts of reasons to back my claim, and called anyone who disagreed and idiot because of my "Reasons", I'd look nothing than a raving fool. If I then went on to say that "I will not discuss anymore because you don't know anything about elephants", then I'd look like an ***. If I then continued on to say "I know more about elephants than a man who's studied elephants his entire adult life, so I don't even need to talk about him either," then I am nothing more than an arrogant d-bag.

I'm NOT trying to say you're wrong here, in fact I agree with a lot of things you've said. I'm trying to say, keep an open mind, will you? You say your volley is superior to Nadal's because of one shot, in one situation, in one aspect. That makes your shot BETTER? Are you honestly claiming you've NEVER made a mistake in your life? Are you saying you've NEVER done what he's done? Look, if we're talking about doing one particular thing in one particular situation, then I'm sure everyone could claim that they're better than a certain pro at SOMETHING (hell, there are times when Federer can't cope with shots on his backhand, no?), but the fact of the matter is, it doesn't matter. The VALUE of a shot is not in its biomechanics, it's the entire package. Take a look at the entire package, not just one aspect (afterall you yourself admitted the reason Nadal was able to hit that "technically incorrect" BH volley was due to his amazing feel). It's like if you were to compare gifts, and all you looked at was the wrapping paper and claim that's better. Or the box size, or how you handed it to them, or your face when you watched them open it. You could have a giant box with fantastic paper and all, but have an empty box of cigarettes in it. On the other hand, you could have a tiny little box, with a ring. Which would you have? Biomechanics are naught but a TOOL to hit a better SHOT in order to produce a POINT. I'm not even going to bother saying if your biomechanics are better or NOT, but what I WILL say is EVEN IF THEY WERE, IT DOESN'T MEAN JACK SHI.T. I won't even get into your goddamned notion of "real tennis", probably the most arrogant of all (completely and utterly disrespectful).

Imagine if someone had said to you "I am a better player than you because my ball bouncing before the serve is better than yours," what would you say? Probably the Polish equivalent of "WTF?" Your example is not so extreme, but the point I am making is the part-to-a-whole scenario. Since you're into science, what you've essentially said is: A (aspect of your volley technique) > B (aspect of Nadal's volleying technique) therefore (A + X) > (B + Y). You CANNOT make that statement without identifying X and Y (the REST of the stuff). YOU CANNOT.

Look, man, I'm not trying to tear you down. I honestly think you have a wealth of knowledge available, like alot of others. I just wish you would use it for something more productive on these boards. I know you've been attacked here, but you have to understand why. Nobody was originally out to get you, and you could have dealt with the situation much better. I just hope going forward that we can have more civil talks on the forum and actually keep it oriented to what this thread was about. Good day and best of luck with your tennis.

Zig

[tennis_balla]

Those 4 areas are targeted, you can make your own plan as a coach as to how you want to go about teaching them. If you go on the website us pro tennis shop dot com and click on DVD Library and Player Development you can buy the video I was talking about, its called Spanish Model For Developing Players. Its an on court seminar Luis Mediero did back in 2003 but still very well valid today though I'm also looking for some update work from RPT as well.

Ash_Smith, if you could send me an email whenever you get those DVD's finished or have some older ones I can buy that would be great. martin.oncourt at gmail.com I'd really appreciate it.
I'm in Prague, I just got here last week. I was born here in Czech Rep. originally but we left (escaped) back in '87 and came to Canada in '88. 23 years have been there and grew up there, kinda of a change for me but I love it here. I can speak the language no problem, lots of foreigners here as well and people looking for lessons. Gonna be a grind as I will be doing it as my own business for a while but will see how it goes. Going to enjoy the challenge People like the different coaching approach here as I try to use as much as I learned during my course at A S-C Barcelona with my own way as well. 90% of the coaches teach whats being taught by the national tennis association here so I'm trying to be different and separate myself from the rest, offer an alternative. Its good stuff as well what they coach here, there are some great coaches but I find theres a large gap right in the middle which I hope to fill.

[Ash_Smith]

Originally Posted by HunterST

So do you think those 4 areas are improved from playing and hitting often, or are specific drills/exercises targeted at each element needed? Obviously movement would require outside fitness work, but what about the other three?

The answer is both! Each element needs to have the associated technique ingrained (myelinated) by use of specific drills and practices, which in turn need to be practiced and 'played' to better understand their use on court.

There is a lot of double rhythm movement and feeding used to train the movement related elements and a lot of technical repetition to train the actual shot technique. This constant repetition of racquet head technique builds "muscle memory" (myelination) and therefore each repetion must be technically correct so a great deal of effort and focus/concentration is required.

That's why Spanish tennis is generally associated with repetition, repetition, repetition! They figured out "muscle memory" long ago!

Cheers

Ash

[sennoc]

Originally Posted by Ash_Smith

Like I said, take it or leave it. It's up to you.

I leave it, it's too complicated

Originally Posted by Ash_Smith

I have, I stand by my statement. Have you ever tried to hit a low volley, under control whilst having your front (lead) foot in the air? That's a video I'd love to see.

I have never said that every volley is hit in the air. We were talking about volleys in motion. Then I said that the main rule is stable, fluid motion of COM and that if you run you achieve this goal by hitting in the air. But if can't do that, my rule is still valid: you have to do everything to make your COM steady. That's why your foot should land on the ground before contact. Before. Never AT the contact - this is a fundamental error and I can scientifically prove it. Theoretically and by analysis of strokes of the best players.

I too cannot wait to hear the principals behind your forehand and how you arrived at the theory that a straight takeback (whch increases inertia) is better biomechanically than a takeback incporporating angular momentum (elbow lead or loop style).

Straight takeback doesn't increase inertia. Inertia is always the same, the mass doesn't change during the stroke. You do not understand physics, sorry.

I don't want to talk more about my forehands now. In the future - why not.

[Ash_Smith]

Balla, no worries.

I've never been to Prague but my parents went earlier in they year and keep telling us we should go as it was amazing! It's been added to our shortlist of cities to visit!!!

Good luck with your new venture there.

Cheers

Ash

[Ash_Smith]

Originally Posted by sennoc

I leave it, it's too complicated

Cool, so you expect people to accept everything you say, but choose not to take world class tennis advice which will help you improve your own game? Fair Enough!!!

I have never said that every volley is hit in the air. We were talking about volleys ]in motion. Then I said that the main rule is stable, fluid motion of COM and that if you run you achieve this goal by hitting in the air. But if can't do that, my rule is still valid: you have to do everything to make your COM steady. That's why your foot should land on the ground before contact. Before. Never AT the contact - this is a fundamental error and I can scientifically prove it. Theoretically and by analysis of strokes of the best players.

Okay cool, so now you're agreeing with my point about volley foot work. Good job!

Straight takeback doesn't increase inertia. Inertia is always the same, the mass doesn't change during the stroke. You do not understand physics, sorry.
If you make a straight takeback at some point the racquet has to stop moving back in order to move foreward into the impact - yes. This means you have to overcome this stopping force - yes. This inturrupts or lessens your acceleration distance - yes.

Cheers

Ash

[TennisCoachFLA]

Like Ash just explained, a straight take back is inferior to a high take back in every way....physics and results.

Over the past 20 years straight take backs have battled high take backs at all levels of tennis. And over 20 years, the survival of the fittest has led to almost all top level take backs being high.

sennoc....physics...evolution....results.....all point to high take backs.

[Thud and blunder]

I trade the financial markets for a living. I see guys like Sennoc all the time; they have a PhD in theoretical physics or whatnot and now they're going to use their megabrain to become money machines....these guys all blow up, mainly through arrogance, and then blame the market....'black swan', 'thousand year flood', 'twenty sigma moves', ie 'my model was right, the real world was wrong'....which seems to be where Sennoc is at.

'that's all very well in practice, but will it work in theory'

[aphex]

Originally Posted by Thud and blunder

I trade the financial markets for a living. I see guys like Sennoc all the time; they have a PhD in theoretical physics or whatnot and now they're going to use their megabrain to become money machines....these guys all blow up, mainly through arrogance, and then blame the market....'black swan', 'thousand year flood', 'twenty sigma moves', ie 'my model was right, the real world was wrong'....which seems to be where Sennoc is at.

'that's all very well in practice, but will it work in theory'

Yes. Sennoc beats himself regularly.

[sennoc]

I'm really sure that you will have interesting discussions next year.

[precision2b]

Originally Posted by Automatix

Some light needs to be shed on sennoc.

He keeps loosing at amateur tournaments in first rounds and always, and I mean always there is a reason for this (according to him of course): bad lighting, bad balls, bad humidity, bad court surface etc. So, so sad...

So please don't feed that troll.

his opponents played with the same conditions: bad lighting, bad balls, bad humidity, bad court surface… I guess there stroke technics were better…

[dozu]

Originally Posted by sennoc

I'm really sure that you will have interesting discussions next year.

I for 1, am no longer interested..... aint worth it to waste time with a 3.0 no more.

next year you will be 3.5, you still suck.

[arche3]

Originally Posted by dozu

I for 1, am no longer interested..... aint worth it to waste time with a 3.0 no more.

next year you will be 3.5, you still suck.

I just want to know what happens next year now. lol. I am impatient.

[TensProfes]

Originally Posted by sennoc

Dozu, I think your tennis knowledge is too low to write posts like above. You play a recreational tennis. Your technique is recreational. Your understanding of tennis is recreational. And you think that what works for you, at your recreational level, should be copied by everyone.

Your analysis is naive and completly wrong. You perform much better when you insult people.

All I can say is that my backswing is a result of careful physical and biomechanical analysis. And yes, you are right, many pros do larger backswing. But you don't know, why, and I do not want to explain.

Also, I do not use one type of backswing.



http://www.vimeo.com/20975508

You really think that the difference is so huge? Especially if you remember that Federer hits lower ball and adds more spin?

What's the function of backswing? Physically, biomechanically - why do we do backswings?

[Power Player]

What's sad is that all this incredible knowledge of the game and Sennoc has never won any money playing it or gotten through a first round, hence having to wallow in his amateur status even with his superior technique and graceful footwork.

[tennis_balla]

Given the fact that he knows more than all the top coaches in the world including the president of RPT Europe, the owner of one of the most successful academies in the world, former pro's, top teaching professionals and so on. I expect someone of that stature would not be wasting his time arguing his claims and knowledge on an internet forum. Thats like Stephen Hawkins arguing on an online forum, weird to think about isn't it.

[Ash_Smith]

are Jake Speed and Sennoc the same person?