Diary of a Racketaholic

[JGads]

Originally Posted by klementine79

Calling all racketheads.

Played with the PureDrive (stiff for me but a fun ride) and demo'd the AeroGT (stiff and less substantial than the PD) but what of the PureStormGT(non-tour)?!??

Does it feel 63ra, less, more?

Always wondered why T-dub never reviewed this frame. Seems like every other frame has gotten a review, yet not one for the PureStormGT or any other iteration.

Hit with this once and thought the feel was excellent. (Pure Storm line is where Babs actually have great feel). Felt less than 63, if anything. Nice and soft, but not overly flexy. If I remember correctly it seemed a bit underpowered, but again, I only had like 15 or 20 mins hitting with the frame. 16/20 string pattern is always gold, a perfect blend of spin and accuracy. All in all I recall thinking positively about the frame, thinking it could be something with just a touch of lead here and there for added plow.

[Ross K]

Originally Posted by corners

Jack, yeah, you look a little more chill in this one. But you still seem to be struggling with balance. And I think the reason why is that you are not doing recovery steps. You are essentially hitting the ball and then stopping, which forces you to balance on your front foot and try to deal with your body's rotational momentum in that position. A tough ask. It's like you're hitting and posing in that hitting position instead of flowing into recovery footwork.

For contrast, watch any snipet of a pro's practice or matchplay. You'll see that the rear (outside) foot goes somewhere after each ball is hit - it goes where it needs to in order to set up an acceleration of the body back towards the center of the court. To get a better understanding of recovery steps and how they relate to hitting stances, you might want to check out David Bailey's work on footwork, as essentially, IMHO, your balance issue is a footwork issue. Bailey has broken things down into a dozen or so "contact moves", which are the specific footwork/stances required to hit a ball from any location and contact height on the court. Each of these moves uses a particular step pattern to get into position to hit the ball, a particular stance to hit the ball from (open, semi-open, neutral) and the recovery step pattern that naturally follows from momentum "left over" after the hit that efficiently takes you back to the center of the court. The best way I know to get access to his work is to subscribe to tennisplayer.net for a month and read all of his articles there, which break down each of the contact moves with embedded pro video clips as illustrations.

Another resource you might want to look at are the posts of the TT poster "tricky". This guy is, in my opinion, the most useful person in the instruction forum, by a wide margin. He approaches technique from the footwork perspective, and says that most technique faults clean up only when the footwork is fixed.

Finally, getting back to David Bailey, the balls you're hitting in that video are landing at the service line and pretty much down the middle of the court. These are balls that must be hit aggressively in a match - they are short and at a perfect height for crushing. The footwork pattern that pros use to punish these balls is the first contact move that Bailey teaches, the Step Down. The step down has the front foot step forward, or down, into the court, in line with the rear foot, which puts you in neutral stance. After hitting the ball, your rotational momentum brings the rear foot around to the front/outside, which then plants and pushes off back to the center of the court, all in one smooth movement.

Here is an example of Fed hitting a step down: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nNm-Vo38Jeo

And here is Bailey coaching a beginner on this pattern:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vYdMYULa8wI

If I were practicing with your ball machine settings I would be split stepping, moving to the forehand ball, stepping into the court with front foot, hitting the forehand from neutral stance, stepping around with rear foot, pushing off that foot toward the center mark, shuffling to the center, split stepping again, moving to the backhand, stepping into the backhand, swinging the rear foot around, exploding off that foot toward the center, shuffling back, etc. Instead of thinking of the forehand as just a swing, the shot becomes part of a flowing movement pattern or dance.

If you watch someone like Fed, he will use the Step Down on any ball that gives him enough time - so basically any ball that lands short, bounces waist high, and doesn't require running from side to side. If the balls you see in matches are like the balls you are getting from your machine, you should also be hitting step down screamers into the corners on every shot. Trying to step down on every ball is a good way to develop active, positive, agressive footwork. You might not get to every ball in time to step into it, in which case you use a different contact move, but by trying to you will clean up your lazy footwork and solve your balance issues.

Great post corners, quality comments.

And BTW, I so agree re tricky. Some years ago he was one of my main reasons for being on TT. He is the tennis tips section guru. If anyone's ever bored or got a spare bit of time on their hands, do a search of tricky's old posts. He's the man.

[klementine79]

Good lookin' PED and Gadbsy.

You guys are right. The plan is to add some weight to the stick, at 11oz, it's a great building frame. Good to hear it feels softer.

Gotta admit, the only thing that's holding me back at this point is all the babolat 'horror stories'. You know the ones, '..my racquet broke in half on an overhead and the same thing happened to my friend... 5 times in the past 5 days!!!' .. the shotty QC... etc.,etc.

[Power Player]

Corners not sure how I missed this super important post. This is exactly what I am going to be filming myself working on, and what I call "stepping in" on balls in the middle and short balls. Screw racquets, footwork is everything. You can waste your $$$ on a different racquet every month, but once you do all the proper footwork patterns you will be a far, far better player.

The main thing I noticed just focusing on my feet again was that since I spent so much time on the proper shoulder turn and hip drive, that once I was transferring weight into my shots properly the contact was incredibly consistent and I enjoyed the feel of my racquets even more.

This video right here is awesome. Shows the same stances I figured out to hit from on my own. Nice to see I am doing it right..lol.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L4NDwfnGFS0

[corners]

Originally Posted by JackB1

^^^
great stuff Corners....really appreciate it. My next lesson I will ask my Pro to focus on my recovery footwork.

Cheers Jack. Good luck and happy hitting (and moving !

[corners]

Originally Posted by Ross K

Great post corners, quality comments.

And BTW, I so agree re tricky. Some years ago he was one of my main reasons for being on TT. He is the tennis tips section guru. If anyone's ever bored or got a spare bit of time on their hands, do a search of tricky's old posts. He's the man.

Thanks. Yeah, I've 'burned' many mornings doing advanced "tricky" searches.

[corners]

Originally Posted by Power Player

Corners not sure how I missed this super important post. This is exactly what I am going to be filming myself working on, and what I call "stepping in" on balls in the middle and short balls. Screw racquets, footwork is everything. You can waste your $$$ on a different racquet every month, but once you do all the proper footwork patterns you will be a far, far better player.

The main thing I noticed just focusing on my feet again was that since I spent so much time on the proper shoulder turn and hip drive, that once I was transferring weight into my shots properly the contact was incredibly consistent and I enjoyed the feel of my racquets even more.

This video right here is awesome. Shows the same stances I figured out to hit from on my own. Nice to see I am doing it right..lol.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L4NDwfnGFS0

Yeah, good vid. I think just being aware, conceptually, of the contact moves Bailey teaches is really helpful. You start seeing them every time you watch a match or highlights (and notice that you're not seeing them on the rec courts ) . But incorporating them consciously into shadow work is rad. I do the shadow moves as a routine to warm up before practice and sometimes whilst out on a walk sans racquet - walking down a path, start feeling frisky, and then boom - step down, step down, front foot hop, front foot hop...LOL Doing them up a hill is also a really good workout!

Agreed: racquets are super dooper cool, of course, but technique, bal contact and footwork are cooler.

[corners]

Just noticed in another thread that our favorite 5.0, Chris Edwards, is hitting the venerable PS 6.0 95 these days, working it in with another classic, the C10 Pro. Any of you guys ever hit extensively with the 6.0 95?

[DrewRafter8]

Originally Posted by corners

Just noticed in another thread that our favorite 5.0, Chris Edwards, is hitting the venerable PS 6.0 95 these days, working it in with another classic, the C10 Pro. Any of you guys ever hit extensively with the 6.0 95?

Yep, loved it too. When I first came back to tennis I used it for about a year until I fell in love with Fischer products. The only thing negative was that I at that point really didn't feel comfortable enough on court to swing it with the sufficient racquet head speed. I probably should revisit it now. It was beautiful for a little serve and volley.

[Ross K]

PP and corners,

I'm really looking forward to my session tomorrow, and not least as I know what's going to be going through my head... (in haranguing Aussie accent): "Step out!... Step down!... Bring the leg through!... Cross back!'... Cha-cha-cha!'

Seriously, there's plenty in this area I need to get to grips with. Any other basic info in this regard, links, etc, do post it up.

[PED]

Originally Posted by Ross K

PP and corners,

I'm really looking forward to my session tomorrow, and not least as I know what's going to be going through my head... (in haranguing Aussie accent): "Step out!... Step down!... Bring the leg through!... Cross back!'... Cha-cha-cha!'

Seriously, there's plenty in this area I need to get to grips with. Any other basic info in this regard, links, etc, do post it up.

Seriously, if you get the step down motion correct, everything else just flows naturally. When your feet are lined up correctly, your upper body has no choice

[Power Player]

Originally Posted by Ross K

PP and corners,

I'm really looking forward to my session tomorrow, and not least as I know what's going to be going through my head... (in haranguing Aussie accent): "Step out!... Step down!... Bring the leg through!... Cross back!'... Cha-cha-cha!'

Seriously, there's plenty in this area I need to get to grips with. Any other basic info in this regard, links, etc, do post it up.

Honestly that video is everything you need to start with in addition to corners 1st post. too much info will be a bad thing. Just start with the basic step down I am working on, with the video linked by corners..hell, start with the split step and turn. Are you doing that right every single time? I had a bad habit of turning to my backhand in a closed stance, which is wrong and causes issues immediately. It's "ready steps, split step, step out".

I love how his footwork is focused on the recovery step. That is how you know you are doing it right.

boom, PED posts the same thing..just go with it..lol.

[corners]

Originally Posted by Ross K

PP and corners,

I'm really looking forward to my session tomorrow, and not least as I know what's going to be going through my head... (in haranguing Aussie accent): "Step out!... Step down!... Bring the leg through!... Cross back!'... Cha-cha-cha!'

Seriously, there's plenty in this area I need to get to grips with. Any other basic info in this regard, links, etc, do post it up.

Yeah, PP and PED have got it. But if you want to break it down with more images, Bailey's article series on tennisplayer.net is pretty awesome, especially if you've never subscribed to that site before, as it is a veritable mine of technical gold nuggets. The articles there are chock full of embedded videos of all your favorite pros. I'm a firm believer of visual learning in tennis, and seeing all those guys and gals doing what's being described is pretty valuable, IMHO. A one month subsciption is pretty reasonable. (One of the reasons I've found tricky's posts so useful is that he uses visual imagery cues, which for me just click into place on court in a way that the traditional tennis "tip" doesn't.)

[Ross K]

^^^ H, Power, corners,

Okay, step down motion, ready steps, split step, stepping out etc - this is where I'm going to be focussing... incidentally, this should be easier as the fact I'm only bringing my J100's at least removes the element of racketaholic considerations/distractions.

Looking forward to a bit of "Cha-cha-cha".

[sansaephanh]

Originally Posted by corners

Just noticed in another thread that our favorite 5.0, Chris Edwards, is hitting the venerable PS 6.0 95 these days, working it in with another classic, the C10 Pro. Any of you guys ever hit extensively with the 6.0 95?

Stands up to many modern stick. The feel and the specs are just in my wheel house and i've hit with it quite a couple of times recently. Its almost my dream stick. It has just a tiny bit more pop then my rebels and is just as quick through the contact.

Legendary stick imo. I'd praise it more, but i've been looking to get my hands on a few. soo... ITS SUCKS DONT BUY IT.

[Ross K]

Originally Posted by corners

Yeah, PP and PED have got it. But if you want to break it down with more images, Bailey's article series on tennisplayer.net is pretty awesome, especially if you've never subscribed to that site before, as it is a veritable mine of technical gold nuggets. The articles there are chock full of embedded videos of all your favorite pros. I'm a firm believer of visual learning in tennis, and seeing all those guys and gals doing what's being described is pretty valuable, IMHO. A one month subsciption is pretty reasonable. (One of the reasons I've found tricky's posts so useful is that he uses visual imagery cues, which for me just click into place on court in a way that the traditional tennis "tip" doesn't.)

X 2 on being a fan of visual learning - although the right verbal imagery or 'cue', as tricky was often in the habit of imparting - can just really be most effective.

TBH, I'm subscribed to loads of stuff via youtube (varies in quality and clogs up my mail something terrible hahah) and I'm really an indiscriminate "checker outer" of a ton of random tennis stuff up there. I've also been checking out a lot of Jeff Salzenstein's vids of late (I just like his style). I do like this general aspect though and always have done, so, yes... food for thought re tennis.player.net.

[808]

So I tried Lux 4G tonight for the first time. Certainly a nice string but not really a vast improvement over Lux Original, my current favorite string. Two things I noticed: the 4G stringbed feels a touch stiffer than Original in the same racket, although I had it strung a good bit lower. And I was also getting a lower ball trajectory with it. Both strings feel plenty comfortable for me in the EXO, 4G might have a slight edge when it comes to power. Control is top-notch with both. Gonna stay with BBO for now and maybe take a second look at Tour Bite.

[JackB1]

Glad to see my bad footwork has started this good footwork revolution amongst you fellow holics. Corners was spot on in his observation. I went back and rewatched my last vid and my rear foot is NOT coming around at all...hence the off balance and slow recovery. Be on the lookout for a "new and improved" Jack coming soon to a YouTube near you!

[mad dog1]

Originally Posted by 808

So I tried Lux 4G tonight for the first time. Certainly a nice string but not really a vast improvement over Lux Original, my current favorite string. Two things I noticed: the 4G stringbed feels a touch stiffer than Original in the same racket, although I had it strung a good bit lower. And I was also getting a lower ball trajectory with it. Both strings feel plenty comfortable for me in the EXO, 4G might have a slight edge when it comes to power. Control is top-notch with both. Gonna stay with BBO for now and maybe take a second look at Tour Bite.

4G holds tension MUCH better than BBO so it's a great cross to use in gut/poly hybrids.

[mad dog1]

Originally Posted by JackB1

Glad to see my bad footwork has started this good footwork revolution amongst you fellow holics. Corners was spot on in his observation. I went back and rewatched my last vid and my rear foot is NOT coming around at all...hence the off balance and slow recovery. Be on the lookout for a "new and improved" Jack coming soon to a YouTube near you!

off balance is due to footwork (rear foot not coming around) and the slow recovery is the result of holding your finish position too long.

I've found FYB's instructional video with Yann Auzoux's modern footwork quite helpful towards improving my recovery footwork.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R5CWAwtijVI