Some hitting

[FEDERERNADAL13]

Hey guys! So, I decided to film some of my tennis the other day, and wanted to know what you think.

Highlights:
-The first couple of minutes are more of a warm up, so if you're not going to watch the whole thing maybe skip to the middle (like 8:00 or so)
-There are slowmotion ground strokes at 1:16 and 8:05
-Serving starts at 18:58
-Slow motion serving is at 19:11
-Match/Point play comes shortly after serving

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q2NqE-owuss

Alright, GO! Compare, Critique, Compliment, whatever. Do your worst TTW!

[luvforty]

decent game... a few suggestions -

1) i know this is casual hitting, but to progress you need more intensity.... and that goes for your hitting partner also.. play some points at a minimum so there is something at steak.

2) I like your FH, and the BH slice.... the BH topspin is armed... from the power position after the racket drop, make sure that you maintain pressure a the right arm pit so that the arm and the right chest is connected, this way you can rotate to generate power and you will have much better control of the shot...don't worry about staying sideways... that's an obsolete technique.

3) ground strokes are only 30% of the game... yet it took the entire video.. honestly there was nothing to see after the first minute..... show some volleys, approaches, smashes (that's about 25% of the game)... and some serves and returns.... that is 45% of what determines wins / losses.

[bhallic24]

do i get to see where the ball goes?

[luvforty]

sorry, you did show some serves... lol... the groundstrokes part is so long i lost patience

the serve... you are pushing the racket thru the ball, instead of whipping the racket head..

try a couple of analogies -

1) if you think throwing, you should be throwing the racket HEAD, not the entire racket.

2) if you think hammering, you can imagine hammering a nail right into a piece of 2x4 at the contact point..

hopefully these thoughts can change your body language of the serve.

[rkelley]

I can't see where the ball goes, so it's hard to say much.

[FEDERERNADAL13]

Originally Posted by luvforty

decent game... a few suggestions -

1) i know this is casual hitting, but to progress you need more intensity.... and that goes for your hitting partner also.. play some points at a minimum so there is something at steak.

2) I like your FH, and the BH slice.... the BH topspin is armed... from the power position after the racket drop, make sure that you maintain pressure a the right arm pit so that the arm and the right chest is connected, this way you can rotate to generate power and you will have much better control of the shot...don't worry about staying sideways... that's an obsolete technique.

3) ground strokes are only 30% of the game... yet it took the entire video.. honestly there was nothing to see after the first minute..... show some volleys, approaches, smashes (that's about 25% of the game)... and some serves and returns.... that is 45% of what determines wins / losses.

1) Shortly after serving practice the match play starts, and as well many of the points after the 8 minute mark were a part of a 10 point tie break. I play matches very often, and play ten point tie breaks a lot as well.

2) I agree that I arm my arm too much... Could you possibly explain more on how to improve it? I often fall back to the slice because my topspin backhand is not as effective in match play.

3) You already addressed this later

[FEDERERNADAL13]

Originally Posted by bhallic24

do i get to see where the ball goes?

Sorry, but the way the mount worked for me it was either only focus on my half of the court, or miss half of the shots that were hit (if they were a little away from the baseline).

Sorry about that!

[FEDERERNADAL13]

Originally Posted by luvforty

sorry, you did show some serves... lol... the groundstrokes part is so long i lost patience

the serve... you are pushing the racket thru the ball, instead of whipping the racket head..

try a couple of analogies -

1) if you think throwing, you should be throwing the racket HEAD, not the entire racket.

2) if you think hammering, you can imagine hammering a nail right into a piece of 2x4 at the contact point..

hopefully these thoughts can change your body language of the serve.

The biggest problem I see with my serve is in my "trophy" position. My arm is far lower than in any pro's trophy stance.

I'll focus on "whipping" the head and see what happens the next time I hit

[luvforty]

the 1hbh-

in the days of the 65in wood, few hit that shot, the slice dominated.

in the days of 85in graphite, edberg, mcenroe, sampras, guga... the racket hits more thru the ball, and the conventional wisdom is - 'stay sideways thru impact'.... now that may work for somebody... but staying sideways thru impact would require a bigger turn in the backswing, thus longer set up time... and if the coil in the backswing is not achieved, you have no option but to arm the ball forward.

now we have better equipment, 95in minimum... the same theory of FH hitting across the ball can be applied to the 1hbh. like I said earlier, make sure the upper arm is connected to the right chest thru impact, so you don't rely on the arm muscle.. you rotate clockwise thru impact and you will feel solid impact even against the most vicious ball coming in.... and while your core rotates clockwise, your hand can passively let the racket drop and natually make the low to high swing path (I prefer this way for baseline rallies), or you can actively engage the forearm to exaggerate the windshield wiping. (I prefer this way for hitting dipping passing shots).

hitting this way also means you don't need a big turn in the backswing... just experiment a little.. you will find out that even with a minimal backswing, you can still hit solid shots... this is a great advantage when the ball comes fast.... watch wawrinka, mauresmo, schiavone, dimitrov... they all hit this way... notice how much they open up thru the shot.

[luvforty]

your bh slice...... it looks decent but you can make it better... Federer's is a great model to copy..

notice how he waits for the ball to come to him and really throws out the wrist as if he wanted to cut the ball in half.

imagine your upper arm, forearm, racket face all on the same plane, and you are gonna throw this heavy plane downward and forward at the same time.

the downward throw will help maintaining the face angle, while the forward part produces penetration.

indoor court, a good slice will be just as penetrating as the topspin drive.

[FEDERERNADAL13]

Bump.... 270 views and 9 comments?

Come on people

[Cheetah]

Why are you so lazy?

[FEDERERNADAL13]

Originally Posted by Cheetah

Why are you so lazy?

What do you mean?

[Cheetah]

It looks like your goal is to get back to the middle of the court so that you can stand there flat footed and relax. Then when you do run you run just fast so enough so that you get there at the same time as the ball.

I'd say more than half of your misses were because of this.

[Cheetah]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NVwPRKh1Mdk
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eI5PaS-8DRs

[FEDERERNADAL13]

Originally Posted by Cheetah

It looks like your goal is to get back to the middle of the court so that you can stand there flat footed and relax. Then when you do run you run just fast so enough so that you get there at the same time as the ball.

I'd say more than half of your misses were because of this.

Ok, so I stand around too much? I can fix that in a hurry

[boojay]

Fantastic camera angle!

This is hardly all encompassing as I didn't watch the entire video, but I like how compact your forehand is. Would like to see more follow through on the backhand, otherwise, very nice.

[Relinquis]

lazy on the backhand. it seems that you hit a lot of slice when you have time to hit topspin or drive from the backhand, because it is easier.

slice is useful, but not if it is your "go-to" backhand shot.

[Bobby Jr]

In addition to what others have posted above you're falling backward off the majority of your forehands - even short ones you should be on-top of. See these two pics - which are typical of most in the video.


On your backhand slice you step or veer away from all of them. Again - most of these you should be positioned better and, ideally, leaning into.

Additionally - re: the way you hit - all those shots of your partners which go out >> hit them. If they're in the air >> hit them. You're wasting all those opportunities to practice launching the racquet head/hitting on the rise etc.

[TomT]

Originally Posted by FEDERERNADAL13

Hey guys! So, I decided to film some of my tennis the other day, and wanted to know what you think.

Highlights:
-The first couple of minutes are more of a warm up, so if you're not going to watch the whole thing maybe skip to the middle (like 8:00 or so)
-There are slowmotion ground strokes at 1:16 and 8:05
-Serving starts at 18:58
-Slow motion serving is at 19:11
-Match/Point play comes shortly after serving

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q2NqE-owuss

Alright, GO! Compare, Critique, Compliment, whatever. Do your worst TTW!

Thanks for posting the vid. I enjoyed it, but would like it a lot more if you put the camera a little lower (but still centered behind you) to capture the whole court, so we can see ball trajectory and how effective your shots are.

I can't offer any critiques or technical recommendations, just a few observations. On the whole, your strokes/shots look good to me (fluid and you make good contact ... around 4.0 level? ... just guessing), but not as consistent as they might be. Your serve looks fluid, but it looks like you're foot faulting a lot. Some good approaches and volleys, imo.

I think you have a fairly nice game now with the potential to make it a lot better.

Post more vids.