Critique needed! Video of groundies/serves!

[bhallic24]

your cameraman needs to be fired.

[pvaudio]

I'll let the past lie.

Footwork man, footwork. That seriously doesn't seem to be emphasized hardly any these days.

[tlm]

Originally Posted by dizzlmcwizzl

Well ... I wont comment on your strokes as they are better than mine. I will say that as far as NTRP range that is hard to judge without seeing match play.

I will say that I am a 4.5 and I would not be scared of you in a doubles match based on what I see. In your rally shots you simply dont move your feet. I have 100 pounds on you and I still move my feet to hit balls occasionally. And the one volley we see would scare no one. Perhaps in singles being young and quick (which all young people are aren't they?) would help you considerably.

So if you were playing doubles exclusively I would say no higher than 3.5. But you could be as high as a 4.0 in singles provided your quickness made up for other deficiencies.

You say you are a 4.5 player but his strokes are better than yours? Then you say that he could only play 3.5 level doubles but 4.0 level singles. So what are your strokes then?

I see many players that only play doubles and play a level higher than if they played singles. It is the exact opposite of what you are saying, doubles is were players can get away with playing up. But in singles there is nowhere to hide.

I have been on quite a few teams and even the guys that only play singles could easily play doubles effectively on the team. But the majority of the doubles guys would get their butts beat and never win a match in singles. And most would have to go down a level to play singles. So you have it completely backwards.

[dizzlmcwizzl]

Originally Posted by tlm

You say you are a 4.5 player but his strokes are better than yours? Then you say that he could only play 3.5 level doubles but 4.0 level singles. So what are your strokes then?

I see many players that only play doubles and play a level higher than if they played singles. It is the exact opposite of what you are saying, doubles is were players can get away with playing up. But in singles there is nowhere to hide.

Well it is ok to disagree with me, I dont mind ... As far as my strokes are concerned, I have posted many of them here ... take a look for yourself. What I never do is offer technical advice on how to improve because i would not want to lead anyone down my "hitch-riddled" path.

What I do know well is USTA league play, which is why I offered him an answer to his question.

Originally Posted by tlm

I have been on quite a few teams and even the guys that only play singles could easily play doubles effectively on the team. But the majority of the doubles guys would get their butts beat and never win a match in singles. And most would have to go down a level to play singles. So you have it completely backwards

He has a nice foundation to build on. But what I did not see was an ability to volley which I think we will agree sometimes happens in doubles.

While I think your statement applies for older players that have stopped playing singles years ago I believe the opposite is true for young players.

On our last three state championship teams we have had young guys that were bumped because of their singles play but each of them were not nearly as good a player on the doubles court. Quite frankly they could compensate in singles for their lack of net playing ability with their young athletic legs. I do not believe one of those players would have been bumped had they played exclussively doubles.

Now others may disagree with me but I think veteran experienced players are usually better at dubs than singles. Young players tend to be better at singles. Our young man is fifteen ... I dont think he can volley so I made a case for what I think is the normal pattern in his specific case.

[Bubbagumptennis]

Yeah my volleys aren't very fundamentally sound at all, I definitely need to work on them

[tlm]

Originally Posted by dizzlmcwizzl

Well it is ok to disagree with me, I dont mind ... As far as my strokes are concerned, I have posted many of them here ... take a look for yourself. What I never do is offer technical advice on how to improve because i would not want to lead anyone down my "hitch-riddled" path.

What I do know well is USTA league play, which is why I offered him an answer to his question.




He has a nice foundation to build on. But what I did not see was an ability to volley which I think we will agree sometimes happens in doubles.

While I think your statement applies for older players that have stopped playing singles years ago I believe the opposite is true for young players.

On our last three state championship teams we have had young guys that were bumped because of their singles play but each of them were not nearly as good a player on the doubles court. Quite frankly they could compensate in singles for their lack of net playing ability with their young athletic legs. I do not believe one of those players would have been bumped had they played exclussively doubles.

Now others may disagree with me but I think veteran experienced players are usually better at dubs than singles. Young players tend to be better at singles. Our young man is fifteen ... I dont think he can volley so I made a case for what I think is the normal pattern in his specific case.

I don't know which player you are in the clip, but that does not really matter because like most doubles play there is only a average of 3 shots per point so it is hard to judge. Plus putting away floaters and sitters 5 feet away from the net is not impressive and means little if anything when it comes to singles.


I have seen many older singles guys that beat the younger fast guys in singles, because of their experience and smart play. On average I have more trouble with the older singles guys than I do the younger ones.



I did not see enough of his volleys to judge his ability. I do agree that veteran experienced players are better at doubles. I never said that the younger in shape single players would be better than the veteran doubles players at doubles.

I said that on every team I have been on the singles players could easily make the line up in doubles and be a solid doubles player, not the best doubles players on the team but plenty good enough. But when you turn it around the amount of doubles players that could play the singles slot it goes way down to a very small minority if any.

Most would be lucky to win a couple of matches all year if they stayed at singles. I know guys that have played on 4.5 doubles teams and were pretty solid players, but in 4.0 singles got their butts beat easily. The same with 4.0 double players that would play in 3.5 singles and lose most of the time.

Most leagues were I live are club leagues and there are 2 different leagues, and in one you could be a 4.0 but still play 3.5 in the other one. So I have seen the examples I stated happen many times.

[Bubbagumptennis]

I really don't know anything about USTA league at all I should look into it!

[dizzlmcwizzl]

Originally Posted by Bubbagumptennis

I really don't know anything about USTA league at all I should look into it!

No, league tennis is an 18 +thing. If you are going to college you won't play league at all until you are done school.

I would not worry about it at all for now

[Bubbagumptennis]

Ohhh I gotcha thanks

[Bubbagumptennis]

Played against the 34th ranked 16u guy in florida. Got destroyed obviously. Things I realized about my strokes
-1st serve is definitely a weapon as I had a few aces/unreturned serves
-2nd serve, AWFUL - was rocketed back 60% of the time
-Forehand is okay, but takes way too much time to get it ready, controlled a few points with it but ended up missing the winner attempt (Poor execution)
-One handed backhand is horrible against hard flat balls, but when I had some time I hit it okay
-Switched to 2 hander for a few games and had some errors but made good contact
-Was passed at the net 5 times, so I need approach shot help.

[luvforty]

2nd serve pts won, the most important stat in pro tennis... appears to be relevant in your case too.

you are only as good as your weakness.. yeah, #1 priority, other than the 2nd srv, is to shore up that bh, and work on volleys so you can apply legit pressure....

[Bubbagumptennis]

I'd never played anyone as good as him so I've never really needed a good reliable 2nd serve, and now I realize that I need one, very badly. I've switched to a 2 hander, it's better against harder hit balls