View my video and help me with singles tactics -

[dizzlmcwizzl]

Please watch the attached video and offer constructive criticism on the manner in which I construct points and how I might improve my singles game tactics. Singles Video - 3.14.2012. Additional details are below if you are interested.

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I am a strong 4.0 doubles player in our district. I have lost 27 pounds since Thanksgiving in preparation for our upcoming season (related thread). I intend to lose another 27 pounds by the end of May.

The video was taken Sunday 03.04.2012 and includes all 127 points we played over 90 minutes. I played one of the best 3 singles players in our district and he was beating me by one game 7-5, 3-4 when time ran out. In truth I fell like I played well (for me) and he had an average day. Generally I should not be that close to him. I have edited the video and moved the quick points to the end ... ie, all of our aces, DF's, return errors were moved to the back so that the interesting points were left up front.

My game plan was to serve big and vary my placement because he returns well off both wings. I wanted to keep balls deep because he absolutely punishes short balls. I also wanted to come to the net effectively. He is so good with a target at the net that I wanted to either surprise him or come in only when I had the advantage. For the most part I worked my game plan but he is just better than me and despite having 4-1 leads in both sets he was able to keep me from closing it out.

The serve / return stats ...

67% first serve percentage, 80% second serve percentage, 7 aces and 4 DFs

78% of serves returned in play

[LeeD]

Looking good.
You seem to be able to hit more forcing shots, but tend to trade rallies, which often get's you in trouble with your short balls.
Hopefully, you'll work on your serve, which is not weak, but almost the same as that skinny guy in the orange shirt's. You seem to rotate your shoulders into the serve too early, mistiming a few, but losing potential swingspeed every time.
I know, having watched your vid, you must think you need to improve your serve, watching that guy's horrid motion yet still almost the same speed as yours.
You move great for anyone over 200lbs. Imagine if you weighed 190.

[maggmaster]

Nice, top end of 4.0? You seem to dictate with your forehand well, you had a few balls that you looked like you wanted to flatten out your backhand but you pulled off. I think you can serve and volley even more than you do, your serve elicits a nice return most of the time. Do you not like moving forward into the court to hit overheads? You had a couple floaters that you could have stepped in and hit if you wanted to, you took them with a forehand which seems to work too.

[Timbo's hopeless slice]

that double handed FH he brings out every now and then must be annoying!

Anyway, I quite like the way you strike the ball, but I think you are a bit predictable with your CC FH esp. It's a good shot, but you pretty much do it every time. I am sure you are quite capable of hitting it 'inside out', so I would suggest doing that every now and then as your opponent is moving before you have even hit the ball a lot of the time.

I agree with the S & V suggestion, too. You seem to volley well and he hits them back up the middel on return a lot, so...

your mileage may vary!

[dizzlmcwizzl]

Originally Posted by LeeD

Looking good.
You seem to be able to hit more forcing shots, but tend to trade rallies, which often get's you in trouble with your short balls.
Hopefully, you'll work on your serve, which is not weak, but almost the same as that skinny guy in the orange shirt's. You seem to rotate your shoulders into the serve too early, mistiming a few, but losing potential swingspeed every time.
I know, having watched your vid, you must think you need to improve your serve, watching that guy's horrid motion yet still almost the same speed as yours.
You move great for anyone over 200lbs. Imagine if you weighed 190.

Actually anyone that would watch us live would never put our serves in the same category. I put all of our "short points" at the end of the video. Since most of the first serves I got in were not returned that is where most of my first serves ended up. If you only watched the first few minutes you only saw one 1st serve. The rest were second serves that were played and resulted in decent rallys. The short points start at the 9:00 minute mark and this is where my first serves can be found.

[escii_35]

Indoor Tactics:

If the net screens are pulled mix in a few angled serves to force your opponent into the mesh.

Observations:

Great attacking of his serve I loved all the big cuts you took. I really think you made a good choice.

That counter punching two handed forehand is nasty. He can take all your pace and spit it right back at ya.

[dizzlmcwizzl]

Originally Posted by maggmaster

Nice, top end of 4.0? You seem to dictate with your forehand well, you had a few balls that you looked like you wanted to flatten out your backhand but you pulled off. I think you can serve and volley even more than you do, your serve elicits a nice return most of the time. Do you not like moving forward into the court to hit overheads? You had a couple floaters that you could have stepped in and hit if you wanted to, you took them with a forehand which seems to work too.

We were both early start bumped to 4.5 in September. But the team we narrowly lost to in sectionals did poorly at nationals and our entire team got moved down with the year end adjustments.

I exclusively serve and volley in doubles .. and I do this against guys that do not return as well as he does. But this guy loves a man at the net. If you watch closely I think I only win about 40% of my net points in this match even though I am trying to be selective in my approaches.

That is a good point about moving forward for overheads ... I really prefer to backpedal into overhead position. Moving forward I would rather volley or hit forehands.

[dizzlmcwizzl]

Originally Posted by Timbo's hopeless slice

that double handed FH he brings out every now and then must be annoying!

Anyway, I quite like the way you strike the ball, but I think you are a bit predictable with your CC FH esp. It's a good shot, but you pretty much do it every time. I am sure you are quite capable of hitting it 'inside out', so I would suggest doing that every now and then as your opponent is moving before you have even hit the ball a lot of the time.

I agree with the S & V suggestion, too. You seem to volley well and he hits them back up the middel on return a lot, so...

your mileage may vary!

I hate that 2HFH. I always think I can work him wide but he tracks them down. The result is that he hits a solid spinny ball.

As far as the CC FH ... I rarely try to run around the ball so it does not occur to me to run around and take forehands. But as I lose weight and move a little quicker I will try to mix that in more.

[tennismonkey]

great video dizzl! thanks for sharing.

your serve and forehand for 4.0 is laughably too good. against 90% of the 4.0 crowd i'm sure they just can't even handle those two parts of your game. this guy however (not completely) absorbed your pace really well.

i thought for as good as your topspin backhand is - it's still where you give up the most unforced and forced errors and return errors. also thought you had opportunities to run around your backhand and hit inside out forehands but i don't think i saw one.

there's no way that guy's serve was within 15-20 mph of yours. yours had much more pace on flat serves and much more kick on topspin serves.

[user92626]

I jumped right into the 11th minute, and from there it seems like you guys hit an aweful lot into the net, mostly 1-2 shots points! hehe But good game.

[DeShaun]

10characters

[dizzlmcwizzl]

Originally Posted by tennismonkey

i thought for as good as your topspin backhand is - it's still where you give up the most unforced and forced errors and return errors. also thought you had opportunities to run around your backhand and hit inside out forehands but i don't think i saw one.

Thank you ... the backhand has gotten a lot better. In my mind it looks much prettier in my head than on the tape. It seems to me that about 1 in 3 backhands look more or less like I want them but the other 2/3rds are not very good.

As far as running aorund the backhand a couple have mentioned that and I am going to try and introduce that some more. Until now I have not felt quick or fit enough to do that. Now that I am down some weight I am starting to approach the point where I could do this when a chance to take control of a pont comes up.

[dizzlmcwizzl]

Originally Posted by user92626

I jumped right into the 11th minute, and from there it seems like you guys hit an aweful lot into the net, mostly 1-2 shots points! hehe But good game.

Yea ... I purposely put the more interesting points in the front figuring that most people would not get past the first couple minutes. Also if I was upfront about it I figured the interested folks would fast forward to the bad parts.

Any who, in 90 minutes (minus warm ups) we played a total of 127 points. 45 points lasted 4 or more strokes with 82 lasting 3 or fewer strokes. It is obvious (to me) that my game is more of a high risk and sometimes get rewarded game. The result is that whenever I play, or whoever I play, most of the points are short. In this game I actually tried to rally with him a little more than I normally would since I thought if I went to the net 90% of the time was a losing strategy.

[Maui19]

Great playing and great vid (nice dissolves!). You have GREAT hands and use them well. I think I may have said this before, but you consistently fall back when hitting your groundies. This requires excellent timing to do well, and you manage it well. But if you were to move forward into the ball, you would be more consisten and generate more pace and spin without requiring more effort. If you notice, your best BHs and BH returns where hit while you were moving into the ball.

If you were to get more comfortable moving into the ball (and taking it on the rise) you would kill.

Thanks for the vid--that was fun to watch.

[tennismonkey]

STAT MONKEY:

Dizzlmcwizzl
Aces: 6
Double Faults: 4
Service Winners: 15
Winners: 8 (5 FH, 1 BH, 2 FH VOLLEY)
Unforced Errors: 39 (21 FH, 18 BH)
Total Points Won: 59

Orange Guy
Aces: 0
Double Faults: 2
Service Winners: 12
Winners: 11 (10 FH, 1 BH)
Unforced Errors: 28 (18 FH, 10 BH)
Total Points Won: 66

* I'm missing 2 of the 127 points you said you played. Either I missed em or they were missing from the video. Either way I think the stats are interesting.

[Pet]

You looks good, but you need much more agility, work on aerobic exercise.

Your backhand is inconsitent sometimes, you need more height at the net, work on topspin.

Don´t hit low the ball, more on the rise, you have the iniciative in some points but later you don´t know how finish.

The most important problem are your slow movements.

[tennismonkey]

you do realize he's 265 pounds in this video right? when 265 pounds you be, move as well you will not.

[dizzlmcwizzl]

Originally Posted by tennismonkey

STAT MONKEY:

Dizzlmcwizzl
Aces: 6
Double Faults: 4
Service Winners: 15
Winners: 8 (5 FH, 1 BH, 2 FH VOLLEY)
Unforced Errors: 39 (21 FH, 18 BH)
Total Points Won: 59

Orange Guy
Aces: 0
Double Faults: 2
Service Winners: 12
Winners: 11 (10 FH, 1 BH)
Unforced Errors: 28 (18 FH, 10 BH)
Total Points Won: 66

* I'm missing 2 of the 127 points you said you played. Either I missed em or they were missing from the video. Either way I think the stats are interesting.

WOW ... thanks

[Nellie]

I felt that you were going for a lot on during many of the rallies, even when the opponent hit a pretty good shot. The bad thing about being a hard-hitting player is that you need to go for a lot because you will eventually lose in a long
rally.

So, my suggestion for you is to work on your recognition of short balls and taking risks to put away those shorter balls, while hitting a deeper, more defensive ball from behind the baseline (a 70% effort rally ball). That way, you try to get more winners and less errors. As a starting point, I would say try coming forward on any ball that bounces inside the service box. It sometimes helps to be closer to the baseline, but to hit softer so that your balls are coming back faster even though you are swinging less. However, this would require you to work on hitting on the rise. I do this because I want to get to the net faster

Also, a lot of opponents will adjust to seeing only fast balls (by timing their preparation), and by selectively applying the heat, you can catch the opponent off guard, or at least make them work harder.

Off topic a little, but it looked to me that you were often a little slow to prepare on the forehand side

[dizzlmcwizzl]

Originally Posted by tennismonkey

STAT MONKEY:

Dizzlmcwizzl
Aces: 6
Double Faults: 4
Service Winners: 15
Winners: 8 (5 FH, 1 BH, 2 FH VOLLEY)
Unforced Errors: 39 (21 FH, 18 BH)
Total Points Won: 59

Orange Guy
Aces: 0
Double Faults: 2
Service Winners: 12
Winners: 11 (10 FH, 1 BH)
Unforced Errors: 28 (18 FH, 10 BH)
Total Points Won: 66

Thanks again for doing this. I would have done it for myself eventually but I do find this very interesting.

Generally I think this supports my general feeling that I was the aggressor in the match. My opponent commented after the match that throughout he felt like he was just retrieving and waiting for my mistakes.

Also, because I do not run around my backhand very often, I tend to have equal errors on both sides. Perhaps, as has been pointed out, if I ran around the backhand and moved forward into short balls I could press my advantage a little better and draw down the UEs.