Tips on my game please!

user92626

G.O.A.T.
Awesome but stop playing and lose 15 kg asap.
Love that timing of racket take back. I haven’t been able to sort it out for 6 years. Must be a talent thing!

At this point I 'm inclined to think it's a talent thing.

I don't know how many times I showed my friends to do this kind of swing timing to improve their tennis but they just can't do it.

Many rec players never develop any kind of rhythm no matter how long they've played.
 

mcs1970

Hall of Fame
At this point I 'm inclined to think it's a talent thing.

I don't know how many times I showed my friends to do this kind of swing timing to improve their tennis but they just can't do it.

Many rec players never develop any kind of rhythm no matter how long they've played.

Maybe adults due to the lack of consistent reps and practice. I've seen kids who I could swear had no athletic talent and looked terrible to begin with. A couple of years and they were hitting the ball beautifully. Their lack of athletic talent in terms of speed and fluidity of movement, would still limit their ceilings but the hitting itself was extremely fluid....something I'd never have guessed when they first started.
 

user92626

G.O.A.T.
Maybe adults due to the lack of consistent reps and practice. I've seen kids who I could swear had no athletic talent and looked terrible to begin with. A couple of years and they were hitting the ball beautifully. Their lack of athletic talent in terms of speed and fluidity of movement, would still limit their ceilings but the hitting itself was extremely fluid....something I'd never have guessed when they first started.

Yeah, kids are amazing. I have seen the same thing from kids, 12-16 years old. They trained for a few years and then hit amazingly well. Beautiful forms. Vastly different from adults in their 40s, 50s who could never learn any past 4.0!!. Even guys in their 30s do not progress as much as I expect.

It's hard to explain the difficulties that adult players see. This is why I often get impatient in matches. I forget/don't understand! I am quite tolerant -- because I am experienced -- but many mistakes by my peers shouldn't be routinely made after 5, 10 years of playing!

(It seems like I'm the only one who gets most "worked up" by uncharacteristic mistakes. I openly admit that I'm impatient with such mistakes. On the flip side since I expect more I am also the best player in my groups :))
 

mcs1970

Hall of Fame
Yeah, kids are amazing. I have seen the same thing from kids, 12-16 years old. They trained for a few years and then hit amazingly well. Beautiful forms. Vastly different from adults in their 40s, 50s who could never learn any past 4.0!!. Even guys in their 30s do not progress as much as I expect.

It's hard to explain the difficulties that adult players see. This is why I often get impatient in matches. I forget/don't understand! I am quite tolerant -- because I am experienced -- but many mistakes by my peers shouldn't be routinely made after 5, 10 years of playing!

(It seems like I'm the only one who gets most "worked up" by uncharacteristic mistakes. I openly admit that I'm impatient with such mistakes. On the flip side since I expect more I am also the best player in my groups :))

I am lucky because one of the regular rotation guys in my group was a 5.0 and despite being the best in our group, he is patient. If anything, he starts talking to us only if I or anyone else starts bunting the ball ( I start doing that in doubles if I'm afraid of letting him down after a few mistakes). This encourages everyone in our group to go for our shots. It helps when the best player by a mile tells you to play freely and not be afraid of mistakes.

BTW..when it comes to adults not improving don't you think it's mainly a fitness thing? A lot of the mistakes adults make are due to being one step too slow. Even slow kids who are practicing every day are fit by most adult standards and get to balls that a lot of adults are late to and can't time correctly. For a lot of adults, Tennis is the only mode of exercise. Not blaming anyone. It's difficult when you are balancing many things and each one has their priorities.
 
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Curious

G.O.A.T.
At this point I 'm inclined to think it's a talent thing.

I don't know how many times I showed my friends to do this kind of swing timing to improve their tennis but they just can't do it.

Many rec players never develop any kind of rhythm no matter how long they've played.
If I got the timing down I would be a great player! Duh!:p
 

Richboi

Rookie
I remember a thread where someone asked if losing weight could help them move up an entire UTR point, and I think that you'd benefit the most from that idea. Your strokes are solid and it looks like your fitness/strength/flexibility keeps you from getting lower on the ground strokes and doing more with what significant game you have already.

Otherwise, strokes are clean, clearly you are very athletic and light on your feet already. Building your body towards tennis fitness, developing the instinct to set up lower on your groundstrokes, and having the fitness to not be afraid of getting low and using the legs will do wonders for your game. Depending on your serve, I wouldn't be surprised if you were a 5.0+ player.

P.S. The one-hander's forehand is orders of magnitude better than his backhand.

Thank you so much for your input! I will definitely keep it in mind. Yeah I noticed that I don’t naturally get low enough. I am also the complete opposite of flexible. I have pretty tight hammies and hips.
 

Richboi

Rookie
- Active footwork
- Good coil
- Good rotation
- Good depth
- Didn't see many backhands

I can't see much to criticize from my 4.5 perspective. I'd like to think my FH is that consistent with that much power but I don't think so.

Yeah I didn’t really do backhands in that video. it was a quick DH corsscourt 5 min recording and I stopped. I will do a backhand one and post because I need all the help I can get.

THANK YOU!
 

Richboi

Rookie
You and your partners can give pointers to a lot of folks here. This is easily one of the best doubles videos posted by a member here.

Haha I haven’t been a member for too long so i’m not sure about the level of the members here. But thank you! I would love to meet some of you guys to get a hit in if you are around NYC
 

Richboi

Rookie
At this point I 'm inclined to think it's a talent thing.

I don't know how many times I showed my friends to do this kind of swing timing to improve their tennis but they just can't do it.

Many rec players never develop any kind of rhythm no matter how long they've played.
Maybe adults due to the lack of consistent reps and practice. I've seen kids who I could swear had no athletic talent and looked terrible to begin with. A couple of years and they were hitting the ball beautifully. Their lack of athletic talent in terms of speed and fluidity of movement, would still limit their ceilings but the hitting itself was extremely fluid....something I'd never have guessed when they first started.

Do you think it has to do with the quick interpreting of the foundation. Kids just listen and do reps. Adults who learn tend to try to teach themselves and play more matchplay when their foundation hasn’t been established as yet.
 

FiReFTW

Legend
Do you think it has to do with the quick interpreting of the foundation. Kids just listen and do reps. Adults who learn tend to try to teach themselves and play more matchplay when their foundation hasn’t been established as yet.

I have some experience with this because I talk with my coach about alot of things tennis related and this is one of them aswell.

Most adults don't progress in tennis much because most adults start playing tennis and play with friends for years and years, casual rallies, having fun, playing some matches etc..

Most adults also stay that way and keep doing that for the rest of their lives, at the level they are, so they remain at their basic level that is reached by simply playing tennis for a while with horrible form, technique and fundation.

Some others after many years start to have a desire to become better, they are not satisfied with their plateau and want to actually improve, these individuals then seek some coaching help usually.

They improve overtime of course (depending on how much coaching they have and work on their game), but the problem is that their progress is slow and limited, because they basically learned to play tennis wrong, they have no fundation, their technique is all wrong and amateur alike since they basically started playing by their own and played for years, but these habits, footwork patterns, technical strokes, fundations are all ingrained now and automatic, so changing them is a very difficult task and a slow process in any case, but most don't even have the patience to really really commit to this process.

Most are not willing to stop playing matches in this time or sacrifice their results dropping drastically in this time, so its impossible to correct these things, they do it in their coach practice session then revert back to old habits in matches and its a circle that goes round and round.

I think if someone is not a coach its hard to grasp how difficult this is, and what a huge difference it is when you get a complete beginner and start teaching him tennis technique or when you get someone who has played for a while and has his or her own way of movement, technique, strokes, fundation.

Its much much easier teaching the beginner step by step and you can teach him good fundations and strokes, but teaching someone who has played for a while and changing his ingrained and automatic muscle memory fundations and strokes is EXTREMELY difficult... and just forget about changing and re-learning footwork patterns, that ship has long sailed.
 

Richboi

Rookie
I have some experience with this because I talk with my coach about alot of things tennis related and this is one of them aswell.

Most adults don't progress in tennis much because most adults start playing tennis and play with friends for years and years, casual rallies, having fun, playing some matches etc..

Most adults also stay that way and keep doing that for the rest of their lives, at the level they are, so they remain at their basic level that is reached by simply playing tennis for a while with horrible form, technique and fundation.

Some others after many years start to have a desire to become better, they are not satisfied with their plateau and want to actually improve, these individuals then seek some coaching help usually.

They improve overtime of course (depending on how much coaching they have and work on their game), but the problem is that their progress is slow and limited, because they basically learned to play tennis wrong, they have no fundation, their technique is all wrong and amateur alike since they basically started playing by their own and played for years, but these habits, footwork patterns, technical strokes, fundations are all ingrained now and automatic, so changing them is a very difficult task and a slow process in any case, but most don't even have the patience to really really commit to this process.

Most are not willing to stop playing matches in this time or sacrifice their results dropping drastically in this time, so its impossible to correct these things, they do it in their coach practice session then revert back to old habits in matches and its a circle that goes round and round.

I think if someone is not a coach its hard to grasp how difficult this is, and what a huge difference it is when you get a complete beginner and start teaching him tennis technique or when you get someone who has played for a while and has his or her own way of movement, technique, strokes, fundation.

Its much much easier teaching the beginner step by step and you can teach him good fundations and strokes, but teaching someone who has played for a while and changing his ingrained and automatic muscle memory fundations and strokes is EXTREMELY difficult... and just forget about changing and re-learning footwork patterns, that ship has long sailed.

Yup you hit it right on the spot. That is exactly the problem. Even if they keep the strokes they have and work hard to improve, they are limited in potential because of bad foundation.

Tweaking the muscle memory that they have developed is extremely difficult as you said. What is also important is that you try to win a match with your old habits instead of trying to implement change.

Couple years ago I couldn’t beat some of my friends as I was adjusting to the doubles game. (i rarely played dubs when i was younger). The tip I got was “get it in, rush the net” (from a 4.0 friend). but I knew this wasn’t entirely correct as I have observed higher level players in doubles already and knew my capabilities. I lost a bunch of sets over months of adjusting. I was trying to put what I knew in my head on court in match play. Now I have gotten the hang of it I got on a different level I can proudly say I take it easy on them now haha
 

ChaelAZ

G.O.A.T.
Do you think Footwork drill are very underestimated for the players below the college level? Since I stopped training, a lot of players I have meant want to meet up and have matchplay. I rarely meet sparring partners that look to have hitting drills. The other interesting thing is that I asked someone to feed a basket to me once and he laughed about it thinking that it won’t really help at our level. My jaw dropped haha.

but yeah great point about the urgency. I need to be more on point with it so it transitions naturally into matchplay. So I guess I just need to work on movement and fitness drills to get that Federer footwork in place.

thanks for your input!

I believe the top improvement the majority of sub 4.5 level players can do is with footwork and setup. Again, you were just hitting so really the lack of pressure in that situation doesn't inspire movement, so a better video for you to post at your level is match play to see where things break down overall. I think it still would be setup and maybe being a tad late, but I'd bet you move better in matches than demonstrated in a practice. I am always trying to improve there as I get VERY lazy in practices and have to constantly remind myself to keep moving.

But I feel you. Even at the 4.0 level it took me a while to find someone who wanted to do drills and actually train over rally hitting and matches. I know a lot of our 4.5 guys have coaches and really only play matches with other 4.5 players, so they are still getting training but there is some other dynamic that maybe keeps them from doing more? I dunno. I am out with the college team that is at our club and they runn ball drills and footwork training all the time, and pros train footwork drills and fitness constantly, so not sure match play mentallity moves players up like some think. There is a balance in there for sure.

Anyway, cheers again for posting and hope to see some match play videos down the road.
 

ReopeningWed

Professional
Thank you so much for your input! I will definitely keep it in mind. Yeah I noticed that I don’t naturally get low enough. I am also the complete opposite of flexible. I have pretty tight hammies and hips.
Fognini doesn't really get low so it COULD work but I'd still stretch everyday for the injury prevention.
 

user92626

G.O.A.T.
Do you think it has to do with the quick interpreting of the foundation. Kids just listen and do reps. Adults who learn tend to try to teach themselves and play more matchplay when their foundation hasn’t been established as yet.

I have some experience with this because I talk with my coach about alot of things tennis related and this is one of them aswell.

Most adults don't progress in tennis much because most adults start playing tennis and play with friends for years and years, casual rallies, having fun, playing some matches etc..


They improve overtime of course (depending on how much coaching they have and work on their game), but the problem is that their progress is slow and limited, because they basically learned to play tennis wrong, they have no fundation, their technique is all wrong and amateur alike since they basically started playing by their own and played for years, but these habits, footwork patterns, technical strokes, fundations are all ingrained now and automatic, so changing them is a very difficult task and a slow process in any case, but most don't even have the patience to really really commit to this process.

It's not as simple as FireFTW said. I know a couple adults who had good coaching, committed the time and effort but their progress was nowhere near that I saw from kids. So, IMO, it's not really getting wrong instructions or lack of commitment.

For some reason young kids just absorb everything much faster and more successfully. To boost, their physical bodies are much more malleable. In gymnastics I don't think it's even possible to train adult bodies to be as flexible as a 10 years old's, no matter how much effort and commitment and right instructions.
 

FiReFTW

Legend
It's not as simple as FireFTW said. I know a couple adults who had good coaching, committed the time and effort but their progress was nowhere near that I saw from kids. So, IMO, it's not really getting wrong instructions or lack of commitment.

For some reason young kids just absorb everything much faster and more successfully. To boost, their physical bodies are much more malleable. In gymnastics I don't think it's even possible to train adult bodies to be as flexible as a 10 years old's, no matter how much effort and commitment and right instructions.

Of course there are other differences.

I was just pointing out a big problem that the majority of adults face and why their progress is extremely slow.

There are other factors aswell.

A few of factors kids just have the advantage naturaly, but in others they dont but still get more than most adults out of it because of circumstances.

Heres a few:

1.Kids are still learning to walk, move, run etc... adults are done learning, so kids brain absorb movement and coordination like a sponge at like 6-10, while adults or even 16year olds have aleady learned that and brain has been wired for that, so teaching kids specific tennis movement and footwork and coordination is extremely easy, but its extremely hard to teach older people, even as young as 16 because their brain has been wired and learned to move/coordinate movements a certain way.

Kids have a MAJOR advantage here, older people can still learn and improve it, but MUCH slower.

My coach says it might take an adult 10 years to learn some resemblence of movement and coordination of those who started to play as kids.

2. Kids learn new things or movement differently and easier, because they have a bigger imagination and they often imagine silly things like swating a fly when learning some specific technique movement, while adults dont and not only that, adults often question if its right and doubt it and overanalyze things and get extremely detailed about every tiny thing and if they are doing it 100% the same 100% of the time.

Again kids have some advantage here but it depends also on the person, some adults are much more suseptible to this while others are less and also have more imaginitive ways of learning and also trust and do whatever the coach says.

3.Adults lack money and time compared to kids and juniors (whos parents have money and time they have unlimited amount).

Without getting too much in detail, kids simply train, have more coaching and play more than pretty much all adults so its normal they progress faster.

And their tennis time is MUCH MUCH more, than any adult, no doubt about it.

4hours per day 6 days per week, private coaching, group coaching, sparring, practice, drills, match play, tournaments

Lets be real, not a single adult in the world will come close to matching this unless rich, with all the time in the world and obsessed about becoming a good tennis player

Kids dont have a natural advantage here, but they simply get more from this

4.Adults are not patient, most adults are not patient enough to risk wins to risk playing to really learn fundamentals and basics upon which they can build, hence most coaches opt for some compromise where they get results faster but at the cost of the end goal, if you really want to become great at something you need a good fundation to build on first, start extremely slow, with boring repetitions and boring drills for months and months without even hitting a ball almost, and building a player very slowly, its a long process, kids go through it, kids start learning footwork, basic shadow swings and learning fundamentals and technique and then slowly basket feeds... it takes a long long time when kids have so good fundamentals and basics that they start playing matches tournaments etc..

Again almost no adult will ever do this or go over this slow boring repetitive process and not even play matches or hit with friends

Kids again dont have a natural advantage here but again they get much more out of it than pretty much any adult because they simply dont have the patience for it

I think @Toby14 is someone who went through it, perhaps he can say smt about it, but 99.999% adults wont because they dont have the patience for it

There are some others aswell... but i typed too much already, my poor fingers
 

user92626

G.O.A.T.
You and your partners can give pointers to a lot of folks here. This is easily one of the best doubles videos posted by a member here.

Pointers are a dime a dozen here. :)

Problem has always been actual doing. There's a gigantic gap between getting a pointer and implementing it.
 

mcs1970

Hall of Fame
Pointers are a dime a dozen here. :)

Problem has always been actual doing. There's a gigantic gap between getting a pointer and implementing it.

Pointers are always good. So many folks here with varying abilities.... just because it is beyond my capabilities to implement, doesn't mean it's beyond yours. Certain pointers here have definitely helped my game and overall consistency.

Anyway, I was just responding to his doubles video post in which he asked folks to offer any pointers. I was just trying to say that a lot of folks would be better off getting pointers from him. Excellent play.
 

NuBas

Legend
You and your partners can give pointers to a lot of folks here. This is easily one of the best doubles videos posted by a member here.

It was fun to watch, even skilled level between all four guys and looked like they enjoy constructing points. Odd to see 3 one handed backhands and 1 double handed backhand.
 

Richboi

Rookie

I just linked another vid with a closer view. @NuBas can you please give me a few pointers on my serve. I feel as though I am not reaching the potential. There’s something about my left hand and uncoiling that I feel is off. I know for sure I can serve bigger. My service game is around the 1:00 min mark I think.

I’m wearing green btw.
 

Qubax

Professional
I think the Video is adding a few pounds. You can tell it's not scaled proportionately. Not to say that being slim isn't great for tennis, but I think the video makes you perhaps look bigger then you are.
 

IowaGuy

Hall of Fame

I just linked another vid with a closer view. @NuBas can you please give me a few pointers on my serve. I feel as though I am not reaching the potential. There’s something about my left hand and uncoiling that I feel is off. I know for sure I can serve bigger. My service game is around the 1:00 min mark I think.

I’m wearing green btw.

Take a look at this paper.

https://pdfs.semanticscholar.org/17...9.1776618423.1544572676-1541483121.1544572676

Look at some stills of different points in your serve (for example at 1:28) and compare to Figure 6 and Figure 11 in the paper. Notice how much more "loading" and "cocking" an ATP serve has compared to yours. That would explain some of the power that you're leaving on the table.

Food for thought...
 

NuBas

Legend
I just linked another vid with a closer view. @NuBas can you please give me a few pointers on my serve. I feel as though I am not reaching the potential. There’s something about my left hand and uncoiling that I feel is off. I know for sure I can serve bigger. My service game is around the 1:00 min mark I think.

I’m wearing green btw.

Not sure why you're asking me, I'm no expert at the serve but the times when I hit my biggest serves is when I hit it at full body extension. You have a sweet motion already. What I do is throw my racquet straight into the air and try to contact it at my highest reach so that the racquet can travel into the ball.
 

Richboi

Rookie
Take a look at this paper.

https://pdfs.semanticscholar.org/17...9.1776618423.1544572676-1541483121.1544572676

Look at some stills of different points in your serve (for example at 1:28) and compare to Figure 6 and Figure 11 in the paper. Notice how much more "loading" and "cocking" an ATP serve has compared to yours. That would explain some of the power that you're leaving on the table.

Food for thought...

I feel as though my toss or balance is holding me back from loading. I’m not the greatest at timing my toss. For example when I throw it higher and try to load I feel like I lose balance (like I am too eager to go hit the ball when it isn’t the right time yet).

but on a side note I probably just need to serve baskets to figure it out. Thanks!
 

Richboi

Rookie
Not sure why you're asking me, I'm no expert at the serve but the times when I hit my biggest serves is when I hit it at full body extension. You have a sweet motion already. What I do is throw my racquet straight into the air and try to contact it at my highest reach so that the racquet can travel into the ball.

I asked you because you gave some good pointers before lol.
 

NuBas

Legend
I asked you because you gave some good pointers before lol.

You give me some pointers on the serve, how do you place it so well? IMO your footwork and movement is top notch for rec player, its something everyone should emulate.
 

Richboi

Rookie
You give me some pointers on the serve, how do you place it so well? IMO your footwork and movement is top notch for rec player, its something everyone should emulate.

I naturally had a nice feel when I started playing. But what I found out that really helped with placement is that a lot of times rec players try to force the ball to go to the area which makes them alter their stroke. You really have to find the right spot on the ball that you want to hit. keep the similar swing path and eyes thru contact.

Instead of muscling the ball to go wide. just tweak the angle a bit and it goes. It’s all on feel and practice I think. Unless there’s a technical set back then we need to take a look
 

NuBas

Legend
I naturally had a nice feel when I started playing. But what I found out that really helped with placement is that a lot of times rec players try to force the ball to go to the area which makes them alter their stroke. You really have to find the right spot on the ball that you want to hit. keep the similar swing path and eyes thru contact.

Instead of muscling the ball to go wide. just tweak the angle a bit and it goes. It’s all on feel and practice I think. Unless there’s a technical set back then we need to take a look

That's pretty much what I settled upon regarding my strokes and serve. Once I put my attention on the ball itself, it cured a lot of problems.
 

Richboi

Rookie
That's pretty much what I settled upon regarding my strokes and serve. Once I put my attention on the ball itself, it cured a lot of problems.

Yeah, don’t worry about the path or how to hit it. If you are satisfied with your strokes then just focus on the ball itself. It’s all feel and practice at that point. Remember it travels on its own (as dumb as that sounds :laughing::laughing:) aslong as you keep your eye on it and know which part of it to contact
 

user92626

G.O.A.T.
So are you saying my check's in the mail?

"Someone's gotta go back and get a s**t load of dimes!" - Slim Pickens, when the desperado group are stymied by the toll booth in *Blazing Saddles*.

Checks and checkbook is so old school.


But I can't mail you dimes either. The postage cost for them is too much.

Instead, I will give you ...a like.
 

Rafaboy

Semi-Pro
you are doing well, but the only problem i see in many rec players , you warm up, reach a certain moderate tempo, and stay in that groove.

once warmed up suffuciently, you need to take the intensity to your highest possible level, then exceed yourself. otherwise, you will remain complacent in your comfort zone.

watch a few practice vids of top pros. notice the furious pace towards the latter part of their sessions, once timing and placement have been established.
 
D

Deleted member 54265

Guest
Of course there are other differences.

I was just pointing out a big problem that the majority of adults face and why their progress is extremely slow.

There are other factors aswell.

A few of factors kids just have the advantage naturaly, but in others they dont but still get more than most adults out of it because of circumstances.

Heres a few:

1.Kids are still learning to walk, move, run etc... adults are done learning, so kids brain absorb movement and coordination like a sponge at like 6-10, while adults or even 16year olds have aleady learned that and brain has been wired for that, so teaching kids specific tennis movement and footwork and coordination is extremely easy, but its extremely hard to teach older people, even as young as 16 because their brain has been wired and learned to move/coordinate movements a certain way.

Kids have a MAJOR advantage here, older people can still learn and improve it, but MUCH slower.

My coach says it might take an adult 10 years to learn some resemblence of movement and coordination of those who started to play as kids.

2. Kids learn new things or movement differently and easier, because they have a bigger imagination and they often imagine silly things like swating a fly when learning some specific technique movement, while adults dont and not only that, adults often question if its right and doubt it and overanalyze things and get extremely detailed about every tiny thing and if they are doing it 100% the same 100% of the time.

Again kids have some advantage here but it depends also on the person, some adults are much more suseptible to this while others are less and also have more imaginitive ways of learning and also trust and do whatever the coach says.

3.Adults lack money and time compared to kids and juniors (whos parents have money and time they have unlimited amount).

Without getting too much in detail, kids simply train, have more coaching and play more than pretty much all adults so its normal they progress faster.

And their tennis time is MUCH MUCH more, than any adult, no doubt about it.

4hours per day 6 days per week, private coaching, group coaching, sparring, practice, drills, match play, tournaments

Lets be real, not a single adult in the world will come close to matching this unless rich, with all the time in the world and obsessed about becoming a good tennis player

Kids dont have a natural advantage here, but they simply get more from this

4.Adults are not patient, most adults are not patient enough to risk wins to risk playing to really learn fundamentals and basics upon which they can build, hence most coaches opt for some compromise where they get results faster but at the cost of the end goal, if you really want to become great at something you need a good fundation to build on first, start extremely slow, with boring repetitions and boring drills for months and months without even hitting a ball almost, and building a player very slowly, its a long process, kids go through it, kids start learning footwork, basic shadow swings and learning fundamentals and technique and then slowly basket feeds... it takes a long long time when kids have so good fundamentals and basics that they start playing matches tournaments etc..

Again almost no adult will ever do this or go over this slow boring repetitive process and not even play matches or hit with friends

Kids again dont have a natural advantage here but again they get much more out of it than pretty much any adult because they simply dont have the patience for it

I think @Toby14 is someone who went through it, perhaps he can say smt about it, but 99.999% adults wont because they dont have the patience for it

There are some others aswell... but i typed too much already, my poor fingers

FiReFTW I agree with both your posts, as I as an adult who never played tennis before was trained like you train a kid. I have told my story before in this thread post #18 and forward:

https://tt.tennis-warehouse.com/ind...guys-and-late-beginners.613199/#post-12140669

Reflecting on my progress I have to give most of the credit to my coach.

The key issue, and this is kind of hard to tell, is that not every coach / pro are the same, and far from. I have in my short years as a tennis player perhaps trained under 15 different coaches, in 1 to 1, in clinics in camps etc. They have been from young guys (good players), to experienced pros one was even a former top ATP 50 player, one was a coach on the highest level (he made a Grand Slam Winner), and the difference is like night and day. My current coach is the top of the top, he is a kind of zen tennis master, and old man but the most amazing coach. When you finally meet such a coach, and get training at the highest level, you really experience what progression is all about. I am working with my coach 3 times a week for the last 3 years, and I kind of owe everything to his teaching. I know this will **** some pros off here at this forum as well as players working with coaches - but this is my honest opinion.

Another key element is that mu coach always put me together with better players so I had the luck always to play up my level.

The coach is the most important in the equation to become a good player IMO.

A little story: I was playing with a junior girl last year (we got training by the same coach) and at 14 I could not keep up with her. I was thinking it was the youth kicking in and as she grew older she would completely wipe me out. Now her "stupid" parents had a fall out with the coach, and the training stopped. This was one year ago. She is a top 10 national ranked junior at 15, training 2 x 2 hours a day 6 days a week, but with different coaches, I can see that she is getting some flaws in her technique, and to my surprise I kind of passed her this last year. She is training more than ever, only different is the coach. She has progressed by playing a lot, but I have progressed even more because of technique (my coach is a master in technique, and slowly building a player (me) up from the ground).

So you can as an adult progress more than kids in the same time, but I guess it takes a special approach as an adult.

Coach is saying that it takes 5 years to build a player and 10 years to build a competitive player.

I am soon getting to the competitive part, my fundamentals is I guess is around 5.0 but my cooperative level is no more that max 4.0 (still only play friendly games) - so I will officially downgrade my overall level to 4.5 - I will adjust when I get an official UTR rating.

I am not here at TT so much anymore, because I also have to work. But this place is a great resource to get inspiring ideas, I discuss with my coach who is very open for new ideas to try out.

Cheers, Toby

PS to the original poster - my coach would tell you that in your forehand you have to use your left arm much more and go with the ball like these guys (this is kind of how we practice a lot, hard feeding balls and high tempo, not the wet ball part):

 

FiReFTW

Legend
Not sure if you guys get notified if I comment here again, but I guess I will find out. Here's a quick vid of me hitting again along with a side perspective. I also tried my best with adding more backhands here so I can get some criticism on it haha.


Tnx for posting.

Nice swing technique, very smooth and fluid motion, you rarely see that here on this forum from people posting vids.
 

Richboi

Rookie
Tnx for posting.

Nice swing technique, very smooth and fluid motion, you rarely see that here on this forum from people posting vids.

Oh so you guys do get notified. Thanks. I just read over this thread again and I do believe that I do not get low enough on my shots. I know the ratings here on this forum are always misleading but I'm curious as to what your rating is @FiReFTW
 

NuBas

Legend
Not sure if you guys get notified if I comment here again, but I guess I will find out. Here's a quick vid of me hitting again along with a side perspective. I also tried my best with adding more backhands here so I can get some criticism on it haha.

Note: This was the 3rd hour of playing so my footwork is sloppier than usual ;)

@NuBas @mcs1970 @ReopeningWed


Nice swing. For some reason your racquet looks shorter than normal size. I can see why you get jammed on your backhand side, its kind of lacks the extension you have on the forehand.
 

FiReFTW

Legend
Oh so you guys do get notified. Thanks. I just read over this thread again and I do believe that I do not get low enough on my shots. I know the ratings here on this forum are always misleading but I'm curious as to what your rating is @FiReFTW

I have no rating, im from europe.
 

Richboi

Rookie
For some reason your racquet looks shorter than normal size

well someone did say earlier in this thread that I needed to lose some weight. I sort of figured out why my backhand isn't as consistent/comfortable. Working on it now.
 

NuBas

Legend
well someone did say earlier in this thread that I needed to lose some weight. I sort of figured out why my backhand isn't as consistent/comfortable. Working on it now.

What did you realize? I was just talking about your racquet. A guy I know chopped off a portion of his handle to make it shorter :laughing:
 

Richboi

Rookie
What did you realize? I was just talking about your racquet. A guy I know chopped off a portion of his handle to make it shorter :laughing:

haha. When I did my take back for the backhand I tend to use my right hand more than my left. This makes it funky to them transfer the control of the racket to my left hand.
 

dgold44

G.O.A.T.
.

Hey all! Just wanted to know if you got any tips for me to improve my game. More specifically towards footwork/taking the ball earlier. I also feel as though I get jammed on my backhand when trying to position for it. I haven’t had a coach in years, have been learning the game myself haha. Anything would help!

btw I started off warming up. picked up the hitting after

You need more topspin and drop the racket under the ball to achieve more spin
Push off your back foot more and don’t slow down your swing
Also you may be a tad to stocky for singles
 
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