I guess we'll never know if you
really won since the camera died
Some tactical points:
@1:01 You win the point going cross-court, and it's fine here. I would note to be a little cautious though. When you approach moving right and hit back to the deuce court it leaves you open for a relatively easy down-the-line return winner if they can get their racket on the ball. Most of the time I'd go once more to their backhand then finish across.
@1:37 It's so, so tempting to go across court there, but the better shot is almost always down the line. It's to his backhand, and it should be easier for you. When you go across if he gets any moderately good volley he can put it away for a winner.
@4:15 Similar story, you've hit a good serve out wide, and he returns far across the court. Your shot should go down the line and make him hit a backhand. You will be following it, covering the right side of court aggressively because he'll have little angle to go across court.
@9:22 You win this point, but I'd change what you did. When he moves you across court you hit that chip/slice short to his forehand. It's a defensive shot, so I get that it's not a preference, but put that down the line. I knew as soon as you hit it that he was going to approach off it.
@10:37 I love running around backhands, but this is a risky play. If you're going to be that far off the court, you really want to get that return either down the line, or you need to get it all the way across to his backhand. If he'd stepped in to play that ball he could've finished it across court, or more likely made you hit a difficult running forehand that he could put away with a volley.
@11:20 Every time I hit a ball out up the center of the court, I ask myself why would I have gone there. It's the shortest amount of court, and the easiest for my opponent to return. There's always a better option.
More strategic thoughts:
- You serve to his forehand almost every time. No joke, I only actually remember one backhand return, and he could've easily played it as a forehand. I'd make this a focus, you're usually serving the ball nice and deep in the box. If those shots are going to backhands you'll be feasting on short returns.
- When you have time to setup on forehands, you're often still playing the ball too close to your body. I'd say many, if not most, of those frustrating "easy" shots you miss are somewhat caused by it. It's difficult to recognize in play because the technique doesn't always bite you, but it's certainly complicating things.
>>Upon reflection, I suspect this is also why you're going to forehands in some disadvantageous situations. It's harder to hit that inside-out forehand across court when the ball is close to your body.
- I liked your attempts to make him play "vertically". He did surprisingly well for a tall-looking guy, but I'd argue the mix of shots kept him a little more off balance.
- You missed some forehand putaways because you're not gathering before the shot, basically just swinging while running forward. It'll go in occasionally, but look to get set a little at the point of contact.
- When he hit balls shallow in the court you did very well putting them away when you stepped into the court. I wouldn't go crazy with it, but I think you could even be a little more aggressive. My personal guidance is if I get the opponent to fully turn their body to hit a shot, I'm automatically taking 2-3 steps into the court. With your forehand, you can reliably put shots away in there, and it's a world of difference from the same attempt at the baseline.
- Overall I'd say you did a significantly better job of hitting shots deeper in the court, and going to his backhand during points. You could probably stand to work his backhand as he approaches more. Not sure I even saw enough times where he got backhand volleys to tell.
And, it'd be unrealistic to expect any real change in your service motion over a few days, but I'll mention again that most of the power is from your arm. You are probably getting some power from moving forward, such as @9:28, but what you really want is to be going up through the ball. There's a good writeup on the concept here:
https://www.feeltennis.net/swing-up-serve/
Last thought - you're uploading very good quality videos. You may already be doing this, but if you're struggling to see where you went wrong on a shot, slow the video speed down to 1/2 or 3/4ths. I find it incredibly helpful to see what mistakes I'm making when it isn't full speed. I mean, I messed it up once already at full speed, why would this next time be different?
