Xfullcourt, I respectfully disagree with two things. First, as a expert on the history of tennis instruction (I even wrote a book on every tennis methodology I can find taught for the last 100 years and you can see it at
www.moderntenniscoaches.com in the MTM library), I would ban any coach from telling people to stay down through the shot. That is harmful. As a thirty year pro, I can tell you from experience. Now that I am an expert at Modern Tennis Methodology, or MTM, anyone who watches me teach recognizes that I can get anyone to instantly hit better even if they dont' understand why it works better than the usual mumbo jumbo that has resulted in us going from 69 top 100 players to a dozen and losing twenty million players in the USA. I teach to actually drop step off the ball to increase acceleration while hitting up and across the ball because I show them how to focus on moving right to left and hitting like the pros. I am known as a man who can get anyone to hit a ball well because I don't introduce false data such as stay down through the shot. I know of what I speak.
Silver has a problem of timing, of not stalking the ball, meaning getting into position as if he were going to catch it, and then after waiting long enough to observe it after the bounce, plants the outside foot, usually the back foot, and then blasts across it. And therein is the key. Up and across is what works for students, not moving into the ball unless i move to find the ball in optimum contact zone. You are correct about his efficiency, but I assure you if he stays down low through the shot and thinks of moving forward on most shots rather than deflecting the ball using racket head speed using the principles of martial arts which means wait until the ball is close before you react so you can observe it in present time, then he will not get better and in fact most likey get stuck. Introducing false data is what hurts instruction and why so many people on here look confused. I assure you with MTM I get students to look better than that in a couple lessons, if not within half an hour, not all over the place, looking efficiently.
Pros don't move forward unless it's incidental to where they find the ball, and neither should amateurs. I couldn't say it better than this below. Your statement about hitting up while they open the racket is bogus because they don't even open the racket, which you admit later. They actually close the racket as they pull up and across the ball. MTM teaches the FH is a right to left movement, not worrying about the racket going through the target line, which it does passively because the physics is more martial arts using torque with the racket head lagging behind the hand than using the momentum formula emphasized by the USPTA and USTA which literally has been the downfall of USA tennis. All he needs to do is wait and move from right to left across the ball and his finish will shape his swing and keep his core connected to his body. Read below and see if this makes sense.
What I’ve come to know is that all those steps that I took because I was so concerned about being in the right position took time away from me, there just wasn’t enough time for me to get into the right position because the ball was coming back and forth too quickly, and now efficiency of movement is much more important than the quickness of the movements.
This brings me to loading, which I would say is at least misinterpreted or misunderstood often.
I can’t stand hearing the statement “hit off the front foot.” I think the back foot lays the ground work for every groundstroke. If that back foot is not in position and not fully loaded, we are incapable of hitting quality consistent ground strokes. Indeed, sometimes we fire from out back foot to our front foot, and that's understandable,
but more times than not, at least at the professional level, the loading and the firing continues the player in another direction other than forward . Compare it to a shortstop. Derek Jeter has to go to his right to field a ground ball. The first thing he does, if it’s within range, he gets his right side loaded behind the ground ball, backhands the ball and fires from that right side towards first base. Imagine Jeter being taken further into the hole, and he doesn’t’ have time to plant and fire towards first base, what does he do? He jumps to create energy so he can throw the ball back in the direction that he is moving away from, not moving towards, and I think this is very similar to the way to especially hit a forehand, but a backhand as well. In tennis, as players, what we have to do as players is fight to get behind the ball and then fire, fire whatever direction we can, but fire. This loading is essential and for us, I think we’re just fortunate we have tennis rackets to do it with rather than throw from the shortstop hole.
Xfulcourt, Telling students to stay down through the shots is blatantly old school and should never be taught by any pro. I know I taught it for 25 years and no wonder I couldn't make a good living as a tennis pro. Players load off the back foot on the FH and may get down low to find the ball as I often teach but then I teach them to uppercut to the finish, with the butt of the racket assoicated at the finish with the target line of the ball.
It is commonly heard that you need to stay down though your shot. The fact is that sometimes you stay down and sometimes you don’t. It is completely unnatural to stay down through impact most the time. If you stay down all the way through the shot you are not allowing the forces of rotation from a forehand or backhand to naturally take affect. It is not the staying down that keeps the ball in the court, but the rotation of the body. The rotation helps create the spin that is needed to keep the ball in the court. It is not that you don’t get down or load for your shots; it’s just that you don’t stay down through the entire shot. With the massive rotation of the body on your groundstrokes your body will have to come out of the down position.
As for moving forward into the ball, I dare you to dispute this.
Regarding the teaching to MOVE FORWARD INTO EVERY SHOT AND DON’T MOVE BACK:
It is amazing to me that this teaching method is still being taught. It is impossible and unnatural to go forward all of the time. Using foreword momentum as a rule will cause all kinds of problems with your swing. You cannot get away with playing all offense like you could years ago. Changing from defense to offense requires great flexibility and few limitations. This method is responsible for players at all levels never reaching their full potential.
Regarding hitting through the target line which I claim is harmful to teaching versus hitting across the ball, read this.
This method was popular years ago and remains a common teaching method. The idea is that after contact you can keep the ball on the strings longer by extending your follow-through towards the target. On film it is easy to see how the better players extend their racquet after impact. The arm does NOT control this. The arm is a passenger along for the ride. As the body unwinds or uncoils, the arm will naturally extend depending on the situation. This is a huge misconception.
To physically move your arm forward trying to extend is an arm movement and independent of the body and will eventually cause all kinds of injuries.
I believe 5263 is correct, and for those of you who don't know, he's coached two of his own children from their first strokes to tennis scholarships as their primary teacher, something very few coaches have done. Even Nicky B admits he's never taken anyone from the beginning to the pros or even to tennis scholarships. Nick just takes credit for every top player that comes out of there even if they were #1 ranked before they got there (can anyone say Boris Becker?). 5263's son might have the hardest serve in college tennis and I think enough of his coaching to have a current 14 year old with a 120 mile an hour accurate serve coached in MTM for the last four years by another parent using Oscar's MTM techniques recommended to 5263 to work with given all the "top certified" pros in his area can't seem to understand how a guy hitting up and across and backs off the ball overpowers everyone and has to play 16 and18 year olds at the age of 14. I sure don't want a coach who is going to teach him to stay down through the ball or step forward when he's taught the opposite and is a great player. I've worked with the top two Tennesee 12 year old girls and both play per MTM and are barely 11 and Deana Grandes not only hits with a one handed backhand (on Oscar's latest DVD she hits with a college tennis player all out never stepping into the ball on both sides at barely 11) and she actually pulls back from every one handed backhand and she's been one or two ranked in the state for the last year and she's got over a year and half to go in the 12's. 5263 also does not brag but he has an advanced engineering degree and did not totally buy into MTM until he tested the data himself on court, though he figured out most of it by trial and error on his own.
Silver, email me at
eztennisswing@yahoo.com and I'll fix your forehand very quickly as long as you tell these folks did what I tell you worked or not.
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