What is the strength that separates the very top pros from the rest of the field.
Is it technique, focus, mental strength, tactics, or all of the above? You could very well call it a combination of all of those. But in a very special way.
Strangely enough, they are interrelated in one particular aspect. They are all geared to help each other in simplifying the task. The body helps the stroke, the focus helps the mind, the timing helps the power, the tactics are to use your strength.
How could all this happen and not get lost in a maze of data? Very simply. Let's make an absurd example. Lets say you are a well taught player, by conventional teaching standards, and you are in the final of the US Open. You pay attention to your feet position, the path of your backswing, you make sure you prepare early for the shot (you already pictured in your mind where the ball is going to bounce and how), you are also thinking of where you are going to hit the shot to make sure you don't miss it, and secondly, to get your opponent on the run. What would happen? You probably miss the ball entirely!
Well, that is what conventional tennis coaching does to the average player. You have been told that you do all that and one day you'll be a champ! Unfortunately all you'll get is to look like a "chump".
That is an absurd example and an absurd link to the so-called "conventional" tennis. However, if you look at the word "conventional" it can mean "following
accepted customs and proprieties." Acceptance is the key word and when you try to paint a picture of us following customs that are accepted but are dated in the 1950's that in and of itself is absurd.
I saw your post on aligning the butt cap to the ball for the slice backhand. That is conventional advice you just provided. It is accepted advice and is commonly used amongst many teaching professionals. Many coaches subscribe to the butt cap towards the ball on groundstrokes especially. This can be taught in a variety of ways through direct instruction or indirect instruction.
So, since you just used conventional wisdom to help a player, can we call you the "Father of Modern Conventional Tennis"?
Let's face it Oscar, the forehand has been taught for many many years, yes the same one you teach. Windshield wiper and all. Even the wrap around finish with the elbow pointing to the opponent or some say the butt cap pointing to the opponent.
Good coaches realize that the game of tennis is more than thinking about where your feet are and if you are in the right grip.
For you to provide an absurd unrealistic example, and then link it to the way coaches teach tennis is absurd in itself. The truth is, the clear majority of coaches try to keep things simple as best they can and only offer more information as the student needs it or asks for it. A "maze" of data is pure exaggeration.
Top pros achieve a delicate balance of timing, power, control, coordination, focus, and endurance with their instinct and feel. They are focusing on the ball and let their instinct work things out, finding the ball as well as possible, and then let power fly. They judge their stroke by its feel.
Top pros acheive this through their own hard work and dedication as well. Top pros have drilled and drilled and drilled to become the top level athletes they have become. Top level pros also have something many of us don't have - the right combination of genes.
Feel comes from repetition as the brain learns and understands what muscles it needs to fire at the right time. This produces a certain feeling when it is done right and the brain learns when it has done it right.
A player can learn tennis in a variety of ways and every way has its strengths and weaknesses. Isolating those that don't teach your way is a bit Hitlerish to me.
Building blocks are what matters in tennis. Many coaches simply focus on technique. They may teach a certain level of players and that is it. Many times it is the student themselves that are content with this type of tennis training. They don't want to get in shape and the instructor is stuck just trying to maintain their technique.
Most of the top pros today have had a role model when they were kids, not just of conduct, but a player they admired as a performer and his/her strokes. Imitation of top players does give you some of the best technique available. If your admired player is weak in one stroke, you can always copy that particular swing from another top pro.
What is important is not to copy the pro, but to copy the key fundamentals that are common amongst all pros. That is how instruction is derived. That is how you created your instruction.
To sum it up, the best technique is that which lets you feel the most. If you observe the ball all the way, you find it well, and have a reasonable stroke, with a nice feel and a known finish, you need to think of nothing else.
Come on Oscar. The best technique is what is common amongst advanced to professional players. You first have to understand what to do. Then you have to practice it to develop your ability to make it automatic and move into other areas to improve your game. Feel comes after you understand what to do, how to do it, and practice what it is you need to do. Now I can agree that feel is being developed through all stages of a players tennis journey. Some players will learn quicker in this area than others just as some develop their footwork faster than others. Feel can be developed along with the necessary cognitive and psycho-motor needs that many instructors perform knowingly and unknowingly.
Overall, stay in present time and don't rush. You have more time than you think.
So simplify your tennis, feel the ball in your strings, and avoid thinking of anything else but the ball.
If you have trouble clearing your mind, count to five, 1 at the bounce, the 2, 3, 4, a little pause, and then hit at 5.
The first by-product is, you'll focus on the ball better. The second, you'll find there is more time than you think.
That is more complicated than the HIT-BOUNCE-HIT using yoru front foot for timing your forward swing. A player needs to develop three main things:
1. Racquet preparation before the bounce.
2. Their timing step to initiate their forward swing.
3. Their contact with the ball.
4. Their followthrough and recovery.
Many players limited to your kind of count, forget they have to move and recover. Clearing the mind is the last thing a player needs to do.
What a player needs to do is dwell on the
right things to help him play better. Mental toughness, development, building blocks, skill development, are all things that take place before a match. When a player is in a match, they need to be mentally prepared to stick to their game plan, make adjustments as the game changes, provide self-diagnosis, find the keys that unlock their opponent's game, and use the skills developed through practice and execute them at game time.
This is common, accepted (conventional), and researched practice for nearly every single sport.