What's your level, and what technical or mechanical problem have you solved lately?

3.5 here. And I am ever so proud of myself for solving a pretty big problem I had for years.

I used to be a Multiple Tosser. I frequently caught tosses, sometimes 3, 4, 5 times. The more times I caught a toss, the more likely I was to rush the next toss. After a couple, I would resign myself to hitting the next toss no matter what, because a fault was better than the daggers everyone was shooting out of their eyes at me.

No more. I fixed it with one change.

The tossing arm has to reach up like I'm trying to touch Jupiter. Nice, slow toss, but the left arm has to be strong and fully extended. That will give me the height, placement, and control I was looking for with multiple tosses.

It can be love-40, match point down, and the only thing that matters is trying to touch Jupiter.

Cindy -- who is working hard to keep her mouth shut with her social tennis friends, a couple of whom are Multiple Tossers, because she won't tell them about Jupiter until they specifically ask her for advice

I will give this a try.

Big improvement on my serve with leaving the tossing arm in place a little longer, much like what Cindy is talking about.

About a 4.0 NTRP

4-4.5 (non USA resident). Only recently, mainly due to watching Mortaglou videos, have I abandoned the idea promoted here of having the hitting arm passively pulled by torso rotation. As a result, finally fixed my problem with low pace balls
Another recent fix has been finally realizing that without keeping a straight back, there is no way of hitting a fast serve

I wouldn't say I've solved it, but I've been working harder on getting more shoulder rotation into my one-handed backhand.

More backhand topspin by spreading my top hand grip. Such a simple change, but it was the thing that clicked. One thing I'm afraid I'll never solve is maintaining focus throughout a match. I can't consistently watch the ball/keep my head still. Edit: 4.0!

My toss is **** but I've noticed a trend that whenever I slow down the toss it's usually good. I'm trying to remember to not rush the toss.

OTOH, I feel like (emphasis on feel) my PTD issues have been somewhat addressed. I had this major problem where I'd drop my racquet too far and it'd cause extreme ulnar deviation before leading to correct wrist extension. It'd create lots of spin obviously but was causing my forehand to have some major timing issues unless I practised routinely, and sapped a fair bit of power forcing me to swing that much faster just to keep the pace up in rallies. Simply keeping the tip of my racquet up at the end of the takeback, and then leaning / tilting slightly to the right (as in dipping my right shoulder a bit) as I swing seems to have fixed it. Previously, my shoulders would be almost perfectly parallel to the ground and the right arm would drop to whatever height was needed.

Well I fixed my take back on my FH. I had been bring the racket back too low and inside and that led to some chicken winging and spacing issues with the follow through.

So I really focused on the high elbow take back and that got things sorted out nicely. Just have to keep reminding myself. Its a problem from golf where you are taught to keep the elbow tight to the body on the back swing and while that works for the golf swing it is death to the tennis FH.

I hate when muscle memory from different sports creeps into other sports. Rarely is it terribly helpful.

4.0 regressed to 3.5 since pandemic. Recently got better at really throwing the racquet into the ball on serve, helped by a technical change to my toss - tossing further into the court.

Level...we will see in the next days, but I always say high 3.5 to middling 4.0, depending on day. Anyway...

Since moving to playing D1 or D2 dubs for our league I have had to get my FH volley back in shape. Well, volleying all-around, but I have had the WORST habit on my FH volley of tacking the racquet back too much, and also keeping the ball to close to my body. So have been working on both of those adjustments in practice. Technical/mechanical is limiting the backswing and finishing through the ball, and setup is just footwork.

UTR 5 singles (6 dbls) ... fixing up FH racket drop - way too short and horizontal and ridiculous

Isn't Jupiter kinda far away tho....

Bender said:

My toss is **** but I've noticed a trend that whenever I slow down the toss it's usually good. I'm trying to remember to not rush the toss.

OTOH, I feel like (emphasis on feel) my PTD issues have been somewhat addressed. I had this major problem where I'd drop my racquet too far and it'd cause extreme ulnar deviation before leading to correct wrist extension. It'd create lots of spin obviously but was causing my forehand to have some major timing issues unless I practised routinely, and sapped a fair bit of power forcing me to swing that much faster just to keep the pace up in rallies. Simply keeping the tip of my racquet up at the end of the takeback, and then leaning / tilting slightly to the right (as in dipping my right shoulder a bit) as I swing seems to have fixed it. Previously, my shoulders would be almost perfectly parallel to the ground and the right arm would drop to whatever height was needed.

Click to expand...

I pick a mark on the court near the hash. Scuff or scratch whatever. Then position myself so that the toss i need should be right above it. Having that mark to dial it in really helps, especially under pressure when my toss wanders everywhere.

Started as 3.5...after years of toil I've progressed to be 3.0 though. Hopefully will hit 2.5 oneday. Recently fixed what i think was a chronic low elbow in trophy problem, went back to a salzenstein "elbow the enemy " feeling, and my serve came back online. None of these fixes ever sticks though.

Went back to Eastern FH grip too after dabbling with near western for awhile. Got an attacking FH again.