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I was going to say that, but you beat me to it. The difficulty of speeding up a "low to high" swing is one of the reasons it pays to generate topspin from (laugh, here goes) ISR immediately before and through contact. It's harder to learn but easier to time when changing swing speed.

The question, whether a big rotation back of the shoulders matters, overlooks what really does matter. Also, in comparing the platform and pin-point servers, you're missing a key difference between those styles that matters, which is the orientation of their feet, which is always much more...

Wish I had saved a link, but: Recent research on forehand velocity showed that strength was not very important. Form is what delivers it. The sequence of muscle actions in correct coiling and uncoiling, together with synchronized timing of actions which support each other in the forward...

It's difficult to talk/write about tennis form without causing some confusion simply because terms and phrases are not commonly defined/trained. Here goes: To stay "relaxed" when hitting a forehand really does just mean "use the appropriate muscles at the appropriate time without unnecessary...

The retraction in the OHBH swing for power has this evidence: As you squeeze the shoulder-blades together, it accelerates both arms outward toward the side. It is that which causes essentially every OHBH player's off-side arm to automatically move out and up to the side in sync with what their...

It stuns me how little use people make of high-speed-recording... slo-mo playback videos of pro strokes. First, if put up on a big computer monitor alongside each other, slowly using the "." key or spacebar, watching them in pairs, the commonalities are enormous and become clear if patience is...

The right scapula protraction happens automatically if we get the racquet back fully in the backswing. Scapular retraction, especially if well-timed, is a big contributor to RH speed out into contact. Whether looking at Guga or Justine, the final motion downward of the racquet just before/into...

Two assumptions seem off-base to me in the question posed. The first is that taking one's FH or BH grip is difficult to do repeatedly accurately. It seems to me good players starting with two hands on the racquet have multiple points of feel to determine their hand placement. There are...

I would suppose we can agree that the problem the poster described, about his hand, isn't about rotating his hand, but about the effect which rotating his forearm or upper arm has on his hand. I haven't seen a good player that rotates only his forearm without the elbow rotating, but I may have...

I'm not sure why you would supinate the hand to generate topspin. It seems to me you can supinate the forearm, but it won't generate topspin. Assuming you do "put your racquet into lag, lay back your wrist" at the start of forehand forward motion, as people are wont to say it (as a way to say...

One day after hearing the song "America the Beautiful" the late columnist Art Buchwald wrote "I dream of a freedom-loving land of majestic purple mountains, fruitful fields, blue skies and clear waters. I dream of...Switzerland.

A dog person, actually. When I pet my dog it doesn't resemble any part of a good forehand. A pool person? Yes! Near the bottom of the arm-straightening (or hitting hand lowering...), I roll my arm and scoop like a splash. Laugh. Macci must not have spent much time in the pool as a kid?

Allow me to offer a different point of view: I think the "pat the dog" image is misleading and pointless. There is no dog. There is no patting. There are great forehand video examples in slow motion of Delpo, Fed, Tsisipas, et al available. They're worth viewing to see what they have in...

Seems sensible. Outdoors, assuming sunlight, bench surfaces and armrests should be sanitized by the sunlight, no? Tennis balls must be dry, else every hit will leave spray on the hitter, so big sweat guys should towel off extra-frequently. New balls every set wouldn't be a bad thing.

Usually, it seems, they are just talking about how Fed hits his spot when serving. This is a way of explaining to the public how it is that Roger wins so many service games without the blinding speed and heaviness of a Sampras serve. Other than serving, the spots are easy to list: Deep in the...

What's this world coming to? Meaningless tennis? meaningless sex?...oh, now I get it. Doh! What, tell me again, was it that we were trying for? A meaningless win? Yoga pants, 110 mph serves? It's all just for exercise with friends, some closer than others.

And all these years I've been playing just to increase the pleasure of the gin and tonic I have afterwards. I apparently was misinformed. As for guys playing badly with their girlfriend-in-yoga-pants, I'd like to remind other old guys that that tennis is just the beginning of the workout.

Aside from reflecting that my shorts, at least, are full of other things, I can only ask this: How did you reason to the notion that a tennis bag, inert and sitting by the fence, affect social distancing? I'm actually curious. Have you, like WHO's Tedros Adhanam, Dr. Berx, and Dr. Fauci...

It must be a serve that either sends electricity into those watching, or a shock to your opponent.

I'll bring my bag to the court: It's what holds my sanitizer, towel, shirt change, spare can of balls, spare racquet in case I break a string!!

OK OK I can't take it any more -I confess: When my son was twelve I lost faith in the local coaching. I was convinced (and rightly) that while most of them played reasonably well, they didn't really know what they were doing and had lots in their game that was idiosyncratic. Fortunately, there...

Laugh. That sarc does liven things up.

I speak with people in the Stockholm area nearly every week for RE biz. On Thursday it seemed people in Stockholm were suddenly much more anxious about CoVid19. Being sparsely populated Sweden will only be hit hard in Stockholm, Malmö, Göteborg, etc., and in nursing/elder facilities. I think...

Yep. And in Chicago the dead sometimes win...

Federer doesn't have a fixed answer, but you expect me to? Depends on the opponent and your own skills. You're placing a bet each time you make the choice. You're also taking into account your own ability. Some players may be able to guess the opponent will go to your left, but your own...

Since you're measuring a random variabe (wins the point or not, you don't know in advance), and using a large enough sample (number of tries) to make the little experiment yield to mathematics, the rules of probability require by convention (and for more complicated mathematical reasons), that...

It sounds to me, from your second point, that your racquet face is already starting downward slightly at contact, inducing a bit of underspin. That can happen if you keep your hitting shoulder tight through contact or toss too far out front. You can experiment with changing those. I would...

In preface, I should say that if you try what I write next, the hardest part will be getting your timing back, having the racquet head contact the ball at the right instant ofr appropriate direction. That fixes itself over a few weeks. I first learned to serve "right" by exactly copying one...

I have to laugh. I disagree with everyone I've ever heard comment on Federer's forehand head-turn. I've watched hundreds of slow-mo's repeatedly, frame-by-frame. I do agree with this: Those who say that the racquet's path has already been determined by the moment Fed turns his head seem...

Yes, but you caught Roger a few frames to late. He goes from quite square shoulders to what you show in the second frame. Yes, the hitting hand/arm also "extends" forward. I think the shoulder action is a central part of extension, though.