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I was just pointing out that what he was describing as part of the unit turn wasn't even totally accurate when describing the first step. So he was wrong on multiple levels.

There's also a bunch of ways to initiate the first step besides a simple step out with the outside foot. Good athletes will tend to naturally use all of them in different situations, but you can actually train people to use them as well.

This is exactly why I tend to think of teaching as a callaborative process. I want to know what you're feeling, what's working, what's not, and then figure out together where to go from there. This happens over the course of time and requires building trust. If someone shows up for lesson one...

So a true Tabata is supposed to be the same activity repeated for the intervals, preferably something that involves as many large muscle groups as possible. You're just supposed to absolutely annihilate those muscles over and over again. That isn't to say what @tlm is doing isn't a damn great...

If you have never read The Inner Game of Tennis, then you should. I think every tennis player should read that at least once in their life. I'm also a fan of Jeff Greenwald's stuff. I used his book The Best Tennis of Your Life: 50 Mental Strategies for Fearless Performance when I was really...

Oh, you definitely can pull off doing 20 on and 10 off for 8 minutes if you are in good shape, but you won't hit the intensity requirements of the actual protocol. You will also get a lot of benefit from doing that kind of training. It's just that doing anything on that interval at any...

Tabata was originally done with Olympic level athletes (speed skaters if I recall) and the work to rest ratio is only part of the protocol. I believe they had to maintain something like 80% of peak work rate through all the intervals to complete it successfully. It crushed those guys, but it...

The Tabata protocol done properly is basically designed to almost kill you. Easing into it would be getting yourself into extremely good condition both with your cardio base and your anaerobic endurance. I'm actually kind of easing my way into HIIT right now. I do sprint intervals every...

Legs straight, rotation starts from the ground and getting a little bit of weight loaded up by flexing at your hips and knees a little bit (keep the neutral spine so you can rotate properly) could help jump start it. Of course, once it's loaded up you need to actually unload it and use that...

Also, I keep forgetting to mention...someone stole the shirt off your back.

You're definitely a little tight with the shoulder rotation, and standing up straight a lot for those two-handers. The arm position and general form doesn't look too bad though. Like I said, I didn't get a great look because you were out of frame for a lot of the backhands you hit, and the...

You seem to be decelerating a lot on your forehand. I know that was "casual" hitting, but you can still be accelerating into contact when hitting casual. You also tend to swing across the ball right to left instead of out through the ball. A lot of short finishes and reverse finishes. I...

Fed absolutely brutalizes Blake over and over in that video. He was so explosive back then.

Because that isn't tennis specific training...that's called cross training. Learn words. Knowing how to throw a ball before I can even remember, and playing baseball, baketball, and football before I ever picked up a racquet helped develop a lot of different athletic qualities that aided me...

You're describing a game style and not a level of play. I've known 5.0 players who serve and volley and have suspect groundstrokes on both sides. I've known 5.0 players with stronger backhands than forehands. I've known 5.0 players with weak serves that are awesome returners. Not everyone...

I've played plenty of people that were in better physical condition than me (I have severe exercise induced asthma, it's almost a given you have better cardio than I do). I've beaten plenty of them too. What's your point? That a strong and slow fitness instructor that wasn't a good tennis...

It's almost like hitting the ball consistently deep and with purpose can beat someone who hits harder and spinnier...hmmmm...

I actually used to know a 4.5 man that played in a doubles league with me who would volley two hands on both sides. He could also take the other hand off and volley one-handed when he had to reach for the ball. He didn't have the best volley technique, but he played super tight on the net and...

I played doubles against a guy in college that went pro and played doubles fairly successfully (won 18 atp doubles titles). Not the same obviously, but I've also hit with some higher ranked females. I practiced with Sabine Lisicki once. Her serve is fast.

I don't think either one of those guys would clean their clocks as you say. Using the eye test at a certain point is an unreliable measure of judgment. Tons of people used to ask me why I wasn't playing #1 singles when I was playing #2 in high school. I was 6'2" tall with a huge serve, huge...

Well...the first time I played tennis I was convinced the pros must be playing on bigger courts than we were, because I kept hitting line drives into the back fence. I was 8 at the time...but there you go.

So when they leave their feet, land, and then take a quick start to the ball...that isn't a split step in your view? What constitutes a split step according to you? Describe it for me please.

Ummmmmmmmm...I saw split steps on almost every ball, and all of their service returns. Osaka missed one split step when she was shuffling back from the corner and got wrong footed by a ball behind her. What exactly do you think a split step looks like? Either you don't know what it actually...

I think everyone tends to overestimate how good they would actually look on video... I used to be rated 5.0, but due to age and a long list of health issues in the past two years I would not be able to compete at that level. Right now, as I'm getting back in shape and playing sets with some...

In other words, split stepping badly is bad. :eek: When you first start attempting to split step you will likely mistime them and have a tendency to stick when you land instead of spring off the balls of your feet and make a quick reaction. This will cause you to actually be slower while...

I like the medicine ball, but you have to remember to start relatively light because people will do all sorts of things to sling that thing around. I would actually cue people to use a proper hitting stance while throwing the med ball, emphasize the drive off the back leg and weight on the...

Oh, I forgot...spacing on your forehand. An easy starter drill that I like that you can do off the ball machine is to get into your unit turn and make sure that your left arm is fully extended across your body roughly parallel to the baseline. Then you move into position and try to catch the...

You can sort the disagreement that ByeByePoly and I have about your back leg movement out for yourself. I stand by my recommendations there. I'd also say that bent/straight is basically where you were in the last video and is a good model to go with. I happen to hit straight/straight, but...

Take a serious look at that Djokovic video and see when his back leg actually whips around in front of his body... spoiler alert, it doesn't. The back leg being dragged forward slightly by the hips after the rotation is complete does happen to some extent on some shots. That isn't what is...

Saying there is no such thing as tennis specificity because there are no exercises that originated from tennis is just daft. All different disciplines can and will use exercises from anywhere if they are effective. The specificity part comes down to which exercises to choose and how to program...