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No ball flying at 70+ mph takes up speed after the bounce. It does loose less speed, creating the illusion of moving faster. I can't recall where, but someone figured out how fast a ball had to spin to pick up speed when it travels at a given speed. It was more than anything ever recorded by...

I play a lefty very often. I can hit big forehands, but his has an extra gear and my backhand is definitely not suited to the job. Even forehand to forehand, I can't keep up with power for very long. My edge emerges during our rallies on a few accounts: 1. When my slice isn't too bad, he does...

If you want to get out of a weak playing pattern, the defensive shot that can afford you a chance to turn tables thr next time around is a deep cross-court ball. You buy time to get back in place and you force either hitting on the rise or further away. Chances are, they'll miss it just enough...

This is a recipe to be a pathetic player forever. Learning requires the right amount of challenge and trying to kill every shot when your game blows is way out of your league. Also, who are you trying to convince?

If he plays well that way, I see no reason to change it. However, people should be aware that there is no inherent advantage to a forehand beside it being a dominant side stroke. Most two handed backhands are very similar and I doubt that there would be much difference between that and a second...

I have a hard time understanding what exactly is wrong with this strategy. It is a team competition, so it is fair play to set up the playing order as you see fit. The best response is to let everyone do whatever they want with their line up -- smarter coaches are an asset to the team, as are...

You can't answer me 'yes' and then claim it makes you late... You don't meet the ball in front when you're late and I fail to see how not bringing the racket as far back as one otherwise would make one more late. It does the opposite.

Elevating the elbow actually makes it less likely for you to bring your arm way behind, which in turn tends to mean that you have fewer problems with meeting the ball in front. It was my case and another poster said it was the best advice he ever got, commenting on a post I made about it a while...

What we call the WTA forehand is so called because it is what the vast majority of player on that tour do; and likewise for the ATP. It is about salience, not gender. As for 'lumping,' this is exactly what humans do all the time about everything. Nobody said there wasn't diversity, we just...

It has nothing to do with them being women; Stosur, for instance, hits her forehand like most do on the ATP tour. You know that making a statement that you can tentatively tie to a presumed bias does not constitute a justification for claiming said bias is the root cause of the statement in...

1. Go to a court; 2. Bring a folding table and something heavy; 3. Put the table on its side somewhere around the service line; 4. Hit your serve so it bounces, hits the table and comes back. That way, you just need a good control on your serve to ensure you get to practice volleying each time...

It depends on where you play. In some areas, meth is a bigger problem.

Oh, you meant absent any form of instruction... Well, they would probably never figure it out on their own.

Nobody runs faster than a tennis ball and a 3.5 to 4.0 player know how to serve and hit their target, just not with alarming power and regularity. It also takes great feel for your strokes before you can do anything with a tennis ball, so even a professional athlete would loose a lot of matches...

Some people simply are very good at tackling certain tasks and they learn to do it rapidly. If they bother putting in the work on top of it, they become amazing. If you afford me a detour into existential philosophy, some people might interested in reading on the value of human excellence...

The toughest shot to master has to be a serve. It is probably the most complicated motion you execute on a tennis court and there is not a lot of margin for error. You can point out the intentions of servers, but even very good athletes have trouble hitting a solid serve with a very high success...

I do it sometimes, especially when the server hits big and flat. I try to put the ball deep enough and usually get a poor reply.

Double post

My forehand is more powerful, but my two handed backhand is more consistent. There also is absolutely no comparison on hitting on the rise: I can hit a solid backhand on the rise, right off the bounce, but I'm aweful at this on the forehand side. On the other hand, I can hit big running...

Maybe I can provide you with some useful advice. I doubt that putting in a few hours each day is going to make a big difference from a few hours every other day or only an hour per day. To correct a bad habit, you need quality repetitions and sleep (you subject your nervous system to repeated...

It's easy to see, even outside of a match. He hits rather hard and puts good action on the ball too. So, it's not easy to attack him. Of course, it is not nearly as terrifying as Sampras', but that bar is just way too high. It makes me wonder at times. Sampras at 25ish today -- how would he...

In the long run, we're all dead.

I often play with this older gentleman who really likes striking balls that are lower in his strike zone and who excels at direction control. If I feed him a knee to waist high ball on his forehand side, I either have to really force him to move or else he's going to eat it up everything I give...

Nobody disputes that: choosing between backhands is always discussed under the presumption that it's about top spin backhands.

I can hit a one handed backhand, just like a few good players I have seen around me. Very few in that group prefer to hit with one hand. Why? The reasons I highlighted before might explain a lot.

Two things, which I already shared elsewhere: 1. Eastern forehand for the top hand on my two handed backhand. It puts enough of my hand behind the handle that I can now even hit from awkward positions; 2. I started lifting my dominant elbow during my forehand take back, kind of like Ivan Lendl...

It is hard to learn to use the non-dominant side of your body. Anyway, it has been in my case.

If you're looking to sustain rallies, the two handed backhand might be preferable. As I said above, it affords the chance to cheat and muscle a bit the shot if you're in too much trouble. You have to appreciate this possibility, even if the intention would be to never use that skill and always...

I played with a one handed backhand for the first 8 years I spent on courts. I recently also fooled around a bit with it because I was holding a ball in my hand and I can still hit a decent shot. Believe me, it wasn't a lack of strenght that got me switching to a two handed backhand, especially...

One of my regular partners is 67 and he still gives me a run for it. If your mobility suffers and your opponent likes higher shots, it is a very good way to handle it. And, as you said, a lot of kids are used to those regular, high balls with very patterned looks on the game -- if you break...