J011yroger
Talk Tennis Guru
Yea, just play like Edberg.
Idiot.
J
Your serve sucks too so watch some Rafter video and learn to put some action on the ball.
J
Yea, just play like Edberg.
Idiot.
J
10+ years ago I played my one and only wood racquet tournament there. Used a JK Pro staff strung with synthgut at 54 lbs. I practiced a couples times a week for about a month. Ended up winning the singles and mixed doubles.
Trying to be straight to the point, sorry for the language.
My take on your game:
Lots of sitter volley, you should really look into your volley shots man, look up edberg and practice the volley that actually threaten people.
You don't want your volley to attract lobs, passing shots, or more shots back, otherwise it is not a volley but a point giver.
If you want to earn the name of S&V, at least make your volley a killer, not a sitter.
If we meet up in the future, we'll have to have a wood racquet, serve & volleying duel.I still have a JK, complete with the wood press. I think I'll take it out and try it just for the heck of it.
0:24 can be a great approach but you make a sitter and that in turn bite you back as your opponent starts to move you aroundOuch. Well, I actually got the same vibe as I was playing [didn't take advantage when I had the chance] but it's not like I'm unaware of what I need to do. I think it had something to do with the pace and location of the incoming.
What timestamps are you considering?
0:54 [drop volley that ticked the net]
1:00 [decent 1st volley CC <not high % going for a winner>, decent 2nd volley, drop volley into the open court but he ran it down and I erred by trying to half-volley the response]
1:52 [not a great volley but it was mostly defensive due to a poor approach]
3:07 [sitter. my best chance all match for a putaway but I just didn't execute it inside-out like I wanted to; the next volley was defensive because of time]
4:31 [drop volley is not high % since I'm on the SL and his subsequent lob was pretty darn good]
5:33 [volleying behind Josh; produced a weak reply which is all I can ask for]
5:49 [sitter]
8:52 [good volley]
9:23 [good volley: I caught him inside the court. But then I erred on the drop volley.]
9:34 [sitter; the return was very good]
9:41 [sitter; again, tough return]
9:46 [good drop volley]
9:53 [pretty good half volley pickup]
10:05 [could have done more with the 1st volley; definitely could have put away the 2nd]
10:13 [good passer by Josh]
10:19 [decent drop volley]
Out of 16+ volleys, I count 5 sitters [where I had a reasonable opportunity to do more but didn't]. Would you agree?
0:24 can be a great approach but you make a sitter and that in turn bite you back as your opponent starts to move you around
0:54 another potential good approach but you make it a sitter so you get attacked again
1:04 is a sitter for sure but at least you kept it low not too bad but not deep enough
3:06 could have been a good approach but not deep or low enough so it didn't threaten your opponent to hit a passing shot
3:10 is another example of a sitter that allow your opponent to attack, you didn't even try to move him
I can count more, almost every single point that you lost is because your approach sucks and your volley didn't make it up for it. I believe if you work on any one of them to the point that you can almost like play your opponent around instead letting them have the opportunity to attack, you will win most of the points.
Dang, you’re a young 54. Would have guessed 40s.
Sorry the 0:54 is a typo, I meant 0:51.I was pushed to hit a defensive slice that ended up pushing him back a bit. You're saying I should have recognized that and approached after starting behind the BL?
I'm aggressive but not that aggressive.
Are we watching the same video? I hit a drop volley winner.
Besides, it was a serve, not an approach: I didn't watch the approach, decide erroneously it was good, and move forward. I served with the intention to volley. So, at best, you could criticize the serve for not being good enough [which I fully admit is possible].
You have pretty high standards to call that a sitter given that it was wide, low, and made him hit on the run. I could have gone for more on the drop volley but that would have raised the risk so I did what was comfortable. And I still might have won the point if I hadn't erroneously decided to hit a half-volley on the next one instead of taking it out of the air.
Agreed. As I had outlined above.
Agreed again. I didn't have much time to react so I was content with just getting it back deep. It obviously wasn't enough but I couldn't have done more.
...
We'll agree to disagree.
At one time we were even but he's made significant improvement in the last year and I have not. Catching up will be difficult.
Why are you talking to this guy?
OP - haven't read the entire thread or seen your entire video. But a few pointers
1) I would want to see you really coming into the net with some aggression. Make your presence felt.
2) Volleys you have to be sharper. If you're game is pure S&V, you're aiming to set yourself for an easy volley.
3) Sort of brings me on to the next point. On the seconds you're really going to have to try build a bigger kick or go for it to game up.
Honestly thought mate enjoyed watching you play - forehand very classic in nature was quite refreshing to see.
Keep at it and like someone said previously, your opponent did look like he could roll 5.0. Don't see why you can't get there eventually
Why are you talking to this guy?
Haven't you seen his videos?
He can barely hit against the wall.
J
Due to age and conditioning, you cannot win by stamina.
One direction I believe you are already doing is to focus on approach volley and come into the net with great percentage and the goal is not hitting winners but to drive them to the corners begging for mercy and maybe once you are at the net you kill it with a volley.
There are many segments in a game that leads to a point. In your case, a common theme that reoccur that prevent your plan for fruition is that your opponent has always seems to anticipated your attack and retaliate with angles esp from his backhand side.
There could be many things you can improve on, but let's talk about the anticipation part. Why can your opponent react to it and make a passing shot to prevent you from going into the net? Is it the approach slice bad? Is it because your movement is too obvious and it makes it clear that is your play? Or is it because your slice placement is not right?
My thinking is that you need a point play drill that allows you to setup your point so you can left your opponent guessing your next shot. Your slice is simply too obvious and a good competitive players will see and take advantage of it.
One solution might be that you don't slice but instead you hit cross court backhand deep instead and only approach slice deep if your opponent return shallow.
I also noticed that in a lot of points that you lost, you kept on doing dtl slice instead of cc backhand approach or drive that cost you the point that you should've be punishing your opponent with.
That reminds me, how many times did you hit cc backhand in the vid? it seems like you hit 0?
So I would focus on that first and see if that gives you improvement the next time you are doing to do that slice approach.
Your opponent actually have a better BH. His FH is ok. Look at the shots that get you killed, I see the majority is BH CC from his end. And he is hitting to your FH and he is still winning the point. Avoiding FH is not a sound strategy, the real strategy is if it limit your opponent's option. DTL slice that doesn't drive him out to the side of the court is really useless and self defeating at this level.I don't try to win by stamina although I might be in better shape than my opponent.
The only way stamina would become a major factor is if there were lots of long rallies and I'm not consistent enough for that.
I'm not sure it's anticipation so much as my approach not being challenging enough and subsequently his ability to hit the passer. I recognize I need a better approach vs him than against weaker opponents.
Possible. But if you notice, depth is not my forte.
But is that the reason I lost the point or might it have turned out the same if I went CC as opposed to if I hit a better approach, regardless of spin or direction?
He's a lefty; I was trying to avoid his FH.
Some things to think about. Thanks.
Why do we listen to this guy who can only smash his racquet?Why are you talking to this guy?
Haven't you seen his videos?
He can barely hit against the wall.
J
Your opponent actually have a better BH. His FH is ok. Look at the shots that get you killed, I see the majority is BH CC from his end.
And he is hitting to your FH and he is still winning the point.
Avoiding FH is not a sound strategy, the real strategy is if it limit your opponent's option. DTL slice that doesn't drive him out to the side of the court is really useless and self defeating at this level.
Your CC doesn't have to be strong, as long as it is deep, it drives him out of the court, you win by coming in.
Why do we listen to this guy who can only smash his racquet?
When I say good, I mean able to change directions, aim really well under pressure consistently. Some people have trouble hitting certain angle at pressure, esp since you are already 2-3 inches inside the court, the CC you hit doesn't need to be hard or very acute angle you have already cut enough time that your opponent would have harder challenge to return those. See for yourself if someone do that to you, would you be able to get to it and hit well forehand CC?You're overlooking the possibility that he's just as good off of both wings and that it wouldn't have mattered where I hit.
But I acknowledge that I should have tried it.
But that could be because I wasn't guarding CC enough. He hit 2 beautiful BH CC winners. I don't recall him hitting any DTL but he still hit them well enough that they gave me trouble.
I disagree. Josh did not hit winners every time I sliced DTL. In fact, it was the only way I was able to consistently regain time to recover.
"Deep" and "drives him off the court" are big asks when playing against someone better than you who keeps taking time away. What you're saying is technically true but so difficult to implement that I'm better off looking elsewhere for solutions.
Maybe you should reach out to him for lesson? Maybe he can help you since you have the video and you know him personally.Because he's a 5.0, which means he's in the 95th percentile of NTRP, and he instructs so he not only knows how to play, he knows how to teach [2 separate skills].
I've also played doubles as his partner and can testify that he's got game.
That was like from way back last year man, you think I stay the same? Also this is not a match, nor competitive, I'm not sure why an year old video provide any clue as in what I can provide in terms of help. Show your a year old video Slowtwitcher, and let's judge whether you are worthy of helping others.Got to agree with Jolly here...
@pencilcheck, maybe you should be getting tips from @S&V-not_dead_yet and not the other way around.
Also based on this logic of thinking that also sound strange: if this is how tennis works, then coaches shouldn't be weaker than the player, why is Severin coaching Federer? Who is that nobody?
This depends on the coaching style, and different player react to different coaching style, some requires more sparta way of coaching, some might just need someone to setup the drills, some might just need some target training, or might be more of a philosophical talk about the game, attitude and what to do at what certain time on pressure or not, etc.Sure, coaches can be weaker than the players, often are at the elite level. But you don't think Severin gets snarky and bossy with Feddy, do you?
All fine and dandy but you're not a coach, are you?This depends on the coaching style, and different player react to different coaching style, some requires more sparta way of coaching, some might just need someone to setup the drills, some might just need some target training, or might be more of a philosophical talk about the game, attitude and what to do at what certain time on pressure or not, etc.
If coach don't even know what their student is lacking and be able to convey that to the student then it is a useless coach. This quality does not translate based on how skilled you are in tennis, a lot of those stuff is very subconscious stuff and highly related to how people think about the game. This goes to the student as well, a lot of stuff also is hard to teach, some people have the talent and they get it through their body and some just don't.
An excellent coach makes it happen regardless of their student's capability and starting point, a mediocore coach just bully their student to do the drills that they understand.
So I wonder which type Jolly is, and through this interaction on the web, I'm guessing the later.
I think you are very confused. OP asked question about how to improve, I provide my feedback. I'm not sure how your question has to do with this. If you want OP to listen to you, then provide your own feedback that actually makes sense and is better than mine first.All fine and dandy but you're not a coach, are you?
I think you are very confused. OP asked question about how to improve, I provide my feedback. I'm not sure how your question has to do with this. If you want OP to listen to you, then provide your own feedback that actually makes sense and is better than mine first.
I don't think OP really cares if the advice is coming from a coach or not, otherwise he wouldn't post here.
Oh, another coach, great. If all it takes is to say i'm a coach versus not a coach to get more credibility that makes sense, no wonder so many coaches has youtube channel where almost all their coaching videos are just rephrase of other channel, or they give tips that doesn't seems to work.I am not confused at all. You posted a lengthy justification arguing about the efficacy of different coaching methods. But you are not a coach so you don't really know much about that. Now I have had coaching from people who train national juniors and I never heard them tell them (or anybody) that if you volley, you ought to be like Edberg.
This is not about the OP, good on him for being patient with you. This is about you. Reflect on how you communicate. If you aren't exactly the cat's whiskers at the net, best not to grandstand. Oh, if you still must, please go ahead but then Jolly is going to own you silly and you are going to whine some more about it.
I am not confused at all. You posted a lengthy justification arguing about the efficacy of different coaching methods. But you are not a coach so you don't really know much about that. Now I have had coaching from people who train national juniors and I never heard them tell them (or anybody) that if you volley, you ought to be like Edberg.
This is not about the OP, good on him for being patient with you. This is about you. Reflect on how you communicate. If you aren't exactly the cat's whiskers at the net, best not to grandstand. Oh, if you still must, please go ahead but then Jolly is going to own you silly and you are going to whine some more about it.
You really think I'm trying to play internet police? I got no time for that. I'm not that low. And if you want to do that it is up to you but that also reflect you as a person.Don't go too hard on @pencilneck or he'll report your posts...
I didn't say I am a coach. I said I have had coaching from coaches who actually, in person, trained and train national juniors. Who's talking about Youtube coaches?Oh, another coach, great. If all it takes is to say i'm a coach versus not a coach to get more credibility that makes sense, no wonder so many coaches has youtube channel where almost all their coaching videos are just rephrase of other channel, or they give tips that doesn't seems to work.
What OP will do with my advice is on him, if you can't make a good advice then you are useless in this thread. People call those who just want to create fights online a troll and you are one as well.
You're not going to win many matches against any opponent unless your forehand is able to penetrate the court and drive them off of the baseline.
I'd start every match with some exploratory balls to figure out the conditions(ball quality, temp, humidity, wind)
and then try to decide what type of forehand is called for today.
Figure out what type of ball will get you results and then commit to a pattern of play until your opponent makes adjustments. In the heat, high balls can be deadly because the bounce can be obnoxious. On a cooler day, that same ball would be a hanging meatball begging for someone to club. I find that deciding I'm going to run a particular pattern over and over keeps me focused and stops me from playing junk balls down the middle.
This is just a suggestion but you may want to look at your short ball down the line and work on flatting it out. You don't seem to be hitting it hard enough to justify the amount of arc/topspin you put on it. A flatter ball that stays lower will win you more points as you follow it it in.
You really think I'm trying to play internet police? I got no time for that. I'm not that low. And if you want to do that it is up to you but that also reflect you as a person.
True but a flatter ball has less margin and results in more errors and I suffer from that more, especially on the FH. So any extra TS/margin is a positive, even if it means a weaker approach. I can't win the point if I err on the approach.
Apart from wind, I highly doubt the other factors you mentioned would change my game plan ["ball quality"? How much different can a new can of balls be when practically everyone uses either standard Penns or Wilsons?].
Finally saw the full video again, Josh has a tick where he turns his head on every groundstroke/OH/volley and still hits a mean clean ball...
How?
Careful now, every TT 2.5 will be trying to turn their.... wait its Gasquet.. nevermindGasquet does the same thing on his volleys, especially the BH:
Bolded be the problem, and he does it on OHs too. It looks like he's looking (pun pun) behind contact, as SnV said if it works for him ...Josh turns his head ir order to see the incoming ball touch the strings. It's not really a tick, it helps tremendously with contact. I wish I could do it consistently and not rush to see where the ball is going.
You're not going to win many matches against any opponent unless your forehand is able to penetrate the court and drive them off of the baseline. I'd start every match with some exploratory balls to figure out the conditions(ball quality, temp, humidity, wind) and then try to decide what type of forehand is called for today. Figure out what type of ball will get you results and then commit to a pattern of play until your opponent makes adjustments. In the heat, high balls can be deadly because the bounce can be obnoxious. On a cooler day, that same ball would be a hanging meatball begging for someone to club. I find that deciding I'm going to run a particular pattern over and over keeps me focused and stops me from playing junk balls down the middle. Even if the other person is forcing you out of your desired pattern, fighting to get back to it can keep you from losing focus/mental lapses as the match wears on. This is just a suggestion but you may want to look at your short ball down the line and work on flatting it out. You don't seem to be hitting it hard enough to justify the amount of arc/topspin you put on it. A flatter ball that stays lower will win you more points as you follow it it in.
Watch as my buddy Josh [lefty] gives an object lesson on how to punish short balls.
From the very first point, I knew I was in trouble.
Our two previous official meetings were 3rd set TBs [he won both]. But he's been taking lessons and it showed...big time.
Comment away. You needn't advise me to hit deeper...I know, trust me.
Josh turns his head ir order to see the incoming ball touch the strings. It's not really a tick, it helps tremendously with contact. I wish I could do it consistently and not rush to see where the ball is going.
Hey man,
I could say a lot, but for starters, I see that maybe your backhand is the shot that needs most improvement. Your timing was not there, it seemed like. I think you should swing more with your body than your arms (it seems to me you tend to try and "push" your bh in rather than "swing" it in).
What I see you do is bring your arms back, which is good, but you raise them, which you then have to drop them again in order to strike at the ball.
Try to just pull your arms back and have your dominant arm (right arm) fully extended.
Also, make sure you are looking over your dominant shoulder when prepping for the swing (this is a good checkpoint... you will see Djokovic and others do it in the video)
This video should give you a good perspective as to how the pros hit their 2 handed backhands
Hopefully this helps!
I'm just here to say that I will be playing Josh on Sunday at 3 PM. Thank you @S&V-not_dead_yet for setting it up and looking forward to seeing you Sunday!
I'm just here to say that I will be playing Josh on Sunday at 3 PM. Thank you @S&V-not_dead_yet for setting it up and looking forward to seeing you Sunday!
Will their be video? Sounds like a great match.