goober
Legend
Mark Andre must go down, and he must go down hard.![]()
Given that he is an unrated player that lost his only other USTA match 6-1, 6-1 to the number 3 seed, this probably a winnable match.
Mark Andre must go down, and he must go down hard.![]()
^^^^i dont get what your looking at. the guy i just played only played 5.0 tournamentes and the guy i play next weekend is ranked #1 5.0 in so cal. the list is small, but he has only played 5.0. are you looking at leagues, because i dont know how to find that info.
Go to "find a rating" on the USTA website. The #2, 3, 4 seeds all have 4.5 ratings. Two of them play on 4.5 teams and are teammates. They actually just have average 4.5 USTA records in leagues. One guy mostly plays doubles, and one guy has a losing record.
Players usually like to play up to get better competition in regards to what "their" USTA rating is. As we all know USTA ratings are a bit under-rated, and sometimes a bit over-rated.
Tennis is determined on the court, and not on what a computer generates. I am sure these guys are all 4.5/5.0. So, to be fair...I think everyone is playing to their abilities.
signed up for an open tournament tonight just for the heck of it. i drew the 3 seed. hopefully my game is clicking tonight and i have a chance.
http://tennislink.usta.com/Tournaments/Draws/EventDraw.aspx?T=100494&E=1
You cheeky *******!
I was going to say, he lost pretty badly, so for a guy who used to be a pro player, that's not so great that he lost to a 5.0.
^^^when i play the 4.5 tournaments now i feel like i should win, rather than how i wanted to win a few months ago. i have been playing a lot lately. ive been doing a lot of training with a guy i met. we dont play any sets or games. we go out and work on shots. mainly my bh. i dont have a coach, but this practice has been helping me a lot to get the mechanics locked in my head. it really helps to just continuosly hit bhs over and over to really ram that movement into my head.
i ended up losing the 5.0 tournament in the semi's to the eventual winner. he really attacked my bh and came to the net constantly. i had no passing bh answer for the strategy and lost. i dont have any tournies coming up so its all practice for the next month.
I don't disagree with anything you are saying. This tournament is definitely tougher than the 4.5 tournament he just played as you can tell by the closer scores. I just find it unusual that a 5.0 tournament has only one guy with an actual 5.0 rating. Maybe that is common in socal? Don't know...
^^^when i play the 4.5 tournaments now i feel like i should win, rather than how i wanted to win a few months ago. i have been playing a lot lately. ive been doing a lot of training with a guy i met. we dont play any sets or games. we go out and work on shots. mainly my bh. i dont have a coach, but this practice has been helping me a lot to get the mechanics locked in my head. it really helps to just continuosly hit bhs over and over to really ram that movement into my head.
i ended up losing the 5.0 tournament in the semi's to the eventual winner. he really attacked my bh and came to the net constantly. i had no passing bh answer for the strategy and lost. i dont have any tournies coming up so its all practice for the next month.
yonexpurestorm, post your match time for the Long Beach Open. I live in Long Beach and I'm thinking about checking out the tourney.
yonexpurestorm, if you need a lefty to hit against, let me know.
ya im always down to hit. i work in carson and drive through long beach everyday to get home. as long as you can keep a decent rally and dont mind not always playing sets i would down to hit. i like to practice and drill specific shots, and play set occasionally. i work M-F untill 5pm and could usually play around 530. what courts do you play at around your area?
hey man it's dexter.. we played months ago at the anaheim tournament. I'm down to drill in Carson during the week or weekends if your interested. I live near to LAX.
You're putting yourself out there, and that's commendable. My reading of your posts are that you're ambitious to achieve in a short space of time, but that requires some flexibility in outlook.
These comments are based on the youtube videos you've posted, which I watched the latest 3.
I counted 3 DHBH on very soft balls and couldn’t see how the ball was travelling on 2 of them so have to disregard it.
Your slice backhand looks like it's incapable of going down the line, and certainly not without major adjustments in swing and footwork which would telegraph it to your opponent. Your problems with lefties will not go away until this is remedied (as a lefty I dream of playing RH who can only hit slice bh crosscourt).
Also on the backhand, it does not look like you can generate a solidly paced shot off it. 2 things: not enough of a swing and you're hitting it far too close to your body. Slice shots hit virtually in front of your chest are also telegraphing where you're placing the ball. And at the most basic level, you're simply giving your opponent way too much time.
You move with pace, and that's good. But the actual final few steps are lazy. On the backhand, it's technically lazy for aforementioned reasons (you're actually moving into the backhands a little too much cramping the swing to just push it in). Which brings me to: also on the backhand, it looks especially weak picking it up from low with even a little width, which should be a strength with a slice backhand.
There's a few reasons for the slice backhand: return of serve, disguised drop shots, pick up balls from very low and then also from very high. You have part of the first part.
The other footwork problems are however with the forehand. Virtually every forehand is from a totally open stance. You may have fantastic co-ordination, but that's not likely to hold up under pressure. Your court position is not too bad, letting a few balls drop too much but mostly the problem is getting near the position then opening up the stance for no real reason. Too many unforced errors there going for winners particularly inside-out forehands that just aren’t necessary. The flipside of this footwork coin is weakness on the running forehand, where the body is on a more closed stance and you’re not really sure how to swing and the mechanics simply aren’t there.
If it seems harsh, then sorry, but I genuinely believe you need coaching. I’ve seen games like yours many times before, and frankly wouldn’t have bothered if you didn’t present like you do in the thread.
You’d benefit a lot from ironing out the issues identified with your groundstrokes. Someone has done a hack job on your backhand and only outside help can rebuild it. You have gotten into unnecessarily risky habits on the forehand, which, again, needs outside help and better players to prove it to you and make the adjustments to see accuracy on winners and defensive shots improve a lot.
But the most important reason: the serve. The core rotation is not happening properly because the tossing arm is not tucking in. The hips are following through, but not actually moving enough in the service motion. Hence that hop out into court with the front leg to try to drag the back hip around. The net result here will be extra shoulder strain.
thanks jdubbs. i dont really know what happened that first set. i usually take some time to get into a groove, but not that long. i think i was tired from playing 2 matches the day before and came out sluggish. he was a good player, very consistent. i switched my gm up a little in the 2nd set. i started taking some power off my shots and make the points longer because he was getting my hard shots and i was making too many errors.
it was funny though because he was a TT member and he said he had seen some of my videos that i had posted. i noticed he really attacked my bh because thats the thing im always saying is my weakness. lol, never really thought about my opponents reading my posts and knowing my weaknesses.
overall it was a really fun match. i think he had me 5-3 in the third on my serve. i held and then i broke him to make it 5-5. then i held again and broke him in the last gm. after the first set i remember thinking i was done, but i just told myself to keep playing. its still just first to two.
we exchanged numbers aftwerwards and i plan on playing him again because he lives somewhere in irvine.
Good match Jamison, you flipped the script on me after the first set, attacking my backhand. I do tend to rely on consistency too much and frequently go into push mode, then the whole game goes south. I need to be more offensive like you were in the 2nd and 3rd.
Note to self: don't eat a 24 oz rib eye night before a finals match, you'll cramp up in the 3rd lol. It was Capital Grill though yum.
Are you playing top gun?