a bollitieri video analysis

In D Zone

Hall of Fame
Great video - it highlighted the important points that you normally read about. Seeing it on an actual video and comparison really helps.

Funny thing is the changes recommended is very subtle but it made a lot of sense on how these minor tweaking can really take your game to the next level.
Thanks!!!
 

Mountain Ghost

Professional
Video Analysis

Call me a born-again nonbeliever in the “party line”, but I don’t think what she said about his one-handed backhand came anywhere near the primary problem with it.

Before I explain, I must also say that I don’t believe prefacing the “constructive” advice by saying that one-handed backhands are “tough” and “very difficult” was helpful, unless she was trying to get him to visualize difficulty and failure, or subconsciously trying to get him to switch to a two-handed backhand.

First, during the backswing the racquet head never gets all the way DOWN before the forward stroke begins. This results in his racquet head gaining downward momentum at the very beginning of his swing path, which he is not strong enough to counteract, and the center of his racquet head drops below the level of the handle for the rest of the stroke. Second, because his racquet head also never gets all the way BACK before the forward stroke begins, he loses leverage and is forced to lead with the racquet handle, which results in the racquet head not having time to catch up. It’s because his racquet head never gets all the way BACK and DOWN before the forward stoke begins that makes every component in the chain after that initial flaw weakened and/or late, and he is forced to open up early to compensate for his inadequate preparation

So how do you get the racquet head all the way back and down during backswing of a one-handed backhand? There are three basic ways to do it. You can bend the wrist (which is obviously not good), you can bend the elbow (which all the pros seem to do) or you can rotate the arm at the shoulder. The player in the video is certainly quite stiff on both the backswing and the forward stroke of his one-handed backhand. But while “loosening” up may be a part of his future development, I would NOT get rid of his straight and stiff arm until he learns to rotate his arm at the shoulder to get the racquet head farther back and down. Then, instead of swinging down and leading with his handle as the forward stroke begins (as he is now doing), he could rotate his arm back out at the shoulder, which would allow his racquet head to get going sooner . . . low to high from the start. Once he learns to recognize the form and the feel of starting the stroke from a proper all-the-way back and down racquet position, he could selectively “loosen” up on certain components for flow.

MG
 

righty

New User
Clarification sought

First, during the backswing the racquet head never gets all the way DOWN before the forward stroke begins. This results in his racquet head gaining downward momentum at the very beginning of his swing path, which he is not strong enough to counteract, and the center of his racquet head drops below the level of the handle for the rest of the stroke. Second, because his racquet head also never gets all the way BACK before the forward stroke begins, he loses leverage and is forced to lead with the racquet handle, which results in the racquet head not having time to catch up. It’s because his racquet head never gets all the way BACK and DOWN before the forward stoke begins that makes every component in the chain after that initial flaw weakened and/or late, and he is forced to open up early to compensate for his inadequate preparation
MG


I have a question on the above. When you say his racquet head does not get BACK and DOWN, but you also say that that center of his racquet head drops below the handle, I find that to be a little confusing.

When you take your racquet back,

1. How far back should you take it?
2. How low should be the racquet (center and head)?
3. How is the racquet oriented when it has reached that BACK and DOWN position?


Imagine that the ball is three inches over your knee if you were standing erect.

Can you clarify, please?
 

forzainter

Semi-Pro
nice to see you're enjoying the video, some of the comments people post on youtube though, most of these people seem like morons and complete jerks
 

Mountain Ghost

Professional
Backhand Preparation

Here’s a link to a link that JCo872 (Jeff at hi-techtennis.com) put up showing a beautiful one-handed backhand by Max Mirnyi:

http://tt.tennis-warehouse.com/showthread.php?p=1287100#post1287100

You can click through the stroke frame by frame. The key frame is the one that is 2 frames before the ball reaches the outside of Max’s right thigh. His arm is straight, the racket head is back and down, and he has accomplished this preparation because of the rotation of his arm at the shoulder, not because the beginning of his backswing is up high or that he started with a bend in the elbow. That one frame represents what you want to be able to achieve at the back of whatever one-handed backswing you use.

Thanks to Jeff at hi-techtennis.com for the clip.

MG
 

forzainter

Semi-Pro
Here’s a link to a link that JCo872 (Jeff at hi-techtennis.com) put up showing a beautiful one-handed backhand by Max Mirnyi:

http://tt.tennis-warehouse.com/showthread.php?p=1287100#post1287100

You can click through the stroke frame by frame. The key frame is the one that is 2 frames before the ball reaches the outside of Max’s right thigh. His arm is straight, the racket head is back and down, and he has accomplished this preparation because of the rotation of his arm at the shoulder, not because the beginning of his backswing is up high or that he started with a bend in the elbow. That one frame represents what you want to be able to achieve at the back of whatever one-handed backswing you use.

Thanks to Jeff at hi-techtennis.com for the clip.

MG

cool link, nice to see it
 

jasoncho92

Professional
That was a really bad one handed backhand lol. But you really dont need a video analysis to point out his mistakes
 
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