Can you please critique my brothers forehand...(video)

[gulbis_latvianfan]

Can you please critique my brothers forehand...hes 16 turning 17 and looking to get a scholarship to the states...so lay it all out...thanks ill be posting my video later this week...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=esb8dIInyVU

 

[Kostas]

He's looking for a college scholarship?

It's tough to tell from the video but that may be tall order based on what I saw.

He doesn't split step and his footwork is not great especially considering the ball machine is feeding him straight up.

He doesn't hit through the ball every time either.

My guess is that by USTA standards he would be a 3.5, maybe 4.0 depending on the rest of his game.

 

[LeeD]

I think is forehand is good enough to keep in the point, at around 4.5 levels or slightly better IF the rest of his game is up to snuff.
Obviously he's in shape, can hit solid forehands, but his shots are very average at the college or high level high school.
He looks like the prodotypical college player, so he should make the team.
Not many players can hit 5 minutes of forehands and still look to stay in form.

 

[Zachol82]

Well he was hitting against a ball machine, it didn't seem like it was set up to move the ball around a lot so it's understandable that he wasn't getting that tired.

That being said, his forehand looks smooth and it seems like he was just taking it easy. I'm sure he can crank it up if it was an actual match. I am sure that he's above 3.5 NTRP rating but I can't say anything more than that from just this video. The only accurate way to tell of someone's level above a 3.5 is either looking at their match records, or watching them play in a match.

 

[gulbis_latvianfan]

yes but can somebody please critique his technique aka the reason for posting so he can get better...and he is only in gr 10 so he has 3 years to train before college.

 

[LeeD]

He hits very "oldschool", preferring a closed stanced almost eastern grip, with it's slower swing, than what has been preferred the last 15 years.
The more modern SW or W grips give him a chance to swing harder on every ball, so he chokes less, so the ball jumps higher, and he becomes more consistent IF he can swing faster on every ball.
I suspect he's going to have trouble handling the higher balls as soon as higher level highschool play starts. He'll constantly get deep balls bouncing higher than his strikezone, which seems to top out around mid chest levels.
And younger players aren't always the best at metering out energy. Better he play with more extreme grips so he can hit out fully hard, and the ball arcs into the court.

 

[Kostas]

It's difficult to tell from this angle, but comments like this are the price you pay for not setting up the camera behind the baseline.

Unless he's hitting with a ridiculous amount of topspin, it *looks* like a lot of his balls are sailing long on him. If this is the case it may be because he is overhitting.

Regarding his technique, like I said his footwork needs improvement and he isn't consistently swinging through the ball.

He's often slapping it. You can see this when his follow-through leaves the racquet facing the net as opposed to the sidelines.

Take my critique with a grain of salt though...I'm just a lowly 3.5 player myself.

 

[Roy125]

He hits very "oldschool", preferring a closed stanced almost eastern grip, with it's slower swing, than what has been preferred the last 15 years.
The more modern SW or W grips give him a chance to swing harder on every ball, so he chokes less, so the ball jumps higher, and he becomes more consistent IF he can swing faster on every ball.
I suspect he's going to have trouble handling the higher balls as soon as higher level highschool play starts. He'll constantly get deep balls bouncing higher than his strikezone, which seems to top out around mid chest levels.
And younger players aren't always the best at metering out energy. Better he play with more extreme grips so he can hit out fully hard, and the ball arcs into the court.

The problem can be remedied by learning to hit on the rise right? because I hit my forehand almost like him.

 

[dragon2o00]

a couple things bother me about his form. as mentioned earlier, he's hitting against a machine so he should not have timing issues.

aside from that, it looks like the guy has a closed stance prep but the opens up a bit before actually hitting the ball. he'd probably be well served to simply go with an open stance and keep most of the swing the same.

the other thing that bothers me is the lack of consistency in how he's finishing his swing. racquet points all over the place, sometimes finishing over the shoulder, sometimes at the elbow, etc. assuming it's a consistent feed, i would look to have a more consistent swing.

he has some good ones in there mixed with some not as good ones. in my experience, though, a guy who plays a decent amount will usually have a decent forehand anyways. if you really want to help him with scholarships and such, i'm betting there are weaker parts of his game to address instead of shoring up what i'm assuming is one of his stronger points.

 

[gulbis_latvianfan]

the thing is it is not a consistent feed because most of our balls are tretorn and there are regular balls mixed in...so the tretorn balls bonce much higher because here in canada its freezing outside so the tretorn balls are a lot harder than normal...

 

[user92626]

I don't know the rest of his game, but his FH looks extremely well. I would say that's a better FH than almost all 4.5 rated FH that I've seen posted here. Don't listen to leed about "oldschool". Nadal and Fed also hit with this semi-open stance as well and I doubt anyone could call them oldschools.

I could tell that his shots are deep and pacey. Look at his follow-thru, non-hitting arm position, etc. Fairly consistent.

 

[gulbis_latvianfan]

ill post new video of me and his backhand, serve, etc.

 

[gulbis_latvianfan]

next week sometime

 

[dragon2o00]

I could tell that his shots are deep and pacey. Look at his follow-thru, non-hitting arm position, etc. Fairly consistent.

gulbis, were you there at this taping? from the sounds of the video and how the tent size appears to be based on the distance between the baseline and the tent (and assuming it's the same on the other side, it sounds like a lot of balls are in the net or hitting the tent before it even bounces? i watched most of the video again and i do agree with most of the other posters that his mechanics are pretty solid, especially for being able to keep it up.

ill post new video of me and his backhand, serve, etc.

looking foward to it!

 

[user92626]

gulbis, were you there at this taping? from the sounds of the video and how the tent size appears to be based on the distance between the baseline and the tent (and assuming it's the same on the other side, it sounds like a lot of balls are in the net or hitting the tent before it even bounces? i watched most of the video again and i do agree with most of the other posters that his mechanics are pretty solid, especially for being able to keep it up.



looking foward to it!

Sherlocks, the loud boom sound is from the ball machine.
The sound from the ball hitting the backdrop after bouncing is very subtle.

You virtually can't shank the ball into the net with that kind of shot trajectory and hitting power. I see that occasionally he might have sent the ball long but the majority of shots seemed to have correct & consistent net clearance.

 

[dragon2o00]

Sherlocks, the loud boom sound is from the ball machine.
The sound from the ball hitting the backdrop after bouncing is very subtle.

You virtually can't shank the ball into the net with that kind of shot trajectory and hitting power. I see that occasionally he might have sent the ball long but the majority of shots seemed to have correct & consistent net clearance.

i can tell when the machine is shooting a ball. it's why i'm asking, watson

i agree that most of the balls appear fine. you can, however, hear the ball hit the tape/net a few times because that's where the camera's microphone is. the balls even roll back.

other than that, there are times where the contact is flat and is flying high with a lot of pace. because of the angle of the camera, it's tough to gauge how much room is between the baseline and the tent. again, why i asked.

overall, this isn't nitpicking, just pointing out that the contact could be more consistent. the guy wants critique, not people bowing down. he wants his brother's forehand to get better and i'm saying his finish is inconsistent at times, indicative of inconsistent contact.

 

[tennismaster21]

advice

uhhmmm, when i saw that video, i saw that his footwork is a little bit sloppy, and he doesnt have a smooth follow through on his forehand, he is doing it to fast. so yeah

 

[ManuGinobili]

He doesn't move forward or back very much -> inconsistent contact point which can negatively affect the swing and follow through.
But he could hit some niiice balls, which means he could be very good.

 

[Ambivalent]

Looks like a Division III player at best.
Division III doesn't offer scholarships.

 

[skuludo]

After five balls I keep hearing a net tape sound. Is he hitting into then net?

That was after watching 3 minutes.

After watching the whole thing I think the most consecutive successful shots he hit was 12 balls before dumping it into the net.

From what I saw mostly after five shots he dumps the ball in the net. There were some where he only hit two balls and then it goes into the net.

 

[Kostas]

I watched the video again and I agree that for every nice shot he hits, he also puts one into the net or he blasts one off the court. I know you can't see exactly where it's landing but he's bombing some of those so high and hard no way they are landing in.

That said - he does hit some nice shots, but seems to be very erratic.