Critique my strokes w/ video

[effortless]

Ok it's not 100% all wrong. With that said you have some good elements in there that shows you are very capable of hitting a good fh with some changes. However, just about every major element in your current swing needs adjustment. Thus the original 100% assesment. No shame in that. The journey is fun.

His swing doesn't look like Soderling's. The only commonality is they both have a huge takeback. That's it. The takebacks between him and soderling are completely different and the forward swing is different too.

Here's one thing you should address:
Look at the first video starting at 2:38. You do a shadow swing there while walking back to the center of the court. The beginning of that shadow swing looks great. Then just at or just after contact in the shadow swing you do this little thing w/ your wrist. That move right there has to change. You see how at that point you sort of stop the motion and then the racquet goes over your shoulder?
The reason you stop there is because that motion you are doing is fundamentally incorrect. It's like you are changing the direction/momentum of the swing, bringing it to a complete stop, changing directions and then the finish. That is definitely something you need to change. If it were fundamentally correct you wouldn't stop there and there would be smooth continuation where you let the racquet go in the natural direction it wants too
.
What you need to do right at that point is internal shoulder rotation and/or pronation plus maybe some wrist radial deviation.

Compare that shadow swing to these. Notice how the racquet at that point continues to move, the wrist deviates or the shoulder turns the wrist over:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k_6hC2qKnKw&feature=related
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y8AJYfkJ4hc&feature=fvwrel
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kmhvKafCYsk&t=15s
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gq09yHPmKh0&feature=relmfu

It looks like you don't do that always in your actual swings. Hard to tell but you definitely don't want to be shadow swinging like that since the purpose of shadow swinging is to build muscle memory.

Yeah exactly. There's no point shadowing if you aren't shadowing the correct swing. Thats why its important to make sure you do your research and actually emulate good technique before you start shadowing. Use a reflection to make sure you are doing it properly.

I didn't say his swing "looked" like Soderling's i said it "reminded" me of Soderling. Of course his swing doesn't look like a professional tennis player's at his level.

 

[pvaudio]

This isn't the pre-open era, you are allowed to have both feet off the ground during your serve. I agree with the coaching comments. Especially on the serve, your arm is very live and loose and quite frankly, that is INCREDIBLY hard to learn. What you need to learn is to incorporate your body to create a serve instead of a feed from above your head. You do not utilize your lower body or core in any way on your serve. It is 100% arm. I am not going to tell you how to fix your serve as a. I am not a coach and b. this is the internet. However, I will tell you that you have very good potential and simply need to add literally fundamental aspects of the modern serve. Your other strokes are okay, but do indeed have mechanical issues. We all do at some level. The difference is that the majority of us are not paying someone regularly to teach us how to improve and if after 2 years your coach has not brought your strokes together, then it's definitely time to find someone new.

 

[Charlzz]

I'll quickly say that TW advice is often very harsh. They would criticize a pro tour player for having bad strokes.

First, many coaches realize that their students don't want to change their shots dramatically because it can take a while to see positive results, and the person gets upset in the meanwhile that it feels wrong. It's easy from behind a computer to criticize such coaches for taking an easier way out when they don't have to put food on the table.

Second, while few male players take the racquet past the plane of their bodies (and there are some that do, most notably, Jeremy Chardy), many women do, and that shouldn't affect whether you take the racquet that far back or not, though certainly, you run into trouble with timing (having said that, women pros hit like this with hard hitters, and they manage fine).

Third, if you do want to change your strokes, then perhaps a new coach might be better, but figure out who is good and who is not. Decide if it's worth paying for.

 

[samarai]

Competition

You are just gonna have to play more and with better players to improve. No since in playing for coaching lessons if you cant put it to use. Playing once a week with weekend hacks will do nothing for your game. I used to go out saturday mornings at my local park and there were a bunch of guys who are of the competition you describe. While its fun to hit the balls back ad forth it wasnt doing anything for my game. The shots were so inconsistent that it was hard to get into any rhythm. I could honestly say that I might play sometimes play for 1 hour to 1.5 and wouldn;t need a water break. Sometimes I would'nt even break a sweat.

 

[dasob85]

wow, thanks a lot for all the advice everybody! Even though I'm at work, I thought I should immediately convey my thanks at all the replies! I will go into more detail when I get home. Please keep telling me what I'm doing it wrong. Absolutely want to improve!

I did play yesterday and managed to get some more video. I'll try to edit it so you only see me playing. what are some easy to use free video editing programs that everybody uses? the new windows default video editor seems very clunky compared to the old versions.

I changed my grip from between semi-western and western to a between semi-western and eastern. I think a lot of my swing problems came from the fact that I had no idea how to swing smoothly with that extreme(to me) grip. When I first started out my friend told me to go with a semi-western but didn't really explain it. I would try to squeeze out some power any way I could.

Progress report: took a quick glance through the vids last night, I am still doing a horrible big takeback even though I was shadowing daily the more correct version. The good part is at the end of the takeback and before the swing, I am no longer letting the racquet drop behind the plane of the body. It is more like it comes level to the plane and then goes forward into the swing. Not sure if it is because of the grip change or the shadowing worked somewhat. Still looks awkward though