Critique my strokes

Your balance and movement is lightyears ahead of last years's, when you were still on the WestCoast.
2hbh looks good, body balanced, head not moving, as is your moving around the court.
1hFh, not bad at all, but maybe not the best overall for a S/V player who can control the net whenever he stroll's up there. It's a spanish defensive forehand that you can POWER because of your length of leverage. Don't change it until you find yourself not able to attack after you get a weak return.
Keep looking at the tall pros, DelPo, Soderling, Querry, Isner,...you movement is getting good.
 
I'll critique your camera positioning ;-)

- better to have the camera horizontal rather than vertical
- position the camera directly behind you; the top of the windbreak would be a good spot
- would be useful to have some video with the camera parallel to the baseline
 
I wish you would of laid the phone on its side. So we can see it widescreen. Can't see you half the time.
 
Sorry about the camera thing I realized how I screwed up when I got home... Any comments on my stokes from what you could see?
 
LeeD said:
Your balance and movement is lightyears ahead of last years's, when you were still on the WestCoast.
2hbh looks good, body balanced, head not moving, as is your moving around the court.
1hFh, not bad at all, but maybe not the best overall for a S/V player who can control the net whenever he stroll's up there. It's a spanish defensive forehand that you can POWER because of your length of leverage. Don't change it until you find yourself not able to attack after you get a weak return.
Keep looking at the tall pros, DelPo, Soderling, Querry, Isner,...you movement is getting good.
Click to expand...

Thanks! I've been working on my footwork a lot and court positioning I think that it is paying off a lot. I agree my forehand is pretty spiny but as of late I've been able to get it consistantly 3 feet inside the baseline and with the spin it buggs my opponents and often gets me a short ball. My backhand I've had trouble with, it is coming off my racket near the sides, how can I work on timing this? Thanks :)
 
haha get a gorilla pod but you look very good. 4.5ish? I like the arm snap on your forehand. I guess you hit heavy topspin right?

(But Id say improve your footwork. Be more graceful)
**Nvm about () your footwork is good already but can still improve haha
 
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MarinaHighTennis said:
haha get a gorilla pod but you look very good. 4.5ish? I like the arm snap on your forehand. I guess you hit heavy topspin right?

(But Id say improve your footwork. Be more graceful)
**Nvm about () your footwork is good already but can still improve haha
Click to expand...

I guess I hit with a lot of spin it kicks up about 5'6" - 6'. And yeah ive worked a lot on my footwork and balance, it's not the best but Ive been working a lot on getting my footwork better since last year
 
Look carefully at your forehand at 1:33-34.
Do you like it?
Which way were you moving when you hit it?
Move that way all the time.

Move right when hitting forehand
Move left when hitting backhand.
Moving forward is fine, but don't move back.
Stop hitting the net, hit higher.
This will automatically give you better foot work.
You are almost to fast for your own good.
Did you play a different sport before?
 
ATP100 said:
Look carefully at your forehand at 1:33-34.
Do you like it?
Which way were you moving when you hit it?
Move that way all the time.

Move right when hitting forehand
Move left when hitting backhand.
Moving forward is fine, but don't move back.
Stop hitting the net, hit higher.
This will automatically give you better foot work.
You are almost to fast for your own good.
Did you play a different sport before?
Click to expand...

Thanks for the tip! I used to play soccer and have been playing basketball as of late and ive I've skated and rollerblades since I was a kid. What do you mean I'm almost too fast for my own good?
 
Footwork is the #1 thing most people don't practice.
Footwork is the #1 reason people don't get better.

Just practice that for a month, put up a video.
It will make you much more consistent with more power.
 
ATP100 said:
Footwork is the #1 thing most people don't practice.
Footwork is the #1 reason people don't get better.

Just practice that for a month, put up a video.
It will make you much more consistent with more power.
Click to expand...

This.

Let me break down the proportions of what you should work on, if you want to become a much better player:

40% Footwork
30% Consistency
20% Shot selection
10% Swing technique

If you are taking lessons to truly improve your tennis (and not just get a workout / plateau in 3.5-4.0 leagues), and your pro doesn't clearly break down how you should achieve the top two aspects, then you're getting short-changed. Unfortunately, 80% of my fellow teaching pros don't emphasize the top two enough.
 
Gee, that's an ugly forehand. Did you learn in a closet or do you have a superstition that the racket can never leave your chest? Did someone once tell you you should finish your stroke on your left hip - an so you made the whole purpose of the stroke to do that, or other flourishes, rather than hit the ball effectively?
The running forehand at 1:34 that ATP100 mentioned shows you have a very good forehand when you are not forcing yourself to artificially force the racket around. It could be devastating to opponents.

The main advice would be to loosen up and just let the racket go where it naturally wants to on the follow-through. You are likely to injure your wrist and elbow doing what you are doing now, as well as cramping your stroke and limiting your great potential power.
 
Thamk you! I will work on my footwork a lot! Does anyone have links by any chance for what footwork i should have for my forehand? Ive never had private lessons and other than a tip here and there from my high school coach ive learned on my own. Would the reason i finish at the hip be because me overusing my wrist? And it does feel natural to finish there is the problem is it a huge problem.
 
Look at vids of Safin, DelPo, Soderling, Isner (but don't copy him), and Querry.
Forget vids of the short guys.
Your forehand is your forehand. Very topspinny, fast violent swing. Just watch the ball when it goes akilter during stressful matches. Hit it like that when you're loose and confident.
But more than anything, don't play a baseline grinder game. It works against your height.
 
TheBoom said:
Can anyone help critique my strokes?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PBurct-IxvA&feature=youtu.be

any help/advice would be appreciated! Thanks :)

edit new video!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8JvTdAKN45c&feature=youtu.be
Click to expand...

I could have sworn I left a response to your post already. I've seen these videos before. Anyway, here's what I see:

Shot Preparation - The first and foremost thing you need to work on is your footwork and shot preparation. Sometimes you set up well, sometimes you don't. When you don't, often it's because you've stopped moving your feet and taking adjustment steps too soon, leaving you reaching or off balance. In addition, a wider, lower stance on both sides would help your set up and power. I know this was a casual hit, but, ideally, you should be loaded up (meaning wide, low stance with unit turn complete), ready to hit the ball before it gets there every time, if possible. If you're hitting on the run, that's something else. But, when you can, you should set up like this every time.

I like your groudies for the most part. You've got good upper body rotation most of the time. A wider, lower stance will help facilitate more consistent UBR.

BH - I like your backhand. The only thing I would suggest is that you keep your right arm straight in your windup. You don't have to lock out your elbow, although it's okay to do that. I didn't get enough of a look at it to say much more.

FH - The most important thing I can try to impress upon you is LOSE THE FLYING ELBOW. Keep your elbow IN and FORWARD, throughout your backswing and forward swing until contact. At contact is where your elbow should move up and initiate the WW finish.

Hope that helps.
 
Limpinhitter said:
I could have sworn I left a response to your post already. I've seen these videos before. Anyway, here's what I see:

Shot Preparation - The first and foremost thing you need to work on is your footwork and shot preparation. Sometimes you set up well, sometimes you don't. When you don't, often it's because you've stopped moving your feet and taking adjustment steps too soon, leaving you reaching or off balance. In addition, a wider, lower stance on both sides would help your set up and power. I know this was a casual hit, but, ideally, you should be loaded up (meaning wide, low stance with unit turn complete), ready to hit the ball before it gets there every time, if possible. If you're hitting on the run, that's something else. But, when you can, you should set up like this every time.

I like your groudies for the most part. You've got good upper body rotation most of the time. A wider, lower stance will help facilitate more consistent UBR.

BH - I like your backhand. The only thing I would suggest is that you keep your right arm straight in your windup. You don't have to lock out your elbow, although it's okay to do that. I didn't get enough of a look at it to say much more.

FH - The most important thing I can try to impress upon you is LOSE THE FLYING ELBOW. Keep your elbow IN and FORWARD, throughout your backswing and forward swing until contact. At contact is where your elbow should move up and initiate the WW finish.

Hope that helps.
Click to expand...

Thank you! I don't quite understand what you mean with my forehand? Could you clarify a bit?
 
TheBoom said:
Thank you! I don't quite understand what you mean with my forehand? Could you clarify a bit?
Click to expand...

Limpinhitter is referencing the same thing I was (though not as sarcastically). The elbow flys away from and in back of the body and stays behind the racket at all times. Thus your stroke keeps the racket close to your chest at all times. To have a good forehand stroke, the body, shoulder, elbow, wrist, and then racket move. The racket must be away from your body. You are getting almost no forward momentum from your elbow and wrist, which are just moving the racket around toward your left hip (or above your head) instead of being helpful in hitting the ball. Only when you had to stretch, did your racket get away from your body.

Try this - put your hand about a foot and a half away from your shoulder - palm facing toward your shoulder and the elbow away from the body. Then bring the elbow into the body and lay your wrist back so the palm of your hand is facing away from the body. Feel the stretch in your elbow and wrist.
If you could hold a racket in your hand, from the first position you can pretty much only move the racket up and down (or pull even closer to your body). From the second position, you can whip the racket forward in a forehand motion.
Loosen everything up and worry about pulling the racket through the ball with a whip motion - not where your follow-through ends up.

[BTW - the reason I was so sarcastic was not because of your strokes so much as everyone (even those who normally give good advice) telling you that your stroke was fine, when it obviously has severe problems]
 
TheBoom said:
Thank you! I don't quite understand what you mean with my forehand? Could you clarify a bit?
Click to expand...

I'm glad you asked. Lendl and Sampras used a flying elbow (where the elbow is up and out in the backswing), and it worked for them. But, with a modern forehand, it becomes an unecessary variable that makes timing and repeatability more difficult. The flying elbow also promotes independent arm swing (swinging the arm independent of the upper body), which is antithetical to the modern forehand. The modern forehand is almost exclusively upper body rotation (where the upper body turns over 180 degrees, from about 4 O'clock on the take back to 9 O'Clock on the finish), and very little independent swing with the arm. The term "unit turn" includes your entire body turning as a single unit, not independent arm swing.

I'll be very specific. You should begin by setting your arm and racquet in the hitting posture before you even start your unit turn - elbow against your side under your right pectoral muscle (that's in and forward), bent at 90 degrees, wrist laid back at 90 degrees, throat of the racquet in your left hand. So, your upper arm, forearm and racquet create 3 sides of a box with the top open. From there, with an open stance you rotate your hips and shoulders with your left hand remaining on the throat of the racquet and your elbow remaining under your right pectoral muscle, until your hips are facing the side fence, your chest facing the back right corner and your chin is resting on your left shoulder. At this point, your right arm has not moved at all. NOW you release your left hand and begin to rotate your right hip to the target. As your hip drives, your racquet head drops below the ball and you lead your swing with your elbow and the butt of your racquet. Your hips pull your upper body which pulls your arm and racquet to contact. At contact your elbow moves up and out initiating the WW finich. That is the first time you arm has moved independently from your upper body. You continue to turn until your chest is facing the left side fence and your racquet head has finished down near your left hip. VERY IMPORTANT: You have to keep your arm, wrist and grip very loose and relaxed throughout the stroke. In particular, keep your grip loose at contact to increase power and clean ball striking. A tight grip at contact will reduce racquet speed and will deviate your swing path causing off center hits.

To be clear, you are doing some of that. But, the flying elbow is hurting your consistency and your timing.
 
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Thank you guys for clarifying so much!! I'll be sure to work on it though the summer! Would this be the reason I arm the ball at times? An I live in oakhurst so i have to go to porter high school and thanks! I don't have the money yet to get private lessons but it's on my list thanks for the peoples names I'll lookk them up!
 
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Seriously....
Dude, you're 6'6", probably with a 6'9" wingspan. You cannot hit the ball like LeytonHewitt! You cannot apply conventional full body kinetics.
You have too much leverage.
Look at vids of Isner and Querry, even midgets like Phillipoussis and Kraijeck. They use mostly arms on their forehands, and often arm their serves.
The reason is with your length of leverage, you cannot get early on the ball with conventional technique, which is why you hold your racket close to your body and lead with the elbow. It's OK, worked for Lendl.
Forget retooling your forehand. Instead, spend you time on your big serves and low volleys. If your forehand can pass a netperson, and keep a baseliner on his heels, it's fine for now.
 
Seeing a real closeup of the front of your body doing a forehand would allow better analysis. Slow motion would be even better since your racket head speed is elevated and thus hard to analyze effectively.

Not that you are/aren't doing this already, I agree with the responses regarding the wrist position. Simply by keeping the wrist back the whole way through contact is the standard for a solid and professional forehand. You can test this....without a racket, if you drop your wrist back and then try to look at your wrist as if you're checking the time, you'll see the wrist wants to naturally straighten as the elbow rises to meet the level of your head. Keeping the wrist back the entire time when you drive through the ball takes some conscious thought at first, but becomes second nature pretty quickly if you focus on it.
 
LeeD said:
Seriously....
Dude, you're 6'6", probably with a 6'9" wingspan. You cannot hit the ball like LeytonHewitt! You cannot apply conventional full body kinetics.
You have too much leverage.
Look at vids of Isner and Querry, even midgets like Phillipoussis and Kraijeck. They use mostly arms on their forehands, and often arm their serves.
The reason is with your length of leverage, you cannot get early on the ball with conventional technique, which is why you hold your racket close to your body and lead with the elbow. It's OK, worked for Lendl.
Forget retooling your forehand. Instead, spend you time on your big serves and low volleys. If your forehand can pass a netperson, and keep a baseliner on his heels, it's fine for now.
Click to expand...

This is not true at all, with all pros regardless of height their footwork the reason they are as good as they are. They might not move gracefully however they do have good footwork. Also all the power comes from their legs, not their arms.
The posters problem with why he hits the ball late is because he does not move to the ball early enough. Mostly because he is really lazy with his movement. I am 6'4" and in college I moved just as well as many kid who are 5'8 or so. The biggest things you need to work on are staying on your toes and moving your feet a lot more. You kind of take 2 or 3 steps and you hit your shot, you should be taking a ton of small steps to get in optimal position. As a result you won't have to lean forward into the ball with your forehand. I won't knock the buggy whip because that is a personal preference, do I think it is good? Not really but that is up to you.
One last thing, BEND YOUR KNEES!!!!!!!!!! on top of letting the balls drop you just kinda bend over and smack at the ball. If the ball drops you have to get low man. I know it is tough being so tall and it makes your knees ache after long matches however it is the only way you will get better. But even when not getting a low ball, your knees should be bent. you should never ever be standing strait up in tennis during a match....EVER!!!! Remember 80% power in your shots should come from your lower body, make sure you utilize it properly
 
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So basically what you are all sayig is that there is too much extra movement by my elbow and this can hurt consultancy am I correct? And I shouldn't bring my elbow up in my take back I should keep it kind of by my side. And just the general footwork, which I get lazy with because I only need those 2/3 steps to get to the ball but it hurts me cuz I won't get I to proper positioning so would it be a good idea to exaggerate little steps?
 
TheBoom said:
So basically what you are all sayig is that there is too much extra movement by my elbow and this can hurt consultancy am I correct? And I shouldn't bring my elbow up in my take back I should keep it kind of by my side. And just the general footwork, which I get lazy with because I only need those 2/3 steps to get to the ball but it hurts me cuz I won't get I to proper positioning so would it be a good idea to exaggerate little steps?
Click to expand...

There are no "kind of's." Keep your elbow IN to your side, and FORWARD in front of your flank, throughout your unit turn, back and forth. At contact, the elbow moves up and out to initiate the WW finish. Eliminate as much independent arm movement from your stroke as possible and swing with unit turn, back and forth. On the backswing you turn as a single unit. On the forward swing the hips pull the shoulders which pull the arm and hand. (You do that pretty well already). The only significant independent arm movement is when the elbow moves up and out at contact and the swing path continues across and down.

The quality of shot preparation is the single most important difference between different levels of play. The most basic improvement you can do for your footwork and improve the precision of your shot preparation is to use a WIDER, LOWER stance, both when in your ready position AND when you are setting up and executing your shot preparation. Ideally, you should be loaded up (wide, low, open stance, hips facing 3 O'Clock, chest facing 4 O'Clock, left hand on throat of racquet which is pointing up, elbow in and forward), like a batter in a batter's box, before the ball gets there every time. Those little adjustment steps are what you do to perfect your set up after you are loaded up.

PS: Some examples of keeping the elbow in and forward:
Djokovic: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JK2oOyqLSUQ
The L&R guy: http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=EMNtq393tvo
 
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TheBoom said:
So basically what you are all sayig is that there is too much extra movement by my elbow and this can hurt consultancy am I correct? And I shouldn't bring my elbow up in my take back I should keep it kind of by my side. And just the general footwork, which I get lazy with because I only need those 2/3 steps to get to the ball but it hurts me cuz I won't get I to proper positioning so would it be a good idea to exaggerate little steps?
Click to expand...

It isnt about exaggerating little steps, they are not an exaggeration. They are a NECESSITY if you truly want to get better. There are 2 things all pros have in common:

1) Tough Mental Game (being able to concentrate on every shot like it is the only thing in the world, not getting upset, being able to behave the same while winning or losing, timing)

2) Footwork (being able to get in the optimal position so you are not reaching, taking smaller steps instead of running into the ball, bending your knees)

Once you reach a certain point your strokes are set and you can do little to improve them (you can still make adjustments) but these are the two things you have to work on in order to make yourself a good player
 
Correct me if I'm wrong, but from the first video it seems you let the ball drop too low before you hit the forehand. Again I could be wrong but I was always taught to hit the ball as it was on the way up after bouncing
 
I finally figured out what you guys meant about the elbow and I have started working on shadowing my stroke as it rained yesterday's and I couldn't hit. MLB: well I have the tough mental game part down but I need the other half so I'll incorporate that into my training more because I really want to get better and have a very successful last year of HS. Tennisfanireland: yeah I did wait a little too long I'm trying to get away from that because I've realized being as tall as I am it's more affective attacking otherwise I give the opponent the opportunity to move me around and I am pretty quick for my height but it works against me in the long run
 
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