Most of the advice here is too advanced for rec players

[S&V-not_dead_yet]

I got bored with being a pusher and am trying to move to another level. But that doesn't mean I care a lot about powerful groundstrokes. It's very hard to hit winners from the behind the baseline against anyone decent. You just make more errors.

The place to get the percentage winners is at the net. Playing the net is completely different from baselineing, though. But once you get used to it you can hit a lot of good angles from there. Blasting from the baseline impresses spectators, but it's really not that useful for winning points.

1) I agree that adding the net to your game will not only make things more interesting, it could also help your results.

2) I disagree about blasting from the BL: opponents who beat me don't necessarily hit winners with their powerful GSs but they put me into difficult positions from which it's tough to defend. I cough up a shorty and they move in and finish.

 

[S&V-not_dead_yet]

It's also a question of letting the ball tell you what you should do...

A friend taking lessons from Karue mentioned this particular nugget; makes perfect sense to me.

 

[PKorda]

The reality is that most players find your approach boring and not worth pursuing in the larger schema of things. If you enjoy hacking style of tennis, more power to you. Most players dread that approach and like to have nice looking strokes even if it means losing very often.

Really? You think most players would rather look good and lose?

 

[jindra]

Really? You think most players would rather look good and lose?

It's not about looking good. It's about hitting with proper strokes and playing a game that resembles the tennis advanced players play.

 

[S&V-not_dead_yet]

Wow there is a lot of crazy going on here. If you any of you bothered to read my first post you would have realised that I said there is nothing wrong with discussing the advance stuff. I don't want those threads stopped, what I said was such threads are of little use to players who haven't got the basics.

It is like trying an advanced driving course when you haven't passed your driving test and that is what I am seeing with a lot of players. They haven't got the basics of getting the serve in consistently or keeping the ball in the court. Yet they are trying to master highly technical techniques that are way beyond them.

Because talking about and possibly even pursuing advanced techniques is a lot more fun than trying to master the basics, even if the results are far superior for the latter.

When I learn a new piece of music, my instinct is to play it fast so it sounds like "the real thing". Of course, I end up being sloppy and flat [no pun intended] out making mistakes in my zeal for speed. The piano teacher on the other shoulder says to slow down and get it right before stomping on the gas.

It's a tossup who wins the argument that day.

 

[S&V-not_dead_yet]

Really? You think most players would rather look good and lose?

I think it's more complicated than that. I think most players have a mental image of what a "good" tennis player looks like or what "real" tennis looks like and they try to conform to that and get the results they get. It might never occur to them to break it down to fundamentals or if it did, they might reject that because they'd have to slide backwards for a while [perhaps a long while].

Basically, I think most people are in somewhat of a comfort zone and there has to be a very strong incentive to leave for improvement. I put myself squarely in that category.

 

[Steady Eddy]

1) I agree that adding the net to your game will not only make things more interesting, it could also help your results.

2) I disagree about blasting from the BL: opponents who beat me don't necessarily hit winners with their powerful GSs but they put me into difficult positions from which it's tough to defend. I cough up a shorty and they move in and finish.

Maybe it depends on your opponent. Used to play a guy who when I added more pace to my drives, he'd say, "You've really gotten better", but I still wasn't winning. He got to them, and would hit them back. But lots of guys would complain about my pushing shots, "I hate your drives, I have to make all the pace myself."

I feel I should finish off other pushers quicker. When I come to the net, sometimes it backfires and coming up is the reason I lost the point. But that happens less and less often. Also my uber light racket helps. Some pushers give ME no pace for volleys. With my monster light racket, just a little wrist snap, and BLAM!, it's put away.

 

[S&V-not_dead_yet]

Maybe it depends on your opponent. Used to play a guy who when I added more pace to my drives, he'd say, "You've really gotten better", but I still wasn't winning. He got to them, and would hit them back. But lots of guys would complain about my pushing shots, "I hate your drives, I have to make all the pace myself."

I'm not sure how your point relates to mine. I was writing about the ground game not necessarily being limited to blasting GS winners.

I feel I should finish off other pushers quicker. When I come to the net, sometimes it backfires and coming up is the reason I lost the point. But that happens less and less often. Also my uber light racket helps. Some pushers give ME no pace for volleys. With my monster light racket, just a little wrist snap, and BLAM!, it's put away.

Risk goes up when you come to the net: both for your opponent [if he hits a weak shot you have a putaway chance] and for you [he could pass you]. The piont is not to fixate on the lost points but to look for patterns and formulate a strategy that tilts things in your favor. A pusher doesn't like being cornered into making a high-risk shot: their bread and butter is making a ton of low-risk shots. By forcing the issue, you are yanking them out of their comfort zone. Yes, they'll pass/lob you some % of the time. But if you're winning the majority of the points, it doesn't matter.

The psychological benefit is you're forcing the game on your terms, not his.

 

[user92626]

The rating system you are talking about is American, not everyone else uses it.

And it's a d@mn good one.

If you're not familiar with it, then what system do you do use? It doesn't look like you even want to share your level.

There's more to tennis than just make errors and not make errors like you wanna boil it down.

After years of existing, this TT place has evolved to become exactly what the members make it to be! I find it appropriate and right!

 

[user92626]

Yes. He's the one who will explain you in painful details how your serve is wrong while providing exactly zero practical advice on how to fix it and pretend it's not normal in a tips and instruction forum to expect people will provide, you know, tips and instructions.

Leave Chas alone. He has his own place and it's interesting.

Hope the irony isn't lost on you and others when the OP is also whiny that most of the stuff is above his head. You know, one man's treasure is another man's trash and so and so...

 

[zill]

The rating system you are talking about is American, not everyone else uses it.

Ok what's your UTR?

 

[Steady Eddy]

I'm not sure how your point relates to mine. I was writing about the ground game not necessarily being limited to blasting GS winners.

Just that I noticed I couldn't do much damage while hitting behind the baseline. Really it seemed that getting depth mattered more than power from back there. Coming to the net isn't risk free, but seems it is a better percentage play than hitting hard groundies.

 

[AnyPUG]

Is a stroke which smacks the ball long or into the net nicer looking? Surely having better technique actually means being able to control were the ball actually, you know, goes?

Plus you are kind of making the assumption that I block and push the ball. I hit with a topspin and slice, using that control the ball. If that is your definition of hack, fair enough.

I didn't make any assumptions regarding your style. Just going by face value in OP.

Nicer looking means nicer looking without worrying about control and result.

So you want to be known as a hacker or something else? Make up your mind and go around trolling or lying about it accordingly as that seems to be the point of your thread.

 

[SystemicAnomaly]

Wow there is a lot of crazy going on here. If you any of you bothered to read my first post you would have realised that I said there is nothing wrong with discussing the advance stuff. I don't want those threads stopped, what I said was such threads are of little use to players who haven't got the basics.

It is like trying an advanced driving course when you haven't passed your driving test and that is what I am seeing with a lot of players. They haven't got the basics of getting the serve in consistently or keeping the ball in the court. Yet they are trying to master highly technical techniques that are way beyond them.

Perhaps we were lead astray by your thread title. I gotta admit that I had only skimmed your OP. Cuz of visual problems (convergence insufficiency & cataracts), I tend to skim over longer posts. I really just went off your shorter post, #4

 

[enishi1357]

In the same vein I had someone asked me for advice on bettering her serve. I honestly wanted to give a good advice but decided not to for reasons: she is old so she uses a semi western grip because it's simpler for the accuracy and produces more power with what limited amount of power she has, she must have notice from watching many good tennis players that they all uses different grip from their FH grip so she decided not to is for the above reason, my advice on serve will only works for those using continental grip, and lastly I'm prob not the first one she asked since she's a sociable person so other people not telling her prob has the same thought as I do and for other reasons I might not have. I do feel bad watching her as she continue practicing serving with a semi western grip that will ultimately lead to nowhere. This also goes for another friend of mine. It's hard to believe someone who spent some much time on the tennis court but yet didn't have the foresight to see the different grip used on different strokes. I can only assume that person has other things going on in his/her life. Maybe some people like me are just better at physical activities whereas others are more of other types.

Yet prob deep in my heart the true reason I did not offer my advice is because I fear that if I did and they ultimately did not even attempt to try it out, it would mean they did not think I'm good enough and therefore my teaching is inferior and therefore at even the smallest difficulty in following my advice they would believe that is not the true way instead of believing in me and went back to their old ways because it's easier to go back to what they are comfortable with and building on top of what they know than to knock down everything to build a solid foundation for future growth.

It's sad but I don't really care. I can sense the antagonism in doubles when they lost the point they have excuses like I can't possibly get that or don't say up that sound like out (because that's distracting apparently). Is it bad to think they are trying too hard to match my level that they actually took the fun out of the match by being too serious? I know what I'm getting myself into and so I play the match to play as a team. In other words to minimize their weakness and attack more than I should normally. The end goal is to do everything I could and if I have nothing to improve after the game then I've hit my ceiling with this person I'm playing doubles with. Sure I could give advice so they would advance to my level but I have a feeling their roadblock is a case of old age or just plain stubbornness. The former is less likely to give advice because they have self awareness that they are not really that good but the latter are people who give advice which churns out more players of similar caliber. The silverlining is at least there's more people playing tennis who would otherwise lead a non sport life if not for these people who wants to feel special or important. I personally don't feel anything of that sort. If anything I feel there's less incentive to play tennis knowing: I wouldn't learn or improve substantially on anything playing with aforementioned people, and they would feel antagonized for the above reasons. Then there are those who think they have the better idea (like a captain) and give advices base on past performance, which is perfectly acceptable, instead of the potential that could be. That kind of thinking is usually correct assuming the growth of the player can't be approximately figure out. In my case, since i'm literally copying another player, telling me to not do certain thing is basically taking a huge chunk of my game. Most of the time I don't care because I can always work on an area that is acceptable. I know my game so I know where I will ultimately end up which is the player I'm copying, so by telling me how to play in a certain way is effectively stifling my progress for the sake of a possibly higher chance of winning. My end goal is never to win but to learn as much as I can in the time I have so having someone telling me to play a certain way, even though intention is good, is not always good.

TLDR: The lesson here is don't give advices to anyone unless you are prepare to have your advice not follow. On the opposite end, if you want advice, don't just ask for it. Instead offer food or service or something of value so on the off chance you don't want to follow the advice, you won't be feel bad for slighting the person who gave you the advice. I'm still waiting for the guy who's a barber to give me free trim for tennis advice but to no avail

 

[LuckyR]

Not unless he develops enough control to keep the rally going and gain control of the point. There is no point developing big winners if you never get in a position deploy them in a match and to do that you need the boring rally strokes as well.

The reality is that it is a fallacy that a player can start as a beginner by hitting a high percentage of high pace shots out and magically these high pace shots will land in as they get "better". You'll have much more success getting a high percentage of low pace shots to land in the court as a beginner then increase the pace as you get better, still keeping most shots in the court.

 

[Dragy]

Wow there is a lot of crazy going on here. If you any of you bothered to read my first post you would have realised that I said there is nothing wrong with discussing the advance stuff. I don't want those threads stopped, what I said was such threads are of little use to players who haven't got the basics.

It is like trying an advanced driving course when you haven't passed your driving test and that is what I am seeing with a lot of players. They haven't got the basics of getting the serve in consistently or keeping the ball in the court. Yet they are trying to master highly technical techniques that are way beyond them.

You know, this space is where most people come with particular questions regarding elements of their game. To hit more beautiful shots, more efficient shots, fight injuries. You may discard their requests and try to persuade them to focus on what you feel is more basic for game results… good luck. But why not just provide what is asked?

How to hit FH like Federer? That’s how, more or less. You get you also have to be a good mover and experienced player to apply it to live ball? Ok, good

 

[zaph]

Ok what's your UTR?

The league I play in uses the ITF world tennis number, mine is 25.9, which is really low. Basically the ranking is 1-40, with lower being better.

In my defence my last round of league matches hasn't been put into the calculation, since I won every match, I suspect that number will improve but not by much. As far as I understand the system, your rating depends on the quality of your opponent, so you don't get much for beating players who also have a bad number.

Basically before I can get a higher rating, I need to escape the land of pushers and hacks in which I play in. It is one of the reasons I decided to learn how to beat them, though I may regret it next round because I suspect I might be placed into a league which is way above my ability level.

I like to have time to line up shot and I actually like generating my own pace. Not so happy when the ball is being hit at me with real pace and I have no time to react. Why you all prefer that is beyond me. So I suspect next round I will struggle but you don't find out how good you are unless you have ago against better players.

 

[zaph]

You know, this space is where most people come with particular questions regarding elements of their game. To hit more beautiful shots, more efficient shots, fight injuries. You may discard their requests and try to persuade them to focus on what you feel is more basic for game results… good luck. But why not just provide what is asked?

How to hit FH like Federer? That’s how, more or less. You get you also have to be a good mover and experienced player to apply it to live ball? Ok, good

Because you have to walk before you can learn to run. I have seen too many players who try to add all these advance techniques all at once and I am not convinced it is a good idea.

For example the best server I have ever played against could hit 125mph serves and huge kick serves. He had had his serve measured on a proper speed gun and you could tell it was that sort of pace. If he hit his spots the serve went pass you before you could react.

He told me that best way to learn the serve was to start with the racket behind your back, gently toss the ball and hit it gently. Basically he was saying build slowly, you couldn't expect to do the advance stuff straight away. I mean if that is how that guy learnt to serve and he could serve like that, shouldn't the rest of use start with the simple stuff first?

 

[zaph]

I didn't make any assumptions regarding your style. Just going by face value in OP.

Nicer looking means nicer looking without worrying about control and result.

So you want to be known as a hacker or something else? Make up your mind and go around trolling or lying about it accordingly as that seems to be the point of your thread.

You have a very weird definition of "nice". Players with good strokes have the ability to control the ball, there is nothing good about a tennis shot which constantly breaks down.

 

[Dragy]

Because you have to walk before you can learn to run. I have seen too many players who try to add all these advance techniques all at once and I am not convinced it is a good idea.

For example the best server I have ever played against could hit 125mph serves and huge kick serves. He had had his serve measured on a proper speed gun and you could tell it was that sort of pace. If he hit his spots the serve went pass you before you could react.

He told me that best way to learn the serve was to start with the racket behind your back, gently toss the ball and hit it gently. Basically he was saying build slowly, you couldn't expect to do the advance stuff straight away. I mean if that is how that guy learnt to serve and he could serve like that, shouldn't the rest of use start with the simple stuff first?

Are you familiar with Karpman triangle concept? You are acting a persecutor here combined with rescuer. I suggest that you simply respond the call recieved if you can.

If a beginner comes in with a question how to hit 125 mph serve - absolutely, you ask if he has video (to check how he's inclined to really dig into it), then point on first things which go first. What you don't do is say "you don't need 125 mph to beat your 3.5 buddies" - it's not yours to decide.

And yes, he's likely never coming close to 125 mph... or he does eventually. Let him have his goals.

 

[zill]

The league I play in uses the ITF world tennis number, mine is 25.9, which is really low. Basically the ranking is 1-40, with lower being better.

In my defence my last round of league matches hasn't been put into the calculation, since I won every match, I suspect that number will improve but not by much. As far as I understand the system, your rating depends on the quality of your opponent, so you don't get much for beating players who also have a bad number.

Basically before I can get a higher rating, I need to escape the land of pushers and hacks in which I play in. It is one of the reasons I decided to learn how to beat them, though I may regret it next round because I suspect I might be placed into a league which is way above my ability level.

I like to have time to line up shot and I actually like generating my own pace. Not so happy when the ball is being hit at me with real pace and I have no time to react. Why you all prefer that is beyond me. So I suspect next round I will struggle but you don't find out how good you are unless you have ago against better players.

Would be keen to take a look at a vid of your match.

 

[AnyPUG]

You have a very weird definition of "nice". Players with good strokes have the ability to control the ball, there is nothing good about a tennis shot which constantly breaks down.

What makes you think nice looking strokes break down often? There is no great fun or use just placing the ball back on the other side of the court - need to do it with explosiveness, aggression and purpose. That's what nice is.

 

[ballmachineguy]

In tennis advanced usually means misunderstood. Basics means doing it wrong.

 

[zaph]

What makes you think nice looking strokes break down often? There is no great fun or use just placing the ball back on the other side of the court - need to do it with explosiveness, aggression and purpose. That's what nice is.

If you can do that consistently you win, if you can't you're deluding yourself. There is no point making 3 unforced errors for every explosive winner you hit.

 

[zaph]

In tennis advanced usually means misunderstood. Basics means doing it wrong.

If it is legal and you don't get injured the only way to define wrong is by results. Tennis isn't ice skating, there are no judges rating technique.

Yes I know that the standard response is that will limit a persons level but from my understanding of the US tennis rating system widely used here. The majority of US players are at the 3.5 level and only a minority are above that.

My point is, it doesn't matter how advanced your technique is, everyone will hit a ceiling eventually,

 

[SV10is]

Leave Chas alone. He has his own place and it's interesting. Hope the irony isn't lost on you and others when the OP is also whiny that most of the stuff is above his head. You know, one man's treasure is another man's trash and so and so...

Chas' problem isn't making too detailed of an analysis, but pointing out problems without offering solutions and then complaining every time someone points it out. I'm not saying it is useless for amateurs. I am saying it is (almost) useless for everyone to say "this is wrong" without "here's how to fix it." Ultimately, you actually do not even need "this is wrong" and you really need "here's how to fix it."

 

[AnyPUG]

If you can do that consistently you win, if you can't you're deluding yourself. There is no point making 3 unforced errors for every explosive winner you hit.

No pain, no gain. Strokes development does not happen magically as you very well know.
The point of making errors is to learn how not to.

 

[S&V-not_dead_yet]

In the same vein I had someone asked me for advice on bettering her serve. I honestly wanted to give a good advice but decided not to for reasons: she is old so she uses a semi western grip because it's simpler for the accuracy and produces more power with what limited amount of power she has, she must have notice from watching many good tennis players that they all uses different grip from their FH grip so she decided not to is for the above reason, my advice on serve will only works for those using continental grip, and lastly I'm prob not the first one she asked since she's a sociable person so other people not telling her prob has the same thought as I do and for other reasons I might not have. I do feel bad watching her as she continue practicing serving with a semi western grip that will ultimately lead to nowhere. This also goes for another friend of mine. It's hard to believe someone who spent some much time on the tennis court but yet didn't have the foresight to see the different grip used on different strokes. I can only assume that person has other things going on in his/her life. Maybe some people like me are just better at physical activities whereas others are more of other types.

If someone asks me for advice, I first gauge how serious they are or whether they're just making small talk.

if I think they're serious and it involves something major, I'll ask them "Are you willing to get worse in the short-run?". In your example of the serve, I'd ask them to point out the differences between their serve and a higher-level player.

Some people just aren't as observant as others. And if you're playing singles, your opponent is 78' away: how are you going to notice that the serve grip is different?

Yet prob deep in my heart the true reason I did not offer my advice is because I fear that if I did and they ultimately did not even attempt to try it out, it would mean they did not think I'm good enough and therefore my teaching is inferior and therefore at even the smallest difficulty in following my advice they would believe that is not the true way instead of believing in me and went back to their old ways because it's easier to go back to what they are comfortable with and building on top of what they know than to knock down everything to build a solid foundation for future growth.

It wouldn't matter to me whether they attempted it or not; it doesn't change my self-perception. if they kept at it, I'd wonder why they bother.

It's sad but I don't really care. I can sense the antagonism in doubles when they lost the point they have excuses like I can't possibly get that or don't say up that sound like out (because that's distracting apparently). Is it bad to think they are trying too hard to match my level that they actually took the fun out of the match by being too serious? I know what I'm getting myself into and so I play the match to play as a team. In other words to minimize their weakness and attack more than I should normally. The end goal is to do everything I could and if I have nothing to improve after the game then I've hit my ceiling with this person I'm playing doubles with. Sure I could give advice so they would advance to my level but I have a feeling their roadblock is a case of old age or just plain stubbornness. The former is less likely to give advice because they have self awareness that they are not really that good but the latter are people who give advice which churns out more players of similar caliber. The silverlining is at least there's more people playing tennis who would otherwise lead a non sport life if not for these people who wants to feel special or important. I personally don't feel anything of that sort. If anything I feel there's less incentive to play tennis knowing: I wouldn't learn or improve substantially on anything playing with aforementioned people, and they would feel antagonized for the above reasons. Then there are those who think they have the better idea (like a captain) and give advices base on past performance, which is perfectly acceptable, instead of the potential that could be. That kind of thinking is usually correct assuming the growth of the player can't be approximately figure out. In my case, since i'm literally copying another player, telling me to not do certain thing is basically taking a huge chunk of my game. Most of the time I don't care because I can always work on an area that is acceptable. I know my game so I know where I will ultimately end up which is the player I'm copying, so by telling me how to play in a certain way is effectively stifling my progress for the sake of a possibly higher chance of winning. My end goal is never to win but to learn as much as I can in the time I have so having someone telling me to play a certain way, even though intention is good, is not always good.

TLDR: The lesson here is don't give advices to anyone unless you are prepare to have your advice not follow. On the opposite end, if you want advice, don't just ask for it. Instead offer food or service or something of value so on the off chance you don't want to follow the advice, you won't be feel bad for slighting the person who gave you the advice. I'm still waiting for the guy who's a barber to give me free trim for tennis advice but to no avail

What you're talking about isn't too advanced; it's about whether the partner is the type that will accept advice and how much of a team player they are. Many lower-level doubles players simply don't grasp the "team" concept of doubles and how the goal is maximize the team's chance of winning a point, not that partnerA took partnerB's ball or that partnerA is intruding on partnerB's side, etc.

 

[Slicehand]

Not unless he develops enough control to keep the rally going and gain control of the point. There is no point developing big winners if you never get in a position deploy them in a match and to do that you need the boring rally strokes as well.

The point is good technique allows to hit those boring rally shot consitently harder, going for winners and missing and continuing to do so is a tactical error, but without proper technique is very difficult to keep up in a rally against players of decent level, talking all recreational for sure

 

[SV10is]

A friend taking lessons from Karue mentioned this particular nugget; makes perfect sense to me.

It was actually very useful to me yesterday.

I played in the morning with an older friend who can give some shape to the ball, so I enjoyed a little more time and had to deal with higher bounces. I felt very comfortable hitting with more spin and even would occasionally even jump into my forehands and backhands. I had matches with my doubles league that night and went to another park to warm up with one of the players. He hits a bit harder and considerably flatter, so I couldn't find the rhythm to hit that same ball I was hitting in the morning. My footwork seemed a bit off, but I eventually figured I should try to hit a little more through the ball because I kept hitting too thin or a tad off center. So, I stopped arguing with the damn ball and started hitting flatter. I suddenly had more time, my footwork was more on point and we got some good rallies going. It also helped later during doubles matches as many players hit flatter and slice more often.

Not arguing with the ball really makes a big difference.

 

[jimmy8]

Then don't listen to it. Or get better so you can understand it. Or ask questions, but ask for only lower level players to give advice, and specify what level you are. If someone still gives you an answer that is too advanced, either ignore it.

 

[TennisCJC]

My experience is the op's plan works well mostly at lower levels, say up to 3.5. At 4.0 and above, the better players begin to have better looking strokes that are more technically sound. Yes, there will always be exceptions like MEP style players who have ugly strokes and still win but the majority of players will not have MEP style strokes as you begin to move up in skill level. When younger, my 4.5 team won the city and placed 2nd in the state playoffs. Everyone on the team had 1 or 2 strokes that looked like a decent tennis player. Yes, there were a few weak strokes but overall, it looked like decent tennis. Personally, my game improved when I took about 6 months and dedicated that time to improving technique and I find it more fun too to work to hit the ball well.

 

[Pumpkin]

I still have a theory that professional tennis players are pushers, that an advanced tennis stroke is nothing more than a glorified push.

 

[ChaelAZ]

I still have a theory that professional tennis players are pushers, that an advanced tennis stroke is nothing more than a glorified push.

Hey, and if that theory doesn't pan out, it is seriously your season to shine in spiced lattes, eh?

But actually seriously, I'll take some of that 70 mph pushing.

 

[Pumpkin]

Hey, and if that theory doesn't pan out, it is seriously your season to shine in spiced lattes, eh?

But actually seriously, I'll take some of that 70 mph pushing.

Think about it. If Kyrgios loses his temper and whacks a ball into the crowd, that's smacking the ball. That doesn't work on court, because you'll hit everything out. So you have to use a pushing motion.

Just on that, why is it a warning if a player hits a ball into the crowd during a match, but then it's alright to sign balls after the match and hit them into the crowd?

Ball abuse? How can you abuse a tennis ball? They hit serves at 220km/h. Why isn't that ball abuse?

 

[ballmachineguy]

Can someone point me to the area of the forum that states it is for “recreational players only!”?

 

[FuzzyYellowBalls]

Think about it. If Kyrgios loses his temper and whacks a ball into the crowd, that's smacking the ball. That doesn't work on court, because you'll hit everything out. So you have to use a pushing motion.

Just on that, why is it a warning if a player hits a ball into the crowd during a match, but then it's alright to sign balls after the match and hit them into the crowd?

Ball abuse? How can you abuse a tennis ball? They hit serves at 220km/h. Why isn't that ball abuse?

No, even I can whack the ball as hard as I can on squash type overheads from the baseline and have it go in. Kyrgios and Monfils do it all the time. Just need to be tall and have the angle and experience.

I don't know what to say about ball abuse.

 

[vex]

It’s a tennis forum. Of course it’s gonna get deep into the details. If you want basics there are a million YouTube videos for that.

 

[jm1980]

The league I play in uses the ITF world tennis number, mine is 25.9, which is really low. Basically the ranking is 1-40, with lower being better.

25.9 is smack in the middle of NTRP 3.5 from what I can tell

 

[Fintft]

Look there is nothing wrong with talking about lags, racket contact angles and obsessing about whether you have a waiter's serve but to me allot of the more technical discussions here are too advanced for most players because they are trying advanced things before they have the basics down.

I decided to post this after a practice session yesterday, the guy I was practicing with knew all the technical stuff, hit properly off both sides, got into the trophy position on the serve, tried to use proper footwork. He seemed OK in practice and he suggested we play a set. Wasn't too sure about this because I am a bit of an untrained hack who honestly would struggle to tell you whether I hit open or closed stance. Let alone stuff about racket lags and whether I waiter serve. So I feared a one sided thrashing.

My fears were justified, I won the set 6-0, for a basic reason. I made far fewer errors than my opponent. He was going for the big serve but threw a double a game. Were as I hit two in the whole set. Same with the groundstrokes, he went big trying to hit me off the court, I kept it in play and waited for him to leave a gap. He tried to pull me in with short balls and take the net but once again he made too many errors, missing volley after volley. Sure the shots he made looked good but he couldn't do it consistently.

My point is, analyzing Rodger Federer's serve frame by frame so you can break 100mph is a waste of time unless you have the foundations of the game and those foundations have to be the ability to keep the ball play and under control. At the very least you need a reliable second serve and ground strokes on either wing that allow you to stay in a point from any court position. Without that you will struggle.

The reality is, rec tennis is usually won by the player who is steadier and makes the least errors.

And moves better + is stronger mentally/match tough?

 

[Fintft]

I got bored with being a pusher and am trying to move to another level. But that doesn't mean I care a lot about powerful groundstrokes. It's very hard to hit winners from the behind the baseline against anyone decent. You just make more errors.

The place to get the percentage winners is at the net. Playing the net is completely different from baselineing, though. But once you get used to it you can hit a lot of good angles from there. Blasting from the baseline impresses spectators, but it's really not that useful for winning points.

I've just practiced hugging the baseline and taking the balls on the rise(if need be) as opposed to backing off and taking them on the way down.

 

[Pumpkin]

No, even I can whack the ball as hard as I can on squash type overheads from the baseline and have it go in. Kyrgios and Monfils do it all the time. Just need to be tall and have the angle and experience.

I don't know what to say about ball abuse.

Yes, those types of shot along with the serve are not a push.