need some help.

[Nkster]

Hi,
I'm 17years old and I have a lot of problems with my tennis game right now.
1st: I have no confidence on my backhand site. I tried fixing that with hitting many many backhands but still there is no confidence. In the small field at the beginning of a session I have no problems hitting heavy topspin backhands but if I'm back at the base line and I have to use my core and legs to generate more power I tighten up and tend to arm my shot. If I do so, they'll land pretty short as a put away for my opponent. But on the other hand, I can hit backhand winners with over 120kph if I throw my weight into the ball. Especially in match situations, if things become close as a passing shot or after I'm in trouble. But in normal rallying I can't hit good backhand rallies. My short term solution is to hit many slices instead of topspin backhands, but that's no solution.
I can't get smooth with this stroke. In winter when I hit with my coach I had houres with nearly perfect backhands: pretty long, spinny and fast stokes but few days later there was this ****ty stoke again.
what I realized is, that I often hold my breath while hitting this stroke which causes me to tighten up. Also I lack on watching the ball on my backhand side more than on my forehand side.
This hold my breath problem occurs also while hitting volleys in match situations.
So how to practice (off court and on court):
-exhaling through the stokes
-eyes on the ball

2nd: Sometimes in match play, my mind says me that i don't want to play on, that I don't want to play any longer. I have a lack of motivation to win, and that kills my game. I am not thinking from point to point, I'm thinking to early about winning or loosing and against better player my mind says: it's ok he has a much better ranking or something like that.
How to get this winning mentality, I already had last year, back?!

3rd: it doubles a bit with 1, but how to become more loose in point play? I am often on my forehand that tight, that I have not that amount of RHS that I could have.
And how do I master, that my feet and lower body are under tension, while my upper body is total loose?

Thanks
Nkster

 

[LeeD]

Hi,
I'm 17years old and I have a lot of problems with my tennis game right now.
1st: I have no confidence on my backhand site. I tried fixing that with hitting many many backhands but still there is no confidence. In the small field at the beginning of a session I have no problems hitting heavy topspin backhands but if I'm back at the base line and I have to use my core and legs to generate more power I tighten up and tend to arm my shot. If I do so, they'll land pretty short as a put away for my opponent. But on the other hand, I can hit backhand winners with over 120kph if I throw my weight into the ball. Especially in match situations, if things become close as a passing shot or after I'm in trouble. But in normal rallying I can't hit good backhand rallies. My short term solution is to hit many slices instead of topspin backhands, but that's no solution.
I can't get smooth with this stroke. In winter when I hit with my coach I had houres with nearly perfect backhands: pretty long, spinny and fast stokes but few days later there was this ****ty stoke again.
what I realized is, that I often hold my breath while hitting this stroke which causes me to tighten up. Also I lack on watching the ball on my backhand side more than on my forehand side.
This hold my breath problem occurs also while hitting volleys in match situations.
So how to practice (off court and on court):
-exhaling through the stokes
-eyes on the ball

2nd: Sometimes in match play, my mind says me that i don't want to play on, that I don't want to play any longer. I have a lack of motivation to win, and that kills my game. I am not thinking from point to point, I'm thinking to early about winning or loosing and against better player my mind says: it's ok he has a much better ranking or something like that.
How to get this winning mentality, I already had last year, back?!

3rd: it doubles a bit with 1, but how to become more loose in point play? I am often on my forehand that tight, that I have not that amount of RHS that I could have.
And how do I master, that my feet and lower body are under tension, while my upper body is total loose?

Thanks
Nkster

You're going thru what EVERYONE who plays tennis has to go thru and try to evade just a bit. Nobody is immune to nerves, shortarming, or choking. The only way to get around it is to experience LOSING at the the highest degree, loose soooo many match's that your brain tells you it doesn't matter, the only thing that matters is how YOU play, never the scores, never the results, never the loss's.

 

[Dragy]

In the small field at the beginning of a session I have no problems hitting heavy topspin backhands but if I'm back at the base line and I have to use my core and legs to generate more power I tighten up and tend to arm my shot.

This - you can practice loose, "lazy" use of core and legs in mini tennis with less arming, which might allow easier transition to baseline with slightly more effort into shots.

As for matchplay, I agree with LeeD this being a common path. Just play more matches/sets/tiebrakers, ones having no tournament importance. Try keeping practice rally mentality in some, so that you try to hit good relaxed shots, not putaways or smth. Don't care if your opponent plays to win, do your job - get to the ball and hit a shot you like by form and ball trajectory, even if it goes to the opponents FH strikezone or volley strikezone. If you cannot put the score aside completely, apply high percentage directions - this will support you score-wise, while you are still grooving in your strokes.
Once you get the feel of hitting good shots in point play without tightening, you can start varying placement and go for more, keeping same loose feel.

This may sound a bit dialectic, but I belive playing more points, while not over-focusing on winning those points, might be beneficial on some stages.

 

[The Unknown]

Hi,
I'm 17years old and I have a lot of problems with my tennis game right now.
1st: I have no confidence on my backhand site. I tried fixing that with hitting many many backhands but still there is no confidence. In the small field at the beginning of a session I have no problems hitting heavy topspin backhands but if I'm back at the base line and I have to use my core and legs to generate more power I tighten up and tend to arm my shot. If I do so, they'll land pretty short as a put away for my opponent. But on the other hand, I can hit backhand winners with over 120kph if I throw my weight into the ball. Especially in match situations, if things become close as a passing shot or after I'm in trouble. But in normal rallying I can't hit good backhand rallies. My short term solution is to hit many slices instead of topspin backhands, but that's no solution.
I can't get smooth with this stroke. In winter when I hit with my coach I had houres with nearly perfect backhands: pretty long, spinny and fast stokes but few days later there was this ****ty stoke again.
what I realized is, that I often hold my breath while hitting this stroke which causes me to tighten up. Also I lack on watching the ball on my backhand side more than on my forehand side.
This hold my breath problem occurs also while hitting volleys in match situations.
So how to practice (off court and on court):
-exhaling through the stokes
-eyes on the ball

2nd: Sometimes in match play, my mind says me that i don't want to play on, that I don't want to play any longer. I have a lack of motivation to win, and that kills my game. I am not thinking from point to point, I'm thinking to early about winning or loosing and against better player my mind says: it's ok he has a much better ranking or something like that.
How to get this winning mentality, I already had last year, back?!

3rd: it doubles a bit with 1, but how to become more loose in point play? I am often on my forehand that tight, that I have not that amount of RHS that I could have.
And how do I master, that my feet and lower body are under tension, while my upper body is total loose?

Thanks
Nkster

Do you hit a one handed or two handed backhand?

 

[Nkster]

Do you hit a one handed or two handed backhand?

Two handed, in the youth I had a one handed. My coach told me that one handed is bad, so I switched, but never got comfortable with the two hander.

 

[Nkster]

This - you can practice loose, "lazy" use of core and legs in mini tennis with less arming, which might allow easier transition to baseline with slightly more effort into shots.

As for matchplay, I agree with LeeD this being a common path. Just play more matches/sets/tiebrakers, ones having no tournament importance. Try keeping practice rally mentality in some, so that you try to hit good relaxed shots, not putaways or smth. Don't care if your opponent plays to win, do your job - get to the ball and hit a shot you like by form and ball trajectory, even if it goes to the opponents FH strikezone or volley strikezone. If you cannot put the score aside completely, apply high percentage directions - this will support you score-wise, while you are still grooving in your strokes.
Once you get the feel of hitting good shots in point play without tightening, you can start varying placement and go for more, keeping same loose feel.

This may sound a bit dialectic, but I belive playing more points, while not over-focusing on winning those points, might be beneficial on some stages.

Thanks, that's really good advice. Especially the thing with the looser mini tennis.

 

[LeeD]

Remember, even Roger Federer, as a youth just under your age, was throwing and breaking racket's during and after loss's to what he considered, "lesser" player's.
Nobody likes losing, emotions build to uncontrollable levels, but you have to go to the dark side in order to find where it is, and why you shouldn't always exceed that limit.

 

[SystemicAnomaly]

Two handed, in the youth I had a one handed. My coach told me that one handed is bad, so I switched, but never got comfortable with the two hander.

A couple of things you might try with your BH. Can you hit a 1-handed BH slice? The is a good stroke to have in your arsenal. Steffi Graf built her career around this type of BH. Modern players who have some of the best 2-handed strokes in the game have also developed decent 1-handed slice BHs: Nadal, Murray, Djokovic and even Nishikori.

youtube.com/watch?v=X4_Khy0cChA&t=68

The other thing that you might try is to develop a classic-style FH (over the shoulder) with your opposite arm. If you are a right-handed player, learn to hit a lefty FH. When hitting these, the left hand would still be in the upper position (where it would be for a right-handed 2-handed BH). If you can get comfortable hitting FHs with your non-dominant arm, it might help your regular 2-handed BH feel more comfortable.

 

[Nkster]

A couple of things you might try with your BH. Can you hit a 1-handed BH slice? The is a good stroke to have in your arsenal. Steffi Graf built her career around this type of BH. Modern players who have some of the best 2-handed strokes in the game have also developed decent 1-handed slice BHs: Nadal, Murray, Djokovic and even Nishikori.

youtube.com/watch?v=X4_Khy0cChA&t=68

The other thing that you might try is to develop a classic-style FH (over the shoulder) with your opposite arm. If you are a right-handed player, learn to hit a lefty FH. When hitting these, the left hand would still be in the upper position (where it would be for a right-handed 2-handed BH). If you can get comfortable hitting FHs with your non-dominant arm, it might help your regular 2-handed BH feel more comfortable.

Yep, I have a pretty good backhand slice, since I have a babolat pop I can give you my data out of a usual match:
2/3 forehand, 1/3 Backhand, 2/3 of the backhand are a slice. But I need my backhand topspin shot for variety and:
-to get the opponent out of the court with a short cross court angle or to get him fixed into backhand corner.
-to stay in a cross court backhand rally
My goal would be 3/4 of the backhand as topspin or flat stroke and 1/4 slice.

I also tried that with the leftie forehand, it works but that was not the solution of the problem. Today I went on court and did what you suggested me yesterday with staying more loose and it worked, my backhands were 10-20% better. Could rally quit a while and when I was totally focused it worked pretty well, but often I tightened up again and the balls landed in the net.
That's something I forgot to mention most of my faults are net faults, the stroke is pretty flat. The backhand lacks on height but it is pretty spinny.

 

[KenC]

I think a lot of the value of having a good coach/trainer is to help you overcome these periods and problems.

 

[Nkster]

Here's a clip with me hitting a backhand. Quality is pretty bad, because I uploaded it directly from my tablet^^.
As said I can hit the 2 handed backhand pretty well but too often I tighten up and crush the ball into the net.

I feel that if I master my backhand in terms of consistency, my game will be so much better. That would make things that much easier...

 

[SystemicAnomaly]

Difficult to tell much form this short blurry clip. Stroke looks to be pretty decent. It appears that your gaze is of the contact (zone) when the ball meets the strings -- and your head seems to be fairly still at that point. However, it appears that your head moves and you look up very shortly afterward. I can't help but wonder if that is always the case. Perhaps you move your eyes/head a bit earlier at times which might cause a bit of a mishit or a lack of consistency.