Please critique this 7-years old

[TomT]

He looks pretty good to me. I'm pretty sure he would kick my butt. Of course pay attention to the comments of the knowledgeable posters. My opinion is that if he can hit a tennis ball that good at that age, then he can do anything. But that's just my opinion.

 

[5263]

I would make him more aware of putting his weight on his outside foot and not stepping in with his left foot on the fh. I would suggest to him he try open stance on the bh as well - with weight on his outside foot up and across to his finish over the shoulder. .

Yes, a good chance that thinking of his feet and forcing the effort to get
sideways in his stance is detracting him from working to get a less cramped
contact point.

He looks pretty good and confident though, so keep up the good efforts.

 

[t135]

Isn't the university of south Carolina located in Columbia? There must be good coaches there who can help.

Surely there is a country club or two in Columbia as well with USPTA coaches on staff?

 

[OnlineTennisInstruction]

Looks pretty solid. Nevertheless he has the so-called propeller swing going on on his forehand. He goes over his head and the tip of the racket points to the left side way too early. This should be fine now but when he gets older and balls come fast it will be a problem and changing it later is difficult.

I would try to shorten the whole motion on the forehand and focus on the tip of the racket pointing slightly to the right side when he lowers the racket into the slot position

Good luck

Florian

 

[carnaval09]

Looks pretty solid. Nevertheless he has the so-called propeller swing going on on his forehand. He goes over his head and the tip of the racket points to the left side way too early. This should be fine now but when he gets older and balls come fast it will be a problem and changing it later is difficult.

I would try to shorten the whole motion on the forehand and focus on the tip of the racket pointing slightly to the right side when he lowers the racket into the slot position

Good luck

Florian

Thanks for pointing this out. I see that he points the tip of his racquet to the left side, it's clear say at 5 second of the video. I can see that it is hard to change it even now as once I tried to make him point it to the right side instead and he started complaining that it feels weird. I don't know if there is any sort of drills for that but I just thought about something tonight which seemed to work when he practiced shadowing. I stood behind him to the right side probably (at around 5 o'clock ish) and had him touch my palm which I kept parallel to the floor ( sort of high five game with his racquet against my palm) as he was taking his racquet back. This made him swing away from his body to the right side as he had to touch my palm. Does it make any sense to you? I hope you can visualize what I'm describing here.

 

[Ash_Smith]

That depends, several top coaches I've talked to teach both semi-open and neutral stances for the forehand however they are situation specific. For example, deeper balls, out wide go semi open. If you gotta move into the ball, move forward before you set, neutral or semi-open as well depending on the ball, your intention and court positioning.

A player should be able to use both neutral and semi-open, as hitting from only open stances is limiting. If a coach wants to first teach neutral then semi-open I think thats ok.

Cannot agree more with this! To be an elite player, you have to be fully proficient hitting from at least two out of three stances - off the back foot, off the outside foot and off the front foot. Which to use will depend on court position (the incoming ball) and tactical intention (the outgoing ball). To exclusively teach just one (open stance for example) is the fallacy. The order and method for teaching is up to the coach, personally I have a system for introducing and teaching the footwork positions very simply and generally it involves learning to set the outside foot behind the ball first - as this is the foundation on which all other hitting positions are built from.

I also agree with Balla that your lad doesn't get himself behind the ball very well, preferring to stay on the line (maybe just by moving him back away from the line, say to mid-court, you might find he starts to move behind the ball better as the line isn't anchoring him?). Using the drills Balla suggested (and others like it) will help him learn to get his body behind the ball better, which in turn will help him better protect his contact point.

Technically (and this doesn't all need to be looked at tomorrow!) I would suggest:

Forehand: I'm not a fan of the overswing! The ATP forehand doesn't have the racquet crossing behind the plane of the body (the WTA has this frequently), so I would look to prune this down (actually this is the first thing I would address). If he can keep his hands on the racquet side of the body and then drop into the 'slot' position (butt-cap to the ball) he should be in a much better position for a clean strike.

Backhand: Looks okay, my only addition for now would be to help him rotate out of the shot, he pretty much stops his hip and shoulder rotation at contact and the arms have to take over. The hip stopping early doesn't allow him to get full extension and so his arms fold early.

Just my thoughts. You/his coach are doing a good job so far - well done!

Cheers

 

[carnaval09]

Cannot agree more with this! To be an elite player, you have to be fully proficient hitting from at least two out of three stances - off the back foot, off the outside foot and off the front foot. Which to use will depend on court position (the incoming ball) and tactical intention (the outgoing ball). To exclusively teach just one (open stance for example) is the fallacy. The order and method for teaching is up to the coach, personally I have a system for introducing and teaching the footwork positions very simply and generally it involves learning to set the outside foot behind the ball first - as this is the foundation on which all other hitting positions are built from.

I also agree with Balla that your lad doesn't get himself behind the ball very well, preferring to stay on the line (maybe just by moving him back away from the line, say to mid-court, you might find he starts to move behind the ball better as the line isn't anchoring him?). Using the drills Balla suggested (and others like it) will help him learn to get his body behind the ball better, which in turn will help him better protect his contact point.

Technically (and this doesn't all need to be looked at tomorrow!) I would suggest:

Forehand: I'm not a fan of the overswing! The ATP forehand doesn't have the racquet crossing behind the plane of the body (the WTA has this frequently), so I would look to prune this down (actually this is the first thing I would address). If he can keep his hands on the racquet side of the body and then drop into the 'slot' position (butt-cap to the ball) he should be in a much better position for a clean strike.

Backhand: Looks okay, my only addition for now would be to help him rotate out of the shot, he pretty much stops his hip and shoulder rotation at contact and the arms have to take over. The hip stopping early doesn't allow him to get full extension and so his arms fold early.

Just my thoughts. You/his coach are doing a good job so far - well done!

Cheers

Thanks a lot.

 

[Qubax]

I haven't read the whole thread, but skimmed the first page.

I think his strokes look good. I agree that he is hitting a bit late....

but I love the FH form, especially for a youngster, and from the looks of it he's already hitting with an above average amount of top spin( a good thing imo)

Let him have fun...and i'm sure he'll be well on this way.

 

[carnaval09]

I haven't read the whole thread, but skimmed the first page.

I think his strokes look good. I agree that he is hitting a bit late....

but I love the FH form, especially for a youngster, and from the looks of it he's already hitting with an above average amount of top spin( a good thing imo)

Let him have fun...and i'm sure he'll be well on this way.

Thanks, we worked on his FH last two days and I'll upload a new video of him rallying tomorrow.

 

[carnaval09]

Its difficult to give an accurate assessment from such a short video and only seeing one small aspect of his whole game. I was commenting on what I saw, nothing more.

I think the kid is doing well. It is difficult to teach multiple things at once, especially to small kids. His game will look incomplete and have holes in it for a while still but as you know it all comes together in the end. I like his footwork, but at times he just stands there and relies on his hands. This causes him to be too close to the ball or hit it late. He is young and hasn't been playing for a while, and like you said you worked on technique first which is fine. You guys got the right approach. Would be great to see additional videos of him in the future to see the progress.

We did our homework and I think we have changed quite a bit. What do you think?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m-s25G8_zgo&feature=channel&list=UL

 

[Ash_Smith]

^^^do you want comments left here, or in the other thread you have started?!?!?!

*Edit - sorry other 2 threads you have started (just seen the one in Juniors board)

 

[carnaval09]

^^^do you want comments left here, or in the other thread you have started?!?!?!

*Edit - sorry other 2 threads you have started (just seen the one in Juniors board)

I think the new thread would be great. As I'm new here I didn't know where to post the initial post and I guess that was why I was asked to repost it here while my initial post was later moved to the Junior section by one of the moderators ( I assume) :???:

 

[carnaval09]

I would have him hold the racket with three fingers for a while so that he is forced to generate pace through proper kinetic chain action as well as gravity. Let him hit under the ball in the beginning to assist in generating ball speed, this will also force him to use pronation so that the ball is not hit out of the court.

Have fun and good luck!

Thanks, I like three fingers advice.
How do I let him hit under the ball to assist in generating ball speed?

 

[peoplespeace]

Thanks, I like three fingers advice.
How do I let him hit under the ball to assist in generating ball speed?

Hadnt seen ur post......well if u have him grip the racket with three fingers at the but cap so that the rest of the hand is not touching the racket he will have to use gravity and the kinetic chain to generate pace (google Florian Mayer for inspiration). Due to his size he may not be able to generates enough racket speed this way to hit the ball hard enough. If this is the case, u ust him to hit a bit more under the ball (and with a bit more open racket face at impact). This will send the ball off with plenty of pace but it will also send the ball out in the beginning. SO! to make ball retain pace but not go out, it needs more topspin (relative to its pace) and this u will achiev by 1)have him pronate at/during impact and 2) by gradually having him hit less under the ball and with a less open racket (going toward a vertical racket face).

Honestly, i would have him ONLY hitting like this until it is just about perfected, and only then have him grip the racket with the whole hand (this may take several months).

Gl!