Please, pick apart my game. Any feedback is helpful

steve s

Professional
I am on a completely difference page. You mishit every 5TH forehand , and you are trying to get to a higher level??
Must be worse in a match under pressure, then when you are just hitting.

Try hitting the strings cleanly. Watch the ball, keep your head quiet.

How do you win league matches??
 

rkelley

Hall of Fame
Nice hitting. The bh is sweet.

You're better than most (almost all) the posters on this site, so just consider who's giving you the advice.
 

sammyp99

Rookie
As others have said you need to bring your racquet further behind with your left hand.

The reason for your mishits on FHs is that you don't hit inside out. It's the face of the racquet and angle of your arm that create trajectory. Not rotating towards you target.
You need to prepare earlier, keep your left hand longer on the handle, use your left arm to distance your body to the left. Then hit diagonally towards the ball. Through contact you have to extend more and rotate.

An image to understand what hurts in you FH is to visualize your serve. You don't rotate immediately into your serve. You coil, then drop to your left, then hit to your right, then use your arm/hand to position the face of the frame toward the target, then let your body rotate into the path of the ball's flight.

So

1. Your racquet is aligned with the ball, not your body

2. Hit inside out on every forehand

3. Use the extension to rotate, not the other way around. Think of the distance between hand and shoulder. If it's minimal you're doing something wrong. Hold your shoulder back. Another correction is to hit a lasso forehand, and combine a lasso racquet path with your usual finish. Using neutral stance will help you with hitting more inside out.

4. Release hip, shoulder and back leg toward the target

That is some really interesting insight. I don't understand what you mean by "hit diagonally towards the ball". I agree about the left arm and I think that's on the short list of changes to work on this week. I'll try to find a ball machine and drill it out. Thanks
 

sammyp99

Rookie
your hitting partner doesn´t have a better forehand technique than you do, but he is just way more consistent in the execution.
the biggest problem is that your arm ist not loose enough, especially your wrist. the result is lack of spin and consistency. since your forehand is very similar to tim smiczek´s, here is a video, maybe you can see what i mean:

Wow. His forehand is eerily similar to mine... I never noticed that. I've been battling a wrist injury since April which has really hurt my range of motion. I am about 98% though so I can start stretching it and working on a looser wrist on the fh side. Thanks for the feedback.
 

sammyp99

Rookie
I am on a completely difference page. You mishit every 5TH forehand , and you are trying to get to a higher level??
Must be worse in a match under pressure, then when you are just hitting.

Try hitting the strings cleanly. Watch the ball, keep your head quiet.

How do you win league matches??

I'm hitting out a bit more here than in a "real" match. I am probably going at 85 or 90% here vs 70 or 75% in a match.
 

steve s

Professional
Sam

I was just surprised seeing a high level player having all those mishits. You look like you were hitting as good as the other guy. (not the mishit ones)
 

donquijote

G.O.A.T.
I could not watch all videos but as far as I can see your concentration on the ball when hitting BH is better and you hit clean nearly all the time. Think about it. The reason is your whole body is working together on the BH side whereas your poor arm is trying to do it by itself on the FH side.
You have a very simple solution. Follow the ball with left hand until it comes to the hitting zone. This will also help fixing your foot work and doing the body turn.

 

marian10

Rookie
That is some really interesting insight. I don't understand what you mean by "hit diagonally towards the ball". I agree about the left arm and I think that's on the short list of changes to work on this week. I'll try to find a ball machine and drill it out. Thanks

Diagonally means from left to right racquet path. Here is a case study with a left handed player. You can google mirror youtube if you need to reverse the screen in order to make him a right handed player.

 

Wise one

Hall of Fame
Quit hitting ground-strokes, hit only volleys. Play like a man. Get off the baseline. Why are you using a two-handed backhand?
 

Hmgraphite1

Hall of Fame
Wanted to update this thread with my newer video. My strokes have changed quite a bit to my eye. Would love to get more feedback!

Fitness / footwork looks better . Definitely need to focus on volleying more, not that its bad, just looks lazier than rest of your game. Haven't seen any serves, were they in one of the videos?
 

ByeByePoly

G.O.A.T.
Wanted to update this thread with my newer video. My strokes have changed quite a bit to my eye. Would love to get more feedback!


Hey Sammy ... good looking strokes.

I like your 2hbh ...

This is your signature 2hbh move :cool: ... at least on some of them. I couldn't figure out what looked unique at first to me ... it's when you point the racquet head forward like a FH.

TQDjB8sm.jpg


I thought maybe you had figured out how to get a FH like flip with big lag but you end up without lag below .... at least on this 2hbh. You had noted that earlier in this thread.

mi12gNam.jpg


Go from your pic #1 to the following (and grow to 6' 6") ... and you will mess up that good looking 2hbh forever. :p Seriously .... Hewitt didn't have much lag and it worked out good for him.

KSmNJCHm.jpg


Your volleys looked good ... Senor @Hmgraphite1 must be a volleying savant ... which I now want to see ;)
 

ChaelAZ

G.O.A.T.
Wanted to update this thread with my newer video. My strokes have changed quite a bit to my eye. Would love to get more feedback!



Watch this on YT yesterday and was going to comment how much more consistent both wings look overall. Quality of shot is greatly improved. Almost makes me wanna get a coach to ahve this kind of progression. Definitely been time well spent.

Cheers. Thanks for posting.
 

Hmgraphite1

Hall of Fame
Hey Sammy ... good looking strokes.

I like your 2hbh ...

This is your signature 2hbh move :cool: ... at least on some of them. I couldn't figure out what looked unique at first to me ... it's when you point the racquet head forward like a FH.

TQDjB8sm.jpg


I thought maybe you had figured out how to get a FH like flip with big lag but you end up without lag below .... at least on this 2hbh. You had noted that earlier in this thread.

mi12gNam.jpg


Go from your pic #1 to the following (and grow to 6' 6") ... and you will mess up that good looking 2hbh forever. :p Seriously .... Hewitt didn't have much lag and it worked out good for him.

KSmNJCHm.jpg


Your volleys looked good ... Senor @Hmgraphite1 must be a volleying savant ... which I now want to see ;)
No mine are definitely not as good, just telling op to work on it more. Haven't videod mine yet, but judging by the rest of my game if I saw it I would see some real old slow technique
 

sammyp99

Rookie
Fitness / footwork looks better . Definitely need to focus on volleying more, not that its bad, just looks lazier than rest of your game. Haven't seen any serves, were they in one of the videos?

Thanks! Yes, volleys could still be better. For some reason in a warm up volley, I never move forward while hitting them but during a match I'm usually much better. Serves were toward the end of the video.
 

sammyp99

Rookie
Hey Sammy ... good looking strokes.

Thanks so much, ByeByePoly. When I first switched to the two hander, I modeled it after Hewitt's. Even had the straight arm take back. While I'm pretty consistent with it, I need to develop it into more of a weapon and add topspin. My problem is I'm a bit tight on it and end up using my arms too much. I think consciously loosening up will get that lag and more spin I desire. Appreciate the kind words!
 

ptuanminh

Hall of Fame
You move better, FH improved a lot. But your BH can be exploited. You are not using much of your body for BH. Get down a bit lower, put some more topspin on it. Then you gain confidence with the shot. I also think your BH prep is too complicated
 

ByeByePoly

G.O.A.T.
Thanks so much, ByeByePoly. When I first switched to the two hander, I modeled it after Hewitt's. Even had the straight arm take back. While I'm pretty consistent with it, I need to develop it into more of a weapon and add topspin. My problem is I'm a bit tight on it and end up using my arms too much. I think consciously loosening up will get that lag and more spin I desire. Appreciate the kind words!

I think Hewitt is a great model for rec players, both 2hbh and FH. I'm 3+ years on my conversion to 2hbh after 40 years of 1hbh (tennis bucket list, next item 140 mph serve :p). I have been 2hbh obsessed 24x7 ... FHs are just a rude interruption between FHs. I'm not a coach, so my 2hbh comments/opinions are just based on my last 3 years of video (play/instruction) review, and my learning curve (working a lot on 2hbh ros now ... saved it for last because most of my hours have been ball machine).

A couple of thoughts. I have a simple rule ... if you can find any pro (much less one that was #1 in the world) doing technique x ... no rec player NEEDS to do more than x. Hewitt did not hit much lag on his 2hbh. It's pretty stupid to think a rec player has to add lag to their 2hbh for a quality rec stroke. I always suggest it because as I added it, and very relaxed arms/hands, and occasional very low racquet head drop (rec version of Nishikori) ... the stroke became more fun with easy topspin. That is not the same thing as being a better player. We are only as good as what we can repeat. I actually look at that first when players post video here. Your 2hbh is a shot that you are driving through, full stroke, hitting your targets, looks low UE repeatable (or at a minimum solid enough to be repeatable with current technique). That comes from my single tournaments in my past ... I learned to measure opponents by moving and hitting quality, not technique. Heck ... none of us back then ever discussed technique.

One good thing I have found with the 2hbh is you can add/try things with your 2hbh that doesn't set you back. Drop the racquet head lower than usual on some strokes ... don't like it, stop. At the back of the slot ... use your hands actively to put racquet in bigger lag ... swing ... don't like, stop. If you like the feeling of lag, you can look into technique/variations further. Ferrer goes into lag right at back of slot before hand goes forward. Murray seems to lead with butt cap first like FHs. I had no luck with Murray type delay ... I just add it almost like continuation at end of drop/loop ... more like Ferrer. I said "active" hands above ... that was just because the first goal is to quickly decide if lag is for you are not. If yes ... can work on active vs passive.

Did you hit FHs in your video? hehehe :cool:
 

Hmgraphite1

Hall of Fame
Thanks! Yes, volleys could still be better. For some reason in a warm up volley, I never move forward while hitting them but during a match I'm usually much better. Serves were toward the end of the video.
Good serves / technique, you can definitely hit that outside kicker on add side with that serve. You seem to have what it takes to flatten it out and hit t on both sides. Good return also. Volleys looked good moving in on points during real play
 

sammyp99

Rookie
Maybe not if he's not helping with his weaknesses.

I thought about this a bit. It seems like it's difficult to see weaknesses when you hit with someone regularly. Also, he's not watching much film of me. It's nice to get a different perspective for improvement.
 
Top