Video of recent hitting

dimkin said:
Sorry, unedited ...

Hitting against a guy who has got great strokes and goes all out, albeit a little inconsistent . . .

Constructive criticism welcome . . .

Some of my strokes look better than others, slice is atrocious, footwork questionable, late prep on forehand ... etc.

https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B5_cZw7_z-BhTzZZVzUxRWVIWlE/view?usp=sharing
Click to expand...

The forehand looks different at different times, but the shot at 1.56 is - I think - fairly typical. I won't comment on the backhand as I used a OHB and am less sure of the mechanics of a DHB.

My feedback on the forehand:

- Footwork can be a bit lazy, so you end up hitting the ball from too close to your body. I have the same issue and find that my best forehands are often when the ball is hit further out to my right then when it's directly at me. Try to find the right distance from the ball a bit before you actually have to hit.

- Try to be more side on / or \ rather than square __ when hitting.

- Take the ball earlier; you often hit quite late and therefore end up rushing the stroke / swiping across the ball.

- Try to end the swing nearer your opposite shoulder than your left foot. I had to work on that and found it gave my forehands greater depth.
 
You seem to wait until the ball crosses the net before you start your turn. Get set earlier, as soon as you recognize forehand or backhand side.
Obviously, you've been playing tennis for a while, and can hit the ball. Earlier prep, getting turned sooner, will keep you in time with the deep harder shots that don't come normally.
 
I like your strokes - very nice. Smooth - looks like you can power the ball at will - good spin and pace. Footwork though - seem to get a late break for the ball - your recovery looks slow.. You don't always judge the balls position properly. You will get caught flat footed by decent shots.. Not sure you know how to hit an approach shot.. Jeff Salzenstien has a 1 foot hop style approach he teaches..check that out..

Interestingly while everyone here harps on footwork - I find you don't often see decent strokes with mediocre footwork. Usually people with nice looking strokes have developed good footwork. And you aren't one of those limited mobility guys either.. So kudos to you or your coach for the good looking strokes. But blah on the movement. Your quick enough to be a good mover too..
 
Thank you @GuyClinch - for 18 yrs I've played with essentially Hawaian grip on the fh - basically I didn't need to change grips from fh to bh. So I played with a totally open stance, muscling the ball on the fh, generating tons of topspin, but not a lot of fwd power. With age and injuries (GE) catching up - I made a decision to switch to ME/SW. So the fh is definitely work in progress, and I am always working on getting my body to switch to that neutral stance, but 18 yrs of muscle memory is often tough to overcome (especially when playing for points). It's slowly improving.

I feel my most glaring weaknesses right now are still the short balls / approaches. Mostly footwork/body positioning.
Isn't tennis great? ... playing for 20 yrs, and still sucking
 
You don't suck. You are a good, competent "recreational player", with potential to improve some more.
Keep working at it...
 
dimkin said:
Thank you @GuyClinch - for 18 yrs I've played with essentially Hawaian grip on the fh - basically I didn't need to change grips from fh to bh. So I played with a totally open stance, muscling the ball on the fh, generating tons of topspin, but not a lot of fwd power. With age and injuries (GE) catching up - I made a decision to switch to ME/SW. So the fh is definitely work in progress, and I am always working on getting my body to switch to that neutral stance, but 18 yrs of muscle memory is often tough to overcome (especially when playing for points). It's slowly improving.

I feel my most glaring weaknesses right now are still the short balls / approaches. Mostly footwork/body positioning.
Isn't tennis great? ... playing for 20 yrs, and still sucking
Click to expand...
Hawaiian grip ? Never heard of that ?
 
Ciaron said:
Hawaiian grip ? Never heard of that ?
Click to expand...

extreme western:

35d8a100.jpg
 
Ciaron said:
Ok I see. That grip from my point of view looks particularly difficult to handle
Click to expand...

was natural to me, and was great agst 3.5s and 4.0s that just couldn't handle the top spin it generated routinely, but then the arm complained
 
Ciaron said:
Hawaiian grip ? Never heard of that ?
Click to expand...

I made that term up - posting it on this message board (the original generation - so, maybe approaching 15 years ago) for a very extreme western grip. You have the Continental (hand twisted forward around the racket) which originally came from being popular in Europe (the Continent), the Eastern grip (popular in the eastern U.S., the Western grip, popular in California because of the high-bouncing cement courts. I just extended the geographical comparison for grips past the standard western grip - extreme western grips - even though I don't know that people in Hawaii are more likely to use it. Since it is a useful understandable shorthand description, it has been picked up by people here and across other areas of the tennis community.
 
NLBwell said:
I made that term up - posting it on this message board (the original generation - so, maybe approaching 15 years ago) for a very extreme western grip. You have the Continental (hand twisted forward around the racket) which originally came from being popular in Europe (the Continent), the Eastern grip (popular in the eastern U.S., the Western grip, popular in California because of the high-bouncing cement courts. I just extended the geographical comparison for grips past the standard western grip - extreme western grips - even though I don't know that people in Hawaii are more likely to use it. Since it is a useful understandable shorthand description, it has been picked up by people here and across other areas of the tennis community.
Click to expand...
Ok .. I get the geographical sequencing. I wonder if anyone will ever invent say a Japanese grip .. Extreme eastern grip . Come to think of it .. That grip would make it impossible to hit a ball
 
Funny thing is if we refer to bevels grips are:
28894.gif

Hawaiian will be bevel 6, which makes it Conti, but hit with other side of the stringbed :confused:
 
You sure don't suck, nice hitting. Everyone has things to work on, if you choose one and attend to it, you will improve!
 
Dragy said:
Funny thing is if we refer to bevels grips are:
28894.gif

Hawaiian will be bevel 6, which makes it Conti, but hit with other side of the stringbed :confused:
Click to expand...
Yeah, that's one beauty of Hawaiian grip. If you realise that you don't have time to setup for that topspin FH, you can hit a slice FH without changing grips. On WTA, Timea Bacsinzsky does a lot of that with her Hawaiian grip.
 
https://drive.google.com/open?id=0B5_cZw7_z-BhNV9CbWdZcE1jOGc

tried to take advice into account - seems I prepped earlier, moved and adjusted better. Increase the magnitude of the unit turn ... FH - still seems like I am I making contact too early or too late resulting in pushing or brushing the ball ... so frustrating ... I mean most of the FHs are decent, but they certainly don't have the zip I intended for them . . .
 
dimkin said:
https://drive.google.com/open?id=0B5_cZw7_z-BhNV9CbWdZcE1jOGc

tried to take advice into account - seems I prepped earlier, moved and adjusted better. Increase the magnitude of the unit turn ... FH - still seems like I am I making contact too early or too late resulting in pushing or brushing the ball ... so frustrating ... I mean most of the FHs are decent, but they certainly don't have the zip I intended for them . . .
Click to expand...

access to view is restricted
 
You have a formidable physique which will greatly help if you can improve consistency. Right now for your fh, too much is happening at the far side of the arm and doing most of the work. One of the keys to consistency is being able to distribute the work load throughout the whole kinetic chain. If not, the parts that aren't given enough work can decide to move on their own causing inconsistency. Involve more of the core, legs, shoulders, and whole arm for the swing and slow down at the hand. Hand is ultimately very important to control for power and precision but without the rest of the kinetic chain cooperating as a whole its control suffers along with your confidence.
 
boramiNYC said:
You have a formidable physique which will greatly help if you can improve consistency. Right now for your fh, too much is happening at the far side of the arm and doing most of the work. One of the keys to consistency is being able to distribute the work load throughout the whole kinetic chain. If not, the parts that aren't given enough work can decide to move on their own causing inconsistency. Involve more of the core, legs, shoulders, and whole arm for the swing and slow down at the hand. Hand is ultimately very important to control for power and precision but without the rest of the kinetic chain cooperating as a whole its control suffers along with your confidence.
Click to expand...

You have a great point. Funny enough my stroke is very different when I hit agst a ball machine... surely it's easy when you don't have to move ... Will keep working on it ...
 
Night and day, the first video and the one on post 22.
One, you look very good and solid.
22, both of you moonball and inconsistent.
I guess a good partner can make or break a hitting session.
 
It seems like (tho it's hard to tell) that your head comes up too soon when you try to hit out and you mishit the ball some. otherwise, you seem to hit with good pace and the ball bounces up pretty high on a lot of your shots. overall, very nice shots.
 
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