Video of recent rally game to 7. (Please critique so I can improve)

1HBHNation

1HBHNation

Rookie
Hi TTW,

I recently decided to videotaped us playing a few rally points to 7. Please critique anything you see that needs improvement.
Or tell me what I'm doing well.

You can be straight up honest with me. Won't hurt my feelings.

Some things I notice in watching myself... footwork on some shots are off. My wrist goes limp on some of the forehand swings, need to get more of a cocked wrist before the fire phase. Also spacing on some shots too close to body.

Lemme know what y'all see...
Many thanks in advance!

(Don't mind the picklers next to us. :))

 
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I think one thing I notice straight off the bat is that you have a tendency to lean backwards on contact. I think next time you're out, try to be more intentional and mindful of getting your weight moving forward on your shots especially when you have time.
 
libel said:
I think one thing I notice straight off the bat is that you have a tendency to lean backwards on contact. I think next time you're out, try to be more intentional and mindful of getting your weight moving forward on your shots especially when you have time.
Click to expand...
Now that you say that. Becomes very apparent to me too. I load the right leg and then don't rotate completely forward and someone's rotate falling back with the upper body on some shots
 
1HBHNation said:
Now that you say that. Becomes very apparent to me too. I load the right leg and then don't rotate completely forward and someone's rotate falling back with the upper body on some shots
Click to expand...
Yeah, good on you for recording by the way! I've recently started recording more often as well and I think it's helped me be way more intentional every time I go out!
 
The position you are in, in the picture, is just funky. It is what you are doing to get there that is your only issue. It makes you hit late, or not enough out front. Otherwise, everything is great (bh and fh anyway). You drop the racquet and should just flip and start driving the hitting shoulder to contact. It almost seems like you think the swivel/flip is a complicated move other than what should happen naturally when the racquet transitions from high-to-low to low-to-high, in one single motion.


https://imgur.com/a/lbEiXGk
 
ballmachineguy said:
The position you are in, in the picture, is just funky. It is what you are doing to get there that is your only issue. It makes you hit late, or not enough out front. Otherwise, everything is great (bh and fh anyway). You drop the racquet and should just flip and start driving the hitting shoulder to contact. It almost seems like you think the swivel/flip is a complicated move other than what should happen naturally when the racquet transitions from high-to-low to low-to-high, in one single motion.


https://imgur.com/a/lbEiXGk
Click to expand...

Thank you brother, definitely was slowing down my forehand movements and found that funky quirk too. Need to fix that.

I could be wrong but tryin to self diagnose. I think the problem that generates this swivel/flip motion instead of the C shape loop is that my wrist goes limp and loses the cocked wrist extension at close to the "pat the dog" position. when I learned tennis early on, people kept saying stay loose, stay relaxed and I think I took it way too far and though everything needed to be full relaxed. So now it's gonna be a mission to fix the wrong muscle memory because I have come to learn the wrist technique is to hold wrist position firm/grip relaxed instead of relaxed wrist/relaxed grip.
 
1HBHNation said:
Thank you brother, definitely was slowing down my forehand movements and found that funky quirk too. Need to fix that.

I could be wrong but tryin to self diagnose. I think the problem that generates this swivel/flip motion instead of the C shape loop is that my wrist goes limp and loses the cocked wrist extension at close to the "pat the dog" position. when I learned tennis early on, people kept saying stay loose, stay relaxed and I think I took it way too far and though everything needed to be full relaxed. So now it's gonna be a mission to fix the wrong muscle memory because I have come to learn the wrist technique is to hold wrist position firm/grip relaxed instead of relaxed wrist/relaxed grip.
Click to expand...
Stop! Why would you fix something just because one person said you should fix it? The quality of your fh shots is very obvious.

https://imgur.com/a/yfaKhbU
 
1HBHNation said:
Is that Karen Kachanov?
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Don’t listen to that guy. He has been struggling with groundstrokes for more than a decade. He knows next to nothing about hitting a forehand. I tell him so, so he hates me. He’s like a two year old. If I said you need to be holding a tennis racquet to hit a forehand, he’d say I was wrong.

So, looking at the pics of you and Karen, he is still coiled, you were more coiled and in the pic are already rotating into contact. I believe, your swivel/flip is late or happening on the way to contact. That’s all.

I already said everything else you are doing looks great.
 
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Check out Karen here. Both of you have coiled the same amount with shoulders in line with target. You have opened up/headed to contact more-so than he has and are not flipped yet. He has already flipped/attained lag.

You can still hit decent balls due to your athleticism, but you may be making it harder than it needs to be.

https://imgur.com/a/Gd5iv72
 
@ballmachineguy is right here. You need to be turning your arm elbow-down the moment you start uncoiling. It’s important not just to avoid weird and stressful wrist position, but to achieve strong shoulder link (ESR lock).

In your current strokes, apart from leaning back excessively, you underperform the uncoil and arm the swing too much. You can improve here
 
Dragy said:
@ballmachineguy is right here. You need to be turning your arm elbow-down the moment you start uncoiling. It’s important not just to avoid weird and stressful wrist position, but to achieve strong shoulder link (ESR lock).

In your current strokes, apart from leaning back excessively, you underperform the uncoil and arm the swing too much. You can improve here
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I guess I'm not understanding the elbow down turning your arm position. Is my elbow too high as I turn to fire? I know the elbow is suppose to extended before the wrist lag.
 
From what I can tell, I think you have a good level, probably 4.0 or 4.5. Solid strokes, not much to improve on there. You have nice balance before initiating strokes and after. I think you are playing a relaxed practice game, so likely your intensity would be higher with a real match. I would like to see how you construct points off your serve and on return of serve, because I think this is the thing that distinguishes NTRP levels 4.0 and higher from good 3.5s (which is the level I'm at, but I'm working hard to go higher!) The other thing I see is you have good situational awareness. When you get your opponent into trouble with a good angle, you recognize it and close on the net fairly quickly. Also, your ground strokes are strong enough that you can elicit weak returns just by hitting it down the middle, which is usually a characteristic of 4.0 and higher players. I saw a lot of really good shots, like the backhand slice drop shot, inside out short angle forehand, and on-the-rise ground strokes.
 
1HBHNation said:
I guess I'm not understanding the elbow down turning your arm position. Is my elbow too high as I turn to fire? I know the elbow is suppose to extended before the wrist lag.
Click to expand...
As you prepare and take your hitting arm and racquet back, your elbow should be pointing somewhere back or behind the back.

As you go into lagging your racquet your elbow should point down immediately. Like this:
pdGe4K1_d.webp
 
Your partner is not as good. At least in these few clips. Find someone better to see where your weakness lies. His shots didn't penetrate, and you have no problem with them.
 
1HBHNation said:
Hi TTW,

I recently decided to videotaped us playing a few rally points to 7. Please critique anything you see that needs improvement.
Or tell me what I'm doing well.

You can be straight up honest with me. Won't hurt my feelings.

Some things I notice in watching myself... footwork on some shots are off. My wrist goes limp on some of the forehand swings, need to get more of a cocked wrist before the fire phase. Also spacing on some shots too close to body.

Lemme know what y'all see...
Many thanks in advance!

(Don't mind the picklers next to us. :))

Click to expand...

I have spent many years studying ATP's & Justine Henin's one hand backhands. I posted on many 1HBH sub-motions as they were found. The main forward swing seems to use uppermost body turn, as seen by the line between the 2 shoulders turning and the chest pressing the upper arm. You don't do that but separate your upper arm from your chest.

All the sub-motions that I observed are discussed with videos.

One Hand Backhand - Waht Force to Start Forward Swing?

One Hand Backhand - What Force to Start Forward Swing? I have just been watching great one-hand backhands at the Madrid Open. Including excellent slow motion that can be replayed in even slower motion or single frame with my DVR. Often when I try to swing forward for a one hand backhand...
tt.tennis-warehouse.com tt.tennis-warehouse.com

Minimum read - Post #1, #51 (chest press explanation), and then each other sub-motions as they appear. Check yourself vs the videos shown for the other sub-motions.

Your 1HBH does not follow the 'chest press' seen in most current ATP 1HBHs. You do not use the body's trunk muscles untwisting for your backhand. See videos.

WARNING - Twisting and untwisting the trunk/spine may be too stressful for many players.
 
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Compare your forehands one below the other and single frame in this post. To single frame on Youtube stop video and use the period & comma keys. To select the video hold down the ctrl + alt key and place the cursor on the video and left mouse click, otherwise the video starts playing.

Find your favorite ATP forehand, backhand, serve and just post them in a reply with the instructions and your videos. Forum limit is 5 videos.

Comparing videos frame-by-frame is the most effective way to compare your tennis strokes to ATP or WTA strokes.

All differences are likely to be your flaws or different strokes for ball circumstances.

For forehand compare 'separation'. Forum Search - forehand separation Chas for my posts.

If you want to do this but don't want to post your videos publically use forum Conversation. You need to know another member to send to.

SEARCHCOMPARE
 
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