Wall Practice Vid - Tips?

[splitbouncehit]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DS3nUppLwOA

I've been playing for 9 months, about 2-3 times a week, mostly against the wall. I finally feel pretty comfortable with my groundstrokes (especially the backhand), but I know I still have a long way to go. Any tips would be greatly appreciated.

 

[dozu]

for a 9-month player with poor form on pretty much every shot, you actually have good hand-eye coordination.

i think it's great that you put in practice like this.... I'd say that nothing replaces practice, but try to have a purpose for every hitting session, against wall or a partner.

work on building blocks one at a time. FH, BH, footwork and so on.

 

[jmjmkim]

Learning from the wall is really tough. You are doing a good job, keep it up.

 

[canuckfan]

I encourage you to keep learning and improving. It takes guts to post a vid, so props for that.

However I'd like to stress that a wall is NOTHING like a real opponent. Do your best to find a teacher/coach/friend who is a good player and is capable of giving you a good quality rally ball. Focus on early preparation, footwork, weight transfer, and the kinetic chain.

Try to use more lower body on your backhand. Stay down longer before impact and hit up and through the ball. You are lifting too early and consequently are 'arming' the ball. Also, aim 3-5 feet above the net. Yes, that's feet, not inches. Depth is king. Skimming the net can come later, you can learn it once you have mastered a deep rally ball.

 

[Blake0]

Work on using more of your body into your shots. On your forehand try to turn your shouler and hips sideways before every shot. This I'll help you hit harder,more racket head speed, and doing this against a wall will help make the unit turn quick and efficient.

 

[Jim Hendricks]

Let the ball bounce twice off the wall. It simulates the time it would take when hitting with someone, and give you the time you need to set up properly for a shot.

 

[splitbouncehit]

Thanks guys, this is all really helpful advice. I will focus on getting my feet & body into the shots -- I'm starting to practice footwork patterns, so hopefully that'll help with setting up my feet and and turning properly.

Definitely agree with having a purpose for every hitting session. Here's what I generally do:
Warm up
5 min warm up/dynamic stretching
1 min jump rope
Close range (about 10-12 paces from the wall, staying on my toes, trying to keep the ball straight and focusing on aim and consistency)
8 min FH
1 min jump rope
8 min BH
1 min jump rope
8 min FH to BH
1 min jump rope
Long range (baseline to net distance... this is where I need to start focusing more on footwork and proper form)
8 min FH
1 min jump rope
8 min BH
1 min jump rope
8 min FH to BH
1 min jump rope

Eventually I want to progress to a figure eight pattern (mimicking a DTL FH, CC FH, DTL BH, CC BH...), so these are like the building blocks for that.

 

[tiochaota]

It's like you are dancing!

 

[dozu]

just to give you an idea, unless I am specifically working on a certain stroke, this is what I do -

5 min very light hitting, mostly walking around, just to loosen up.

5 min light hitting, add pace to bh and fh, start to move my feet faster.

5 min rally pace hitting, all cross court, to force myself run left and right (this is quite demanding actually).

then a 11-point game against the wall, if I can hit 20 quality shots in a row, I win the point, otherwise the wall wins the point.

2 min very light hitting to cool down.

 

[Limpinhitter]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DS3nUppLwOA

I've been playing for 9 months, about 2-3 times a week, mostly against the wall. I finally feel pretty comfortable with my groundstrokes (especially the backhand), but I know I still have a long way to go. Any tips would be greatly appreciated.

Very good footwork and preparation for a beginner. My recommendation is to go to www.fuzzyyellowballs.com, click on the lessons tab and make all of the technique in those lessons your own. Compare video of your technique with that in the lessons. You'll be golden in no time.

 

[Blake0]

You look very fluid for someone who's only played for 9 months although technically it might not be good yet. It's great you are enthusiastic to play against the wall, but also find hitting partners/ball machines as well.

 

[charliefedererer]

You are doing remarkably well!

Perhaps the one thing to work on next is just to take a deeper knee bend as you are lining up to hit the ball.

The deeper knee bend will add more power to your shots as you push out of it as the ball gets closer.

Just as importantly, the deeper knee bend will make it easier to maintain your balance as you learn to turn your upper body away from the ball in your backswing (because it is very difficult to maintain your balance hitting as erect as you are). The bigger coil away from the ball, and subsequent recoil back towards the ball in your forward swing will help power the ball even more than the knee bend will contribute.

 

[Dreamer]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DS3nUppLwOA

I've been playing for 9 months, about 2-3 times a week, mostly against the wall. I finally feel pretty comfortable with my groundstrokes (especially the backhand), but I know I still have a long way to go. Any tips would be greatly appreciated.

You are thinking too much on how your form should look. Because of this your strokes are slower than they have to be.

You need to work on pivoting. This is all arm action. You want a stable arm and more active legs/core driving the shot.
On backhand you want it to be shoulders and legs.

Everything is going in every direction. You need to focus on creating a stable body. Less moving parts.

 

[10s talk]

Let the ball bounce twice off the wall. It simulates the time it would take when hitting with someone, and give you the time you need to set up properly for a shot.

the best tip ever

 

[splitbouncehit]

More great advice, thanks guys! Maybe I'll post a new vid in a few months, and we'll see if you guys helped my game or screwed me up.

 

[NLBwell]

You shouldn't just stand there chest facing the wall when trying to hit a forehand. You need to get your shoulders and chest turned perpendicular to the wall. At this point of learning the forehand, in order to get the idea of getting perpendicular to the wall, work on getting your stance closed, perpendicular to the wall, similar to what you do on the backhand. Every pro hits both closed and open stance forehands.
As far the the backhand, work on what Canukfan said.

 

[aimr75]

Let the ball bounce twice off the wall. It simulates the time it would take when hitting with someone, and give you the time you need to set up properly for a shot.

true, though the bounce more often than not ends up being pretty low, so you end up hitting knee to hip height shots

 

[fruitytennis1]

Tennis not dancing buddy...I suggest you learn proper strokes before you get into the habit of the strokes you have atm.In the long run that will help a ton.

 

[Jeffy005]

play against a real player and you'll see the difference between the wall and a real player..