What are the common causes for being late?

[pondus]

Hi, rather than that standard "preparation is late", i was hoping for a bit more detail on some of the common reasons most people are late on their forehand.

For example:

1. Reading direction height and speed of incoming ball too slow, causing brain freeze which in turn causes the swing to get "stuck".
2. Tendency to get "jammed" or "handcuffed" stops the body from wanting to rotate early to prepare. Another variation on "brain freeze" I suppose.
3. Take back is early and well timed, but racquet gets stuck somewhere along the way, and by the time the ball bounces into the strike zone, the player is not ready to pull the trigger, aka swing forward because the racquet still needs to come down lower. If this is true, why does the brain want to do this?

Looking for your insights as teachers on what the common causes are , and what was most successful in fixing it.

Thanks!

 

[vil]

It can be simply by lack of fitness. Being fit will not only enhance your endurance, it will also make you more alert therefore your reaction is relatively earlier.

 

[Nellie]

I think people are late preparing for strokes because when you first start playing, you get into a habit of waiting for the ball to bounce before processing the direction/height of the ball and preparing to hit the ball. With a slow ball, this still works, but as the game speeds up, you not only need to speed up the thinking process, but also change the way you react - i.e., prepare the stroke before you know where or when you are going to hit the stroke.

 

[jwbarrientos]

being late is mostly caused of "being late", in my case:

1. There're some heavy spins strokes I trend to understimate so I got late point of contact.

2. Lack of conditioning is probably another big issue

3. Some bad techniques (habits) contributes when I am tired.

4. I lost the ball in the aire, causes many mishits too.

 

[r2473]

Being pregnant

 

[Xizel]

Inexperience with topspin. You do not begin swinging your racquet as the ball bounces. Start swinging before.

 

[The Meat]

1. Poor footwork(late or early split step)
2. Poor judgement of ball depth and spin.

Thats the only two things I can think of.

 

[Roy125]

Your opponent can also force you to be late on your strokes by hitting very uncomfortable shots to your forehand.

 

[Avles]

Inexperience with topspin.

This matches my experience. I've done a lot of hitting on the wall and self-feeding and when I come up against heavy topspin I find the ball is on me quicker than I expect. I don't seem to have as much timing trouble with fast flat shots.

 

[boramiNYC]

One of the biggest reason for this problem is instructors teaching the unit turn to the beginners who cannot unit turn back quickly and fast enough (usually due to weak and inflexible core). One solution is practice hitting the ball with more open stance and decreasing the distance of the unit turn. Once the contact point is well understood and achieve better control of the core, the unit turn can be expanded to greater range.

 

[NLBwell]

Spending too long to fix your hair, traffic problems, and losing track of time.

 

[TheIrrefutableOne]

Being pregnant

or not having a watch

 

[LeeD]

Late...
Play and lose to better players, and you won't be late when playing your peers.
It's something known as EXPERIENCE! It cannot be taught, it needs to be learned through a player's EXPERIENCE.

 

[Sentinel]

Being pregnant

Is this thread about being laid or late ?

 

[jbuck92]

Inexperience with topspin. QUOTE]

Agreed. I never realized how beneficial it is to hit with someone regularly who is a higher skill level until I played in a tournament last weekend. My girlfriend (5.0 player) hits with an unbelievable amount of topspin. Getting used to having that racquet back and swinging as the ball is bouncing to meet the ball halfway was invaluable when playing against all different people from 2.5 all the way up to 4.0. Came across a men's doubles team where both players hit with the same topspin as my girlfriend. Partner couldn't handle it because his hitting partners always hit flat balls.

If you have the chance, I definitely recommend hitting with someone A. better than you and/or B. varying spins. The exposure to different shots is very helpful come match time.

 

[r2473]

Is this thread about being laid or late ?

No, when getting laid I'm early........very, very early

 

[NTRPolice]

I tend to hit slices late, especially on the BH side when trying to hit a topspin backhand. I tend to setup too close to slices and too far to topspins on my backhand side. I can usually tell when I frame that ball and get loads of topspin on a loopy ball, or... the backhand goes wide on a bh to bh exchange.

I tend to hit a slice early when I slice a backhand.
I tend to hit a topspin early when I topspin a backhand.

 

[anubis]

Not splitstepping between every shot. if you're not moving your feet, you're going to lose (and be late).

 

[NLBwell]

Inexperience with topspin. QUOTE]

Agreed. I never realized how beneficial it is to hit with someone regularly who is a higher skill level until I played in a tournament last weekend. My girlfriend (5.0 player) hits with an unbelievable amount of topspin. Getting used to having that racquet back and swinging as the ball is bouncing to meet the ball halfway was invaluable when playing against all different people from 2.5 all the way up to 4.0. Came across a men's doubles team where both players hit with the same topspin as my girlfriend. Partner couldn't handle it because his hitting partners always hit flat balls.

If you have the chance, I definitely recommend hitting with someone A. better than you and/or B. varying spins. The exposure to different shots is very helpful come match time.

This is true. One of the guys I used to usually hit with had big topspin and I never had any problem with topspin players. Since he's gone now, it takes some time for me to adjust to the big topspin players now.

 

[LeeD]

That's why experience playing in a big venue can accelerate your progression in tennis. You get to hit with bad players, peers, and much better players.
I mentioned my 2nd year of tennis, I got to hit with CeciMartinez and Marna (Ceci also) Louie. That opened my eyes. Lucky for me, the old man on the courts warned me to prep early and turn my shoulders.

 

[Raul_SJ]

This matches my experience. I've done a lot of hitting on the wall and self-feeding and when I come up against heavy topspin I find the ball is on me quicker than I expect. I don't seem to have as much timing trouble with fast flat shots.

Topspin should give you more time to prepare than flat shots, right?

 

[Avles]

Topspin should give you more time to prepare than flat shots, right?

It's not a question of total time available, but of correct timing.

I think shots with TS often lose less speed after the bounce than flatter shots do--so they get to you more quickly than you expect, and can thus cause you to be late.

(This article says that if a shot has enough topspin, it can actually increase in speed after the bounce: http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=experts-tennis-topspin-ball)

 

[sureshs]

The article says the speed can increase only if the ball is spinning at least at 120 revolutions per sec - which is 7200 rpm! Even Nadal cannot cross 5000.

 

[Avles]

The article says the speed can increase only if the ball is spinning at least at 120 revolutions per sec - which is 7200 rpm! Even Nadal cannot cross 5000.

Right, that's an extreme example. In reality the ball will always slow somewhat after the bounce.

But the point is that more topspin=more speed retained after bounce.

 

[NLBwell]

It isn't the actual speed of the topspin shot which is slower than an equivalent flat shot, but the forward velocity of the ball coming at you after the bounce relative to before the bounce. You are anticipating the ball to lose more velocity than it does, so a heavy topspin shot gets to you more quickly than expected (if you are not used to it).

 

[TimothyO]

It isn't the actual speed of the topspin shot which is slower than an equivalent flat shot, but the forward velocity of the ball coming at you after the bounce relative to before the bounce. You are anticipating the ball to lose more velocity than it does, so a heavy topspin shot gets to you more quickly than expected (if you are not used to it).

Very true!

Just the difference between my wife and 12 year old throws me off. She hits very flat, he hits with extreme topspin (full western grip). Her shots are easy to read, his positively leap from the court at different angles and speeds depending upon how much spin he puts on them. Against my wife I'm very comfortable camping the baseline. Against my son it's either take the ball early on the rise or get pushed back behind the baseline.

 

[Power Player]

I have posted about how to deal with those types of balls, but probably not very clear.

Anyway, I grew up hitting heavy spin and playing guys who did the same.

We play about 5 feet back (got to have some speed to do this) and in normal rally shots i know guys who were taught to move to the middle of the court diagonally. So you are stepping back about 2 feet. Just watch a pro rally to see what I mean.

My last post on it was not clear enough. Basically you look at the baseline as the base of a triangle and the middle would be the peak in terms of footwork.

I find doing this to really help with heavy topspin hitters since you are not only hitting the ball in your zone, but also moving forward into the shot since you "prepped" by moving back before it's too late.