heninfan99
Talk Tennis Guru
Anyone: Does Ian have a single groundstroke shot you prefer to your own?
Obviously his volleys are pretty sweet.
Obviously his volleys are pretty sweet.
What kind of player is GSG (MEP)?
- Thread starter sureshs
- Start date
Well his forehand is more effective then mine - but I don't really like his WTA forehand. Ian's serve is pretty good though - so is his overhead. Ian's game is anti-pusher.. It's like a video game where you only have so many points to allocate - but you want to beat a particular opponent. Ian is made to defeat a pusher - strong mental game - great overhead and volley.. good lefty serve..
Ian has no excuse to lose. Guys like Mark, Ira - some of those hard hitters who ruffed up Ian - they might lose to GSG as they aren't used to pushers.. You know how everyone just watches guys play a pusher and they scream out - APPROACH - VOLLEY - OVERHEAD - DAMNIT..
You won't do that with Ian.
GSG belongs to a missing category - he is an "attacking serve & serve" player - if you look at his point play - he hits his serve looking shot multiple times during a point - and repeats them over and over throughout the match. Sure, he is not hitting them at 70mph. But he is doing it right on the baseline or inside once the point starts - it takes away time. He hits them with precision to every corner of the court and just a few inches over the net- there's no big targets to safeguard for the opponent. If someone hits 60mph GS from 6 feet behind the baseline to safe targets using Wardlaw's principle, you have better chance of playing out the rally. It's much harder if your opponent is on the baseline or inside and just keeps hitting serves at the top of the bounce to unpredictable corners at 35-50mph (or even slower for drop shots).
@GSG Here are my observations about your play style. Please let me know what I got right and what I got wrong.
You play "wait and see" tennis, content to hit as many balls as needed until your opponent hits an error. This is a defensive play style.
The two exceptions I observed: You hit a neutral serve (not offensive, not defensive) and you hit offensive passing shots when your opponent comes to the net (assuming you don't try for a lob).
How did I do?
You play "wait and see" tennis, content to hit as many balls as needed until your opponent hits an error. This is a defensive play style.
The two exceptions I observed: You hit a neutral serve (not offensive, not defensive) and you hit offensive passing shots when your opponent comes to the net (assuming you don't try for a lob).
How did I do?
travlerajm
Talk Tennis Guru
Go rewatch the final game of our match. Without the score pressure, he switched to playing a style of forehand-centered attacking tennis that most players consider ‘conventional.’ And he was feeling on, aiming for the lines, and painting them.
It looks different when his offensive shots have slight underspin instead of topspin, but it’s actually harder to defend because it gets to the target quicker.
I wasn't referring just to the match you guys played, more of a general play style based on the multiple matches posted. As far as I can tell, no two matches have been the same and of course some adaptation happens within a match. My question was more with regard to a default play style, before adapting or changing within a match.
travlerajm
Talk Tennis Guru
In that case, no argument.
S&V-not_dead_yet
Talk Tennis Guru
He also hit quite a few very good drop shots that had Trav scrambling.
Raul_SJ
G.O.A.T.
GSG just had a serving lesson with Pete and GSG throws a ball like a pro quarterback. It was ridiculous how easy he threw the tennis ball over the fence. But amazingly, he is not incorporating the throwing mechanics at all into his serve. No racquet drop at all. None.
Waiters tray. Pushes it in. Serve is not a weapon but he is 10-1 at 4.5.
It is quite surprising because the good throwers, like baseball pitchers and QBs, will quickly develop monster serves.
GSG can easily be serving 120mph if he incorporates a proper racquet drop. It will be a nightmare for 4.5 opponents. But no way he does not get bumped to 5.0 with a power serve given that he is already dominating at 4.5 with a dinky neutral serve.
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curly_2350
Rookie
Lol is throwing a ball over a fence really that indicative of doing a 120mph serve? I reckon I could clear two tennis courts without much trouble and I doubt my serves clear 90mph.
Dragy
Legend
It’s indicative in terms of your power potential. Whether you tap into it comes down to technique development and practice.
user92626
G.O.A.T.
I notice that a better player looks more like a Federer possessing all sorts of weapons and skills to an inferior players.
To my 3.0 weekend peers I have an offensive serve, a very capable FH and placement skill and they steer clear of me on singles invites.
But then, I look like a complete hack to this one guy -- who beat me with giving me his full dubs court to hit into!!!! (4 years ago).
I dunno. Alot of time it's not how good our winning opponents are, but how suck we really do!! LOL
Some good throwers might develop a great serve quickly.. But its clearly not all - case in point GSG.
Never seen a guy with 120mph serve without also having very good forehands, backhands etc. I recognize then high level throwers can serve big without these skills. But in reality have never seen it happen. So to me this puts the "good throwers" quickly learn to serve huge theory into question. Seems likely that some do - but its well short of all.
Now even if it is true that GSG could hit 120mph serves most men have the potential to hit 100+ mph serves - but very few do. Likewise most men could bench 300lbs - but few do. Serve requires difficult timing. Part of this is because serving is not exactly like throwing..IMHO.
1) When you serve you are tossing a ball with one arm and then 'throwing" with the other arm.. This coordination adds considerably to the difficulty so much so that the normal throwing technique will be passed to motions easier to time..
2) The length of the racquet adds additional leverage to what coaches call "pronation." This puts more emphasis on this action then throwing - where you don't really have to think about it..
Raul_SJ
G.O.A.T.
True, but it is similar. Have never come across a new player coming from a pitching background that did not serve big. These guys will typically have an intro lesson to explain the throwing similarities. What seems to have happened with GSG is that he has forgone the lessons and never married the throwing motion with the service motion. Instead, he has developed a Water's Tray habit which now may be a b!tch to break.
You can see that in the private lesson with Pete. He will throw the ball perfectly but then revert to a Waiters Tray when picking up the racquet.
Have you really tried throwing the ball over the fence? Even Isner or Ivo cannot clear two tennis courts of standard size... not even NFL QBs have done that.
Baseline to fence is 78+21 = 99ft and clearing two courts would be 99+21+78+21 = 219ft.
Google shows this -
"Cleveland Browns quarterback Baker Mayfield made NFL history throwing an incomplete Hail Mary pass that was over 70 yards on Monday night against the Baltimore Ravens."
What can I tell ya. I'm as uncoordinated as I am athletic. I can do athletic things with any individual part of my body, but the different parts don't like working with one another very well
user92626
G.O.A.T.
What are you saying?What can I tell ya. I'm as uncoordinated as I am athletic. I can do athletic things with any individual part of my body, but the different parts don't like working with one another very well
At such level you already can beat a lot of TT athletic guys and garner admiration from them??
Alrite then. Go on.
curly_2350
Rookie
That may well be the case. Will have to try it sometime.
soooo you went from
to
in a span of bout 60 minutes? Well, I'll give you that, at least you admitted you never actually tried throwing a tennis ball over a fence.....
curly_2350
Rookie
Well yeah I guess we'll see. My hunch is you can throw a tennis ball about half a football field which would be around the distance of over 2 courts I think?
Really the point is it seems a little strange for a coach to be impressed by throwing over the fence of 1 court unless maybe they're just normally used to coaching 9 year olds.
Really the point is it seems a little strange for a coach to be impressed by throwing over the fence of 1 court unless maybe they're just normally used to coaching 9 year olds.
go and try, record, post video.
Sure. But those guys tend to pick up the other strokes in short order as well - I guess. Either way - you just don't see many guys serving 120 with like a 3.5 forehand. Like I said - I have never seen it. 100 - sure. I could buy that.. But 120 is pretty huge. Guys who serve that big will literally attract a crowd.
S&V-not_dead_yet
Talk Tennis Guru
Was that after your throw went over his fence into the bushes?
S&V-not_dead_yet
Talk Tennis Guru
More because of the sound than anything else.
Raul_SJ
G.O.A.T.
The main point is that GSG is leaving a LOT of mph on the table by having literally zero racquet drop. If he fixes that serve, it should be an automatic bump to 5.0... although his current 10-1 record since summer might get him bumped anyway; that will depend on how the Computer ranks the quality of his opponents.
D
Deleted member 776614
Guest
I haven’t seen much attacking offense from MEP, but after reading some above posts maybe I just missed it. It seems very defensive to me, like a defensive subset of counter puncher. Idk if Pusher fits under that category? Like, not in a negative way, just a non-aggressive attacking way.
Because I did not spend much time thinking about it.
FatHead250
Professional
An athletic beginner who isn't inspired by the pro scene with his strokes
Not to go off a side note - but not sure that you should worry about racquet drop - its more of a question of your flexibility - or it should be at least. By changing your arm angle from 90 degrees you can get more drop - but I don't think it helps your serve really..
Basically to fix his serve GSG needs to use his throwing mechanics to serve with - and whatever drop he gets is what he gets. That being said I think it would probably be more the good enough for a huge serve. As like you said he can throw a tennis ball pretty far.. Tennis ball is light - so its hard to do unless you really get some whippy action on your throw, IMHO.
When you do everything in your power to minimize errors and hardly make any winners, you're a pusher in my book. But in his defence, he is able to control rallies by using placement, depth and ball rotation. Also mentally and physically he seems quite tough. You have to respect the way he plays. Or how anyone plays for that matter.
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antony
Hall of Fame
Yep. For a guy who makes videos on how to beat pushers... he better win lol
travlerajm
Talk Tennis Guru
I just realized that Sean looks and talks with an uncanny resemblance to Colin Cowherd.
travlerajm
Talk Tennis Guru
Skip to ahead post-match interviews ... easily the best part of this vid.
heninfan99
Talk Tennis Guru
One question remains: Can Topher defeat BoA?
Wander
Hall of Fame
His slice.
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