What's your level and what are you struggling with the most mechanically/technically?

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richardwu

New User
I'm about a ~3.0 right now, and the one thing I'm still struggling with is my timing.

I've on occasion hit really well timed balls (you can just feel it), but I've never managed to consistently get the hang of it.

I'd be curious to hear what mechanical/technical things people struggle with at various levels.
 
I have a tendency to over-drop my racquet past the PTD position on my forehand. Every time I think I've fixed it a review of my hitting would suggest I haven't really.
 
I like to think I'm a 4.0.

My biggest flaw is a non-existent backhand. When players hit to my backhand side no one thinks "hmmm, I wonder what Daniel is going to hit this time", nope, the weakest of slices!!

I think my timing on that side is what makes it so bad.
 
I would probably rate myself as a 4.0. I'm pretty well-rounded except for my serve. My serve could be stronger if I had better mechanics on it. The main reason why my serve lags behind the rest of my game is because I used to mainly rally during the first couple of years and rarely play any matches. I'm currently trying to re-train my serve.
 
4.0-4.5

Racquet leak and back foot movement on the serve.

Hitting too much off my back foot on the FH.

Both result in too much arm in the strokes and it's starting to turn into chronic pain.
 
Low 4.0, but have actually been playing some decent tennis compared to what I had been the last few years. Feeling like my pre-2016 injuries and lingering BS is finally at least manageable and really enjoying tennis more.

My biggest struggle is still eyesight and balance. While my vertigo that started a while back is more in check (except overheads), there are so many times I feel the ball just is NOT where I think I am seeing it, so many more off center shots and duffs that used to be a little more crispy. Beyond that, battling age for maintaining fitness and footwork. Well, battling my enjoyment of good food and beer too.
 
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~3.5 and I think the biggest thing I'm struggling with is playing at the net, namely volleys (but overheads too). I'm also working on being able to absolutely crush balls and have them be good and where I want them. I need to fix my kinetic chain as sometimes the contact point isn't at the most optimal place. I'm also working on slicing and dropshotting more, and improving my court positioning.
 
3.5 in singles but 4.0 in doubles.

Footwork and focus are my biggest issues. Most of my errors come down to either looking away from contact too soon or not moving my feet into the right spot to swing freely on time.
 
High 3.5 or low 4.0, I struggle with hitting aggressive balls off of medium pace balls that are below my hips. Not enough incoming weight of shot to stick it to my racket face and ride it up into my normal stroke. This occurs frequently with poor servers who deliver these types of flat low and ~50 mph type balls on every serve and when they're trying to take my cross court balls down the line. I either error trying to hit it normally or hit extreme topspin forehands that have no penetration.
 
Pro says I'm at a 3.5 level. It's been a year, and I'm curious where my skill level will be this time next year.

One handed backhand needs the most work. The timing and form seems to come and go. 2nd serve at times is a little to 'just get it over'

Deciding to adopt a ohbh is a curse that keeps giving blessings. It's definitely high maintenance, and easy for myself to drift off form in multiple ways, often without being aware that I'm doing so.

However, this causes me to consistently and constantly evaluate all other aspects of my game, encourages me to practice more often, and adds fuel to the fire of a goal of self improvement.

IMO, the ohbh is good for people who enjoy working hard, and almost enjoy the pain it takes to improve.
 
High 4.5/low 5.0 (no NTRP here but I'm a UTR 8ish):

I have a bomb first serve, but I rapidly lose consistency on it as I start to gas out and lose leg drive. I need to concentrate on using my legs properly even as I begin to tire.
I need to work on my net play, particularly my overheads. I play very aggressive tennis, but I'm on the wrong side of 35 now and I can't baseline grind with athletic 20yo's anymore. I need to follow more points to net to capitalise on my big shots, but my lack of confidence in my overheads makes me tense when I do. I still struggle to judge overheads in flight, and I don't quite have the precision to really kill a lot of the volleys I should.
 
I'm a 4.5 and 59 years old, I STILL have issues with my serve, particularly my toss which is rushed and I toss too high. Also I've been trying to develop a drop shot and I honestly just forget to use it in match play sometimes.
 
Low 4.0. After 2 years lockup in Melbourne Australia the lockdown capital of the world fitness of course. I play at Melbourne park still hasn't opened up :mad:

Oh and my net game stinks. I ve just ordered a couple of long brimmed caps to see if that helps with the crappy lights at Melbourne park
 
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StringSnapper said:
are you more of an endurance rally player? is that how you win at 5.0?
Click to expand...

My game is a weird mix of being a counterpuncher with really solid hands. When I'm serving I mix in serve and volley and usually have a high level of success with that. On return it's much more difficult for me to get to net if I'm not putting more weight into my shots. So instead what ends up happening is I have to run down a lot of balls and hope they accidentally cough up a short ball or miss. I can do this for awhile and make a lot of guys miss at 5.0, but I have to expend way more energy than them. So I'm looking to put a little more on my ball in order to control more of these points and get to net. I feel like if I was moving the other guy in even 5-10% more points rather than them moving me, my success would skyrocket. And it turns out it's not really that complicated for me to execute, I just need to make sure to move forward every time I hit a groundstroke. But I got away with not doing that for years, so it's ingrained.
 
mid-4.5

Struggles? Let me count the ways:

- inconsistency with my 2HBH TS [short and outright errors]
- impatience
- poor shot selection
- hugely variable returns
 
atatu said:
I'm a 4.5 and 59 years old, I STILL have issues with my serve, particularly my toss which is rushed and I toss too high. Also I've been trying to develop a drop shot and I honestly just forget to use it in match play sometimes.
Click to expand...

Do you know if it's an issue of practicing consistently, focus, or just getting good feedback that's holding you back?
 
MoxMonkey said:
One handed backhand needs the most work. The timing and form seems to come and go. 2nd serve at times is a little to 'just get it over'

Deciding to adopt a ohbh is a curse that keeps giving blessings. It's definitely high maintenance, and easy for myself to drift off form in multiple ways, often without being aware that I'm doing so.

However, this causes me to consistently and constantly evaluate all other aspects of my game, encourages me to practice more often, and adds fuel to the fire of a goal of self improvement.

IMO, the ohbh is good for people who enjoy working hard, and almost enjoy the pain it takes to improve.
Click to expand...

I think I know what you mean, about the long work on the ohbh. I first had some lessons at 9, and the instructor we found in the town was oldschool, so I started off with the ohbh. Then I quit after being discouraged or something and didn't get back into tennis until 19, and kept using the ohbh, where I felt more comfortable with it than the fh for years. Quit again, then came back to it in 2014. I still need work with the ohbh timing too, and wish I could hit it with consistent control from anywhere like Henin. I think I'm long past the point where I no longer get elbow pain from the topspin ohbh, but occasionally from the slice or bh volley if I don't use my shoulder enough instead of stressing the elbow. But yeah, I love the ohbh with a 367g, 90 sq.in. racquet.
 
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Staying relaxed during high pressure moments. Overhead. Otherwise I'd probably be playing on the tour... probably. :whistle:
 
4.0 currently. At my best 4.5. As I get older, my biggest problem is my movement, being light on my feet. My footwork is getting sloppier with the wear and tear, and if the footwork is sloppy everything else starts to go, except the serve. When I'm not playing well, my consistency suffers, which is primarily cause my movement isn't as sharp as it could be.
 
~3.0
I recorded myself recently on match, that was interesting.
Tech:
- holding racket wrong between shots, good waiting for return, but not later. tend to keep it low, I noticed this is very important for me to be good in timing
- split step timing
- ohbh, need to drop racket, sometimes cheating being late
- first serve looks ugly, final phase bad - legs and arm
- second serve ugly too, luckily opp says spin is ugly and hate it too

other:
- fitness, awful. Cant find time for it now, job and kid takes all my energy, got sick like 5 times this year
- mental, tennis is so mental game, most of ppl underestimate this. I really made big step recently in mental part, but I still lacking a lot. I notice that even low level tournaments mostly are won by mentally prepared guys.
 
A year ago I was a mid-level 3.5 player pretty much average among the group of guys who play every Sunday morning. Then on Dec 11, 2020 I suffered a mild stroke. I was lucky that in physical therapy and daily visits to the gym I've recovered about 80% of my strength.
My game has slipped noticeably so that I'd now be a low level 3.5 or perhaps even a 3.0.
What's been most affected has been my serve which has gone from average to poor.
I wish there was a way to generate more power on the serve but trying to serve harder just doesn't work for me post-stroke.
 
3.5 here. I think it is hard to identify one thing, so I'll tweak the question. After all, a weakness isn't so bad if it rarely comes up in a match, right? I mean, my overhead is a hot mess because I never practice it and I only hit a few in a match.

So the choices are (1) overhead, (2) FH, and (3) TS passing shots to my feet. Of these, the FH wins as biggest struggle because the chances are good that you'll hit one FH groundstroke per point, whereas I can go a while without hitting an OH or dealing with a TS passing shot to my feet.
 
5.0 here, if you discount actual performance. I generally struggle with FH, BH, and the serve, and fitness, stamina and focus. That's all. Everything else seems alright.
 
5.0. Often lazy w footwork moving to backhand side (1hbh), and constantly fiddling with bh grips...is today a 'strong grip' day, or a little looser with hand more forward? need to pick a door before the match starts.
 
I had the chance to practice against a 5.0 yesterday.. I'm probably a weak 4.0 due to inconsistency of stroke. My forehand withstood the pressure but my 1 handed backhand/slice couldn't handle the constant abuse. I have no idea how to hit an incoming oscillating 70+ mph ball on my backhand wing. It tried everything and couldn't make clean contact. I recorded some of his strokes with swing vision and his average ball was 69 and his clean cross court stuff was in the mid 70's. I don't even want to talk about his kick serve to my backhand side.
 
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