Nathan's Serves

Before analyzing Nathan's serves I better update one more video from the side that may help understanding his technique



Although three videos are not enough to understand thoroughly Nathan's serving technique we can see some tendencies:

Until the power position all seems to go very well with Nathan's serve. I think Nathan on the toss can keep his right arm stretched at the moment of release of the ball. Its probably only a minor change there but maybe would improve his tossing consistency if it is a problem.

As a curiosity, Nathan tosses the ball higher than any player that I have measured. The ball remains on the air on serve number 1 for 1.2 seconds (240 frames), on serve number 2 for 1.13 seconds (227 frames) and on serve number 3 1.13 seconds (227 frames).On all of these serves the ball stays on the air for longer than Richard 1.1 second. On the serve comparison post in June you can check the different height of ball toss of Federer, Sampras, Roddick, Richard, Brenton and myself.

Does that mean that Nathan needs to get his toss lower? maybe but not necessarily. Only nathan can answer that question.

I think the most important aspect that Nathan has to improve in his serve is to try and get a lower position of the racket on the drop. If you watch the 3rd video side view you can freeze the footage between second 52 and 58 you can easily see that Nathan's left hand is always higher than his left elbow. Have a look on what Federer does in the same drop position:



Notice how Federer's right hand is lower than his elbow. That is one common element of all pros and all good servers of the game. I'm currently trying to improve my drop and I have already felt such a great improvement with my serve. It feels very different and somehow on a few serves I notice that the ball bounced higher than normal. My serve will be on the next posts and I do believe we will see a huge improvement.

Nathan's forehands

Theese are Nathan's forehands. What can be improved?

First of all, these four videos do not show us all of Nathan's habits on the forehand side, since he normally hits better shots. However they are still important to comprehend Nathan's technique and how to improve it.
Of course the more videos we have the better we can understand it. To improve our habits we first need to understand them.

After watching all these four videos it was very clear to me that The May Videos were much better than the October Videos. How can this happen? Shouldn't we be always improving our game?

We are always improving but that doesn't mean that our technique is always better every day we are on court. Sometimes when we want to improve a certain part of our swing we end up changing more than that and the result is that our swing gets worse momentarily. Sometimes that's a price to pay for getting better. Without the courage to leave your comfort zone and travel a bit into the unknown you will never really improve much your swing.




Nathan's Forehands in May:

On this video we can see that Nathan's Unit turn is quite sound. The racket and shoulders seem to turn at the same speed.
When the ball bounces we reach the power position. In this video I can see that Nathan is a bit late because his left hand is still not quite ready to go forward. We can see the left hand going back after the bounce.

As a result Nathan seems to be swinging a bit too far back with the left elbow too far back at contact. As a result after contact there is only forearm movement and the extension is very limited. Notice on a ll videos how Nathan finishes with his left elbow very close to the body.






Nathan's Forehands in October:

These two videos don't seem so good. Nathan's unit is worse. The racket head was a bit lower than before, just after the ready position and start of the unit turn, and there was more upward movement of the racket and hands and less turn of the shoulders. As a result the power position seems very rushed and there is much less shoulder turn.
The contact is still late with the left elbow tucked in and although Nathan was trying to bring his elbow forward on the followthrough, didn't really change much because it was a bit artificial because it was much after the extension and so it had no effect on the shot.

Agniuska's forehands

Agniuska has a very interesting forehand. She is the first female player that I've recorded that hits the ball with a straight arm technique. Other players with the same technique, check Brenton and Ian's forehands on this blog and Nadal on the pro game.

The first detail that I look on anybody's swing is the unit turn. It is the most important part of the motion during the preparation phase.
As soon as Aga recognizes that her next shot will be a forehand she starts bringing the racket and hands up. It is only after a lot of frames that I can detect the turn of the shoulders which means that the shoulder turn is not the main motor on Aga's forehand.
By the time that the shoulders reach a perpendicular position to the net there was already a lot of independent movement of the hands and racket and so the swing becomes extremly big.

Aga has been improving her swing to make it smaller and more compact, and more shoulder turn. When studying Aga's forehands I've discovered some important differences between the 5 videos.
After watching all the videos go back with the cursor and try to freeze the videos when Aga has the racket on the furthest point to her left, just before the forward swing. You'll see that on video 1 on that moment you can see Aga's right hand on the left side of the body.

On video 2 I can see an improvement since the hand now is behind the body and it is not visible on that moment. That is the shorter swing Aga was trying on court and I think refining swing number 2 is the way to go.

Video 3 the swing is even bigger than video 1. Now at that moment you can see the hand and most of the arm on the left side of the body. The swing is huge and because of that Aga makes contact very late. I believe this video shows how Aga used to swing her forehands, her old habit. We can say video 2 is a newer habit.

Video number 4 Aga is running and its not so easy to compare with the previous shots but is similar to video 1

Video 5 is a side view video. we can see how far back the racket goes but we can't see how far it goes to the left of the body. However the angle of the racket on the end of the backswing is probably similar to videos 1 or 3.
It is easy to see on video 5 that at contact Aga is hitting the ball too late, then the elbow collapses and bends and the extension is very short.

So how can Agniuska improve her forehands?

Agniuska has already a strong forehand. She can hit it fast, and with topspin but it is still a bit unreliable sometimes. I think Aga has to shorten her swing to make sure that she has the point of contact much more in front. Actually players who hit the forehands with a straight arm technique make contact more in front of the body than players with the normal double bend technique.

Refining video 2 is the way to go. On video 2 the racket was kept lower at the turn and the left hand when released from the racket was just a bit higher than the shoulder. So the hands were lower on video 2 than on all the other videos. As I've mentioned earlier the racket didn't go as high and as far to Aga's left side of the body as the other shots. Due to a smaller and more compact swing Aga was able to make contact more in front of the body. Hitting the ball more in front will be essential for Agniuska so she can extend the racket through the line of the shot.

I'm sure Agniuska will keep improving her swing and blast us off the court with her killer forehand. Stay alert!

Video 1:



Video 2



Video 3



Video 4



Video 5

Nathan's Backhand II

Nathan's backhand in May:



Nathan's backhands in October:

After watching the previous video from May I was really happy to see how much you've improved your backhand since then.
See how much more shoulder turn you have now in the next videos.

In fact an increased shoulder turn is indeed the major improvement of Nathan's backhands. See how much back can we see at the time of the ball bounce on the next video. Notice as well that Nathan's racket is reaching the usual "behind the pocket" technique that we see in all the pros backhands. This position happens when the racket head is just about to accelerate forward. The racket is normally parallel to the baseline and from the front view we can see the last third of the racket head on the other side of the body. If you freeze the next video at the second 20 you'll see the racket behind the right elbow at the other side of the body.



This is a extremely important position to achieve where the none playing hand has a vital task in positioning the racket ready before the forward swing.
Check Guga's pocket position:






At contact Nathan's left arm is not stretched although the arm extends a few frames after contact which makes it hard to see with the naked eye. I think Nathan should try to hit his backhands further in front, and changing to a stronger grip would help.

Have a look at the great master:

Richard / Hewitt comparisson

After watching your forehands on video, Richard I realized how similar they look when comparing it with Hewitt. Of course it is completely impossible for you to try and replicate exactly Hewitt's forehand and it would be counterproductive to do so since every player has his own particular and unique style to hit the ball.
However I do believe that you can understand much better Hewitt's way of hitting the forehand since you already have some common elements.

So where are the commonalities and the differences between these two swings?

1


2



3


4


Both players start the unit turn with a big upward movement of the racket and right hand. They both bring their right elbows roughly at about right shoulder height with the right hand getting even higher than the head. So we can say both players start their forehand with a big swing.
A slight difference and probably not an important one is that Hewitt seems to elevate his elbow a bit higher and his racket tip is less vertical than yours (pictures 5 and 6). A major difference though can be seen comparing pictures 1 and 2. Hewitt achieved more shoulder turn on his power position which means that somewhere in your unit turn your forearm drove the racket back hurting your full turn. I had pointed out to you before that your unit turn can be improved. You have been improving it quite a lot in the last year and it is much better than what it used to be.


5


6


When reaching the power position, Hewitt brings his left hand higher than yours and he maintains that throughout the swing. Your left hand is a bit lower and it gets lower by the time you reach the hitting arm position. (picture 4)
On the backswing Hewitt's hand and racket reaches further back and more behind the body while yours they stay more on the right side which is great as long as you improve your full shoulder turn (1, 2).

7


8


Although your power position could have more full shoulder turn (back to the net), i think the major aspect to work on your game besides that is on the start of your forward swing till you reach the hitting arm position.
If you look at your picture number 9 and the at 11 you'll see a major drop of the elbow, right hand and left hand. Notice how the right elbow tucked in close to your torso. Comparing it with Hewitt's pictures 10 and 12 we can see how Hewitt didn't drop his hands and he still kept his elbow quite far from the body on picture 12.

Picture number 4 gives us the front view of the hitting arm position.
It is very clear that Hewitt is now roughly perpendicular to the net (3) and you have already opened your shoulders much more.


9


10


11



12


At contact Hewitt is hitting the ball much more in front with the right elbow very far from the body. In comparison, your contact is much less in front and your elbow is very close to the body.
By hitting the ball more in front Hewitt has a natural extension on the followhtrough. His racket and hand rotates still with the elbow and hand quite far in front of the body.

13



14



15


16


Overall I think your forehand is getting stronger. Turning more your shoulders during the unit turn and keeping your hands at the same height during the forward swing with the elbow further away from the body are two elements that you can improve on your forehand. The later one will make you hit the ball earlier, more in front which will naturally improve your extension.

Improving Richard's forehands - Unit Turn and Preparation

These are your forehands. I've uploaded 12 shots to make sure we have most of your technical habits. I agree with all of your comments Richard and I think you are having such a great awareness of your technique that it will be possible for you to find an even better forehand.

One of the general aspects of your forehand is that your overall swing seems to big. But the problem might not be the size of your swing...
There are a lot of pros with big swings and the first that come to my mind was Hewitt. By looking closely at Hewitt's forehands I just realized how similar it is to your swing, Richard. (as a curiosity your serve resembles Hewitt's serve in a lot of aspects. Very interesting...)
So the best way for you to know where you need to improve your shots is by comparing it to your best forehand technical model, Hewitt.



Hewitt has a big swing, even bigger than yours since his racket and right hand gets back even further on the backswing. I'll get to that later.

Here in this picture we can see one the great main difference between Hewitt and Richard's forehands. Hewitt's left arm is helping more to turn the shoulders during the unit turn. The left shoulder is under the chin and as a result Hewitt's shoulder turn is much better.


I think you should try and reach that initial position on the unit turn where your left shoulder touches your chin, that will increase your shoulder turn straight away.

Richard's Forehand IV (October)

I'm back again

Hi guys, have been very busy lately but I have some great footage to show you. Richard's forehand, Nathan's backhand, forehand and serve and Agniuska's forehand. Stay tuned...