Tony's Forehands

Sorry Tony videos are not so great in terms of light. It is always a challenge to record high speed videos at night time.

However it can still help us to understand better how you are striking that ball...

On the moment the ball bounces your body and racket are not quite in position yet. Your left hand should be stretched across the body, your should have a full turn and your body and racket should be ready for the forward swing. You are late, your power position is reached with the ball already close to you and so you have to rush the forward swing. Check my forehand below on the exact moment that the ball is bouncing.



On your forward swing the racket head doesn't seem to come under the height of the ball and the shot lacks topspin. You seem to be hitting the ball a bit too far back for a neutral stance forehand.

David's Serve side view 500 fps

After you look at this video David, your serve will never be the same. Things to notice on your technique:

The left arm is tossing the ball perpendicular to the net and therefore there is no arc from the right to the left and there is no arc from the back fence to the net. Check my article about the secrets of the toss http://andrevazpinto.blogspot.com/2010/06/secrets-of-ball-toss.html

When you make contact your feet are already coming down, as a consequence there is no leg drive and no "kick of the mule" common to all pros(watch the picture below).


Roddick's "kick of the mule"









The technique you use resembles a volleyball serve. A contact a lot in front of the head, with no much shoulder rotation, with the feet and body already coming down at the time of contact, and shoulders and hips parallel to the net at the time of contact, and with no "kick of the mule" during the followthrough and finish position are all technical elements for the jump serve in volleyball!! interesting hey?

Have you played volleyball before David???

David's Forehands

18-04-11

Frederick's Forehands

15/04/11


15/04/11


15/04/11


15/04/11


15/04/11


15/04/11

Why Sampras serves?

After watching and comparing my serve with some of the best players in the world I realized that my style resembles more Agassi's serve.

So why bother to copy Sampras serves instead of following the "other" great Andre ?
Sampras has such a great action and a serve totally different to my own serve.

I am very curios to experiment and see how many elements of Sampras technique I can incorporate in my own serve. I'm not in a hurry and although I have the greatest tool for video analysis I know the changes might take 6 months or even a year, and still not sure if i can make too many of those changes.
I have the advantage of having thirty years experience with the learning process and I that I am not competing, therefore I can change as much as I want to without any pressure, and just focus 100 per cent in the technical aspects I want to change.

Sarah Campion Forehands at 500 fps