BEFORE VIDEO AWARENESS:
From the start I knew James had some important aspects to improve on his backhand. The video helps us both to know exactly what he needs to change.
From watching the footage I noticed two major aspects in Jame's backhands:
The first is an inefficient full turn and the second is an excessive loop of the hands during the unit turn and full turn. I won't over analyze it because James is already changing his backhand. It should take him a few more weeks of practice to incorporate a few major changes...
The elements to imrove: Inefficient shoulder turn on the power position due to too much independently use of the hands and arms during the full turn on the preparation.
This last video is the type of shot that James will avoid with a better preparation. Why was James so terribly late for that one? He was late because he took his racquet back independently from his shoulder turn. Notice how the maximum shoulder turn was just a little bit more than 90 degrees to the net. Notice as well how the speed of the racquet head as the racquet goes back is probably twice as fast as the shoulder turn. Racquet head at shoulder speed is what we all want...
AFTER VIDEO AWARENESS:
Lots of changes in just a few minutes of awareness:
Racquet head higher and closer to the body on the ready position.
Much greater shoulder turn and less looping action of the hands on the preparation.
These videos show a much more compact backhand and James is already on the right track. I am very interested to see James's backhands in a couple of months...
Thursday, July 21, 2011
Tuesday, July 19, 2011
My Forehands 18/07/11
These are my forehands recorded yesterday.
It is amazing the awareness I have after watching my shots on video. I feel empowered to change the swing completely if I want to although for me it is still my best shot. In this post I'll try to address the commonalities and differences between my forehand and the forehands of the pros.
Before trying to point out what I can do to improve my technique, first it is important that I try to understand what I am really doing when I'm hitting my forehand:
I start my preparation with a unit turn. As I've demonstrated with plenty of videos available here on the blog, this is one of the most important aspects of the forehand technique for every single player to master. The unit turn is quite simple to execute. I've seen a lot of players that had never been coached with a unit turn and players who play every day without a unit turn. They have no clue to how much they can improve their swing if they just learn to prepare like the pros...
Starting from the ready position, notice how as soon as I start reacting to the ball, my whole body starts to turn as a unit. We can see my right foot turning to the right at the same time as my left shoulder and hips turn till 90 degrees to the net. We can call this position the unit turn . Try freezing the video when my shoulders are perpendicular to the net. Where is my racquet and right hand? Go back to the start and freeze again at the same picture:
How much have I moved my right hand or racquet from the ready position till that moment?
Although both my right hand and racquet moved, the important part is that they HAVEN"T MOVED INDEPENDENTLY FROM THE BODY!!!
I can still see my hand very close to my belly button just like I had it on my ready position. We can observe as well two key aspects of the preparation on the forehand; The first is that the left hand hasn't moved independently either from the rest of the body and is still holding the racquet by the throat. The left hand on the racquet helps the execution of the unit turn because it makes the preparation more compact. Last on my unit 1, my left foot turns as well to the right with the rest of the body and it stays on the ground enough time to allow my body turn to create spring power from shoulders and hips. So as I start the unit turn my feet are positioned with an open stance.
As I am studying my forehand I am beginning to observe of a lot of little things that I do that I wasn't aware of.
After that position that we called the unit turn, I initiate the full turn that happens after the shoulders turn perpendicular till the power position.
I start elevating a bit more my left hand. Because my right hand still hasn't gone back or upward yet, the racquet becomes more vertical during this phase of the swing (with just a little bit of a forward tilt). This is the moment that my left foot is already crossing over my right foot as I am moving to the ball.
Until this moment my right hand and elbow hasn't moved independently from the rest of the body. It is quite extraordinary that for 0.37 seconds my right hand did not move from the position where it was on the ready position in relation to my upper body. It counts for 35% of the time until contact is done. That's how important is the unit turn!
Finally as my left hand leaves the racquet, my right hand and right elbow start separating itself with the rest of the torso. However it isn't an total independent take back of the racquet although during this time the right hand and racquet seem to travel faster than other parts of the body. As the racquet continues to move back, the right elbow goes a bit back away from the torso and also seems to go towards my back on my left. As all of this is happening my left arm stretches parallel to the baseline which helps the shoulders to rotate maybe another 15 to 30 degrees more.
By the time that my right foot lands on the ground ready for the power position, my left arm is already on an angle about a 45 degrees to the net and remains fully stretched. At this moment the racquet head finally catches the right hand and for the first time in the swing is positioned behind the right hand. This happens as the right hand slows down and prepares the racquet head for the final acceleration to the ball. I have reached what we call the power position.
The full turn itself accounts for 0.6 seconds which represents 0.57 of the overall swing from the ready position till the contact point. So these are the numbers, if the unit turn accounts for 35% and the full turn, 57% we have already 92% of the swing between ready position and contact point. The remaining 8 per cent accounts for the time between the power position and forward swing till contact.
The most interesting aspect of my preparation is that contrary to what I've observed within the pro game, my right hand doesn't have any upward movement at all! It is quite possible that here relies one key aspect that I may to change on my swing to improve it. But I am not certain as well if I need to change it or if I really want to. I am not concerned with my technique, and I am always trying to find a more efficient way to execute my shots. I have nothing to loose, I love to change, but hey isn't it cool that we all have a special way of hitting our forehands?
In this power position, my body is in the lower position since the ready position. My left knee is much lower than my right knee. As the racquet head gets behind the right hand and starts to accelerate forward the left knee starts pushing up and the left foot turns and points to the net. At this moment the hips are turning faster than the shoulders, but by the time the knee caps are leveled at the same height the shoulder seems to turn faster than the hips. This position where both knees are at the same height coincides with what we call the hitting arm position, where the butt of the racquet points on a straight line to the ball. At this moment we can say that hips and shoulders are parallel, but as soon as the racquet accelerates the last few frames till contact the shoulders rotate much faster than hips and they keep rotating faster throughout the followthrough.
Contact was made more in front on shots 1, 3 and 4 because those shot were hit crosscourt.
At the moment I'm still thinking on the replications of what I've observed with my forehand. From the fact that my right hand has no upward movement in the entire swing I can say that is a shot more compact than all of the pros that I have observed. Of course that doesn't mean it is a more efficient technique. On the contrary it might be giving my swing less power and maybe even less topspin, although I'm not so sure about it. Maybe the upward swing is not the important key aspect of the preparation. Or maybe I don't have upward right hand movement because hand and racquet head start already on a high position...
It is amazing the awareness I have after watching my shots on video. I feel empowered to change the swing completely if I want to although for me it is still my best shot. In this post I'll try to address the commonalities and differences between my forehand and the forehands of the pros.
Before trying to point out what I can do to improve my technique, first it is important that I try to understand what I am really doing when I'm hitting my forehand:
I start my preparation with a unit turn. As I've demonstrated with plenty of videos available here on the blog, this is one of the most important aspects of the forehand technique for every single player to master. The unit turn is quite simple to execute. I've seen a lot of players that had never been coached with a unit turn and players who play every day without a unit turn. They have no clue to how much they can improve their swing if they just learn to prepare like the pros...
Starting from the ready position, notice how as soon as I start reacting to the ball, my whole body starts to turn as a unit. We can see my right foot turning to the right at the same time as my left shoulder and hips turn till 90 degrees to the net. We can call this position the unit turn . Try freezing the video when my shoulders are perpendicular to the net. Where is my racquet and right hand? Go back to the start and freeze again at the same picture:
How much have I moved my right hand or racquet from the ready position till that moment?
Although both my right hand and racquet moved, the important part is that they HAVEN"T MOVED INDEPENDENTLY FROM THE BODY!!!
I can still see my hand very close to my belly button just like I had it on my ready position. We can observe as well two key aspects of the preparation on the forehand; The first is that the left hand hasn't moved independently either from the rest of the body and is still holding the racquet by the throat. The left hand on the racquet helps the execution of the unit turn because it makes the preparation more compact. Last on my unit 1, my left foot turns as well to the right with the rest of the body and it stays on the ground enough time to allow my body turn to create spring power from shoulders and hips. So as I start the unit turn my feet are positioned with an open stance.
As I am studying my forehand I am beginning to observe of a lot of little things that I do that I wasn't aware of.
After that position that we called the unit turn, I initiate the full turn that happens after the shoulders turn perpendicular till the power position.
I start elevating a bit more my left hand. Because my right hand still hasn't gone back or upward yet, the racquet becomes more vertical during this phase of the swing (with just a little bit of a forward tilt). This is the moment that my left foot is already crossing over my right foot as I am moving to the ball.
Until this moment my right hand and elbow hasn't moved independently from the rest of the body. It is quite extraordinary that for 0.37 seconds my right hand did not move from the position where it was on the ready position in relation to my upper body. It counts for 35% of the time until contact is done. That's how important is the unit turn!
Finally as my left hand leaves the racquet, my right hand and right elbow start separating itself with the rest of the torso. However it isn't an total independent take back of the racquet although during this time the right hand and racquet seem to travel faster than other parts of the body. As the racquet continues to move back, the right elbow goes a bit back away from the torso and also seems to go towards my back on my left. As all of this is happening my left arm stretches parallel to the baseline which helps the shoulders to rotate maybe another 15 to 30 degrees more.
By the time that my right foot lands on the ground ready for the power position, my left arm is already on an angle about a 45 degrees to the net and remains fully stretched. At this moment the racquet head finally catches the right hand and for the first time in the swing is positioned behind the right hand. This happens as the right hand slows down and prepares the racquet head for the final acceleration to the ball. I have reached what we call the power position.
The full turn itself accounts for 0.6 seconds which represents 0.57 of the overall swing from the ready position till the contact point. So these are the numbers, if the unit turn accounts for 35% and the full turn, 57% we have already 92% of the swing between ready position and contact point. The remaining 8 per cent accounts for the time between the power position and forward swing till contact.
The most interesting aspect of my preparation is that contrary to what I've observed within the pro game, my right hand doesn't have any upward movement at all! It is quite possible that here relies one key aspect that I may to change on my swing to improve it. But I am not certain as well if I need to change it or if I really want to. I am not concerned with my technique, and I am always trying to find a more efficient way to execute my shots. I have nothing to loose, I love to change, but hey isn't it cool that we all have a special way of hitting our forehands?
In this power position, my body is in the lower position since the ready position. My left knee is much lower than my right knee. As the racquet head gets behind the right hand and starts to accelerate forward the left knee starts pushing up and the left foot turns and points to the net. At this moment the hips are turning faster than the shoulders, but by the time the knee caps are leveled at the same height the shoulder seems to turn faster than the hips. This position where both knees are at the same height coincides with what we call the hitting arm position, where the butt of the racquet points on a straight line to the ball. At this moment we can say that hips and shoulders are parallel, but as soon as the racquet accelerates the last few frames till contact the shoulders rotate much faster than hips and they keep rotating faster throughout the followthrough.
Contact was made more in front on shots 1, 3 and 4 because those shot were hit crosscourt.
At the moment I'm still thinking on the replications of what I've observed with my forehand. From the fact that my right hand has no upward movement in the entire swing I can say that is a shot more compact than all of the pros that I have observed. Of course that doesn't mean it is a more efficient technique. On the contrary it might be giving my swing less power and maybe even less topspin, although I'm not so sure about it. Maybe the upward swing is not the important key aspect of the preparation. Or maybe I don't have upward right hand movement because hand and racquet head start already on a high position...
Friday, July 8, 2011
The trap of the light racquets
It is quite amazing how so many people play with racquets that are not only unsuitable for their game but also unsafe and can cause injuries. In general these racquets are light and heavy on the head. On the contrary the pros play with heavy racquets and light heads.
There is a marketing trap that wants us to believe that there is a beginner's racquet an intermediate racquet, and an advance racquet.
The truth is that it doesn't matter if you are a beginner or a pro you should play with the best racquet posible. That racquet should be heavy overall (above 300g) and light on the head with a balance of less than 330mm. My racquet's weight is 330g and it's balance is 310mm. I would play with a racquet weighing 370g if it was available on the market!
When someone walks into a store to buy a racquet he is probably gonna get the lighter one on the shop. He thinks that because he is playing with a racquet with the same brand as Federer, that his new racquet can't be that bad and sometimes he may even believe that his racquet, "with the latest technology on the market", is even better than the one Federer uses!
Social players all over the world play with extremely light racquets with heavy heads. These racquets have weights below 270g and have the balance above 340mm. Watch these players, they have inefficient techniques and most of them have elbow straps because of their tennis elbow.
Light weight racquets sells, heavy don't.
Light racquets brake easily and you may have to buy another one, heavy racquets don't brake.
Light racquets are unsafe because most of the impact is transfered to your wrists and elbows, Heavier racquets gives you more protection. If two cars have a front collision, in which car would you like to be driving, in the light car or the heavy car?
There is a marketing trap that wants us to believe that there is a beginner's racquet an intermediate racquet, and an advance racquet.
The truth is that it doesn't matter if you are a beginner or a pro you should play with the best racquet posible. That racquet should be heavy overall (above 300g) and light on the head with a balance of less than 330mm. My racquet's weight is 330g and it's balance is 310mm. I would play with a racquet weighing 370g if it was available on the market!
When someone walks into a store to buy a racquet he is probably gonna get the lighter one on the shop. He thinks that because he is playing with a racquet with the same brand as Federer, that his new racquet can't be that bad and sometimes he may even believe that his racquet, "with the latest technology on the market", is even better than the one Federer uses!
Social players all over the world play with extremely light racquets with heavy heads. These racquets have weights below 270g and have the balance above 340mm. Watch these players, they have inefficient techniques and most of them have elbow straps because of their tennis elbow.
Light weight racquets sells, heavy don't.
Light racquets brake easily and you may have to buy another one, heavy racquets don't brake.
Light racquets are unsafe because most of the impact is transfered to your wrists and elbows, Heavier racquets gives you more protection. If two cars have a front collision, in which car would you like to be driving, in the light car or the heavy car?
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