Tuesday, September 27, 2011
Monday, September 26, 2011
Dennis Forehands
Thanks Dennis for sharing your videos.
Knowing what we are doing is the most important step we can do towards a better habit. If you study your swing and compare it with mine and with Richard's at the end, you will have the power to really understand what you need to do.
In most cases it is not the execution of a certain technique that is difficult, its the lack of awareness and understanding of the technique to master.
I'll analyze it in a few days time to give you time to make your own personal case without any borrowed interpretation
Dennis for all of the videos the first thing that I've noticed is that by the time the ball bounces you were very late for your power position. Your shoulder hasn't reached a perpendicular position to the net, and your racquet is not ready yet for the forward swing.
I think your left hand should be more active during the shoulder turn and should probably try to keep it for a longer time, maybe until your shoulder is perpendicular to the net.
If you look at your swing over and over you can see that your swing although a small swing, has a lot of right arm movement and not enough shoulder turn. The big reason why your shoulders don't turn is because you know that your right arm can compensate for it and you will still be able to hit the ball. Of course the problem with that is that the swing is not generating enough effortless power and therefore your shot lacks consistency.
Don't worry Dennis as you are becoming more aware of whats happening when you're hitting the forehand you will be able to change it in no time.
It is not the execution of a certain technique that is the most difficult challenge when trying to improve our shots. The great difficulty is knowing exactly what we need to change!! We need to know what to do and we need to associate that into a kinesthetic feeling that we can bring back over and over. One of the major errors that we all do while trying to improve our technique is when we try to change our technique not knowing exactly (beyond any doubt) what is the final goal. We jump into conclusions and sometimes change more than we wanted and we feel very lost and then we never try to change again. Ever happened to you?
You are already improving your swing, Dennis.
On your new swing Dennis you will keep the left hand on the racquet longer. Your shoulders will start rotating as soon as you see the ball towards your forehand. You'll swing very early in a unit turn without any rush. You'll notice that throughout the preparation you will be able to keep your racquet moving very slowly. You'll notice that when the ball is about to bounce that your shoulders are a bit more than perpendicular and you'll be able to turn a bit of your back to the net. When the the ball bounces you will notice how your left arm is stretched out as if your left hand is catching the ball. You will be ready to strike it and then just like magic you will hit the best shot ever without much effort...
My swing:
Richard's swing:
Knowing what we are doing is the most important step we can do towards a better habit. If you study your swing and compare it with mine and with Richard's at the end, you will have the power to really understand what you need to do.
In most cases it is not the execution of a certain technique that is difficult, its the lack of awareness and understanding of the technique to master.
I'll analyze it in a few days time to give you time to make your own personal case without any borrowed interpretation
Dennis for all of the videos the first thing that I've noticed is that by the time the ball bounces you were very late for your power position. Your shoulder hasn't reached a perpendicular position to the net, and your racquet is not ready yet for the forward swing.
I think your left hand should be more active during the shoulder turn and should probably try to keep it for a longer time, maybe until your shoulder is perpendicular to the net.
If you look at your swing over and over you can see that your swing although a small swing, has a lot of right arm movement and not enough shoulder turn. The big reason why your shoulders don't turn is because you know that your right arm can compensate for it and you will still be able to hit the ball. Of course the problem with that is that the swing is not generating enough effortless power and therefore your shot lacks consistency.
Don't worry Dennis as you are becoming more aware of whats happening when you're hitting the forehand you will be able to change it in no time.
It is not the execution of a certain technique that is the most difficult challenge when trying to improve our shots. The great difficulty is knowing exactly what we need to change!! We need to know what to do and we need to associate that into a kinesthetic feeling that we can bring back over and over. One of the major errors that we all do while trying to improve our technique is when we try to change our technique not knowing exactly (beyond any doubt) what is the final goal. We jump into conclusions and sometimes change more than we wanted and we feel very lost and then we never try to change again. Ever happened to you?
You are already improving your swing, Dennis.
On your new swing Dennis you will keep the left hand on the racquet longer. Your shoulders will start rotating as soon as you see the ball towards your forehand. You'll swing very early in a unit turn without any rush. You'll notice that throughout the preparation you will be able to keep your racquet moving very slowly. You'll notice that when the ball is about to bounce that your shoulders are a bit more than perpendicular and you'll be able to turn a bit of your back to the net. When the the ball bounces you will notice how your left arm is stretched out as if your left hand is catching the ball. You will be ready to strike it and then just like magic you will hit the best shot ever without much effort...
My swing:
Richard's swing:
Ann Louise's forehands
Thanks Ann Louise for sharing your videos on the blog.
There is so much you can see about your own technique although the video quality is not the best since the footage was recorded at night time.
You've done already a massive improvement on your forehand. Now your left hand holds the racket longer and therefore your shoulder turn has improved quite a lot. Your swing looks much more compact since your racket head now doesn't sweep the ground as before.
I'll be analyzing your swing in the next coming days but for the time being I hope you have time to study your own swing and have your own interpretation of them. I leave my own forehand below your videos so it is easier for you to compare them and maybe help you to find the clues for your own technique.
As always the first thing to analyze in anyone's technique is the Unit Turn, by far the most important element to achieve for any shot in tennis (maybe excluding serve). The Unit Turn is still quite unknown in the tennis world and it is not quite well understood. One of the reasons for this ignorance is that the Unit Turn is not easily seen without high speed video.
To have an efficient swing we need to turn the whole body (feet, hips, hands, shoulders) in a continuous fluid way without any independent movement of any of the parts. The biggest difference between a swing of a pro and a swing of a common social player is the Unit turn. For players who have an efficient Unit Turn, the speed of the racquet head, during the preparation phase, is exactly the same as the speed of the shoulder turn.
Players should intend to move their racquet as slow as possible (at shoulder turn) while turning their shoulders without moving their arm and the racquet independently. This is the number one element to improve in 99% of all social players.
Let's see what's happening with your forehand, Ann Louise:
On most of the shots you waste precious time with the shoulders still parallel to the baseline. By the time you start turning the shoulders you already seem late. Your racquet then begins to go back faster than the turn of the shoulders, although it is much better than before because now you are holding on the racquet throat with your left hand and that forces your swing to become more compact with a better unit.
You will be improving your forehand when you succeed to shorten the use of your right arm independently from the rest of the body. If you freeze the video when the ball bounces you will see that your shoulders stopped rotating more (roughly perpendicular to the net), but your right arm kept traveling back more for quite a big journey.
Imagine your forehand of the future. When the ball bounces you will reach your power position. Your shoulders will be positioned a bit more than perpendicular and your racquet hand will not go back more from that point...
You'll get there, you just need to imagine it first.
There are more things about your forehand. The next thing you need to imagine is to hit the ball with topspin.
You have been working on it already and I can't wait to record you again...
My swing:
There is so much you can see about your own technique although the video quality is not the best since the footage was recorded at night time.
You've done already a massive improvement on your forehand. Now your left hand holds the racket longer and therefore your shoulder turn has improved quite a lot. Your swing looks much more compact since your racket head now doesn't sweep the ground as before.
I'll be analyzing your swing in the next coming days but for the time being I hope you have time to study your own swing and have your own interpretation of them. I leave my own forehand below your videos so it is easier for you to compare them and maybe help you to find the clues for your own technique.
As always the first thing to analyze in anyone's technique is the Unit Turn, by far the most important element to achieve for any shot in tennis (maybe excluding serve). The Unit Turn is still quite unknown in the tennis world and it is not quite well understood. One of the reasons for this ignorance is that the Unit Turn is not easily seen without high speed video.
To have an efficient swing we need to turn the whole body (feet, hips, hands, shoulders) in a continuous fluid way without any independent movement of any of the parts. The biggest difference between a swing of a pro and a swing of a common social player is the Unit turn. For players who have an efficient Unit Turn, the speed of the racquet head, during the preparation phase, is exactly the same as the speed of the shoulder turn.
Players should intend to move their racquet as slow as possible (at shoulder turn) while turning their shoulders without moving their arm and the racquet independently. This is the number one element to improve in 99% of all social players.
Let's see what's happening with your forehand, Ann Louise:
On most of the shots you waste precious time with the shoulders still parallel to the baseline. By the time you start turning the shoulders you already seem late. Your racquet then begins to go back faster than the turn of the shoulders, although it is much better than before because now you are holding on the racquet throat with your left hand and that forces your swing to become more compact with a better unit.
You will be improving your forehand when you succeed to shorten the use of your right arm independently from the rest of the body. If you freeze the video when the ball bounces you will see that your shoulders stopped rotating more (roughly perpendicular to the net), but your right arm kept traveling back more for quite a big journey.
Imagine your forehand of the future. When the ball bounces you will reach your power position. Your shoulders will be positioned a bit more than perpendicular and your racquet hand will not go back more from that point...
You'll get there, you just need to imagine it first.
There are more things about your forehand. The next thing you need to imagine is to hit the ball with topspin.
You have been working on it already and I can't wait to record you again...
My swing:
Monday, September 12, 2011
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)