Friday, November 26, 2010
Video Analysis
The biggest difficulty that I have when analyzing ones shots is that I rely mainly on words to explain and describe a certain technique. What is easily seen on video can be extremely hard and painful to explain through language. For us to see the problem of the forward swing of a player can take us 30 seconds but to explain it accurately in a way that can be understood without any doubts, can take more than a week and still there might be room for confusion.
Friday, October 15, 2010
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.
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
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
Thursday, October 14, 2010
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:
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:
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