Thursday, August 23, 2012

Friday, August 10, 2012

Wednesday, August 8, 2012

Federer as a lefty, check out his "distance" and where he stands.


Roger Federer Slow Motion volleys ( no instruction)

More volleys.

Roger Federer - Volleys

Look at how many times these guys make errors when practicing. Notice that they don't care about making mistakes, I don't hear them apologizing to each other for missing shots or mishits. All I see are the players being pretty loose. Check out his distance fro the baseline when he's in the back court. There will be a Federer practice video coming soon.


Roger Federer Volleys in Slow Motion

Here's Federer practicing some volleys. Look at the fluid motion, look at all of those "volleying rules" being broken.More to follow.
Smiley


The Geometric Reality Of Tennis

The Geometric Reality Of Tennis


s1angles1aMovement.  The first step in establishing a strong foundation with the body is by facing the undeniable truth about this game.  A tennis player faces an angle of possibilities, which means the ball angles, or moves, away from you either to your right or to your left (1A).  The ball is not hit at you.  (The court is drawn to scale.)
The ball is angling away from you.  While you can take different directions to intercept it, you want to hit the ball back with some power and not simply run over and touch it or just stop it.
You've heard often enough that moving into the ball gives you power, that is getting your body's momentum behind the stroke and into the ball equals power.  Why doesn't that happen often enough for you?  Because if you either move parallel to the baseline, turn sideways, or pivot one foot to the side, you're moving away from the ball and not into it.  It's simple geometry.

REST OF THE ARTICLE

Nothing Is New Under The Sun................

Some  so-called "tennis pros" and organizations try to feed people some stuff about "new" tennis. Below is an article that debunks a lot of the junk that fed to people who want to learn tennis out there. This website is going to add some more features and will be updated very soon. Here's the article below:


JUST WHAT IS MODERN TENNIS?
It's been said that modern tennis relates to hitting with topspin, hitting with an open stance, 
and wrapping the follow through around.  But as the song goes, "everything old is new again."
item5 





From 1926 comes clear evidence that topspin, hitting 
from an open stance, and wrapping the follow through around the opposite shoulder were 
very much in the game at that time.  
One of author J. Parmly Paret's series of instructional books
 entitled Mechanics of  The Game of Lawn Tennis shows that.
item6 





J. Parmly Paret analyzed the mechanics of the 
top pros of his day using 
 high speed photos provided by the United States Lawn Tennis Association, which he includes 
in his book. Of the 9 forehand sequences, 5 roll the racket over, and 4 hit from an open stance.  
Paret is the first tennis biomechanist, and as his colleagues today, he eagerly declares that these 
photos reveal hidden truths and shatter myths.  My favorite is his conclusion that pros take their 
eyes off the ball before it is hit since his photos show many pros do not have their eyes on the 
ball at contact.

item7
Something considered "new" is loading the body weight on the outside foot and exploding into the shot.  
The three photos below show this "new" idea has been going on for over 100 years.  
On the left is Arthur Wentworth Gore in 1908, clearly loading on his outside leg and I would bet he's 
going to slap the living daylights out of the ball.  Next we have Miss M. Coles, 1910, with again, 
an open stance and ready to "explode" into the ball, though we don't know the degree of explosion.  
She could have just as well hit the ball easily, but the structure is there.  On the far right is modern 
player Manuel Santana, with 4 Slams under his belt, 2 French, 1961, 1964, 1 U.S., 1965, 
1 Wimbledon, 1966.  
He is off the ground crunching the hell out of it.  Looks like Federer.
item8item9item10














[photos from TENNIS, A Pictorial History by Lance Tingay, pub. 1973; Wentworth by unknown; Coles 
by Radio Times Hilton Picture Library; Santana by Tennis de France.]
So what's the skinny on this?  Two things, the observers are slow to recognize, and the business of
 tennis always wants to sell you some new thing or another.  Tennis has always been the same because
 the way we move and empower ourselves, the game's geometric reality of a ball angling away, 
and athleticism haven't changed.  What has changed is the equipment, the training regimen for athletes, 
the choices in stroke selection, personal freedom and improvisation when playing, and the 
money involved.
MORE IDEAS FROM 1926!
EYES
"The masters do not always keep their eyes on the ball while hitting it, but their methods cannot be 
safely copied until a considerable degree of skill has been secured."   "common traits... third, there is '
the almost unanimous habit of taking the eyes off the ball before it is hit.... To omit any of these
 habits means to limit the skill of the expert to a marked degree."   "But the expert ...learns to 
 complete his stroke without watching the ball up the last few feet before it strikes the racket. 
He sees it until he feels sure he has a proper estimate of the flight and can center it on his racket, 
and then he looks up to get his bearing, and select his final direction."   [And this is all because 
of the many photos of players with their eyes off the ball at contact.]
BODY ROTATION
"In each case (golf and tennis), there is a rotation of the body itself on its own base and the
 more this turn of the hips, trunk and shoulders can be added to the forward swing, the 
greater power will the stroke have."   "In any case, a certain amount of rotation is necessary, and 
the more it is used the better.
STRAIGHT ARM SWING
"Nothing can cramp the tennis stroke so much as a bent elbow, and it is doubly important that in 
all ground-strokes, at least, its angle should be obtuse, never an acute angle, if indeed the arm 
cannot be straightened out entirely."   "But if one must choose, it is better to keep farther away t
han closer than he thinks safe, for it is easy to lean out to reach a ball but a deadly weakness to
draw back from it."   "Your whole body should be kept as far away from the ball as possible as 
the stroke is made, and when you lean out to reach it, that idle arm will help greatly in maintaining 
the balance."   "Straighten out the playing arm too and reach far out, for the longer the lever used in
 making that whipping slash against the ball, the greater will be its driving power."
WEIGHT TRANSFER
"The weight must be traveling in the direction you want the ball to go when the stroke 
is made or power is lost. By leaning out to meet the ball [i.e., extending the arm] and swinging the 
weight forward [i.e., in the direction you want the ball to go] as the ball is hit you carry all the power 
of the body weight with the stroke."
FOREHAND STROKE
"Let us glance over the list for a moment: 1) A long back-swing; 2) increasing the speed of 
the racket in the forward swing; 3) meeting the ball with the racket traveling at its maximum velocity;
 4) adding to the power by snapping the wrist just before contact is made; 
5) turning the body around by rotation to increase the momentum of the racket; and 
6) following through with a forward motion of the body to add its weight to the stroke..."
STANCES
"We find, however, two distinct groups among even the best players, those who set themselves 
in a fixed position [i.e., open stance] to make the stroke and those who "step into" 
the stroke or make it on the run."
READY POSITION
"Much wider latitude for quick action is offered by a diagonal stance, with the right foot
 somewhat farther from the net than the left. From this position a much quicker start can be made in 
some directions than from that with feet parallel to the net."
What has really changed from 1926, besides the Ready Position?  Body rotation and forward 
motion of the body to increase power is exactly the same as what the USPTA promotes 
as "modern tennis", as well as everyone else for that matter.  "Load, explode, and land" is 
the term for this new stuff, which is exactly what points 5 and 6 in the Forehand Stroke lead to. 
 Extending on strokes is still very popular, as is shifting your weight toward the other side of the net.  
And according to Vic Braden you shouldn't believe anyone who says they see the ball when hitting it.
Of note, though, is the mention of snapping the wrist on the forehand stroke to add power to 
the hit.  This is the only instance I have found where "snap" is used to describe the wrist motion.  
I would never use the word "snap" to characterize how the wrist is used on the forehand 
groundstroke,and I can't remember being told "snap" by any teacher, including Pancho Segura and 
Welby Van Horn. Of course I haven't seen all the old tennis books, but even the recent old 
ones by Gladys Heldman and Welby Van Horn I suspect never used the word "snap" to describe 
the wrist's role.  When Vic Braden rails on about how wrong it is to "snap" your wrist on a 
 forehand stroke because he says it does not flex at all I'd sure like to know not only who has
 used that word in the teaching community (has to be somebody well-known and influential,
 not some local guy) but in what teaching book it can be found that raises Vic's ire.  
Point is it's ancient history, shortly lived.




Andre Agassi - Harel Srugo

Here's Agassi, who is an aggressive baseliner and "puncher" who likes to take the ball on the rise. Check out his distance from the baseline when he's rallying.

Monday, August 6, 2012

Feliciano Lopez Sony Ericsson Open 2012 practice 3/20

Taylor Dent Serve and Baseline Point 1

Taylor Dent Practicing Strokes

Taylor Dent Slow Motion Forehands

07 24 09 Taylor Dent warmup w/ Amritraj

Taylor Dent Demonstrates Proper Serve with Top-spin

A tip from a great server.


tennis slice backhand lefthanded - slow motion

tennis tips - slice forehand - slow motion

Tennis Groundstrokes - Could You Move Forward?

The Classic Open Stance Tennis Forehand

Fernando Gonzales Forehand and Backhand in Slow Motion (300 fps)

Pancho Gonzales forehand

Pancho Gonzales & Roger Federer: Serving Greatness

Rod Laver serve

Rod Laver e Arthur Ashe

Wimbledon 1960 Final Fraser vs Laver

We can learn a LOT about tennis by watching the old great players. It doesn't matter what level you are or what level you are trying to be, you can always learn from these guys.


Legend Stefan Edberg vs. Jo-Wilfired Tsonga - 2012 Qatar Open

Roger Federer's Topspin Backhand return of Serve.

How To Handle The High Ball To Your Backhand Side

Naomi's "Sick Kick"

This is a good technique for lefty servers. Right handed players can use the same concept on the "ad court".


Are you a Tennis Athlete? 3 tests to find out





Excellent fundamentals for movement!

Sunday, August 5, 2012

Secrets of the Toss

 

Excellent analysis.

Tennis Lessons - Key Ingredients Of The Return Of Serve | Tom Avery Tenn...

Tennis Lessons - Playing The Net Effectively | Tom Avery Tennis 239.592....

Good advice from Tom Avery.

USHA

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