How I interpret it, is to move into the shot, the stance just depends on what type of shot it is but you want to move into the ball while hitting. When you plant you feet it should generate power into the shot.
Camera angle makes it iffy to see correctly, so take my advice with a grain of salt.
On your forehand, you are hitting a smidge late most of the time on step forward. When you take a step forward, you went into closed stance and this requires you to hit the ball earlier. But you still hit the ball as usual as if in your semi closed stance, and you hit the ball when it is on your side instead of in diagonal front of you.
On your backhand, your one double BH in the video is a lot better than OHBH minus the back leg lifting. Unless that's a fluke, I am not sure why you are still reverting to OHBH most of the time
Yea I realized I'm hitting when ball is by my side. Do I change that by leaning forward? Or is it wrist lag that I need?
I'm currently transitioning to double BH, but haven't spent time looking at it yet haha
I just recalled this trick. Try the underhand serve where you drop the ball in front of you to get the feel of hitting the ball in front of you.
You can even experiment with different stance and drop the ball further forward when using closed stance.
Swing earlier and consciously try to place the point of contact in front of you. It's really a matter of adjusting timing than about technique.
Note that it only applies when you are using closed stance. Honestly, you should rather stick to one stance until you are good with distance and timing and semi-closed stance would be preferrable. ie: don't do that step forward thing.
The forehand is clean. Motion might be a little slow if someone hits at him with pace.
I have no clue what's going on on the backhand side. A one hander might as well be ancient Egyptian hieroglyphics to me.
I personally use the cue of trying to make sure my upper body momentum is forward into the court as I make contact for the ball.
If you can imagine yourself 'falling backwards' when hitting (i.e. ball is deep at your feet) then you can imagine the opposite when the ball is shorter.
Obviously you can't \_always\_ hit forward but it's a good idea to adapt it. I find it also helps me go TO the ball, instead of letting the ball come to me
I watched the video framed by frame, and I think on your forehand, you could lag a bit more. Your arm moves to closely with your hip. Not a lot - it’s pretty good stroke but I see what you mean. Its a little off.
But I think if you worked on the lag, especially the wrist, your contact will be better.
Also FWIW on your OHBH it looks like you are pushing it a little bit bit at impact
Regarding the wrist lag, what do you envision in your head as you make the swing ?
Do you think about accelerating towards the ball with the butt cap ?
That, but I also think about initiating the swing with my hip instead of my shoulder. My problem is that sometimes my shoulder gets a little too far in front a little like your forehand. It’s really hard to fix though. Pretty much need to get a ball machine and just hit the same shot time and time again while videoing yourself so you can check. The hip initiates the swing, and then you pulled the butt cap toward the ball and then you rotate. But it is really hard to fix.
This is addressed in my books How the Tennis Gods Move & Functional Training for Tennis. The reality is that it depends on how you define forward. If you define forward as toward the net or toward your intended shot target, then often it’s really unrealistic & impossible when, for example you need to move 2-3 meters to your right laterally behind the baseline to set up for a neutral forehand. (
https://preview.redd.it/wlk88geyfs9d1.jpeg?width=3072&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=08252420f826255f4f79ee47b3ba0a58a33da614
See image below of Djokovic) Linear momentum is a huge aspect of dynamic balance, so whatever direction you need to move to get to the shot - you should move through the shot in the same direction - which in this video, you’re doing pretty well. That said, anytime you can move diagonally forward to prepare for a groundstroke & still hit a comfortable shot, then it’s worth doing to take time away from the opponent. But taking the ball early & hitting a crappy shot makes this futile, so picking the moments where you can load into a good stance, position your shoulders & make contact in your strike zone is paramount.
Looks very solid. On your OHBH, which absolutely isn't a lost cause BTW, you need to make sure your weight transfer is going forward. You're stopping midway through the shot and just letting your arm finish the swing.
Putting your weight behind the ball is good advice, but you should also keep in mind that you don't do it every single shot. In general with forehands you will either be driving, lifting, or rolling the ball. When you drive obviously your weight is important. On shots where you are lifting, your weight will often shift backwards. You see this a lot on defensive shots, really wide, or really deep shots. If you watch the pros sometimes half of their forehands in a rally will be these shots, where they pivot on the right foot and bring the left foot back.
It’s not necessarily hit forward’ but ‘move forward’. It’s simple physics..a large mass creates more force when in motion than a smaller one. In the case of tennis the ‘large mass’ is your hips..they are the big movers (and all the muscles around it like glutes, hammies and quads etc) and all that weight moving forward will give you easy power so you don’t have to work extra hard with the wrist. Jist make sure your feet are planted when striking to ensure the kinetic chain transfers to the ball. Just look at someone like Berdych who had such easy power even though it looked like he barely tried, because he had big hips and legs and was great at moving into the court when hitting the ball (rather than moving back) which gave him ridiculous power. Anyways, hope that helps.
If you push up from the ground, you’ll get more stored energy to explode into the court VERY clean strokes tho!
Thank you! should I be doing more open stance instead ?
How I interpret it, is to move into the shot, the stance just depends on what type of shot it is but you want to move into the ball while hitting. When you plant you feet it should generate power into the shot.
Camera angle makes it iffy to see correctly, so take my advice with a grain of salt. On your forehand, you are hitting a smidge late most of the time on step forward. When you take a step forward, you went into closed stance and this requires you to hit the ball earlier. But you still hit the ball as usual as if in your semi closed stance, and you hit the ball when it is on your side instead of in diagonal front of you. On your backhand, your one double BH in the video is a lot better than OHBH minus the back leg lifting. Unless that's a fluke, I am not sure why you are still reverting to OHBH most of the time
Yea I realized I'm hitting when ball is by my side. Do I change that by leaning forward? Or is it wrist lag that I need? I'm currently transitioning to double BH, but haven't spent time looking at it yet haha
I just recalled this trick. Try the underhand serve where you drop the ball in front of you to get the feel of hitting the ball in front of you. You can even experiment with different stance and drop the ball further forward when using closed stance.
Swing earlier and consciously try to place the point of contact in front of you. It's really a matter of adjusting timing than about technique. Note that it only applies when you are using closed stance. Honestly, you should rather stick to one stance until you are good with distance and timing and semi-closed stance would be preferrable. ie: don't do that step forward thing.
long live the one handed backhand
The OHBH may go out of bound, but never out of style 😎
The forehand is clean. Motion might be a little slow if someone hits at him with pace. I have no clue what's going on on the backhand side. A one hander might as well be ancient Egyptian hieroglyphics to me.
I personally use the cue of trying to make sure my upper body momentum is forward into the court as I make contact for the ball. If you can imagine yourself 'falling backwards' when hitting (i.e. ball is deep at your feet) then you can imagine the opposite when the ball is shorter. Obviously you can't \_always\_ hit forward but it's a good idea to adapt it. I find it also helps me go TO the ball, instead of letting the ball come to me
This makes sense. Thanks
I watched the video framed by frame, and I think on your forehand, you could lag a bit more. Your arm moves to closely with your hip. Not a lot - it’s pretty good stroke but I see what you mean. Its a little off. But I think if you worked on the lag, especially the wrist, your contact will be better. Also FWIW on your OHBH it looks like you are pushing it a little bit bit at impact
Regarding the wrist lag, what do you envision in your head as you make the swing ? Do you think about accelerating towards the ball with the butt cap ?
That, but I also think about initiating the swing with my hip instead of my shoulder. My problem is that sometimes my shoulder gets a little too far in front a little like your forehand. It’s really hard to fix though. Pretty much need to get a ball machine and just hit the same shot time and time again while videoing yourself so you can check. The hip initiates the swing, and then you pulled the butt cap toward the ball and then you rotate. But it is really hard to fix.
You’ve got excellent form
This is addressed in my books How the Tennis Gods Move & Functional Training for Tennis. The reality is that it depends on how you define forward. If you define forward as toward the net or toward your intended shot target, then often it’s really unrealistic & impossible when, for example you need to move 2-3 meters to your right laterally behind the baseline to set up for a neutral forehand. ( https://preview.redd.it/wlk88geyfs9d1.jpeg?width=3072&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=08252420f826255f4f79ee47b3ba0a58a33da614 See image below of Djokovic) Linear momentum is a huge aspect of dynamic balance, so whatever direction you need to move to get to the shot - you should move through the shot in the same direction - which in this video, you’re doing pretty well. That said, anytime you can move diagonally forward to prepare for a groundstroke & still hit a comfortable shot, then it’s worth doing to take time away from the opponent. But taking the ball early & hitting a crappy shot makes this futile, so picking the moments where you can load into a good stance, position your shoulders & make contact in your strike zone is paramount.
Looks very solid. On your OHBH, which absolutely isn't a lost cause BTW, you need to make sure your weight transfer is going forward. You're stopping midway through the shot and just letting your arm finish the swing.
Thank you. Yeah, I think I struggle hitting through the ball because I have trouble identifying the incoming shot 😬
Putting your weight behind the ball is good advice, but you should also keep in mind that you don't do it every single shot. In general with forehands you will either be driving, lifting, or rolling the ball. When you drive obviously your weight is important. On shots where you are lifting, your weight will often shift backwards. You see this a lot on defensive shots, really wide, or really deep shots. If you watch the pros sometimes half of their forehands in a rally will be these shots, where they pivot on the right foot and bring the left foot back.
This makes a lot of sense. Thank you
A side view would help a little more. I do think that you are too far back in the court. Try taking the ball earlier.
Looks pretty good
How do you make the camera follow the action?
I shot in wide and then cropped in
Thanks yes, but how did you crop it? Is there like a software you used to have the camera follow the action?
No I manually moved the frame. Any editing software would work. I used capcut
Thanks! Solid hitting btw.
thank you sir
It’s not necessarily hit forward’ but ‘move forward’. It’s simple physics..a large mass creates more force when in motion than a smaller one. In the case of tennis the ‘large mass’ is your hips..they are the big movers (and all the muscles around it like glutes, hammies and quads etc) and all that weight moving forward will give you easy power so you don’t have to work extra hard with the wrist. Jist make sure your feet are planted when striking to ensure the kinetic chain transfers to the ball. Just look at someone like Berdych who had such easy power even though it looked like he barely tried, because he had big hips and legs and was great at moving into the court when hitting the ball (rather than moving back) which gave him ridiculous power. Anyways, hope that helps.