Expensive!
No, it costs money, Nico, so I'll stick to the apprenticeship method. I wonder, though, if Vermeer learned to paint from a video. Of course, although I'm not as bad at tennis as you (and many others) think, I'm not a Vermeer on the tennis court either, and my big gains all do come from videos-- mostly those in this website. You see, I am a very visual person.
This business of language, though, does bother me since I may be teaching writing courses in Europe this summer. Visual imagery by itself is not enough. We need verbal, kinesthetic cues, as well, if tennis is the subject.
Just try and keep the words sensuous and simple, with your students, whether you're speaking English or Dutch.
That's what I'm trying to do with the above description of a Roger Federer forehand. Try following it-- maybe you or one of your students can hit like Roger!
FH: hands point tweeze Mondo arm.
You're right-handed and the ball is coming to your right. You lean with your head and simultaneously turn the same way, pushing off the foot nearest to the ball. Your arms are solid with your body and out front as you move like a crab. Whether you've managed to splay your outside foot or not will affect the shot.
At the bounce (approximately) you do "hands" (count one). This means that both hands lightly lift the closed racket independent of the body thus giving one a feeling of freedom.
On count two you "point." Surely you know how dramatic this can be in the theater. You do it with your left hand. You point all the way across your body at the right fence, which winds back your shoulders farther than in the old days when you kept left hand on the racket for the same purpose and sent it toward the rear fence. But what is your right arm doing? It's opening the racket to neutral position up by your head (with "neutral" meaning neither closed or open but on edge).
Count three, "tweeze," again refers to left arm. It's straight, right? So if you smoothly swing it around a small amount, keeping it straight, it resembles one leg of the tweezers from a medicine cabinet. But if like my Hungarian ex-girlfriend you hate medical imagery and may prefer nautical-- and Roger has called his forehand "modern retro"-- well, how about using the classical image from fifty years of tennis magazines: Your left arm "smooths the waters."
I'm arguing here though that a straight arm calms the waters better than a bent one. Ar at least smooths MORE water. But if both arms are pulling part, and are becoming tweezers, well, they're un-tweezing or tweezing in reverse.
Anyway the right arm gets straight while closing the strings again during this.
Count four, "Mondo," is an international term from the Pro Tour with World implications. This is when the wrist simultaneously turns down and turns back (opening half way to neutral), killing the racket head speed just as Roger pushes off and cranks his body mightily. It allows one to be vigorous before contact and practically caress the ball at one and the same time.
Success of any stroke, however, is determined by how the strings come off of the ball. Sideways movement of "arm" (count five) achieves this in two ways-- remaining straight through contact or scissoring at contact. In either case, the most powerful sideways movement of the arm possible slings the laid back, laid down racket up, through and across the ball, causing a ferocity of mixed spin.
No, it costs money, Nico, so I'll stick to the apprenticeship method. I wonder, though, if Vermeer learned to paint from a video. Of course, although I'm not as bad at tennis as you (and many others) think, I'm not a Vermeer on the tennis court either, and my big gains all do come from videos-- mostly those in this website. You see, I am a very visual person.
This business of language, though, does bother me since I may be teaching writing courses in Europe this summer. Visual imagery by itself is not enough. We need verbal, kinesthetic cues, as well, if tennis is the subject.
Just try and keep the words sensuous and simple, with your students, whether you're speaking English or Dutch.
That's what I'm trying to do with the above description of a Roger Federer forehand. Try following it-- maybe you or one of your students can hit like Roger!
FH: hands point tweeze Mondo arm.
You're right-handed and the ball is coming to your right. You lean with your head and simultaneously turn the same way, pushing off the foot nearest to the ball. Your arms are solid with your body and out front as you move like a crab. Whether you've managed to splay your outside foot or not will affect the shot.
At the bounce (approximately) you do "hands" (count one). This means that both hands lightly lift the closed racket independent of the body thus giving one a feeling of freedom.
On count two you "point." Surely you know how dramatic this can be in the theater. You do it with your left hand. You point all the way across your body at the right fence, which winds back your shoulders farther than in the old days when you kept left hand on the racket for the same purpose and sent it toward the rear fence. But what is your right arm doing? It's opening the racket to neutral position up by your head (with "neutral" meaning neither closed or open but on edge).
Count three, "tweeze," again refers to left arm. It's straight, right? So if you smoothly swing it around a small amount, keeping it straight, it resembles one leg of the tweezers from a medicine cabinet. But if like my Hungarian ex-girlfriend you hate medical imagery and may prefer nautical-- and Roger has called his forehand "modern retro"-- well, how about using the classical image from fifty years of tennis magazines: Your left arm "smooths the waters."
I'm arguing here though that a straight arm calms the waters better than a bent one. Ar at least smooths MORE water. But if both arms are pulling part, and are becoming tweezers, well, they're un-tweezing or tweezing in reverse.
Anyway the right arm gets straight while closing the strings again during this.
Count four, "Mondo," is an international term from the Pro Tour with World implications. This is when the wrist simultaneously turns down and turns back (opening half way to neutral), killing the racket head speed just as Roger pushes off and cranks his body mightily. It allows one to be vigorous before contact and practically caress the ball at one and the same time.
Success of any stroke, however, is determined by how the strings come off of the ball. Sideways movement of "arm" (count five) achieves this in two ways-- remaining straight through contact or scissoring at contact. In either case, the most powerful sideways movement of the arm possible slings the laid back, laid down racket up, through and across the ball, causing a ferocity of mixed spin.
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