Don't Fix Radek But Do Modify Him
"Look at all his girlfriends-- and you want to mess with Radek's racket?"
Well, in his foreplay, I mean his forehand, he, Radek Stepanek ("Hello darling. I'll be home soon!") bends his wrist back at least somewhat and then closes his racket.
You don't have to be an oarsman with a beginner's feather to know that the sequence in this is unnecessary and you could do the two acts together and gradually and all at once.
Take the long view for a minute of the big forehand discussion always going on here at Tennis Player.
The ATP Style Forehand possesses a pat, a mondo, a spear and a wipe.
In the olden days before Brian Gordon's 15-year science project, people merely spoke of a "windshield wiper" and left the curious player to figure out the the rest by himself.
To this day, many of the best teaching pros, concentrating on basics, delay the teaching of a wiper or never teach it at all.
On television one day the announcer and former top junior and substantially high level tour player and chronic victim of Ivan Lendl, Jimmy Arias, known for his heavy topspin, advised that he wouldn't teach the wiper to any player at a 4.5 level or below.
He never has repeated this assertion through many broadcasting opportunities-- maybe because I wasn't the only tennis player who was enraged.
By now however I'm glad he said that.
And the articles here by Scott Murphy on the back to basics ground strokes of Karsten Popp opened up a whole new avenue for anyone willing to tweak.
I ask now, "What about a version of mondo or flip less harsh than that of Roger Federer?"
Even Roger bends his wrist back some before he bends it more (in his mondo).
The more one bends wrist in the takeback (and the less one closes with forearm, I would add), the less one will use those body parts during the mondo.
Today, just for fun, I shall try advanced feather from crew since I already know that beginner's feather works.
To slow blend of wrist and diagonal forearm I'll add a little prying in both directions from thumb and bottom finger.
This could put some more spice and direction variety in my shot or not and will be a safe experiment since I have a nice plateau for myself to return to.
A great irony I find in all of this is that one closes racket to open it and then close it again.
So that if one doesn't close it very much, one doesn't need to open it very much-- and contact could be cleaner than usual thanks to lack of a big shenanigan.
"Look at all his girlfriends-- and you want to mess with Radek's racket?"
Well, in his foreplay, I mean his forehand, he, Radek Stepanek ("Hello darling. I'll be home soon!") bends his wrist back at least somewhat and then closes his racket.
You don't have to be an oarsman with a beginner's feather to know that the sequence in this is unnecessary and you could do the two acts together and gradually and all at once.
Take the long view for a minute of the big forehand discussion always going on here at Tennis Player.
The ATP Style Forehand possesses a pat, a mondo, a spear and a wipe.
In the olden days before Brian Gordon's 15-year science project, people merely spoke of a "windshield wiper" and left the curious player to figure out the the rest by himself.
To this day, many of the best teaching pros, concentrating on basics, delay the teaching of a wiper or never teach it at all.
On television one day the announcer and former top junior and substantially high level tour player and chronic victim of Ivan Lendl, Jimmy Arias, known for his heavy topspin, advised that he wouldn't teach the wiper to any player at a 4.5 level or below.
He never has repeated this assertion through many broadcasting opportunities-- maybe because I wasn't the only tennis player who was enraged.
By now however I'm glad he said that.
And the articles here by Scott Murphy on the back to basics ground strokes of Karsten Popp opened up a whole new avenue for anyone willing to tweak.
I ask now, "What about a version of mondo or flip less harsh than that of Roger Federer?"
Even Roger bends his wrist back some before he bends it more (in his mondo).
The more one bends wrist in the takeback (and the less one closes with forearm, I would add), the less one will use those body parts during the mondo.
Today, just for fun, I shall try advanced feather from crew since I already know that beginner's feather works.
To slow blend of wrist and diagonal forearm I'll add a little prying in both directions from thumb and bottom finger.
This could put some more spice and direction variety in my shot or not and will be a safe experiment since I have a nice plateau for myself to return to.
A great irony I find in all of this is that one closes racket to open it and then close it again.
So that if one doesn't close it very much, one doesn't need to open it very much-- and contact could be cleaner than usual thanks to lack of a big shenanigan.
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