Have a Question for Me?

[safin_rod]

John.When do you think you will make an article about Andy Roddick's forehand like the one about Roger Federer.I think i will be interesting

[johnyandell]

There is a lot about Andy's forehand in the Differences and Similarities articles in Advanced Tennis. I am going to summarize our forehand findings also in the next few months and he'll be one main example.

[tennisfan04]

What generates forehand racquet speed

John,

Great website and terrific articles. In one of your posts, you mentioned that most of the racquet speed is generated not in the looping take-back, but in the forward motion from the "double bend" position. Quite often, I see intermediate level kids not have enough time to finish the loopback and the forward motion especially when the opponent hits a hard shot. Given this, shouldn't kids at this level be told to get the racquet in the double bend position as they are getting ready, since this will simplify their stroke and increase their chances of making clean topspin contact. As they get better, they can always do the full motion instead of a two stage process. John McEnroe's strokes show a very abbreviated (almost no loop) take-back and that probably had a lot to do with his ability to play well on the rise and his legendary quickness.

Best Regards

[johnyandell]

Couldn't agree more. The big, circular loop is a sacred cow. Unfortunately, it doesn't function the way so many coaches think. If you look at the Lansdorp FH article there is an amazing animation of Pete age 10 or so--very compact classic loop--no closed face elbow lead etc.


More on this coming next month!

[JanWaechli]

vh grips

it would be very intressting to know the % of grips for the top 50 players. women and men! also the relation of preferred sourface they play on. can you do that? and will you cover the women anytime soon?
thanks, and greatings to gangi from jan

[johnyandell]

Good question. It's very tough to see the subtle differences in the grips--the top 50 players looking player by player, that would be tough. I spent a lot of time looking at a lot of video to get the ones I did. It's there as a research project for someone though... you just need to spend a few dozen hours in the stroke archive.

I think the biggest percentage of the men are 4 3 1/2 as I said in the article, but I haven't counted. In general we suppose that more extreme grips go with clay, but not sure the corelation with type of court always holds. The better players tend to win--that's the bottom line--yeah maybe the grips have an effect when you get to Federer vs Nadal on red clay.

The women will will be looking at as a separate series. They are definitely more conservative grip wise--more in the Agassi to Nalbandian range with few excepts (Petrova, Groenefeld).

[kurtvanhook]

wild ideas..

John, I can't tell you how much I enjoy this site....just renewed for the year.
The clips are just unbelievable....your approach to athletic movement gets me thinking about other fluid sports movements that demand this type of analysis

Ideas for satellite sites - or a bonus addition to this site. I realize that this is probably a cost-prohibitive dream....but one can dream, no?

1) golf swings (pga/lpga tour players)
a) golf swings of current/former ATP tour players (Lendl, Sampras come to mind)

2) Baseball batting swings : how sweet would a Rod Carew/TonyGwynn library be?

3) Baseball infield : Ozzie Smith, Omar Vizquel, Jeter.....fast and slow studies of them fielding balls at short and throwing to first....I could seriously watch that kind of stuff all day long.

4) baseball pitching - Koufax, Ryan, Clemens....wow.....

5) Basketball jump shots : Again, I could watch Mike Bibby, Peja, Tony Parker, Wade, shoot j's all day.

[kurtvanhook]

kurt's bh

Hi John,

Here's what I've found after carefully considering your comments on my admittedly "weird" BH racket takeback (and after hitting and videotaping many many balls over the last few days) :

1) Grip : Part of the reason that my racket was angled was that my grip was off....not quite eastern backhand but more rotated more towards a continental - subtle rotation but definitely a problem. This made it hard to make the racket vertical on the backswing. When I get the grip right, shot is definitely better.

2) From studying the Gaudio/Federer/Phillipoussis/henin/Kuerten BH clips, I see that the racket initially goes back perpendicular to ground with the unit turn, but racket face always is "pulled up" by the left (non-dominant) hand so that the face is level to, or even above, the head, at the completion of the backswing. This element, which I think is key (well, at least to me it is!), is not mentioned in the Phillipoussis BH article, nor in the one-handed backhand portion of your book "visual tennis". .This element facilitates a loop, of course, and more racket speed. Timing is a bit more of a challenge than with my previous, flawed, straight takeback, but when I get this sequence correct, I get effortless power.

3) The biggest bonus I'm getting out of the looped, elevated-to-my-head backswing, is that now I can power through balls that are a little bit higher up in my sweet spot wheel-house strike zone. Before, the always-low takeback would force me to take all of these balls 1)on the rise, or, 2) with a high slice. Now I find I can rip through them with an efficient low-to-high swing angle....as shown clearly in some of the kuerten slow mo BH clips.

This has been a huge epiphany for me, John, and sincerely thank you for this insight! When I think I've got it right, I'll send you more clips if you don't mind.

I'm off to the US Open Qualifying....do you want to to file a report from the field?

Kurt

[leis]

Grip change Methods

John:
Has anyone reviewed video to look at grip change techniques, especially under shorter time periods such as the service return? It seems that many of the pros open the fingers of their racket hand prior to a forehand or backhand grip commitment(your high speed footage of Justine Hardin). When the racket is rotated, there will be less grip resistance during rotation. Many one handers seem to switch to a backhand grip with a small pivot of the racket at the junction of the hand and index finger of the racket hand. The non racket hand simply pulls the racket throat to pivot the rotation. Extreme grips obviously have further to travel for rotation and techniques probably vary. It is not inconceivable that someone in the future could have such an extreme one handed backhand grip that they could use the same grip for the forehand by simply moving the arm over to the forehand side without a grip change!!

[johnyandell]

I haven't looked at the timing of this over hundreds of clips, but you do often see the top players relax their hands in the preparation phase. For example, Haas does it, but Federer doesn't.

I'm not sure it's a big deal. The grip shift is easy and natural and doesn't take that much time or ususally cause problems for experienced players.

There were some Spanish players who did exactly what you are suggesting re: one extreme grip. Just turned the hand over without switching the grip.

[leis]

Reverse Forehand

John: Loved the 3 finishes article. At a tennis sport science conference several years ago, I heard the reverse forehand referred to as a "buggy whip" because you pop the whip upward. I like to use that finish on a topspin lob for some reason(probably because my opponent pressured me while at net and I caught the ball late).

[johnyandell]

Lansdorp says it's the best for the topspin lob.

[jstr]

% of time on volleys

What % of the time on volleys near the net should one feel like "catching an egg " on the strings instead of more of a more aggressive put away type action? It seems that aggression leads to "swinging" the racquet which leads to errors...

[malice]

I would like to ask for some help regarding the BH slice-drive.

I have read most of the Slice articles (mainly Mr.Trey Waltke's) on the site but i just cant seem to hit the Slice-BH with any authority whatsoever.

My main problem is often hitting the ball long by quite a large margin.

I cannot seem to square off the racquet face for some reason , especially when i increase racquet head-speed.

A habit has developed on my BH slice , whereby i shift my grip closer to that of a heavier - BH grip to square of the face. This however robs me of alot of pace and penetration , resulting in "floaters" unless i really use a severe downward chop.


Basically , how do i go about

- Squaring my racquet face for contact
- Hitting through the ball for slice
( Am i suppose to take the ball far infront of me or closer than a topspin drive ?)

Please let me know if you need any other specific details

Thanks and AWESOME site !

[johnyandell]

Don't TRY to square the face, It doesn't have to be square and isn't on many bhs. Of the deflection of the hit causes it to be square only.

Look at the Don Budge slice drives in the Stroke Archive.
Also read the article in Your Strokes on Carl Sutherland's slice drive.

You want to try hit through with the angle of the face set.

Also if you use that stronger grip it's going to float period. Mild continental is ideal.