Have a Question for Me?

[johnyandell]

Yandell17,

Nice login! And good questions. I hope I didn't demonstrate open face at contact...the model is for vertical. Astute though that maybe you saw Karsten, who easily has the best backhand of any of the demonstrators (and once had a world ranking in top 200) is slightly open at contact--more of a very slight hard slice drive... But I think everyone else is vertical.

As for the tilt. You do see it in some but definitely not all of the great one-handed backhands. Kerry Mitchell for one believes in it as a teaching cue:
https://www.tennisplayer.net/members...and_Grips.html

Rod Cross in Technical Tennis explains (somewhere) the relationship between necessary ball speed and the viability of the tilt. Myself I think it's a higher level thing that probably happens automatically. If it works for you, go for it.

As for the wrist, I believe the angle is set by the grip. In my model there isn't any conscious or mechanical wrist movement in the forward swing. If it moves it's minor and automatic but I believe in the straight arm all the way to the extension. The wrist may release in the wrap but it's not part of the technical swing.

[johnyandell]

And ha! A junior member reflects not age but the number of your posts. Keep going!

[yandell17]

Dear John:

Thanks for your helpful reply. Let me reemphasize the benefit of a slightly closed racket face at the point of contact, say no more that 5%, It is secret sauce for both back hands and forehands. That tip comes from Howard Brody's book on the Physics of Tennis and maybe Al Secunda's book as well. In my experiments in trying to hit as hard as possible and keep the ball in (inspired by Brody and Braden), with a slightly closed racket face that became possible. I believe that extreme grips on backhand and forehand side do this naturally and it ("slightly closed" should be taught) as a fundamental part of the topspin game, not merely incremental elegance or just style. I am not within reach of my tennis library now, so can't get you the cites to Brody or Secunda, but they are from memory. Brody's diagrams showed that with a slightly closed face the spin would keep the ball in more. Depth another issue. Hit higher over net. (A Vic Braden teaching point.). I want to work off my Junior ranking so I am coming back to you. I am forever grateful to Visual Tennis and the video, and the double bend forehand, wrist back elbow in and slightly bent. Teachers did not emphasize that. Thanks also for the articles on the one handed backhand. Perhaps I missed it, but I believe that the one hander down the line is different from the cross court and the follow troughs should be different. (Lendl-like on down the line.) Your thoughts on the wrist were very helpful. Do the pros in discussion say otherwise though? I defer to you. I meant my remarks to part of the back hand discussion but as a novice on this site I wound up just asking you. Feel free to post this response in the backhand section. Oh, another compliment. I tried to convert to the two handed backhand, too hard. Not worth it. I listened to you and gave up the ghost. Giving advice like try Henman for the recreational player instead Guga/Wawrinka exaggerations is helpful advice. Dreaming and being practical at the same time. I will be back on pronation and the slice serve.

[johnyandell]

Great the closed face is working for you. One hand down the line can have less arm rotation. Dreams are good. Good tennis is better!

[stotty]

That quickbooks spammer is terribly persistent....

[johnyandell]

Yep. He doesn't show up in the members admin site. Trying to figure out how to get rid of him.

[stotty]

I see that quickbooks guy keeps popping up. He's a bit like Djokovic...really hard to put away. Keep trying, John. There has to be a way to eliminate the sod.

[johnyandell]

Manish is looking into it.

[dpremsagar]

Contact Point for Volleys and Slice?

Hi John, a question about contact points. I've been taking aggressive swings for backhand slice with very frustrating results. Despite the shot making more than 50% errors in my practice I have been committed to fast swings hoping one day it will all fall into place. Simply didn't work. Either I dump into the net or the ball sails long.

Then I read Scott Murphy's article about backhand slice. He mentions that the contact point needs to be a little later than it is for ground strokes. So, I tried 'pulling' the contact point to behind my front foot whereas it was in front of my front foot before. I have only practiced once after making this change but the results are very encouraging.

But now, I'm not sure about the volleys. Since the backhand volley is arguably just a mini backhand slice, where should the contact point be? In front of the front foot or behind the front foot? Same question about the forehand volley as well.

[johnyandell]

Check these out:

https://www.tennisplayer.net/members...rehand_volley/
https://www.tennisplayer.net/members/ultimate_fundamentals/john_yandell/the_backhand_volley As these pieces show the contact point can vary somewhat. The keys are having the other fundamentals solid. Also search up the Pat Cash volley articles

[seano]

John -

Serena is often credited with having a tremendous serve, one of the best women's serves of all time. From a purely bio-mechanical/technical perspective, wouldn't you say she has deficiencies in her motion? I'll list some and if you could give me your thoughts.

1) Doesn't necessarily load her rear hip "back and down". it's more of pushing her front hip forward.
2) Racquet drops down the back before the legs drive up. Doesn't synchronize the upper and lower body.
3) Racquet has more a "forward entry" in the backswing, moving more front to back , limiting her ability to have a diagonal swing plane, thus limiting her ability to externally rotate her shoulder.
4) Looks like her hips and shoulders are facing the net at contact, not more sideways.

Thanks for your input,

Sean

[johnyandell]

Sean,
Can't disagree. It goes to show that biomechanical perfection is not equal to greatness.

[dpremsagar]

Hi John, I have 2 questions for you today.

1. Question regarding short and low forehands : I have modeled my forehand based on your forehand series in the Teaching Systems. While my stock forehand is so much better, if I ever get a forehand short and bouncing no higher than my knee level, either I hit it in the net or hit it too long. I have been pondering over this for weeks and I think I might be on to something. I wonder if the solution to this problem is with the racquet take back on preparation. For a low, short ball, the regular backswing causes too much forward velocity and not enough spin. Perhaps the solution is to shorten how far back the racquet goes in the backswing and also taking it much lower? I'm very curious to know your thoughts on this. If this was covered in some article, that would be quite helpful too.


2. Question about how tight to hold the racquet : I have asked this question already, but this is still such a conundrum for me, so I'm coming up with this theory. What I notice is that on my forehands, serves and BH slice, during the forward swing of the racquet, there is a point where the racquet handle comes out of contact with the knuckle pad of the index finger. This doesn't happen on my FH slice and 2handed BH. So, I'm wondering if the solution is to grip the handle throughout the stroke just tight enough that at no point does the handle lose contact with the knuckle-pad of the index finger.

[johnyandell]

D,
Really hard to tell without seeing it. Do you have video? Probably an issue with amount of windshield wiper but video would tell. iphone 240 fps please. As for grip, hold the racket tight enough that a bird in your hand would stay put but don't strangle it!

[dpremsagar]

Thank you John. I will work on providing you video for that.

Meanwhile I have a question about serve. I've been working on building my serve using the Federer model in your teaching system.
The one thing I find excruciatingly difficult is tossing the ball accurately, probably due to "The Arms Up together" nature of that model.

In Federer's motion, the racquet and serving arm are parallel to the ground by the time the ball leaves the tossing hand.
In Sampras' motion, the racquet and serving arm are still vertical by the time the ball leaves the tossing hand.

I find the Sampras style more suitable for me. I can focus 100% of my brain on tossing the ball accurately with my left arm and then focus 100% of my brain on the racquet arm.
It might be argued that the racquet arm will have less time to get to the trophy position in the Sampras model, but I find that alright. The benefit of having to focus on only one arm at a time is worth that cost.

It is hard enough to focus on placing the ball toss properly by itself, it becomes even harder when I also need to pay attention to my right arm at the same time.

What are your thoughts? Are there any significant negatives of adopting Sampras' rhythm to get to the trophy position?