Have a Question for Me?

[johnyandell]

Not that I know of. It can't be statistically advantageous but I think you are correct in that the real question is your ability to stay positive in the situation.

[10splayer]

John,

Do you have any information, or any estimate, on how much , if any, the game has "sped up" in terms of average ball speeds and spin rates in the last 5 or 6 years?

[johnyandell]

Not really. We can see from our spin studies that Nadal spins the ball faster than Sampras, but in 1997 Bruguera had the same spin rates as Nadal, and Muster and Courier were similar to Federer.

If you studied the shot spot data you might get a sense of changes in ball speed. My sense is yeah it's increased, but saying it and proving it by data is different.

Not sure how much of that cumulative data is readily available though over time.

[10splayer]

Yeah John, thanks for your time. You always seem to respond promptly to your customers. I guess coming up with concrete numbers, would entail alot of work... Been around tennis all my life, often times at pretty high level, but just amazed at what there doing with the ball now, juniors included.

Just don't know if my feeling about the increase was valid, or if I was falling for the whole "modern game is so much better" mentality.

[johnyandell]

Well if you watch matches from the 1980s opn TV it's pretty obvious it's gotten a lot faster since then. Last 5-10 years probably as well. That's just my opinion.

[uspta1863382890]

The windmill and continued efforts to get a full drop in the service motion

Dear John,

I really do need to get a hold of an adequate video camera so I can send you video of my serve!

In the meantime, I've been working with your windmill exercise (I don't get an adequate drop) and discovered something significant this morning. As a result I'm regressing a bit, but I can see that in this case I need to take a step backward to go further forward.

After hitting a few serves this morning, I went back and did some more windmill reps, paying attention to allowing the circular motion to flow directly into the drop.

On the very next serve, I noticed that I had a hitch - I was pausing somewhere in my motion to allow for my toss height.

I did some more windmills and then served again, focusing on the continuousness of the circle and drop. This time I avoided the hitch and discovered that my toss was too high, as the continuous motion changed my rhythm so much. I never, ever expected that. I've always struggled with low contact, in fact.

This all means I've got some work to do, as the continuous circle/drop is clearly the way forward to a fuller racquet drop. It appears I need to lower my toss a bit and also alter the relationship of my tossing and racquet arms. My racquet arm lags behind (by what I thought was a common amount), and I see the need now to bring it a bit closer into synch with the tossing arm - less lag.

As an aside question, do good servers with high tosses tend to pause, however slightly, in the trophy position? If so, such a pause is absent in my circular approach - such absence is the point of it, I think, as a means of getting to a better drop.

Thank you for all you do!

Brandon Ferris

[johnyandell]

I don't see an actual pause--the motion is continuous. As to the speed that could well vary or even slow down minimally although I don't think that's something you would necessarily try to make happen. We'll know more when we do the article on Sampras's actual racket head speed based on the filming Brian Gordon did.

[dohertyme]

caption correction?

just a quick note on More on the Step, Step, Rip !
the caption on Federer, making the point on reversed footwork sequence,
appears incorrect.
I found the point made very helpful!
Mike

[johnyandell]

Yeah great point. You may be seeing something I'm not but I see ball bounce step step hit and the kick back.

[dohertyme]

caption & video harmony...

John,

...sorry I wasn't clear about WHICH Fed caption on the footwork section in The Rip lesson. It's the 3rd photo, with a blue shirt, and the caption reads

"To hit on the rise with a open stance, the step pattern reversed: Right foot step, left foot step, hit."

(The "left" and "right" are opposite from what's intended [I think!]) Of course, the punch line is: Watch the video and it's all clear! Visualization, not words, conquers all.

Mike

[johnyandell]

You are correct! That's in More Step Rip Rip--but yeah the right and left are reversed!

[prestige1]

semi-western

My son has just switched from a western forehand grip to a semi-western grip. He is having some trouble consistently hitting the ball in the court. Some of his shots go into the bottem of the net. I assume this is from too much wrist action. Other shots seem to cannon into the fence. It would be helpful if you could tell give me any tips to help my son switch to semi-western or any drills do with him to improve the forehand. His main problem is consistency rather than spin or etc.

Thanks in advance,
Jonathan

[johnyandell]

Jonathan,

Love to make something up that would be a magic bullet to help, but there is no way I can say anything intelligent without seeing the stroke in question. What is western and what is semi-western? There are at least 4 versions somewhere in between. I wouldn't assume anything until I put it on camera, including the role of the wrist. There are about a dozen factors that could produce the situation you describe.

In Advanced Tennis there is a detailed series of articles on every aspect of the forehand across the grip styles. You can find a lot of info there. And if you do video him consider sending it in for Your Strokes. I could possibly do an analysis for a future issue.

[prestige1]

Thanks for the quick reply john
His grip is somewhere in-between mild and moderate semi-western now. He played again yesterday after I asked you about his forehand and he said he was hitting it better. He is going to a tennis camp next week that films your strokes, so I could email you the video if it is any good.
Thanks for your help,
Jonathan

[johnyandell]

yeah do that and tell them to film tight without much air around the player so we actually see.