Have a Question for Me?

[settantasette]

Recent data about pro's ball speed and spin?

Hello John,
new subscriber from Italy here. Sorry for my "spaghetti" english
First of all, let me say your site (and your research) are the best source about tennis technique and physics I've ever found. By far, it outplays even the private database for coaches of my tennis federation (I'm a teaching pro in Italy).

I found tennisplayer.net after reading a NY Times article about Nadal's forehand, that came with very interesting data and measurements of the actual ball spin and speed, quoting your site, so I subscribed here hoping to find more.

In the "heavy ball" articles (great) there are a lot of ball speed/spin data about players from the nineties, which is very interesting, but I couldn't find much about nowadays pros, I mean the "usual ones", Fed, Nadal, Djokovic. I'm still exploring the site, but I haven't had much success by now.

Is there a specific page, or monthly issue, in which I can find some measurements of groundstroke ball speed and spin of current top players, or at least pros from the last ten years?

Thanks in advance, and cheers from Italy!

[johnyandell]

Great question and your English is very good. One of the things I have to do is at some point stop collecting data and pull it together. I do plan to do an article or a series on the new spin studies.

For now, the spin data (or at least some of it) is included in the stroke articles--for example the ones on the forehands of Fed, Novak, and Rafa.

The summary is that they can all range between 1000-5000rpm, but there are differences in the averages.

Rafa 3300rpm
Fed 2700rpm
Novak 2700rpm
Andy 2400rpm
Delpo 2000rpm

The top women like Serena, Azarenka, and Sharapova, 1400-1600rpm on average.

All that could change slightly when we tabulate more events but the overall picture is accurate.

[tntenniswhiz]

John,
Was Rafa's top in the 5400's? Thought I saw that somewhere...

[johnyandell]

Don't think it was quite that high--just around 5,000---don't have that data with me at the moment. Look in the Rafa forehand article if you are interested--I think I put it in there...

[nikae]

Hello John, I have a question about ATP style forehand articles.

Is that something that average club players, 3.5-4.5 level that play few times a week, should experiment with and maybe convert to?
Or, does simpler is better "rule" is more suited for those kind of players?
By simper I mean Henamn, Del Potro, Agassi - type of forehand, the forehand that has less wrist flipping when forward swing starts.

[johnyandell]

Nikae,

I love the outside backswing for any level player! I've used it with high school girls and shown it to teaching pros and used it myself. It may be more advanced, but it's easier and simpler.

The forward part of the swing (after the outside backswing and flip) is more problematic. The degree of windshield wiper if any is a factor depending on level, grips, style, and preference.

But as for part 1, definitely you want to try it.

[nikae]

I will experiment with it fore sure, thanks.

Do you happen to know whats the account name of Jeff Counts here on tennisplayer? I tried to send him a private message but I forgot his account name.

[johnyandell]

It is jeffreycounts

[kwilkinson]

sampras serve

hi john,
you once had a promotion for the site where you gave out some high speed video of top pro's forehands.
is it possible to purchase a similar video on sampras' serve.

[johnyandell]

There are a couple of DVDs--not available by link at the moment. Wanna email me? videotennis@metricmai.com

[kwilkinson]

emailing you

hi john,
just tried to email you and it kicked back as undeliverable.
keith

[johnyandell]

Got it now.

[don_budge]

Swedish footwork...

John...please do me a favor and look at the video in the "Footwork...Swedish Style" thread I posted today. What do you think of teaching the back foot coming through with the swing?

[johnyandell]

I posted under that thread.

[nikae]

Hello, I have a question about forehand back swing.

In back swing article, you gave few examples of what back swings we can use as a model. Those were Agassi, Blake, Federer and others.

I Really like Federer back swing and already have something similar.
If you watch his back swing motion, you will notice that he starts pronating his forearm somewhere in the middle of the back swing, all the way until bottom of the back swing. Just before the forward swing starts, he finds his hitting arm position, and racket head is not parallel to the ground anymore.

So my question is, does that flipping of the racket (transition from bottom of the back swing and start of forward motion) makes timing harder, and is that something you would recommend to us, 4.0 level club players?

EDIT: I am using double bend forehand, not straight arm.
check out his forehand at 1:35 mark, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1ImeQaAyFPc is that a perfect model?