Have a Question for Me?

[johnyandell]

GS,

Good idea. We've been slowly building up our footage of him.

[gsheiner]

John,

If you do get a chance to film Milos, perhaps you can get some footage of his backhand return.

It's his big weakness IMO, and maybe you could compare his technique to other top returners and see if you can find any technical flaws. I'm actually not sure if his problem is technical or tactical ( ?stands too deep and not fast enough to cover the next shot to his forehand corner) but it would be interesting to look at.

The article might turn out like the article you did on Roddick's backhand, which turned out to be incredibly instructive.

[johnyandell]

That would be a hard one to answer. I doubt Milos was a nobody. He probably came up thru the ITF tournaments like all the top pros, but I don't know what his numbers were.

Obviously he has a huge game. We've looked at his serve already in the Forum:

http://www.tennisplayer.net/bulletin/showthread.php?t=1857

We'll eventually put up his whole game in the Archives. But watching him play in person the other thing that is apparent with him is how calm and positive he stays in tough matches.

[sidekicktitan16]

hello!!!!

Hello Mr. Yandell, i dont know if there is an article on him yet, but i think Milos Raonic would be a great article and you could help explain the reasons why he went from a nobody to a superstar in just a few months? Thankyou

[johnyandell]

Both. It's not an either or. With young and inexperienced kids if they don't play games and have fun they lose interest. The more serious they become the more open they are to technical teaching. Some come in the door asking for that however. You have to use your intuition and when you try technical change that has to be tied to progressive practice and games.

[jryle1]

Thanks for that John.

Just curious, what is your own personal approach to teaching tennis? Would you be more focused on "mastering" technique first and then tactics or learning technique through tactics. When I did my Level 1 coaching course last year there seems to be a huge emphasis and shift in the ITF in terms of favouring the Games Based Approach rather than the traditional approach of feeding balls and learning technique the old fashioned way.

Personally, I've always believed in technique before tactics because from experience I've seen that people can't execute tactics as well without sufficient technique so the more logical approach is technique before tactics.

An interesting discussion really. I was just wondering what your own personal opinion on it is.

Jono.

[johnyandell]

For everyone--yes! That's exactly what the clips are for. To help players and coaches. The only limitation is that they cannot be uploaded onto a public web site.

The human eye is 20 fps, about. The contact is 1/250 of a sec. The human eye is about 10 times too slow to see what really happens. But 250fps video has the ball on the strings on every shot. 500fps even better.

[jryle1]

I have a quick question about the tennis player archive.

As you know we can download the videos to view on quick time. I was wondering if we are allowed to use them to compare to our students and like show them the differences side by side using arrows etc. Of course I'd never republish them anywhere on the web, it's just for technical purposes with students. I just want to check if this is ok or not so I know if I can do it or not?

Many thanks once again for all your site and keep up the great work. Enjoy every bit of it.

Jono

(And a slight extra additional question. Have been searching all over the site for a piece in an article that you wrote about how many fps the eye can see and why high speed video is important for stroke analysis because of this but I can't seem to find it. Does this exist or was I dreaming it up?)

[johnyandell]

Yes it does. I am not a expert on it but what I think you are seeing is actually video not film deterioration which happens as well. Hard to tell though if it is strictly deterioration or whether the problem is generational loss from copying the masters to secondary tape sources--this was a major limitation of the pre-digital era.

[stotty]

Film

John

Does film deteriorate over time?

In the 70's, I watched all the Wimbledon finals on TV. I could see the ball fine back then. These days, if the BBC do a replay of an old final, it's virtually impossible to follow the ball because the picture is grainy, and it's hard to distinguish the ball against the worn, brown grass.

As you are a rather good videographer, I thought you might be able to shed some light on the matter? Is it that the film quality simply deteriorates over time?

I watched Connors play Ashe in 1975 on TV and saw the ball fine. I watched a replay recently and could barely see a thing. Explain that one?

And, by the way, my own eye sight is fine...so I can't put it down to that.

[johnyandell]

Hadn't thought that far ahead. Working on portraits of several top men and women. But I am assuming you have someone in mind?

[lobndropshot]

Who do you plan on filming next year at Indian Wells?

[johnyandell]

Definitely! Start one!

[julian1]

A possible thread to start?

Mr Yandell,
the November issue has a subject
New in High Speed Archive:

Mardy Fish: Forehand Return
Is it possible to have a thread to discuss it?

[johnyandell]

Not a bad idea. But if you have an article you can submit it without a contest!