Have a Question for Me?

[johnyandell]

If you have something specific to ask me, this is the place! I will try to respond to all posts.

I want to know what you think of the site and what you think I should do more of, less of, or differently. If you really like it, I won't mind hearing that either. I get a lot of my best ideas by listening, so start talking...

If you have technical questions, you can ask and I'll do my best to help. BUT as it says in the overview of Your Strokes, I'm not sure that this type of detailed, purely verbal technical discussion is always productive. In fact, I'm concerned that pontificating at length in response to written questions is often--or even usually--counterproductive.

Why? Because I believe that seeing is the basis for understanding when it comes to tennis. So don't be too upset if I express my honest reluctance to answer at length when I'm not really sure what I am talking about. That's why we created Your Strokes in the first place--so myself and the rest of the staff can actually see what you guys are talking about.

We're starting off with one subscriber stroke a month in Your Strokes. If it really takes off, we can always expand that--we can also post images here in the Forum if people make them available in the right format and size.

I hope we'll get a lot of other knowledgable people commenting as well!

[jayfro]

Hi,


I love the site and think it trumps the old site you were with by a huge margin. My question is this. Will we ever be able to do a frame by frame printing of pro strokes? I'm very interested in having 30 frame sequences that I can print off of different pro strokes. It would help the learning process greatly and be a major help to me in my teaching. Thank you.


JayFro

[johnyandell]

Printing Sequences

Jay,

Great that you like it and I will have to agree with you about the "other" site. The answer to your other question is YES, but you have to have Quick Tim Pro. It's well worth it because you can edit in it, and more importantly, right click and download ANY clip on the site. Once you have it on your hard drive select export from file and export it to an image sequence. That's it! I plan to explain all this in more detail but I thought I'd let people get a little used to the site first.
John

[vmiller]

I want to know what you think of the site and what you think I should do more of, less of, or differently. If you really like it, I won't mind hearing that either. I get a lot of my best ideas by listening, so start talking...

Ok, if you insist.

I like the detailed analysis that you provide and the practical recommendations that you give. For example, what makes a stroke effective, efficient, and keeps it from breaking down under pressure.

The 'Myth of the Tennis Tip' hits home. I am interested in learning more about the feel/vision approach to developing strokes. Being very analtytical and detail oriented helps me to understand a lot about technique, but I think it does me more harm than good on court.

I think this forum is a great idea. I think being able to ask you and the other authors questions about the articles will make them much more useful and effective.

Most of all, I hope your writing will continue to be a significant part of the site. You have some great authors contributing that I'd like to continue reading more content from, but I think that's a bonus rather than the main draw of the site. One of the things I don't like about TennisONE is that there is little or no common perspective. It's almost like going to a different teaching pro every time you take a lesson - too much varying information, a different teaching style to adapt to, and little hope of learning the instructors core beliefs that inspire his or her teaching.

Hope that helps.

[johnyandell]

Thanks Vin. The inspiration I needed to head to a coffee and wrok on that Federer FH article.

Agree also about the Forum. At least here there will be notable and credible people disagreeing... but seriously it is a huge problem because the amount of conflicting info is overwhelming. I use this sometimes to spur my own thinking, but I still can't make even my good friends and fellow contributors agree with me all the time...

But more better info and a place to talk about it--it's a start...

[jayfro]

John,


Thank you for the reply to my question, it's great when someone responsible for the site actually replies to questions that you have as a member. It shows that you actually care about those subscribing and that it's not just about the money like it is at a another not to be mentioned site


I have a couple of questions some of which you might not be able to answer until the next issue of tennisplayer is available.

#1 Does federer use an educated use of the wrist on his forehand? If so does it actually add ball speed to his forehand?

#2 Any chance videos of Fernando Gonzalez will be available in the next few months on this site? I'm very interested in seeing his forehand frame by frame and I want to analyze his follow through. He seems to consistantly have one of the lowest forehand follow throughs in the game.

#3 I think a cool thing to do would be to get video of Donald Young and five years from now film him again to compare any technical changes in his game.

#4 Do you work at all with the USTA high performance program? If so do you provide them with video work and analysis for junior players?

#5 It's my belief that Tour coaches or USTA coaches are teaching this low forehand follow through to top junior players such as Donald Young and other players that I won't mention. Do you think this is the right thing to do? It seems as though it's being taught in a way where they don't reach the universal finish position. Do you think this is just an evolution in the technique or just a better way to hit the forehand?

#6 As a teaching pro I've been teaching this low follow through position as well as the traditional, and reverse forehand finishes. I notice that some coaches are teaching the low follow through without signifcant lift of the ball, is this incorrect? Would this technique work if you started under the ball enough? As a general rule I try to teach the universal position on the forehand besides shortballs and inside out forehands. I just hope I'm doing the right thing and helping my students as much as possible.

#7 Any chance you guys can get access to the tornado cam used at Wimbledon and the US Open last year? I have some of the Wimbledon clips saved on my computer and the 500fps and 1000fps clips are amazing. You can see literally everything in excellent detail.

Thank you for reading and responding to any of these questions.


JayFro

[johnyandell]

Jay!

These are good questions!
1. I'm getting into that next month--not sure I really understand BBs term though.
2. Yes--we'll add Gonzo in the next few months! Horrible backswing!
3. I filmed Donald's first match, so that's one part of it...
4. Yes, from time to time. I've filmed a dozens of players for Elliot T. All the high performance coaches have our high speed DVDS. Bobby Bernstein now films directly for high performance and has a great Dartfish expertise.
5. Can't say what the majority of teachers are doing--but I do know several high performance coaches who are personally shocked and saddened by the lack of extension and the size of the backswings of so many juniors--kind of ruined for life...
6. Yeah I think you're right. But you do want to distinguish between extension, finish and wrap. The extreme grips will naturally turn over more--sometimes finishing lower and across, but you can do it with a classic type grip too as Federer has proved. There are probably 7 different versions of the forehand--according to Brett Hobden anyway. More later.
7. We'll be putting more high speed video on the site. The problem with the cameras you mention is that you can't pile up footage. They take one shot put it to tape and then erase it. You can only get a few shots here and there. Our tape based system is great though at 250 frames/sec.

[richberman]

John,
Wonderful site in general and a fantastic site for teaching. Very easy to use, large clearn photo, and convenient going from video to video.
Well done and thanks from an old tennis pro.
Rich Berman

[johnyandell]

May I quote you?

[lefty_riosyeung]

Hi John,

Good Day! This is my first message on this forum I really like your Buidling the Modern Forehand series, especially the captured pictures of pro strokes for comparsion purpose. It helps me understand the individual aspect of say, forehand. Reading your as well as other famous coach's comments keep reminding myself (also reinforcing a vitrual image & feel) of how to hit a better stroke, I really like that. I'll keep posting.

Just one question now, is there any chance to include Marcelo Rios' strokes in Strokes Archives? Not just because he is my favorite player, but I think his strokes are really smooth and effortless, just like those produced by Roger Feder and Marat Safin. Also, because he's a lefty, by looking at his front image, I'm not sure if it can provide a different prespective or insight for a right handed player to execute what he or she has learnt rom viewing those mirror image of a right handed pro (sorry for me poor english, hope you understand what I mean) Too bad he retired

Thanks, Dennis

[richberman]

thank you

John, I just read Allen Fox's articles about the former 'greats' and I truly loved it. Can't wait to see your site continue to improve.
Thanks again, rich berman

[johnyandell]

Dennis,

Thanks for the feedback! There are a couple of backhand clips in the Myth series of articles for Rios, but as you noted, no, since he has retired we have not been able to film him. It's too bad really--there are quite a few other players I would love to have--Graf and Edberg for example. If he ever plays senior events we'll try for that--have you seen the Backer footage by the way?

John

[johnyandell]

Rich,

Really glad to hear that. Those articles are truly gems. The one I'm still trying to get out of him was playing Connors--Allen used to kick the crap out of him when he was a kid coming up... But I do have one on that same subject coming up from Trey Waltke who grew up with him in St. Louis and it's very interesting regarding the family, and what Jimmy was like as a kid...

John

[gzhpcu]

John,
Thanks for this great site! Finally a serious and analytical approach to stroke analysis! I have an old tennis book, written in the 70's, which shows the coordinates for thetoss/ mpact point on the serve, for first and second serves for the major players. Have you ever thought of doing anything similar?
Regards,
Phil

[johnyandell]

Phil,

Great question! And yes. We have down a pilot 3D study with college players that allows us to quantify all that. We would love to put it in play with pro players--but the cost is high. We will probably have to wait for new technologies to really quantify what's going on down to the inch--which I would like to do, very much.

What's that book of yours? I'd like to find a copy it sounds really interesting.

Regards,
John