Have a Question for Me?

[bottle]

In This One...

Swung elbow carries all (upper arm, lower arm) with big wipe only chiming in on contact or a fraction before. Everything goes into egging the ball?

[leonmelideotennisfanatic]

I went to Shanghai in October and was in the stadium for the men's quarterfinal matches. I had great seats and witnessed Novak competing against Tomic. Yes he does hit his fh as you described but his follow though about 90 percent of the time was completed with his racquet face closer to Connors' at completion than Roger's.

Yes , he does need to close his racquet face more than Jimmy because his ball control would be absent as a result of all the racquet speed. As I mentioned , I couldn't believe how he would basically not close the racquet face anywhere near the degree of the top players.

I had only seen Novak play live once before and that was when he played Nadal at the us open. That was Nadal 's initial us open win . My seats were I think 5 or six rows from the court. I never was concerned with how he hit the ball that day . I was enjoying the experience of seating at court level.

[eaglesburg]

http://youtu.be/hDkE1huKhq8

Is this backswing enough to the outside? To me it looks almost like a mesh of staying to the outside and going behind the body...

[johnyandell]

Not the ideal view for that but it doesn't look like it goes behind you much if it does. What is interesting is how the racket tip points straight up as it goes back. Most players have the tip pointing lower either forward or backward.

[gzhpcu]

John, I was watching Thiem play, and saw that the follow through of his serve often finished to the right of his body, like Stosur's. Looking at the Gonzalez - Pasarell match, I saw that Pancho often did this too. Sampras does it often also. The follow through is therefore rather short. They are hitting topspin/slice serves. What are your views on this type of a finish, as opposed to finishing long and off to the left of the body? Thanks.

[stroke]

John, I was watching Thiem play, and saw that the follow through of his serve often finished to the right of his body, like Stosur's. Looking at the Gonzalez - Pasarell match, I saw that Pancho often did this too. Sampras does it often also. The follow through is therefore rather short. They are hitting topspin/slice serves. What are your views on this type of a finish, as opposed to finishing long and off to the left of the body? Thanks.

I watched that match too. What was interesting to me, and the annoucers mentioned it also, was the clearly more noticeable kick on Thiem's kick serve than Almagro, who is known for his very good kick serve. Thiem really has a beautiful serve motion, as does Almagro.

[johnyandell]

Phil, Stroke,
Good question! In general that finish is pretty rare--didn't see the match but even Sampras finished fully on the right side only occasionally.
I see it this way. The completion of the hand and arm rotation (so called pronation) is the extension of the stroke--similar to the extension point on the forehand before the wrap.
Depending on the path to the extension, the followthrough can differ as the arm relaxes and falls. I would not try to make this happen. If you are hitting extreme kicks it might.

[gzhpcu]

John, so would that result automatically from an extreme inside-out hitting action on the serve? (Coupled with tossing the ball way to the left)?

[johnyandell]

That's what I think. Look how fluid this looks:

http://www.tennisplayer.net/members/strokearchive/pro_men/petesampras/ps_serve/ps_serve_armaction/ps_serve_armaction.html?PS2ndSAdArmActionCourtLevelFront.mov

[gzhpcu]

John, any chance of getting Thiem footage at Indian Wells?

[johnyandell]

Phil,

There is some great film of his backhand in the Forum. Due to the changes in the ATP rules though our next filming opportunity is going to be in Montreal. He is on my list and near the top! Might put a few more clips I have up in the meantime.

http://www.tennisplayer.net/bulletin/showthread.php?t=2626

[gzhpcu]

Thanks John...

[johnyandell]

I'll be doing some explanations about the state of the study of the game--stay tuned...

[gzhpcu]

John, to get the racket drop to the side on the serve, do you just let the racket drop, or knowingly supinate? Thanks

[johnyandell]

Good question. If the backswing is more circular the feeling of drop I think, But more abbreviated requires more rotation of the upper arm.