Trying to simplify my strokes

[lukman41985]

Hi John,
You may know me as SingleHanded&LovinIt from the Talk Tennis Message Boards at Tennis Warehouse. I just got my membership. The site looks amazing. If you don't mind, I'd like to discuss with you a new approach I'm taking with my strokes. I'd like for you to do the best you can, given the fact we're TALKING about tennis, to evaluate whether or not my approach sounds correct. Right now, I'm really trying to simplify my strokes. On both my forehand and backhand, I start from the ready position and make the unit turn while switching to my grip (which on my forehand is almost a semi-western and on the backhand is a bottom hand continental, top hand almost a semi-western). All I try to do is to turn my shoulders and get my feet in position. My arms simply come along with the turn, they do not move independently. The only motion I try to have with my hitting arm is to get the racquet lower than the ball if I want to hit with topspin or at the level of the ball if I want to hit flat; for slice I start slightly over the ball. So when hitting topspin, I get the racquet under the ball and as I approach the point of contact, I simply turn my body though the shot, my arm still just going along for the ride. I'm really not trying to windshield wipe, pronate the forearm, punch with the shoulder, extend the arm, any of that; I just keep my arms relaxed. I think this way of stroking the ball will create a lot of consistency, but right now, I'm not in good enough shape to handle all this rotation so I sometimes struggle to achieve the correct point of contact. Judging from my grip, can you say what the correct point of contact should be for my forehand and backhand? Thanksfully, the Physical Training segment of the site is there to help me get in shape. But could you just evaluate my approach please?

Thanks so much. Great work on the site!

[johnyandell]

Approach

Luk,
What you wrote sounds pretty good. That is the caveat, however, the word "sounds..." In my humble opinion you guys waste a ton of air at TW because despite all the wonderful, honest passion and info, no body ever knows what anyone else is really talking about unless they post video.
In the Forums here, we have the capacity to do that directly into the messages, and I'll be putting up some directions soon. Your descritpion of the turns sounds good, but it sounds like everything is pretty free form.

If you look at the Commonalities article on the modern forehand, you will see that I believe that theory counts for a lot less than positions. If you make the key positions then the theory works naturally... I don't think it helps to think about prestretching and loading and all these trendy terms--where is your body when--that's what matters.

When you give your grip descriptions they are just too vague. But if you can match your grip to Agassi or Roddick or whomever, then you can create model positions using the video. Get where I'm going with this?
The next point is that when you are dealing with visual models you need to process this info as internal mental pictures and feelings. You can previsualize these elements in actual play, whereas if you start to think it thru in words you are dead, dead, dead.

So let's get some video clips starting with your forehand only. And please get a good miniDV camera with a sports shutter and fill up the frame with the body and the stroke--not a lot of dead air. Once we have that we can actually do some work! Sound good?

[lukman41985]

Thanks for your reply John,

I'm going to echo what Mahboob Khan said on the TT Message Board: It'd be great to see up-close pictures of the pros with their grips. The grip is obviously critical because it is the only part of our bodies that touched the racquet.

I'm going to try to record my strokes, however I don't think I own the required camera. Fortunately, as a student of Emory University, I'm pretty sure I have access to all the great film equipment that the Film Department has. I'm keeping my fingers crossed.