worldsbesttenniscoach in the house!...welcome back!

[don_budge]

Nikae, you are a good player for having played for so few years as you have.

You hit a lot of topspin forehands, so you must make sure that your forehand is good. But most coaches today, even the supposed most "expert" coahes on the pro tours & at elite tennis academies, teach inefficient technique for the topspin forehand. Today's pros on ATP & WTA, even the most highly ranked, often have gaping flaws in their topspin forehand groundstokes. So be careful not to automatically imitate what you see on TV.

It is important to be a skeptic, & think for yourself, as you learn the game......because "expert" coaches often promote wrong ideas. Tennis has aways been a poorly coached sport, & it still is.

On your forehand, you get the racket back too early, & you prepare too far back. I call that a backwards-set forehand, or a backwards-emphasis forehand. Many of the circuit pros have the same problem, which leads to inaccuracy & inconsistency. On a side view, there is a lot of motion behind your body towards the back wall, & very little motion towards the net. Your technique (& many pros' technique) on the forehand has a kink in it. In other words, you get the racket ball, then stop the racket, then try to get the racket started again. You must try for a more fluid continuous motion on your forehand, just as players must avoid kinks in their serves.

You need to set the racket out towards the net more, as the ball approaches. Oscar Wegner, at www.tennisteacher.com , can demonstrate to you how to track the ball better with your racket -- in other words, how to set your racket more properly, in preparation for the stroke.

If u set the racket as Wegner suggests, then you can swing all at once in a continuous motion, as opposed to the start-stop-start kink motion you now have.

Wegner's preparation will allow you to run behind the ball more in preparation for your stroke, as opposed to running from beside to the ball as you do now.
Wegner's preparation will encourage you to have a more compact, more powerful backswing, & allow the racket to flow foreward throught the ball more.

I notice a few more flaws in your game, but I suggest for now improving your forehand. I was teaching a preparation similar to Wegner's type of prep a long time before Wegner promoted his ideas. But at least Wegner is a good site for you to go to, to learn how to prepare the racket more properly, which in turn lead to better overall technique for you.

Most of the things Wegner says, I disagree with. But Wegner is correctly adamant about preparing the racket forward in tracking the ball. Today's dumb dumb coaches actually think it is wise to "track" the ball with the racket back.

"Experts" like Rick Macci & David Nainkin do a disservice to so many players by teaching the forehand improperly. Today's pros often have inconsistent forehands because they were taught wrong.

Interesting observations...as always.

Welcome back worldsbesttenniscoach. In all sincerity. I for one defend your right...your freedom to voice your opinions. Your thoughts. Your feelings.

Lovely to see you...The Moody Blues (1970)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DAMOlEsU578

A wonderful day for passing my way.
Knock and my door and even the score
With your eyes.

Lovely to see you again my friend.
Walk along with me to the next bend.

Dark cloud of fear is blowing away.
Now that you're here, you're going to stay
'cause it's

Lovely to see you again my friend.
Walk along with me to the next bend.

Tells us what you've seen in faraway forgotten lands.
Where empires have turned back to sand.

Wonderful day for passing my way.
Knock and my door and even the score
With your eyes.

Lovely to see you again my friend.
Walk along with me to the next bend.

I have missed your voice. We need voices. We need diversity of opinions. Tennis is a religion...where nothing is sacred. There are no sacred cows. Tennis is a platform for seeking healthy exercise and food for thought. A healthy lifestyle based on physical, intellectual, emotional and spiritual health is the order of the day. Let's talk. Can we talk? Yes...we can. No fear. No apologies.

There is the tendency these days to go along with the crowd. To adhere with what is politically correct. Dissenting views leave themselves open to be ostracized. Even on this forum there is a tendency to play it safe. To go with the flow. To play the "dog and pony show" game. That's ok too. It's all good. Guess what I think...there is beauty in chaos...of which order is born. The natural order of things.

Controversy is good. Dissenting views are healthy. This vanilla world has turned itself into such a murky quagmire in the short time that political correctness has been the rule of the day. I say fie on that. Fuck it! Let the fur fly! Let's get down to the bottom of things. Reduced to the lowest common denominator!

Today's world is quick to discount the wisdom of the past. The wisdom of those older than us. The computer has rendered the past just that...a thing of the past. Obsolete. A dangerous condition. Life threatening. Planet threatening. The end of all things. If you only knew.

So open up your minds. Open up your hearts. We have a dissenting voice in the house. Another one for that matter. Listen up. Read closely. Tell it everyone...just as you see it. State your case clearly...and don't be surprised to get another point of view...an opinion that doesn't fall lock step with yours. Don't be surprised if you even develop a nemesis. Don't be thin skinned!

This is one of the last vestiges of freedom here. TennisPlayer.net. Any infringement of anyones freedom is an infringement on mine...and yours for that matter. I can't live like that. I can't love like that. So have at it. Just remember everyone...it's one big boat. One big ship of fools. One big "Journey to the End of the Night". No one here gets out alive!

[bottle]

Great. I read the quote carefully and was quite blown away (is this because some calming time had passed?) until near the very end where wbc seems to take a shot at nbc and cbs and tc and atp in accusing Rick Macci of encouraging people to take racket too far around. That simply isn't true. Of course we have the benefit of Macci's videos where everything is about staying in the slot. These videos appeared at Tennis Player after the time when c was holding forth here a lot.

I agree with you about vanilla-milla but think maybe this is a case (c vs. Macci) where the two coaches are closer than alleged. c had to take a gratuitous shot at Oscar, too, which seems a compulsive habit among left-brainers everywhere. But he was really good right up to the Macci part.

Originally, I think, I was put off by the phrase "backward emphasis forehand." Or rather confused by it. We'd do well to remember that c is an "educationist."

And educationists, overly subject to abstraction, are very apt to coin some phrase that says too much or too little.

[worldsbesttenniscoach]

Macci's "in the slot" approach is destroying forehands at all levels

[GeoffWilliams]

Becker, Joker, and many others have backward emphasized forehands. The flip or snap back fh, as I call it, is the main reason why men have more rpms than the women who do not have the type III. The women can hit for pace, with their huge rigid back swings, but do not snap back in front. Henin was an exception, but Stosur's shot is too top spinny, like Roddick's bh, too little time on the ball.

[bottle]

I'm totally confused. Who is arguing for what? And who is a m--- f---?

[bowt]

Rick Maccis video/articles on the forehand are fantastic

you look at this video

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JYYc-bn5vz4

and the guy that oscar uses to demonstrate how to hit a forehand or something is an absolute spastic hitting the ball the same way a girl does after what turn he has going completely behind the body

[bottle]

bot to bowt

Well, you can hope you don't have to play that guy. But I can see your point in concentrating on a student. That way you can better ignore the teacher and what he is saying. The speed of sound is going up anyways.

[bottle]

bot to bowt

Thanks for introducing your video to an imaginary discussion apt never to happen since people don't like the really interesting stuff and are basically idea-phobic.

So I don't expect to see anyone discuss this in a personality-free way any time soon-- as pure idea-- but will be very pleased if someone does.

This is definitely a backward emphasis forehand.

The racket goes WAY forward.

The body rotates WAY around ("backward emphasis").

As the strings whip sideways.

And who cares if there wasn't gargantuan rotation of the shoulders to set the whole shebang up.

I'm a tennis player so I'll do that any time I want, i.e., change the arrangement to hit through the ball more.

However, on watching the video a few times again, I'd have to say the guy does turn his shoulders back quite far and quite well. (Let's not let our preconceptions take over.)

But the racket might be farther around, in preparation, than I would like. Or am I thinking of a different shot? Will be out of town for four days but hope to try this shot (as shown in the bowtian video) very soon.