Top American Juniors

[johnyandell]

So here are the top boys in three divisions from the Easter Bowl:

http://www.tennisplayer.net/members/future_stars/future_stars.html

Check out the winners (and others!) and tell us what you think!

Boys14s Connor Hance
Boys 16s Sameer Kumar
Boys 18s Gage Brymer

[dimitrios]

The only one of these three I saw this year at the Easter Bowl was Kumar. (Spent a lot of time watching two remarkable young ladies: Maya Hibi and Tornado Black.) Great mover, remarkable poise. As I recall (though it's not evident in the footage here), he sliced an awful lot off both wings, no?

[johnyandell]

Can't remember--could be. Girls are next month!

[kwilkinson]

great to see. hope they are hungry enough to get to number 1.
unfortunately tennis in the usa is hindered by the fact that it is a secondary or tertiary sport behind football, basketball, baseball and sometimes soccer.

as a result, i think we end up with a lot of 'tennis players' in our sport rather than athletes. now that the concussion issues in football and soccer are coming to the fore, perhaps we will find more athletes coming into our sport which will give us a better chance to stay dominant in the sport for years to come.

[stotty]

The game has always been a middle class sport, hockeyscout. It is now and it was way back when. That said, the Murray family weren't that rich. The mother is a good coach who made shrewd decisions and knew the right avenues to send her son down. The financial decisions had to be and were shrewd.

Many people rant about the state of their nation's tennis. I agree about hot spots and how things can perpetuate once you get on a cycle of success. But it's hard to purposely create it. It tends to kind of happen because all the cards fall in to the right place, along with other ineffable factors that I haven't fathomed myself yet. If it was that easy, we would all be doing it. One thing for sure it that blaming resolves nothing. I can guarantee you that.

[hockeyscout]

You know, I wonder why they haven't consulted old man Agassi, Williams and Sharapova? It's funny how no one listens to the most successful people. I'd bet if you put those three parents in charge of a tennis academy, budgeted them $1,000,000 a year they'd instantly create a hot spot of athletic talent.

[hockeyscout]

Middle class sport? In the 80's? I'd say tennis costs have sky rocketed!

[dyayo79]

I see a lot of beat up forehands with poor technique.

[johnyandell]

OK elaborate.

[stotty]

So here are the top boys in three divisions from the Easter Bowl:

http://www.tennisplayer.net/members/future_stars/future_stars.html

Check out the winners (and others!) and tell us what you think!

Boys14s Connor Hance
Boys 16s Sameer Kumar
Boys 18s Gage Brymer

I couldn't find Brymer in there, but the other two winners look decent. Sameer has an odd forehand in the way he supports the head of the racket (rather than the throat) with his left hand to initiate the backswing. Why a player would do this seems strange.

A lot of the boys seem to have well produced shots but it's hard to get a real feel for the players from such short clips. I assume most of the kids who take part must be a decent standard?

[johnyandell]

It's the top American juniors--prestigious to even play it... Gage disappeared! Good catch i will look into that.

[stotty]

It's the top American juniors--prestigious to even play it... Gage disappeared! Good catch i will look into that.

Be great if you can dig out the Gage Brymer clip.

I've looked through many of the clips and found many impressive forehands and backhands. Many of the boys have nice swing shapes and seem to be hitting the key positions. As a coach you can only do so much with kids, then just hope their innate ability and other qualities will pull them through.

It's really interesting for me to view the clips because I can relate them to the better boys and girls that I teach. The clips act as great reference points in this respect.

[johnyandell]

Agreed. They give an overview of the technical state of American junior tennis.

We also have a reference for a few of the emerging young pros from their junior days. Jack Sock for example.

http://www.tennisplayer.net/members/future_stars/easter_bowl/2008/boys/16s/easter_2008_16s.html?JackSockB16b-001-0001_Tennisplayer440.mov

[tennis_chiro]

Agreed. They give an overview of the technical state of American junior tennis.

We also have a reference for a few of the emerging young pros from their junior days. Jack Sock for example.

http://www.tennisplayer.net/members/...splayer440.mov

Check the footwork on that Sock forehand. Right foot never gets parallel to the baseline and he has very little hip and shoulder turn. It seems to me he has changed that and has a lot more body in his forehand now, but I don't have a clip. He certainly doesn't seem to lack for power, but perhaps such an underlying deficiency has contributed to his lack of consistency.

don

[stotty]

The young Jack Sock

Check the footwork on that Sock forehand. Right foot never gets parallel to the baseline and he has very little hip and shoulder turn. It seems to me he has changed that and has a lot more body in his forehand now, but I don't have a clip. He certainly doesn't seem to lack for power, but perhaps such an underlying deficiency has contributed to his lack of consistency.

don

The forehand of the junior Jack Sock certainly isn't too flattering. His stance is much too square and narrow. From what I have seen of the current day Jack Sock, things look better...but even now he can be seen hitting off a square (open stance) stance and his feet too close together. Old habits die hard it seems. Murray is also too open on his forehand sometimes.

I love players to have a wide base with their feet. Nadal and Djokovic are superb in this respect. They can hit real hard and stay on balance. All top players seem to have great forehands and backhands, don't they? Beyond this it's all about balance and getting in position...setting up well.