Juan Martin Del Potro Training

[klacr]

Looks like Juan Martin Del Potro is gearing up for a big 2014 season. Some good training exercises highlighted here. Can he plant his feet firmly into the top 4 this year?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2G-76QbaAy8


Kyle LaCroix USPTA
Boca Raton

[tennis_chiro]

Looks like he is working hard. He doesn't need to be any stronger. But he needs strength to protect him from injury. No tennis player should do any running on the court attached to a resistance band; carry some scuba weights to add stress perhaps, but a tennis player has to move with perfect balance; not possible when you are pulling against resistance. Delpo needs endurance to maintain his service speed over 130 for 1st serves and 110 for 2nd's. And he should be really accurate and consistent at 125; he tends to drop down a little too far to achieve his 70% 1st serve percentage.

I'd be having him do 70 to 80 % of his fitness work or at least his footwork related fitness work on agility, quickness, change of direction. If he got a little better there, it would make a big difference. He covers a lot of court already and has made himself a very tough "out" in the majors. A little more endurance and quickness could go a long way. More consistency and accuracy, yes. But more power doesn't matter to him. And he won't get it with bigger muscles anyway. I'd like to see him playing "futsal" for fitness although that might be a little too dangerous for his ankles and knees.

Definitely, he should be the next guy into the top 4. I'd say if he had Kyle LaCroix encouraging to take more advantage with transition of the great openings he creates, he'd be a lock for the top 4. His body has really changed over the last few years and if he can avoid the injuries that have sidelined him so often over that time, he has to be the best candidate to challenge Nadal/Djokovic/Murray. If he is really working that hard for more than a few token minutes a day, he should have a great year. His apparent long term approach and attitude have improved him each year.

Kyle's favorite seems to still have the yips on his forehand when he needs it. Tsonga is getting too old. If Janowicz is doing the kind of work we see in that video and his back is back to 100%, he could be the other threat, but he seems to keep getting injured and you wonder if he is really listening to anyone who can guide him correctly. Ferrer has reached his limit and changing coaches is going to be very tough for him. Wawrinka might threaten, but he's going to need a Spock-like mind meld with someone who is comfortable on the big stage; that's asking a lot. Raonic seems too languid to me; his serve is better than Delpo's, but the backhand is a liability and he seems even slower than Delpo; he is younger though; perhaps in two years he could develop the backhand and a little better movement around the court and the serve could hide that backhand awfully well; but the return off the backhand would still be too much of a liability; definitely could be a top 10 player, but breaking into this top 4 is another matter.

Davin seems to be leading Delpo on a very good course. As long as he doesn't think he is going to outsteady the top 3! But he could overpower anyone. I'd love to see the full workout and see how much of all these drills Delpo is actually doing day in and day out when he is in training and how much of it he does when he is on tour. Because he needs more than to do it a few weeks at the beginning of the season; he needs to work all year to get faster and quicker and more nimble. Then anything is possible.

don

[stotty]

Well, he is certainly very well built. He must be really strong. He is cumbersome, though, compared even to some amateur players. This is where Jerzy is so exceptional. It's one thing to be 6' 6" and quite another to lug a frame like that around.

I like the way he builds up the left as well as the right side when he trains....what do they call that...bilateral transfer? I remember the Germans during the Graf/Becker era were big on that.

[klacr]

Del Potro is a tall glass of water. The pros still far outweigh the cons if you're this size. You can't teach being 6'6". If a player of his size remains healthy and works on their explosiveness, they can achieve some great things. The natural strength will always be there with some consistent maintenance. The real challenge is getting that body to jump off the mark quickly and smoothly. It's usually a bit awkward when that surge begins and then becomes smoother over the course of the distance being covered.

The great advantage of someone like Del Potro is that wingspan. Whatever a tall player may lack in the foot speed department he can be rest assured he can make up for some, but certainly not all, in his reach. My fellow professionals that I play with on occasion have given me the reluctant nickname of "The Albatross".

For Del Potro, I'd certainly love to see him move in more often. tennis_chiro is spot on with my opinion of the big Argentine. He gets a very large amount of floating balls and is the perfect candidate for taking that baseline game and moving it forward to the net. It's not in his DNA but if he wants to break into that top 4, he will have to find that new dimension in his game to make a few points shorter. Don't like his chances grinding on the baseline against the likes of Nadal, Djokovic, Murray or even Federer consistently in a best of 5 match.

Kyle "Albatross" LaCroix
Boca Raton

[dimitrios]

Delpo strikes more fear into the Big Four than any player on the tour. (Though I would say that Raonic is not far off.) Before his injury he was on the verge of breaking into that elite club.

The issue that seemed to plague him most this last year was his fitness. Amazing how important one's physical fitness is to one's mental strength. Djokovic and Ferrer and of course Rafa are perfect examples of players whose incredible level of physical fitness gives them the mental strength necessary late in matches to be great when it matters most.

Delpo was lacking that this last year and he'll need it in spades if he wants to take his game any further.

[GeoffWilliams]

Fear factor: Raonic/Delpo/Janowitz. You can see the fear against those guys.

[tennis_chiro]

Delpo at number 3 after Miami at the latest, probably after Australian

Looks like he is working hard. He doesn't need to be any stronger. But he needs strength to protect him from injury. No tennis player should do any running on the court attached to a resistance band; carry some scuba weights to add stress perhaps, but a tennis player has to move with perfect balance; not possible when you are pulling against resistance. Delpo needs endurance to maintain his service speed over 130 for 1st serves and 110 for 2nd's. And he should be really accurate and consistent at 125; he tends to drop down a little too far to achieve his 70% 1st serve percentage.

I'd be having him do 70 to 80 % of his fitness work or at least his footwork related fitness work on agility, quickness, change of direction. If he got a little better there, it would make a big difference. He covers a lot of court already and has made himself a very tough "out" in the majors. A little more endurance and quickness could go a long way. More consistency and accuracy, yes. But more power doesn't matter to him. And he won't get it with bigger muscles anyway. I'd like to see him playing "futsal" for fitness although that might be a little too dangerous for his ankles and knees.

Definitely, he should be the next guy into the top 4. I'd say if he had Kyle LaCroix encouraging to take more advantage with transition of the great openings he creates, he'd be a lock for the top 4. His body has really changed over the last few years and if he can avoid the injuries that have sidelined him so often over that time, he has to be the best candidate to challenge Nadal/Djokovic/Murray. If he is really working that hard for more than a few token minutes a day, he should have a great year. His apparent long term approach and attitude have improved him each year.

Kyle's favorite seems to still have the yips on his forehand when he needs it. Tsonga is getting too old. If Janowicz is doing the kind of work we see in that video and his back is back to 100%, he could be the other threat, but he seems to keep getting injured and you wonder if he is really listening to anyone who can guide him correctly. Ferrer has reached his limit and changing coaches is going to be very tough for him. Wawrinka might threaten, but he's going to need a Spock-like mind meld with someone who is comfortable on the big stage; that's asking a lot. Raonic seems too languid to me; his serve is better than Delpo's, but the backhand is a liability and he seems even slower than Delpo; he is younger though; perhaps in two years he could develop the backhand and a little better movement around the court and the serve could hide that backhand awfully well; but the return off the backhand would still be too much of a liability; definitely could be a top 10 player, but breaking into this top 4 is another matter.

Davin seems to be leading Delpo on a very good course. As long as he doesn't think he is going to outsteady the top 3! But he could overpower anyone. I'd love to see the full workout and see how much of all these drills Delpo is actually doing day in and day out when he is in training and how much of it he does when he is on tour. Because he needs more than to do it a few weeks at the beginning of the season; he needs to work all year to get faster and quicker and more nimble. Then anything is possible.

don

Just looked over the points to be defended at Australian, Indian Wells and Miami plus the other stuff until the end of March: Delpo has about 1000 less points to defend than Murray or Ferrer. If he is as healthy as he looks in this fitness video, he should be ready to make up the deficit he has to those two. Ferrer(5800), Murray(5560) and Del Potro(5255). Ferrer has to defend winning this week in Aukland, winning in Buenos Aires, finals in Acapulco, finals in Miami and semis in the Australian. Tough to repeat. Murray has to defend finals in Australian and winning Miami. On the other hand, while Del Potro did final at Indian Wells and win Rotterdam, he picked up just 100 points combined for Miami and the Aussie Open; and he can replace his 180 points from Dubai with a good showing this week in Aukland. If he shows he's in good form this week in Aukland, I'll pick him to move into third by the end of March at the latest and maybe after just the Australian. I can't see Murray making finals again so soon in his comeback and even a semis almost guarantees Del Potro will pass him. Ferrer may take him the hard court events at Indian Wells and Miami, but I think Del Potro is a pretty good bet by the time the clay court season starts in April; and the improved ranking will help him in Monte Carlo, Madrid and Rome where he has little to defend.

This is the season Del Potro arrives. He still has yet to win a single ATP1000, much less another GS besides that first US Open in 2009, but in the next couple of months at the latest he moves to perhaps not the actual head of the class, but the head of the class after Nadal and Djokovic, who are in a separate class by themselves at this point.

don

[tennis_chiro]

One other point: the service motion

I don't think I'm imagining it, but I think I see a change in the Delpo service backswing. He used to take the elbow much too high before the racket drop, but I noticed it just barely in this training video. The serve sequence is at 41 seconds in. Compare the height of his elbow with that of one of our sequences in the stroke archive.

http://www.tennisplayer.net/members/strokearchive/pro_men/juan_martin_del_potro/jmd_serve/jmd_1st_serve/jmd_1st_serve.html?JMD1stSDeuceSide1.mov

Even here, his service motion is much improved from what he did just a few years ago, but you can see that the elbow and upper arm rise just slightly above the line of his shoulders/clavicles/collar bones.

In the attached training video at 41 seconds

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2G-76QbaAy8

I think I see a difference and an improvement which is going to pay big dividends for Juan Martin this year. From this position it will be easier for him to "hyperpronate" out wide to the ad court or pound the T in the deuce court with a flat serve and also break it off wide with a slice the way Federer was doing so well this last weekend. (BTW, there is no such thing as "hyperpronate", but it felt like it when I used to be able to do it albeit from a half foot lower than Delpo).

Anyone else see this? You have to be a little bit of a technique maven to get into this. I'm really curious what you guys think.

don

[stotty]

Well spotted...

I don't think I'm imagining it, but I think I see a change in the Delpo service backswing. He used to take the elbow much too high before the racket drop, but I noticed it just barely in this training video. The serve sequence is at 41 seconds in. Compare the height of his elbow with that of one of our sequences in the stroke archive.

http://www.tennisplayer.net/members/strokearchive/pro_men/juan_martin_del_potro/jmd_serve/jmd_1st_serve/jmd_1st_serve.html?JMD1stSDeuceSide1.mov

Even here, his service motion is much improved from what he did just a few years ago, but you can see that the elbow and upper arm rise just slightly above the line of his shoulders/clavicles/collar bones.

In the attached training video at 41 seconds

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2G-76QbaAy8

I think I see a difference and an improvement which is going to pay big dividends for Juan Martin this year. From this position it will be easier for him to "hyperpronate" out wide to the ad court or pound the T in the deuce court with a flat serve and also break it off wide with a slice the way Federer was doing so well this last weekend. (BTW, there is no such thing as "hyperpronate", but it felt like it when I used to be able to do it albeit from a half foot lower than Delpo).

Anyone else see this? You have to be a little bit of a technique maven to get into this. I'm really curious what you guys think.

don

I agree. The angle of the cameras could have a little to do with it but otherwise there is a clear change. The elbow sits just below the shoulder line rather than just above compared to the archive clip. That is an improvement in my book. I hope Murray will do the same. It makes for a more powerful serve you would think...and if, as you suggest, it will help him serve wide, this will be a significant weapon when he plays Nadal.

Well spotted...