The correct model for serve and volley ...

[hockeyscout]

Who is the ideal player to model after in this regards? The best, # 1 and do you have a link to solid footage? Preferably a wood racket era player where you could not get away with bad footwork, positioning, taking the ball late and all the rest of the cool things you can do with these great rackets.

[hockeyscout]

Pancho for instance I cannot find much footage except for one volley here on tennisplayer.net

Macci article:

http://www.tennisplayer.net/members/high_performance/rick_macci/the_new_volley_paradigm/the_new_volley_paradigm.html

[klacr]

Who is the ideal player to model after in this regards? The best, # 1 and do you have a link to solid footage? Preferably a wood racket era player where you could not get away with bad footwork, positioning, taking the ball late and all the rest of the cool things you can do with these great rackets.

Tony Roche, Rod Laver, Roy Emerson?

Sorry, I'm not as familiar with this era of tennis as I would like to be. Tough to remember the 50's, 60's and 70's when you were born in the 80's.

John McEnroe may be another good example as he began his career with a wooden racquet and did pretty well with it.

If you are looking for pure technique and great footwork no matter the era...then take a look at Stefan Edberg.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AvO5Wh33icc

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V_adIBhH7wA


Kyle LaCroix USPTA
Boca Raton

[johnyandell]

Look in the Stroke Archives. Rusedski. Rafter. Henman. Sampras. Mirnyi. Dent. Among others. Tons of great sequences.

[hockeyscout]

Look in the Stroke Archives. Rusedski. Rafter. Henman. Sampras. Mirnyi. Dent. Among others. Tons of great sequences.

Perfect, we will look at those six especially.

[GeoffWilliams]

Sampras had the best serve for sv, as he was only about 6'1", and still hit about 1,000 aces/yr. while coming in on everything. Edberg had the best volley, and all he had was the kick serve, and his split step while coming into the net at the service line was the lowest/ in history, which allowed a greater lateral movement with more ground coverage available in one lung step due to his 90 degree bent knees and wide split.

[hockeyscout]

Sampras had the best serve for sv, as he was only about 6'1", and still hit about 1,000 aces/yr. while coming in on everything. Edberg had the best volley, and all he had was the kick serve, and his split step while coming into the net at the service line was the lowest/ in history, which allowed a greater lateral movement with more ground coverage available in one lung step due to his 90 degree bent knees and wide split.

Thanks Geoff

[klacr]

Look in the Stroke Archives. Rusedski. Rafter. Henman. Sampras. Mirnyi. Dent. Among others. Tons of great sequences.

Hockeyscout,

Not sure if one player is perfect in every single facet of serve an volley to your liking, but take the players John mentioned and pick out their best attributes. Sampras Serve, Rafter half-volley, Henman forehand volley, Mirnyi overhead etc.

Kyle LaCroix USPTA
Boca Raton

[hockeyscout]

Hockeyscout,

Not sure if one player is perfect in every single facet of serve an volley to your liking, but take the players John mentioned and pick out their best attributes. Sampras Serve, Rafter half-volley, Henman forehand volley, Mirnyi overhead etc.

Kyle LaCroix USPTA
Boca Raton

WOW!!!!! Geoff and Kyle hit the nail on the head with Edberg. Perfect. Hip positioning is all I care about, the rest will come. That's the model. .

[gzhpcu]

I always liked the perspective in this video:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NkPi7Ql6j-c

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q0dgmQir4-o

[hockeyscout]

I always liked the perspective in this video:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NkPi7Ql6j-c

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q0dgmQir4-o

Great, this is all such a big help! Love the foundations these old time Swedes have (and German's). I bet those kids walked to school, sat correctly in their chairs, played hard all day and had great environments unlike today! We had this conversation today about why I have chosen to stay in the village this long and not take other offers to go to Kiev, or Europe. Well, for now the environment is super, courts next to the house, judo next to the house, you don't need a car, fresh village food, no schedules (court time always tough to come by), noise, hype, expectations and well, everyone has time for you, and knows you inside and out which is good in athletic development. A real TEAM SETTING where everyone is kind of forced to work with each other, because, in reality you will live and work by the same people for the rest of your life, and everyone knows everyone else. Its a cooperative dynamic which will bring out the best in an athlete. Even the coach who knows shit is helping in his own way with what we do, and in the big city that wouldn't happen where everyone is fighting each other all the time. It was funny, the local players told me it was so bad for development being in a big center like Kiev or Moscow, and how it's interesting so many good tennis players come from small off the map places or courts which are next door to their houses where they are allowed to be what we call in Canada, RINK-RATS. I bet these guys (Edberg ect) grew up under the same conditions, terrible courts, small clubs, no organized court times, their own backyard court and I think you can really see it in their games which are how can I say, ORIGINAL!

[gzhpcu]

Apart from never having been able to stand McEnroe's unsportsmanslike tantrums, foul-mouthed rants against umpires, arrogance, I never liked his style of tennis. For me, it is among the ugliest I have ever seen. It worked very well for him, but have never seen any player imitate his style. He played in an era when he could get away with it. Would never work nowadays IMHO.

[hockeyscout]

Apart from never having been able to stand McEnroe's unsportsmanslike tantrums, foul-mouthed rants against umpires, arrogance, I never liked his style of tennis. For me, it is among the ugliest I have ever seen. It worked very well for him, but have never seen any player imitate his style. He played in an era when he could get away with it. Would never work nowadays IMHO.

I guess McEnroe was tennis' poor man's version of hockey's Wayne Gretzky. No speed, not especially big or strong, however, you can never discount passion, enthusiasm, game skills or pure tennis IQ. I'd never, ever, never ever want to count out a guy like that. Yes, he was over the top, and foul mouthed, and arrogant, however he had rare qualities which should never be discounted.

Unfortunately we all can't be a class act like Petra Kvitova.

It just would not have worked for John McEnroe.

[stroke]

All you have to do to understand how good Mac is at tennis is watch a couple of matches on the sir tour that he plays in. Let's just say at age 55 or whatever he is, we are not going to see another Bobby Riggs battle of the sexes.

[hockeyscout]

All you have to do to understand how good Mac is at tennis is watch a couple of matches on the sir tour that he plays in. Let's just say at age 55 or whatever he is, we are not going to see another Bobby Riggs battle of the sexes.

Best 55 year old ever, just knows how to play the game, its brains over brawn