Interactive Forum January 2016: Garbine Muguruza

[johnyandell]

Garbine Muguruza

Interactive Forum January 2016 Garbine Muguruza

She's 22, 6' 1” tall, half Spanish and half Venezuela and number 3 in the world. We've looked at the serves and the forehand's of a lot of the men over the last few months.

But now what do you say about Garbine's serve? And what about those 3 forehands?

[gzhpcu]

On the serve: Not enough emphasis on the upper body. Needs more upper body torsion, and chest pointing up towards the ball. Emphasis here is in the legs, jumping up...
A typical woman's serve as opposed to a man's serve like Federer with more upper body torsion.

[klacr]

Lovely Girl.
Great variance in the forehands. First one was a quick half volley pick-up off a deep return, followed by a shorter one that required a nice neutral stance and followed up by a running wide forehand in which she uses a mogul move (Dave Bailey Vernacular) then she returns near center for a semi-open stance which she then rotates fully. Strokes do not look too complicated or overly manufactured.

Question: Do we know if her serve was a first or a second serve? That return was rocked back deep and with pace.

She had a major liability in her serve earlier in her career from a technical standpoint. Had some major rhythm issues. Looks like she cleaned that up a bit. Looks to me like there is no lag/pause in that serve to load, she pretty much just lifts up and swings down and around behind her head.

Kyle LaCroix USPTA
Boca Raton

[johnyandell]

1st serve I think. she was playing Lucic who hits all flat rockets all day.

[nickw]

What's noticeable for me on the serve is how far the racket goes before she starts her leg drive and the execution phase of the swing. It appears the racket is at least half way into the drop when the legs start driving upwards (the camera pans upwards so hard to tell exactly). I'd have thought she's losing some potential racket acceleration right there.

[bowt]

her racket is half way down her back before the legs drive

[don_budge]

She's got Muguruza legs…A Lovely Gal Garbine

Garbine Muguruza

Interactive Forum January 2016 Garbine Muguruza

She's 22, 6' 1” tall, half Spanish and half Venezuela and number 3 in the world. We've looked at the serves and the forehand's of a lot of the men over the last few months.

But now what do you say about Garbine's serve? And what about those 3 forehands?

Interesting observations gents! But the thing that I am noticing…are the legs! An incredible set of legs on this long legged gazelle.

Garbine is amazingly graceful and nimble on her toes. I love that first forehand where she is actually backing up. I love to practice going forwards and backwards to the net and part of that regimen is learning how to transfer the weight into the ball when backing up. This is a very athletic move for a woman so tall.

The second forehand is a beauty! Look at those toes go "cha cha cha" as she takes three little tiny mitigating steps to "get into position" to step towards the ball. Superb footwork! Tall people need to learn to move like small people and those little steps are so sweet coming from such a tall person.

I saw her play and lose to Maria Sharapova in three set at Roland Garros two years ago. She looked to be on the verge of winning that match but sort of fell victim to Sharapova's psyching antics. The screaming was reaching epic proportions as the decibels and pitch were fluctuating in accordance to the importance and significance of any given point. The posing behind the baseline "composing" herself became more and more pronounced. Maria got into her head and her serving rhythm fell off a tad. Her motion needs a little work and it showed when it broke down in a tense situation with a player applying some head games to boot.

I love the legs…the footwork isn't bad either.

[klacr]

Interesting observations gents! But the thing that I am noticing…are the legs! An incredible set of legs on this long legged gazelle.

Garbine is amazingly graceful and nimble on her toes. I love that first forehand where she is actually backing up. I love to practice going forwards and backwards to the net and part of that regimen is learning how to transfer the weight into the ball when backing up. This is a very athletic move for a woman so tall.

The second forehand is a beauty! Look at those toes go "cha cha cha" as she takes three little tiny mitigating steps to "get into position" to step towards the ball. Superb footwork! Tall people need to learn to move like small people and those little steps are so sweet coming from such a tall person.

I saw her play and lose to Maria Sharapova in three set at Roland Garros two years ago. She looked to be on the verge of winning that match but sort of fell victim to Sharapova's psyching antics. The screaming was reaching epic proportions as the decibels and pitch were fluctuating in accordance to the importance and significance of any given point. The posing behind the baseline "composing" herself became more and more pronounced. Maria got into her head and her serving rhythm fell off a tad. Her motion needs a little work and it showed when it broke down in a tense situation with a player applying some head games to boot.

I love the legs…the footwork isn't bad either.

For the record, the legs were the first thing I noticed as well. But I just didn't want to say anything.

Kyle LaCroix USPTA
Boca Raton

[stevenmila]

shoulder issues on serve?

dont you think her shoulders are not tilted on the windup - and she is impinging her right shoulder - the rest looks lovely - sb

[curiosity]

Somewhat shallow knee bend and very little trunk/hip separation, together with late leg extension, make for little trunk rotation and rotation velocity...which is needed to power the hitting arm (and racquet) back and up.

As a result it seems to me she has to actually muscle the racquet up. Her rotation isn't doing the work for her. If she'd make little adjustments she'd have even more power.

I very much like her shot selection and movement in the matches I've seen. She's strong and has a competitive mindset.

[tntenniswhiz]

Trophy Position?

One of the fundamentals of Federer's serve is his very defined trophy position and how the leg drive initiates when that position is established. She "passes" the trophy position, but doesn't stabilize before driving to the ball with her legs and the continued drop of the swinging arm that occurs with the top male servers. A defined trophy position coupled with the leg drive causing the racquet arm to stretch then drive to the ball is lacking in her motion.

[johnyandell]

Greg,
Well said.

[curiosity]

Garbiñe has good power as things are.

She'd be really dangerous if her coach taught her to start her trunk rotating, gaining momentum, before her racquet bottomed out on the serve, and before her upper arm swings forward on the forehand.

I don't disagree with the leg drive comment above, but without timing torso rotation (directly connected with leg drive) she can't hope to generate the power of which she is physically capable. No?

[johnyandell]

Yes.

[1alexander]

Great legs!