Internet Teaching Craziness

[johnyandell]

Guys,
What do you make of this email I got? The guy is not a subscriber and does not want to pay to subscribe. He found a few free links I had posted on TW. Does this show the dangers and absurdity of the current state of knowledge?
Wow! This guys probably has spent more hours watching youtube video than he has playing.
john

Dear John,

Love your site and contributions to tennis warehouse (where I have been lurking for a while on my path to tennis "knowledge") and was hoping you could help me out with something.

I have been learning tennis on my own, and I am bombarded constantly online with this WTA vs ATP and Classic Forehand vs Modern Forehand. Its all over tennis forums and youtube videos. Are there any simple and clear articles/videos that you can send me in the direction of which explain how the "difference" between wta players vs atp players, (say serena vs murray), is not the same as the "difference" between the classic vs modern forehand, say Sampras vs Murray.

Everywhere I look I am just getting more confused. So I feel like I am lost and don't know where to start. Now I learn best by comparison, so if I had some resource that basically said...here are the different forehands, for example here is the diff between classic and modern, and here is the difference between wta vs atp, then it would give me somewhere to start.

But right now im screwed and don't really have any direction. I need some sort of help figuring out what makes the Sampras/Agassi forehands different from murray/Federer, and how that difference is not the same difference as what you see with say serena vs murray/Federer.

Any direction would be really appreciated! I started playing tennis 3 years ago, am 31, but haven't made much progress from learning online, mostly as I said, because I don't have a TREE or DIAGRAM in my head of the different ways to hit a forehand. Its all a bastardized mixture I have I fear.

All I "know" now is classic vs modern are both "inside out" swings but one has the weight moving out toward target, and one is more of a rotational pulling of the "inside out" swing. And as for wta vs atp, all I have so far is...wta players use rotational like modern forehand, but sort of without this stretch shortening cycle action, which some people call it wta push and atp pull....but it seems like both are pulling, and a better description would be wta PULL and ATP WHIP. But again may be wrong and am looking for direction.

[stotty]

The guy needs to join....

If ever a guy needed to subscribe to Tenniplayer it's this one. He can get all the answers to his questions right here and in graphic detail, backed up by video examples and evidence. Unless he simply cannot afford it, it would be shame if he cannot be enticed to join.

Email him back and tell him Stotty would like to write to him. He will get a lot for his money by subscribing and would like to tell him that. Plus he can post clips and we will help him out at no cost...just for love of the game.

[johnyandell]

Yeah I basically told him all that... I think he actually I thought I was going to write him a long detailed answer that straightened out all those confusions--I mean that would be a full length article.

Then maybe I would show him a few free pro clips and then of course analyze some bad video of himself he was going to put of you tube...
I actually thought he was a subscriber til I checked since he "loves" Tennisplayer...But when I wrote him and told him he would have to subscribe even though the first month was free, I never heard back... I'm sure mommy or daddy could have afforded a subscription...

What is this younger generation coming to?? Had to laugh.

[curiosity]

"At This Point What Difference Would it Make?"

I think the letter is interesting. It reveals a very common failing that I believe flows in part from anxiety ("I'll be wasting my time if I don't understand the variations first.") and in part from superficiality, an unwillingness to work hard to build an entry-point to understanding.

An entry-point would be gaining a journeyman's skill at one particular forehand it its details. A contemporary pro forehand seems to me a fine place to start. Pros use strokes that are (usually) free of excess motion, and which do not tend to produce injuries per 10,000 hits. The goal shouldn't be to hit as well or as fast as the chosen model does, but to use his technique to hit with reasonable speed and accuracy. Use one model as the vehicle to learn the parts, the sources of accuracy and speed. These elements are finite, knowable, and present in every current successful men's pro forehand. I can't think of a better place to start than tennisplayer.net with its stroke elucidation videos ....joined to the extensive super slo-mo videos of (choose one) good players.

I laugh. If you answered every one of his questions, he would be no better off as a tennis player... and your time and his would both be wasted. "Learn one version of the contemporary forehand until you can hit it well and reliably. Then come back with your questions and find the answers in the texts and videos."

[johnyandell]

curiosity,

that's much too sensible!

[gzhpcu]

I think also it shows the dangers of trying to learn tennis via YouTube. A flood of information/disinformation. Totally uncoordinated and contradictory videos from "experts"....

[johnyandell]

Phil,

Exactly.

[maxply]

I think also it shows the dangers of trying to learn tennis via YouTube. A flood of information/disinformation. Totally uncoordinated and contradictory videos from "experts"....

"Experts" who often also charge $400 for a course chock full of obvious concepts cloaked in gimmicky verbiage?

Much happier here. Thank you, tennisplayer.net staff.

[johnyandell]

Obvious concepts cloaked in gimmicky verbiage. I am stealing that.

[gzhpcu]

Don't forget "a sucker is born every minute".... snake oil still sells...

[johnyandell]

True that.

[bman]

It's called: "Take a Lesson"