Who has the best weapon for each stroke

[turley]

John-

I love the site and would like to ask 2 questions. First of all, in your opinion, which men and women have the best weapon in the following areas: Forehand, Serve, Return of Serve, Backhand (2H), Slice Backhand (1H), Volley, Approach, Footwork, Overhead and mental/strategy. Second, if the players you name are not on your site, what is the best way to research them. I know this may be a lot to answer, but I'm new to the game and it would be helpful.

Thanks,

Brent

[johnyandell]

Basically these are impossible questions. They are too simple and based on an assumption that isn't valid: that there is such a thing as "best" anything in tennis.

It's a lot more complex. Most of these issues are addressed by various writers in multiple articles on the site. I'm not going to repeat everything here obviously--that's what the site is for.

But some comments. First when you say "weapon" that can mean many things--offensive, or defensive, or type of offense or defense. Where do you play on the court, can you hit early, etc., do you want to be at the net? Physically can you be aggressive with the serve at what age?

You can not separate the strokes from the playing style. Personality is probably the basis for playing style so if you play like Hrbaty, Taylor Dent isn't your model even if you love his volleys. That's one big issue for any junior player. How you play should influence who you model. BUT there is the issue of developing a complete game no matter what your style and here I agree completely with the new article from Gene Mayer.

The other related factors are grips and swing patterns. Yeah Agassi's forehand is great, but he's not the model if you have Nadal's grip. (And hopefully you don't/) If you read the articles on the arm positions on the two-handed backhand in Advanced Tennis it's the same issue. You can't model Agassi if your natural swing is bent/bent.

Having said that, there are many commonalities. Most players can learn somethings from almost any pro player. I would read thru the Advanced Tennis articles to see many of them discussed and analyzed.

As to the specific strokes I would say this.

Forehand: don't develop an extreme grip! Read the Lansdorp forehand article! If you have say a 4/3 then you can use Agassi as a model. Ferrrero is probably my favorite for a little more underneath grip because he has great extension and hits deep and somewhat flatter. Nalbandian for a more defensive style. Don't try to copy Federer's finishes right off the top--but see how hand and arm rotation gives variation.

2HBH: See above, and find out about the hitting arms first. Again it's more commonalities than one magic player.

It's exactly the same on the returns--all the same issues apply.

On footwork, I'll defer to our experts. Read Michael Friedman and Pat Dougherty.

On serve, I'm writing something for next issue on Federer's serve as a good model. Don't copy Roddick's backswing unless you are genetically related to him. The Sampras serve article on the racket path can't be beat. Read the Myth articles on the toss and the stances.

Slice: The Rosewall article! Don Budge! Those are the basics. But in the modern game Taylor Dent. Philippoussis. Federer, but that's more for change of pace and floaters--he doesn't tend to try to really drive it that much.

Overhead: hard to find a bad one on the site. Mac. Federer. Pete.

I'd read the Jim Loehr, Allen Fox and Alistair Higham mental game articles as well.