Strike Zone Evaluation and Shot Selection

[doctorhl]

It seems that some players are better than others at evaluating whether a ball is going to fall within their strike zone and if not, selecting a stroke that is best suited for a ball outside of their strike zone. Federer's arm and racket position near the end of his backhand seems perfectly situated to top, flat, or spin, freeing him to select a stroke at the last second. But, of course, one still needs the ability to determine ball location. Having developed little short, blocking swings for hard courts, I struggled In a clay tournament, where, it seems that 50% of the time I never knew when the ball would " bite" and put the ball slightly short and above my strike zone. I had to lengthen my swing and use a verbal cue when the ball bounced to quiclkly zone in. Has anyone experienced this? Is this worth examining, or just an intuitive thing that some develop quicker than others through years of practice. Again, it is uncanny how Federer can move so well to position himself so that he doesn't have to face balls out of his strike zone very often.

[arturohernandez]

Interesting question. I also struggled on clay courts and was just thrown off by the funny bounce of the ball. One thing you should get straight. The courts that the pros play on are nothing like rec clay courts. I am sure that the bounces are much less regular on club level clay. Unless you belong to some club that is very high end and can treat the courts well, over time the clay will get uglier and uglier.

Okay, so back to your question of strike zone. My sense of what I did before I tried to adapt to clay was to hit the ball with a continuous fast stroke. It was almost like I would hit one swing at the same speed from start to finish. I could generate speed and hit on the rise. But I could not adapt the stroke to different balls.

You might try winding up very slowly and loosely and then accelerating your racket after contact. I know that this makes no sense. But somehow if we find the contact point and imagine that our racket slows down at contact and speeds up afterwards it leads to a better stroke.

In fact, I have found that when I do this I feel like I am not hitting the ball with much effort. But if I look at it, it goes farther and with more spin. Where a flat ball just skids and never reaches the back fence, one hit with a very loose arm and acceleration after contact will hit the back fence regularly.

On clay it is key to find the contact and then accelerate because the ball does not bounce regularly. Also you have to hit it a bit differently. It requires you to focus on not opening the racket face too soon because the ball slows down and bounces higher. So I imagine hitting over the top of the ball more than I do on hard courts.

I wrote an article on it many years ago. The only addition to it now with more experience is that you can step in closer to the baseline but that you have to be very vigilant of just contacting the ball as best you can. The ball will bounce funny and you will have to hit a less than perfect stroke.

Years ago I found a different solution that also works which you can read in the piece I wrote:

https://tennismindgame.com/clay-court.html

Arturo

[doctorhl]

Makes sense. Clay footwork is interesting. I dont know if this forum has discussed clay footwork or not. Besides sliding,which is a whole issue in itself, I was told that you had to learn to "tippy toe" first to learn the initial pushoff. A financially struggling pro in the futures told me that he practiced in shoes without shoelaces if he was stuck on practicing on hard courts and didnt have access to clay.

[arturohernandez]

Yes! The movement is different. I am not good at sliding, I think in part because my foot is not very wide so it tends to dig into the ground more. I find that I rarely slip even when playing on hard courts that are slightly wet.

The movement on clay is different. You cannot rely on pressing into the ground as much. So you need to be a little more rhythmic and fluid with the movement. The idea is that you won't try and rip the ball. Rather you are trying to flow into the right position.

Because you cannot change directions as easily this requires you to be very loose in general.

It is kind of like the opposite of drills that work very well on hardcourts. The bounce is irregular so you have to adjust a lot and the adjustment cannot be violent.

It has to be more melodic if that makes any sense.

You can look at some stuff from Chris Lewitt which explains it a bit better.

https://www.tennisplayer.net/members/high_performance/chris_lewit/two_coaches_two_styles/

[stotty]

We had red shale courts at my club for many years. Red shale is very similar to red clay. We had a groundsman who rolled them once a week. The secret to maintaining red shale or clay courts is to roll them often, then drag and water them after play. Our courts were perfect because we had a great groundsman called Don who is still alive today, aged 94. Don maintained the courts out of love and charged the club nothing. As Don got older, the club made the decision to switch to Plexi courts - an horrendous decision many of us still regret.

doctorhi, are you struggling to judge the bounce on clay or struggling with shot selection...or both? If it's the former, then getting more experience of playing on the surface is probably the only solution. Players who play predominantly on hard courts surfaces are often thrown when they play on clay...and are positively clueless on grass. Grass is the trickiest if you have never played on it.

[doctorhl]

Bounce judgement is the problem on clay Stotty. Just dont have enough hours on it. Played grass once. Loved it, but was clueless. At that time the Slazenger ball felt heavy on my racket and of course shoes........

[don_budge]

The Moving Strike Zone...the Big Four

The Shape of Things to come...the Fedefore.

When you talk about determining the shape of something as ethereal as a forehand swing you had better pay attention to the base from which it is swung. The swing starts down below as the shamanic Ben Hogan suggests and it works it way up the body.

The consideration with respect to modern tennis is this...if you design and build your swing on open or even semi open stance you are limiting yourself to one option. Heavy topspin. Having the ability to apply heavy topspin is obviously an asset...but the ability to flatten the stroke out enhances ones chances of hitting for depth and penetration. In order to hit this kind of ball you will need to be able to perform your swing on a platform of a closed or neutral stance. Which comes first the chicken or the egg? In this case it must be the closed and neutral stances with an eastern grip because as you are finding out...once you go western you can never go back.

This being the case there is only one player in the game today from which to emulate. His name of course is Roger Federer...The Once and Future King. When he leaves the game the void is going to be so immense that you will hear a giant sucking sound as the air makes leaving a giant balloon. The vacuum that his absence will create in the professional game will be as profound as the difference between a world with cell phones...and one that was without.

Once again...it is the "Forehand Not Gone" video. A beautiful work of art that I never tire of seeing or listening to. Even the words of the song ring in my ears to haunt me as a message to all of those beautiful women that I loved...and lost. A wistful tear can form in my eye when I think of them. But oh well...I am, or rather was a tennis player. Past tense...like them. Of all people I should realize that love means nothing. It is the irony of life in the end...at the end of the night. Good old Ferdinand.

Where was I...oh yes. Roger Federer hitting from less than perfect position. Because the base of his swing is built on the foundation of a closed or neutral stance he is compelled to swing his forehand with his feet, body and racquet lined up when he begins his move forward to the ball. Hitting from a less than perfect position...is an art. I am sure that you will agree with me when you look at this video. This is a beautiful enigmatic piece of work courtesy of John Yandell. Who is the artist of the song...btw John?

http://www.tennisplayer.net/members/music_videos/federer_fh_not_gone/index.html

In the music video "Forehand Not Gone", Roger Federer is hitting four forehands from less than perfect position. Notice though that he dutifully attempts to create perfect position at the moment of impact.

fh 1...backing up, left foot plants first and as he swings into the ball the right foot is backing up in line with the front

fh 2...moving to his right, right foot plants first and left comes swinging into line as he swings into the ball

fh 3...backing up, left foot plants first and right foot slides backwards into position as he swings into the ball

fh 4...backing up, left foot plants first and the right foot slides backwards into position as he swings into the ball

In the video Roger is swinging at four forehands and in three of them he is running around his backhand to his left. Since his momentum is carrying him to his left he plants his left foot first to assure himself that he has ample room to make his swing yet at the same time his right foot is backing up to bring himself into alignment with the ball. You see also that he must make a last moment adjustment by taking to the air to create just a bit more room to make his swing. Yet his head and body are perfectly still at the moment of impact.

In the single ball that he is moving to his right, at the last moment he plants his right foot a bit forward towards the net from his left foot as he tries to take the ball a bit earlier and at the same time his left foot is moving towards the ball so that at the moment of impact he is in as close to proper alignment with the ball as humanly possible.

The music video is simply a perfect example of how the forehand should be played when perfect position on the ball is not possible. Normally when I am watching Federer in a match, I like to watch just him without taking my eyes off him to watch the ball or his opponent. Coincidentally, I heard Rod Laver suggest the same thing. For instance, in the music video one can really appreciate the grace and perfect balance that Federer has when he is in the moment of truth...and that is when he has his body aligned to make his move on the ball from “get in position”. Even when he is actually in the air, off the ground, he is somehow able to achieve nearly perfect stability as he is swinging and this is evidenced with the still positioning of his head. He has the ability to achieve the Hoganesque lower body movement to the ball to initialize his swing...even with less than perfect position.

Another absolutely stunningly, brilliant music video...John. Catchy tune, too. The music coupled with the maestro's footwork and low center of gravity create...poetry in motion. Be still my beating heart!

From the archives...hitting from a less than perfect position. The top players separate themselves from the others by getting into better position from which to swing more often than their opponent. When they are out of position...they also manage better swings.

[arturohernandez]

The Moving Strike Zone...the Big Four



From the archives...hitting from a less than perfect position. The top players separate themselves from the others by getting into better position from which to swing more often than their opponent. When they are out of position...they also manage better swings.

I agree! I think the importance of clay is that it teaches a player how to hit a non-optimal ball over and over again. On the one hand it is slow but on the other hand it is irregular. So one has to adapt to balls that one cannot perfectly predict. But one has time to adapt.

So on clay we learn to simply be very loose and not worry so much about rushing the stroke.

I think this is ideal for kids and really crucial for adults.

On hard courts we can just play ping pong tennis.

We could in principle create a stroke hit on the rise with the same rhythm every time.

That is what my strokes were like.

They worked well until a skilled player figured out that I liked this.

And even on hard courts, a skilled player will figure out what you don't like and hit it at you.

But if you can prepare early and stay loose enough in the windup, your body will naturally adjust to the ball.

Clay just forces it on us. We have to prepare early for a ball that is slowing down a bit.

Maybe you can shoot a video of your strokes on clay and/or hard courts.

We all love dissecting strokes!