Son's Forehand

[jeffreycounts]

Absolutely love of his forehand. For the serve, has very good elements, but one thing that will kill his ability is the way his arm doesn't internally rotate properly from the shoulder. You simply HAVE to fix this because it will rob him of a ton of power and will make a kick serve virtually impossible. He will never have a reliable big serve if you guys don't fix this biomechanical flaw. Read the article Chas wrote about this, along with Brian Gordon's serve articles.

caleb.jpg

[postpre]

Great feedback. Much appreciated. Would you say it is, at the core, an external shoulder rotation issue? ("A significant amount of external shoulder rotation, well beyond the norm, is critical, because it determines how much force the internal shoulder rotation can supply to accelerate the racket to impact.")

I've been looking back at some of his older serves (see the links below), and it doesn't appear the problem was so pronounced, albeit he had a different stance and tossing arm alignment (which I thought was necessary to change :-)

https://vimeo.com/401945820

https://vimeo.com/401924077

[postpre]

Looked a bit closer at the video where he was lacking ISR. The last two serves didn't look quite as bad as the initial screenshot. When he gets an appropriate leg drive (not falling too much to the left), his ISR seems better, though I agree that his ESR swing needs work.

[postpre]

He hit some serves today. We are in Iowa so we can still get out a bit. From what I can tell, his ESR to ISR improved.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5FoCzcUBoOg

[jeffreycounts]

I just looked at it in slow motion. You're right definitely improved. He's getting more inside out whip at the top followed by a very nice pronation.. I think we should do a pro comparison and see if there is anything that stands out, but he's got a very good serve there.

[stotty]

He hit some serves today. We are in Iowa so we can still get out a bit. From what I can tell, his ESR to ISR improved.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5FoCzcUBoOg

I managed to toggle slowly through the clip to take a closer look. His ISR isn't great. He's doesn't appear to have correct serving grip...looks like he's on a very mild forehand grip. It's tougher to get ISR when the grip is erring towards a forehand. I'd adjust his grip. At this late stage - his swing path is probably wired in by now - you might need to use staged progression to cultivate really good ISR. It isn't that difficult if you're both patient, and the rewards will be great.

[postpre]

Thanks for your feedback, Stotty.

I do agree that his ESR to ISR is not Raonic-esque :-). He's hasn't been serving much of late so the one's I do capture aren't when he's necessarily fully warmed up. I'm posting a very short clip of another serve where it should be easier to see some of the finer details (it's a very small download). If you are able, let me know if you still see a significant problem. IMG_4633 2.MOV

[stotty]

Looks better but would be nice to see a slow motion clip that I work through. Real time clips are tricky because you can only toggle through the clips in chunks. I can't see if he achieves a full hand rotation...certainly better than it was.