The one month challenge: Junior girl 17 years old edition

[arturohernandez]

Hi Everyone,

What to work on in one month is my question to the tennisplayer.net forum?

I decided to post just one point from a match that my daughter played yesterday. She is 17 years old. Has been playing since she was four. Not in a full blown academy since she was young but has been in camps and practiced with me and her brother and sister. She has had privates off and on for the last five years. Right now she practices about 10 hours a week with her high school team and plays tournaments just about every week.

She is not going to play college tennis. She is a very good student who is already in at UT Austin. Any other school she might get into would require a minimum of UTR 8 for a coach to even take a look.

She is at about a 5 UTR but has been bothering players up to even 7 and above with her game. She is about to play her final set of tournaments for high school which will include district, region and if she really played out of he mind, state tournaments. To get to state would mean having to beat girls that are 7 and above.

Bothering girls that are 7 UTR and higher and beating them are two very different things.

If there are one or two things you would do or work on in the month she has left, what would they be?

johnyandell Let me know if there is a way to upload the video to tennisplayer directly. It is about 20 mb.

Any advice would be greatly appreciated!

https://drive.google.com/file/d/11gG4gFKAqLHGYScPYKP8RY8hVVujfs8t/view?usp=sharing

[don_budge]

Post a video of her serve...from behind so we get a nice look at the backswing. A good look at the grip as well. If you can beef up the serve in a month that would be the first thing to look at. The one change with the most potential to be a game changer. A month of practice might just make it ready for match play. Work hard on conditioning for the next few weeks with intervals of rest. A few days of rest before the competition starts.

[johnyandell]

Jeff,
Can you help Arturo figure out how to load more?

[jeffreycounts]

**** @arturohernandez Click on the "Upload Attachments button" which is right below where you type your message on a new post. ****

[stotty]

Not too much to go on in the clip. The angle isn't great. The left arm stretch on the forehand looks less than ideal but it would be nice to see it from a better angle. The left arm on the serve doesn't appear to be folding down correctly. Need to see more to be honest.

And why not post her playing a full set? You can only truly gauge a player in a competitive scenario. It's not all about pretty strokes and technical correctness. If you saw Medvedev play without knowing his ranking or achievements, most coaches would place him around 630 in the world!

[jeffreycounts]

I put together a quick animation on her backhand. I wouldn't mess with it before competition, but it might be fun during the off season to see if you can close the racket face to generate more topspin. Right now her approach into the ball is really close to a slice backhand with the way the racket is angled open. You can't really accelerate aggressively up the back of the ball with the racket tilted open like that.

Hit play on the video to see Gasquet's closed racket face compares.



Also besides the open racket face, you can see how Gasquet gets under the ball whereas your daughter has wrist cocked slightly upward here, with an open face as well, which makes it hard to accelerate upward for topspin.

under_ball.jpg

Interestingly, she keeps the face closed on her forehand and can hit it more aggressively.

forehand_face.jpg

The arm mechanics are spot on with the double bend, the butt cap leading the way and the closed racket face and upward brush of the ball for topspin. It's very nice. The only thing I'd work on with the forehand is getting more upper body rotation. In the first frame you want the shoulders to be twisted more than the waist to get a better coil. And then on contact she could have her shoulders more open - facing the net straight on to get the full torso rotation.

[arturohernandez]

I put together a quick animation on her backhand. I wouldn't mess with it before competition, but it might be fun during the off season to see if you can close the racket face to generate more topspin. Right now her approach into the ball is really close to a slice backhand with the way the racket is angled open. You can't really accelerate aggressively up the back of the ball with the racket tilted open like that.

Hit play on the video to see Gasquet's closed racket face compares.

.

She has been to so many people to work on this. I have worked on it extensively too. I had two thoughts:

1) Maybe she should keep it. It is like she is playing in the 70's. It's a throwback classic backhand that gets the job done. She can neutralize and defend very well. Not as explosive as my son and I, who hit are 1hbhs with more topspin. But man she improvises and drives people nuts with the flat ball. Her slice and volley are really good.

Maybe she is a real throwback like Karsten Popp. https://www.tennisplayer.net/members...nded_backhand/

2) If you look at the pics in the story that was put in the forum in another link (see below), you can see that a lot of pros have the face open when back. In fact, Federer has it pretty open too. I remember some time ago, that there was a video on how Fed kind of points his racket down during the preparation.

In any case, it is mostly centered on her allowing supination (I think it is that one) during the backhand. You can clearly see this in Gasquet's video.

We have worked on it and she just feels comfortable hitting this way. The contact is very clean and she keeps the head very steady up until contact. She very rarely shanks or misses a backhand. She has no problem with balls that are blazing at her. She just takes them on the half volley with the face pointing square or slightly up to contact.

It's her own solution. But I am curious if you have an exercise we can try out that might allow her to learn to let the wrist to go through contact and supinate.

https://hughclarke.substack.com/p/th...anded-backhand

[arturohernandez]

The arm mechanics are spot on with the double bend, the butt cap leading the way and the closed racket face and upward brush of the ball for topspin. It's very nice. The only thing I'd work on with the forehand is getting more upper body rotation. In the first frame you want the shoulders to be twisted more than the waist to get a better coil. And then on contact she could have her shoulders more open - facing the net straight on to get the full torso rotation.

This we can definitely work on. Her forehand is very good but it does not penetrate like it should. I have a few off days at the end of this week and we can work on her coiling, facing the net at contact which should result in a better extension. That would allow her ball to penetrate the court. Right now it is very good but is not as good as it was in the past. She has been telling me for a while that she feels she cannot hit her forehand like she did in the past.

[arturohernandez]

Not too much to go on in the clip. The angle isn't great. The left arm stretch on the forehand looks less than ideal but it would be nice to see it from a better angle. The left arm on the serve doesn't appear to be folding down correctly. Need to see more to be honest.

And why not post her playing a full set? You can only truly gauge a player in a competitive scenario. It's not all about pretty strokes and technical correctness. If you saw Medvedev play without knowing his ranking or achievements, most coaches would place him around 630 in the world!

I'll work on getting more and better video.

[tommyhorton]

Hi Arturo,
I hope your daughter is enjoying her last year of high school. One month isn't very much time to make a major change, so working with what she has is your best bet. From that one point it looks like she is more of a counterpuncher. Her backhand looks like she can really knife a slice better than she can come over it. A good slice can drive people crazy, and she could also drop shot and lob off of it. She should slice 80 percent of her backhands. I like her forehand. She could improve her unit turn on that side by taking the racket back with her shoulders. In a month times you could practice slice backhands and a lot of forehands with loose hands and strong legs to make it more of a weapon.
That is so awesome that you can share your love of tennis with her. Good luck!

[jeffreycounts]

It's her own solution. But I am curious if you have an exercise we can try out that might allow her to learn to let the wrist to go through contact and supinate.

This is the exercise I would do. Have her feel the racket flat on the ball or even slightly closed. And then lift upward, keeping the racket face on the same plane.




She's probably never actually felt the racket flat on the ball before . So it will be weird. But I like getting a board like this to copy what Dimitrov is doing there. The rest of her stroke will adjust once she feels what contact like this feels like. You are really cutting up the back of the ball when generating topspin, whereas with an open face like hers currently it's more like pushing the ball rather than cutting it with the strings. It's a big difference. The rest of the stroke will naturally adjust once she gets the feel for this.

But again - I wouldn't do this now while she's competing. And it sounds like its a nice solid stroke for her, so maybe don't even try this.

memory_board.jpg

[don_budge]

I put together a quick animation on her backhand. I wouldn't mess with it before competition, but it might be fun during the off season to see if you can close the racket face to generate more topspin. Right now her approach into the ball is really close to a slice backhand with the way the racket is angled open. You can't really accelerate aggressively up the back of the ball with the racket tilted open like that.

Hit play on the video to see Gasquet's closed racket face compares.



Also besides the open racket face, you can see how Gasquet gets under the ball whereas your daughter has wrist cocked slightly upward here, with an open face as well, which makes it hard to accelerate upward for topspin.

under_ball.jpg

Interestingly, she keeps the face closed on her forehand and can hit it more aggressively.

forehand_face.jpg

The arm mechanics are spot on with the double bend, the butt cap leading the way and the closed racket face and upward brush of the ball for topspin. It's very nice. The only thing I'd work on with the forehand is getting more upper body rotation. In the first frame you want the shoulders to be twisted more than the waist to get a better coil. And then on contact she could have her shoulders more open - facing the net straight on to get the full torso rotation.

Why don't more people see that there is another way? Because they don't understand how to play the game. Good work on the "making the ball lie down" in the grey area of the court. Fool around with the landing zone relative to the sideline as well. This area of the court is often the achilles heel of the two hand backhand and it begs to be exploited. Once again, it is Roger Federer as "The Living Proof" as it seems that only he was aware of this tactic. Tactically if this is used in a Federer versus Djokovic example...Djokovic would have limited tactical responses and much of it is dictated by the height of the net. It would be pretty difficult to be aggressive going down the line over the high part of the net into the Federer forehand. So the response may just be a slice back to the Federer backhand then advantage Federer as Djokovic will now be playing Federer's game. Also if Federer brings Djokovic into this "no man's land" then Djokovic must retreat and he leaves his deep forehand corner vulnerable and even the backhand as well, particularly if he dares to go down the line to the Federer forehand. So much for anyone seeing that there is another way.

Slice backhands have a very large dispersion of executable variations. Learn to hit the medium high ball at various speeds ranging from medium pace to the soft side of soft, five to ten feet over the net and landing as close to the baseline as possible. Here is a great reset ball. Roger was using this tactic much more later in his career and it was so effective. Even on serve returns. If you get that ball over on the backhand side...once again it is sort of strange that it is difficult for the opponent to really drive such a ball. Taking the air out of the ball. Most championships are won with great defense. Tennis is no different and the slice backhand is an excellent defensive tool. The game is played constantly in transition...transition from offence to defense and vice versa. Having the slice backhand in all of its variations is a great transitional tool. A must have in the classic game. The slice can range from extreme defence to even tactical offence.

The thing that makes Roger Federer so unique is his seemless transition from defense to offence. Actually Djokovic is the master of this as well on the two hand backhand side of the game. It is imperative to keep the ball in play...particularly at the level your daughter is playing at now and buying time and keeping the point going while neutralizing is a very important tactic. Once a player at her level becomes very effective at this ploy then it the time to start on being able to drive that backhand as well. It sounds like it is getting interesting.

Yep...it is at the point where it could get interesting. As far as making any meaningful changes now before a competition...you can pretty much forget about it. You can ignore my comment about the serve...it is probably too late to implement anything new. jeffreycounts is on to the culmination point here...where underspin is combined with driving the ball. Where the rubber meets the road. I will never forget that between my junior and senior years in college I went to work in earnest on driving the backhand. It made all the difference. Gradually at this point I also realized that I could find ways to win without my best stuff. It is a long terrifying process. Lots and lots of work. Soul searching.

Between now and the matches in the near future it would be best to play as many practice matches as possible if it is not possible to actually play in organized competition. Play as many sets as possible. Tilden advised that before Davis Cup he would play at least five sets a day...to practice for the upcoming competition. Tilden was the book...you know.

[arturohernandez]

Hi Arturo,
I hope your daughter is enjoying her last year of high school. One month isn't very much time to make a major change, so working with what she has is your best bet. From that one point it looks like she is more of a counterpuncher. Her backhand looks like she can really knife a slice better than she can come over it. A good slice can drive people crazy, and she could also drop shot and lob off of it. She should slice 80 percent of her backhands. I like her forehand. She could improve her unit turn on that side by taking the racket back with her shoulders. In a month times you could practice slice backhands and a lot of forehands with loose hands and strong legs to make it more of a weapon.
That is so awesome that you can share your love of tennis with her. Good luck!

Interesting points!! She played today. I showed up and it was 6-4, 2-1. By the end her opponent was just missing right and left. I asked my daughter why the first set was 6-4. Apparently, her opponent came out swinging and was just on a roll. Then things flipped at 1-4. My daughter went on to win the next 11 of 12 games.

Her opponent just looked like she had given up. tommyhorton don_budge

You guys might like this point in particular. We think that big basher backhands are a weapon. Until someone faces a 5 mph winner.

https://drive.google.com/file/d/14moT9EeJy_fkmzOUH0_zaJxI5XA8dDLA/view?usp=sharing

[arturohernandez]

**** @arturohernandez Click on the "Upload Attachments button" which is right below where you type your message on a new post. ****

I tried this but then it says that I am over the 2 mb limit.

I can just use links.