Have a Question for Me?

[John Yandell]

Practice the components individually. Stand by the fence and note the height by measuring how high on the fence the toss goes. Extend and hold the tossing arm.

Find out how deeply the player really can bend by shifting the weight primarily to the front foot, then going down as far as possible without bending over at the torso.

Find a count of 1 2 3 that matches the rhythm of the motion when the knees go down. Start on one, toss on two, hit on three. The rhythm on the count should be even. If it's rushed between 2 and 3 the toss is too low and this can help the player feel it.

[timmytennis]

whats your perspective on BOTR. (balls on the rise)

Hi John ,
What your perspective about balls taken on the rise in pro tennis. whats the percentage of balls hit on the rise?...at the pro level. only on groundstrokes , not approach shots. thanks for your time. really enjoy your site.


best wishes,
Timmy Tennis.

If you have something specific to ask me, this is the place! I will try to respond to all posts.

I want to know what you think of the site and what you think I should do more of, less of, or differently. If you really like it, I won't mind hearing that either. I get a lot of my best ideas by listening, so start talking...

If you have technical questions, you can ask and I'll do my best to help. BUT as it says in the overview of Your Strokes, I'm not sure that this type of detailed, purely verbal technical discussion is always productive. In fact, I'm concerned that pontificating at length in response to written questions is often--or even usually--counterproductive.

Why? Because I believe that seeing is the basis for understanding when it comes to tennis. So don't be too upset if I express my honest reluctance to answer at length when I'm not really sure what I am talking about. That's why we created Your Strokes in the first place--so myself and the rest of the staff can actually see what you guys are talking about.

We're starting off with one subscriber stroke a month in Your Strokes. If it really takes off, we can always expand that--we can also post images here in the Forum if people make them available in the right format and size.

I hope we'll get a lot of other knowledgable people commenting as well!

[uspta4201423750]

serve toss

Thanks John; when in the 1,2,3 rythme should the bend come? I pictured 1,toss, 2 bend, 3 hit thanks harry

[John Yandell]

bend starts while arm is coming down. Finishes at about extension of tossing arm. Go use the resources of the site Harry. Look at Sampras and Fed in the stroke archive. You can figure a lot of this out for yourself.

[John Yandell]

Timmy,

Great question and I have no idea. There is a difference too in where you are standing and how far the ball has risen. So of those heavy topspin screamers are still rising at shoulder level, even with players 10 feet back. Fed stands in and takes some of those at waist level!!

As I said to Harry the resources are there on the site for you to answer the question for yourself. Go look at 10 or 30 forehands from Nadal, Federer, Djokoivc, Murray. Count 'em up and report back.

I'm flattered that you guys think I know everything but you have questions that I may not have thought of myself.

John

[uspta990770809]

When does that knee bend happen

bend starts while arm is coming down. Finishes at about extension of tossing arm. Go use the resources of the site Harry. Look at Sampras and Fed in the stroke archive. You can figure a lot of this out for yourself.

Be careful of that knee bend. Take a careful look at Sampras, Federer and even Roddick. It's really 1, 2, and a 3. 1 Hands down. 2 Hands up. anda-knees bend 3 hit. You don't want to be tossing the ball with your knees. If you look at Roger, Pete and Andy, the ball is out of their tossing hand when they really start to drop down. There is some bend before that, but that deep drop doesn't happen until the ball is out of their hands.

If you think you are really adding speed with the "leg spring", be sure the basic hitting action is perfect before you start to complicate things with this action of the legs. Take a really good look at Andy or Pete or Roger's head as the arm makes it's upward move in the final move to the ball on some high speed shots. You'll see that their head has stopped rising well before contact (couple of hundreths of a second). You'll see the legs may still be rising, but the head is not. Surprised me when I noticed this. The jump adds speed by getting the shoulder loaded a little more, but not by actually adding speed directly. Just think how hard it is to throw a hard jump pass. Or why do you kick on a jump overhead!?

Curious about your comments, John.
don brosseau

[John Yandell]

You know what, I stand corrected. Should have looked myself before responding from memory--isn't that why we created the archive? The bend really does start after the toss for the big three. Very different than Andy Murray--who I had been looking at for something else--who starts his bend much sooner and before the release. Or Amalgro in the Interactive Forum who does the same. Now someone is going to have to go through and look at every player and post the answer...then we can argue about what it means. C'mon you guys--do some counting for us.

[uspta1863382890]

Thank you - sorry for the triplication. Turned out to be a browser issue.

[John Yandell]

Yep, those pesky software programs.

[uspta1863382890]

Sampras backhand article

Hi John,

You mentioned in an article or two that you'd eventually do an analysis of Pete's backhand and discuss what made it different from others - is that still in the works?

[John Yandell]

Didn't happen--probably the time has passed but who knows maybe I'll do it in your strokes eventually. The short answer is he tended to lead with his elbow and when this tendency was slightly more exaggerated, he tended to miss.

[timothyw]

Paul Wardlaw

John,

Do you think you could get an artcile from Paul Wardlow about The Wardlaw Directionals? I think everyone on this site could benefit from an article by him.

Thanks, Tim

[John Yandell]

I totally agree. I've known Paul for many years and pitched him a couple of times. For whatever reason, no luck so far. But maybe I'll try again.

[hyperwarrior]

Mr. Yandell,

It's a pretty basic question but based on your knownledge and experience when it comes to choosing a racquet, do you think we should respect the grip size guideline or it is something personal?

It says in the guideline that a too small or too big grips can lead to injuries... I'm not sure if that's accurate. For example, Federer is using a very small grip and Djokovic, a very large one. Yes, they are technically better than the average players but do you think that most of the injuries are a results of bad techniques than a not proper grip size?

I heard people saying that back in the days, we can use the largest grip we can hold for a racquet. Is it true?
If it is, I'm wondering if this tip is still valuable in today's game.

I'm simply asking you this because I think your saying is way more reliable than a friend or someone else on this matter...

[John Yandell]

I never heard about the injury theory and don't know what the grip guide is.
In the old days of wood rackets I played with small grips. So yeah I think the answer is, it's a matter of preference. Probably not a great idea to use a grip 3 sizes too big, but other than that if you can a difference that's a good reason.