modern pro forehand/ backhand ball speed

[stevenmila]

Greatly appreciate if someone could enlighten me on the modern day ball speed for forehand/ backhands- as compared to the borg era-
Thank you-

[John Yandell]

The problem is there was no shot spot to record the speeds in the Borg era. Watching the game yeah it has to be faster now, but how much? And what if Borg had started with graphite? And played against Fed?

Someone could go back through old matches and count frames, calculate distance and get average speeds, but I don't think it has ever been systematically studied.

[GeoffWilliams]

Slower speeds by far.

[don_budge]

Fast and faster...

stevenmila...The speeds today are faster...much faster. Suffice it to say. But they are faster for one reason and one reason only. The equipment. Don't let anybody kid you.

Better yet...what if Fed used a wood racquet.

Please Lord...just one tournament. Today's top four using standard wood with VS gut. All that glorious technique right down the crapper! Their swings would shrink faster than the wink of a young girl's eye. And that's the truth!

[stevenmila]

any speed will do -

ok - thank you- how about where i could find speeds of todays forehand/backhands?
aside - the equipment - does the tennis ball look bigger going than coming? the athlete of today is physically more efficient in every aspect of how they hit the ball, along with their more specific and proficient training: (don't remember any video analysis when i got going in the 70s) question is can the previous generation ( borg is 2 or 3 back) capitalize on new frames/ strings - by looks of various senior tours such as champion series - i am not so sure -
but still how about some info on modern day ball speeds -
thank you,
steven.

[EdWeiss]

Martin Uses Wood Racket

D.B.: not sure if you caught it, but Todd Martin used a wood racket in the last game to close out his recent finals win against Michael Chang in a senior tour event! Here is one link to the story: http://www.usta.com/martin_uses_wood...to_beat_chang/

I quickly looked for some footage on YouTube for it but could not find anything. Would be interesting to see. Of course, of all of the recent modern players, Todd might have the most "old school" game: Eastern forehand, just moderate topspin on the groundies, solid volley technique and excellent serve including placement. Interestingly, Todd said that in many ways he feels he plays better with a wood racket.

[don_budge]

What a stunt!

EdWeiss...incredible stunt by Todd Martin. I always wonder why certain people do certain things. What's the motivation? Obviously he is trying to make a rather dramatic statement...but what is it exactly? It appears to be something about the equipment.

I like what Chang said afterwards..."Good thing he didn’t start the night with it,"

[John Yandell]

Here is a url that can let you track the ball speed of every shot in the U.S. Open final. If you poke around on the various ATP tourney sites there may be more.

We are actually going to do a detailed study of this based on some Masters matches. Look for that this year.

AND there is the first study ever done of this--on the site--our study of Sampras's ball speeds at the San Jose pro tourney over a decade ago.

https://www.tennisplayer.net/article...in-pro-tennis/

[stevenmila]

what is the url?

great - thank you - what is the url for the us open track ball speed - was not in the thread - Steven

[GeoffWilliams]

Wood frames were heavy, and smaller, therefore harder to find the sweet spot and swing them faster. But you can still play well if you hit the spot! Esp. if you use gut. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x4eIA99USoI&NR=1
Borg played at 410g. CAn you imagine his game with the 338g NADAL apd orig. frame? That's the one N. plays with, not the advertised cortex at all.

nadals frame Do you see that N. frame has no cortex, and it's painted on in this pic? That's his sig., and the one he uses is the apd orig.:
apd
nadal frame

[John Yandell]

opps sorry!



http://scores.espn.go.com/sports/tennis/courtcast