Turn sideways once you know which side of you the ball is going and put your weight on your back foot on forehand (so right foot if right-handed) when swinging. Whether doing a standard shot or stepping next to where the ball bounces to take it on the rise, weight on that right foot and then turn body as you swing and swing all the way through and up.
On backhand, never bend body forward; bend knees instead if need to go lower; bending body forward will result in ball going into net; always swing through and up over your other shoulder
If mixing up topspins and slices, remember to not back swing before slices and also you don’t swing through on slices, you stop it pointing at where it’s going
My aunt still lives in Clare. I grew up in Bay City so like 45 minutes away.
I played HS tennis for 3 years (I’m 6’3 with a big serve and not great groundstrokes so doubles was my bag). Kept playing into young adulthood but haven’t picked up a racket in a few years. The toughest thing about tennis as an adult is that the two people need to be very similar skill levels or it very quickly becomes no fun for anyone.
Was anyone else taught the kick serve using the sitting / chair method? I worked with a few people and one of the USPTA coaches had me do it. Never “felt” it and none of them could explain to me the real mechanics of the shot or where I was breaking down. They were all really bad at articulating exactly what I was doing wrong and instead had people hit from sitting on the ground or a chair until they figured out how to spin balls in.
I’ve watched a little bit of this guy’s channel so far and feel like he explains mechanics well, so much that I think I could go out right now and make these adjustments to start kicking more consistently.
Co sign. While “arm” talent is important having good weight transfer by loading your back foot and having your swing carry your weight is the key to a consistent good shot.
On the forehand it’s easy to compensate during the swing if you aren’t lined up properly but that also leads to errors. My 2hbh is all about proper setup and has become a consistent weapon. If I have to improvise on the backhand I go to my slice. Probably too much. I can slice the forehand as well. I grew up when tennis was more feel with wood racquets. (Vs power).
But having options can be dangerous. Too much thinking.
I have people that can’t handle the mix of spins. One guy when I get in trouble I try to alternate top spin and slice. Throws off his timing.
I think I’d have gotten to 4.0 if I had played a lot in my 20s. I’d play a lot for a couple of years and the go back to just goofing around w the kids.
But 3.5 is a great level for exercise. Points get continued because neither of you has a consistent kill shot.
This guy is one of my favorite channels. I started working on a kick-serve for the first time ever last year and was doing the sitting method as that was the method most of the videos I found taught. I was able to spin the ball in, but couldn’t progress to actually being able to hit it with a regular swing with any pace.
Watched the video you linked and have been trying it his way - still coming along slowly, but it at least feels a little natural right now.
I only interacted with a few coaches ever but they weren’t good at analyzing faults in my swing. Instead, it was like they had a 12-point program for each lesson and you just repeated it forever until you got it. I like how this dude calls out the exact mechanical faults immediately and how it’s based on real mechanics of professional strokes, not fake mechanics of playing from a chair.
Some of this is subtle but it matches my experience with other mechanics-based activities like golf. There are a ton of things going on, but most of them either don’t matter or aren’t directly controllable. The key is having someone point out to you exactly what matters and where to narrow your focus. For example, he repeats several times that you should never think about swing path and correctly points out that it’s impossible to control given the timing (milliseconds). So instead the focus is on staying closed with an 11 O’clock toss that will put the racquet on the correct path, which, in practice, is diagonal and into the court, not parallel to the baseline like I was taught. He calls out the mechanics here really well:
Since my flat serve was already fine, it looks like all I really needed here is One Simple Trick: remembering to stay closed. No one ever told me that and I’m positive I was flying open after watching this since my kicks would actually slice or run flat about half the time.
When Im working on something I find I can focus on one particular thing at a time. Sometimes it’s a knee bend (backhand), or extension ((forehand and serve).
But most of the time it has nothing to do with my swing. It’s keeping my feet active to make those little adjustments. Tend to setup up early with feet of stone.
I like tennis and would play but I always get terrible blisters on my hand after just a few hours of play. And if I try to play the next day, it is torture.
I don’t seem to have this problem with other racquet sports. I used to play a ton of badminton and had almost no problems with blisters. I tried squash for a while and I didn’t have problems with that either.
Get a dry grip overwrap.
Play for 1/2 at a time until you toughen up
Relax your grip between shots. I used to get forearm strains from running all around the court with a vise grip.
I keep a batting or golf glove in my bag just in case.
Mixed doubles playoffs today and the male opponent is one year out of high school and was ranked in high school but sitting out in college this year to be eligible to play in this league.
We lost first set 1-6, won the second 7-6 in tiebreaker and then 3rd set is a 10 point tiebreaker due to covid rather than a full set and we lost that tiebreaker
Was nice to be competitive but then disappointing to lose the 3rd set tiebreaker when we had a chance
Good news is my team took 3/5 lines so we advance in playoffs and play again tomorrow.
I played in high school and our team was shit but it was fun af. I have no one to play with now days which sucks. Something like Youtube back then would have helped our team a lot probably. Other schools had indoor tennis clubs to play at all winter and could afford lessons. Our fat golf coach was my tennis coach 2 years of my time there.
I find focusing on one thing also helps play better because then you aren’t thinking about other things.
Like on forehands I focus fully on loading my right foot and that keeps me from thinking about my swing so it just comes naturally; I feel confident I can just swing away on my forehands as long as I focus on that foot and it goes in consistently no matter how hard I swing.
But if I don’t focus on that one thing then my swing goes to shit because it’s no longer natural.
Really good doubles this morning. I have a little plastic insert to keep my mask from pulling into my mouth but it still got soaked this morning. Gonna have to start bringing three. I already take an extra for after the match.
My partner was an animal at the net. I served, he mopped up.
We couldn’t get anything going today and lost 6-4, 6-3 and the team lost 2-3 (final line went to the third set tiebreaker and were up 9-7 but lost) so our playoffs are done; just singles now for a few weeks until Men’s doubles starts.
My elbow hurts now, though. I must have tweaked it and didn’t realize until after the match.
I tried switching to a lighter racquet a few years ago and had tennis elbow bad enough to go to PT. Old racquet was a pro staff classic 6.1.
Now hitting with 2015 Pro Staff consumer version of the Federer. It’s about an ounce lighter and I had to add back 1/2 ounce (1/4 mid frame and 1/4 in the throat).
I need weight or my elbow kills. I tried a Hammer a long time ago and a couple of swings and I was hurting.
I get the best mis-hits with the plow through on that thing. Pisses off my opponents for me to shank a ball that lands three inches from the baseline :)
