SuperSteve3D

Forehand –

    Grip

• Grip strength about a 6 out of 10
• Last 3 finger do all the work relax your thumb and index finger
• Index finger should spread up the grip like a trigger hold

• Possible powerstep on the run
• Open stance is ok if ball is coming nearby / towards
  

• if there is time, dont just wait for the ball – Step in with your left leg. (semi-closed)
• forehand run around – don’t just keep open stance, again step in
  and around the ball if there is time (usually there is time – forehand
  run around)

• for the whole loop the racket stays in the same zone (the right half of your body)
• Start with racket up and do and small loop. Let gravity do the work
• DON’T brush your hair on the takeback pull back to the upper-right not upwards
  

• Follow through across your body
• End with the butt facing the net
• DON’T follow through upwards

• Straighten the hitting arm
• I need to try abit more spin, less flat (can hear the difference)
• Relax the head more (not so rigid)
• Feel free to follow through with the left leg to return to a neutral stance ready to pushoff
  

• ( Left  – Topspin / Center – Flat / Right – Slice )
• I should practice the flat serve first – Center toss
• Start learning the serve in 2 parts , for now start without any jumping etc.

• Racket butt facing the fence behind
• racket head behind your head
• elbow DOWN

• Directly overhead – Right arm may naturally point rightwards, but the wrist compensates to bring the racket head naturally directly overhead.

• Left edge of the frame will start to dip and ends up with the butt facing the net at the left hip level

 

With a traditional string bed, players must choose between power, durability, comfort or spin. However, by selecting 2 different types of strings, one for the mains and one for the crosses, players can take advantage of the combined benefits of each string type for even greater results.

Principle function of the Main Strings:

Durability.
Good ball effect/spin.



Principle function of the Cross Strings:

Power & speed of the ball.
Cushioning of the strokes.

With hybrid strings, the mains and crosses sometimes are strung at different tensions, since different strings have different tension holding characteristics.

 

A great article from AP.

NEW YORK — Novak Djokovic walked out into the nighttime air, his winning smile back in place after Roger Federer wiped it away.

A
kiss from his mom, a big hug from his dad. No hint that he’d let his
best chance — chances, make that — to win the U.S. Open slip away an
hour earlier.

About a dozen family members and friends embraced
Djokovic in a backyard players’ lounge, chanting his name and posing
for pictures.

The toast of Serbia, he was given a bottle of champagne and everyone gathered around to let him pop the cork.

Only one trouble, befitting of his day — he couldn’t finish off the job.

Djokovic
frowned and his dad came to the rescue, grabbing hold of the bottle and
twisting the top. A moment later, the spray came and everyone was happy.

Novak, too.

 

A key aspect of playing tennis is to be able to rally with consistency and with length. Hitting the ball with length prevents an opponent from attacking easily.

The essential ingredient to hitting with consistent length is to play the ball with height over the net.

You will see from the video clip that if you can create a ‘bridge effect’ over the net it not only prevents a player from netting the ball, but it also helps the quality of a player’s ability to rally effectively.

Top spin is a major factor in a modern tennis game because it allows players to hit a shot with height that also has some pace and power.

Top spin also allows players to play safely within a meter of the lines without sacrificing length, because the ball will jump up and forward off the court.

 

Here is a list of key elements that make up a good overall serve, and coincidentally will ensure that you are getting the most mph’s you can out of it.

1. Proper ball toss: make sure the ball toss is where it should be at contact. A toss that is too low, too forward, etc. will cause a decrease in power and consistancy.

2. Weight shift: make sure you shift your weight from the back foot to the front foot sometime before you start your swing. (See steps 3 and 4 for further detail.)

3. Knee bend: a solid knee bend is key in the kinetic chain of a serve. It aids in the weight shift as well as exploding up into the ball for added spin and pace.

4. Use the legs: now that your knees are bent, extend them to explode into the serve. When done properly, this will lift you into the air (notice you are not jumping. You are simply propelling yourself into the air as a biproduct of proper leg use). You will likely extend your back leg backwards and land on your front foot slightly inside the court (though this should happen rather naturally).

5. Keep you head up: it is easy for a lot of people to drop their head prematurely during the serve, which may cause mis-hits and other problems with the serve. If you watch most pros (slow mo videos or photos) you will see that they are still looking right at the ball and racket at contact and only look away sometime near when the ball crosses the net.

6. LOOSE ARM AND WRIST: very, very important for every aspect of the serve. Do not try to force or muscle the serve. The kinetic chain will take care of itself if you just let it. Make sure you do not forcibly snap your wrist at contact. This will cause a decrease in power and consistancy, not to mention causing tennis elbow (trust me on this one, I have recenly seen the light after coming off a year and a half bout of tennis elbow caused by intentionally snapping my wrist to serve. Now my serve has more power and more spin with no elbow pain.)

7. Drop back shoulder: when you see a good server in the “trophy position”, they have almost a perfectly straight line from their hitting elbow all the way across their shoulders to their tossing hand which points right at the ball. This is crucial for the next step to work…

8. Shoulder rotation, elbow, and racket drop: from the trophy position with the racket up and hitting shoulder down (and loose arm), the hitting shoulder and tossing shoulder should very rapidly rotate much like a teter totter. Along with this step, the hitting elbow should shortly follow the shoulder. These two steps start the kinetic chain in the arm and will cause a racket drop (something that is not a conscious step in an advanced serve).

9. LOOSE ARM AND WRIST: did I mention this already? Keep your arm and wrist loose through contact. If you have done the previous steps properly, the forearm and racket will rapidly accelerate through contact due to the motion of the shoulder and elbow (see step .

10. Follow through: make sure you have a good follow through. Some people follow through all the way across their bodies while others stop right in front of the body, but all exibit a full extention through contact and allow the racket to finish its path using the momentum generated at contact.

So there you have it, ten steps to perfecting your serve and acing your opponents right off the court.

As an added note, I have found the shoulders to be the best place to find a few extra mph’s and rpm’s on the serve if you already have a good serve and are looking to help it further. I had spent a couple years examining the serve of Pete Sampras in great detail and had finally gotten a nice fluid motion for myself. I recently watched Roddick playing and wondered what made his serve look so explosive. It is his shoulders. His great flexibility and use of shoulders really allows him to accelerate his racket head to great speeds. I took this to the courts, changing nothing in my service motion whatsoever except for focusing on rotation my shoulders more explosively. The results were simply undeniable: more speed, more spin, and more consistancy…instanly. Everything was going in and with much more weight.