I got a kick out of it

Today I accidentally discovered a kicker. I was trying unsuccessfully to apply the insights from the video analysis of serve. Towards the end of the session, I realized that if I keep my left arm to the right of my head, my body will be turned sideways more, and somehow I get much more spin on the ball. It goes high over the net and dips safely in, and then kicks up. It seems that I can put as much force into it as I want, and it doesn't change the trajectory, just goes into spin. In other news: as I'm watching myself, I can see that I'm still starting out too far in front, too much turned to the left, arms stretched too far out. His head is vertical and he's looking at the opponent, my head is tilted sideways. I'm pulling up my left shoulder, look scrunched. (Noticed another thing: when he bounces the ball, he catches it in his fingers, palm lifted up; I try to grab it with my palm horizontally. Last bounce, his arm is hanging down vertically before he catches the ball. Top part of the arm is vertical.) When he starts off, his upper arm is vertical, relaxed on the side of the body. I'm stretching the arms forward. His shoulders are at 45 degrees, right upper arm almost horizontal. When he brings the racquet forward, his right shoulder doesn't move, as if there were a vertical rod connecting his left foot and his right shoulder. I'm bringing my shoulder forward. When he moves back, there's a very pronounced weight transfer to right foot; I finish centered between the two feet. At the highest point, his elbow is low and in line with shoulders, my elbow is lifted up. Let's try again tomorrow.

I've got the key

I went out to practice serve last night, trying to apply all my newfound knowledge after doing video analysis. It was going OK but not great; serves came out better if I tucked my left arm. Then I had this small revelation: when the racket is in its highest position on a wind-up, pointed straight up, there's sort of a natural lull in the motion. If I time lowering my body for that moment, then as the racquet comes down, I'm pushing up and it comes out great, and the ball spins in effortlessly. I'll need to look some more at clips to refine the timing, but I think I got it.

Video Analysis: Forehand

Quick notes:

• Split step: my base of support is one shoulder width, his twice that.
• His back foot is further out to the side, so he's more balanced, I'm leaning at 45 degrees to the baseline.
• On the take-back, his shoulders are turned completely sideways.
  
• His left arm is way out to the side, straight, at shoulder height (this is for a high ball, for a lower ball it's still straight, but pointing slightly down). My arm is already bent, elbow at chest height.
• Mid-way through the forward movement, his torso is straight. Mine is bent at the waist, leaning forward. His head is above the line between two feet, mine a foot forward. He's balanced.
• At the point of contact, his shoulders and chest are almost square to the point of contact. Both arms aligned symmetrically around the imaginary line coming out of the chest. My shoulders are turned way out, 45 degrees toward the other side fence.
• The first moment after the hit, his shoulders are square to the net, head still turned towards the point of contact. Elbow in front of the chest. The left hand catches the racquet in front of the left shoulder.
• Only after this the shoulders rotate and end up sideways to the net, while his face is towards the net.
• Summary: lower and wider base, arm straight and pointing to the side fence, then moving out bending at the elbow, matching the racquet arm at the contact point.

Video Analysis: Serve

I taped my serves. Notes:

Bouncing the ball: right shoulder turned out, above the left foot. Bouncing arm almost straight, use hand to bounce the ball.
When taking the racquet forward: I turn my shoulders almost square to the net, lean forward too much. Instead, keep back straight, right shoulder behind, right arm relaxed and slightly bent, not forward too much.

Moving back: head turned to the side, at the lowest point, racquet hand is above the right hip, tossing arm is on the inside of the left hip. My head is looking kinda up, right arm is still more forward, tossing arm is too forward too. His shoulders seem relaxed, I'm hunched forward.






Start of the toss: head turned to the side, looking at the opponent. Racquet arm moves back to achieve a symmetrical position with the tossing arm. Shoulders turned sideways, body straight. I'm looking up, rounded shoulders, right arm hanging down while tossing arm is already almost horizontal.

As the tossing arm reaches eye level, head is still turned sideways, and the racquet arm is at 45 degrees. I'm looking up to where the ball is going, racquet arm barely beyond the vertical position. Notice the heel of the forward foot is off the ground and the weight is on the back foot. I seem to be on both feet.

As the ball is released and the racquet arm starts turning up, notice how back the right shoulder is. At this point, my arm is maybe 15 degrees off the vertical, but I start to turn the arm up. My weight is on both feet, his is on the back foot. His chin is to the left of the left shoulder. My head is to the right of it.

As the ball reaches the highest point, his arm is pointing up and behind him, almost counter-balancing the head that's still looking to the side and to the left of the arm. My hand is pointing up and forward at the same angle. He is also more on his toes, while my feet are flatter, heels just barely off the ground.

As he reaches the lowest point just before the start of the push-off, he has the two arms balanced to a pyramid above his base of support. My arm is pointing forward (yellow line). This probably lets him turn his shoulders even more. My right shoulder is slightly higher than his.

At this point, I'm turned way forward, my shoulders are almost in line with the baseline. It's as if he's rotating around a horizontal axis, and I'm around a vertical one. His shoulders move in the vertical plane perpendicular to the baseline. The fact that his head is back must help this. My head is nearly vertical at this point. His left arm bends right away, mine comes down straight almost to horizontal position before bending. Because my arm was pointing forward to begin with, it's natural that it comes down straight. His arm moves elliptically, pointing backwards after the toss, after crossing the vertical position, then moving forward bent. Also, his forward leg is straight, and mine is bent, so I'm not getting any push from it, and the push from the back leg pushes me forward and not up, turning my hips square to the net. He, on the other hand, seems to stay sideways to the net.


Here, his left hand is level with the bellybutton, and mine is below hips. I'm completely square to the net, while he still seems to be in a plane perpendicular to the baseline, sideways to the net. As he hits through the ball, he's at least a foot off the ground; I'm maybe a couple inches off.









On the follow-through, his shoulders are square to the net, while mine are sideways. This makes sense given that my shoulders were square at the hit, and his were sideways. My left arm is straight and is pointing backwards, while his is bent and next to his side.






He finishes with his right foot more aggressively forward to balance himself. Mine is just barely in front of me.

Overhead sequence: Sampras

A while ago I made a small discovery while watching Federer hit an overhead during a warm-up: the movement was similar to his forehand. Instead of pointing to the ball as some teach, he had his left hand support the racquet on the take-back, then separated the arms and had the left arm straight, like a forehand transposed to a different plane. Today I watched a clip of Sampras's smash, and I saw the same exact thing.

First, on preparation, he turns his body sideways, turning arms as a unit while supporting his racquet with his left hand.










As his shoulders face the side fence, he separates the hands symmetrically.











The left arm straightens out and moves in unison with the racquet hand. At some point, the left hand naturally points to the ball, but it almost seems a side effect.









Finally, as he is about to hit the ball, the left arm bends and gets closer to the body, accelerating his shoulder rotation.

Video Analysis

Quick notes after watching a video of myself:

1. Serve: the tossing arm looks rushed, jerks up too fast. The racquet arm falls way behind. Federer raises the tossing arm smoothly, and the racquet arm seems to go back before he even starts to toss, and goes up almost together with the tossing arm. His racquet head lingers for a moment in a perfectly vertical position before making a loop and hitting the ball. My left arm goes down and is straight; his arm is bent and he tucks it close to his body. I turn early and am in this weird unsightly position. His shoulders are at 45 degrees on the wind up and then pivot around the neck. Left arm, shoulders, and right arm pivot as a unit. I seem to have my left arm already down low before swinging at the ball. Also, he launches himself up and forward, at about 65 degrees. He bends his knees and moves down and forward just as the racquet is slowing down in its uppermost position; as he pushes up, the racquet goes down.
   
2. Forehand: I support the racquet and turn my body on the preparation, but instead of straigthening the left arm and pointing it to the right fence, I take it back bent and then straighten it. Physics tells me that this will slow down my rotation. Instead, if I start rotating with my arm straight, and then bend it, I will accelerate the upper body rotation. I also need to try to catch the racquet on the follow through on the other side.
3. Backhand: step forward with the right foot and keep the body centered and bent at the waist, back straight. That was the feeling of having my chest close to my knees. Everything else seems ok.
   

Balance

It rained yesterday, and courts at the Golden Gate Park were wet this morning. I hit some against the backboard. I then started hitting with the guy whose name I forget whom I frequently see around these courts and who plays with wooden racquets. I enjoyed hitting with him--he plays old school, with medium pace but with good directional control. After watching myself on tape yesterday and comparing with Federer video, I noticed a few things: I'm leaning too much towards the ball when I'm hitting a forehand. Federer keeps his torso fairly straight. My left arm is bent at the elbow after I release the racquet, and as I hit the ball, the elbow is low. Federer straightens the left arm after he releases the racquet, so that it is parallel to the net, and then as moves it away he keeps the elbow relatively high, just below shoulder level, and the shoulder is extended to the side. I tried these things today and they definitely helped. Especially when I'm stretched wide on a forehand, if I keep my left elbow high and extended, I can hit powerful cross-court forehands. Also, keeping my body balanced and not leaning results in effortless forehands. Also, by inference, I realized that on the backhand I'm leaning towards the ball, and my feet are too close together and don't provide a good base. I started really stepping forward with my right foot and my backhand consistency immediately improved. So, things to remember:

• Stay balanced and upright, wide base, don't fall over
• Actively use the left arm: straighten it after releasing the racquet and then take it away keeping the elbow high, then catch the racquet on the follow-through.
• Aggressively step forward into the ball on the backhand.

Also, I hit with my partner's wooden racquet. I could play with exactly the same strokes; the only difference was less power, and it felt on the backhand as if the racquet was going to crack. Afterwards, he let me keep the racquet: a Slazenger Challenger, made in England. I think I can play with it as well as I can with my Wilson, so I'll humor my friends and play them with it.