Wow, big thanks to all of you for the detailed feedback, I'm grateful for it. I've never received such detailed feedback before.
NextLevel wrote:
Rich,
I admire your courage serving long into someone's forehand and even sometimes successfully surviving the aftermath. But I think pushing to anyone's forehand repeatedly is just bad form unless they have a terrible forehand and this guy doesn't. He is so consistent going down the line that it is obvious your ball quality is right in his wheelhouse. You also need to serve to a few more spots on the table to slow him down.
Since you didn't push any of his serves off the table the problem is that you really don't know how to push quality backspin. Sticking your paddle out there doesn't work beyond a certain level. You have to get low enough to get the ball over the net with a forward stroke.
I agree and like Brett said, most of the time it's happening by accident. Actually, quite often I haven't collected my thoughts before I serve and just serve something. Perhaps a bit of extra nerves from the camera. Looking back I find it funny to watch myself serve there over and over again and be lucky to get away with it.
Because I've become so scared of this guys serves I'm extra hesitant and just want to get the ball back because then I'm at least still in the point.. terrible mindset I know. At the moment I've just been trying to touch it back and hope it goes short but more often than not it's going long and I'm lucky if he misses. Next time I play him I'll try going for more positive pushes.
wilkinru wrote:
I think your serve is illegal. It just gets tossed back more than I would allow in a tournament setting. It's bordering on just tossing the ball back to your blade.
The toss is not as vertical as I'd like and my palm isn't open enough, I'm aware of it but been struggling to fix it.
wilkinru wrote:
You had trouble reading his serves, the TTedge app and learning the backhand serve yourself would aid you. I could read them but my primary serve looks very similar to your opponent (so much so I will want to watch it again from his POV to see if he's doing anything I could learn from).
His serves are spinnier than you'd expect and he varies them really well, luckily I'm not the only person struggling with them in our club.. they're a tough nut to crack for all of us. I need to concentrate hard watching this guy serve.
BRS wrote:
You served almost always long or half-long to his fh. It seemed as if you are just working on that serve and not going all-out to win. He is more of a bh player, so he didn't win many points on receive. But you probably could have gotten some easy 3rd ball attacks by varying your serves more in placement and depth.
You really didn't do much with your bh in this match, a few blocks and pushes. And that's a dhsme because a lefty bh can be a real weapon playing off a righty's wide fh line. You are in a similar sotiation to mine, where your fh is so much stronger, all your attention should go to bringing your bh up. Switching to short pips may be too extreme for you, but I'm enjoying it very much. It's an effective style, and you pivot so well it would negate some of the SP weaknesses.
A few times you hung your head after a bad miss, and had some negative body language. We all do it, but it doesn't help at all. Try to snap out of it before the next point if you can. I try to nod my head and think something dumb but affirmative like "Come on." Or " You can do it." It's kind of goofy but it helps.
In the fifth set kind of got away from you after a few missed flicks. If you make those the match probably goes your way. Getting the early lead means a lot in a fifth set.
I think because I kept getting away with placing the serve there I kept mindlessly doing it. From experience serving more towards his BH it usually goes long and he puts those away. I think I need some practice on serving shorter.. perhaps with just a little less spin.
Maybe I'm putting too much effort into getting more spin so the serve drifts long.
I seriously need to put a lot more attention to my backhand in practice and all of these posts are giving me more motivation to do so.
BRS wrote:
A few times you hung your head after a bad miss, and had some negative body language. We all do it, but it doesn't help at all. Try to snap out of it before the next point if you can. I try to nod my head and think something dumb but affirmative like "Come on." Or " You can do it." It's kind of goofy but it helps.
Yep, something else I'm aware of, that I REALLY need to work on but it's so hard. I'll catch myself doing it and just think nono, stop. I show too much of this negative body language and my opponents in league matches and tournaments feed of of it. It just happens automatically at this stage and I don't know how to take my frustration out. Brett gave me some resources for my nervousness and I'll be giving that a go. Simply being more aware of it than ever might be a start.. time will tell.
Brett Clarke wrote:
Thanks for posting Rich. It takes something to post a losing match and let people criticize you. 95% of people just email me matches and I'd probably do the same if I were in their shoes. Please keep in mind that your level is very high for this environment and all criticism should be taken for what it is.
I can completely relate to your style of play. I have similar strengths and weaknesses. In fact, every single thing I say about your game totally applies to me too. This post is almost an open letter to myself.
Here's a list of thing to think about:
- You win almost all of your points from your serve & forehand, so then it's hard for you to play a backhand because you are always hoping for a forehand.
- You are sometimes stepping into your forehand and you lack torso rotation. This causes 2 problems. The first is your arm isn't propelled enough. The second is you can't play a backhand after the forehand because it leaves you side on.
- You don't fold down and then up enough on the FH topspin (LTT93)
- If an opponent has really spinny serves and you are struggling to return them, there's a 90% chance that they are all long. It's extremely difficult to have brilliant short serves.
- If you can't consistently receive your opponent's serve short, there's a 90% chance they are all long.
- If someone is serving long every serve, you should almost never push it.
- Your backhand clearly needs to improve and it's going to take months/years. Your blocking is shaky because of long term negative results. You need to clearly define your backhand technique by exaggerating it in training.
- You sometimes serve accidentally long because you are nervous and lack the tools needed to keep the serve short. NL assumes that you are deliberately serving long to the guy's forehand, but I don't. I think they are all accidents. It needs to be worked on.
- You need to work on your emotional level and confidence. This is the most important point by 1000 miles. I would say 80% of your errors are the result of confidence issues and they aren't as technical as they look. For example, not bending down for topspins can be the result of nervous uncertainty. Trust me...I'm an expert at it!
That's enough for both of us to think about for now. There are long term solutions to all of the above, but it not very easy to improve from your level, so it's going to take some effort. I will work with you on all of this.
Great observations Brett.. there cannot be many coaches that are this good at seeing these things. The same goes to you NL, I've read a lot of your posts and it's clear you have an eye for detail not many coaches have.
Amazing what a video can do, I was somewhat shocked myself seeing the lack of LTT93 because what I've been decent at for a long time is picking up backspin balls with my FH whilst also being aware of LTT93, yet I've not been doing the folding enough.
What drills would you recommend for my backhand? I can record a few backhands during my next practice. I will also keep recording my matches and if I think it's an interesting one I'll share it here.
Login
Register
FAQ
Search
