Strange how the simple videos with truthful and scientifically consistent information about Tennis technique- such as this one- aren't as viewed as those where a 'respected' coach teaches convoluted hogwash for 15 minutes.
2:04 Mini Tennis - Your mini tennis to 3/4 court to full court warm up has been incredibly helpful for me. It maintains a proper stroke ("technique, timing and form"). By the time I've transitioned all the way back to the baseline, the strokes are relaxed, fluent, and properly formed, rather than forced or pushed.
3:02 open stance forehand with high elbow finish - heavier topspin evident. This is exactly what Im working on - less closed stance, more open stance (predominantly semi-open), driving up with legs, high elbow finish, ripping up on the ball, imparting maximum topspin.
I really appreciate this information. I've got to test it on myself first because I don't understand this all well enough to teach it to students. Fascinating!
I notice that your latest video was 1 year ago. That's sad because your channel seems to not get enough view for you to keep upload content. Don't know you can read this, but thank you so much for this useful, unique advice.
Hi Gurpratap, to begin utilizing gravity in your strokes, I recommend checking out this video ~ th-cam.com/video/2-MBSRmNmns/w-d-xo.html. Let me know if it helps!
Absolutely. This is something I've been contemplating as well. Gotta do a bit more research here. However, the gravitational constant is consistent enough even with the Magnus effect that the concepts will still be very helpful, even with this needed adjustment. Thanks for your comments!
I'd have to disagree with number two, because it doesn't take a very important factor in tennis into account: Spin. Almost no shot these days is hit completely flat. There always be some sort of spin applied to the ball, whether that be top-spin, side-spin oder back-spin. And this will have a great impact on the rate a ball rises and falls. A relatively linear shot, the ball won't rise nearly as high after it bounces compared to a shot with a lot of top spin. Same on returns: A Kick-Serve will bounce a whole lot differently than a Flat-Serve. So the bounce of a tennis-ball is as inconsistent as its speed.
Good point! I agree that this is the case at the more advanced level. The physics there are complicated, and I hope to do a video on this effect as I better understand it. However, even if this doesn't fully account for spin, learning to incorporate gravity into one's technique will allow them to intuitively adjust the timing slightly earlier or later to account for spin and the player will still benefit tremendously.
@@gravitytennis Incorporating gravity into your technique is definitly important. Also I guess paying attention to the bounce and adjusting your timing accordingly is what I would take away from your point!
Hi Reza, thanks for your question. The idea is that the feeling and timing of a short swing is the same as a longer swing. By relying on gravity and a pendulum swing, you can create a uniformity of timing that isn't dependent on swing length. This allows one to change pace without changing timing, only swing length. I'll be making more videos detailing this in the coming weeks, but in the meantime, let me know if this helped clear things up at all. All the best, Scott
@@gravitytennis after reading your explanation I understand that one can create this uniform timing separate from the swing length (and its shown in your video where you superimpose three of your forehands) but it's a bit hard to see how this can be applied to a rec player's game
Some twisted logic there. First, if I create a fully relaxed physical pendulum type of a swing (I am approaching this ideal gradually) then in this ideal context of argument shortening the swing would not speed up the motion, since the swing period is constant in a fixed length pendulum. Rather I have to shorten the length of the pendulum, not the swing per se, to expedite the stroke/timing. And that happens by tensing the shoulder and upper arm section and thus letting the swing happen freely from the elbow downwards, and respectively close by the net, at ”point blank range” I should stiffen the elbow/forearm section also and swing from the wrist! Actually, this is the correct Fed way to do it. Similarly, it is not a good idea to time your strokes by the bounce/vertical movement of the ball only due to the very fact this movement doesn’t reflect the speed of the ball (and we ignore spin in this abstraction) thus giving the verysame timing (clues/recommendatiions) for the whole spectrum of incoming balls of different velocities! - Don’t be ambiguous but exact and clear-cut in your presentations if you wanto to deliver some science based exact teaching and see if it applies to tennis. ’Shorten your swing length” - but in what way? There are wrong and right ways to do it and to describe it!
Thanks for your comment Jack. Absolutely this is oversimplified physics, but I believe it is worthwhile to remember these concept to allow us to focus more on momentum and gravitational forces, not only on our biomechanics. Federer was in fact the inspiration for my system - watch any practice video of him and you'll see many of the principles I'm outlining here at play, including a variable backswing, and lots of mirroring of the balls bounce. Finally, I'm not sure I agree with your take on Federer's use of wrist. There is debate among bio-mechanists here, but the general consensus is that topspin is created from a combination of pronation at the elbow and internal shoulder rotation, while the wrist itself generally remains passive. I get into the meat of my ideas in other videos. Feel free to try them out and see if they add anything of value to your strokes!
@@gravitytennis Well, thank for the late reply. It is true that physics of tennis is a confusingly complex and complicated subject-matter to the extent you should wary not to make sweeping generalisations and/or inferring and offering categorical instructions from the former to the latter as regards correct techniques. That being said, it pays dividends to understand some fundamental physics/mechanics and the applicable relevance of these principles to varied different situation stroke techniques, if also the limits/boundary conditions of such applications. - What a coincidence or then not (I might spend too much spare time watching Roger videos) - but I just witnessed in slo-mo Roger’s ’front foot hop’ forehand approach in which you van clearly see how he does the trick, that is, shortens the ’length of the pendulum’ by tightening his shoulder are muscles just prior the contact - but not a fraction of a second too early not to kill the energy flow of the swing completely. This as noted expedites the swing but what is more crucial it decreases its energy/racquet head speed impatting just the right amount and combination of linear and angular momentum into the ball near the net. Artistry of a kind you can understand and approach/imitate and mimick, develop and cultivate after you see and understand correctly and clearly what is going on in the beautiful game of Federer. - Wrist, just an integral part of the equation and chain of events/pendulum.
Strange how the simple videos with truthful and scientifically consistent information about Tennis technique- such as this one- aren't as viewed as those where a 'respected' coach teaches convoluted hogwash for 15 minutes.
I wonder if it's something to do with the algorithm, but I won't lose hope! Glad you found my channel!
appreciate the content. i am one of those that learns slow cos i need to understand whats happening to what i am doing.
2:04 Mini Tennis - Your mini tennis to 3/4 court to full court warm up has been incredibly helpful for me. It maintains a proper stroke ("technique, timing and form"). By the time I've transitioned all the way back to the baseline, the strokes are relaxed, fluent, and properly formed, rather than forced or pushed.
Thanks for this excellent feedback Michael!
3:02 open stance forehand with high elbow finish - heavier topspin evident. This is exactly what Im working on - less closed stance, more open stance (predominantly semi-open), driving up with legs, high elbow finish, ripping up on the ball, imparting maximum topspin.
:)
I really appreciate this information. I've got to test it on myself first because I don't understand this all well enough to teach it to students. Fascinating!
i love all of your videos and i have written all of your advise and techniques down.-this is graham
Wow, Graham, thanks. That means a lot. The greatest athletes tend to be students of the game, so you're in good company ;)
Woah!! I never thought of the racquet and the ball falling at the same rate of speed to time my swing. That will help so much, thanks!
My first one of your videos and already enjoyed and found useful and uncommon information. Thanks for sharing this knowledge!
Glad it was helpful!
I notice that your latest video was 1 year ago. That's sad because your channel seems to not get enough view for you to keep upload content.
Don't know you can read this, but thank you so much for this useful, unique advice.
You were right. This video change my game forever.
Top comment!
Wonderful application of science to athletics. Thank you.
Can you make a video so that how we can use gravity in tennis
Hi Gurpratap, to begin utilizing gravity in your strokes, I recommend checking out this video ~ th-cam.com/video/2-MBSRmNmns/w-d-xo.html. Let me know if it helps!
Love the video! Thanks a lot for your content. Very useful stuff! :))
Glad you enjoyed it!
So super helpful, please give us more content 😉 really digging your rythm concepts. Is the Magnus effect an added variable in the 2nd Concept ?
Absolutely. This is something I've been contemplating as well. Gotta do a bit more research here. However, the gravitational constant is consistent enough even with the Magnus effect that the concepts will still be very helpful, even with this needed adjustment. Thanks for your comments!
Not all balls fall with the same accelaration. Top spin provides accelaration in addition to gravity.
Very true. However, one can make intuitive adjustments for topspin and backspin while maintaining the utility of these ideas.
WOW this is an amazing content!!!! Thanks you ^^ subscribed!
Thanks Ciro, I appreciate it!
I'd have to disagree with number two, because it doesn't take a very important factor in tennis into account: Spin. Almost no shot these days is hit completely flat. There always be some sort of spin applied to the ball, whether that be top-spin, side-spin oder back-spin. And this will have a great impact on the rate a ball rises and falls. A relatively linear shot, the ball won't rise nearly as high after it bounces compared to a shot with a lot of top spin. Same on returns: A Kick-Serve will bounce a whole lot differently than a Flat-Serve. So the bounce of a tennis-ball is as inconsistent as its speed.
Good point! I agree that this is the case at the more advanced level. The physics there are complicated, and I hope to do a video on this effect as I better understand it. However, even if this doesn't fully account for spin, learning to incorporate gravity into one's technique will allow them to intuitively adjust the timing slightly earlier or later to account for spin and the player will still benefit tremendously.
@@gravitytennis Incorporating gravity into your technique is definitly important. Also I guess paying attention to the bounce and adjusting your timing accordingly is what I would take away from your point!
What happens if you need to hit a higher ball, chest or shoulder high?
Hi Poida, I address that question in this video: th-cam.com/video/DnJI_GiqPI4/w-d-xo.html
@@gravitytennis thanks, just saw it.
I'm not getting the pendulum constant and its application to timing shots .. could you elaborate or share additional resources on this?
Hi Reza, thanks for your question. The idea is that the feeling and timing of a short swing is the same as a longer swing. By relying on gravity and a pendulum swing, you can create a uniformity of timing that isn't dependent on swing length. This allows one to change pace without changing timing, only swing length.
I'll be making more videos detailing this in the coming weeks, but in the meantime, let me know if this helped clear things up at all.
All the best,
Scott
@@gravitytennis after reading your explanation I understand that one can create this uniform timing separate from the swing length (and its shown in your video where you superimpose three of your forehands) but it's a bit hard to see how this can be applied to a rec player's game
If I don’t hear from you by August 1, 2022 I will assume I can use your video and don’t need to pay you. Thank you
Hello Tom, I don't recall being asked permission for a video. Please resend your inquiry to this comment thread. Thank you.
Gravity drop into the slot as you show is not the best way to enter the slot for contact.
Thanks for the comment. What do you suggest?
@@gravitytennis I suggest more of a horizontal "Swivel" entry, much like Fed went to later in his career.
Some twisted logic there. First, if I create a fully relaxed physical pendulum type of a swing (I am approaching this ideal gradually) then in this ideal context of argument shortening the swing would not speed up the motion, since the swing period is constant in a fixed length pendulum. Rather I have to shorten the length of the pendulum, not the swing per se, to expedite the stroke/timing. And that happens by tensing the shoulder and upper arm section and thus letting the swing happen freely from the elbow downwards, and respectively close by the net, at ”point blank range” I should stiffen the elbow/forearm section also and swing from the wrist! Actually, this is the correct Fed way to do it. Similarly, it is not a good idea to time your strokes by the bounce/vertical movement of the ball only due to the very fact this movement doesn’t reflect the speed of the ball (and we ignore spin in this abstraction) thus giving the verysame timing (clues/recommendatiions) for the whole spectrum of incoming balls of different velocities! - Don’t be ambiguous but exact and clear-cut in your presentations if you wanto to deliver some science based exact teaching and see if it applies to tennis. ’Shorten your swing length” - but in what way? There are wrong and right ways to do it and to describe it!
Thanks for your comment Jack. Absolutely this is oversimplified physics, but I believe it is worthwhile to remember these concept to allow us to focus more on momentum and gravitational forces, not only on our biomechanics. Federer was in fact the inspiration for my system - watch any practice video of him and you'll see many of the principles I'm outlining here at play, including a variable backswing, and lots of mirroring of the balls bounce. Finally, I'm not sure I agree with your take on Federer's use of wrist. There is debate among bio-mechanists here, but the general consensus is that topspin is created from a combination of pronation at the elbow and internal shoulder rotation, while the wrist itself generally remains passive. I get into the meat of my ideas in other videos. Feel free to try them out and see if they add anything of value to your strokes!
@@gravitytennis Well, thank for the late reply. It is true that physics of tennis is a confusingly complex and complicated subject-matter to the extent you should wary not to make sweeping generalisations and/or inferring and offering categorical instructions from the former to the latter as regards correct techniques. That being said, it pays dividends to understand some fundamental physics/mechanics and the applicable relevance of these principles to varied different situation stroke techniques, if also the limits/boundary conditions of such applications. - What a coincidence or then not (I might spend too much spare time watching Roger videos) - but I just witnessed in slo-mo Roger’s ’front foot hop’ forehand approach in which you van clearly see how he does the trick, that is, shortens the ’length of the pendulum’ by tightening his shoulder are muscles just prior the contact - but not a fraction of a second too early not to kill the energy flow of the swing completely. This as noted expedites the swing but what is more crucial it decreases its energy/racquet head speed impatting just the right amount and combination of linear and angular momentum into the ball near the net. Artistry of a kind you can understand and approach/imitate and mimick, develop and cultivate after you see and understand correctly and clearly what is going on in the beautiful game of Federer. - Wrist, just an integral part of the equation and chain of events/pendulum.