Welcome to my new “Teach yourself tennis” series, using the best YouTube videos
I’ll be your video curator / instructor ! selecting the best free coaches out there…
Following my Forehand part-1 post, here is part-2 where we go into a lot more details on how to hit a “modern” forehand…
This first video explains quite well the difference between the “old” and the “new” forehand:
Now let’s get cracking! This first video talks about you through the 5 key steps of a topspin forehand:
Step 0 – The grip – except he talks at first about the semi-western grip and really you should use the eastern forehand grip (which he recommends at the end) – refer to post#1 on the ”grip”
Step 1 – The ready position with a high racquet head, holding the throat
Step 2 – Turn the left shoulder in a unit turn
Step 3 – The power back position, away from body
Step 4 – The turn initiation, with racket lag and racket but pointing forward
Step 5 – Nice forward contact point with follow through with no slowing down
This next video goes into even more details on how to hit the “Federer forehand”. The coach is a bit serious but it is interesting the way he teaches his student and all the small elements he focuses on:
Racket back with elbow up and out
Elbow extension and tap the dog
The racket flip and follow through
To make the swing shorter and the racket speed higher and therefore deliver more consistently a shot that has more power and more top spin.
https://youtu.be/5MHugAF2DiQ
This next video explains how to generate more top spin when needed. Pay special attention to the first few seconds where you see people practicing with a tape band high above the net to make sure the top spin shots go high above it…
Correct swing path
Brushing from under the ball
Racket speed through the ball
Using your legs
Finally, this video is a coaching lesson to improve this woman’s forehand (that was already quite good I thought!). They show what to improve and give drills on how to practice the correct movements:
Hope you found this 2-part forehand video selection useful and join me for further shot specific videos soon.
While having coffee after lunch at my daughter’s, I found this book she recommended as a quick fun read: “The one minute manager meets the monkey” by Ken Blanchard, William Oncken Jr and Hal Burrows. It did not take long to read and I enjoyed it and it’s managerial lessons which I will try and summarise here. I strongly recommend getting the book as it’s full of Illustrative examples yet is still an easy, quick and enjoyable read.
The book’s central theme is that if, as a Manager, you feel overloaded, you lack time for your staff, your staff can’t work because they are waiting for your decision and you have lots of projects you have not even started to work on…
… it’s simply because you have too many monkeys on your back !
Monkeys (like problems) are four-legged animals that have a tendency to jump from one person’s shoulders to someone else’s. For every monkey (or assignment), there are always two parties: one that works it and one that supervises it. Often employees come to see you with their problems. As a manager, what you must avoid at all cost is to end the discussion with “ let me think about it and I’ll get back to you”. If you act this way, then the monkey has squarely jumped from the employee’s back onto yours! Willingly or unconsciously, when people see that you are keen to attract monkeys, they channel even more your way…
As a Manager, what you don’t want to do is to swap role with your staff. The more monkeys you have on your back, the more you become overworked with no free time. You end up spending more time at work, becoming anxious and keeping your door closed to concentrate on your workload. And when you have not done what you said you would do, you become a bottle neck to your staff who patiently await your decision/action to move the problem further!
It also sends the message to your staff member that because he/she is not capable of handling this problem, you have to take care of it yourself. The more you take care of things, the more dependent they become. In the process, their self esteem and confidence is eroded.
So put the monkeys back on your people’s shoulders and suddenly you will have more time for them and more time for you to work on your own legitimate monkeys.
The authors suggests the following rules to make sure the monkeys stay where they belong: The dialog between boss and one of their people should not end until all monkeys have:
(1) Descriptions – A monkey is whatever the next move is on a project or a problem
Every subordinate should come with a thoughtful suggestion for the next move. Replace “let me think about it and I’ll get back to you” by “Think about it some more and let’s review your ideas in a couple of days”
(2) Owners – the monkey is clearly assigned to a person
Monkeys should be handled at the lowest organisational level consistent with the monkey’s welfare (so they don’t get sick and escalate to an emergency)
(3) Insurance policies – the risk should be covered
Ask staff to, most of the time, act and then advise of their action later. Only in certain dangerous/tricky situations should they ask approval before acting
(4) Monkey feeding and checkup appointments – the time and place for follow up
Proper follow-up leads to a healthier monkey. Every monkey should have a regular checkup. And always ask yourself: “Why are we doing this?” If there is no viable answer, shoot the monkey, so you are not wasting time!
The book gives you a final interesting definition: “Assigning” involves a single monkey, “delegation” involves a family of monkeys”…
I hope you enjoyed this quick and dirty summary of this book about Monkeys. It reminded me of another more recent leadership book where the Captain never gave orders or instructions but always asked his XO what he was going to do next and either agreed or asked why he was taking that decision. In this way he not only had no Monkey transfers but he built Leaders. I recommend this book, it’s a great story.
Welcome to my new “Teach yourself tennis” series, using the best YouTube videos
I’ll be your video curator / instructor ! selecting the best free coaches out there…
If, like me, you learned your tennis a while back, you probably have nice “old school” strokes and all these top-spin shots seem a bit ”alien”. However topspin shots provide more margin for error and make the shots harder to return for your opponent.
This first post on the Forehand (part 1 of 2) focuses on the basic understanding of what is required to make the transition from a “classic” to a “modern” forehand and is also what you would explain to a beginner tennis player learning to hit a modern forehand!
This initial video talks about the 4 basic key points of a topspin forehand:
The grip – except he talks at first about the semi-western grip and really you should use the eastern forehand grip (which he recommends at the end) – refer to my post#1 on the ”grip” for more details on suitable grips
The ready position and racquet back
The “pat the big dog” position
The follow through, finishing high over your shoulder
This next video decomposes the forehand movement more precisely. And since the celebrity coach is of my “vintage”, I felt comfortable listening to her 🙂
Footwork
Early shoulder turn
Contact point
Grip
She then gives more details and answers a few good questions
This next video emphasises 3 key points required to make a topspin forehand:
Have the proper swing path – not just “low to high” but lower than the ball contact point to higher than it
Don’t use muscle power but use the correct “kinetic chain” (proper movement)
Work on getting the required ball flight/shape over the net
Finally, this video is a coaching lesson to transform a rather “ugly” traditional looking forehand into something much better… You might associate with the guy’s problems:
Bad grip
not turning your body
not going from low to high
and may benefit from the drills demonstrated:
I hope you found this video selection useful and join me for part 2 of the Forehand soon.
Welcome to my new “Teach yourself tennis” series, using the best YouTube videos
I’ll be your video curator / instructor ! selecting the best free coaches out there…
Serving is often a big problem for many tennis players. A weak serve sets your opponent up for an easy winner; forcing yourself to hit it harder often makes you double fault (which is even worse, a winner on a plate). We therefore often see the second serve being a slowed down version of the first serve which makes it so weak and predictable that it gets put away.
The key point is to understand that a second serve should be very different from a first serve:
The first serve should be trying to win you the point with an ace. It is powerful, hit flat for maximum speed and precisely placed.
The second serve should be different: the aim is to reliably put the ball it in play while making it hard for your opponent to return a winner. There are usually two common options: a sliced second serve or a kick second serve.
Back when I was a teenager, I use to make the same mistake. The coach then forced me to only ever hit second serves (for the first and second) until I was confident that I would get my second serve in if I went for a big first serve. To this day, I serve many more sliced and kick serve on my first serve than flat serves, and I find that, when well executed, they are nearly as effective at my level of play.
This video explains the difference between all three serve types and demonstrates them in not too much detail. I will cover each serve in a lot more depth in later posts. I just want to keep it to the end of this series so that the people I play tennis with don’t copy my favorite weapon too soon 🙂
Hope you found this serve “teaser” video interesting…Join me for further shot and serve specific videos soon.
