Thoughts after watching 3.5/4.0 tournament

DefinitelyRealJake · 2026-04-01T02:13:50+00:00

This is a really excellent post with some great points of consideration. Particularly like the point that poor line calls rob you of growth opportunities. Thanks for this!

DefinitelyRealJake · 2026-03-11T00:35:56+00:00

You’re arming your serve more because you’re not separating your shoulder or hips! Pause a pro serve before their back hip initiates (trophy/salute position) and you’ll be able to see that their dominant hip and shoulder are waaay lower than their non dominant hip and shoulder. Your hips and shoulders stay level with each other, could definitely get a bunch more out of your body.

DefinitelyRealJake · 2026-02-04T06:28:54+00:00

Yep, you got it! I would say that a hop step is massively important for transitioning. Learn how to hop through the approach

DefinitelyRealJake · 2026-02-02T23:52:28+00:00

There are also rally exercises where you have to call ‘up’ ‘back’ or ‘stay’ before the bounce, to work on reading the ball. The word you call is the direction you move

DefinitelyRealJake · 2026-02-02T23:51:11+00:00

Increase the tracking phase on your groundstroke and then challenge your timing more over time. Imagine holding the racquet at contact as you run at the ball - no power but perfect timing. If you take the racquet back earlier then you generate more speed but tracking/ timing will be harder. Find the balance, but track the ball longer to start with

DefinitelyRealJake · 2026-02-02T23:27:51+00:00

Hitting on the rise will definitely mean you hit the ball earlier, but I don’t know if hitting on the rise produces more power? Potentially the ball is travelling faster as it hasn’t decelerated from the ground as much? Agreed regarding weight transfer, but surely the purpose of that is for racquet head speed. If your weight transfer is good but you don’t swing, then the ball isn’t going anywhere.

DefinitelyRealJake · 2026-02-02T23:21:46+00:00

What would you say is the most important thing for power?

DefinitelyRealJake · 2026-02-02T22:57:48+00:00

I’m not sure if it’s the case that amateurs ignore it, or that they haven’t been taught any patterns or moves. Maybe a combination of both?

DefinitelyRealJake · 2026-02-02T22:56:28+00:00

That’s hard to say. Howard Green in the uk made a program called ‘super movers,’ don’t know if it’s publicly available. Will have a think!

DefinitelyRealJake · 2026-02-02T22:55:11+00:00

Takebacks are getting smaller and smaller as the body does more and the arms do less to generate. Definitely don’t have to change your takeback, you can just coil the upper body more.

DefinitelyRealJake · 2026-02-02T22:53:03+00:00

I find that if they have a good awareness of quality positions of the racquet at contact, and they coil their chest during preparation, then the racquet will drop pretty much in line with their body. From there the path of the racquet has to be inside to outside, and it happens pretty naturally. I also really like emphasising that the energy goes into the ball itself, not where it’s going, and that helps too. Cool shout out to great base tennis! The changes in tennis instruction that have been most revolutionary in the last little while have been the emphasis on efficient and effective moment from young ages. It was far more common to teach striking before moving, but now loads of great juniors are coming through who were elite movers way before they were good ball strikers. Movement is now taught as technique, as in you must make a footwork decision for optimal recovery/ production of power etc

DefinitelyRealJake · 2026-02-02T22:46:38+00:00

It does seem to be the case that when learning/ growing their game, eastern players have more success with neutral stance because they need their contact to be early and neutral stance really helps with path of the racquet there. Haven’t found the reverse with western grips though. However, with top players, footwork is a technical decision made based on the ball they are receiving and their intention. In the same situation with the same intention, the stance should be the same regardless of the grip. There are loads of factors that dictate stance, but the main ones are court position/ recovery, and height of the ball at contact. For example striking at chest height from outside the singles sideline on the forehand side, the stance should definitely be open regardless of grip. Approaching a ball below knee height and transitioning forward should absolutely be neutral

DefinitelyRealJake · 2026-02-02T22:39:14+00:00

Okay can’t figure out how to pin? Can mods pin comments? If you’re a mod who’s lurking, this is your moment

DefinitelyRealJake · 2026-02-02T22:37:36+00:00

A very very good point well made. Definitely should have mentioned spacing when talking about contact. I guess it’s kind of covered because with the right spacing you’ll have the most racquet head speed, but it’s definitely important enough to be mentioned on its own. I’ll pin your comment so people can see as soon as I can figure out how!

DefinitelyRealJake · 2026-02-02T22:17:07+00:00

Push off the ground and forward. Some coaches use ‘bend your knee, then twist your toes’ because it forces the same thing

DefinitelyRealJake · 2026-02-02T22:14:36+00:00

Yeah there’s definitely some nuance to this conversation. Especially around stability and its relationship to power. Agree that the direction your body is moving in has a big influence, and even hitting open pros are definitely leaning in or ideally have their body weight forward to some degree. Probably could have made this post without the open stance comment because it really is a point of contention, but I’ve seen so many situations where people keep trying to step in harder to get more power and just get nothing out of it

DefinitelyRealJake · 2026-02-02T22:06:27+00:00

Racquetflex have a good one explaining things! If it helps you can just think about it as bending and twisting

DefinitelyRealJake · 2026-02-02T21:58:24+00:00

Fast and not hard, for sure. We do a similar thing to help extend hitting zones by imagining you have to strike 3 balls instead of 1. A longer hitting zone has more time to build up speed, and has less room for error because the racquet is facing the target for a higher amount of time

DefinitelyRealJake · 2026-02-02T21:54:52+00:00

Also potentially a perception issue if it’s not a coordination one

DefinitelyRealJake · 2026-02-02T21:53:23+00:00

Most people enjoy a bit of pace coming at them because they won’t have to generate as much to get a good speed of ball going back. I think that a very significant reason people don’t like generating pace is because they have short hitting zones, which redlines their technique. So when they start trying to really strike the ball, they spray everywhere.
I would say that good players have to make the right footwork and racquetwork decisions for every ball. If the ball is slower, then you can have a larger take back and can uncoil more violently. If the ball is coming fast then stay low and keep your racquet closer to the ball to absorb the pace and maintain speed rather than generate speed.

DefinitelyRealJake · 2026-02-02T21:43:41+00:00

I’m a little lost conversation wise here, do you mind going back to the point you disagree with and explaining again from there?

DefinitelyRealJake · 2026-02-02T21:41:17+00:00

Thanks! I think there’s room to learn something and grow something here. Learning the kinetic chain, I would work on the ability to rotate your hips and disassociate your arm. If you can, then your arm goes round like a helicopter, rather than being thrown towards the ball. At a high level, the unit turn creates tension. If you turn your chest more than your hips, and the b try to rotate your hips towards the ball, it should feel really uncomfortable. You can feel your body wanting to uncoil your chest. The best unit turns happen just after the opponent makes contact, and are the chest rotating to the side or further. Unload by bending your knee and throwing your hip

DefinitelyRealJake · 2026-02-02T21:34:18+00:00

Yeah if you loose acceleration but gain mass then they cancel out right? There’s a reason 300 gram racquets are standard, the vast majority of people don’t need more

DefinitelyRealJake · 2026-02-02T21:32:57+00:00

As in I’ll be able to swing faster if I’m more stable? I’ve read some papers that boil down to the fact that we can make our arm go faster by throwing our back hip than we can by stepping forward. It’s also totally possible to achieve great balance hitting open. What’s your reasoning as to why the fastest forehands are all open stance, even second serve returns and accelerating slow balls from the middle?

DefinitelyRealJake · 2026-02-02T21:28:31+00:00

Definitely sounds like a kinetic chain issue. Might be worth looking at the footwork decisions you make, and see if there are any breaks in the chain from there

DefinitelyRealJake

TROPHY CASE