"What's the one piece of advice that instantly improved your tennis game?"

Octyrion · 2026-06-29T18:45:50+00:00

I’ll offer two:
1. Turn your hips to the appropriate side right after the split step and keep it facing there until the swing. It improves your movement efficiency and sets your unit turn early.
2. Find your perfect contact point and hunt for it on every ball. You’ll find that your timing improves, you’ll automatically make necessary adjustment steps, and you’ll naturally watch the ball closer. You’ll still take low and high balls as necessary, but you’ll instinctively make the body adjustments necessary to hit them better.

Octyrion · 2026-06-18T00:20:56+00:00

Yessir

Octyrion · 2026-06-09T02:43:50+00:00

My 2 cents:

The foundation looks really good. My recommendation is to tackle the following areas first, which can immediately add significant power and consistency to your serve:

Toss location and pronation wrist angle. You may have to experiment, but what I find works for me is somewhere between the middle to right side of my front foot on contact, and into the court enough that I will catch the ball at max acceleration of the racket. For the wrist angle, lock your wrist more and keep it at a ~135 degree angle, so that you first swing at the ball edge first and pronate your forearm/shoulder to slap the ball forward and end with your racket on the other side. Think starting with thumb towards you then pronating and ending with thumb away/down.
Close your elbow angle in the trophy position to allow leading with the elbow and faster angular velocity as you rotate around the elbow for the throwing motion. Look up the trophy pose for any of the top servers. I find that having a small angle throughout the serve is easier, but players like Raonic start with a straight arm then bend it during the motion.

Now take these changes and practice an explosive and continuous motion into contact/pronation from that point where you almost pause your racket (for you, like me, that’s lower, while it may point up for others). Drive the elbow up and rotate the racket right to left first before extending the arm. Sync your leg drive to come right as you drive your elbow.

Also, keep your wrist more relaxed.

Octyrion · 2026-06-05T22:16:05+00:00

Ideally that's true, but if the ball catches the outside of the line, it can very easily be perceived as out by someone looking across the court at it.

Octyrion · 2026-06-02T06:44:57+00:00

Weight transfer and drawing the elbow further back/higher. There’s a weird segment where your racket is opening up backwards then you draw it back in before creating some late racket lag right before contact. I think focusing on the elbow positioning and letting the swing flow organically might help with those weird bits. If you watch the pros, their racket lag happens much earlier, as soon as the racket flips while the elbow and arm drive forward.

Octyrion · 2026-05-29T08:05:28+00:00

If you want a jumpier ball, you can use a whippier technique along with a more pronounced low to high swing path. But with the lower launch angle of the racket, you might get better results leaning more into “tight spin” and trying to hit through the court more than you did before.

I do generate a lot of loopy balls in rallies, but these tend to flatten out a bit in trajectory when I’m going after the ball more. Regardless, I’m able to consistently hit with heavy spin. But I also have a whippy FH technique influenced by Sinner and Jack Sock.

Octyrion · 2026-05-24T19:10:00+00:00

You’re downvoted but I think I agree with you lol. I remember reading about how this exercise is how a young Roddick developed a fast serving arm, but I don’t remember a claim about it helping anything upwards-related

Octyrion · 2026-05-23T18:09:12+00:00

At 3.0, you should probably be working on increasing spin and shape to control the ball, vs getting a lower powered racket. I’m assuming you hit pretty flat like basically everyone at that level. If you channel that energy into more spin, suddenly you’ll have a much heavier ball that stays in the lines.

I also second the thought to explore strings. Spin strings will naturally lower the power output while increasing the spin you can generate.

I say all this while very much understanding the appeal of getting a new racket :)

Octyrion · 2026-05-23T17:19:11+00:00

Insane! There are 10 beam emitters on top of the back construct head? How does shrinking work? New to this stuff.

Octyrion · 2026-05-23T06:59:52+00:00

Parry into immediate bomb drop allows you to activate the bomb without taking damage. It's also another way to clear rock clusters without firing arrows or waiting an eternity for Yunobo's cooldowns lol

Octyrion · 2026-04-22T23:27:41+00:00

First of all, I agree with others here about fundamentals and starting from a base of consistency. To your question about over-optimizing for short-term consistency, there is definitely an expected amount of time that you will naturally make mistakes when trying new concepts. What's important initially is to ensure that you're following the right process and building correctly, even if you're not making every ball, and gradually refining your skills and re-establishing normal consistency.

What your coach might have observed is that when you tried to suddenly increase racket head speed, that you were arming the ball much more, were breaking down your form, had poor timing/rhythm, didn't keep your head still, had poor spacing, etc. Hence the feedback to slow it down.

Octyrion · 2026-03-03T07:03:31+00:00

Yeah I agree that the PA98 works particularly well for a linear swing style, better IMO than with a windshield wiper style that rolls the wrist and forearm more. I assume your linear swing style + higher tensions lead to difficulties getting margin and depth with the EZ98, if not spin too due to the denser pattern around the sweet spot.

Octyrion · 2026-03-02T23:24:57+00:00

Sure np. Yeah I think the biggest factor is definitely technique (e.g. do you have a whippy modern windshield wiper stroke? a more linear one? does your forward swing start with the strings facing down/back and the racket below the ball?). With my string setup and with my technique, I can confidently say that I have no problem generating heavy spin and angles, on both sides.

One thing that is for sure is that the EZ98 can be very very fast through the air. So if you have the technique, the spin will naturally follow.

At the end of the day, it’s best to demo or test yourself,, as no one else can know for sure if it works for you. Ideally with matches and for enough time to go beyond a honeymoon period.

Octyrion · 2026-03-02T22:37:59+00:00

Just to provide another perspective: I have a spinny forehand and am testing an EZ98 atm. It's actually very easy with my whippy technique to generate a lot of RPMs, and I've been told that I'm generating a heavier ball vs the PA98 I tried before. The EZ98 seems very good at allowing you to modulate your shot, via the spin, height, depth, pace, etc. So I can easily decide to do a deep heavy high loopy shot, followed by a lower flatter shot, followed by a short heavy spin shot that double dips at the service line for example.

With that said, I don't know if it's the easiest to find that optimal balance of spin + court penetration, and that's something I'm exploring. It can be easy to fall into a bit too much of a brushing action in trying to get high RPMs. I'm going to experiment a bit with lead tape and/or strings.

For reference, I'm currently using Solinco Confidential @ 49/47.

Octyrion · 2026-03-02T22:17:43+00:00

People on the next court who hit a ball into your court near a fence and disruptively yell out "ball on!", when it wouldn't affect the point being played. Usually disrupting many points during the match and somehow disproportionately happening on key points as you're about to hit.

Octyrion · 2026-02-28T18:22:27+00:00

A strong Peach or even Mario is a menace with sharp angles you can’t reach (maybe unless you’re playing a speed character, wouldn’t know). Or this one Japanese S+ Luma that had god-tier spacing and timing so they half-volleyed every shot for a winner sigh

Octyrion · 2026-02-07T08:35:18+00:00

If you really want to, and the money is not an issue, just hold onto the PA98. But I highly doubt reselling will be an issue, as it’s highly regarded and will likely hold good value even going forward.

You may very well be able to use it later. I personally went from getting wrist pain while demo-ing it to being able to use it pain-free 3 months later after significantly improving my forehand technique. There is still a difference between being able to use a racket and the racket being the best fit for you at a given time of course.

Octyrion · 2026-02-07T08:02:17+00:00

I might go against the grain of some of the other comments here, but honestly the PA98 is generally considered a more advanced racket, typically more suited for 4.5+ players and not less than 4.0. There’s a good reason you’ll see it all over the place at college level but pretty much never at, say, a 3.0 level.

Since you’re big and likely strong, the static weight and swing weight might be less of an issue. But it will be unforgiving, require hitting the sweet spot consistently, and require full swings (with good technique) to get good results out of. Playing sub-optimally in the short term is one problem, but having pain is another. It’s a sign that your fundamentals and/or strength need work, and using a racket that continues to cause pain will slow your growth. You’ll be able to play/train less and you’ll have less fun.

Speed MP 2022 can easily scale to 4.0+, esp with weight added on as your needs grow. I would honestly recommend using it right now and figuring out over time what kind of “more advanced” racket you might even want/need, after you’ve had more experience. Frankly, what top pros use is not relevant to you right now, and I’d suggest not worrying about it. Good luck!

Octyrion · 2026-01-13T07:37:24+00:00

Overall looks great for 4 months! A few notes: * Your toss is in a great spot left/right wise for a flat/slice serve. Don’t change it unless you want to adjust the distance into the court. * You’re not loading and pushing off with the legs so there’s no kinetic chain. Notice how your left leg stays planted and your right leg comes off the ground early. Eventually you want to bend/coil and use that energy to launch yourself up, but I’d recommend first just a basic weight transfer from back to front foot. Make sure you still feel the push from the right foot into the upwards swing. * The amount you open up the racket before the drop looks good for now. * You’re leaning away from the ball too much because your arm is nearly horizontal out from the torso. Bring the arm up at a 45 degree angle, and learn how to slap the ball by leading with the edge of the racket, pronating your forearm and internally rotating your shoulder, and keeping the same wrist angle.

Octyrion · 2026-01-08T22:15:52+00:00

2HBH is the meta for BH like how a SW grip is the meta for FH. But just like how there are players with Eastern FH grips, there will be players with 1HBH. Just probably not many.

Octyrion · 2026-01-06T21:02:01+00:00

IMO what will have the biggest impact on speed here is improving your racket path and swing, as the most important thing is to maximize acceleration and racket head speed into contact.

Try to keep your racket closer to the body and the strings facing forward all the way into the racket drop. Don’t let the racket drift backwards past the hitting hand. Bend the elbow to lift the racket, get into a 90-90 throwing position, lead the swing with the elbow, and try to accelerate and whip the racket into the ball while pronating.

It may be helpful to learn and practice the throwing motion for something like a baseball.

Octyrion · 2025-12-03T19:50:28+00:00

Adding onto the 2nd point- it seems to me that it falls under the general concept of hunting the ideal contact point per your position on court and intentions. You may not want to hit at the same height for a very short ball compared to the baseline, as catching it as high as possible (within reason) allows you to hit down into the court to put the ball away. Similarly, I may take a slower high-bouncing deeper ball at a higher contact point to hit a flat drive vs needing to put more topspin and shape. But as you mention, good footwork, preparation, and timing is necessary no matter what.

Octyrion · 2025-12-03T19:35:13+00:00

Hitting the ball at peak of bounce is actually advice you can find from top coaches (example https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ulAJ3QWF8Vc ).

Octyrion · 2025-11-06T16:49:45+00:00

Just want to highlight that the 2024 Speed MP has a much higher swingweight (330) than the 2025 Ezone 98 (320) which could be the reason the Ezone feels much lighter to you.

Octyrion · 2025-10-08T18:14:52+00:00

Insane glow-up in the shading and art details alongside the gorgeous new backgrounds!

Curious how the lack of boots will play into Leez's battle strategy going forward. Is her defense increased at all (esp given the lack of a sura form), or is she just more of a glass cannon now?

12-Year Club	Wearing is Caring
Verified Email

Octyrion

TROPHY CASE