Djokovic watches the ball like a hawk on the backhand and keeps his head still for a "long" time, that's why his backhand is better. You have observed only his forehands... kzbin.info/www/bejne/bIjcfnmwad6hopY He would have been a better forehand player if he learned to keep his head still, his forehand is prone to errors and can break down like it did in this ATP Final against Zverev: kzbin.info/www/bejne/mqSkfYZqmamretU Sinner watches the ball well enough to get away with it. If he kept a still head, he would be able to play 3% better shots and become almost unbeatable.

@@feeltennis Ha ha, thats funny , giving advice to Sinner And Novak , love it 💪 Why on earth someone of that caliber did not hire you is beyond me. Yes i was only looking at forehands, as you made the point that its much more natural to watch the ball on a backhand. I have started trying this on my forehand,. Its very enjoyable to practice, a bit like learning to serve, because its so unnatural and challenging. I have begun to pull it off, all be it against the wall and its such a wonderful feeling, thank you again🙏

Hey John, it depends on the skill level of the player and on the situation. The faster the ball is coming, the more you have to "steer" it because the timing of the shot is so difficult. If you keep the racket "rotating" around the wrist axis, then it keeps changing angles and every 1 degree move of the racket in space causes more than 40 cm / 1.3 feet change of the ball's destination on the other baseline. You can check my math here: www.feeltennis.net/one-degree-error/ So yes, we control direction with the contact point (cross more in front, down the line slighly later) but we still need to control the racket head depending on the situation. kzbin.info/www/bejne/pWKTaZmYgplkkKM Since you are a Member, look for two videos posted not long ago titled: How Forehand Wrist Stability Depends On Your Aim and Forehand Wrist Action - How Does Flexion Happen. You will see examples of forehands hit with just a push of the ball and also with lots of racket head angle change. For non-members, see the second shot of Federer in this clip starting at around 0:07 and how he "steers" the ball back with no wrist action because he is returning a fast first serve: kzbin.info/www/bejne/rn-zko2gad6hZpI So that ball is just too fast for him to attempt to spin it or direct it by moving his wrist and racket head. So a recreational tennis player may feel the same already on a lower faster flat baseline shot coming towards them and they should more steer the ball back to control it well. And when you have a slower ball that you can time well, you can release the wrist more.

@@feeltennis enormous thanks for that explanation Tomaz. It all makes perfect sense ! I appreciate your work so much ! I will now upgrade to full membership, so I can ask a few more questions generally.

@@johnbransby230 You're very welcome!

I appreciate that!

I see stances in a more simple way than naming them like this: closed stance, neutral stance, semi-open stance, open stance and perhaps some other variation. All stances are executed just in two ways - off your left leg or off your right leg. Only one of the legs drives and stabilizes the stroke. We never hit off both legs upwards (like if you imagine a blocker in volleyball that jumps up off both feet at the same time). So semi-open stance is in most cases (there are exceptions) played as an open stance, it just happens that the player's feet are a bit angled in relation to the baseline. So he / she doesn't appear to be in "open stance" theoretically since their feet are not aligned with the baseline but in fact they are executing the stroke biomechanically the same way - they drive up off the right leg (for right-handers). Does that make sense and answer your question?

@@feeltennis Yes. That is extremely helpful, conceptually.

Check also this video: kzbin.info/www/bejne/l165l6qjZsyjppo

You mean a short ball that you are attacking?

@@feeltennis yes or if you're hitting an acute angle crosscourt requiring less power

Or your warming up playing half court shots

Well, I would just ask the player to aim, I would not give them any explicit instruction on how to hit the ball shorter. This needs to learn subconsciously, it's intuitive. You can say more spin, less speed so that the swing path is steeper on the ball. But again, there is no need to think, you just aim and keep adjusting.

Tennis humbles everyone, it's a good learning experience to keep our ego in check.

@@feeltennis true

The hop is not so much to give the ball momentum, you already have it enough since you are approaching the net, but it's more to keep you sideways longer for the same reason as the "carioca" step - to be more accurate with the approach shot. If it's low ball you're hitting, you won't hop, you'll just slow down in a neutral stance with feet on the ground and if it's a high ball, then open stance is more comfortable even though it's less accurate.

@ thank you 🙏

Well, for one, a flat serve is never consistent as it flies too fast unless you are serving a pancake serve with the forehand grip. What can help is to always aim above the net which may not be intuitive to tennis players. What is intuitive is to aim into the service box but a straight line from your racket into the box goes through the net - so if you "command" your mind to aim into the box, it will blindly follow and try to execute the serve in a straight line through the net into the box. So you need to add a bit of information to that "command" and aim 2-3 feet above the net into a window. You can also try this drill which is more designed for developing power but it can be used also for learning how to aim above the net and adjust your aim: www.feeltennis.net/serve-maximum-power/

And thank you for the wonderful feedback!

Good to hear! On the forehand side we usually do a hop from front leg again to the front leg. Here's a good demonstration: kzbin.info/www/bejne/ZmS4moCurr96btk

@@feeltennis oh thank you. I will watch it and will let you know if I have any questions. I clearly remember that a few years ago, someone was trying to teach me Carioca on the forehand side, and maybe that's why it didn't become a habit. It's probably one of the personal style techniques like hitting with the arm and the body follows (you disagreed with Patrick) or hitting with the straight arm. You see how tough it is to find good basics instruction for us? Sometimes, we end up spending time on trifles..

Pronation always happens, even if you are not aware of it otherwise the ball would NOT cross the net at all. Check out these two videos: kzbin.info/www/bejne/mJmpo5mVraZqbdE and kzbin.info/www/bejne/gIqpiISAeMqBa8U

@ Thomas is wonderful! Honestly I didn’t see the pronation on the demonstration. Thank you for your reply BTW!

@joanwemitt2560 The pronation happens too fast for you to see it.

Most likely I would wait unless my opponent was stretched out very wide on the previous shot and I would know that they would be running while attempting a passing shot. Then I would still be in this situation: kzbin.info/www/bejne/bZrYhJesat6Ye6c

@ Thank you. I watched the linked video and it was very clear to me. Practice time! Paul (from Mallorca last October)

The fundamental technique has to be correct, in most cases at recreational level the hip rotation is lacking as only then the arm can swing and accelerate. kzbin.info/www/bejne/mWrKnX-dlsmWl9U and kzbin.info/www/bejne/fZaonXuOoKh6bck

@feeltennis Thank you,very helpful.

And where did you hear that on my channel that you need to stop the rotation and let the arm go?

@feeltennis On quite a few other channels (e.g. Mouratoglou) plus when watching Federer in slow motion, you can see him stopping/slowing down the hip and shoulder rotation significantly just before and after contact. And to say it helped me a lot as I was overrotating through contact, spraying the ball.