Are YouTube videos preventing you from improving your tennis?

[@TennisHacker]

FREE FOOTWORK PROGRAM - tennishacker.krtra.com/t/TDUaPs9A6u9c

[@ReidVV]

What's really preventing getting better is lack of true practice opportunities. #1-most recreational tennis players only want to play matches and never want to practice and I don't mean just hitting back and forth, which is a mostly useless exercise. When I say "Practice" I mean taking turns feeding each other balls from a basket like a coach would do, so technique can be worked on and improved. I don't even see most recreational players practicing serves, which can be done alone. This makes finding a non-paid practice partner similar to finding a Unicorn. Even with online services that are meant to help you find practice partners, finding them is rare. #2-Many clubs and even municipal courts don't allow baskets of balls on the court. I don't want to get into all the reasons this is blocked, I get it, but it's also a practice killer. #3-Not enough court facilities have practice walls. While this form of practice is nowhere near practicing with another person, it's better than no practice partner at all. #4-Ball machines are an alternative offered by clubs, but unless these are pretty expensive machines and properly setup, they often shoot the same ball, with the same pace, over and over, which is better than nothing, but overall not very helpful. There's nothing like practicing with a live person hitting live balls, even when they are just feeding practice shots. The human factor adds a shot variety that a ball machine cannot duplicate and practicing with the ball coming at you off a racquet and not shot out of a hole in a metal box just cannot be replicated. #5-NOT using video to see your own strokes. If you don't know what you're doing wrong, you can't fix it. With every cell phone being a video camera, $25 Walmart tripods, and $10 phone tripod mounts, there's just no excuse not to video yourself to see what you need to improve. Let's overcome these hurdles. How about some videos about ways to self-improve?

[@TennisHacker]

I couldn’t agree more about getting good quality practice. You can’t improve technique in a match situation. You need to groove the technique with an appropriate difficulty of feeds. Which as you said means basket feeding for a lot of people. I’ve made a lot of videos about how to structure practice and the phases of motor learning. Sadly they are less clickable than a video about crushing massive forehands like alcaraz 🥹 The other corner stone of improving is working on your body so it has the capability of improving.

[@ReidVV]

@Tennis Hacker OK, so how do we overcome these obstacles? Fitness I get. I saw a KZbin video about one of the top US senior players and a big part of his success was working on his Fitness off court. With $10/month gym memberships out there, there is no excuse not to do it. I do it. I'm 62. Move or lose it. The real problem is laid out in my original post. How do we find practice partners? Should clubs set aside courts to reserve just for practice and promote a list for people to sign up to pair up with practice partners? There are online services to fund tennis partners, but I haven't had much luck there, for some reason. Is there a Facebook group maybe? I don't know. What can we do to get some folks together to practice getting better? Sorry to cut out the coaches. You guys are $$$ and lessons once in awhile don't get it done for improvement that sticks. Group clinics too often turn into mindless ball slapping with way too little coaching. What's the answer?

[@TennisHacker]

Obviously helping players find practice partners isn't a problem I can solve for them. What i can speak on is that a lot of the players I drill with complain to me that they can't get anyone else to drill. But when I hit with those players, they are happy to drill with me. So sometimes it's a case of taking the lead. But that won't work fore everyone. Having said that, practice really is only part of the solution. It's absolutely essential, but there is no amount of practice than can overcome a skill deficit. I'm not talking about fitness. I'm talking about eye to hand coordination etc. So my advice to anyone is to create the best practice structure you can based on your location, financial means etc. And do everything you can to work on the things you can control outside of that.

[@Johnstage]

Excellent points. The teaching is all over the place. Myth busting is popular and shadow swings for the serve are even discouraged-as is hitting through the ball- whereas a circular swing path and over emphasis on the windshield wiper technique is ok. The problem is that KZbin information is too often geared to the optimal technique as you said but don’t address the individual’s problems at his/her level. On the other hand, some coaches expect you to have everything perfectly set up before they correct your strokes! Most coaches I’ve seen on KZbin and others with whom I’ve had lessons want to impose their preconceived ideals and imprint them onto me instead of working with what I have. I’ll never have RF’s footwork nor Nole’s flexibility nor Rafa’s athleticism. So teach me how to improve my strokes given my physical and technical limitations. Most of us viewers still work and don’t have the time nor commitment to work out at the gym three times a week on our physical limitations. We want to improve but we also have a myriad other responsibilities. One online coach I’ve found offers truly personalized tennis lessons for the individual after reviewing videos of your strokes for the price of an in-person lesson. He dissects your strokes in slow motion and sees details others could not possibly perceive from the other side of the net! He teaches with you, not on you. He identified two small issues which combined to reduce my consistency greatly. These weren’t issues I had when I was young using a continental-eastern grip but became a stumbling block when I wanted more topspin and changed to semi-western. He helped unlock my issues with one video, one lesson. I would encourage all online coaches to offer this service.

[@TennisHacker]

Finding a good coach can be tricky, so I'm glad you've found one that is helping you. On the physical side of things, people might not have time to go to the gym for 3 hours per week in addition to work, family and tennis, but everyone can find 15-20 minutes to stretch or work on certain things. The reality is that physical limitations are a real thing. And improving at tennis (or any other sport) is often about prioritizing time on what's holding a person back.

[@tennfunn6332]

Great Points! Ironically, I was procrastinating on making my next Tennis KZbin video and some training while watching 😮Keep up the fantastic instruction 🎾 💯

[@TennisHacker]

Hahaha in your case, it’s not procrastination, it’s market research!!! Completely acceptable 😀

[@tennfunn6332]

@Tennis Hacker Market Research- That's it! 🎾

[@IanWestermann]

Awesome topic

[@ReidVV]

Dear Ian, please come back and read my reply to the Tennis Hacker about Are KZbin videos preventing you from improving your tennis, video you commented on. I'd love to get your input on my comment. Literally, no one knows more about the tennis journey for the average player more than you do. I'd love to see what you have to say. Thanks.

[@TennisHacker]

Thanks Ian.

[@jandroid33]

3:30 would have been so fun if he ended with "Before we go I would just like to tell you about the secret placement of the pinky finger that allows Federer to get 30% more power on his forehand" 😂

[@TennisHacker]

Exactly. This secret let’s you hit “perfect” forehands like federer in 3 simple steps.

[@Johnstage]

Let’s keep it a secret btw us. $20k?

[@lucasplds]

Richard, just so that I can have reasonable expectations, I started doing the visual drills in your free program. How long would you say it takes to start seeing improvements?

[@TennisHacker]

It really depends on how much vision training you do and the quality of that training as well as your visual function is and what other limitations you have. Some people notice huge improvements in ball tracking and tennis performance within days. For other people it can be weeks. Other players might not notice many improvements in their game, because although beneficial the drills in the free program aren't specific enough to a persons issues. Also a lot of players have major coordination and movement deficits. So they might notice they can't track the ball better etc. but because coordination is so important, the end result isn't what they want because vision is only part of the solution. Hopefully that makes sense.

[@akifm6160]

First