Tiafoe’s Unorthodox Forehand, Backhand & Serve Technique Explained

[@IntuitiveTennis]

Why the serve is so difficult and how it can be simplified 👉 kzbin.info/www/bejne/p2icemSohZWJpqcsi=o9daXo8UnRUljXY_

[@1114gabby]

Thanks for the explanation. I've seen him play in person several times. I always thought he had a very odd looking forehand and I definitely noticed the minimal knee bend on the serve. There have been a number of unorthodox players on tour, but I think Tiafoe is the best I've seen. He reminds me of the club player with funky strokes who beats everyone.

[@louisedyhlen3234]

knee bend is not needed for a huge serve

[@jameszhang3672]

Knee bending kinda reminds me of wawrinka. Serving motion looks incredibly stiff.

[@flexleecu]

Great to see coach start showing pictures of pros. It really helps explaing their technique. Used to refrain from doing it.

[@JimEdmiston]

Probably the greatest analysis I've ever heard and seen. Thanks, Nick.

[@IntuitiveTennis]

🙏

[@TheBlessedLion]

Every human has its own individual movement….we are all unique, and that’s great..😃

[@circuitdesign]

I've often said that the stylistic differences you see in the forehand of the pros is mostly in their take back (i.e. the preparation phase). If you start comparing them at the end of the take back (the start of the forward swing) and to contact, they are much more similar than different.

[@petrok5759]

He is born as a genius player.

[@thecreativemastermin]

Tiafoe is a natural feel player.

[@nedmet]

Good to see some players playing top level with unorthodox technique..It gives hope to young players with weird technique to become a professional player..Tiafoe, Medvedev, Hachanov, all have such elements

[@bmanbusee3812]

Nice analysis. Correct about his serving where he doesn’t need to load with legs and knees as others. His closed platform stance works well for me and saw it in one of maccis videos. Good effortless power

[@reuelray]

You hit it when you said he was (and his twin brother) self taught and watching players at the club where his father worked. A Russian national (I forgot his name), started teaching them-him, when he noticed the enthusiasm and dedication. The Washington DC area media picked up on Francis's progression. I recall when he was in his mid teens; he would be invited to a couple of millionaire private tennis courts to showcase his talents. Once he started to catch on, the USTA came in and bumped his coach. The poor guy complained vigorously. Francis brother opted to go to who many say is the biggest High School basketball powerhouse in the country. By the time he decided to come back to tennis, he lost a lot of ground. Last I heard he was playing on the ITF futures circuit. The Russian coach did not attempt to alter francis's style. I wasn't sure if his style -technique would hold up. It has. Not to disparage Taylor but I hope Francis get to and win this tournament. Those of us from the DMV (District of Columbia-Maryland- Virginia have been waiting for a long time. You nailed his technique pretty good. 👍

[@bganjavian]

Coach’s name is Misha. How can USTA bump a coach ?

[@reuelray]

@@bganjavian if you took the time to Google Francis and get the coaches name; read the 'rest' of the story...

[@reuelray]

Most if not all Countries sporting authorities, try to assist up and coming athletes. The USTA is the USA's tennis authority. Once they get involved, everybody else in that athlete's life will take a secondary role and or leave altogether.

[@huzcer]

Great breakdown of the strokes Nick. Also - any idea what Tiafoe says when he hits the serve - he makes a sound which may be a word - not sure. only player I've seen (or heard rather) do that! is it a focus or timing thing?

[@transamination]

His serve actually looks like one that would be relatively easy for amateurs to try to copy. Simple loose motion. Minimal loading, minimal leg drive.

[@knotwilg3596]

While your full analysis is always amazingly deep and accurate, I find your conclusion often confusing as it seems to apologize too much for the deficiencies observed. In this case, you point out that Tiafoe's doesn't load a lot, doesn't coil a lot, and compensates for that with athleticism. You acknowledge that his serve would be faster if he loaded and coiled like Sampras. You also figure out where those deficiencies come from: he's self taught. But then in the end you say that all the weirdness is just stylistic and the serve is fundamentally sound. I don't really understand why you are doing this. It's as if you don't want to join in with the wolves that cry over a professional player's technique, because a top pro can't possibly have technical flaws. But when breaking it down, many points you indicate ARE actual flaws and missing fundamentals.

[@coilinnunan4058]

Nick generally distinguishes between what happens in the "intuitive zone" with what happens outside the intuitive zone. This is the basis of a lot of his teaching. The intuitive zone occurs on serves, forehands and backhands and overheads (but not volleys), and is the middle part of the stroke, when the racquet accelerates to such an extent that we are no longer conscious of exactly what it is doing, and can only establish what has actually happened by looking at video footage in slow motion. I think that Nick is effectively saying that everything that Tiafoe does in the intuitive zone is fundamentally correct, despite some suboptimal aspects outside of the intuitive zone. Recreational players usually have flaws within the intuitive zone, e.g. lack of racquet lag on forehand, making contact with hitting shoulder behind non-hitting shoulder on forehand, insufficient racquet drop on serve, not staying on edge long enough on serve, ball not in front of head at contact on flat and slice serves, ball not above head at contact on kick serve, active use of wrist in intuitive zone, and many other problems. Generally, the way to eliminate flaws in the intuitive zone is through improving preparation, loading, timing, finishing, etc. and by practice and repetition. Nick argues that there is more than one way of doing this, hence style. Some styles may be more likely to lead to correct fundamentals in the intuitive zone, but styles which are less likely to correct intuitive-zone fundamentals may still do this for some players, as they do for Tiafoe.

[@mikealbert728]

The proof is in the pudding. Its better for it to look awkward and work than to look "conventional" and not work

[@IntuitiveTennis247]

@@coilinnunan4058well said Cóilín, this idea that a guy serving 130+ and making semis US Open has fundamental flaws is ridiculous just by common sense. I discuss in great detail the so important differentiation between style and fundamentals. Tiafoe has a unique style, but has all the fundamentals: sufficient tilt, coil, body bend, full racquet drop, cartwheel, pronation into contact, contact point etc. Whether another style would suit him better is impossible to say without being on the court w him and getting his input. That goes for everyone, experiment w style but make sure you don’t lose the fundamentals. As stated in the vid, Tiafoe’s style is so unique, works for him, but if other players adapted it they might end up with problems.

[@Blahbitty]

Also Tiafoe's serve toss is palm down.

[@squashduos1258]

I think Tiafoe and Paul have the same “air plane wing” forehand set up

[@billpaloukas]

Everything odd about tiafoe technique in all of his strokes is about extreme wrist/racket lag. Especially on his fh and serve. Thats all. He just extra lags it.

[@temisanpopo8036]

kzbin.info/www/bejne/ipWwpIOEjdB6j80 Tiafoe's coach Misha claims he was not talented and that he built Tiafoe into the player he is today. In this video Misha speaks his mind. Misha starts at time code 8:00 - 18:30 . I'd like to hear your thoughts on this.

[@eddiepearce5307]

he gets good bit pop on that serve and rarely double faults Popyrin double faulted ton times

[@RuffaloLaPorte]

his backhand is so flat that you can see the words on the ball in person.

[@marcomonti9823]

On the forehand, every preparation ends inevitably with a "normal" shot progression, maybe with bent elbow or straight arm, but more or less the same....why avoiding strange "ring road" preparation if that means nothing to what are the following steps?? why players are unable to semplify their preparation without losing the confidence in their shots?

[@boblully5053]

Nick kygrios next

[@at1838]

What's good or bad technique is what is easy to reproduce without perfect timing or perfect athleticism, not to mention keep you from getting injured. This serve technique would very likely injure 99% of rec players. If T had proper technique he would probably serve over 155mph.

[@Dasato123]

His forehand reminds me of Stefan Edbergs forehand hit with a western type grip instead of a continental grip. I disagree with Tiafoe not needing to adhere to conventional techniques because he has superior athletic ability. He’s basically WASTING some of his superior athletic ability to make up for performance robbing techniques. Aeronautical engineers say that with enough thrust you can make a brick fly. But you take that exact same amount of thrust (athletic ability) and put it behind a sleek efficient airframe and you’ll have something that can soar far better than a brick. Yes he can serve at 130 mph but there’s a good chance he could serve even faster, more accurately and at a higher percentage by eliminating some of the unconventional elements. In another universe there may be a version of Tiafoe that’s #1 in the world but this Tiafoe has more efficient conventional strokes that don’t have any brick elements.

[@tedneanderthal7373]

I used to hit my forehand like Tiafoe. I ended up getting a hernia and needing surgery to correct it from having too open a forehand stance. Of course, I am not a strong physical guy like Tiafoe but do I recommend his forehand technique? NO. But, I will say, it was a great shot while it lasted. Still, that's no reason to injure yourself!

[@damirvaleev1293]

nowadays you can have clunky technique, but proper physical training makes you an athlete

[@obsesivegamer]

its different style doesn't mean technique isnt good.

[@yeeeaaahmayneee3808]

@@obsesivegamerhis technique is not something you should teach

[@ImAWiseguy123]

that’s not true. All top players have great technique. You can’t turn pro (ie top 600) otherwise. Let alone top 100. no way.

[@ryanpangilinan5803]

⁠I’d argue more that their strengths overcome their weaknesses and they can’t be exploited, at least by most.

[@NicoJJ97]

Absolutely not true man

[@patriciomora9663]

He’s got that technique because when growing up he was poor and didn’t have proper training

[@juanignacioparedes7546]

Feel as federer? No way

[@vivahernando1]

Imagine if Tiafoe was trained on clay in Spain and had more traditional strokes. He would be a GS winner. Never liked his stroke techniques

[@thiagueetis]

His serve remenbers me of Qinwen Zheng

[@GinoFerreri]

The most ugly and ineffective way to hit a tennis ball.

[@NicoJJ97]

Seems like it works ok for him since he’s made two slam SF’s… so you sound like a fucking idiot

[@heroofcomments8956]

Toafoe got a grinder forehand 😂 like a grinding machiine😂

[@dustyroot4708]

He has only won 52% of his tour level matches so there’s that. Definitely overperforms at the US Open, but otherwise has mediocre results. Give any other pro his strokes and I doubt they’ll be in the top 100. He’s just really crafty.

[@NicoJJ97]

He’s been top 10. You sound like a hater… anytime you win over 50% of your matches as a pro is excellent.

[@dustyroot4708]

@@NicoJJ97 He was ranked 10th for like 3 months. I’m not a hater, but he gets too much coverage for such mediocre results. For instance, Cam Norrie was “Top 8”, has more titles, and has actually won an ATP 500 and Masters 1000. He should get more coverage, right? Go gush over him. Many more players with more titles and better results. Tiafoe has on won 3 small ATP 250’s.

[@bryanwilliams648]

⁠​⁠​⁠@@dustyroot4708definitely a hater . He was top 10. 1 of 4 American men to do that the last 15 years. Put some respect on my guys name. He can improve the consistency of his results, but the talent and skill it takes to post the big results he’s already done in his career is elite.

[@dustyroot4708]

@@bryanwilliams648 Nope, I’m just hanging out in reality while you’re off in some fantasy land. I’m glad you brought up the Americans. Looks like they all own Tiafoe: Fritz 7-1 (7 in a row) Paul 3-1 (3 in a row) Isner 3-0 Brooksby 2-0 (wow!) Why don’t you put respect on their names? Oh wait, I know why.

[@bryanwilliams648]

@ it still doesn’t change the fact that out of those guys only two have achieved what he has and one of those guys had arguably one of the best serves ever . It’s professional tennis anyone can get beat when they’re off, but not everyone has the ability to get to the top 10. You’re just proving my point.