Backhand + Forehand Practice - Birthday Tennis 

Backhand: Sometimes you needlessly hit the ball a little bit late. You are missing some opportunities to hit earlier and flatter and in that way generate more efortless power. Forehand: I would focus on having more space between the arm and the body. At times is constricted but this is me nitpicking. Your footwork is outstanding and you are a very solid player!

Great to see you are back and happy birthday! Speaking as a coach, I hope that you dedicate several months (maybe the summer?) to holding the baseline and taking shots earlier. In the past, you would tend to drift several feet behind the baseline and just counter-punch. If you get used to taking time away from yourself, you will gain the ability to confidently take time away from your opponents. This will definitely open up a lot more offensive opportunities for you. Once you feel playing earlier is fully integrated, you can balance it with your already excellent defensive skills and be a true all-court threat. Cheers!

Happy birthday! Glad to see a couple new videos from you. Looking forward to match play!

On flat shots (you are going for offensive killer shots), when you propel or push forward on the stroke, feel as though your arm, torso, and body are putting the upward stroke on the ball for the little topspin you need to keep it in. The reason why is if you use your entire body, you can generate all the power you need to overcome the resistance of the ball and stabilize your shot while naturally putting spin on a flat shot. You need to start putting this in your repertoire because you are a consistency player -- need more offensive shots to put away balls.

Looks like a nice reliable backhand. Something we all want:) Great Vid!

On your BH your left leg should be following your swing when you go over your shoulder. That way you're facing the court again getting ready to split step for the next shot. Plus it looks like you're looking ahead versus the ball making contact with your racquet.

Welcome back! Happy birthday! Here are some of my thoughts: Backhand is fine. Sometimes you are too late at the contact point but overall it is good. Forehand: I see a huge mistake in your forehand that leads to some inconsistency and drop in power. You are pushing your wrist straight right before swing. This might have something to do with your preparation that is too close to your body. Take a look at almost every PRO. They have bend wrist at the time of swing. For example your opponent has almost perfect copy of Rafa´s forehand. You can clearly see that he has about 45 degree angle with his wrist right before accelerating racquet forward. Best way to test it out is to force it at first and than it becomes natural as a part of your swing. For this I recommend to ditch preparation phase (backswing) while holding the racquet. Take your racquet back like Khachanov/Ferrer/Albot and many more. Just like that, without support of the other hand. During that focus on maintaining that 45 degree angle between your wrist (racquet) and your arm. As you finish your backswing and start accelerating you will start to release the wrist. It might be uncomfortable for few minutes before you catch that timing of acceleraton and release. Than it just clicks and BOOM! Trust me, i´ve been there. That last second straightening wrist before accelerating was my problem for a loooong time. Ditching backswing with support from non-dominant hand was the only way I could fix that at the time. Once I broke that habit I incorporated my non-dominant hand back into my backswing. Now it looks more like a Tsitsipas backswing. Hope it helps! Cheers!

Really nice hitting. Well played

Haven’t been seeing you posting videos in a while, hope everything is good 👍🏼

Happy birthday big boy

Dude no need for help just stay in good shape and you are good for years to come, remember big part of your game is your speed and athletic ability - besides that you are good to go😜👍🏼

Happy birthday!!

Good practice !

Andrew - glad to see you playing again. Your strokes looks so solid. I’m wondering why you took time off - did you get hurt or just take the winter off? Or was it the pandemic that kept you off the courts?

I’m a teaching pro I’m probably a weak 5.0 at this point in my career. I think you both hit the ball really well and if you look at high-level players all of their strokes are pretty different. I think some of the things they do better than us are the obvious things like timing, positioning and very strong with the follow-throughs. My 2 handed backhand is as good as anyone however I’m a tad under 6 feet and by tennis standards an average mover so of course I’m never going to hit my backhand the way the elite players can. Y’all are hitting the ball great, keep playing!

good to get back out there looks chilly in VA

Prep earlier on the backhand, you’re late a lot. Also, step into it. You wait on it and this causes you to be both late and not get as much power as you could. Step in while staying closed snd hit all the way through, swing left foot around, and then a cpl recovery steps back. Rinse/repeat. Gl :)

Hi! I followed your progress for a while now! You're such a solid player now, still the same wall as you were a couple of years ago, but also with the pace to hit a lot of winners now too! I finally uploaded a short video of me playing against a buddy and was wondering what NTRP rating we would be? Rallies are way shorter than yours due to reasons hehe. It's on my channel (just a lonely upload now)

I'm glad to see you playing again. I am trying to find more courts in Richmond to hit at and was wondering if you had reccomendations.

Is it 10 degrees warmer on the far side of the court?

Welcome back man, i'm not in any position to critique as i'm only a lowly 4.0 player but i did have a question - do you feel fresh as ever regarding soreness or wear and tear after all that time off compared to when you were playing regularly before the long break? I know I did being forced off the courts for like almost 3 months Happy birthday!!!!

Small thing that might pay some dividends is being more explosive on the FH. You load and release much quicker on BH, where your FH is very deliberate and measured. Could build a little more power/spin there? You can do it for sure as we have seen. Hard to muck with consistency, but just something I have wondered over the years. Would be curious if that is something you noticed or work on. Cheers.

3:32 LET

I feel like you could accelerate more through the ball with your forehand. Your backswing seems to be the same speed as the swing foreward. That could make your shots more powerfull and effortless. Now you are muscleing it more, if that makes any sense. You do this better on your backhand side it seems.

nice sunglasses^o^cool‼️

Have you flatten your shots, or it is only on practice? Happy Birthday!!! It is one of my daughters birthday too.

Footwork kind of. I mean you have fast feet, but you're taking excessive steps on the backhand side when you're swinging sometimes. Your backhand is looking better than usual, but it's also hard to tell if you're overplaying too much on the backhand side. When you're striking the ball closer to the alley when you're deep, I would recommend trying to rip it down the line. You don't have to aim for the line, but about 3 ft from the ally, it will often times cause your opponent to give you an inside out forehand. Good luck with your practice. Focus very heavily on the backhand.

Which city is this?

On your FH your stance is way to closed to be going cross court. Open your stance up or face the court diagonal like this /. That way if you are closed stance you are at least facing in the direction you want to hit the ball.